Turn back to Acts chapter 28.
Acts chapter 28. I titled the message,
The Gospel Arrives on Purpose. This is what jumped out at me
when I read this chapter. The gospel arrived on that island
just in time in God's time and on purpose. The gospel has never gone anywhere by accident. Never. In fact, there are no accidents.
There are no accidents with God. He guides and rules and governs
everything. Absolutely everything. But the
gospel, especially the gospel, is directed by God to the place
He has purpose for it to be even before the world began. Before
the world began, God's purpose, the gospel would be preached
here at this time, at this hour, at this minute. The gospel would
be preached. I like a God like that, don't
you? A God who rules and reigns There's no such thing as chance
or accidents. Sometimes we receive mail at
the house that's not ours. We'll get our neighbor's mail.
They put it in our mailbox and we have to take it down to them.
But that never happens with the gospel. Never happens with the
gospel. It's come to you and it's come
to you on purpose. And you can be sure God sent
it. If it's the Gospel, God sent
it. He sent it. Who would have thought? I was
thinking of this last night. Who would have thought? You know
the story. We just went over this last Sunday. The ship was in this hurricane
force storm. And it was tossed, just tossed
to and fro. I mean, just up and down. Like back over in chapter 27,
they had tried to steer the ship and tried to do all they could
do. Then finally they said, we just let her drive. We just threw
up our hands, just let her drive. Just let her go. Well, who would
have thought? That the ship that Paul was on,
being cast in that storm, and looked like they were just going
to be drowned, was being guided. Who would have
thought that? Who would have stood there and
looked at that storm, and that ship rising up, coming down,
and the wave coming over the bow, and the men are crying,
you know they are scared to death, that they are going to perish.
But this ship is being guided by the hand of God in this storm.
The providence of God has a hold of this ship. And He's guiding
it to a place they would not have gone to. To an island they
would not have stopped at. They would not have stopped at
this island. That wasn't part of the journey. That was not
part of the stop. That was not it. They would have passed it
right on by. But God sent this storm and He's guiding this ship.
This hopeless, helpless ship was really, really, it was a
ship of hope and a ship of purpose headed for Melita. This ship
that looked like it had lost all purpose when it sailed When
it left the dock, when it first sailed out, it looked like it
was gone now. It looked like the whole purpose
of that ship and where it was going was lost. But it was actually fulfilling
the purpose of God. God's purpose was actually being
fulfilled in this storm. Oh, I tell you, when storms come,
we just fall apart, usually. But the purpose of God is being
fulfilled in it. And here He comes to this island.
I don't know much about this people, but I do know that the
light that they had, the light that they walked in, caused them
to be kind. They were a kind people, a generous
people. And they received Paul and the
others from the ship with great kindness and sense. God had prepared
this people long before Paul even came. God had already done
some kind of work by just the light that they were walking
in. He prepared them. And when they came on shore,
these people received them and they were real kind and generous
to them. But they were lost. They were lost. They were a people
in darkness and needed the gospel. And God sent it to them. No matter
how kind and generous people are, naturally, they're still
lost, aren't they? And they still need Christ. No
matter how kind and generous they are. I've met some kind
and generous people. There's one man that comes to my mind
that I've done business with over the years. He's one of the
kindest. He's been one of the most generous
men to me as far as helping me and dealing with him that I've
ever known. He doesn't believe anything.
He doesn't believe the gospel. He doesn't even go anywhere.
He doesn't believe anything. He's one of the kindest men I've
ever met, but he's lost. I don't know why it's harder
to tell people that too. It's hard to tell people somebody that's
really kind and generous to you, you're lost. It's easier to tell somebody
that's a rebel, they're lost. But somebody so kind and generous
to you, you're going to look at them and say, you're lost.
And these people were lost. They were lost. The light of
nature only cannot save a man. The light of the gospel. God
must command the light of the gospel to shine into the heart
of a sinner if he's going to be saved. That gospel light has
got to be commanded of God to shine. It's got to be. And I
noticed this also. When God intends to save a people
or a person, He sends them the gospel. And He sends them a man
to preach the gospel. He sent Paul. You know, Paul
said, Don't get on this ship. Let's not go at this time. There's
going to be a lot of damage, harm. We read that last week.
But they did it anyway. Well, God overruled their rebellion
for His good. He always does. And God sent
them His servant. And they're going to hear the
gospel from a man. They're going to hear the gospel
from a man who has experienced the saving power of the gospel
that He's going to preach to them. That's the kind of man
I want to hear preached to. I want to hear a man who has
experienced the power of that gospel that he preaches. That's
what I want to hear. I don't want to hear just cold,
dry doctrine. I want to hear a man who's experienced
Christ. He's experienced the Lord Jesus
Christ. Not just a letter, but a person.
And so God distinguishes His man from the rest of the people.
He distinguishes Paul from the rest of those people. You remember,
Paul's a prisoner. So naturally, he's going to be
looked down on by these islanders, these Maltese people. He's going
to be looked down on because he's a prisoner. This man must
have done something bad. That's why they say this here
in a minute. And I'm sure that Paul's physical appearance was
not impressive. If Paul walked in here right
now, you would not be impressed with his physical appearance. His physical appearance was not
impressive. But it's what God does with Paul that gets their
attention. Here in verse 3, it says, a viper, a venomous, a
poisonous snake bit Paul on the hand. That old serpent came out
of the fire and latched onto Paul's hand. I thought, you know
that Satan, Satan would have loved to have
killed Paul right there. He would have loved to to have
taken Paul's life, if at all possible, before he had the opportunity
to preach Christ. And many of those islanders,
those sinners, be saved by the grace of God. Satan would have
loved to have killed Paul. The old serpent would have loved
to have taken him out. But God didn't allow it. God
did not allow it. When they saw this happen to
Paul, they thought, oh, he must be a murderer! That's the way
we think. Something bad happens and we
say, boy, you must not be living right. He must be a murderer. He must be a terrible prisoner
here. Well, he is a prisoner of the
Lord Jesus Christ. How often did Paul call himself
a prisoner of Christ? Yeah, he's in chains, but he
counted himself a prisoner of Christ. Not those Romans, or
those Jews, or whoever had him. But they thought he must be a
murderer. They said, vengeance! Well, the God of vengeance is
going to kill him now. He's escaped the sea, but he's
not going to escape this. He's not going to escape this. Well, they were religious, weren't
they? You could land on any island and they'll be religious. They'll
be worshipping something. Something. Most people believe that there
is a God. Most do not believe God. Most
believe there is a God. And that there is some kind of
justice system with Him. That's why they said that He
must be a murderer and God's going to kill Him. Their idea,
their imagination of God. So they watched. They watched
for Paul to die. They sat there and they watched.
They said, this man's going to die. But he didn't. That was a venomous snake. And Paul sat down there by the
fire and he warmed himself and probably talked to him and they're
standing there looking at him and watching him, waiting for
him to swell up and die. But he didn't. God knows how
to get our attention, doesn't He? I've got their attention. You have to remember this situation
here with Paul being bent and the miracles he performed. They
didn't have the Bible. We don't need these miracles
now. We have the whole Word of God to read. I don't need a miracle.
If I don't believe the Word of God, you're not going to believe
a miracle. And I'm not going to believe a miracle if I don't believe
His Word. We have His Word. Paul, when he went to this island,
he didn't even have the Old Testament with him. Not in writing. He
didn't have all the Old Testament with him. Paul walked on that
island. Just like if you'd be walking
into this room and we've never seen this book, and start preaching
Christ. And that's why these miracles
were of God, and that's why God performed these miracles through
these apostles to get their attention. It was a proof of their apostleship. So after Paul was bitten here,
and they wait for a while, a long while, he doesn't die. Now they
think he's a god. Well, it goes from one extreme
to another, don't they? Man, he's a murderer! Well, now he's
a God. Isn't that like religion? Just
all over the place. Now he's a God. When a person
is in religious darkness, he's like the waves of the sea, isn't
he? Tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. Everything
they believed was outward. If he doesn't die, he's a God.
If he dies, he's a murderer. The Gospel. I want you to listen
to this. The Gospel is the only stabilizer
there is. The Gospel now is the only thing
that will give you stability throughout your whole life. It
doesn't matter if the wind is blowing, if it's storming, or
if the sun is shining. It will stabilize you. It's the
only stabilizer there really is. It brings stability to a
person's life. Doesn't it? I've watched over
the years, since I've been down here now about 30 years. Well,
you're 30, so it's been about 30 years I've been down here.
And I've watched people go through some trials, and I've watched
them go through the sunshine, and I've watched them stay the
same. Well, I've seen them cry, I've seen them weep, but I've
watched them stay the same, the same person. Because their hope and their
confidence is in the Lord. It establishes a man's going. It establishes a man's walk. He's on that solid rock, Christ
Jesus, who never changes. He never changes. I'm glad we
have a religion, I mean a true religion. One's of works, one's
of grace. I'm sure glad we're of a true
religion that never changes, because He never changes. It's
built on Him. It's built on the Lord Jesus
Christ who never changes. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. Now, Paul is brought into contact
with the chief of the island, Jubileus. And he takes Paul in
for three days. And Paul performs a miracle on
this man's father. And then after that, he performs
miracles on some of the island folks. And I just told you why
he was able to do that. And it's evident here that God's
going to do them some good. Not temporal good. So what? I mean, it would be nice if I
had a broken arm and it's healed up pretty quick and I don't have
to suffer the pain. It is pretty nice to be healed of diseases
and sicknesses. I mean, that would be all right.
That would be nice. But that's not what Paul's doing.
God's going to give eternal life. No, the true physician of the
soul is going to show up. And there's going to be some
people whose soul is going to be healed. There's going to be
some people who are going to have eternal life out of this. And for three months, for three
months, Paul stayed on this island. God kept his man on this island
for three months. And for those three months, we know, we've
gone through the book of Acts here, we know that Paul preached
Christ to them. I have no doubt that Paul preached
the fall of Adam and what happened there. He preached the necessity
of the Passover lamb. He preached the necessity of
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which makes atonement for our
sins. And no doubt, he probably pointed out some of their rituals
and stuff and how they don't make us accepted to God. He preached
to them who God is. They did not know who God is. They believed there was a God.
They believed there was many gods. Like the Romans, they believed
in many gods. Paul said, no, there's one God.
There's one God. He's holy, He's just, and He
delights to show mercy. There's one God who demands righteousness. And this righteousness that He
demands is in His Son, who is the Lord, our righteousness.
That's who He is. And it's His blood that cleanses
us from all sins. He preached Christ to them. For
three months, He preached Christ to them. I have no doubt He preached
to His officers as a mediator. There's only one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He preached His high priesthood. We need a high priest, and Christ
is that high priest that represents us before God. He preached His
death. He preached Christ crucified.
He preached His ascension. He preached his reigning power
right now. Right now he sits at the right
hand of God ruling and reigning and making intercession for transgressors. He preached Christ. He preached
for three months. He preached Christ to those people.
That was the only message he had to bring to them. God did not send Paul there to
heal and impress those barbarians. God's not going to impress us. God is not out to impress us. We are easily impressed. We can
be impressed with a lot of things. He didn't send Paul there just
to impress them, no. He landed on that island to preach
Christ and call sheep to the shepherd. Sheep were being called to the
shepherd. God had an elect people out of those Maltese people. And through all that wind and
storm and all that looked like it was terrible and lost, had
a purpose to it and had a direction. God's hand was on that ship and
He was directing them right to this island to preach Christ
to these people. And they believed Paul. They believed him. And
now when Paul was getting ready to leave that island, they laden
them with such things as were necessary. Now their generosity
meant something, didn't it? Now their generosity had some
weight to it. Now it flowed from gracious hearts.
Thankful hearts. I mean, they were really thankful
for the gospel Paul brought to them, preached to them, and what
God did for them. Oh, now their generosity had
some weight to it. Paul met some religious Barbarians. But he left with some brethren.
He came there. It was called Barbarous Barbarians. But when he left, he left with
some brethren. He could look back at Maltese
and say, I've got brethren. There's a church over there that
believes God. There's some sinners over there saved by the grace
of God. There's some civilized people over there now. They're
not barbarians, they're some civilized people over there now. Now, what the gospel can do when
it comes in power? What it can do? Paul said they
laden them with what they needed. God supplied them with what they
needed. It didn't say what they wanted, what they needed. Paul would not take advantage
of their generosity like the preachers of our day would. They
would just take everything they had. Paul wouldn't do that. They just took what they needed.
This is sufficient. This is enough. You ever heard
a man say that? You ever heard anybody say, I
have enough? I make enough money. I make too much money. You ever
heard anybody say that? I ain't never heard anybody say that. Paul said this is enough. This
is sufficient. This is all we need to get to
where we're going. And when we get there, God will
supply my need. And when I get there, He'll do
that. Grace will not allow you to take
advantage of somebody else. It won't do it. Greater is He
that's in you than he that's in the world. Now notice this. Everything God
took from him in the storm, He gave back. Everything they lost, they lost
a ship, they lost all of it. They lost everything. Tackling,
they lost it all. Everything they lost, God gave
back. They didn't miss anything. Our Father will always supply
our need in Christ Jesus. That's what He said in Philippians
4.19. He'll always supply your need. You're His children. Would you supply your children's
need? He supplies their need. He supplies our need. Now after three months, after
being there for three months, they found a ship from Alexandria.
Paul was on a ship from Alexandria. He was on a ship from Alexandria.
This is interesting. There were two ships at that
time that had left from Alexandria. One of them Paul was on, and
the other one was just a bunch of heathens. Both were caught
in that storm. One of them made it over to a
harbor and safe and rowed it out. The other ship, which had
three believers on it, rowed into the storm. They were caught right in the
middle of that storm. The other one was a bunch of heathens on
it. They didn't lose anything on
that ship. They made it to the harbor and
wintered there. Now, naturally, you would think
that it would be the other way around, wouldn't you? Naturally,
you would think it would be the one all the heathens were on
would be caught in that storm and lose everything, and the ones
the believers were on would have smooth sailing. But it wasn't.
It was not that way. It was the other way around.
The one Paul and I was on was destroyed. It was destroyed. The ship that sailed under Castor
and Pollux was safe. You know what that word castor
and polyx mean? Gods of the sin. You'd think that would have been
the one broken up. It was a bunch of unbelieving
rebels. But it was the one Paul was on. Don't judge God's favor by providence. Don't judge His favor by providential
dealings. You'll get it wrong every time. Look what a blessing that storm
blew in. Look what a blessing that storm
blew in. It blew in a gospel preacher.
Those islanders never thought about it. I mean, it didn't cross
their mind. They never heard the gospel. They never heard
of Jesus Christ. They never heard of how God saves
sinners. They never heard of the one true
living God. So God sent a storm and blew the
gospel in the town. That's what He did. I have no
doubt that probably several of those Maltese people died in
that storm. Probably some of them died in
it. But there was a whole lot of them who found eternal life. Who would have thought? Who would
have thought? The Gospel of God's glory came to those people in
that storm. Who would have thought? Who knows
what blessings? Who knows what a storm What a blessing a storm
will blow in. Who knows? Who knows? Don't ever be envious of the
wicked. Just trust. You trust Him and His providential
dailies. And it will come out just fine.
It will come out just fine. I want to close by reading Psalm
73. You know, when I first started looking at this, Where's the message at in these
verses? You know, especially preaching,
you have a habit of looking, I do, looking for doctrine. And boy, you overlook a lot of
blessings. You overlook a lot of truth by just trying to, I'm
trying to be careful how I say this, but trying to preach election,
you know what I'm saying, predestination, perseverance, there's a lot of
blessings you overlook. You just start looking for doctrine.
Psalm 73. Truly God is good to Israel,
even as such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet
were almost gone, my steps had well and I slept. For I was envious
at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. That
ship was safe. Our ship's going up and down.
Our ship is being destroyed. It's being torn apart. But their
ship was not. Their ship went safe to harbor
and wintered for three months. It made it. For there are no
bands in their death, but their strength is firm. They are not
in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men.
Therefore pride compasses them about as a chain. Violence covereth
them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness.
They have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt and speak
wickedly concerning oppression. They speak loftily. They set
their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through
the earth. Therefore his people return hither, and waters of
a full cup are wrung out unto them." They suffer. They suffer. And they say, how does God know?
And is their knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are
the ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in riches.
Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in
innocency." He said, I've done this in vain. For all day long
have I been plagued and chastened every morning. If I say I will
speak thus, behold, I should offend against the generation
of thy children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful
for me. It just troubled me. It was painful
for me until until I went into the sanctuary
of God. Then understood I their end." You see, David was giving you
his thoughts up until he went into the sanctuary of God, and
God gave him an understanding of their end. Surely thou didst set them in
slippery places, and castest them down into destruction. How
are they brought into desolation as in a moment? They are utterly
consumed with terrors. They have no hope. They have
no hope. I watched one person die screaming.
That was the most terrible thing I ever watched. And I never want
to see it again. They are consumed with terrors.
As a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord, when Thou wakest,
Thou shalt despise their image. Thus my heart was grieved, and
I was stricken in my reins. So foolish was I! Why did I think
like this? Why did I think of God like this?
Why did I have thoughts of God like this? Ignorant, I was like
a beast before thee. Nevertheless, nevertheless, I
am continually with thee. He will not forsake me. Thou
hast holden me by my right hand, even though I acted so foolish
and so stupid and thought in such a way. Yet He was continually
with me. He didn't cast me off. He held
me by His right hand. Thou shalt guide me with Thy
counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. That's my end. Now
David's thinking on the right thing. Our end is glory. Whom have I in heaven but Thee?
And there is none upon the earth that I desire beside Thee. My
flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever. For, Lord, they that are far
from Thee shall perish. Thou hast destroyed all them
that go a-whoring from Thee. But it is good for me to draw
near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord,
that I may declare all Thy works." Well, the gospel was sent to
them on purpose. It didn't look like it. You could
never convince anybody of that in that storm. God sent a storm that blew in
a blessing. the gospel. Okay, Mike.