Come back to Acts chapter 27.
Acts chapter 27. There's a lot of good spiritual
instruction in this chapter, as it is throughout the whole
Word of God. I enjoyed reading this chapter
this week and looking at this. And I noticed it jumped out at
me when Dan was reading the latter part of this chapter when
they were of good cheer when they ate the broken bread. Paul
had given thanks, it says, to God in the presence of them all.
Then he broke the bread and they ate it. I thought that's when
we're cheered. When we are enabled of God to
eat of that broken bread. The Lord Jesus Christ. There's
a lot here. There's no way I could bring
out all that's here in one morning, in one lifetime. I couldn't bring
it out in one lifetime. The title of the message, I woke
up early Saturday morning with this title on my mind after reading
this different times during the week. Heed the warnings and stay
on the ship. Heed the warnings and stay on
the ship. You notice over here, Over in that verse 30, it says,
the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship when they had
let down the boat into the ship under color. They were acting
like they were going to put the anchors down under disguise.
They were acting as if they were going to put the anchors down
and say, no, they were trying to let that black boat down and
slip off. They were so afraid, they were about ready to jump
ship. That's what they were actually trying to do, is jump ship. And
Paul said, don't do that. There's no life out there. Life's
on this ship. You're alive now. Stay here. All right, let's look at this.
Paul is headed now to Rome. He's going to go to Rome and
he's going to stand before Caesar. He'd been a prisoner at Caesarea
now for more than two years. He'd been a prisoner. And we
have seen that. We've gone through this last
few chapters. While he was at Caesarea, God
marshaled before him the powers that be in Caesarea. Felix, Festus,
Captain of the Guard, Agrippa, they all came before him. God
providentially brought every one of them before him. They
heard the gospel. They didn't believe it, but they heard it.
It's a saver of life unto life to some, and a saver of death
unto death to some. But God providentially brought
all those men before him, principal men of the city. He preached
the gospel to them. I reckon there's probably no other way
to bring that to pass than the way God brought it to pass by
putting Paul, allowing him to be put in prison. And every time
they said, now, Paul, tell us why you're in trouble. Tell us
why you're here. And he preached the gospel to them every time.
Well, that time is gone, and now it's time for him to go to
Rome. And Paul here was given some kind of revelation. He said he perceived that there
would be trouble if they took that voyage at that time. He
said, I perceive if we do this at this time, he told this centurion,
he said, there's going to be trouble. Trouble, perilous, perilous
time. Nevertheless, the centurion believed
the master, the captain of the ship and the owner of the ship
more than he believed Paul. More than he believed God's man.
Natural reason he never believed God. Never believed God. Here's God's man. And he says,
don't do this. And they don't believe him. This
is where our trouble usually comes in at, isn't it? I dare
to say that most of my trouble comes in from not heeding the
warning. I never, I don't believe I ever
received a whipping. And you know, when I was growing
up, it was called a whipping. Nowadays, you can call it discipline
or whatever you want to call it. But in my day, it was a whipping.
I don't believe I ever received one that I first didn't receive
a warning. I know, I don't remember. I knew,
I knew it was coming when I messed up. I knew it. And most of my
trouble still comes from not heeding the warning. Most people
are the source of their own trouble. I know we have trials and trouble
that come upon us to try our fate. But most of our trouble
comes with the source of it. Truth is always contrary to natural
thinking. The master that is the captain
of the ship and the owner, they want to take that voyage at all
costs. I'm sure the owner of it wanted
to to take that voyage because of the money involved. And of
course, the captain of it, being employed by him, he wanted to
do what his owner wanted. But they were given warning.
They were given warning by God's man not to take the voyage at
that time. And the warning was neglected.
Hell. Hell is full of worn people. It's full of worn people. Look over here in verse 10. And
Paul said to them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with
hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also
of our lives. Listen to me, he said. Listen
to me. I perceive that God has given Paul some understanding
here. He knew this was going to be trouble. Throughout the
Word of God, we find many warnings, don't we? Look over in Genesis
chapter 2. I woke up Saturday morning early
and I thought about the warnings of God throughout the scriptures. And I'm just going to give you
a very few of them. In Genesis chapter 2, in verse 15, And the Lord God
took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it
and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the
man, saying, If every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. Thou shalt surely die. God told
Adam in clear terms, Don't eat of this tree of You may eat of
all the trees of the garden, but this one tree, leave it alone. Because the day you eat of it,
Adam, you're going to die. You're going to die. Well, Adam
ate of it, didn't he? Adam disobeyed the warning. Adam
disobeyed God, and he ate of it. He was warned sufficiently. One warning from God is sufficient,
isn't it? One warning from God is sufficient. And He was warned
sufficiently. And now the consequence. And
Adam all died. Every storm we have, every trouble
we have, traces right back to this event. Traces right back
to it. And Adam all died. And all came
under condemnation. And we now live in a stormy world. It's hard to conceive or imagine
that one time this world was perfect. No sin in it. It was perfect.
But sin entered. And it entered through a man.
It entered through Adam. And he died. And now we live in a
stormy world because of that one act of disobedience. And
that one act of disobedience It's still going on. We are carrying
it on. We've all sinned to come short
of the glory of God. Every last one of us. The flood. Noah, over there in
Genesis 6. It says, Noah, over in Hebrews,
Noah being warned of God, moved with fear and built an ark. Noah
believed God. But Noah preached for 120 years to his generation. The Scripture calls him a preacher
of righteousness. He preached to them their lack
of righteousness, their need of righteousness, and the provision
of it. I believe he preached that righteousness provided in
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a preacher of righteousness.
And he believed God and he warned the people in his preaching.
And I'm sure that many of those who heard Noah, many of them,
I'm sure, laughed at him. They laughed at him. They laughed
at his message of repentance. They laughed at his message of
righteousness. They laughed at his message of destruction, just
as men laugh at it today. You talk about the end of the
world, people think you're nuts. Really. It's been here for thousands
of years, and scientists say millions of years, however long. And our Lord says it's coming.
Just as you read there in Revelation. It's coming. Warned of God. And
then God warned Israel. Many times He sent them many
prophets. And they killed most of them.
They killed most of them. When God warns a person or a
people, He sends them a man. He sends them a man. Look over
in Ezekiel chapter 33. In Ezekiel 33, look in verse 7. I'll read 7
through 9. So thou, O son of man, I have
sent thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. Therefore thou
shalt hear the word at my mouth and warn them from me. When I
say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die. If
thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked
man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will acquire thy
hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way, to turn
from him, if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his
iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul." God has warned Israel
many times. He sent many prophets. God does
not sneak upon men. God does not sneak up on them.
He warns them sufficiently. He warns men. A warning goes
out every time the Gospel is preached. Every time the Gospel
is preached. Every person is responsible to
go where the Word is read and where the Word is preached and
hear the Gospel. Hear the Word read. Over 50 some
years the Gospel has been preached in this town. This place ought
to be jammed full. Men are responsible for what
they could have heard, not just what they heard. We read and preach the gospel
here every week. Where are the people? I'll tell
you where they're at. Most of them right now, most
of them probably sleep still. And others are in false religion
and they're all this, dead. dead in trespasses and sins.
Like the ostrich who buries her head in the sand at the sound
of trouble, that's the way people are. They don't want to hear
about these things. They don't want to hear about it. Well,
I'll tell you this, that won't make trouble go away. I worked
for a businessman several years ago and he would tell me, I ran
the business for him, He says, trouble doesn't get better with
time. He said, I don't like surprises now. He said, if there's trouble,
let's deal with it now. It won't go away. I've never
seen it just go away. Ignorance. I've heard it said
ignorance is bliss. Ignorance toward God is not bliss.
Ignorance toward God is not bliss. And then Christ gave many warnings.
He gave many warnings. He says this over in Mark chapter
4 and verse 24. Take heed. He said, take heed. How you hear, with what measure you meet it
with, it will be measured to you again. He said, take heed
to that now. Give great attention to it. Our
Lord over in Matthew 23, speaking to those scribes and Pharisees,
He said, woe unto you scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites. He
warned of coming judgment. He warned of being hypocritical. He warned of unbelief. He warned
of false prophets. He warned them. He warned them. Then the apostles warned all
to whom they preached. Paul said this over in Acts chapter
20. Over here in Acts chapter 20, Paul said in verse 31, Paul said, therefore watch, he's
speaking here to the church, therefore watch and remember
that by the space of three years I cease not to warn everyone
night and day with tears. Warn them. Warn them of false
prophets. Warn them of false teachers and
false doctors. Warn them of their walk and their
talk. He warned them. No one will ever stand before
God unwarned. No one. Now, what do we do? This can apply to believers and
unbelievers. What do we do when we have been warned and we messed
up? What do we do? We have warned
of God and we messed up and the storm comes. Trouble and trials
come. Look in verse 15. It says in verse 14, but not
long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind called
Uroclodon, the typhoon. And when the ship was caught,
they couldn't bear up to the wind. They were fighting it.
They were fighting it hard. They were fighting this storm
hard. But here's what happened. We let her drive. You know what
he's saying? We just cast ourselves upon God's
mercy and let her drive. That's what we do. Fall at his
feet in complete submission. Just let her drive. There's only one who can calm
the wind and the waves. There's only one who can calm
that storm. It's the one who sent it. He's
the only one. No excuses. Their lives were
in danger. Even Paul, you know, Paul was
obedient. But he ended up in a boat with
a bunch of disobedient people. And he was suffering the same
thing here. And their lives are in danger because they wouldn't
heed the warnings of God's man, of God's watchman. They thought
so little of him. I'm sure the master, the captain
of the ship and the owner probably said to that centurion, Paul
is a prisoner. What does he know? He's not a
meteorologist. He's a prisoner. We know more
about the sea. We know more about the weather.
We know more about these things that Paul knows. When I read that, I thought God's
man may not have the experience or the education that others
have. But what he has is the experience and education of God's
Word and Spirit. And Paul had that. I think he
listened to these words. Again, they made no excuses.
He says in verse 18, we lightened the ship. All support, all that
we were clinging on to, all that they were hoping and holding
on to, tossed it overboard. Take all your excuses and just
toss them overboard and let her drive. Let her drive. God's in control. Let her drive. The tempest will not cease. Until
the only hope you have, if it's a tempest of conviction of sin,
it will not cease. Until the only
hope you have is Jesus Christ alone. Until we come to Him as poor,
helpless, hopeless sinners in need of mercy. That's how we
come all the time. We never stop coming like that,
do we? We always come as sinners in need of mercy. All the time.
all the time, no matter how long we live. As the disciples said, Lord save
us, we perish. Lord save us, we perish. Their disobedience got them into
all that trouble. And the only way out was complete
submission to Him. Just utter, complete submission
to the sovereign will of God. Just let her dry. Sometimes the storm is long.
Then verse 20. And when neither sun nor stars
in many days appeared, this thing was long, no small tempest lay
on us, and all hope that we should be saved was taken away. Then God's man came again. Then God's man stood up again.
The one they should have listened to the first time, he stood up
again. After long abstinence, Paul stood
forth in the midst of them. And he says, first of all, you
should have listened to me. You should have listened to me.
Don't take hearing the Word of God lightly. Don't subject the
Word of God to our wants and reasonings. Paul said, you should
have listened to me. Sirs, you should have hearkened
to me. and not Lucifer Crete, to have gained this harm and
loss, we should have paid attention. And now I exhort you to be of
good cheer. All is not lost. Now listen to me. God got their attention, didn't
He? The Lord got their attention. And here stands a man of faith. Here stands a man of God. Here
stands a man that believes God. He believes God. There was three
men on that boat that believed God. It was Luke, Paul, and there's
Starkis. They were on that boat. And they
were examples of faith. They said, well, down there,
they said, let her drive. And then Paul finally stands
up here and he says, you should have listened to me. They knew
who was in command. They knew that he had his way
in the whirlwind and in the storm. They knew that. They knew who
the real captain of that ship was during this whole thing.
They knew that. They believed that. They knew that. Therefore, old Paul stands up
and he says, 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. Be of good cheer. No one's going
to perish here. No one's going to die that's on this ship. There
will be a loss Because of disobedience. Disobedience will bring loss.
That whole ship is going to be lost. When this thing is over
with, that ship that they were told not to get on, is torn up. It's broken up. God tears it
up and everything on it. But the people are alive. He said there is not going to
be any loss of life. How do I know this? Paul said the angel of
God whose I am and whom I serve, stood by me, and he said to me,
Fear not, Paul. Here's what he said, My will
is going to be done. You're going to go to Rome, Paul. You're going
to stand before Caesar. He said, You're going to stand
there and my will is going to be fulfilled. That's what's going
to happen. And old Paul says, Wherefore,
sirs, be of good cheer. I believe God. The whole comfort that Paul had
during this whole thing was this. I believe God. God said, you're
going to go to Rome. He said, the Lord stood by me.
All during this storm, the Lord was with him. He said, the Lord
stood by me. He said, you're going to go to
Rome. And the people that stay on this ship, He said, I've given
them to you. They are not going to lose their
lives, but they're going to lose the ship for disobedience. They're
going to lose some things because of disobedience. But, sirs, I
believe God, it shall be even as He said it would be. Isn't
that comforting? All that God has said about salvation
in Jesus Christ will be exactly as he said it would be. When
we stand before God Almighty, when we leave this life and when
all this is over, we are going to stand before God knowing and
realizing that it's just like he said it was going to be. Just
as he said it would be. Paul believed God before the
trouble He believed God during the trouble, and he believed
God after the trouble. I told a young man here just
a few weeks ago, talking to him, and I told him, I said, trouble
never drives a believer away from Christ. Always to Him. Always to Him. And Paul believed
God before the trouble started, and during that whole trouble,
Paul believed God. I'm sure that all those shipmen
The captain and all of them were just frantic. They were absolutely
frantic. Paul was not frantic. Luke and
Aristarchus, I guarantee, those three men were not frantic. I
bet they sat around and talked about the gospel. I bet they
sat around and talked about the Lord Jesus Christ during this
whole storm. Those lost sailors up there on that ship trying
to do everything they could to save it. And Paul, Luke, and
Aristarchus knew who the captain was. They knew who was guiding
this ship. They knew it. They knew Him. Now Paul has their attention.
And he told them, after he got their attention, he told them,
stay on the ship. I showed you over there in verse
30, there was some of them trying to jump ship. They still didn't
believe Him. They were going to get to shore
by their own strength. By their own efforts, by their
own human strength, they were going to get to shore. No, you're
not. God said, you jump in that water, you're going to die. And
nobody is going to stand before God or get to glory by his own
strength. No one was saved on the ark but
those on the ark. And not one of them jumped ship.
Not one of them wandered out. They stayed in. Stay on the ship. Cling to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Never leave Him. Especially in
trouble. Cling to Him. All the way home. All the way home. He's our hope.
He's our rest. He's our salvation. He's our
all-in-all. It's like when the Lord spoke
to Peter and him. He said, Who do men say that
I am? And then He asked him faith. He said, Will you also go away?
And Peter said to him, Shall we go? Thou hast the words of
eternal life. Where are we going to go? We'll jump into the water. Stay on the ship. There's no
salvation except in Christ. In Christ alone. I like the end of this. I'm going
to close this. There's way too much here to
just try to bring out at one time. It says up here, the soldiers
In verse 42, of course, the ship ran aground. There in verse 41,
falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground,
and the foreparts stuck fast and remained unmovable, but the
hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves, and the
soldier's counsel was to kill the prisoners. Here's God's providence. Everything's providential. Sometimes
it's just more evident. Now he's going to kill the prisoners.
lest any of them should swim out and escape." That would be
the law for you, wouldn't it? The law says, kill them. Nobody's
going to escape here if you kill them. But the centurion willing to
save Paul kept them from their purpose and commanded that they which
could swim should cast themselves first into the sea and get to
land. And the rest, some on boards, some on broken pieces of the
ship. And so it came to pass, just as God said it would, that
they escaped all safe to land. Some of us, I thought some of us, may only
be floating on a board when this is over with. Weak faith. I see that floating on a board
of weak faith. Some of us may just be floating on a board But I tell you this, that faith,
even if it's weak faith, if it's in Christ, we will reach Canaan's
happy shore. We will. Heed the warnings and
stay on the ship. And all be well.