Turn with me please to the book
of Acts. The book of Acts, chapter 27.
Several months ago, when our friend Eric Flory was here, Eric
preached from this text, and I saw something. Somebody jumped
out at me in one of these verses. And we'll get to that in a minute.
This is the story of Paul and the men he was with, being on
a ship. headed to Italy. Paul was the
prisoner. And against his advice, the captain
and the centurion decided to set sail, even though Paul warned
them. After all, the captain was an
experienced mariner, and Paul was just a prisoner. But they
ran into a storm, and it sounds like it was a storm of century.
But God is able to preserve life even in the midst of a storm.
Let's start reading in verse 14 of Acts chapter 27. But not long after there arose
against it a tempestuous wind called Uroclidan. And when the
ship was caught and could not bear up into the wind, we let
her drive. And running under a certain island,
which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat,
which when they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding
the ship, and fearing lest it should fall into the quicksand,
straight sail, and so were driven. And we being exceedingly tossed
with the tempest, the next day they lightened the ship, and
the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of
the ship. 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 taken away. That is the verse
that jumped out at me when Eric raised his text. Now here we
find an account of Paul and those that he was with being caught
in a terrible storm. And they tried everything they
knew to try, to save themselves by lightening the ship. And on
the third day into the storm, we're told that they cast out
the tackling of the ship. And I looked into what that word
meant, and I found it covered pretty much everything from the
furniture to the ropes and pulleys and block and tackle that was
used to raise and lower the sails. But none of that helped their
hopeless situation. And they finally gave up any
hope of salvation from the storm. Notice that a wording here says
that all hope was not lost, it says all hope was taken away. And I've titled this message,
All Hope Taken Away, from that verse 20 of our chapter. And
I want to compare the circumstances and the situation that these
men found themselves in to what a lost sinner who had been awakened
by God to the dire circumstance it goes through, and also to
look at some accounts in the scriptures where others were
brought to the place of all hope being taken away. There's an old saying that it's
always darkest before the dawn, and in a sense, that is how it
is when God begins to deal with a sinner. All hope in themselves
is taken away, all hope that they will ever be saved. That
happens before the dawning of Christ. Righteousness arises
on our souls. So here in our text we find a
group of men trying desperately to do something to keep themselves
from perishing before finally giving up. And that so often
is how it is when we come to know the true God and our Savior.
We try everything to justify ourselves before God. We run
to church membership thinking that if we're among God's sheep,
that we're in a sacred place. But as we've heard many times,
it's just as easy to go to hell from a church queue as it is
from a bar stool. And we come to the conclusion
that all we are is a goat among a flock of sheep. And we run
to the law thinking that if we could just keep God's commandments,
surely He would see how much we've improved our behavior Go
ahead and reward it with salvation. But it is those lyrics from the
song, Hiding Place, that we've heard Daniel Park sing so many
times. There's a line that says, To Sinai's fiery mount I flew. But just as pride the frowning
face, this mountain is no hiding place. The law can never take
away our sin. It only serves to highlight our
sin to shine a light on it and show us how utterly hopeless
our condition truly is. The first warning of our text
says that no small tempest lay on us. What a good picture of
the turmoil that takes place in the heart and mind of a lost
sinner when God makes them aware of their condition. Completely
helpless. Do anything to save themselves
or to improve their circumstances. They're tossed about with every
emotion of helplessness and despair. Their mind is torn. I looked
up the meaning of this word, tempest, used here in verse 20. No small tempest lay on us. One
of the meanings is furious agitation, commotion, and tumult. And tumult,
it means a state of agitation of the mind or emotions. And
is this not how it was with you before the Lord to beg peace
to your heart? I know it was with me. I came
to the point of utter despair where all hope that I could or
should be saved was taken away. And I recall how that I finally
came to the point of giving up all hope, any hope of salvation. That was in 1980, shortly before
Don came to be our pastor. And I sat under his ministry
for four long years, listening, hoping that the Lord would be
merciful and save me. But all I heard only reinforced
my feelings of helplessness. Nothing that was said affected
my heart to the point of repentance. And like so many religious folks,
I had made a profession of faith as a child, grew up in a Baptist
church, and later in life pursued everything that I claimed to
believe. But I finally came around to
the place that many of you may have come
to of deciding that I better get my act together, straighten
myself up, and as modern religion says, get right with God. So I got back into the church.
And in October of 74, Debbie and I moved to Kentucky and began
attending here at the Great Baptist. And that's when my troubles started.
That's also, thankfully, that's when my deliverance started.
I began to hear of a sovereign God who would by no means clear
the guilty. And at first, I sat under the
preaching of the gospel completely unmoved. Because after all, I
had got saved, as they say, when I was about 18 years old, so
everything could be okay. But as time went by, I came to
understand that I knew nothing about this God that was being
preached. And He was certainly not the God that I heard of growing
up my entire young life in a Baptist church. And I became, as a man
that we read of in our text, a boy of any hope of salvation. I was as Job who said in Job
7-6, my days are swifter than are we to each other and are
spent without hope. Like the woman with the issue
of lust who spent all that she had and was none the better,
so are we before we come to Christ. We are told how much wealth she
began with before her health problem manifested itself. She
may have been as poor as that poor widow whom Christ speaks
of in Mark 12. It says, And Jesus sat over in
the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the
treasury, and many that were rich cast in much. And there
came a certain poor widow, who threw in two mites, which made
the farthing. And he called on him his disciple,
and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow
had cast more in than all they would have cast into the treasury.
For all they did cast in of their abundance, but she of her want
did cast in all that she had, even all of her living. She may
have been that poor, or she may have been as rich as a queen
of Sheol. It doesn't really matter, and we're not told. But by the
time she came to Christ, she was utterly poverty-stricken. The Scriptures tell us she had
spent all she had. And that's the way we are before
we come to Christ. All hope is gone, except hope
that maybe, just maybe, He might be merciful. And we're told that
she had suffered many things and many positions, and was nothing
better, but grew worse. Is that not a perfect picture
of the loss of weight and center? We run from preacher to preacher
hoping that someone can help our desperate condition and tell
us how to ease its torment of conscience and guilt. That many of those preachers
are much like the scribes and pharisees that Christ condemned
in Matthew 23 15. He told them, woe unto you scribes
and pharisees, hypocrites. For you can pass sea and land
to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold
more the child of hell than yourself. These proselytes are false teachers
and preachers. Earth is a poor woman. They spend
all the hope they have and are none the better. The desperate
lost sinner finds no healing for his soul, even after spending
all the hope that he ever had. But all hope is taken away and
the death percentage is nothing the better, but growth works. Christ was the last hope of this
woman who had this issue of blood and she wasn't even sure that
he would be willing to help her or not. But she came because
she had no other hope. She came believing that Christ
was able, that Christ had the power to heal her disease and
notice that she didn't even ask him to heal her. She believed
that if she could but touch the hem of his garment, that her
plague would be ended. She would heal to my faith, believing
that this one whom she heard about, who had healed so many
others, was able to heal her also. And the Lord held her as
much in Mark 5, verse 34, when he said to her, by faith, hath
made thee whole. She was weakened by her issue
of blood, and we're weakened by our issue of sin. nigh to
perishing. Paul describes his condition
to the Ephesians in chapter 2 verse 12, where we read, that at that
time ye were without Christ. What a sad, sad condition. That you were without Christ,
being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from
the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the
world. As a man in that ship, who we
just read about earlier, all hope had been taken away. And
this woman with the issue of blood is just one of three that
we read about in the fifth chapter of Mark, who had all their hope
taken away. The first that we read about
is the demoniac of Gadara, and the other beside this woman is
Jairus, who we're told was a ruler of the synagogue, and we're told
that his little daughter lay at the point of death. All three
of these had no hope other than the hope they believed to be
found in this man called Christ. The healing of this woman took
place while the Lord was on his way to the house of Jairus. And
you know that what Jairus saw as this woman was healed by our
Lord with just the touch of his clothes must have encouraged
him to believe that this one who they called Jesus was able
to heal his little daughter. But as soon as Christ had spoken
peace to this woman who he cured of her issue of blood, there
came one and told Jairus, we read, thy daughter is dead. Why troublest thou the master
any further? And instantly all hope that Jairus
had was taken away. I'm sure he must have thought
I waited too long to come to the Master. Now my little daughter
is dead. I should not have waited. But
our Lord didn't leave him in despair, but rather told him,
be not afraid, only believe. And when our Lord arrived at
the home of Jairus, he was met with scorn from those assembled
there when he told them that this little girl was not dead,
but asleep. The same way the world tells
a seeking sinner, you're too far gone, You've committed sins
that are beyond forgiveness. There is no hope for you. But
our Lord had the final say in the matter because as we're told
in the Scriptures, He is the Lord of the quick and the dead. That John was spoken to by Christ
in Revelation 1.17 where he tells John, fear not. Just as he told
Jairus, be not afraid. And he tells John in the next
verse, Why he should not fear when he says, I have the keys
of hell and death. And he proved that to be so when
he said to this little daughter of Jairus, Damsel, I say unto
thee, arise. And immediately she arose and
walked. Now it would seem to me that
someone should have said to her, you are just dead. Maybe you
ought to take it easy. But when the Lord heals, there
is no need for taking it easy, there is no need for physical
therapy, because the healing is so complete that the one restored
is better than they ever were before. And notice the tenderness
of our Lord, because He says in verse 43, He commanded that
something should be given her to eat, because she had laid
for who knows how many days before Jairus came to the Lord, And
the Savior knew now that she was completely healed, that she
would be hungry. Like blind Bartimaeus, we knew
we had only one hope left. He had heard how Christ had restored
the sight to other blind men. So he had hoped that Christ might
do the same for him. And he's a good picture of how
a desperate sinner comes to Christ. Mark 10.47 tells us, and when
he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out
and say, Jesus, now son of David, have mercy on me. Not son of
David, you and I can work this out together. I'll do my part,
you do yours, and we'll get my sight restored. Bartimaeus had
been brought to the place of no hope. no hope of ever receiving
His sight. But in a last desperate effort,
He cries out to the One whom He heard to do for Him what He
had done for others, the giving of His sight. But He was an embarrassment
to those around Him. And they tried to shut Him up,
told Him to be quiet. The Scriptures tell us, but He
cried the more a great deal. It's like Matthew just saying,
Give me Christ, else I die. And this is often what happens
when God begins to awaken a lost sinner. The religious folks around
him, maybe even his family, try to quiet him down. They tell
him, you're taking this thing of, I must have Christ, too far. You're embarrassing us in front
of our friends. But the lost sinner, after all
hope is taken away, will not be dissuaded. He will get to
Christ if it's the last thing that he ever does. He knows that
it is his only hope of redemption. He's like the character Christian
in John Bunyan's book, The Pilgrim's Progress. I don't know if any
of you have ever read that. The Christian, once he's shown
his lost condition, leaves his wife and children and stops his
ears from hearing those who would call him back into dead religion
and goes running, crying out, life, life, eternal life. And his friends pursue him. And
they remind him of all that he's leaving behind, but he responds
by explaining to them, All which I shall have, or all which I
shall forsake, is not worthy to be compared with the little
of that I am seeking to enjoy. I seek an inheritance incorruptible,
undefiled, and that fadeth not away. And his friends return
to their dead religion, while Christian presses on. And in
that same story, Bunyan compares Christian struggle with sin and
despair as a slow of despond. This word slow, S-L-O-U-G-H,
is an old word that is not used much anymore. It means a deep
place of muck and mire. And if you've ever been stuck
in deep mud, you know it's extremely hard to make any forward progress. And if you have to travel any
distance at all, you eventually exhaust all your energy and you
cannot go on. You fall into a state of despondency
because there is no hope of going any further. And so it is with
a lost sinner who struggles in the mire of self-righteousness
but gets nowhere, and finally is so weakened spiritually by
the struggle that he comes to the place of despondency, to
the place where he knows that he is going to die in his sin. There is no hope left of him
ever being saved. And Bunyan makes one more analogy
that I love in this story. He describes his character, Christian,
as having a huge weight on his back that he's carrying, and
that is typified as a load of sin and guilt. But when he finally
comes to Calvary, he looks up. He's the Redeemer. And the burden
falls off his back, rolls down the hill, and is never seen again. The state of the lost sinner
who has been awakened to his true standing before God is much
like what we read in the book of Lamentations. Turn there with
me. Lamentations. The book right after Jeremiah.
Lamentations. Some say this text is a description
of Christ when He felt abandoned by His Father, and that very
well applies, but it also is a very good description of what
the lost, awakened sinner goes through in his state of despair. Lamentations chapter 3, I am
the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath
led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light. surely against
me as he turned. He turneth his hand against me
all the day. My flesh and my skin hath he
made old. He hath broken my bones. He hath
built it against me and compassed me with gall and travail. He
hath set me in dark places as they that be dead of old. He
hath hedged me about that I cannot get out. He hath made my chain
heavy. Also when I cry and shout, he
shutteth out my prayer. He hath enclosed my ways with
hewn stone. He hath made my paths crooked.
He was unto me as a bear lying in wait and as a lion in secret
places. He hath turned aside my ways
and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate. He
hath bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath
caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. I was
a derision to all my people and their song all the day. He hath
filled me with bitterness. He hath made me drunken with
wormwood. He hath also broken my teeth
with gravel stones. He hath covered me with ashes.
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace. I forgot
prosperity. And I said, my strength and my
hope is perished from the Lord. Remembering my affliction and
my misery, the wormwood and the gall, my soul hath them still
in remembrance and is humbled in me." This is a good description
of how a man or a woman feels when they've reached that place
of no hope. But so many people, so many lost men and women are
a lot like Daniel Boone. Let me explain what I mean by
that. Someone once asked Boone, have you ever been lost? And
he, of course, being much too proud to admit he ever had, I've
read several accounts of his reply, but it goes something
like this. He said, I can't say that I've ever been lost, But
I've been mighty confused for a few days. And that's what I
mean when I say so many lost folks are like Daniel Boone.
They are simply too proud to admit that they're lost. But
I can promise you this, based on God's Word, if you've never
been lost, completely without hope, you for sure have never
been saved. Our Lord didn't tell us, I've
come to seek and save that which was confused. He tells us, I
come to seek and save that which was lost. And you can be sure
of one more thing. If you've never been dead, you've
never been made alive. You wonder how I can make that
statement. Because I read in 1 Samuel 2.6, the Lord killeth
and maketh alive in exactly that order. It couldn't be stated
any clearer than that. The awakened sinner without any
hope, has the same attitude of our Lord's disciples, who we
read of in the Gospel of John chapter 6 and verse 67, when
our Lord asked them, will you also go away? And Simon Peter,
answering for them all, replied, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of life. Lord,
we've come to the place where we have no hope in any other.
You've told us in Your Word that You are the life, the way, the
resurrection, the light of the world, the bread of life, the
door, the good shepherd, the truth, the true vine. And like most folks who came
to Christ for physical healing, when he walked the earth, we
also had no place left to go, no one else to go to for the
salvation of our souls. Lost men and women are like the
Gadarene demoniac that we read of in Mark chapter 5 who was
living in the tombs completely without any hope of healing or
deliverance. Day and night it sells us crying
and cutting himself with stones. But one day help arrived. He
didn't go seeking for help, but that help came to him, help in
the form of a man called Christ. And after our Lord had healed
him, he commanded him to go home to thy friends and tell them
how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion
on thee." This is what our Lord commands us, all of us, to do
after He gives us life. We are to tell others who have
no hope that there is hope to be found in that person, and
that hope is to be found in Christ. We see Israel in a position of
hope being taken away when faced with Goliath. and having no hope
of defeating him. We are given a description of
this giant of a man in 1 Samuel chapter 17, and how he called
out Israel to send a man out to fight him. And he says that
if your guy wins, the Philistines will serve Israel, but if we
win, or if I win, then Israel will be the servant of the Philistines.
And in verse 11 we read, when Saul and all Israel heard these
words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Dismayed means disconcerted and
at a loss as to how to deal with something. No hope of making
things better. Once they saw him in person,
this giant of a man, any and all hope that they had of defeating
this guy was taken away. the way it is when the lost sinner
sees the magnitude of his or her sins. There's no hope that
anything can be done to defeat this enemy of men's souls, this
enemy called sin. But help and restoration of Israel
would come from an unlikely source, because along comes David, who
of course is a type of Christ. And we know how that story ended.
It ended up with Goliath's head being carried in David's hand.
And David certainly didn't look like someone who could deliver
Israel from this monster of an enemy. And likewise, when Christ
walked the earth, He didn't look like anything any different than
the other men of His day. In fact, He was so much like
other men and like His disciples, that Judas had to single Him
out with a kiss the night He betrayed Him. He was like every
other man to look upon. In another instance we find in
the Scriptures of Israel facing the Red Sea with the armies of
Pharaoh behind them. And from all human perspective
it appeared that there was absolutely no hope. But the Lord told Moses,
fear not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And
that is how we finally come to see the Lord's salvation by standing
still, by ceasing to go about to establish our own righteousness,
by giving up, knowing that we can do nothing to improve our
situation any more than Israel could do anything to improve
their situation. They were faced with an insurmountable
task And that's what men and women are faced with when they
come to know that they are lost and undone. That their sin is
insurmountable. They cannot do anything to better
their condition. And any hope we have for our
lost children is found in Christ. Like those who came to the Lord
when He was here on earth and asked Him to heal their children. And never, Never do we find a single time
that our Lord refuses to show mercy. And that's the hope I have for
my children and grandchildren. That our Lord will show them
that they have no hope in themselves. But how can we be sure that this
one called Christ will save those who come to Him for healing of
souls? Turn with me to the book of John. John chapter 6. John chapter 6. How can we be sure that Christ
will grant mercy to those that come to Him? Because we read
beginning in verse 37 of John chapter 6, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh unto me I will
in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which
he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up
at the last day. Just as James tells us that one
offense of the law makes the sinner guilty of the entire law,
even so, if Christ fails to save just one sinner who the Father
gave Him, He would be deemed a complete failure. But we know
that that will not happen because He tells us that if all the Father
gave to Him, He should lose nothing. But there is reason for hope
when all hope seems to be taken away. This word hope that I've
been talking about means to wish for a particular event that one
considers possible, to have confidence or trust, to desire and consider
possible, to expect with anticipation and confidence. The Scriptures
are full of verses which speak of this very thing. of our only
hope being found in the Lord. Let me read a few, just in random
order. Lamentations 3.21, the verse
after what we just read, This I recall to my mind, therefore
have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. Psalm 39.7, And now, Lord, what
wait I for? My hope is in Thee. Deliver me from all my transgressions. Psalm 33.18, Behold, the eye
of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope
in His mercy. Psalm 33.22 says, Let Thy mercy,
O Lord, be upon us according as we hope in Thee. Psalm 31.24
says, Be of good courage and strengthen your heart All ye
that hope in the Lord. Psalm 38, 15, For in thee, O
Lord, do I hope. Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God. And this is my favorite. Psalm
130, verse 7 says, Let Israel hope in the Lord. For with the
Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. It is our only consolation when
we've reached our wit's end concerning any hope of salvation. We begin
to see small rays of light. We begin to hear how God is merciful
and reading in His Word how He will forgive trespasses because
of the finished work of Christ. And that hope that had all been
taken away begins to be restored. And through His preached Word
and His written Word, He finally speaks peace to the desperate
sinner's soul who before had no hope, but is now filled with
hope. We read in Micah 7, verses 18
and 19, Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity,
and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever,
And this is why, because He delighted in mercy. He will turn again. He will have
compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities. And now it will cast all their
sins into the depths of the sea. Isaiah 55 tells us, Let the wicked
forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. and let him
return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him. For our God will abundantly pardon. In Psalm 103, Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O all my soul,
and forget not all His benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies."
Once the Lord gives us faith and hope, we're now filled with
hope. We still face the bite of sin
as we read in that 28th chapter of Acts, as Paul was bitten by
that serpent. But as that bite had no deadly
effect to end Paul's physical life, so the bite of sin has
no effect to end our spiritual life. Others see us bitten by
sin and expect us to fall. But as Paul shook off the bite
of that serpent, so we shake off through Christ's good graces
the bite of sin. And if Paul was enabled to testify
of the love and mercy of Christ to sinners, so are we enabled. So in closing, lost sinner sitting here today
or listening over the streaming, I can only hope two things for
you. Number one, that our Lord will bring you to the point of
intense desperation and despair, to the place where you know,
as I once did, that you are as for sure of hell as if you were already there. And number two, the second thing
I wish for you, is that after you have dwelt a while in this
place of despair, that the Lord will speak peace to your heart.
And if those two things happen, you will be as that one spoken
of by our Lord when He said, to whom much is forgiven, the
same loveth much. You will find yourself madly
in love with this One who forgiveth all thine iniquities and who
redeems your life from destruction. And saved sinner, I would encourage
you to continue to rest in Christ and His finished work and intercession
on your behalf. Continue to rejoice in the fact
that you went from the place of all hope being taken away
to the place of having a good hope in Christ. And the reason
there is such a good hope is that He cannot fail. His promises
stand sure and He promises through His Word which you hold in your
hands to do you good eternally. I encourage you to rest in Him. Jimmy, come lead us in a song
for you.