Acts chapter 27 and verse 39. So we're still talking about
Paul and this terrible journey that he has been on and the way
in which the ship was blown across the Great Sea, the Mediterranean
Sea, and the storm that took place. And we're coming rather
to the conclusion now of that in verse 39. And when it was
day, they knew not the land, but they discovered a certain
creek with a shore, into the which they were minded if it
were possible to thrust in the ship. And when they had taken
up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea, and
loosed the rudder-bands, and hoisted 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 fore part stopped
fast, and remained unmovable, but the hinder part was broken
with the violence of the waves. And the soldiers' counsel was
to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out and escape. 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 and
some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass
that they escaped all safe to land." Amen. May God bless to us this reading. These verses before us bring
us to the dramatic end of Paul's terrifying voyage. Yet we have seen, going through
this chapter, how the Lord blessed Paul through all these trials
and brought him and his companions to safety. The Lord spoke to
Paul in a vision and promised him that everyone would survive
the storm and the shipwreck, and so it proved. God was faithful. We read together in the book
of Psalms, I am the Lord thy God. And so the Lord proved to
be the faithful God to his people here. And I want us to draw just
very quickly five little points here from these last few verses
with respect to the shipwreck, which shows us God's goodness
to his people. And the first one is this. The
Lord had said to Paul, it seems a long, long time ago, that he
would preach the gospel in Rome. And so he would. That was God's
promise. and the power of the wind, the
fearsomeness of the sea, and even the wicked soldiers who
planned to kill their prisoners as the ship began to break up
on this sandbank, could not prevent God from delivering his servant
into Rome to preach the gospel. Now, we do not know what God's
detailed plans for our lives might be. But we do know that
the same God who preserved Paul and his companions cares for
us. This is Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday, today, and forever. And we can trust the Lord in
all our circumstances. and we can confidently commit
our souls and our well-being to his care just as surely as
Paul and his friends committed their lives to the Lord Jesus
Christ in his trouble. The second thing is this, Paul's
experience here was very painful and troubling. And so are our
experiences and the experiences that we are called to endure
in this life. Just because we trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ does not mean that our lives will be easy and
trouble-free. On the contrary, we often feel
as if we are led through very dark experiences, very severe
trials, times of darkness, times of opposition, times of hunger,
times of loss, times like Paul of being lost at sea, and even
that there are those who would do us harm as there were those
who sought to kill Paul. Yet even our troubles in this
life have a positive purpose. They are used by the Lord sometimes
to chasten His people who are guilty of sin and wrongdoing,
sometimes to convict our hearts to point us once again to our
Saviour, sometimes to strengthen us. but always to build us up
in the faith of Jesus Christ. Even our trials and hardships
do our souls good. And here's another point. Sometimes in life, we feel as
if we have lost our direction. Let me just very quickly show
you another little map here. I drew this map up because it
kind of showed more of the left-hand side of Paul's journey here. But right in the centre of this
map, we can see the island of Crete, and then the arrow goes
away towards Malta. And look at that long arrow there,
stretching all the way to Malta. And look at the blue in the sea. That tells us that the deepest
part of the Mediterranean is just there at Malta. That was
right through the heart of this great sea. And there's not another
piece of land from there at Crete where the boat was first taken
in the storm until they saw that piece of island there which they
discover in the next chapter to be Mylita or Malta as we now
call it. And yet all of the way as they
were blown hither and thither up and down in this ocean, the
Adria Sea, Paul calls it, up and down they blew until the
Lord brought them safe to this little peace in Malta. And so here we can see that the
Lord is pleased even when we lose our direction, when we lose
our bearings, when it seems as if in our life we are sailing
up and down the sea and no one knows where we're at and what
it is that's happening to us. We discover that even seeing
that piece of land they still did not know where they were,
they could have been anywhere. You know, some of us like to
think that we are always in control of our lives, but sometimes the
Lord will bring a storm so big, so powerful, that it almost breaks
us, and it almost sinks us, and we lose our direction in life. We talk a lot about trusting
in the Lord Jesus, It's in occasions like this that our trust will
be put to the test. And here's another point. The
Lord Jesus Christ told Paul that everyone would be saved. But
still, all of these people had to use the means provided for
their deliverance. What do I mean by that? Well,
some of these people had to jump into the sea. They jumped into
the sea when the ship that they were on began to break up in
the storm. The front of it was held fast
on a sandbank. They were still in the water.
They still had to jump into the sea. And the back end of the
ship began to break up in the waves. It suddenly seemed as
if they were all going to be killed. They had to jump into
the sea. Some of them had to grab hold
of the doors and the pieces of wood. Others had to hold on to
planks as they were washed ashore. What's the point that I'm making?
Simply this. We should never say, I don't
need to worry about things, I don't need to do things, I don't need
to be involved with things because God has promised to save me.
No, God has promised to save us using the means that he has
provided. And we must never be careless
or foolish with our lives. There's no point in us praying
that the Lord will protect us in a journey and then climbing
into our car and driving at a hundred miles an hour with our eyes closed
because we've prayed to God that he will save us. God provides
us with means And we should take and make use of those means in
this life, that he might preserve us through and by those means
which he has given to us. And of course the greatest means
for our deliverance and salvation is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And so he calls his people to
hear the gospel. He calls his people to believe
the gospel. We don't just say, well, God
has promised to save us so we don't need to care and we don't
need to worry about anything. No, we need to hear the gospel
preached. We need to believe the gospel
and we need to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And finally, here's
another point. Everyone made it to the shore. by swimming or upon the broken
pieces of the ship. All of these people, all of these
men and women who were on this ship made it to safety. And all God's people in this
world will get to safety and will get to heaven. None will
fail to make it. Even although we feel weak, even
although we're in the midst of those storms, if we have placed
our trust in the promises of God, if we have placed our trust
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, then our salvation is
not our responsibility, but the Lord's responsibility. And He
is able to save. When the Lord Jesus Christ died
for the sins of those who believe in him, he ensured that everything
necessary for bringing his people to glory, bringing his people
to heaven, was fulfilled and provided and supplied. And when we trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ, we can be sure of his promise that he will take
us safely to heaven. Even if there are storms on the
way, all the Lord's people who trust in Him will be saved. Amen.