this account of this wreck here
in the 27th chapter of Acts. And I want to look at it, not so much as a metaphor,
but I think it really teaches us something literally. We begin here really in verse
8. Paul gave his advice. his instructions, and they were
all rejected. His counsel was rejected, his
warnings were rejected, and his advice was seemingly here that
they should winter at this place called Fairhaven. It was late September, the sea
was dangerous, His warning was here in verse 10, if you venture
out onto this sea, this time of year, as dangerous as it is,
there will not only be loss of our cargo and of the ship, but
our own lives also. And the Apostle Paul, no doubt,
was speaking here not just from experience. He had been here
to Crete before. He knew something about these
seas. But he was speaking here as the prophet of God. He was
prophesying. This was too detailed for him
to just be guessing at. There's no way he could have
known that the cargo could have been lost, the ship would have
been lost. He was speaking here as a prophet. He prophesied several times on
this voyage. And it was all true. This was
his first prophecy. So to paraphrase what the Apostle
Paul is saying to these men, he is saying, Sirs, you need
to winter. This is my advice to you. Winter
this ship here at the Fair Havens. Settle down here. Pull this ship
into port. Anchor it down. Tie it down.
and let's settle down here and stay here for the winter. When
spring comes, then we can go on about our business to Rome. But the Scripture says here that
his warnings and his instructions were all rejected. And I thought
it's interesting that that was so, when we consider the reasons
that His instructions and warning was rejected. We're given several
reasons here in verse 11. Here's the reason. First of all,
this centurion, it said, believed the master and the owner of the
ship. They said, let's not winter here. We know what this man's saying,
but we need to go on. We need to get out on the sea.
We've got cargo to deliver. We've got money to make. It was
peer pressure, wasn't it? This centurion yielded to peer
pressure. This owner of the ship, he's
probably a rich man. You didn't own a ship this size
that would carry 276 men with a great cargo of wheat without
having some money. The pilot, the captain, was probably
an influential man. He gives them credit to what
they say. And secondly, we see something
else here in verse 12. Because the haven was not commodious,
it wasn't suitable to winter in. But look at this. The most
part advised to depart from thence, if by any means they might attain
to Phanasi, and there to winter. Almost everybody was saying,
ìLetís donít winter here in the Fair Havens. Letís get on. Letís get out into the sea.î
It was crowd pressure. Most people, when they said,
ìLetís take a vote,î raised their hands. And everybodyís hands
almost was contrary to the advice and the warnings of the prophet
of God. And then you have this also. This haven here that was called
the Fair Havens was said it wasn't a suitable place to winter. You could have wintered there.
They could have docked their ship there and tied it down,
but it just wasn't suitable. It wasn't suitable to them. Maybe
it didn't have the shops that they wanted. Didn't have the
place to shop. Didn't have the places to entertain. They would have had to stay on
the ship and ration their food, perhaps. They could have wintered
there. It just wasn't suitable. You
know, these fellas had ulterior motives. The soldiers and the
sailors had ulterior motives. There's a better place over there,
they said, to winter. There's a place over there that's
got better places to stay, more entertainment. It's a more beautiful
place, a nicer place. We want to get over there. We've
got our own plans. We've got our own purposes. We
want to get over there, to Crete. That's where we want to get to,
Phanasi. Nice place, still there, Phanasi. A lot of ships landed there.
They like to anchor there. It's a good place to spend the
winter. But the root cause, and I want
you to notice it here in verse 11, of this centurion refusing
Paul's prophecy and Paul's word, look at this. Here's the root
cause. Over the peer pressure, over
the crowd pressure, over plans and wishes, here is why this
centurion chose to get out on the sea and reject Paul's prophecy. Nevertheless, the centurion believed
the master and the owner of the ship more than those things which
Paul said. Here are these two opposing instructions. One is saying you better winter
here in fire heaven. If you don't, trouble is coming.
And the other was saying, no, let's go out on the sea. It may
be dangerous, but we can make it. And it comes down to this. Who
are you going to believe? Who are you going to believe?
And let's be honest about it, brothers and sisters. Who would
you believe? This man, the Apostle Paul, had
nothing going for him. He couldn't plead any temporal
advantage. All he had going for him was
the truth. Just the naked truth. He was
a prisoner. He had that chain on him. They
looked at him, and I'm sure some of the soldiers, some of the
sellers thought, who is that man anyway? What does he know
anyway? Listen to somebody that's experienced
in these things. I tell you what, if I'd have
been there in my natural state, I'd have believed the Master
too, wouldn't you? I'd have believed the Captain
too. I'd have yielded to peer pressure. I'd have yielded to
the pressure of the crowd. But here was the root cause of
why the centurion made the decision to leave this port of Fairhands. and go out on the city, it was unbelief. It was unbelief. That was at the root of it. That's
what caused him to make the decision that he made. I heard a statistic
just the other day. Brother Larry gave me a tape
of a man preaching. He gave a statistic. And I can't
remember exactly what numbers was on the statistic, but somebody
had did a survey of the conservative churches, not liberal churches,
not those who had denied the Scriptures, but he's talking
about conservative churches. Those that at least hold to the
Word of God, being in truth the Word of God. Preach what truth
they know about the Gospel. And he said there was an alarming
statistic concerning our young people, that they were leaving
the churches at an alarming rate. And Larry, you might remember
it, maybe seven or eight out of ten young people was leaving
the churches at an alarming rate. And I thought to myself, if you
could find those young people, And you could ask them why they're
leaving the churches, where their parents meet to worship, and where they conjure the gospel. Why have you left? And I imagine
you could get all sorts of excuses. I've got a job. I'm going to
school. I've got to give myself to my
studies, or I'm indifferent, I'll admit it, or some will just
say it's open sin. I just don't feel comfortable
anymore coming there, it's just open sin, my conscience is guilty,
I'm afflicted, I just don't want anything to do with the church
anymore. You'd get all kinds of excuses,
I imagine. It's brought about by peer pressure.
It's brought about by crowd pressure. It's brought about by my own
plans, my own desires, my own ambitions. It's brought about
by this world. There's many reasons that the
young people are leaving the churches. We've had it here,
haven't we? I was talking with just the pastor this last week,
and he said it's going on in their congregation. You look
at the grace churches. And young people, when they get
old enough, are leaving the grace churches at an alarming rate
for one reason or another. And here's the root cause. Here's
the root cause. Whatever reason they may give,
here's the root cause. It's unbelief. It's unbelief. Here you have the old Bible. The old Bible. Look at it. Just look at your Bible. I found
one yesterday under a bunch of junk in my garage. Had an old film on it where it
had it thrown back in my toolbox from when I used to work maintenance
there at the shop. You find pages of this old Bible
sometimes torn out and scattered everywhere. It's not too appealing, is it? It don't have much going for
it, does it? And we're told that most people
don't listen to that old book anymore. That thing is outdated. Nobody is selling according to
the dictates of that word anymore. You've got to listen to the crowd.
You've got to listen to the world. See what everybody else is doing. And it's going to come down,
brothers and sisters, to this, not only concerning our children,
but concerning every lost individual. It comes down to this. Who are
you going to believe? I know for my part, I see it
in other great churches. I know for my part, I can speak
for this congregation, that our children have been warned. Our children have been instructed,
just as Paul instructed these men. Remember the Creator in
the days of your youth. Childhood and youth is vanity. This world out there is like
a raging sea. There's a storm out there. You
need to find a refuge. You need to find a refuge at
a young age. You need to come to the Lord
Jesus Christ and to God by Him. And if you do not receive this
instruction, But if you leave the place where the gospel is
preached because it's not suitable, I just don't like it there. It
bothers me. Instead of sitting and listening
and praying and being patient and asking the Lord to open your
heart, you come up for some reason or another with all these plans
of your own. You've been influenced by peer
pressure, or by the crowd pressure, or by your own plans and ambitions. And we've warned our children,
have we not, that that's a dangerous world? I tell young people all
the time, no sense you going out looking for trouble. It's
going to find you. This world, brothers and sisters,
is dangerous. And there's another statistic
I wish somebody would get. There is another survey I wish
somebody would take. With these teenagers, these young
adults leaving our churches at an alarming rate, I wish they
would do another survey and see the alarming number that never
returns. How many went out on this sea
and they never returned? It's a dangerous world, ain't
it? It's a dangerous world. Sometimes people think because
judgment against the evil work is not executed speedily, then
God hasn't noticed. So they go deeper and deeper.
They raise their sail. And they sail deeper and deeper
out into the sea of life. That's where these fellows were
here. They said, we're not going to
listen to you. We've got our own motives. We've got our own
plans. And we just don't believe you. We don't believe God. We don't
believe God. And look at that now in the light
of verse 13. This is an amazing thing. And when the south wind blew
softly, supposing that they had obtained their purposes, loose
and fenced, they sailed close by Crete." Ain't this amazing? Can you imagine the grins that
Paul got? The snares? Can you imagine him hearing people
whisper under his voice, boy, he was wrong. I doubt if Paul was embarrassed
about it. I bet his face didn't turn red about it. But ain't
it amazing that these men, this centurion and all others, almost
the whole ship, had rebelled against the authority of God's
prophet? And now it seems like even the
providence of God had encouraged them in their sinful pursuit. Ain't that amazing? No, they
said, what we're going to do is we're going towards fanaticism.
That's our plan. And suddenly the soft wind come
and got in their sails. And they said, see that? We've
gained our purposes. Even God is in agreement with
us. The providence of God has encouraged
us to go on in our pursuits. Boy, I tell you what, when things go well, and men
are happy, and men are healthy, and men are prosperous in the
midst of their rebellion, it's a fearful thing. Did you know
that? It's a fearful thing. When men
have rebelled against God, And they did it knowingly. They know
what they've done. They deliberately, willingly
refused the counsel of the prophet of God, the Word of God. And
yet things go easy. There's no trouble comes to their
flesh to correct them. There's no trouble comes to their
conscience to correct them. I tell you, that's the most dangerous
place a person could be in. Their south wind blows softly, and they lift up their sails
and go deeper and deeper into sin. Brothers and sisters, one
of the most fearful things in this world is when a young man
and a young woman lives in known rebellion against God, and things
go well. Things go well. Instead of their rebellion being
checked, they've given reason to be encouraged in it. And they
go presumptuous, and they grow bold and hardened. Well, I've
rebelled, and I've got away with it. My conscience is not bothering
me. I've not been hindered at all. I often go to the nursing home
and I think while I'm sitting there watching some old man or
old woman slobber on theirself. Not even know what their name
is. You can't talk to them about the Lord. They have no mind.
And sometimes I wonder. I wonder how it was with you
when you were younger. I wonder if you lifted up your
sail when your south wind blew, and God let you sail on, unhindered. It's a frightful thing for a
person to sin against their conscience. But it's more frightful when
you don't have one. If you don't have a conscience
disturbed by sin, and rebellion, then God has let you go. If you
can live in rebellion, unhindered, and God seems to be blessing
you, that's the most fearful shape you could be in. Oh, thank
God for verse 14. Look at this. Thank God for verse
14. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for His goodness and for His wondrous works towards the
children of men Look in verse 14. But not long after there
arose against it a tempestuous wind and hurricane, violent winds. This is God withdrawing these
men from their purpose. This is God beginning to humble
these men in their pride. He's keeping their souls back
from their pit and their lives from perishing with a sword. I want my children, and you want
your children, and I want all our young people to get along
well in life. I want them to be successful
in one sense of the word. We want to encourage them to
get a good education. to get a skill. We want to see
them get a good job and have a family and children and have
some things of this world. But brothers and sisters, there
is something exceedingly more important than that. There is
something absolutely more necessary than our vital health or our
having an education or a job or a family. And that is being
saved from sin. That's been reconciled to God. And here's my prayer for our
young children. Here's my prayer for our young
people. Lord, whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. I don't care,
do you? It may sound mean. It may sound
unkind to say that. Lord, whatever it takes. Take a child from this life,
if that's what it takes. Break the legs, break the arms,
disable that person. Let them be T-boned in an accident. Lay them flat on their backs.
Cross their paths. Bring them low. Make them stop
and think of where they're going and what they're doing and their
rebellion. Lord, save them at any cost. I bet you talk to these men here
after they landed safe on this coast and they glorified the
Lord the day that He sent this hurricane their way. Well, I tell you in verses 16
through verse 20, they learned some valuable lessons. They learned
some valuable lessons. They learned this. They got themselves
into this mess. But they couldn't get themselves
out of it. That's what a sinner needs to
learn, ain't it? I got myself into a mess. Look where my rebellions
got me. Well, I'll tell you what I'm
going to do. I'm going to throw over some tackling. I'm going
to get rid of some of these things in my life that I know is not
right. That will get me out of this mess. That's what they did. That didn't help them. That didn't
help them. A man can get himself in a mess,
but he can't get himself out of that, brothers and sisters.
A man may go on in his sins and rebel against the Lord and have
a good time and say, I'm just going to sow my wild oats. Then
after a while, give me a few years, my purpose is to come
to the Lord. That may be your purpose, but
you can't do it. I'll save myself. I was talking
with a woman just this week. She said, I've been saved three
times. The Nazarenes saved me, the Pentecostals saved me, and
the Baptists saved me, three times. I said, you know what
that tells me? The Lord's never did a work of
grace in your heart. How easy it is for you to be
saved when you've never been brought to a place where you're
lost and unable to save yourself. That's what these men learned.
This wind had come against them. Their ship was ready to turn
over. The waves were coming in. They
were holding on to keep from being washed away. They were
trying to lighten the ship. And everything they did availed
nothing. I'll tell you something else
about it. They were brought to this place where their pride
was humbled. Their pride was humbled. Paul said here in verse 21, look
what he said. He had a long abstinence. And
finally he came back on shore. And this is what he said, Sirs,
you should have listened to me. You should have listened to me. You didn't believe me, did you?
Well, where has it got you? I tell you where God brings us
sin. When he takes a hand to save the sinner, he so humbles
that man, and this is so necessary. He so humbles that person, that
person is willing not only to say it and be taught and to be
instructed, but he's willing to take rebukes for his rebellion. Do you see anybody standing up
and say, well, I'm going to knock your teeth out? Who do you think
you are, talking to me like that? I ain't done anything wrong.
All these bad things have happened to me and I'm a good person.
Paul said, all of you on this ship are rebels. 276 of you. Well, maybe not all, but he had
one or two friends on there. But what did those fellows say?
We're guilty. We're guilty. You go to somebody who has professed
the Lord Jesus and fallen into sin, And you reproved them for
it. And they said, who are you to
try to tell me, I'm out of here, you'll never see me again. Mark
it down. God's not done a work of grace
in that person. He humbles us, doesn't he? He told the Jews,
I think it's in Leviticus 26. He said, when you've sinned against
me and rebelled against me and I've carried you away into other
countries, When you come and own up to Me,
I've walked contrary to you, and you walk contrary to Me."
See what these men came to own up to? We went contrary to God,
and He went contrary to us. That's where He brings us to,
and He rebukes us. He chastens every son whom He
receives. And if He hasn't humbled you
enough, that instead of rebellion, you humbled over rebuke, then
He ain't saved you yet. He ain't saved you yet. And my
prayer, Lord, just bring the wind stronger. Keep the pressure
on. Bring them to the place where
they say this. Look at this. In verse 20. All hope that we should be saved.
was taken away. God taking in hand to save these
men. Now we're told, and I don't mean
to be negative about this, I don't mean to be so critical, but now
we're told when God takes in hand to save somebody, they start
thinking about the goodness of God and how much they love Him. And
all they've got to do is leave the upper deck and come down
to the front and pray the sinner's prayer. And I'm okay. There's
really not that much difference between me and God. We're sort
of walking along the same path. I just need to step over and
yes. Not that way. Look what he says now in verse
22. Boy, I tell you, every sense that south wind began to blow
and they raised their sails and got it full of air just for a
short time, just enough to get presumptuous and say, boy, we've
gained our end. We've gained our end. Since they
met this storm, this is the first good news that they had. And
look at it in verse 22. 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." Is that good news or not? And you know what made
it good news? All hope that they'd be saved
was taken away. When God brings us, brothers
and sisters, to value our life, not the things of this world,
not what we possess, but ourselves, See, we live as if we have no
souls. We live as if we're going to
die, we die like beasts. But He comes to us, and by His
power and His wisdom, He convinces us that we're real! We have a
soul! And we're about to lose it. And
we're about to lose it for all eternity, under the awful judgment
of God. He makes us to value our life. And under that convincing power,
at the same time, He sends this wonderful Word of the Gospel.
Your life is saved. Your life is spared. I've had
mercy upon you. You're not going to lose yourself.
Ain't that wonderful? That's good news, ain't it? That's
good news. Have you ever been so lost you
thought you were going to lose yourself? and try as you may, you couldn't
save yourself. And you were afraid. And then,
suddenly, suddenly, there's this realization from the Word of
God itself, I've given you life. I've given you life. Oh, that's
the best good news a man could hear out in the middle of the
ocean in a storm. But I'll tell you what made it
even better. It's where this good news came from. He said
there in verse 22, There will be the loss of no man's life,
for there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am,
and whom I serve, saying, For you must be brought before Caesar,
and God hath given thee all them that sell with thee. I tell you,
it's where this good news comes from. It came from heaven. This
is what God said. This angel came down from heaven
and he said, I come from the presence of God. Your lives are
spared. I want assurance, don't you?
And I want it from the Word of God. But I want it to come from heaven.
I don't want somebody to stick a Bible under my eyes and say,
just believe that verse. Walk me down a Roman road. Now,
you know you're a sinner. That's what the Bible says. Well,
that's what the Bible says. It said, if you confess with
your mouth the Lord Jesus, believe in your heart. Do you believe
that? Well, yeah, I believe that. Well, are you saved? Well, I really
don't know. Well, you believe the Bible, don't you? Well, yeah,
I believe the Bible. Well, that's where you get your
assurance, from the Bible. I know that, brothers and sisters.
And I tell you, it just doesn't come from here. It comes from heaven. It comes
from the Holy Ghost bringing the Word to the heart with power. Some say all we've got now is
the Word. No, we've got the Spirit too now. This Word means nothing. You can throw it in the fire
and burn it. I could rip every page out of it. It means nothing but itself.
But when the Holy Ghost brings it to you, oh, it's a sheriff's
stand. It's a sheriff's stand. And look
in verse 24 again. This is amazing. I just wonder
what these men thought about this. Fear not, Paul, the angel
said. You must be brought before Caesar,
and, lo, God hath given thee all of them that sell with thee.
Is that election or not? Ain't that amazing? God hath
given you all these men. You know there's something about
election. And you know what? You know basically
what it is. You know basically what it says.
That we're gods. Every man is gods. Every woman,
boy and girl is gods. And He can do with them as He
pleases. He gives some of them up to vile affections. to a reprobate
mind. He gives some of them up to the
devil to be punished. He gave these men to the Apostle
Paul. He has given a great host of
men to Jesus Christ, his Son, to be saved by them. I wonder if these fellows had
any complaints about that. I bet they didn't. You know why?
That's their only hope of being saved. Your only hope of being
saved if God's given you to Christ. If He hasn't given you to Christ,
you're still out on this sea. And when the storm comes, you're
going down. The only reason you're going to be saved is because
He gave you to your Son. And you're going to be saved
in Him. He took your place upon the cross. What if this angel had come and
said, Paul, I'm going to save you and send you to Rome. And
the rest of these fellows are going to face the consequences
of their rebellion. That would have been awful, wouldn't
it? In verse 25, I'll look at this
verse, then I'll quit. This is an amazing verse. I looked
at this, considered it. Serves, be of good cheer, for
I believe God. that it shall be even as it was
told me." Sirs, you be of good cheer because I believe God. Ain't that amazing? I believe
this angel that spoke to me was from the presence of God. He's
a holy angel and he came from a faithful God who cannot lie. I believe that, he said. And
why should the fact that Paul believed God comfort these people
and dispel their fears. Well, let me explain it to you
like this. They didn't know much about the
Lord. They didn't know much about His
Word, if anything. They didn't know much about His
faithfulness, His attributes, His promises. They knew hardly
anything about Him. But Paul knew almost everything. Paul knew a lot about the Lord.
He knew about His covenant mercies. He knew that He was the God that
ruled the seas, the Lord that saved sinners, the Lord that
made promises and kept them, that He had moved heaven and
earth before He had let His Word fall to the ground. Paul said,
you fellows don't know much about Him, do you? But I know Him real
well. And listen, I believe Him. I believe Him. Ain't that comforting,
brothers and sisters? When you read the Bible and you
find these fellows in here, these prophets and these apostles,
these fellows that walked with the Lord Jesus for three years,
knew Him well, knew Him intimately, leaned upon His breast, ate with
it, lived with it, watched Him, observed Him, they knew Him very
well. They said, he has no sin about
it. He cannot sin. He cannot lie. And one fellow
said to him one time, he said, you have the words of eternal
life. And I believe and I'm sure that
you're the Son of God. I believe that. And I tell you,
that was a man that knew Jesus Christ real well. He knew much
more about Him than you know or I know. And he said, I believe
you. I believe. Don't that comfort
you? Because we don't know very much
about Him, do we? We just fret and fall into unbelief and stumble
along because we just don't know much about our Lord and His faithfulness
and His goodness. But when I read that these men
believed Him to the point that they opened up their shirts and
gave their backs to the whips And some of them laid their necks
down upon the chopping block. They risked and hazarded everything
they had because they believed Him. That comforts me. There must be something in this
and to this. And when I think that I've got
the same faith that they've got and that they have. Ain't that
comforting? Same faith. Come from the same place. has its same object and will
end the same way, in sight. You have like precious faith,
Peter said, with us. I don't have the degree to have,
but it's the same kind. And that gives me comfort, don't
it you? There's three fellows that were thrown into a fiery
furnace. There's a fellow that went down into a den of lions
because they said, I believe God. Oh, that thrills me to hear
that. I've got the same kind of faith
as you. And if men like that, that knew much more of Him, can
trust Him, that encourages me to trust Him too. Paul, you've
been called up into the third heaven. You've heard things that
I've never heard. If you tell me, God, give me
a promise, and He can't lie, that encourages me to believe
Him. I believe Him. Brothers and sisters,
I've been on this way for 36 years, going on 37 years. I've learned a few things about
the Lord. He's never let a word fall to the ground. He's never
broken a promise. He's made to me. He's been faithful
to my soul. I've been through some things.
He has never let me down. He's never left me. He's faithful. And that ought to encourage you
to say, I'm going to believe Him too. I'm going to believe
Him. And here's the promise, and I'll
close with this, in verse 26. We must be cast upon a certain
eye. Now there's a reason they needed
that. They had these two things. One was, their lives had been
spared. I tell you, if your life's secured,
that's enough. What else matters? Now they have
this promise. You fellas are going to land
on dry land. You're going to land on dry land. And we'll stop
right there and we'll pick that up this afternoon and see why
that was so important. Let's pray.