Be turning with me, please, to
the book of Acts, the 27th chapter. While you're turning, let me
say that it is indeed an honor to be with you tonight. I think
the world of your pastor, he's been a friend for many, many
years. We were talking a while back
about how the Lord arranges things well in advance of any of our
planning. And when this church was getting
started back about 40 years ago, I think Todd said, down on Limestone, we had the privilege, Grace Baptist
in Danville had the privilege of helping to support this church,
and little did we know that since our pastor had been gone, it's
been three years of last month, that the two men who would preach
for us the most in these last three years would come from this
church, Todd and Aaron Greenleaf. And that's how the Lord provides.
But I am honored to be here, and I hope you Count it a privilege
to have a man like Todd Niver as your pastor. Until you lose
a faithful pastor as we have, you don't know what you have,
what you're truly blessed with. So I pray that you would cherish
him and his faithfulness. In Acts 27, this is a story you're
probably familiar with. Paul was a prisoner. It says
in verse one that it was determined that they would sail to Italy.
And Paul was put into custody of a centurion named Julius. And they started the trip to
Italy, and the weather turned bad. And against Paul's advice,
they continued on, because the captain obviously was a seasoned
mariner, and Paul was but a prisoner. And I'll take up our 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 they should fall into the quicksand,
strake sail, and so were driven. And we being exceedingly tossed
with a 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. A few months ago, our friend
Eric Floyd preached for us, and he preached from this text. And
when he read that 20th verse, it just seemed like it jumped
off the page at me. And we find an account here of
Paul and those he was with being caught in a terrible storm. And
they tried to save themselves, we're told, by first lightening
the ship, and the third day into the storm, we're told that they
cast out the tackling. And I looked into this work because
I had no idea what tackling meant, but it covers pretty much everything
from the furniture to the pulleys, to the ropes, the block and tackle
that was used to raise and lower the sail. But none of this helped
their situation. They were helpless. They were
hopeless. And notice that the word, or notice that the wording
here doesn't say that the hope was lost. It says that all hope
was taken away. And I've titled this message
from this 20th verse, All Hope Taken Away. And I want to compare
the circumstances and the situations that these poor men found themselves
in to what a lost sinner who's been awakened to his circumstances
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. And there's an old saying
that it's always darkest before the dawn. And that's true in
so many cases. And in a sense, it's true on
how God deals with a lost man or woman and shows them their
undone condition and takes away all their hope in themselves
before the dawn of Christ's forgiveness arises on our souls. But here
we find in our text a group of men trying desperately to do
something to keep themselves from perishing before finally
just simply giving up. And that so often is how we come
to know the true God and Savior. We tried everything that we knew
to do to justify ourselves before God. We ran a church membership
thinking that if we were among God's saints, then we would be
in a safe place. But as we've heard many times,
it's just as easy to go to hell from a church pew as it is from
a bar stool. And we came to realize that we
were simply a goat in the middle of a flock of God's sheep. And
we ran to the law thinking that if we could just try to keep
God's commandments, then surely he would see how much we've improved
our behavior and go ahead and reward us with salvation. But
it was those lyrics from that song, Hiding Place, that you've
probably heard Daniel Parks sing many a time. One of the lines
is, to Sinai's fiery mount I flew, but just as cried with frowning
face, this mountain is no hiding place. The law can never take
away sin. It only serves to highlight and
point out how utterly hopeless our lost condition truly is.
Verse 20 of our text says that no small tempest lay on us, and
what a good picture of the turmoil that goes through the mind and
the heart of a sinner once he's been awakened to his condition.
God begins a work of salvation in them, makes them aware of
their sins, and shows them their complete helplessness to save
themselves or do anything to improve their circumstances.
They're tossed about with every emotion of despair and helplessness. Their mind is torn as a house
of sticks in the middle of tornadoes. And I looked up the meaning of
this word tempest in verse 20 here where it says, no small
tempest lay on us. One of the meanings is furious,
agitation, commotion, or 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 spoke peace to your heart? I know it was
with me. I came to the point of absolute,
utter despair, where all hope that I had of salvation was taken
away. I recall how I finally came to
the place of giving up all hope, and that was in about 1980, when
Don, just shortly before Don came to be our pastor. And I
sat under his ministry for four long years, hoping to hear a
word of encouragement, hoping that the Lord would be merciful
and save me. But all I heard only reinforced
my feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. 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 when
I was about eight years old, and later forsook everything
that I professed to believe. But I finally, after several
years of wandering, came to the point where maybe some of you
have come to, that I felt like I needed to get back in church,
and as modern religion says, get right with God. So I got
back into church, and in October of 1974, Debbie, my wife, and
I moved to Kentucky and began attending at Grace Baptist. And
that's when my trouble began. But that's also when my deliverance
began. 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 young. So once
saved, always saved, everything was all right. But as time went
by, I came to realize that I knew nothing about the God that Don
was preaching. And he was certainly not the
God of whom I had heard my entire young life growing up in a Baptist
church. And I became, as the men we read
of here in our text, void of any hope. I was as Job who said
in Job 7 verse 6, my days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle
and are spent without hope. Like that woman with the issue
of blood who had spent all that she had and was none the better,
so we are before we come to Christ. We aren't told how much wealth
she began with. before her health issue manifested
itself. She may have been as poor as
that poor widow of whom Christ speaks in Mark 12. It says, and
Jesus sat over against 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, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he
called his disciples unto him, and saith to them, Verily I say
to you, this poor widow hath cast in more than all they which
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. Or who knows, this lady may have
been as rich as the Queen of Sheba, but it doesn't matter
what she started with. By the time she came to Christ,
she had reached a point of abject poverty. She had spent all. And
we know that that is the same way that a broken and broken
sinners come to Christ. We know that we have nothing
left to offer. All hope is gone except the hope
that maybe, just maybe, Christ might be merciful. and were told
that she had suffered many things of many physicians, and was nothing
the better, but rather grew worse. And is that not the perfect picture
of the awakened sinner? They run from preacher to preacher,
from church to church, hoping that someone can help their desperate
condition. and tell them how to ease this
torment of their conscience and mind. But those preachers, so
many today, are much like the scribes and Pharisees that Christ
condemned in Matthew 23, 15 when he said, 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 yourselves. These proselytes of false preachers
are now, as this poor woman with the issue of blood, worse than
before. The desperate lost sinner finds
no healing of his soul even after spending all hope that he ever
had. But all hope is taken away and
the desperate sinner grows nothing better but as his poor woman
only grows worse. Christ was the last hope of this
woman who had this issue of blood and she wasn't even sure that
he would heal her. But she came believing because
she had no other hope. She had nowhere else to go. And
she believed that if she could but touch the hem of his garment,
she would be made whole. We notice in our text that she
didn't ask the Lord to heal her. She just simply tried to get
near him and touch his garments. She was healed by faith, believing
that this one whom she had heard about, who had healed so many
others, was able to heal her also. Christ told her as much
in verse 34 of Mark 5, when he says, thy 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 our condition.
to the Ephesians in chapter 1 verse 12, a text that we're all so
familiar with. That at that time, ye were without Christ. You can
be in no worse place. 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 the man in that ship who we
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 Mark chapter five, who had all hope taken away.
The first is a demoniac of Gadara. The other besides this woman
is Jairus, who we are told was a ruler of the synagogue and
whose little daughter lay at the point of death All three
of these had no hope other than the hope that they believed that
was to be found in this man called Jesus. And 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, the healing of this woman, encouraged him mightily to believe
that this one whom they called Jesus was indeed able to heal
his little daughter. But as soon as Christ had spoken
peace to this woman, there came one from the house of Jairus
and said, thy daughter is dead. Why troublest thou the master
any further? And instantly his hope was all
taken away. And I'm sure he must have thought,
I didn't come to the master soon enough. Now my little daughter
is dead. But the Lord didn't leave him
there in his despair for long, rather told him, be not afraid,
only believe. And when our Lord arrived at
the house of Jairus, he was met with scorn from those assembled
there, because he told them this little girl was not dead, but
asleep. In the same way, the world will
tell the seeking sinner, you're too far gone. You committed sins
that are beyond forgiveness. There's just 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. John was spoken to by Christ
in Revelation 117 where he tells John, fear not, just as he told
Jairus, be not afraid. And he tells John in the very
next verse why he should not be afraid. 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, Jairus, Damsel, I say unto thee,
arise. And immediately it says, she
arose and walked. Now it would seem, from our way
of thinking, that someone should have told this little girl, you
were just dead. Maybe you should take it easy
for a minute. But when the Lord heals, there is no need to take
it easy. There's no need for physical therapy, because the
healing is so complete. that the one restored is better
than they were before the sickness or their death. And notice the
tenderness of our Lord in verse 43 of that text. He commanded
that something should be given her to eat because she had laid
for who knows how many days before our Lord came to heal her and
raise her from the dead. And our blessed Savior knew now
that she was completely healed, that she would be hungry. Like
blind Bartimaeus, had no hope left. We had heard how Christ
restored, or he had heard, I should say, blind Bartimaeus, how Christ
had restored the sight to other blind men. So he had hoped that
Christ would 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, thou 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 your
part, and we'll get my sight. Bartimaeus had been brought to
the place of no hope, no hope of ever receiving his sight.
But in the last desperate effort, he cries out to the one whom
he had heard could do for him that which he needed done, the
restoration of his sight. But he was an embarrassment to
those around him. They tried to quiet him down because we're
told that they told him, in so many words, to be quiet. But
it says, he cried the more, a great deal. And that is just often
what happens when God begins to awaken a lost sinner. They
tell him, you're carrying this thing of, I must have Christ.
You're carrying it too far. You're embarrassing us in front
of our friends. But the lost sinner, after all
his hope has been taken away, will not be dissuaded. He will
get to Christ if it's the last thing he ever does because he
knows that that is the only place where there is any hope of redemption. He's like the character Christian
in John Bunyan's work, The Pilgrim's Progress. I don't know how many
of you have read that book. At one time, it was the most
read book in the world, aside from the Bible. Unfortunately,
nowadays it's been lost to most folks. But there's a character
in that book named Christian. And once he's shown his lost
condition, he 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
remind him of all that he's leaving behind, but he responds by explaining
to them 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 as
friends return to their dead religion, and Christian presses
on. And in that same story, Bunyan
compares Christian struggle with sin and despair. He calls it
a slow of despond. This word slow, s-l-o-u-g-h,
is a word that is not used much anymore. It means a place of
deep mud or mire. And if you've ever been stuck
in deep mud, you know that it is extremely hard to make any
forward progress. And if you have to travel for
any distance, you eventually exhaust all your energy and simply
cannot go on. You fall into a state of despondency
and despair 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 is finally so weakened spiritually
by the struggle that he comes to a place of utter despair,
a place of no hope. He thinks to himself, I'm going
to die here in this mud. I've spent all my energy, but
have made no progress toward this thing of salvation. There
is no hope left of me ever being saved. And Bunyan, in his work,
makes one more analogy that I love. He describes this character,
Christian, as having a huge weight on his back that represents the
weight of sin and guilt that a lost sinner carries. But when
he finally comes to Calvary, he looks up and sees the Redeemer.
and his 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 described
in the book of Lamentations. Turn there with me. Lamentations
chapter 3. Lamentations chapter 3. This has been described as a description of how our Lord
felt when He was deserted of His Father, when He was forsaken
because of our sin being laid on Him. And that probably is
a very true description, but I think it fits perfectly with
what I've been talking about, the state of a sinner who's been
awakened to his lost and undone condition and has no further
hope of salvation. Lamentations 3 verse 1, 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 builded 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 had me about that I cannot
get out. He hath made my chain heavy.
And 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 as 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 now hath removed my soul far off from peace. I forget
prosperity. And I said my strength and my
hope is perished from the Lord. Remembering mine affliction and
my misery, the wormwood and the gall, my soul hath them still
in remembrance and is humbled in me." But so many lost folks
today are a lot like Daniel Boone. And I'm sure you're wondering
what I mean by that. Let me explain. Someone once asked Boone if he
had ever been lost. And of course, being the seasoned
frontiersman that he was, he was not about to admit he had
ever been lost. And I've read several accounts
of his reply, but it went 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 that so many lost folks are like Daniel Boone. They are simply
too proud to admit they're lost. And 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 have come to seek and save that which was confused. He said, I came to seek and save
that which was lost. That's the only way you qualify.
And you can be sure of one more thing. If you've never been dead,
it's a sure thing that you've never been made alive. Now, how
can I be so sure of that statement? Because of the fact that I read
in 1 Samuel 2, 6, the Lord killeth and maketh alive in exactly that
order. It couldn't be stated any clearer.
Ephesians tells us, and you hath he quickened, who were dead in
sins and trespasses. The awakened sinner, without
any hope, has the same attitude as our Lord's disciples, who
we read of in the Gospel of John, chapter 6, 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 eternal life. Peter said, Lord, we have come
to the place where we have no hope in any other. You have 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, and the true vine. Like most folks who came to Christ
for physical healing when he walked the earth, we also have
no place left to go and no one else to go to for the salvation
of our doomed souls. Like men and women, lost men
and women, I should say, are like the Gadarian demoniac who
was living in the tombs, it tells us, completely without any hope
of healing or deliverance, day and night crying and cutting
himself with stones. But one day help arrived. He
didn't go looking for that help. The help came to him in the form
of the man Christ Jesus. And after our Lord had healed
him, he commanded him to go home to thy friends. Tell them how
great things the Lord had done for thee and hath had compassion
on thee. And this is what our Lord commands
all of us to do after he gives us life. We are to tell others
who have no hope that there is indeed hope to be found, and
that hope is found in the person and the finished work of Christ.
We see Israel in this position of all hope being taken away
when they faced Goliath, having no hope of defeating him. We
are given a description of this giant of a man in 1 Samuel 17,
and of him calling out Israel, telling Israel to send a man
out to fight with him. And if Israel won, the Philistines
would become the servants of Israel. But if Goliath won, then
Israel would become the servants of the Philistines. And in verse
11 of that text, 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 on how to deal with something. No hope of making
anything better. Once they saw this giant in person,
any and all hope they had of defeating this enemy was taken
away, and that's the way it is when a lost sinner sees the magnitude
of his sin against God. He has no hope whatsoever of
defeating this enemy of men's souls, this enemy called sin. But help and restoration of Israel's
hope was to come from an unlikely source, because along comes David. And we know how that story ends.
It ends with Goliath dead on the ground and his head in David's
hand. David certainly didn't look like
someone who could deliver Israel. And likewise, when our Lord walked
this earth, he did not look like anything special. In fact, he
looked so much like every other man of his day and so much like
his disciples that when Judas betrayed him that night and led
those that came to take him, he had to betray him with a kiss
because he could not describe him as being any different from
the man that he was with that night. Now another instance of
all hope being taken away is found in the account of Israel
coming to the Red Sea with the armies of Pharaoh behind him
and the sea in front. 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 see the Lord's salvation, by standing
still, by ceasing to try and establish our own righteousness.
We come to the point where we know that there's nothing more
that we can do than Israel had anything in their power to do
when faced with the Red Sea. And our sin is the same insurmountable
obstacle impossible to be overcome by anything that we do. And all in any hope that we have
for our lost children, we find in Christ. Like those that came
to the Lord when he walked this earth and asked for healing of
their children, we do not find a single time when mercy was
not given. And so that is our hope, that
the Lord will be merciful to our lost children and grandchildren. But how can we be sure that this
one called Christ Jesus will save all those who come to him
for healing the soul? Because of what we find in John
chapter six. Turn there with me, please. John
chapter six. How can we be so sure and so
confident of this one called Christ of saving us when we come
to him? John 6, 37, familiar verses. John 6, 37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to 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 he goes on to tell us what that is. 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 everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day." Now, James tells us that one single offense of the
law makes you guilty of the entire law. And in the same way, If Christ
fails to save even one of his elect that his father gave him
before the foundation of the world, then he is guilty of not
saving any if he misses just one. But we know that that will
not happen because he promises to save all that the father gave
him. But if he were to miss just one,
he would be deemed a complete failure. But that will never
happen, because he tells us of all that was given him, he should
lose nothing. As Judas said to his father Israel,
when Joseph was holding his young brother captive, so our Lord
says to his father, I will be surety for him. If I bring him
not unto thee and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame
forever. 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 just a few in random
order. You don't need to turn there, I'll just read them. Lamentations
321 that followed the verses we just read says, 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,
seven. 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, Let thy mercy,
O Lord, be upon us according as we hope in thee. And one of my favorites, Psalm
130, verse 7, says, Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the
Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And this is our only consolation.
We have reached our wits end concerning any hope of salvation. We begin to see small rays of
light from hearing how God is merciful and how he delights
in mercy and how he uses the finished work of Christ to redeem
lost sinners. And that hope that had all been
taken away begins to be restored. And through his preached word
and his written word, we finally 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 chapter 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 because he delighteth in mercy. That's our only hope. He delighteth
in mercy. If we can put it in human terms,
showing mercy makes God happy. His first says, He will turn
again. He will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities
and I will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Isaiah
55, seven tells us, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous
man, his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord. And he
will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. In Psalm 103, one of my favorite
psalms, the first four verses read, Bless the Lord, O my soul,
in all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. who forgiveth all
thy transgressions and iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases,
who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving
kindness and tender mercies. Once the Lord has given us life
and faith, we're now filled with hope. We still feel the bite
of sin, as we're told how in chapter 28 of Acts, how Paul
was bitten by that serpent, but shook it off, it had no deadly
effect. And so it is with sin in the believer's life. Those
of us, or those around us see sin in its bite and they expect
our testimony to fall, but we shake off that sin and by God's
grace continue serving Christ. So let me close with this, lost
sinner, I can only hope two things for
you. First, that our Lord will bring
you to the point of intense desperation and despair. To the place where you know that
you are as for sure of hell as if you are already there. And the second thing I can hope
for you is that after you've dwelt in that place for a while,
in that 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 man, Christ Jesus,
this one who forgiveth all thine iniquities and who hath redeemed
thy life from destruction. And saved sinner, I would encourage
you to continue to rest in the hope that you have in Christ
and his finished work and his intercession on your behalf.
Continue to rejoice in the fact that you were taken from that
place of all hope being taken away, and put in that place of
having a good hope in Christ. And the reason that it is such
a good hope is that he cannot fail. His promises stand sure,
and he promises throughout his word, which you hold in your
hand, to do you good eternally. I would encourage you to rest
in him. I hope the Lord will bless that
to your heart. Again, I appreciate the opportunity to preach the
gospel of God's good grace to you.