Morning, everybody. Turn over
to Acts chapter 27. Acts chapter 27. This chapter gives
the account of Paul's sea voyage to Rome. And I'll open just by
giving you kind of the back story on this so everybody knows what
we're looking at. you look back a few chapters
the Pharisees had falsely accused Paul. And what they did was they
went to the local authorities and they just made up some accusations.
And what they were mad at him about he was preaching Christ,
he was preaching the Gospel, that's why they were upset. And so they
brought Paul before the lower Roman rulers and so he goes in
front of Festus and he goes in front of King Agrippa. And they
listened to him, they listened to these people with their accusations
and they let Paul speak for himself and they come to this conclusion
like this guy hasn't done anything wrong. And they were minded just
let him go that was their idea, but Paul says this he's like
no no he goes I'm a Roman citizen He's like and I have a right
here. I have a right to be judged by Caesar himself and So they
granted what he wants. I said you want to be judged
by Caesar You want to go Rome? Okay. And even Agrippus says
at the end, he goes, this guy might have lived. He might have
just walked free had he not appealed to Caesar. Because Caesar at
the time, as I understand it, is Nero. And familiar with him,
he was a very wicked and mean and angry kind of guy. He was
a tough customer. Nobody who appeared before him walked away
unscathed. So Paul is entrusted to a Roman
centurion, and his name is Julius. And Julius proves to be, humanly
speaking, a pretty decent guy. He trusts Paul. He treats Paul
well. and they sail from port to port and so finally they come
to this port called Licia. La Silla it's becoming the winter
months. So, it's right at the cusp of fall, it's going into
winter. And so, Julius has a decision to make. He's like do we stay
here and do we ride out the winter here in La Silla, or do we find
a more commodest port? That's what the Scripture says.
And you can tell from what the Scripture says he wants to go
somewhere else. He doesn't want to stay in La Silla. And so,
Paul goes to him and he says, Julius don't go anywhere. He
goes we need to stay right here. He's like if we leave, if we
leave this port I perceive there is going to be grave danger.
And It's going to cost with the ship, our lives. It's going to
be very dangerous. He says, don't leave. And then Julius goes and
he talks to the boat captain and the owner of the ship. And
they say, no, it's great. We should leave. We need to go.
We'll find a better port, someplace warmer, someplace with more supplies. And so Julius chooses to believe
the boat captain and the owner of the boat over Paul. Now think
about what he's doing there. He has a preconceived notion.
has something he wants to believe. And then he just finds someone
who agrees with him, and he follows their advice. He says, yes, I'm
going to believe you. So, he listens to the boat captain, and to the
owner of the boat over Paul. And so, they set to sea. They
leave Lycia, and then they get caught in this terrible storm.
And it even has a name, in verse 14 it calls it Uroclidan. And
as I understand it this means an east wind. So, this terrible
wind that comes out of the east, and when you are caught in this
storm there is nothing you can do. just grabs you, the waves are hitting
you, and you're just at the mercy of the wind and the waves. And
it's interesting what they do immediately, what their natural
instinct is. Look at verse 14, "'But not long
after that 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 the tempest, the next day they lighten the ship. And the
third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the
ship." Now, they're caught in this great storm. They're in
a helpless and hopeless state. And what is their natural instinct?
We've got to help the ship out. We have to reinforce the ship.
We need to steer the ship. We need to do everything we possibly
can. We have to repair the ship. We've got to help the ship out.
It's false religion. It's salvation by works. Now,
here's a piece of information that will be helpful as we go
through this. This ship is Christ. The hero of this story is not
Paul. The hero is the ship. That's
who's gonna lead everybody and bring everybody to safety. But
the whole time, their natural instinct, we gotta help the ship
out, we've gotta undergird the ship, we have to toss out things
that are unnecessary, just speaks of man's religion. What's the
natural instinct of man? Gotta help God out. There's something
I need to do to make the work of God available to me. That's
salvation by works. No man can be saved that way.
Now, in this story, we're gonna look at the back half. see the
Gospel very clearly here, but if you had to hone in on one
aspect of Gospel truth it pictures. It is a beautiful picture of
true saving faith, what that looks like, and the elements
of that. So, look here, pick up in verse 20, "'And when neither
sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us,
all hope was that we should be saved was then taken away. Now, what have they tried? They're
caught in this great storm. They've tried underdirting the
ship. They've tried helping. They've done everything they
could possibly do. And where are they left? In a
helpless and hopeless state. We have no hope that we will
be saved. Now, in human terms, this is
a miserable place to be. show me a man who is hopeless
and helpless and I will show you a miserable individual. But
in a spiritual sense, this is the best possible place a man
can be. And this is exactly where the
Lord brings His people before He plants that seed of saving
faith. Now, A lot of you have been out
to our house. So we live in the country, got
a lot of farms around our place. And to the right of us, there's
a field that they grow crops in. Everything else is pretty
much cattle farms. And I watch them prepare that field. And
what they do first, before anything else, is they plow that field.
So they go out there, and with meticulous care, They have a
plan. They have a purpose. They plow
through all that dirt, big clods of dirt. They dig up all the
rocks. They prepare the field by tearing that field to shreds.
And once it's properly prepared, it's all torn up. All those big
dirt clods are plowed through. All the field is completely tore
up. That's the hard part. They spend the majority of their
time doing that. And after that, that's when they plant the seed.
once the ground is prepared. And it's the same thing with
how the Lord deals with His people. I'm going to read you this. This
is the Lord's instructions to the prophet Jeremiah. It said,
See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the
kingdoms, listen to these things, to root out, to pull down, to
destroy, to throw down, to build, and to plant. Out of those list,
how many of those things dealt with destruction, tearing down
something? Four, out of that list, how many dealt with building
something up or planning? Two, what's the harder part? It's the tearing down. Why do
we have to be torn down? Pride, a need to glorify self,
spiritual self-confidence, because we're all born thinking the same
thing, there's something I can do to please God. Lord has to
take all that away. He has to destroy all those false
refuges and bring us to the same place these sailors are in right
here in a helpless and hopeless state where you say, nothing
else then there is no hope for me. If salvation is based on
what I do, if I've got to help the ship out in any way I will
not be saved. Now, Paul gets to the heart of
the problem look at verse 21, But after long abstinence, Paul
stood forth in the midst of them and said, Sirs, you should have
hearkened unto me and not have loosed from Crete, and to have
gained this harm and loss." Now, Paul's pointing out two things
here to them. He's saying the reason we're in the middle of
this mess, we're in the midst of this great storm, everybody's
afraid they're going to die, is this, because of unbelief.
I told you at the beginning of this, don't lose from Lucia.
Don't leave. We will be in grave danger. And
you chose to believe a lie. You know what that makes this?
It makes this all your fault. And it's the same thing for man.
You know what the key, the beginning of our sin problem is? It's unbelief. It all began back in the garden.
The Lord looked at Eve, Adam and Eve, and said, you can eat
of all the trees, of all the fruit of all the trees in this
garden, except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. And then Satan
came along, and he says, you won't die. God's lying. What
He's hiding from you is if you eat that fruit you'll know right
from wrong. You'll have the knowledge of
good and evil. And what you'll be able to do, you'll be able
to make the appropriate decision. You'll be able to choose good
over evil. You know what that means? That means there's going
to be some glory for you in all this. Right? You'll have independence. God's lying to you. This is not
a bad thing, this is a good thing. Now they had the Word of God
directly spoken to them. This was the promise, don't eat
of the tree, day you eat thereof you shall surely die." They chose
to believe a lie. They chose to believe Satan.
And so they died spiritually and they passed down that fallen
evil nature to each and every one of us. But understand their
role. What is Adam's role in all this? He's a figurehead. He's the first man. He's a representative.
But folks that's all he is. We were all in Adam. And that
means it was us, it was me and you who did not believe God.
was us who disobeyed God. You know what makes my sin problem?
It makes it all my fault, just like these guys in the boat.
Now, they've been brought to this
helpless and hopeless state. They're aware now that the problem is
unbelief, and that the unbelief is all their fault. And you know
what that means? It means they're ready to hear
the Gospel. Look at verse 22. Paul says, "'And now I exhort
you, to be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any
man's life among you, but of the ship." Now, that is the gospel
all in one verse. Everybody who is in the ship
is gonna be safe, but the ship has to be destroyed. exactly
the same thing that happened in the Covenant of Grace between
the Father and Son before the world began. Everybody in Christ,
I'm giving you a people and everybody in you, everyone you live for,
everybody you die for, everyone you are resurrected because of,
they're going to live. But you know what? You have to
die. The ship has to be destroyed. You know how many people were
in this ship? Look over verse 37, And we were in all, in the ship,
200, three score, and 16 souls. You know how many that is? That's
276. What's the significance there?
How many people were in the ship? An exact number. 276 people entered that ship. 276 people weathered the storm
because of the ship. And at the end of this story,
exactly 276 people are going to be brought safe to land all
because of the ship. How many people on Christ? An
exact number. There's an exact number that God loves. There's
an exact number He chose in divine election. There's an exact number
He gave to Christ. And Christ is the ship for those
people. He is their protection. The ship
had to die, but everybody in Christ is going to arrive at
heaven's coast, safe and sound, without a scratch on them. The
big question is this. How can I know if I'm in the
ship or not? I'm going to give you a scripture here. John 640 says this. 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'll raise Him up again at the last day. Everyone who seeth
the Son. When I read that, I thought of
this, the Pharisees, or the Lord asked the Pharisees a very pointed
question. He asked this, what think ye of Christ? whose son
is he? I'm going to tell you who I think
he is. I jotted some things down here and I'm going to share these
with you. I think he's the son of God, the actual son of God. And you know who that makes him?
That makes him equal with God. That makes him God himself. That's who Jesus Christ is. He
is God. He has every attribute of God
because Him and the Father, they are one. They are the exact same
person. I think He created all this,
and I think He holds this creation in His sovereign hand, and day
in, day out, He is just doing exactly what He has purposed
to do with it. Nothing more and nothing less,
and everything that is happening is to the tune of His glory and
for the very good of His people. I think He holds the hearts of
the kings of this earth in His hand. And just like the rivers
of water, he turns them any which way he wants. The big shots,
the leaders of countries, the leaders of corporations, the
people in this world who are feared, you know who holds their
heart in the palm of his hand? He does. And they simply do his
will, nothing more and nothing less, day in, day out. I think he forms light and creates
darkness. I think he makes peace, and don't
miss this, creates evil Everything is according to his purpose.
And when I say everything I mean everything I Think he's holy and righteous
doing no sin and knowing no sin. I think he loves his people I
think he loved them so much that he was willing to sacrifice himself
for them. I Think he's approachable. I
think a sinner can come to him and he will not be turned away.
I Think he's long-suffering and forbearing Even past conversion,
what do we do? We sin against him, and we sin
against him, and we sin against him. And there's mercy for yesterday,
there's mercy for today, and there's gonna be mercy for every
day after this. I think he cannot fail, that
it is impossible for him to purpose to do something and not follow
through with it and not be successful. That's who I think this man is,
Jesus Christ, and I think that because everything I just told
you comes from this book. the very Word of God. Now, that's
the first one. Do you see the Son? Do you know
Him? Do you believe on Him? That's
the second part. Paul said this, I know whom I
have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that
which I have committed unto Him against that day. What did Paul
commit to Him? Everything. Everything concerning
my salvation, I commit to Him. I've got nowhere else to go.
This thing of commitment is the hardest thing in the world. You
can never do it if you have options. If you've got options, you'll
never commit. But if you're at options, if
you're a sinner in need of mercy and your only hope is that Jesus
Christ lay down His life for you and that is your salvation,
commitment to Him is easy. It's very, very easy because
you've got no other options and you want no other options. Do you
see Him? This is what I'm talking about.
Do you trust Him? You're in the ship. You're one
of these 276. You're part of that exact number
that's going to land on heaven's shores safe and sound without
a scratch on you. Now, Paul's going to declare
why he believes the promise. Look at verse 23. Paul says, "'For there stood
by me this night angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve,
saying, Fear not, Paul. Thou must be brought before Caesar,
and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore,
sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe, God, that it shall be even as
it was told me, howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island."
Now, why did Paul believe what he believed? It's very simple,
it's because God is the one who told him it. The angel of the
Lord appeared to him, that's Christ, and he told him directly,
here's the promise, he made him a promise, you must be brought
before Caesar. You must be cast upon a certain
island. These things must be. And because
God told him, Paul believed it. promises in this book, this is
the Word of God, they're all yea and amen. Every one of them
are a must. All the elect must be saved.
Every sinner must come to Christ. All these things are a must.
Why do we believe the Gospel? do we believe that I can come
to Christ just as I am, just a worthless, filthy sinner and
I'll be received? Right now why do I have this
hope that right now Christ represents me before the Father and I'm
spotless because of His work? Why do we believe all that? Because
that's what the Word of God says and it's a must. And here's the
thing if there is one promise in this book, if one thing is
said in this book that does not come to pass you know what that
makes? That makes God a liar. and that is impossible. Numbers
23, 19, God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son
of man that he should repent, hath he said and shall he not
do it? Or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good? Everything
he promises in this book, it's must, it must come to pass because
if it didn't, that means God was a liar. He cannot lie, it
is impossible for him to violate his own character. Now, continue the story, look
at verse 27, "'But when the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven
up and down in Adria, about midnight, the shipmen deemed that they
drew near to some country, and sounded, and found it twenty
fathoms. And when they had gone a little
further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen fathoms.
Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast
four anchors out of the stern, and and wished for the day. Now I want to paint the picture
here for a second. So it's midnight, so in complete
darkness, and they had set a night watch, right? And they think
they're coming upon land, right? So they start this thing, it's
called sounding. I had to look this up, what it is. So when
these sailors think they're coming up on land, they'll take either
a long pole or an anchor of types, and they'll drop it in the water
to gauge the depth. Right? So they drop it down, they find
out, okay, there's some rocks down there, we're nearing land.
Right? And so they go, they go a little bit further, they drop
it again, they find out, okay, it's getting shallower, we're
nearing land again. All of a sudden, they're fearful. Right? There's
the rocks coming up. So they can't go forward anymore.
got the wind at their back, so they can't go anywhere else at
this point, right? They're literally stuck between
a rock and a hard place. And it says there, they wished
for the day, literally they prayed for light. Now, here's the point
in all this. True saving faith is not apathetic
in any way. They had the promise. Everybody
in the ship is going to be saved. This ship is going to bring all
276 safe and sound to the shores. And you know what they did? They
still set the night watch. They still sounded, gauging the
depth. They still prayed for light every single day. Faith
isn't apathetic in any way. Faith is actually coming to Christ.
Here's a scripture for you. 1 Peter 2, 3 and 4 says, If so
be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, to whom coming is
unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of
God, precious. Did you catch that to whom coming? Faith is perpetual. It's over
and over. The faith of yesterday doesn't
do any good. Today's faith isn't going to do me good tomorrow.
It's a continual coming. It says, if you tasted that the
Lord is gracious. Now, when you taste something
that you love, what do you want to do? You want to eat it over
and over and over again. And if you tasted that the Lord
is gracious, want to center taste that the Lord is gracious, which
means free for nothing. I'm saved and I don't have to
do anything. It's all based on what Christ does. You know what
you want to do? You just want to eat that again. And you want
to eat it again, and you eat it again. You know how you eat
it? By coming to Christ, by believing on Him. That's it. Look at verse 30, And as the shipmen were about
to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat into
the sea under color as though they would have cast anchors
out of the foreship, Paul said to the centurion, to the soldiers,
except these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. Then the
soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat. and let her fall off. So, they're about to run up against
these rocks. They're between a rock and a
hard place and some of these sailors get scared. They have
the promise, everybody in the boat is going to be saved. But
yet, they get scared and they start looking around. Now, as
long as we have this old man, this old nature, we're going
to struggle with unbelief. It's going to be here, no matter what,
until the day we die and we put this old man down. We're going
to struggle with unbelief. But here's what these guys did.
They get scared, and they lose confidence in the ship. And they
look around on the boat, and they find a little dinghy. They
find a lifeboat. And they make a decision in that
moment and said, you know what? We're going to take this little
lifeboat, and we're going to lower it down, and we're going to get
in the lifeboat. And we think we'll be safer down there in
the lifeboat than we are in the big ship. Consider what is going
on right now. This is the worst storm that
this country has ever seen, this world has ever seen. The winds,
the waves, these huge waves. And in this moment, they have
this huge ship, this ship that could be relied upon, this ship
that had brought them safe thus far. It weathered the storm perfectly
up to this point. And in that moment they decide
it's much safer, we're going to get down this little lifeboat
and we think we got a better shot of weathering the storm
in the dinghy versus the huge ship. Now someone may say that's
ridiculous, that's a silly way of thinking. It's absolutely
no more ridiculous than salvation by works. The teaching of this book is
relatively clear. Isaiah 64, 6 says, all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. There is nothing God will accept
for me and you. But if a man has true saving
faith, he's going to do exactly what these sailors did. They
saw that little dinghy, and they had the promise, everybody in
the ship's going to be safe. And they took the dinghy, and
they cut the cords on it, and they dropped it into the water,
and they watched it float off into the darkness. Now, if a
man has true saving faith, he has one direction he's looking,
and that's to Christ alone. And everything else, he cuts
ties with it, lets it fall off in the ocean, and watches it
drift off into the darkness. There are no plan Bs. There are
no safety nets. All I've got is Christ and Him
crucified alone. And everything else, it's gone.
I've got is the bare Word of God, the promise of God, and
the ship, and that's it. Now, look at verse 33, And while the day was coming
on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, This day is
the fourteenth day that you have tarried and continued fasting,
having taken nothing. Wherefore I pray you take some
meat, for this is for your health. shall not a hair fall from your
head of any of you.' And when he had thus spoken, he took bread,
and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all. And when
he had broken it, he began to eat. Then were they all of good
cheer, and they also took some meat. And we were in all, in
the ship, two hundred, three score, and sixteen souls." Now,
Think about this for a second. This huge storm is raging, right?
And you can see Paul sitting in one of the rooms of the ship,
and everyone else is losing their mind. They're terrified. The
storm's raging. And here's Paul. He's got bread
up. He's just quietly and very peacefully having a meal. What
does he look like? He looks like a man who believes
God. That's what he looks like. David makes this statement four
times in the Psalms. He starts three of the Psalms
with this statement, is this, O give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. Paul's confidence
and his peace was accompanied by this thing of thanksgiving. And David gives us two reasons
to give thanks unto the Lord. Number one, he is good. He's a good God. You know, he's
nothing like you and me. That wicked jealousy that we
experience, that envy, that malice, that anger, all those wicked
things that cross our hearts and our minds, he experiences
none of that. He knows absolutely none of that. He's good. And
He's always good to His people, His providence towards His people,
it's always good. Everything is always good for
His people. And He says this, not only is
He good, but His mercy endureth forever. And I immediately thought
of this, Revelation 13, 8 refers to Christ, the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. Now we don't think in terms of
eternity, that's not something that our minds can really wrap
its way around. But this is the truth, before
there was ever any of us born into this world, any of God's
elect, before we had committed one sin there was a Savior who
had already sacrificed Himself in the heart and mind of God
Himself. That means there has never been a time that the Father
has ever been angered with his people. There's never been a
time where he's had a contempt attitude towards us. There's
never been a time that he's had any wrath for us because Christ
has always been our lamb slain before the foundation of the
world. His mercy endureth forever. We've always been under the mercy
of God because Christ has always been our acceptable sacrifice. Now look at this, this thing
of faith. Faith must be continually nourished. And you look at what Paul is
doing on this ship. It says he broke bread. And what
I thought of immediately was the Lord's table. That's what
it looked like on that ship, him breaking and eating this
bread. During the Lord's table, he says,
you do this in remembrance of me. We take that wine. and we
drink it. We remember the shed blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ for our sins. We remember that bread,
that unleavened bread, his broken body, our offering. He says,
you do this in remembrance of me. Well, faith has to be constantly
nourished. What do we come here for? We
come here to remember. to remember, to be told one more
time that that is my offering, that's everything. His shed blood
and his broken body, that is my salvation, my all in all,
and I lack absolutely nothing because of that. And look what they did. Look
at verse 38. And when they had eaten enough, they lightened
the ship, and cast out the wheat into the sea. They ate so much,
and they were so full, they took all the other provisions and
they just threw them overboard. And you know what? If you ever see
Christ, if he ever reveals himself to you, and you're nourished
by him, you eat on him, you're gonna be so full you won't want
anything else, and you won't be able to handle anything else. Not
gonna be any room for anything else, no other places to look,
no other works. You ever taste of him, you ever
look to him, you get a glimpse of him, you'll be so full everything
else goes out the window. Now, look at 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 the mainsail to the wind. made towards shore." Now, faith
doesn't know everything, but you know what it does? It makes
for Christ. Turn over, if you would, to Luke
chapter 23. I have here is this, every man
who has true saving faith, the gift of God, what does he know?
Because faith doesn't know everything. But a man who has true saving
faith, what does everybody who had that faith know? Our Lord
was crucified between two malefactors, and in the very last moments
of His life He chose to reveal Himself to one of those men.
Let's see what that man knew. Look at verse 40, But the other answering rebuked
him, saying, Does not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condemnation? Well, that's one thing this man,
this thief on this cross who the Lord just had revealed Himself
to knew. He knew he was under the condemnation
of God. He knew that he was a guilty man before God. Look at verse
41, And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of
our deeds, this man hath done nothing amiss." You know what
he's saying? He's saying, what we're suffering right now, our
dying, our being crucified, we're just getting exactly what we
deserve. That's what we're getting. We're guilty, and we're being
punished accordingly. And if God sends us to Hell after
this, we're just going to be getting exactly what we deserve. He knew he was a guilty man,
and he knew his sin was all his fault. else. He's not blaming
the sovereignty of God. He's not blaming anybody else.
My sin is all my fault. But he knew this about Christ.
He said, this man, this one I'm hanging next to here, he hasn't
done anything wrong. This is the spotless Lamb. Look
here at verse 42, And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me
when thou comest into thy kingdom. He knew exactly who was hanging
next to Him. Lord, this is the King. This is God Himself. This is the absolute Sovereign.
This is the one I've offended against. I'm a guilty man, but
my sin is against Him right here, this one hanging next to me.
But here's the thing, all He has to do is will it. remember me." And I don't understand
all the mechanics of how this is going to work. I don't understand
how everything works in His world, but I know this, all He has to
do is will my salvation. Just remember me when you come
into your kingdom, because you're the King. Nothing is too hard
for you. And you know what? I'll be saved. That's what He
knew. He knew he was a guilty man before
God. He knew his sin was all his fault, but he knew this God
man, Jesus Christ, if He remembers me, I'll be saved. That's it. You know that? Everybody who
has this true saving faith, they know that. That's the knowledge
they have. It doesn't know everything, but
you know what faith does? It makes for Christ, just like they did in
this book. Now look at verse 41 of your
text. and falling into a place where
two seas met. They ran the ship aground, and
the forepart stuck fast and remained unmovable, but the hinder part
was broken with the violence of the waves. Now, imagine here,
they're making towards shore this place where two seas met,
and the front part of that ship, it sticks in the ground right
there. And then the back part explodes, just absolutely demolished,
just like Paul said it would. Everybody in the ship's going
to be safe. But the ship had to go down. Christ had to die.
this though, this is Psalm 85, 9 and 10. It says, "'Surely His
salvation is nigh them that fear Him, that glory may dwell in
our land. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other.'" On the cross you know what happened? It's
a place where two seas met. It's where the mercy of God and
where the justice of God met. Now what's this all about this
thing of mercy and truth and righteousness and peace? Well
here's the truth about me. with every breath I've taken
I have sinned and offended against God. That's the truth about me. Now, how can God honor His perfect
sense of righteousness, His perfect sense of justice, and act in
truth and still show me mercy and be at peace with me? How
is that possible? The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that's where it's possible. Now, I want you to think about
this, and I think I said this a couple of messages ago, but
I'm going to say it again. Let's say we take a man, and
he's committed a crime. And we bring him before the court
system, and we present the evidence, and they say he's guilty. Right?
Evidence points to it, caught red-handed, he's guilty. And
we punish that man to the full extent of the law. You know what
happens? Justice happens. But if we punish
him accordingly to where justice is completely and utterly served,
there is absolutely no room for mercy. thing is true. We can bring Him in. He's guilty.
We have all the evidence right here. But we are going to show
Him mercy. We are just going to let Him go free. Mercy is
done, but there is absolutely no justice in that. And any combination
of the two, maybe we'll just punish Him a little bit and show
Him a little bit of mercy. That means both things are offended.
There is no real mercy, and there is no real justice in that. In
this world justice and mercy are two things that cannot exist
in the same plane. It's only with God. at the cross
that's exactly what happened. On behalf of all God's people
the Lord Jesus Christ being made our sins, suffered under the
wrath of God, and through His death He completely and utterly
satisfied the justice of God opening the door now that the
Father can be gracious and be merciful to His people at no
expense to His perfect righteousness, His perfect standard of holiness,
and justice, and perfection. That's what happened on the cross.
Two seas that can't meet anywhere else. With men it is impossible. They met on the cross. Now, look where the story ends. Look at 42. And the soldier's 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, uncommanded 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. thing of some of them being able
to swim to the shore, and others having to cling on to pieces
of the ship to be drift onto the shore. What's that all about?
What's that talking about? Faith is given a measure. It's
the gift of God. The Lord gives each one of His
people a measure of faith. And some are given good strong
faith. Other men they have weak faith. It's not the strength
of the faith that saves you, it's the ship. The question here
is this, in this example, in this illustration, who is who?
Because it would be easy and kind of lazy just to look at
it and say, well, the guys who could swim, they're the people of strong
faith. And these guys who had to hold on to boards, you know,
they're the people of weak faith. Maybe that could be the case.
I know this. I hope the day I die that I'm
going to go down clinging to the ship, just like these guys
who are holding on to those broken pieces of ship did. not kicking,
not paddling, not relying on my own strength in any way, shape,
or form, literally clinging to that piece of the ship, trusting
it to drag me all the way to shore, safe and sound. Now, who's
who in that illustration? I don't know. But that's what
my hope is. And when I go out, I go out just clinging to that
broken piece of the ship all the way to the end. But this
is the point. It's not the strength of the
faith that saves. All these men ended up safe and
sound, all 276, because of the strength of the ship. The ship
was capable. The ship could not fail. I'm going to leave you there.