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Bro. Otis Fisher
The lesson for today is Acts chapter 27, where we are coming to the close of Acts and the life of Paul, although he has written many other books. First one, and when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius, a centurion of Augustus' band.
We have here one named Julius. He was a very civil person. He suffered Paul to receive friends. Thus God raises up his people's friends in the midst of their suffering. And when the persecutors send their saints to prison, he will provide keepers for their turn.
Julius, a heathen soldier, was kinder to him than his own Jewish brethren. We find that's true. And entering into a ship of Edramotes, we landed, meaning to sail, by the coast of Asia. One Aristarchus of Macedonia says, I'm not going to be in with us.
And the next day we touched at Sidon, and Julius courteously entreated Paul and gave him liberty to go unto his friends to refresh himself. Now this is a Roman soldier. He is responsible for all of the prisoners.
If one escapes, he forfeits his life. Yet he let Paul go ashore. So we find that when a man's ways pleases the Lord, he can make not only his enemies, but strangers and even heathen, not merely to be at peace with him, but to aid and assist him.
We find in Proverbs 16 .7, when a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. And when we had launched from Thames, we sailed under Cyprus, because the winds were contrary.
What's that mean, Dennis? Why didn't they start the outboard motor? And when we had sailed over the Sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia. And there the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing unto Italy, and he put us therein.
Now, we're going to touch a lot of islands. I can't pronounce them right, I know. And when we had sailed slowly many days, and scarce were come over against Sidus, the wind not suffering us, we sailed under Crete, over against Sinoma, and hardly passing, it came unto a place which is called the Fair Havens, nigh whereunto was the city of Assia.
It says here, the wind not suffering us, we know what that means, and hardly passing it came unto a place which is called the Fair Havens. So, we're just tracing his voyage to Rome. Now, much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already passed, Paul admonished them.
What fast is he talking about? Sailing was dangerous, and Paul admonished them. David, what does admonish mean? This is a prisoner, can you imagine? And the sailing is dangerous. God's providence does not take away the causes which God uses as means.
We're concerned too many times with causes and effects, but rather orders and disposes their right use, even when he reveals an extraordinary issue. The fast was in October, I think, and it's not good for navigating.
They all know that. Thus established in the time of year when they were traveling. It was in the wintertime. Paul exhorted and admonished them, or tried to persuade them. He was somewhat knowledgeable of navigation of that sea.
Endeavored to persuade them not to risk the danger of sailing at that season of the year. Did they listen to him, Greg? He said unto them, Sirs, I perceive this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading of the ship, but also of our lives.
Now, weather forecast. It's like anybody else. With a little bit of knowledge, he applies it. And nevertheless, the centurion believed the master and owner of the ship more than those things which were spoken by Paul.
We find that men catch themselves willingly into an infinite amount of dangers. Have you ever done that? We all have at some time in our life. When they chose to follow their own wisdom instead of God's.
When he speaks by the mouth of his servants. And because the haven was not commodious to winter in, the moor part advised to depart thence also, if by any means they might attain to Phoenician, or Phoenus.
And there to winter, which is a haven of Crete and Lyeth toward the southwest and northwest. Now, Greg, what do we mean because the haven was not commodious? All right. And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, loosening fence, they sailed close by Crete.
When the circumstances appear to be correct, we must beware. For it is then that we are the most vulnerable. When you think everything is going just right, beware. Remember, God waits till the last moment.
But not long after there arose against it a tempest wind called, somebody pronounce that. It's a southeast wind, and it raised mighty, mighty waves. And when the ship was caught and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive.
David, what's that mean? I think it means they turned and went with the wind.
Suffered the ship to be borne along by the wind, without attempting to control it.
Now, this is a little historical option. I'm hearing about the ancient mirrors of the Mediterranean. It sounded like they were aware of it. That's right. All the ships before them were floating.
That's right. And running under a certain island, which is called Cloday, we had much work to come by the boat. Now, this does not mean that they attempted here to land in the boat, but they had difficulty in saving the small boat attached to the ship.
They had difficulty to keep it from being broken to pieces. Verge, what is this small boat? It's a small boat that they used for anything. It would have a very low draft. But the big ship, big in their time, had a deep draft and could not get but so close.
Which, when they had taken up, they used helps undergirding the ship and fearing lest they should fall into the quicksand, struck sail, and so were driven. Now, we come to another nautical term. Greg, what is this undergirding?
You noticed he said, if I remember right, he was there. You're right. They bound the ship in boats and the ropes or steel cable or whatever they had. I doubt they had steel cable. I don't know just what the undergirding involved, but it could have involved weights.
We are undergirded by the presence of the Holy Ghost. You see the connection? To keep us from flying apart, children. 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. So they're getting rid of all furniture, all tackle, all the tackling, everything that's loose, they're throwing it overboard.
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. Now, what are you going to do? Here's Paul. He's been promised to go to Rome, and he is evidently facing a shipwreck.
Neither sun or stars. Why didn't they rely on the compass, David? Didn't have one. Hadn't been invented. When sailors could not see the stars or the land, they didn't know where they were. That would be an awful experience for me anyhow, not to be able to see.
God in his providence often shows men that they are dependent on him. That all of their efforts to deliver themselves are utterly insufficient. Insufficient, for no matter what they did, it did not get them out of the situation.
That he must save them or they would perish. And that's the ultimate truth here. What an encouragement it is to us to enter upon and be faithful in the service of God. When he causes his holy angels upon all occasions to serve us.
When visible dangers are before us, God has invisible servants round about us. Both to preserve and secure. The wicked are not so from physical destruction. They're delivered, or for the sake of godly who live among them, they're delivered.
But it is not for their sake. We honor God exceedingly when we depend upon his promise. That's what Paul is doing. Rely upon his power. Believe his word. Though what he says may seem very improbable and unlikely to come to pass, I still believe.
I wonder, have any of us been in a situation, you don't need to raise your hands, been in a situation that is absolutely hopeless and we had to depend upon God? Twenty-one. But after long absence of eating, for the violence of the storm, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, I told you so.
You should have hearkened unto me and not have loosed from Crete and to have gained this harm and loss. Isn't it strange that they have gained a loss? How do you explain that, Burge?
I don't know. What are you asking me, I guess?
Well, he said, and have not loosed from Crete and to have gained this harm and loss. David, give me your explanation.
Look, that really was gaining the benefit of the people who were on the floor because even when you have harm and loss, you gain from it. What do you think, Dennis? I think that man of God, as some of us probably did, prayerfully got the shipwreck going.
What he set out to do, he did it strong and he's doing it strong.
Greg, can you find in this an allegory to us today?
All right, give it to us. I'd like to see where you would do it either way. You do it the hard way, you gain something good. You do it your own way while you're looking for good and loss and harm.
There shall be no loss of any man's life among you but of the ship. Now, David, do you suppose that they listened to Paul this time? They have listened. Absolutely. For there stood by me this night the 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 of them that sail with thee.
Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God. What a statement that is. That it shall be even as it was told to me. Howbeit, we must be cast upon a certain island. 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.
What's taking place here, Joey? They're getting closer to the land.
How long have they been in the storm, Greg? All right. How do you suppose, Dennis, that they knew they were close to some land someplace? Yes. But before they took that gauge, they felt like they were close.
Why?
We're not told why. They said that the sound of the waves was different. All right.
Something changed, and I'm sure it was the sound. But remember, the wind was blowing. Then, fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day.
Have you ever been in a situation where you thought daylight would never come? It's an awful, awful feeling. I can't describe it, but you're all alone. 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, now the anchors were just in the back of the ship.
Now they're saying they're too poor to put anchors out in front. But one word, and that's color. But under color, what did he mean, Greg?
David? It means under the color of darkness. Dennis? Anybody. Make it appear what? Whatever the color of the anchors.
Well, the color here means that they pretended. They pretended to go and put out anchors. You'll never run across that term to explain it. It's not like you would color red, purple, black, or whatever.
But they were pretending that this is what we're going to do. Yes, they were. You understand? In my feeble way of explaining, no matter how foul they act, distrust and evil consequences can always compel men to commit it.
They pretended that it was necessary to get into the boat and carry the anchors ahead of the ship not so as to make it secure, but with the real intention of making for the shore. Paul said to the centurion, Paul saw them, he knew what they were doing, except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.
Greg, are they listening to Paul now? Yes. That though the event may be determined, yet the use of the means may be indispensable. The event is rendered no more certain than the means required to accomplish it.
Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let it fall away.
What did they do, Greg? They cut the skeletons off. Yes.
We have here an illustration of the manner in which God decrees and human agency harmonizes to produce a given result. It was a decree of God that the passengers and crews should be saved, and it was certain to be accomplished.
But the voluntary watchfulness of Paul and the desire of self-preservation on the part of soldiers were accessories on which the result depended and which contributed to it. And when the day was come 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.
So they'd been two weeks without eating. It seems to me like, David, that they could have eaten anyhow, but they didn't. Why?
They would have been seasick.
The ship was tossing so much that they couldn't cook anything, and it's been fourteen days. Yes. You put me in the back of a car, and I'll get sick, and I sure don't want anything to eat. Wherefore I pray you to take some meat, for this is for your health, for there shall not a hair fall from your head, fall from the head of any of you.
And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, gave thanks to God in presence of them all, and when he had broken it, he began to eat. Were you ever in a restaurant and you knew you should bless your food and bow your head and mutter something so other people couldn't see you?
Now Paul is the ship's chaplain. Then were they all of good cheer, and they also took some meat, and we were in all of the ship, two hundred, three score, and sixteen souls. That's how many people in us.
And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and cast out the wheat unto the sea. They had a shipload of wheat. How did they... David, how did they get it overboard? Used a scoop shovel. How did they do it, Greg?
In bags. Well, you were there, you don't remember. Well, I'm sure it was in sacks of some kind, and they carried it.
They couldn't thrust it on the ship. It wasn't something. They couldn't pull it out of the sea that wasn't in it at all.
And when it was day, they knew not the land, so they'd come upon a spot of land that they don't know. But they discovered a certain creek there with a shore into which they were minded, if it were possible, to thrust in the ship.
So they come to not a harbor, but there's a little creek running down, and they're going to try to drive the ship into that. And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea and loosed the rudder bands and hoisted up the mainsail to the wind and made towards shore.
Verge, what's the rudder bands, Greg? All right, it's something to... They were not trying to steer, in other words, and they let the wind drive the ship from one anchor. Well, they did that all right, but the rudder bands, they disconnected from the rudder, too.
And falling into a place where two seas meet, they ran the ship aground, and the fore part stuck fast and remained unmovable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves, and the soldier's counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out and escape.
Now, this is the situation. The prisoners, Paul had said, would be safe on board ship, but as soon as they struck land, they're going to get out and leave. So, why did the... David, why did the soldiers counsel to kill them?
They were afraid to escape, because... What difference does that make? I would like to say that earlier... Yeah. Fred, what did you say? That they had the experience to agree with the killing.
Those in charge of them would have been killed. Though through the providence of God those poor men had escaped a watery grave and had borne all the anxiety and distress of this disastrous voyage, as well as the others.
Now, there is a likelihood of all getting safe to land that could swim, lest they should swim to shore and so escape. Now, they didn't know it was an island. They knew nothing except the shore. But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose and commanded that they should... that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea and get to land.
And the rest, some on boards, some on broken pieces of the ship, and so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land. Some on boards. They had a surfboard, and they rowed in to land that way. All right, next week we'll take chapter 28, which is the last chapter of Acts.
And you might want to start studying in the book of James. I have something here that I want to pass out. I don't want you to discuss it. Bring your answer next week. Written. Virg, will you come and pass these out, please?
As you know, as I study, different thoughts come into my mind, and I have to ask the question more quickly now before I forget it. So that's why we have this. It doesn't deal directly, well, maybe it does, directly with the lessons that we've been having, but it's a good thing to know.
Are there any questions? Thank you. All right, Virg, would you dismiss us, please?
Father, I thank you for this day, Lord, and I just thank you for the good knowledge that you've given us, Lord, and I just thank you for the things that you revealed to us this day, Lord, to help us to be more calm, to always be in reclamation of things that you're trying to show us, Father.
Lord, I just thank you for so many blessings that are going on in our lives this day, Lord, and particularly for the day that we've had the message, Lord, and feeling those rewards. I thank you for saving us this day.
Lord, just give us the rest of this service, Lord, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.