...to the Acts of the Apostles.
And I want to read to you a
whole chapter.
Now, that's fairly unusual on these occasions.
I usually start off and skim around.
If you want to go to sleep, you
can go to sleep for 44 verses.
If you want to keep awake, then the
Lord bless your soul.
In the 27th, then, of the Acts of
the Apostles, there has been much talk tonight
among us about the seed.
And you will remember that this chapter is
the chapter, one of the very famous and
dramatic chapters of the Bible, to do with
the seed.
Here it is.
When it was determined that we, that is,
Paul, Luke, and a Macedonian named Aristarchus, all
right, and the rest of the people that
were on the ship, 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.
And entering into a ship of Adramitium, we
launched, meaning to sail by the coasts of
Asia, one Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being
with us.
And the next day we touched at Sidon,
and Julius courteously entreated Paul and gave him
liberty to go under his friends to refresh
himself.
And when we had launched from Pence, we
sailed under Cyprus because the winds were contrary.
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 into Italy, and he put us
therein.
And when we had sailed slowly many days,
and scarce would come over against Nidus, the
wind not suffering us, we sailed under Crete,
over against Salmone.
And hardly passing it, came unto a place
which is called the Fair Havens, nigh whereunto
was the city of Lassia.
Now when much time was spent, and when
sailing was now dangerous because the fast was
now already past, Paul admonished them and said
unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage
will be with hurt and much damage, not
only of the lading and ship, but also
of our lives.
Nevertheless, the centurion believed the master and the
owner of the ship more than those things
which were spoken by Paul.
And because the haven was not commodious to
winter in, the more part advised to depart
thence also, if by any means they might
attain to Phenice, there to winter, which is
an haven of Crete, and lieth toward the
south-west and the north-west, and when
the south wind blew softly, supposing that they
had obtained their purpose, loosing thence, they sailed
close by Crete.
But not long after there arose against it
a tempestuous wind, called Euroclidon, 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 quicksands, straight
sail, and so were driven.
And we being exceedingly tossed with the 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
then taken away.
But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in
the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye
should have hearkened unto me, and not have
loosed from Crete, and to have gained this
harm and loss, 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, 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
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, 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 pharaons, and when they had
gone a little further, they sounded again, and
found it fifteen pharaons.
Then, fearing lest we should have fallen upon
rocks, they cast four anchors out of the
stern, and wished for the day.
And as the shipmen were about to flee
out of the ship, when they had let
down the boat into the sea, under colour
as though they would have cast anchors out
of the foreship, Paul said to the centurion
and 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.
And while the day was coming on, Paul
besought them all to take meat, saying, This
day is the fourteenth day that we have
tarried, and continued fasting, having taken nothing.
Wherefore I pray you to take some meat,
for this is for your health, for there
shall not an hair fall from the head
of any one 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.
And when they had eaten enough, they lightened
the ship, and cast out the wheat into
the sea.
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 hoised up the mainsail
to the wind, and made toward shore.
And falling into a place where two seas
met, they ran the ship aground, and the
forepart stuck fast, and remained unmovable.
But the hindpart was broken with the violence
of the waves, and the soldiers' counsel was
to kill the prisoners, lest any of them
should swim out and escape.
But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept
them from their purpose, and commanded that they
which could swim, should cast themselves first into
the sea, and get to land, and the
rest, some on boards, and some on broken
pieces of the ship.
And so it came to pass that they
escaped all safe to land, and when they
were escaped, then they knew that the island
was called Malta.
Amen.
I can remember an occasion in Bradford.
How many years ago now, I don't know.
And God laid this great chapter on my
heart, to preach one Sunday night.
It's memorable in my heart, simply because I've
never preached on it since, and two, that
my eldest daughter that night reached out to
God.
God did something in her, in a very
real and wonderful way.
I've never preached on this chapter since.
It isn't because of any particular reason.
But there it is, this is the way
the spirit of the Lord goes, and he
blows where he lifts.
And so tonight I want to talk to
you from this chapter.
I can remember now vividly, and I suppose
it must be all of 10, 15 years
ago, when I spoke on this chapter, I
don't know, my wife's got the memory along
these lines.
I suppose it must be.
But I can remember vividly how God laid
on my heart in those days, the truth
of salvation that's in this chapter.
The great truth of the inward struggles that
go on in people's hearts.
The folly of mankind.
The stupidity and the stubbornness.
And how the last thing people will do
is let God save them, with his great
and wonderful salvation.
It is fully exhibited in this chapter.
And I can remember how, when I got
up to speak that night, God at this
period was opening up, or had been for
some time, deep hidden things of the human
personality to me.
He'd been making me understand the reasons why
people don't really get through with God.
Spiritual reasons, psychological reasons.
I can remember that I stood up and
announced my subject as the psychological background to
salvation.
And one little lady in the congregation promptly
sort of went, nearly fainted, that I should
announce such a subject.
Fancy this, a preacher talking like this in
a church like ours.
The preacher at death.
But this was how, in these days, God
had been making revelation upon revelation to me
of this.
And it's these kinds of things, beloved, which
make me say over and over again, there's
only one real textbook on psychology, and God
wrote it.
And it's this.
It's this book.
It's all here.
And probably you will be surprised, before you
go out of the room tonight, how this
chapter reveals so much of the inward workings
of the human heart, and the subtleties, and
the wickedness, and the stubbornness, and the hardness,
and the underleaf, and everything that lies there.
And though it is that it is dealing
with this great subject of salvation, and we
only think of salvation usually as sort of
a time when you were converted or saved,
yet, beloved, it is nevertheless true of men's
souls when they are faced up with the
great things of God.
The revelation is in this chapter, and you
will see that it works out in all
things of life.
And it can be the reason why some
of us, perhaps in this room tonight, I
don't know, I'm judging nobody, but I speak
because God has put this on my heart,
I speak thus, must be real if God
has done it.
The reason why so many do not, perhaps
you perhaps, are not right there where God
wants you to be.
Hallelujah.
And this I promise you, by the grace
of God, that if you will heed and
take note of what God says in this
chapter, and you will open your heart to
it, and receive the Word of God, you
may have noticed a statement that this man
said, I believe God, I'm looking at verse
25, that it shall be even as it
was told me.
Amen.
And so far as God is concerned, it
shall be.
Whenever God tells you anything, it shall be
exactly as he says.
This is the test in the ultimate of
every preacher and every prophet.
Amen.
Even as it was the test of the
angel, for it was the angel of the
Lord that said this, and the angel was
tested by it too.
Praise God.
Whether or not it comes to pass as
God says it will.
Amen.
But before a thing can come to pass
as God says it will, it must be
believed without reservation.
But let's examine the chapter shall we.
This ship represents man's soul.
And you will notice that there were three
dominant factors, three dominant features in this ship.
There was the owner of the ship, there
was Julius, and there was Paul.
And you know, beloved, inside all of us
there are always these three great dominant factors.
And this is why often in people's experiences
they never get through to what God wants
them to be.
You see, what happened was this, that Paul
represented God, the voice of God in that
ship.
And you know, inside you, inside every one
of us, there is that which represents the
voice of God.
There was Julius, and he was there and
he sort of represents me.
And there is the ship master, the owner
of the ship.
And it's between these three that the ultimate
destiny of that whole ship and its company,
it was all resolved.
I don't know whether it's like that in
you.
That there are often inside you sort of
opposing voices that argue one against another.
That's right.
It is in every one of us until
the whole matter is solved by the Lord
Jesus Christ.
You know what happened.
Paul is being sent to Italy.
He's going there and he's going to lose
his life in Italy.
He doesn't mind a little bit about that.
He could have pleaded with God, said, oh
God, I'm glad this ship is going to
sink, I'll escape.
Don't you believe that.
He was going to Italy to lay down
his life preaching to Nero.
Do you remember Nero?
Heard about him in history?
Don't you ever pity him.
Paul preached to him.
Wicked sinner.
Deadly man.
Paul preached to him.
Think of it.
Paul laid down his life to preach to
Nero.
Glory be to God.
Nero's gone to hell.
Because he wouldn't listen to the word of
God.
Who the greatest man perhaps has ever walked
on this earth since Jesus Christ.
Very probably.
Now beloved, God speaks to us.
And you see, here are these three people.
And Paul is going to Italy.
And you know what happens.
There's a transhipment.
And you're told this.
That there's a man called the master of
the ship.
Now you have to realize beloved.
That before you ever come to taking any
decisions like Julius.
In the ship.
You've got to realize that the ship into
which you've been born and launched on life's
sea.
Is under a master and an owner.
And it's the devil.
Do you understand that?
When Adam sold us out in the garden.
He sold us out to Satan and sin.
And before you ever received the human personality.
It was sin absorbed.
And you were born under a master and
not God.
If you will understand this.
And understand why in every case God has
to engineer a shipwreck.
So that he can really save us.
The ship's got to be smashed.
Hallelujah.
Now we've got some subtle teachings from modernistic
preachers and psychological people.
To try and avoid all this.
That it's the sort of duty of us
to sort of save our ship.
And I want to tell you that God's
only interested in saving souls.
He's not concerned about saving ships.
Praise the Lord for that.
And beloved it's simply because often times man
doesn't know himself.
He's not prepared to recognize what's going on
inside him.
He cries, he does all sorts of things.
And in this chapter beloved if ever God's
got the imprimatur.
And got the photograph of what it is
of human beings in a chapter.
He's got us all in this one.
It's only a sort of a biological incident.
But beloved it's a tremendous revelation.
Let's examine it shall we.
For you will remember that they put forth.
It says this.
They launched in verse four.
And so on.
And they find another ship in verse six.
And they sailed in that ship slowly.
Many days.
And scarce would come over against Nidus.
The wind not suffering us.
We sailed under Crete over against Salmoni.
And hardly passing it came under a place
which is called the Fair Havens.
Nigh where unto was the city of La
Silla.
And when much time was spent.
And when sailing was now dangerous.
Because the fast was now already passed.
Paul spoke to them.
God spoke.
And he said, sirs I perceive that this
voyage will be with hurt and with much
damage.
Not only to the lading of the ship
but also of our lives.
Here then is the tremendous thing that God
wants us to understand.
What a revelation is here.
Now especially young people.
And I warn you that it only takes
time to turn you into old people.
That's all it takes.
And you young people.
I don't think I need especially emphasize this
here.
But it can be true with us all
if we're so foolish.
As to get older without letting God do
this great thing for us.
There are so many beloved who linger so
long in Fair Haven.
They linger long there.
They think it's all right here.
And they think it's all right there.
And things seem all fair.
And all nice.
And all wonderful.
And we've got some notion of religious things.
You look at this verse 9.
What's all this about the fasts being passed?
It's just a religious feast.
Nobody knows.
A religious observation.
It comes in somewhere in life.
Religion.
But what this fast is, is not explained.
And we sort of come and say what's
all this about?
This religion business.
People fasting, feasting, praying, going to churches, singing.
And I don't know what.
Now listen beloved.
There isn't an explanation given because God's not
interested in giving explanations about religion.
He's not interested very much in fasting, feasting,
calendar dates and all this.
That's not the main thing.
In any case a soul can't find salvation
in those things.
Not in those at all.
A man at last has to be brought
to a realisation of his own dreadful state.
For unless a person knows their dreadful condition,
they won't want to be saved from it.
If they can last in fair places and
find haven for their souls in this, that
and the other.
And they do.
This book speaks about people who make fair
speeches.
They make fair talks.
I believe beloved with all my heart.
And I'm sorry to have to say it.
That there are many that make fair speeches.
Nice little sermonettes.
And all this to get people to haven
up in them.
And find some comfort for their soul.
For God knows life's hard.
He listened to what God had to say.
But he listened to the ship master.
The owner of the ship.
And the owner of every ship that has
a voice in every life is the devil.
Do you see that?
And so many Julius's they believe what the
devil says.
And God allows them to.
God allows them to.
Praise the name of the Lord.
He believed the master and the owner of
the ship.
More than those things which were spoken by
Paul.
Amen.
Let's understand this great truth.
And because you see his brain came to
work now.
He wasn't listening to God now.
He was working it out in his mind.
The haven was not commodious to winter in.
And so he was the more part advised
to depart thence also.
If by any means they might attain to
Phenicia.
There to winter.
And when verse 13 the south wind blew
softly.
He was absolutely sure that what he was
doing was right.
Just the soft, warm, gentle blowing of the
south wind.
Supposing they had obtained their purpose.
Now isn't this true?
That deep down in the bottom of every
man or woman.
Unregenerate.
There is a distinct determination to obtain your
own purpose.
What you want in life.
And what you want out of it.
I purpose to do this.
I purpose to go here.
I please myself.
I'm the captain of my fate.
The master of my destiny.
So talks ambitious and atheistic man.
And you see it seems that everything set
fair for it too.
Hallelujah.
And God reveals this great truth.
That he wants us to understand.
It's not so long is it beloved.
And it won't belong.
I don't know whether you've reached this point
yet in your life.
But it's not long before there arises a
tempestuous wind called Euryclidon.
So never heard of that before.
No it's always something you've never taken account
of.
Never.
That's right.
It comes.
It's like that man in the far country.
Where that, that prodigal.
He never expected that to happen to him.
That happened to him.
But it did.
And bless the Lord for his mercy that
he allowed it.
And God has to do these things beloved
to so many people.
And now look.
The ship's caught.
There it is.
It's caught.
It doesn't believe it's caught.
They believe they're in control still.
And they are.
So alright.
Caught.
Do you know this is the story of
drug addicts.
It's the story of alcoholics.
It's the story of nicotine smokers.
It's the story of sex troubles.
It's the story of all this.
They're caught.
It's a lovely soft wind that blows first.
It's all so nuts.
Do you really think this is going to
let you attain your purpose?
Amen.
Achieve your ideals eh?
Now listen beloved.
And then they could not bear up into
the wind.
And we let her drive.
Do you see this?
We let her drive.
We're still in control.
Yeah we're still in control.
But we let her go.
Here it is.
And then running under a certain island which
is called Claudia.
We had much work to come by the
boat.
At last they're admitting it.
It's almost uncontrollable.
Just got it now.
We've just been able to come by the
boat.
That's all.
Hallelujah.
And when they're taken up they used helps.
They undergirded the ship.
And they feared lest they should fall into
the quicksands.
And they straight sailed.
And now they've had to admit it.
They're driven.
The realisation's there.
And the realisation comes in terrible and stark
fear.
Amen.
Gone too far now.
And listen.
Here's the great trouble.
In verse 21c.
It says that after long abstinence Paul spoke.
God ceased to speak.
He spoke to you a long time ago.
And now just the time when you want
God to speak.
He doesn't.
And you say oh God.
What's happened?
Where has he gone?
This loving God that's supposed to speak to
me.
You see.
And not only that beloved.
But see.
But see the conditions.
In deadly fear.
Verse 18.
Exceedingly tossed with a tempest.
And here's man.
He's going to do everything to save himself.
See what he does.
He helps himself.
Verse 17.
He makes his ship strong.
He does everything.
He now lightens the ship.
He gets rid of some things.
This is the trouble with so many people.
They try reformation.
They start to cast out some things.
See if they can ride this storm.
But you can't.
It's impossible.
Throw this away.
Get rid of that.
Cast something else out.
But you're in the grip beloved.
And nothing can be done for you.
And God's not talking to you.
And the third day we cast out with
our own hands the tackling of the ship.
They weren't going to tackle the ship anymore.
Talk about abandonment.
This is the way it goes.
And neither sun nor stars appeared in many
days.
And no small tempest was on us.
And all hope that we should be saved
was taken away.
No hope of salvation.
None at all.
No control of your vessel.
None at all.
You can't direct it or guide it anymore.
Living in fear.
Darkness.
No sun.
Total depression.
Not a star that you can guide your
ship by.
Nothing.
And how dependent you are on the stars.
Nothing.
Darkness.
Hopelessness.
Despair.
Fear.
Powerless.
Hallelujah.
Glory.
And listen beloved.
God has to allow this so often in
a life.
God has to allow it.
He has to let people come to the
place where they stop trying to undergird themselves.
He has to let them prove that all
their own efforts at salvation are as valueless
as the froth on the waves.
He has to let them see that there's
no steerage and there's no way of tackling
the problem at all.
None.
And all the advice is useless.
And you discover at last that the word
of the devil is wrong.
And all your suppositions have been wrong.
And all your purposes have been wrong.
And all your holing up in fair holes
has all been wrong.
There's only one place of rest beloved.
There's only one place of safety.
There's only one place of light.
There's only one place of guidance.
There's only one place of strength.
There's only one place of tackling life.
There's only one way.
And he's not talking to you.
Black darkness of despair.
Exceedingly tossed to and fro.
No protection from the howling blast.
Your soul there?
Ever been there?
God allows that.
Bless him.
He allows it.
It's a fearful experience.
Absolutely fearful.
And you will know that they staggered from
fear to fear.
For you've got it again in verse 29.
They feared.
They went from one fear to another.
How dreadful it all is, beloved.
When a life's like that.
One fear, another fear.
If it's not rocks, it's quicksands.
If it's not quicksands, it's a howling gale.
Your very friendly sails have become your enemies.
You don't know what to do.
That's right.
Right in the midst of it, God starts
to talk to you.
That's right.
Right in the midst of it.
And you're a wise, wise person if you
listen to God.
You listen to God when he starts to
talk to you.
Amen.
After long abstinence, verse 21, Paul stands in
the midst of them and says, Sirs, you
should have hearkened unto me and not have
loosed from Crete and to have gained this
harm and loss.
That's what your life's been, isn't it?
Gaining harm and loss.
What a terrible gain.
I don't know.
That's what you do.
And he says, There stood by me this
night the angel of God, whose I am,
and whom I serve.
And that voice, beloved, that speaks in your
heart was put there by God, all that
ability, and it swings to God.
Amen.
It's there for the service of God.
God's put a mouth in your heart so
that he can talk to you.
Hallelujah.
That's right.
And it's there to serve God.
But you see, if people will listen, if
Julius had only listened to God, it would
have been all right, but he didn't.
And I suppose we've all been in this
place at some time, and I don't know
what voice to listen to until it seems
that the voice of the devil and the
voice of the howling gale and all the
demons out of the pit seem to take
the place of God in the love.
Many, many people come this way.
Many, many.
And he says, Be of good cheer, sirs.
Verse 25.
I believe God.
It shall be even as it was told
to me.
Hallelujah.
What's the dominant voice in your heart?
Are you believing God?
You see, beloved, we don't always know the
turning point in our life.
It comes often at the deepest, darkest, and
most dreadful moments.
That's where the turning point comes.
The storm didn't stop.
The howling didn't cease.
Nobody said they believed Paul.
It's just that somehow, gloriously bless his name,
this wonderful Lord comes and asserts his power
right in our midst, and we find that
he's beginning to dominate now.
It's what God says.
There's no Julius saying, I don't believe you
now, no shipmaster saying, chuck him in irons.
Not now.
God asserts, bless his wonderful name, when he
works by grace in power.
Bless him.
He comes and he makes his voice and
his word and himself and his power to
ascend above everything.
He doesn't pull back the dark clouds from
the sky.
He doesn't say to Euroclid and cease your
howling and sun and moon and stars appear.
He starts to talk in your hearts.
You howl out for him to alter nature.
Do this.
Do something else.
Beloved, do you see, perhaps you haven't realized
it yet, God's plan to smash you.
Smash you.
That's the force of Calvary.
He can only save us properly by smashing
us.
This is what he said.
I perceive this journey is going to be
of much harm.
Did you read it?
Verse 10.
Much damage and hurt, not only of the
lady and the ship, but also of our
lives.
Is that God talking, saying he's going to
damage and hurt our lives?
Of course.
That's the trouble.
We bind our lives up with sin and
with Satan and God has to come in
sometimes like a battering ram to smash it
all up.
Of course he does.
God doesn't mind hurting us.
How often times we've said this.
What he doesn't do is harm us.
He hurts us at times.
Why, you've heard it in the testimony of
our dear brother David.
It wasn't the easiest thing to do what
he did.
It cost him three days.
It hurt.
It hasn't killed him though.
It hasn't damaged him.
You see, beloved, this is the thing.
We've got silly, stupid, sentimental ideas about a
God that didn't hesitate to nail his own
son on a cross to save us.
God's not sentimental.
He can't stop and dally and dabble about
with sentimentality, beloved.
He wants to save your soul because you
got yourself hitched up in some fair haven
when you thought you'd be all right with
you for the rest of your life sort
of thing until you died.
God's not concerned about that.
He's concerned about an eternity.
And in some people it takes a tremendous
storm and it's not in a teacup either.
It's the whole of life.
Everything blasted and ruined.
Praise the Lord for this.
He doesn't care as long as he can
save us.
But he says this.
Listen.
He says this.
Verse 22.
You be of good cheer though.
There won't be any loss of life among
you.
No, it won't be lost.
No, God's going to save that.
He's going to smash up what you think
has been life.
Everything.
Smash your ship up.
Totally.
Glory.
This is wonderful.
It's not pleasant when it's happening.
But bless God.
He doesn't hold back the knife just because
he knows it's going to hurt.
Praise him.
He's very faithful.
I shall never forget one of my daughters
once coming to me one day and she
lifted up her little finger and it was
hurting her.
She wasn't very old.
She was just a few years old.
Perhaps she was six or seven.
I can't tell.
But she showed me her finger and it
was all yellow with pus.
And it was hurting her terribly.
And Daddy saw there was a thorn in
it.
And I was always the expert thorn remover
in our family.
It's right.
And I said, Oh dear, it's got a
thorn in it, lovey.
Let Daddy do that.
I'll just go and get a needle, lovey.
You just hold it there.
I promise you.
Now it will hurt you, dear.
It will hurt you.
You must never tell a child it won't
hurt.
If it will, you know.
I said it will hurt you, dear.
But it'll soon be over.
She said, No.
No.
No, she said.
No.
I said, It won't hurt you, lovey.
I'll just get a needle quick and I'll
hold it tight.
And I told her everything I was going
to do and I said I'll go and
it'll soon be out.
Ever so easy.
Look, it's only just.
Look, you can see it yourself.
And it's that that's causing all that pain
and all that yellow stuff.
It's gone bad in there.
It must come out.
She said, No.
No.
I said, All right.
So I let her go.
I let her go.
About half a day after I think it
was, she came to me and said, Take
it out, Daddy.
Did you?
Did you mean to tell me you left
it there to hurt her for another six
hours?
Yes, I did.
Till she came to her senses.
I knew it wouldn't kill her.
There wouldn't be any loss of life about
it.
That's right.
So she came back and I said, No,
I'll show you.
And I held it tight like that in
one hand and I went like that below
her and it was out.
And before she could say, Oh!
It was all over.
I didn't mind hurting her.
I knew I'd have to.
But I got it out.
She's still alive today.
She's got all her fingers too.
But here's the tremendous truth.
I want to tell you, beloved, that God
doesn't mind hurting you.
And do you know, He won't hurt you
half as much as you've been hurting Him.
Trying to get your own way.
Superimposing it on everybody.
Thinking you're going to obtain your purpose in
this and that and the other.
You know, you might be able to twist
a lot of people around your finger but
you can't twist God.
You can't twist Him.
And He's built you on certain laws that
a psychologist might call psychological laws.
But I'm telling you that God made you
and He knows how to deal with you.
He knows how to deal with us all.
Hallelujah.
Praise Him.
And He says, He says, No loss of
life.
But listen, your ship's got to be smashed
up.
The ship's going to be smashed up.
Praise God.
And it shall be as God told me.
Verse 25.
You see, there came a time when old
Paul had a shipwreck and he was on
a ship of the desert called a camel
I expect.
He was going to Damascus but God wrecked
his ship for him.
Smashed it.
Absolutely smashed it.
Got his master's certificate too in his breast
pocket.
Didn't make any difference.
God smashed it.
Amen.
Isn't that marvelous?
Didn't do Paul any harm.
Struck him blind for three days.
God didn't mind that.
God didn't mind him being struck blind for
three days.
Showed him the spiritual darkness he'd been moving
in trying to guide other people's lives.
When God does it, He does it.
It's not what the devil does.
And here's the tragedy that there are times
when we get God and the devil mixed
up.
We're so confused.
We don't know which way we're going.
It says here they were driven up and
down in the Adriatic Sea.
They were just driven up and down, tossed
to and fro.
They didn't know where they were.
Do you know where you are?
Listen to what God says.
Verse 26.
You must be cast upon a certain island.
Amen.
That's right.
Now God's taking a hand.
Hallelujah.
Yeah.
You know, I'm not a great lover of
Whittier's poetry because he was a universalist.
He didn't know the salvation of God.
And if you sort of love O Sabbath
Rest by Galilee and all that, that was
written by a universalist that didn't believe in
the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Isn't it amazing what lovely stuff unbelievers can
write?
Just to twist you off, you stick to
Wesley and people like that.
You'll do a lot better.
You see?
But this is what he did right.
There are some things that he wrote that
are very nice.
Somebody had a little chat with me today
and said, do you know, I've discovered lots
of things that psychologists write are very near
to things you say.
Yeah, they are.
They're very nice.
They've got no blood in them, no atonement
in them, no salvation in them.
None at all.
But this is what Whittier says.
He says, I know not where thy islands
lift their fronded palms in the air.
I only know I cannot drift beyond thy
love and care.
That's right.
And this is right.
You've got to be cast upon a certain
island.
Yeah, glory.
You've got to come right off that mainland.
You've got to be put on the one
island in the sea of life that can
save you.
And that's Jesus Christ.
You understand?
You've got to be shipwrecked there.
Hallelujah.
Glory be to God.
You've got to be so shipwrecked that you
can't sail out again.
We'll come to that.
Here's the wonder of it.
And here we go.
And it says in verse 27 that when
the fourteenth night was come and we were
driven up and down in Adria about midnight,
the worst time of all, in the deepest
gloom of all, after all that God spoke
me, I've been in deeper gloom since.
Yeah, that's right.
This is the psychological background of salvation.
You wonder I preached it.
This is how God taught me to deal
with souls.
And this is how I knew.
It's in the Bible.
Here it is.
Many a person says, it's been worse with
me since you said so and so.
Yeah, that's all right.
I'll do it with a little smile up
my sleeve.
Don't let them see that.
I know what God's doing.
That's right.
Praise God.
I'm very loving and sympathetic with them because
I've been in their boat, you see.
I know.
But I know what God's doing.
Let a man or a woman come to
believe God.
And that's why God leaves them in the
darkness to make sure they do believe Him.
That they're not fiddling just to get bright
skies over them again.
Bright skies will soon be on me.
You know.
They're not fiddling with God.
It's got to be real, beloved.
Absolutely real.
It's got to be a fusion of your
spirit and life with Jesus Christ or it's
nothing.
Understand it so far as God's concerned.
That bloody Calvary means God at desperation point
to win you.
And you have to come to desperation point
before you'll get there.
You understand that?
Look at that shipwrecked man there.
Absolutely shattered.
Everybody left him and fled.
Didn't they?
That's right.
You've not been forsaken all the time God
is starting to speak to you.
If God has said anything to you, He's
going to do it.
Amen.
Hallelujah.
And though you still might say, Oh, well,
I'm not dead.
Yeah, I know.
All the arguments.
About midnight, the shipmen redeemed that they drew
near to some country and sounded and found
it 20 fathoms.
And when they'd gone a little further, they
sounded again, found it 15 fathoms.
And fearing, still in fear, deadly, Oh, give
anything if we could have some life.
Oh, if only we could see.
That's the cry.
Let's put a halt to this mad rush.
They cast four anchors out of the stern
and, Lord, they go to it all.
Have mercy upon me.
Lord, forgive us.
Lord.
That's right.
It's a terrible state.
It's right.
They don't know.
They've been so dark and deadened.
Listened so much to their own arguments and
reasons and the voice of Satan.
Their compass has been fiddled with by the
devil.
Your compass was fiddled with before you were
born.
You understand that?
Hallelujah.
Get it right.
That's why you've got to be smashed.
Broken up.
It's useless.
God sees it.
I trust that you see it.
And here they are, wishing for the day.
Now listen.
You'd never think this, would you?
But here's the subtlety of the human heart.
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 anxiety before the
ship.
Now listen.
God brings you to the place where you
come out in your true colors.
What you really are.
He makes sure he brings everybody to that
place.
He gives you respite, you might say.
Four anchors out of the stern.
Oh, hanging on now.
Got some hope at last that we'll be
able to do something.
Yeah, that's just right.
You're going to do something.
You've got to come out in your true
colors.
And when you do, how rotten and deceitful
you are.
How vile and really not worth saving, are
you?
This is the grace of God.
This is his love.
The shipmen, they're the only people, the rest
were soldiers and Paul, university student, he didn't
know anything about sailing ships.
None of them do.
Well, all right.
He didn't know anything about sailing ships.
And you see that?
At the very last moment the whole thing
was going to be shipwrecked.
See?
By man.
That's it.
That's why God allows people to come into
extremities, to see what's in you.
And it's horrible when it comes out.
And Paul comes right up, straight away, says
to Julius, come on, except these abide in
the ship, you can't be saved.
Because you know why?
God has planned to save you in toto.
Everything.
Complete.
It's a complete salvation.
Everything has to be tried, tested, everything that's
in your mind.
God will give you opportunities to let you
reveal what you're really like.
I remember when God did this to me
at one period in my life, it was
horrible.
Horrible.
What I was really like.
Amen.
You'll even try to deceive God and slip
off and get some salvation of your own.
And there's a part salvation you can get
salvation by slipping up on the glory stream,
you know, missing out all this.
Yeah.
Oh.
No, no.
No.
That's not God's way.
Paul says, cut it off.
And they never hesitated.
Never hesitated.
Glory be to the name of Julius here.
He just acted immediately.
Praise his wonderful name.
The soldiers cut off the ropes of the
boat and that's that.
Hallelujah.
Now you've got to stop there and see
what God does.
Amen.
This is a marvelous thing.
God hasn't planned a part salvation.
Not a part salvation at all.
And moreover now, my beloved, instead of you
trying to slip out something of your own,
you've got to come to absolute trust and
full cooperation.
Here it is.
While the day was coming on, glory be
to God, the day you wished for is
coming.
Amen.
The light you wanted, it's dawning, beloved.
Let it dawn on you now.
Here it is.
He says this.
It says this.
Paul besought them all to take me, saying,
this day is the fourteenth day that you
have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing.
Wherefore I pray you to take some meat,
for this is for your salvation.
That's the word translated health.
This is for your salvation, for there shall
not a hair fall from the head of
any of you.
Glory.
It's marvellous what God's going to do.
It's marvellous what God does.
The most hair-raising experiences it's possible for
a human being to have gone through.
Not one here is going to be lost.
I've been through the deadliest, darkest things.
Here, that's how these fair havens all turn
out in the end.
God lets you see to the end of
them.
Praise the name of the Lord.
All your suppositions have gone by the board.
Amen.
You're on the sure way of God.
Here it is.
When he thus spoke, and he took bread,
and gave thanks to God in the presence
of them all, and when he had broken
it, he began to eat, and they were
all of good cheer, and they also took
some meat, and they were all in the
ship.
276 souls.
God wanted all, all of it.
He wasn't going to let anybody slip out.
No, everything.
You're really precious to him, beloved.
Really precious.
Do you see?
He's got to separate you from this old
ship business.
That's got to go.
When they finally left Morta, they left on
a new ship.
They never travelled in the old ship on
life's sea anymore.
Do you see that?
Glory be to the name of the Lord.
And when they'd eaten enough, they did the
last thing.
They, at least along this line, they did
the last thing.
You know what they did?
They actually threw their life away.
They cast the wheat into the sea.
They knew it was now or never.
They starved.
They knew it now.
Finished.
They did it with their own hands, man.
They got down, and they never tried to
deceive God.
They never left one grain for the rats
to eat.
They cast it into the sea.
They believed God was going to do something.
They staked their life.
For wheat, you know, is the star of
life.
They cast it away.
They finished with it.
No sustenance.
No help.
No anything.
And God has to wait until he sees
you mean it because you show him that
you're mean it.
Your salvation is not from just the panic
of the moment.
It's for an eternity.
God's got everlastingness in mind.
We cry out because of local circumstances.
He's meeting you for an eternal purpose.
Hallelujah.
Wonderful thing.
Here, we'll go on, shall we?
They cast the wheat into the sea.
And when the light had really dawned, when
it was day, they didn't know where they
were.
They didn't know the land.
But they discovered a certain creek with a
shore.
You know, they did it.
That's it.
Well, after all this driving up and down,
topsy-turvy, in and out, upside down, and
right at the very place, they dropped four
anchors in the midnight.
Didn't know where they were.
It was so dark.
And there it is.
They were just poised, ready.
After all this terrible battering by the devil,
after all this driving and depression and hopelessness,
when God starts to work, you're right on
the spot.
It's amazing, isn't it?
With all your foolishness and fiddling around.
When it comes to it, God's had his
hand on everything.
I tell you, though, there's a master of
the ship I want to tell you, there's
a master of the elements.
And in the elements of life, God is
there.
Hallelujah.
And he's bringing you right to the exact
place.
And they didn't know where they were.
They saw a creek with a shore in
which they were minded.
They had a real repentance, for repentance means
a change of mind.
Their mind, I was right.
If it were possible to thrust in the
ship, and you can imagine them saying, I
wonder if I can.
I wonder if it's possible.
All hope of salvation had been taken out
of their hearts and God had put it
back.
They saw a possibility.
If only I could be.
If only I, that I can see it.
It's salvation's ahead.
It's right there.
If I could only get there.
Amen.
They wanted to thrust the ship in.
Oh, glory.
They didn't know where they were.
But they saw a beach there, a shore.
If only they could get there.
They weren't investigating anything about heaven or anything
like that when they died.
They wanted to live.
They wanted to get there.
Amen.
This is it.
And when they'd taken up the anchors, they
committed themselves.
Now there has to come this time of
utter committal to the sea.
Oh, hallelujah.
They loosed the rubber bands.
They'd had that all tied down.
They were fixed in one direction.
They thought they were fixed for the abyss.
A watery grave, never to come up again.
They'd had it tied.
So they loosed the rubber bands.
And somebody got hold of that rudder.
And they hoist up the mainsail to the
wind.
And they made towards shore.
And the very seas that had seemed to
be against them now were helping them.
All the elements that seemed to be fighting
and howling like the very fiends of hell
now were helping them.
You see, you've heard me say this.
God uses the devil.
The devil has to do as he's told
in the end.
Amen.
The devil that tries to divide you from
God ultimately drives you into his hands.
That's right.
This is it.
Glory.
He tried to damn your life, but I
tell you that God won't have it.
No fear.
Praise his wonderful name.
And they hoist up the mainsail.
None of this little sort of paper handkerchief.
The mainsail.
We're going for God.
Hallelujah.
Amen.
The wind they tried to dodge before they
tried to catch.
The thing that was their enemy has become
their friend.
The batterings of things now are going to
help them.
So the waves come lashing.
And here it is.
They make for the shore.
They fall into a place where two seas
meet.
Hallelujah.
You'll always fall into that place.
One says, I'll damn you.
And the other one says, I'll save you.
That's right.
The devil says, I'll stream against you to
smash you and send you to hell.
And God says, I'll beat against you and
drive you into my haven.
Hallelujah.
Wasn't a fair haven this, but boy, it
was heaven to them.
They dallied in the fair havens.
Poor fools.
But now they could see it.
It was a windswept shore.
It was a storm-tossed beach.
If ever there was one, the mighty combers
combed it.
But blessed be the name of the Lord,
it was going to bear in the ship
that bore the soul that God was going
to save.
Amen.
Here it is.
And they run the ship aground.
And they fall past sticks fast and remains
unmovable.
Now, unless you've got that about you, you'll
never get anywhere.
If you're one of these drifters in, you
want nice, so you can drift in and
drift out.
You've got bows to your ship, beloved.
You've ploughed through many a thing, haven't you?
You've ploughed people under.
You've rowed the seas in a proud stem
on you, haven't you?
Now listen.
There it is.
And you've got to set your sail for
it.
And you've got to drive in.
And all the powers with God, it's not
your person.
It's not your personality anymore.
If you haven't been in the world long
enough to learn that with all your personality,
you can do nothing.
Nothing at all.
And you're the devil's tool.
And you're the spawn of hell.
And nothing can stop you.
You're going to a lost and shattered, hopeless,
irretrievable eternity.
If you haven't learned that yet, God will
leave you yet, till you do.
And then there comes a time when he
opens a creep right in front of you.
Yeah.
And you can go right in.
Hallelujah.
Stick your forepart in and stay there.
And don't you worry about the hind apart.
God's going to smash it.
God's going to smash everything.
Glory.
Let him.
It's a clean sweep when he does it.
Hear it and say amen.
The hind apart was broken with the violence
of the waves.
You say, what?
These waves have been my friends to bear
me and you told me it was God.
Now they're going to smash it all up.
Hallelujah.
Yes.
That's right.
There's no escaping when God really gets hold
of you.
He's going to make sure you don't get
out anymore.
He's going to smash up the old life
completely.
It's all done.
Amen.
God beats it to pieces.
And even then, there are some of these,
we'll hold them the very last minute.
The devil fights to the last ditch.
But it is the last one.
Hallelujah.
And here it is.
They say, kill them.
Don't let anybody escape, says the devil.
Kill them.
God will not have them.
But God's willing to save you.
Willing to save Paul.
Kept them from their purpose.
And commanded that they which could swim should
cast themselves first into the sea and get
to land.
And the rest, some on boards, some on
broken pieces of the ship.
Thank God it smashed up.
It saved you.
And so it came to pass that they
escaped all safe to land.
God does that.
It's God who's brought you to his island.
It's God that's cut you off from everything
else.
It's God that's had mercy on you.
It's God that's had his hand over everything
in your life.
Ordered it all, you see, really.
And yet, when you thought you were at
the mercy of every woman, fancy of any
crank, or crook, or the serpent, or anything.
Well, God's brought you there.
You're in, man.
You're in.
Is that right?
And when they were on the land, they
knew.
You'll know when you're safe.
You'll know.
Glory.
Hallelujah.
You're where God has always wanted you.
Smashed, but safe.
Do you agree that God smashed you up
in the old ship?
Everything.
Yeah.
Aren't you glad?
It happened when you started to listen to
what God said.
When there was something in you that said,
I believe that God will do what he
said.
You know, this takes me back to a
time in my life.
My beloved will remember this.
When we knelt together one Saturday night by
our bed.
We hadn't long been married.
We knelt.
It was during the war a long time
ago now.
And we knelt by our bed.
And the next day was a Sunday.
We just prayed.
And we sought God.
And the next day, I shall never forget
that Sunday, we had a woman come to
sing and it was dreadful.
It was a memorable Sunday.
And I want these people to suffer from
two musical ears.
It was dreadful.
I wanted to get under the thorn.
But anyway, we got through the day all
right.
I managed it all right.
And we walked home.
And I said to my wife, do you
know, I believe God's heard our prayer of
last night.
Just as I said it, he said to
me, nothing doubted.
I believed.
I said, I believe.
And I did, you know.
I believe.
And I'm here.
I'm here.
I believe God.
That's what Paul said.
I believe God.
There's something in you that wants to say,
I believe God.
Who are you going to listen to?
Your ancient slave master?
Who was in possession before you were old
enough to know anything about it?
Who are you going to listen to?
Your own reasoning?
Your own suppositions?
Your own working things out?
Are you going to listen to God?
I believe God.
And glory, that's all he wants you to
tell him.
He wants to know you believe him.
You've been hurt.
It doesn't matter.
Glory be to God.
It's mythical, this teaching, that you should never
be hurt.
It's mythical.
Comes from fairy stories.
Romances.
The truth is, beloved, you couldn't be saved
until Jesus shed his blood.
You couldn't be.
And you're being reached by the power of
God.
And this I say to you, it matters
not whether it be in some initial step
or whether in some farther step.
And we don't all have to go through
such terrible tempests of tossings.
Sometimes it's all according to what the kind
of life we've lived and the way we've
gone and all sorts of things.
There are lots of other governing factors.
But the fact, the real truth of it
is, beloved, that there comes a time when
God gets you into a position in your
life when you've got no hope at all,
saving what God says.
That's all.
When you listen to him, you say, Lord,
I believe you.
It shall be as you have said.
Glory.
That's when it happens.
Are you there?
Right there?
Hope you're not trying to reconstruct the old
ship.
Hope you're finished with it.
I hope so, beloved.
May the Lord lead you right in and
every one of us all safe to land.
Not a hair of our head lost.
No life lost.
Some damage done, well, that doesn't matter, does
it?
Hurt a bit, that doesn't matter.
Glory be to the Lord.
We're his.
Amen.
And what's been hurt after all?
Your pride.
What's been hurt after all?
Eh?
Let the Lord now build your life all
over again.
Let him do it.
Take your own planning mind off it.
That's right.
Stop your suppositions.
These things are all built on certainties.
You can't anticipate anything.
God speaks and does it with his word.
He creates things that just aren't there.
He just creates them.
And he says, there you are.
Weren't you foolish to try and plan it
out?
He just does it.
And he leads you on in a glorious
newness of life that he wants you to
discover.
Live and walk in forever.
I suggest we talk to God.