A Spiritual Storm (Part B)

The rains ascended, the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell and great was its fall. He's talking about the soul. Life is going to beat on us. But if your foundation is God Almighty, the Son of God, you won't fall. You've beaten a little bit, but you won't fall. In contrast to the unbeliever who goes through the storm, but ultimately great is its fall.

And that will be of course finalized at the judgment. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Acts.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Acts chapter 27 is where Pastor Rick will begin today as he continues teaching his message called, A Spiritual Storm. These men are going into very serious, uncooperative and deadly weather. Verse 15, So when the ship was caught and could not head into the wind, we let her drive.

Men, there are times you're forced to let her drive. That's biblical. As I mentioned, they couldn't return to fair havens. And if you're offended by such a little humorous statement like that, it's because you've been indoctrinated.

You've been told that any humorous things that somehow makes you inferior and stuff like that, I hope you don't succumb to the world's just junk. Anyway, sometimes in life we get caught in a storm that we knew we had to dodge, but we couldn't dodge it because of others. That's why we couldn't get around the storm. Somebody else has just put us on the ship. We have no say so at that point. That was Paul's condition. What could he do? Again, the only two that we know of that could have opted out were Luke and Aristarchus, and they decided they're going to stick with Paul.

They're not going to turn to him. What courage those men exercised. Well, control was drastically diminished of the ship. Verse 16, And running under the shelter of the island called Clodagh, we secured the skiff with difficulty.

So the little dinghy, keep it from flapping around and banging into the ship, they secured it. The sailors will try to use that to abandon ship without the others later in the story, but all the forces seem to combine to make impossible the trip to Rome. Again, it's a spiritual storm. Satan is involved. God's going to let the storm play out, but he's going to do his thing in the midst of the storm nonetheless. And if you've been there in life, where you have these storms in life and you want out, and God is saying, I'm not going to let you out yet, and I'm going to be with you. I don't know about you, but sometimes I still say, Lord, I still want out. I know you're here, but this is not pleasant.

And that being kind to the experiences. Verse 17, When they had taken it on board, they used cables to undergird the ship, and fearing lest they should run aground on the Sirtus sands, they struck sail, and so were driven. And the Greek is really just Sirtus because that implies the shoals, the shallow waters where the sandbars are. When they had taken it on board, they used cables to undergird the ship.

Well, the cables were draped under the ship to help hold the boat intact, like putting a giant rubber band around the hull to try to keep it from falling apart. Now, Claddagh is about 170 miles from the African shore. And so for them to fear that they're going to run aground on Sirtus, which is in Africa, gives us an indication that those winds were pushing them hard. They didn't know where they were, but they felt, you know, just, man, the way we have been pushed from the north, from the northeast, we have got to be heading towards Africa. And so it's a pretty rough ride for them. A lot of seasickness.

They could not eat for much of the trip. And where it says they struck sail, more accurately in the Greek, they lowered the gear. They rigged the ship so that it could be driven by the wind because they didn't have any control, and they didn't want to be broadsided and capsize. And so they tried to yield to the weather.

It was the best thing they could do at this point. I don't know a lot about sailing. I know I wouldn't want to be on the ship with them.

I know that much. Verse 18, and because we were exceedingly tempest-tossed, the next day they lightened the ship, they being the crew. How else does Luke tell us how nauseating, how terrifying this was? He says we were exceedingly tempest-tossed. We were exceedingly typhoon-tossed.

What other adjectives could he have used? So you have to understand, just, man, this is a rough ride. So next time you go through something miserable in life, you know, it helps to remember God has been there before, and His people have been there before, and He will never leave us nor forsake us. The simple promises of God are sufficient if you lay hold on them. Verse 19, on the third day, we threw the ship's tackle overboard with our own hands.

Well, you really couldn't use anybody else's hands. Anyway, again, they've got 11 days to go. This is the third day. They'll be two weeks dealing with this storm. It's kind of hard for us to imagine such a thing with, you know, modern ships, but modern ships would just think, this wooden thing just got thrown around. Were there other ships on this sea caught in this storm with no Apostle Paul? Did they perish if they were on the sea? I think Christians should be careful not to undervalue their presence amongst unbelievers.

This ship survives because of the Apostle Paul. Years ago, I was working six and a half stories up, and the person I was working with forgot that gravity is brutal, and he fell. He fell 65 feet, and as I watched him twirl, he fell so long that I called out two or three times and man was in the hole, and I prayed for him as he was falling. His head was about to hit one of the beams that were coming across, and I looked away, still praying. It hit his shoulder. He survived the fall. He lost his spleen, careless of him, and use of his arm for a while, forever, but he got some of it back. My point is I firmly believe that my prayers to our God saved that man's life. There is no reason he should have survived that fall, and he did, and so I come back to this to say that Christians should not undervalue their presence amongst unbelievers. It may not be something as dramatic as what I just explained.

Maybe it's something more subtle. Maybe it's someone going through something in life, and you are there with the words of wisdom and truth and are able to minister the word of God. So be prepared for that. What would happen if you're a Christian on the ship, but you've got nothing? You're not prepared. You haven't been in the word.

You haven't been loving on the Lord and praising the Lord and pushing through moods that will rob from you everything that Christ wants to give to you if they can. So there is yet another lesson. Here we have this ship of men that are doing what men do, trying to push forward to get to a better place, from Connecticut to Phoenix.

It's just a short run on the map. But anyway, there they were. Paul was stuck with them. Verse 20, Now when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest beat on us, all hope that we would be saved was finally given up. Coming back to verse 20, here they are lost at sea in the lesser sense. Not all the souls are lost, but the ship is lost. No magnetic compass, unable to navigate with the stars and the sun. There's no such thing as a mayday to send.

There's nobody to receive it. This sickening fear that they're going to sink in these waters. Luke says and no small tempest beat on us. They were hostages of the sea. And we have been in storms in our lives, metaphorically again, where no small tempest beat on us, driving us to prayer, trying to keep our head above water, not becoming sort of drowning in our sorrows and our condition, understanding there's other things in life we have to still do while the other part of our life is falling apart around us, or in the midst of these things.

No small tempest beat on us. Years prior, Paul was beaten with rods three times. He was whipped five times. He was stoned once. He understood beatings for Christ, you know, to avoid being beaten for no purpose, just, you know, for carnal reasons.

It's just such a loss. Here is a man enduring these things for Christ, often sent by the Lord into harm's way. Well, we applaud that when we see a naval vessel sent in harm's way in times of war. Well, the Christian is always at war too, maybe not as glamorous in this life, but it is far more worthy.

It's eternal. In Matthew chapter seven, Jesus said, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will compare him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. Well, this is going to be Paul's story. He's going to have a moment of doubt in all of this. He doesn't come out of this unscathed.

He's going to doubt, but it's just going to be a flash in the pan doubt because the Lord's going to come by and reinforce to Paul his promises. Jesus continued in contrast. He said, but everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rains ascended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall.

He's talking about the soul. Life is going to beat on us, but if your foundation is God Almighty, the Son of God, you won't fall. You've beaten a little bit, but you won't fall, in contrast to the unbeliever who goes through the storm, but ultimately great is its fall, and that will be, of course, finalized at the judgment. And so when Luke writes here in verse 20 that all hope that we would be saved was finally given up, Paul is part of that we. We all hope to be saved, but finally we were giving up. Well, two weeks of being thrashed, cold, wet, exhausted, seasick moments, helpless. Matthew Poole was a Puritan back in the late 1700s in the days of wooden ships, and he wrote, whoever cannot pray should go to sea, and they'll learn to pray.

So, very appropriately well done. Anyway, verse 21, but after long abstinence from food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, men, you should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss. Well, the abstinence from food drew Paul closer to the Lord. The unsaved were working hard, likely on shifts, of course. They went hungry and grew weak.

They labored in the physical realm. Paul was laboring in the spiritual realm, not much from Luke about himself, except for that one statement where he says we had given up hope. He's too busy following Paul's lead to write about himself. Another admirable trait found in this Christian man. Then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, men, you should have listened to me.

He's not gloating, but how do you not have an I told you so moment? He knows what's going to happen now because God has imparted his spirit to this man and spoken to him. And sadly, it will not go for those who scoff at Jesus to the end.

In the end, it will be you should have listened to me and not incurred this disaster, but it will be too late. And so that's why the Christian has a sense of urgency when preaching to souls. Today, if you harden not your heart, you know, Christianity involves the whole heart, not just the emotions, not only brains, the intellect, but also the will, the who I am has to sign off on what the brain has been processing and the feelings and the instincts have been going over. That's how faith is born.

It's not just this, okay, you said it brother, I'll just believe it. That's not faith. Faith has got more going on to it than what the unbeliever can know until they come to Christ. And so verse 22, and now I urge you to take heart for there will be no loss of life among you, but only the ship. Now he repeats this encouragement in verse 34 to take heart. But true encouragement is the outflow of faith unto faith. It's to give the other one some of what you've got.

It comes out of you to make the other one stronger. And sometimes it's easy to just have faith. Sometimes you just find that I'm trusting God.

But then there are other times you're like, man, I remember I was in trouble once like this before and I was so faithful, but now I feel so afraid. And then God will hopefully send a brother or sister to you with a word in season and help hold your hands up for the struggle that you are facing. Where he says in verse 22, there will be no loss of life among you, but only the ship. Well, there'll be loss of souls, Paul.

The ship, you get another ship, but what about souls? There's a section in Zechariah. Of course, Zechariah was one of the Jewish prophets that were used by God to get the Jews to rebuild their temple after it had been destroyed and they had become complacent. But he of course addresses the sinful behavior of the people also. But just in verse 12 of Zechariah 7, yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of Hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. Thus, great wrath came from the Lord of Hosts.

It's a very simple principle. And you know, why is it so difficult for people to see it once you've seen it? Well, I look back at my own life before I came to Christ and I don't know what I would have listened to. All I know is Christ got hold of me and I don't know. I didn't benefit from somebody sharing the gospel with me in detail. They were sharing the gospel with me briefly, but they couldn't answer my questions.

Christ did. And so it's the storm at sea here is spiritual. The storms of life, they're all spiritual. All the trouble we face in life has a spiritual connection, whether it goes back to the curse in Eden directly or indirectly, as with the soul that just does not want to come to the Lord. And Zechariah calls it out in chapter 7, verse 12, as I read. Verse 23 now of Acts 27, For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve. Now remember, angels are created beings. Verse 24, saying, Do not be afraid, Paul, you must be brought before Caesar.

And indeed, God has granted you all those who sail with you. He's granted their lives, not speaking about their salvation. Not that some were not or many weren't saved.

Just this is what he's talking about surviving the shipwreck right now. But where he says do not be afraid, Paul tells us Paul was afraid. And we've covered this a few times in the Book of Acts when he stood trial.

He didn't know, you know, what was he going to be thrown, you know, to his assassins or protected. And the Lord encouraged him there. The devil used this storm to attack God's word to Paul.

How typical. God told him you're going to go, Acts 23, verse 11, Be of good cheer, Paul, for as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome. Well, now he's on the ship and it's about to sink and he's doubting that promise. Satan is using the storm to get this great man of God to doubt.

He just does this all the time. And, you know, you can, that's why we have compassion for our brothers and sisters that are going through struggles. We can't wave a wand and take their struggles away. But we can encourage them with a word in season if given by God, or we can shut up. Sometimes you don't know when to shut up.

And it's, you know, oh, it's going to be all right. You know, you know, just did God give you that or you just felt that you just felt awkward and you had to say something to learn how to be quiet. It's a discipline. It doesn't help when you go into something and you get vain encouragements. I find it to be a little discouraging, actually. I know they mean well, but I'm too busy in the fight to, you know, I'd rather someone say, look, it's going to get ugly.

You stand your ground. I'd rather hear that than hear it's going to be all right. When I don't know if it's going to be all right, according to my understanding of what all right is, all right to me is to have the problem immediately be resolved. Well, Paul would have liked to have immediately been in Rome standing in front of Caesar preaching the gospel.

Yeah, well, first the storm, though. Later, he would write, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. He learned that at sea, as Matthew Paul pointed out, if you want to learn to pray, go to sea. And it's nice to see how these, you know, as much as God uses this man, it's comforting to see he's flesh and blood like me. He has his doubts like me.

I may have more doubts. I'm sure I have more doubts than him, but still he's trying to serve the Lord, but he's a sinner saved by grace like we are. He says, to whom I belong, which reminds us of Jonah's declaration of faith, Jonah 1, verse 9. Here's Jonah running from God, but boasting about his service to God. Oh, Jonah's so much fun. Jonah had a hard time getting over himself. I mean, even after God did so much for him, he's hating on people, and it's just one of my favorite prophets.

Not because he's hating on people, because he's just so honest with his feelings. The best I can share is, well, my driving, you know, what I got to put up with other people. I'm not going to tell you other stuff. But Jonah tells us a lot. Anyway, Jonah said to his shipmates, I am a Hebrew, and I fear Yahweh, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. That's a declaration of faith, but it lacks confession. What is this stuff about you fear the Lord? Why are you running from him? Well, because that's what fear does.

No, it's not. Anyway, he says, to whom I serve, Paul now speaking, it is too easy for us to seek to use God rather than to be used by God, is it not? To just get something from God instead of saying, okay, all right, this is a mess.

What do you want me to do? And we can get to that place. Paul, that's where he stayed most of his time serving the Lord. Verse 25, therefore, he says to the men, take heart, for I believe God that it will be just as was told to me. So he's reinforcing his trust in God. He did not pray with his fingers crossed. You know, I'm going to pray, but I really don't believe that God's going to do anything.

I'm going to do it or maybe to just work out. And I think this is a good illustration of how to and how not to pray. He's not saying, boy, I sure hope God, you know, I believe God. It's what he's coming out full out and saying without visible reason to trust him at this point except the word put on his heart, which Jesus said to Thomas, you know, good, Thomas, I'm glad you believe, but blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. True faith comes from the inside out because it tallies up what it knows. It adds up what it's been looking at, what it's been exposed to. True faith doesn't just say, okay, I'll just change teams because you say so.

That's, that's a lame confession. And that's what we struggle with our children. We want them to have a personal experience with Christ. We want them to tally up, to add up the truths that they are exposed to. When someone says, well, what is a man or a woman?

Your mama and your daddy. That's what a man and woman is. And it just kills the argument to any sane person. But Satan masters in insanity because he too is insane. What fool would challenge God? And what fool would continue to challenge God?

Knowing God, Satan would. And this is, belongs to some of the mayhem that we're dealing with. So faith adds up. It witnesses, it looks at what it sees and it connects the dots and it makes its decision. That is faith.

He says here in verse 25, that it will be just as was told me. Well, faith can see in the dark because it's added up what it's been exposed to. And a soul without hope in God tends to be very little use to God.

And I don't want to be that soul. You know, it's easier to follow a degenerate culture than to think for yourself. You young Christians learn to think for yourself. Just because someone says something doesn't mean it's right. Test all things, prove all things. There, beware, many false spirits and prophets have come.

As you go through, you know, when you get into the workplace, you get into the university, if you go to the university, think for yourself. Don't give them that. It's not theirs.

They're not worthy. Christians are to bring their Bibles to church so that we can be reminded. We think for ourselves. You've been listening to Cross-Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston, of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply visit crossreferenceradio.com. That's crossreferenceradio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross-Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at crossreferenceradio.com or simply search for Cross-Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Acts, right here on Cross-Reference Radio.