Even the Nonswimmers (Part A)

What does God mean by being useful to Him?

It means to be a servant. Hopefully, I'll bring that out, out of numbers in just one moment. Now we look at verse 39, hopefully keeping these things in mind. The need to have an educated faith, not just a faith. The need to remember that we're all in a war zone. There is a spiritual war going on around us. The need to understand that we're all in a war zone. We understand that there are times when we're in over our head, we're the non-swimmer in the story.

But we are never alone. Please turn to Acts chapter 27, beginning in verse 41 to 44. And before I start, for those of you who may not know what's going on here, there are 276 people on this boat, and it's out of control. And they're going to try to beach it and survive this storm that they are caught in. And so we pick it up in verse 41. But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, kept them from their purpose and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land.

And the rest, some on boards and some on parts of the ship, and so it was that they all escaped safely to land. Even the non-swimmers, that's the title for this sermon, want to preface it by reading just this one sentence from our Lord. In John chapter 6, he said, the words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life. And this physical experience that these people were going through on this ship, this gives to us spiritual lessons. And so again, the words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life.

In this historical event, we have many parallel applications. We would call them metaphor or allegory. There is spiritual war, there's spiritual education, and there are the non-swimmers. So to give an overview of what we have here before we begin the exposition, and this passage of scripture, I think, it's not one of those passages where you give a Bible study. It's a passage that you preach a sermon on, just kind of boiling it down to where this is going. As far as the parallel applications, I'm not over-applying the metaphor in this passage.

I think it's just right there for the picking. And this is God's word to man, and not merely a historical documentary. We don't come to the Bible and say, oh, that was interesting. Then what? It's always, Lord, what are you saying?

Maybe not for me right now, but I'll need it later. Romans chapter 15, which incidentally, Paul wrote the letter to the Romans, which he's trying to get to right now. He wrote this four years earlier. And he wrote, for whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Well, that's what we're doing. We are learning from the things written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now, in that hope is a lot of work, a lot of service.

And so the metaphor, the allegory, the illustrations, they abound. These are word pictures to strengthen us in our faith so that we can serve the Lord more effectively. Strong faith is not just so we can feel good about our faith.

It's supposed to serve the Lord. So spiritual education is one of the first things I want to touch on, because I'm not convinced that many Christians realize how much education faith needs. And requalification, I should also add. Education and information are not the same thing. Though education involves information, information is part of education. But an uneducated or untrained person can misuse information.

So there's a difference. As we come to the scripture, I want to be educated. I want more than just the information.

I want to be handled by the Holy Spirit in my heart, in my mind, so that my life can be productive to Him no matter what I'm going through. Someone may be able to do mathematical equations just fine in a classroom. They just can't apply it in real life.

Not able to maybe, you know, give change from a purchase that someone makes because they have got the information, but they can't apply it. I think when we first come to Christ, being in such awe of God, and not any longer of ourselves, we tend to sense this, that we need as much as we can get from God. Then in time, we may lose sight of the fact, because we've amassed information. We may think we've become know-it-alls without knowing it all, if we're not careful. Or we can catch the critic's disease. Don't downplay that one.

That one comes very easily. Satan, the Bible tells us in Revelation, when it speaks about his judgment, that he is the one that deceived the nations, the nations of people, lots of people. That's what he does. He deceives, and he deceives through information, and he creates critics. They're deceived, usually not knowing what they're talking about. Faith needs continual education, and it comes in this way, and this is what the Bible teaches us. Testing, time, you know, that's waiting while you're being tested. Hardship, that comes with time. Holiness, the pursuit of being right with God, the pursuit of purity. These things continually educate our faith, and re-educate our faith. You're not going to get it where, okay, I learned that lesson, now what do you got?

You're going to learn it, put it to use, and learn more. Peter said, Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing has happened to you. What Paul is going through and his shipmates over these two weeks stuck on the sea is not a strange thing in the sense that they're not being judged.

It's not a natural thing. This is spiritual. Somebody doesn't want Paul to get to Rome, and I'll hopefully bring that out a little bit more. Peter also said, Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I don't know if you caught the grace came before the knowledge. Grow in the grace and the knowledge, because without that grace, your knowledge is not going to be very useful. You will be that know-it-all.

You will be the one that the Bible says is puffed up without love. Knowledge, of course, edifies, but without love, it strips down. Just having truth, bare facts, can be brutal. You need more. Now, that is as far as the spiritual education goes, because there is a spiritual war, and that's why we need to be educated. We need to be trained.

Resistance from unseen forces. The older you get, I think the more you experience these things. There are exceptions here and there. When you're young, you're too busy trying to accomplish your immediate goals of not making up your bed and cleaning your room, getting past school, things like that. But as you get older, you could say sort of the news tightens, and life gets more serious. We make more relationships.

Maybe you have a family and children, whatever the case may be. Spiritual war is very real. God guaranteed Paul that he would make it to Rome three years ago. He comes alongside of him during this two-week period and reminds him, you're still going to get to Rome. Which you would say, then why?

Why the ship in the storm? I didn't just go to Rome. Because there's an education to be had, and not only for Paul. And he's being educated, too. As great as he is a servant of God. Now, as I said, I do not believe God sent this storm, but he did permit it. And when he permits, he uses, whether we like it or not. Again, someone did not want Paul to reach Rome, and it was Satan. Paul earlier, about four years earlier, also wrote this to the church in Corinth. Less Satan should take advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. That really needs no context.

It stands all by itself. We know he opposes us. We know that he looks to take advantage of us, and we're not supposed to be dumbfounded as to how he does business. Fearing that the gospel would be preached in Caesar's court was quite disturbing to the forces of hell. Those unseen forces that create havoc, spiritual war.

The words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. When Antichrist comes along, who is the child of the devil? This is what Paul says about him. He opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, and we're watching this globally. Those who have bought into this doctrine from hell, which is the woke doctrine, you're being played like a fiddle. There's somebody much bigger than you, much more evil than you could ever imagine, who is selling you something and you are just basking in it as the devil's fool. There is a better way. Christ is a better way. Yes, there are restrictions. Learn to deal with them.

There are restrictions wherever you go. This devil opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God. Anything decent, anything right, he's going to try to come after. We're not ignorant of his devices. Well, getting Paul to Rome was something Satan did not want to do. It's not recorded the successes of Paul from reaching Rome, except to say we don't date our checks by the Caesars, do we? We date it by the coming of Christ.

Western civilization has changed forever. Well, that is the spiritual war, and in spiritual war there will be people knocked overboard. All of us will get a chance to be knocked overboard in this life.

The non-swimmers. This morning's Bible passage should school us, educate us about the non-swimmers in life, in spiritual war. Because in the sea of life we all get to be non-swimmers at some point, at some point in your life, you will find yourself in over your head where the waters are trying to destroy you. Everyone who sticks around long enough will experience this. And if you cannot recall being in over your head in this life, you probably have not lived long enough yet.

Or you're just too selfish, you're too self-centered to catch it. God can save even the non-swimmers in spiritual storms. God can save those who are not fit for the storm, who are not ready for the sea.

All believers are deployed into spiritual war zones. They'll either stand and fight for their faith, having done all to stand, therefore stand, Paul says, take up the entire armor, and he lists the parts of the armor, or they'll turn and run. But in over our heads, battered by life and unseen forces, how will our faith do? Will it survive? You see the metaphor of will they survive the shipwreck?

Will my faith suffer shipwreck? Will I have to jump into the water as a non-swimmer, and the swimmers have already gone ahead of me? There's no one there waiting to help me.

I'm on my own, it might look like. That's not the whole story. God said even the non-swimmers would not go down with the ship. Maybe you can swim, but it's your walk on the land that stumbles you. Maybe you say, you know, I'm fit for the sea, I'm good for this.

Yeah, well there's something else you're not fit for. Satan's got something, because your flesh dictates that you are not perfect, in fact that you are imperfect. From these facts come our spiritual education, sections like this. We'll get this maybe next session in chapter 28. You know what God said to the great prophet Jeremiah? If you can't keep up, if you can't keep up with the footmen, Jeremiah, how are you going to keep up with the horses? What?

You mean there's horses I got to keep up with? These, again, the lessons in scripture are bound. They are for our edification.

Well, let's put that in common language. They're to make us stronger in life. And stronger means useful to God, to the Christian, to the world. You know, bottom line, who cares what they mean by it? What does God mean by being useful to him?

It means to be a servant. Hopefully I'll bring that out, out of numbers in just one moment. Now we look at verse 39, hopefully keeping these things in mind. The need to have an educated faith, not just a faith. The need to remember that we're all in a war zone. There is a spiritual war going on around us. The need to understand that there are times when we're in over our head. We're the non-swimmer in the story, but we are never alone.

So look at verse 39 and then we read, When it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they observed a bay with a beach onto which they planned to run the ship if possible. The unknown staring them in the face. That's scary enough, the unknown. What's going to happen? What's behind there? This is all of this. Where is this going to go? Am I going to make it?

And if I am, how am I going to make it? This was their last chance. The Christians on board had no doubt been hard at work. We have no reason to doubt that Luke and Aristarchus and Paul were not hard at work. Part of the evidence of that is how the centurion broke with protocol and spared the prisoners. And how his men obeyed him because it was their necks at risk. It was not a little thing when he called them down and said, Hey, you know, stand down. We're not going to kill the prisoners this time. Come back to that in a minute. Christians are to be servants of Christ, not activists of causes.

This is a big deal. Christians are to be servants of a person, not an agenda. Oh, there are things to do as we serve this person, but they come from him.

Paul was devoted to a person, not a cause. Maybe you've seen people. They just want to go to some exotic place. They just want to get away and they find the mission field just serves them just right.

And no fruit comes out of it. In fact, oftentimes it's disastrous. Poor testimony is left behind. You see, the Christian activists does what they choose. They choose their own missions.

They choose which hill to die on. Then they ask God to bless that agenda. That's serving a cause. Whereas, of course, the servant, not serving the flesh, looks to find what his master wants him to do, dependent on the leading of the Holy Spirit. Because the flesh will always depend upon its own efforts to work for God. Notice I did not say serve God. The flesh will look to its own efforts to work for God. Well, I'm a doctor.

It makes perfect sense that I go and use my doctor skills in some other country. Now, I'm not saying that's wrong in and of itself. But if you don't have a green light from the Holy Spirit as a Christian, that's not what you need to be. And I'm not even pointing fingers at anybody. I'm just giving you an example of what it looks like to take something for granted. That just because you have an ability... Oh, I'll put it this way. Every need is not a calling, regardless of your qualifications. Well, let's look at it in the Bible. Because the difference, again, is that the servant does what he is told by his master.

Thus, the benefit of an educated and informed faith. In Numbers, the book of Numbers, the spies were sent into the Promised Land. Twelve of them.

You all know the story. Ten came back and said, we can't do it. The other two said, yeah, we can. Well, God was really upset with those ten, and they did not survive a judgment, a plague judgment.

They died. Then, the survivors, who listened to the ten naysayers, decided, okay, Moses, you're right. We should go in and take the land.

See, that's an agenda. God said, no, you're stuck. Forty years, a year for every day that those spies were in the land, you cannot, you're going to wander in the desert.

We pick it up in Numbers 14. They thought that late obedience is better than no obedience. And there's some truth to that, but not in this case. The obedience called for was to wander the desert for forty years. They admitted that they sinned. Listen to what Moses says. Moses said, now why do you transgress the commandment of Yahweh? For this will not succeed. They could have picked it up in his tone.

The look in his eyes would have told him he's not playing around. It continues, Numbers chapter 14, verse 42, Moses speaking. Do not go up lest you be defeated by your enemies, for Yahweh is not among you.

It doesn't get any more serious than that, your enemies defeating you. He says, for the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword. You will die and be maimed and or because you have turned away from Yahweh. Yahweh will not be with you.

But, now here it comes, here's the agenda ahead of the servant, or in contrast to the servant. But they presumed to go up to the mountaintop. Nevertheless, neither the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh nor Moses departed from the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in the mountain came down, attacked them and drove them back.

We're not told how many of them died, but we know they died. Because Moses said, he's prophetic, you're going to fall by the sword. But there is an example in the scripture of putting an agenda, my understanding, my preferences, my way, in God's name, ahead of what God said.

Or has not said, as the case may be. That's being led. Being led by the Holy Spirit is not an easy thing. If it were, we all would be. I wouldn't be saying these things. It's very difficult to the flesh to be led by God. It's one of those, don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes. That's too close.

I don't want them that close. And then we jump, and you know, the Lord in his mercy, he doesn't abandon us because we get anxious, we jump ahead of the schedule. If he did, we would all be lonely without the Lord.

But he's patient nonetheless. That does not mean that in my pursuit of holiness, that I should be satisfied with that. It means that I have to be on guard.

I don't want to put my Lord in a situation where he's got to clean up my mess. Where he's got to grab the ear of Malchus and stick it back on, because I was doing my thing. Verse 40, And they let go the anchors and let them in the sea. Meanwhile, losing the rudder ropes, they hoisted the mainsail to the wind and made for shore. But striking a place where two seas met, verse 41, they ran the ship aground, and the prowl stuck fast and remained immovable. But the stern was being broken up by the violence of the waves. So full speed ahead, flank speed, hard as we can, and they hit a sandbar. Nothing was coming easy to these men. All they wanted to do was just get to the beach.

We all just want to get to the beach. God's promise to save lives worked. He didn't promise to save the ship.

It was time to abandon the ship, not walking on water. Now this, I think, is important. I think Christians lose sight of this. We tend to in the Scriptures. We want to see a miracle where a miracle doesn't belong many times. I think God never works needless miracles. If He purposes something to be accomplished by ordinary means, that's how it's going to happen.

He will withhold the miraculous. We prove this every single day. Food does not fly into your mouth, as a rule. If it does, something's not right.

You have to do it yourself. Isaiah, chapter 43, verse 2, we had this Wednesday. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. Yeah, how about around the waters?

How about around, over a bridge or something? But that's not what the promise says. God is just being frank with us. He's saying, listen, this life is a shipwreck, and you're going to go through it. I have grand purposes for you, and I'll be with you every step of the way. Do you believe me? Well, we remember that Father in the Gospels, He says, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. He didn't mean give assistance to me not believing more.

He means help me in my weakness, which the Lord evidently did because He went on to perform a miracle on behalf of the father and the child. Now, verse 42, bearing in mind, they just hit the beach, and there will be the miracle of survival, but there's not going to be any walking on the water. Verse 42, and the soldier's plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim away and escape. Great, shipmates with guns, and I don't have one. And these, their lack of hesitation to kill indicates that these are seasoned soldiers. These are not rookies. They're not like, well, what do we do now, boss?

The way it worked in Rome, if your prisoner got away, whatever sentence they would have gotten, you get. 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. .