Brother please brothers and sisters for the reading of God's word. I'll be reading from verse one of chapter 27 through to the end of the chapter, verse 44. We'll be looking again at verses nine through 44 from a different perspective. The title of the sermon is how do you respond to correction? Please listen carefully because this is God's holy and infallible word. And when it was decided that we should sail to Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to one named Julius, a centurion of the Augustan regiment. So entering a ship of Adramidium, we put to sea, meaning to sail along the coasts of Asia. Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, was with us. And the next day we landed at Sidon. And Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him liberty to go to his friends and receive care. When we had put to sea from there, we sailed under the shelter of Cyprus, because the winds were contrary. And when we had sailed over the sea, which is off Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia. There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing to Italy, and he put us on board. When we had sailed slowly many days and arrived with difficulty off Canidas, the wind not permitting us to proceed, we sailed under the shelter of Crete off Salmon. Passing it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens near the city of Laecia. Now when much time had been spent and sailing was now dangerous because the feast was already over, Paul advised them saying, Men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also our lives. Nevertheless, the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things spoken by Paul. And because the harbor was not suitable to winter in, the majority advised to set sail from there also, if by any means they could reach Phoenix. a harbor of Crete opening toward the southwest and northwest, and winter there. When the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their desire, putting out to sea, they sailed close by Crete. But not long after, a tempestuous headwind arose called Euryclidon. So when the ship was caught, could not head into the wind, we let her drive. Running under the shelter of an island called Clauda, we secured the skiff with difficulty. When they had taken it on board, they used cables to undergird the ship. And fearing lest they should run aground on the surdous sands, they struck sail and so were driven. And because we were exceedingly tempest-tossed, the next day they lightened the ship. On the third day, we threw the ship's tackle overboard with our own hands. 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. 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. Now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, Do not be afraid, Paul. You must be brought before Caesar. And indeed, God has granted you all those who sail with you. Therefore, take heart, men. For I believe God that will be just as it was told to me. However, we must run aground on a certain island. Now, when the 14th night had come, as we were driven up and down in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight, the sailors sensed that they were drawing near some land, and they took soundings and found it to be 20 fathoms, and when they had gone a little further, they took soundings again and found it to be 15 fathoms. Then, fearing lest we should run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship when they had let down the skiff into the sea, under pretense of putting out anchors from the prow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skiff and let it fall off. And as day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying, Today is the 14th day you have waited and continued without food and eaten nothing. Therefore, I urge you to take nourishment for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you. And when he had said these things, 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 they were all encouraged and also took food themselves. And in all, we were 276 persons on the ship. So when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw out the wheat into the sea. 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. And they let go of the anchors and left them in the sea, meanwhile, loosing the rudder ropes. And they hoisted the mainsail to the wind and made for shore. But striking a place where two seas meet, they ran the ship aground, and the prow stuck fast and remained immovable. But the stern was being broken up by the violence of the waves. And the soldier's plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim away and escape. 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. And thus ends the reading of God's Word. Amen, amen. Please be seated. As you can see there again, the map. And I do want to point out just in passing that there's some controversy about whether they sailed south of Cyprus in the early part of their journey or whether they were sailing north of Cyprus. But for today's purposes, what we see here from Fairhaven all the way over to Malta, that's a really good, well-agreed-upon path that they likely took there between North Africa and Macedonia and Italy and Sicily. So last week we looked at the question, how do you respond when people ignore you? How do you keep loving others when people ignore you? And we looked at Paul as a really helpful example of that. And I hope that was encouraging for us, convicting and encouraging. But you know, it's our tendency, isn't it, to just always think that we're the good guy in the story? So today we want to step back and put ourselves in the shoes of these sailors and soldiers and even the prisoners to some extent and ask yourself, what would I have been like? What would I have been like today, who I am right now, who I am in this moment, what would I have been like then? And also as we go along, if you could give Acts 27 to that whole crew when they got off, and they're there on Malta and they're warming by the fire and they can read Acts 27 together, what would it mean to them at that moment? Would it open their eyes? Well, I hope that maybe you've had some episodes, maybe you're in the midst of an episode, maybe you don't even realize that you need to have these principles applied to your own soul and that God perhaps might awaken you to some of your own problems today. How do you respond when you make a big mistake that leads to great problems for yourself and others. Big mistakes and big areas that have impacted other people. Do you excuse yourself because, well, you acted with the majority or because you respected the experts? It's not my fault. Do you search for self-justifying providences? Well, if the Lord hadn't wanted me to go down the path, he wouldn't have given me fair winds. Do you end up focusing on the urgent externals, just trying to survive these urgent externals that you've brought on yourself, these self-inflicted wounds that keep coming upon you because of your own path that you've chosen. Thereby, because of the turbulence that you've brought into your life, ignoring the internal reality of your own sin and simple-mindedness, missing opportunities to repent and to grow up. This isn't just for young people, it's not just for the married, it's for the single, for the old, for the bearded and the unbearded. Do you fall into despair once your survival efforts fail? Putting the arm of the flesh to work to solve the problems you've created and then you end up without hope? Do you respond to loving encouragement the wrong way? Because you're continuing to interpret the world through what is best for yourself. Do you respond to loving encouragement with the false hope of continued self-focus? I'm gonna be okay. Instead of seeing God's mercy and repenting of prior poor decisions. And then, you know what happens if you stay on that path, we'll see today. You go on to even more selfish, and then ultimately, if you stay on the path, dishonest abandonment of your duties of love. You'll become a covenant breaker. Oh, well that can happen to me, it can happen to any one of you sitting in this room, from the youngest to the oldest, if you're on this path. You think those sailors really thought at the beginning of their journey that they were gonna abandon their posts? Oh, when the sailing was smooth, they were the most faithful of sailors. Stories like this should prompt us to really examine ourselves, brothers and sisters, each one of us. And then, when you join in with others in times of need, is it to save your own neck or is it to glorify God? In the midst of crisis, are you short-sighted, missing the best path because of an entrenched focus upon a lesser path? These are questions that are gonna come up as we go through the text today. When God brings you grace upon grace in spite of your bad decisions, does it change you? I think we might see that maybe in the life of the centurion, taking you down the best path, the path of righteousness, the path of faithfulness, the path of life. And this path goes to greater faithfulness and wisdom and encouragement. And we see powerful communion and sincere service with God and his people. Which, which path are you on? So how do you respond to correction? First, we'll see bad judgment with horrible consequences. And we'll see various excuses that people might offer. I acted with the majority. I was respecting the experts. They'll point to self-justifying providences. Oh, well, I, you know, the Lord gave me all these signs. We'll see how they were surviving while ignoring the soul. Probably. Of course, we don't know that for sure. There's potential for awakening during this survival episodes. And then this question of despair versus repentance. Confused reception of divine encouragement. You know, it's not about having your best life now. And then the question of selfish service versus sincere works of repentance to glorify God. And then this path of selfish service, again, sometimes it leads to covenant breaking. If there's not repentance and a change, it can lead to outright covenant breaking and deception, deception, lying to others along the way, blaming them. I'm leaving because you've failed. I'm leaving because this ship is doomed. But on the path of wisdom, the path of the Spirit, we see an example here of faithfulness, communion, encouragement, and service. But even after that, there can still be these misplaced priorities in urgent moments. So even as the group is working together, there's still those there who aren't seeing things properly. But ultimately, we see faithfulness and deliverance as God's grace wins out, and we should expect the same for the life of the church. Ultimately, the life of the church, we should expect the same. So let's look at bad judgment and let's look at the horrible consequences. You've heard this before, but maybe not just back to back like this. When much time had been spent and sailing was now dangerous because the fast was already over, Paul advised them saying, men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also of our lives. So Paul, a wise man in their midst, is there to give them good advice, but what happens? Nevertheless, the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things spoken by Paul. And because the harbor was not suitable to winter in, the majority advised to set sail from there also, if by any means they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete opening toward the southwest and northwest, and winter there. Now our tendency is gonna be to make excuses, right? They weren't just completely ignoring Paul, they were gonna just go down the coast a little bit. This isn't really a very good harbor here. So there's a lot of reasons why folks will justify their bad judgment. Okay, but it was bad judgment. Paul says it later and we know it's true. It was bad judgment. And it's the kind of bad judgment that they could've and should've known better at the time. There were a lot of warnings in their journey. They were late in the sailing season. They were not in a good spot. Paul was right, and they were wrong. So what happened? Well, that ship was broken to bits, and they almost died, and they were left with no stores, hardly at all probably, on the shores of Malta. Who knows what could have happened as a result? Listen to this. When it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they observed a bay with a beach on which they planned to run the ship, if possible. And they let go of the anchors and left them in the sea, meanwhile, loosing the rudder ropes, and they hoisted the mainsail to the wind and made for shore. But, striking a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground, and the prow stuck fast and remained immovable. But the stern was being broken up by the violence of the waves, and the soldier's plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim away and escape. Some on boards and some on parts of the ship. So they're all blasted out into the water. Those that can swim, swim to shore. Those that can are holding on to things. Now this is better than what would have happened, it appears, if God had not intervened. They probably would have starved to death in the water. A ship at sea with nothing. Maybe they would have killed and eaten each other. Who knows what they would have gone through? There are terrible stories on the high seas. But it was bad enough. This is bad judgment with horrible consequences. So I want you to think about that. Proverbs 1.5 says, a wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel. Did they see this? Did they understand? Look at the horrible consequences of the decisions we made. Proverbs 15.5, a fool despises his father's instruction, but he who receives correction is prudent. So were there any wise men aboard this ship willing to hear the truth and increase in learning and receive correction and join into that rare group of men called the prudent? The prudent? That means to be subtle, to be shrewd, to be crafty, to beware, to take crafty counsel. So the prudent are those who understand Not only God's providence over all things and his great and mighty hand in the life of all the cosmos, especially for his people, but the prudent look to the way God has made the world. They understand the way the world works. They're not pie-in-the-sky, absent-minded professors who don't understand anything about the way the world works. They care about wisdom. and they seek to walk in wisdom according to the way God has designed the world. So will anyone on this ship rise above their own self-interest and the crushing circumstances to see and understand the hand of God at work in their midst and repent and grow wise? You know, we're gonna look for signs of this along the way when we get into Acts 28, when they're there in Malta. This is the background, right? The focus then, of course, is on Paul and the natives and the viper that bites and stings, you know, envenomates him. And then the Roman there, who is this great citizen who comes to Christ, and all the wonderful things that happen there in Malta. But in the back of it is a bunch of prisoners, apparently, that didn't try to escape and kill everybody. In the back of it, apparently, is a centurion who's maintaining order and sailors who decided to go on with it, because they do get another ship later. So it appears as though these people came together in some way. What if we could hand Acts 27 to all the souls on this ship as they warmed around the fire on Malta and ask them to read it and examine themselves? Right? What if you could do the same thing? What if you could read Acts 27 today with the same eyes as those shipwrecked sailors, soldiers, and prisoners? Would you be able to perceive your own big mistakes and seek the Lord in confession and repentance? Would you be willing to even ask the Lord, God, have I made big mistakes that I thought were perfectly reasonable, and it led to bad outcomes, and I don't see any role that I played in it? Would you be able to see your own wrongheaded, selfish, and rationalizing ways of responding to God's correction in your life? You know, I'll wager that there's a certain amount of faith needed for us to really receive the truth about ourselves. Right? There's a certain amount of faith needed for us to really receive from God the truth about ourselves and the mistakes that we've made and the crushing consequences that that's had in our lives and the lives of others. So what are some of the excuses? Well, hey, we acted with the majority. Because the harbor was not suitable to enter in, the majority advised to set sail from there also. So as the tragic events unfolded, think of them moving forward as they're going through the tragedies. And this ship's counsel discovers its folly. Can't you hear their excuses as they're going back through it in their minds? Well, clearly we couldn't have known better. Even the majority of the leaders saw things the same way I did. It was this mistake. It was a fast-moving situation. Information was coming in quickly. We did the best we could. We couldn't have known then. Oh, not so. God gave them a wise man in their midst, and they ignored him. I think we can say a lot here about the coronavirus pandemic response, can't we? And that's the excuse that these people are trying to foist on us now. Oh, we couldn't have known. It was such a fast moving situation. We just followed the experts. We just did what the majority said. Shame on them. Every one of them who acted in that way should no longer be in their post. And on that note, I encourage you to call your senator if you live in South Carolina and tell them to reject Dr. Zimmer as the one who's been nominated for the head of the Department of Public Health in South Carolina. And I'm shocked that the governor would nominate this man. He had plenty of voices if he had listened. So there's a real-time application of something probably similar to this. That response had catastrophic consequences in our world today. I've heard very few people stand up and say, wow. Instead, what I see is a bunch of sailors trying to get in the skiff and get out of there. Bit of a tangent. Not even in the notes. Do you use the excuse of the majority for your own poor decisions? Have you done that? Do you justify ignoring biblical commands and biblical wisdom? because the majority of this world or even the majority of the church rejects and mocks the scripture on that particular point? Here's some examples. Psychology versus biblical parenting. Okay? Psychology versus biblical parenting. We could go through numerous examples. The most important being that the Bible says that the biggest problem that our children have is their sin. S-I-N. That is the biggest problem any child has. And the only solution is the death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ and their faith in him. Psychology will give us a whole list of all these other problems and all these various environmental solutions. You got to make sure they're in the right bed all the way through the course of their lives or whatever nonsense you might hear. There's also psychology versus biblical relationships. God teaches us in his word how to love one another. Psychological approaches in the world may through observation get some of it right, but they don't understand that there is no hope of real loving relationships apart from the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ conquering our sin and our relationships with one another. Another example is false science versus creationism. There's another example and it's proliferating in the church as well. People who don't believe the Bible tell us that somehow the universe is millions and billions of years old that creation didn't really happen in six days. What else? Justifying sinful behavior as acceptable versus what God's Word says about sin. Is that not proliferating in our world today and even in the church? These lies that we're being told, and if we're honest, it's probably the majority. These things I've presented to you that are not true are probably the majority voices in today's world. At least they're the loudest and the most frequently put out there. And you know what our response should be very clearly, Romans three verse four, let God be true, but every man a liar. One man alone with God is a majority. I forgot, I forget who said that. I did not just make that up, but it is a great quote. One person alone with God is always a majority. Not just acting with the majority though, there's respecting the experts. Nevertheless, the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things spoken by Paul. These respected experts and the leaders on the ship, can't you hear the excuses as the waters are churning and they're having terrible times and they're losing hope and they're undergirding and they're doing all these things on the ship? I can't be blamed for my poor decisions because I was just following the experts. And there's examples in this category as well, like I've already mentioned. You could, same kind of problems there, not just the majority, but all these experts. Another one I think about is financial thinking. There's all these financial experts out there will tell you exactly what to do. There's also a lot of experts who will give you doctrinal and practical stances that you should take, and they're wrong. But they're experts, you know, they went to seminary, they teach at a seminary, and so be careful. Can we say that Paul was an expert? Was Paul an expert in the Word of God? And did he get upset with the Bereans? How dare you? No. They were noble-minded. They were worthy-minded because they questioned the expert, not with their own thinking and their own experience, but from the Word of God. So, you can't just blame the experts if you make a bad choice. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. There's a lot of wise people in this age and they look great in their robes and their wigs and their their giant buildings that they're in talking to you. Maybe even driving their big cars and flying in their big big jets and all the other things that they have going. Maybe they're a giant influencer on the the gram space picture place, whatever you want to call it, whichever one you pick. The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, he catches the wise in their own craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile. So worldly wisdom will do you no good, regardless of how high the person has risen in the worldly establishment, and regardless of how many people there are who believe it. It will do you no good. Another thing that you can do sometimes, we all do, I think, is we look for these self-justifying providences. a portent into something that we want it to be for ourselves when it's really not to be taken that way. When the south wind blew softly, supposing they had obtained their desire, putting out to sea, they sailed close by Crete. So here's the phrase, supposing that they had obtained their desire. What was their desire? To get to Phoenix, right? See, Paul, it's going to be fine. It's all good. And Paul's like, well, you just wait. This wind does not mean what you think it means. This win does not mean what you think it means. Surely I can't be blamed for continuing in my poor choices because look at God's providence that seemed to confirm my choice. There was all this majority, there were all these experts, and the door flew open, ask, seek, and knock, right? And the door just flew open. Of course I should, I mean, I was just trusting God. All these excuses we can make. So how should we interpret such providences once we are proven wrong? Will we humble ourselves? You know, you might say, well, God tricked me. It's his fault, right? That'd be the worst kind of thing you could say. First of all, here's some ways you can interpret it, and I think there's others also. But Hebrews 12, seven says that God disciplines his children via providence, okay? So it very well could have been that at that moment, God gave that wind in order to discipline these people, in order to teach these people that they don't know but that God knows. Now, another way to interpret this is to be very, very careful. Because if we walk away from God and we go far enough, for long enough and persistent, Romans 3 tells us he will give us over. Three times. Three times in Romans 3 he says, gave them up, gave them up, gave them up. And so there's a metaphor here in this seafaring story of that kind of warning. Proverbs 1.25 and 26, along those lines, should really get our attention. Because you disdained all my counsel and would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your terror comes. And don't think that that calamity and terror came by accident because all things are from him and through him and to him. God didn't just get surprised when Uriah Clyden showed up on their heads. God spun Uriah Clyden up for them. So watch out for making more of providences than you should. Watch out for interpreting providences in light of your own, I want my best life now, justifications. Interpret providences the way they should be, for the glory of God, for the glory of God, for the glory of his kingdom, for the glory of his name. So the next thing that then happens when we get down this path, we've kind of gone through all our excuse-making, we are settled into this path, we believe we've done it right, whatever it is, you pick what you think might be the problem in your life, you've settled in, and then you just survive. And a lot of your surviving, maybe, like they're experiencing, is because of things you brought on yourself. Not long after, a tempestuous headwind arose called Eurocliden. So when the ship was caught and could not head into the wind, we let her drive. And running under the shelter of an island called Clauda, we secured the skiff with difficulty. When they had taken it on board, they used cables to undergird the ship. And fearing lest they should run aground on the surface sands, they struck sail and so were driven. And because we were exceedingly tempest-tossed, the next day they lightened the ship. On the third day, we threw the ship's tackle overboard with our own hands. 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. So look at all of this intense experience that they're going through together. They secured the skiff with difficulty. They had to bring it on board. They had to use cables to undergird the ship. I don't know the first thing about sailing, but that sounds hard. Okay, that sounds really hard. They had to strike sail. That's not the easiest thing in the midst of a storm. They had to lighten the ship. They had to throw things overboard. So it's like just one fast-moving bad need after a moment that they're going through at this point. Fast-moving with need upon need to be met. And this is the tyranny of the urgent that ends up, it's almost inevitable, to some extent, drowning out the inner world. And if you get into a life like that with no margin, that's a downhill spiral. Their bad decision-making now has them carried on by the precarious a plan that they had initiated. What if they could have repented right in the midst of the ongoing crisis? They might not have done anything different. But probably most of them were just focusing upon the moment's necessities. We don't know. So looking at your life, have you made bad decisions that leave you with little margin in your life, constantly bouncing from one crisis to the next? How can you get off this course if it is true of you? I think a great example is bad parenting. I see it in my office all the time, and sometimes it's so severe, I'm like, can I please preach for a minute? I know you're here because of snot, but can I talk to you about sin? And I know you might not come back to see me if I say this. And they're like, okay, go ahead. And I say, this child here is gonna be behind bars if you don't stop the trajectory you're on. And I don't say this all the time, but there are some families, it is so obvious, it is so miserable, it is so terrible, And they're there, they're trying to get help, they want help, they don't have time to do anything. And I say, you know what? There's a path out of this. But first you have to repent. First you have to repent and go to God's word and put to work the scriptural principles of parenting. There's no guarantees there, but I guarantee you this, you continue on that path and that child there is going to have to recover from what you've done to them. So, there's big things, big mistakes that we can make that can have not just catastrophic consequences in our own lives, in our own families, but generationally that can occur. So, how do we get off this course, this tyranny of the urgent, this constant bashing if that's a part of your life? Well, first of all, it's not a doing, it's a being, first of all. It's a believing God's promise to you first. And this was available to the sailors there. Jesus said, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. There is a change that can take place when life comes into the soul of a human being, when faith overcomes doubt, when faith drives out fear, where we can know peace even in the midst of these difficulties, even as we realize these difficulties are self-inflicted. Matthew 11, come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Note that there's no preface that says, hey, listen, as long as these aren't self-inflicted wounds, as long as you didn't do this to yourself, come to me. That's exactly who it's for. It's for those of us who are like these people here at the end of our ropes with no answers for the problems that we see in our lives. So let's try to avoid surviving while ignoring our souls. Next. We need to talk about despair versus true repentance. 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. Now, this is a fact that applies to the whole crew. Everyone had given up surviving the storm. It's not a statement about their spiritual state or whether they had repented before God or not. They had just given up on all of their own measures in sailing and trying to survive a storm. They had exhausted every human means to escape from the consequences of their bad decision, but they failed. In their failure, they continue to make bad decisions. Now, I don't know if it's true of all of them, but we can say for sure that the sailors here at the end of their rope had not gotten to the end of themselves. They had not given up on arm-of-the-flesh activity. We know they didn't repent, right? And so this is a picture here of worldly sorrow, at least for the sailors. Not true repentance unto faithfulness, which maybe had occurred in the life of the centurion. Was he just a wiser man, a more prudent man with a better background and greater wisdom? Was God working in him? It appears as though God was working in him because of the favor that he had towards Paul, which is very hard to explain apart from divine work of God. And really, I think the question here is, how do you respond when all of your faithless efforts to fix your self-inflicted wounds fail? Do you even think that way? I'm just being faithful. I'm just doing what I'm supposed to do. Well, maybe. Maybe. Or maybe it's just more self-inflicted wounds. When we try to heal ourselves with our own means, we tend to make it worse. So this is about godly sorrow, and it, like I said before, it requires great honesty with ourselves. By God's grace, you know, we wanna walk in the light, as he is in the light. 2 Corinthians 7, now rejoice that, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. So Paul, of course, you know, had written 2 Corinthians before this voyage, and he knows about godly sorrow versus real repentance. He says to the Corinthians going on, for you were made sorry in a godly manner that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. So those folks responded to his prior letter with real repentance. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death. The sorrow of the world produces death. You know, one thing our flesh is really, really good at is self-deception. And this worldly sorrow can certainly masquerade in our minds as real repentance. Paul goes on, for observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner. What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication, in all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. So it's really simple, the distinction between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow. Ultimately, you're going to know an hour later, a day later, a week later, a month later, based on how you live. Didn't Paul just say to Agrippa, prove your repentance, that you have to prove your repentance by your deeds in Acts 26. So this is what's going on here in our minds as we're looking at this. I wonder which of these sailors, soldiers, individuals here may have actually gone through true repentance, at least on an initial level. Acknowledging Paul's position as a prophet of God. Acknowledging him as one who's speaking for God and that they stood against him. Or was it just worldly sorrow? Well, I think looking at the Unrepentant Sailors is helpful. Look at all the things that they go through from this point forward after they had given up all hope. 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. But after long abstinence from food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, so they're about to receive some encouragement in their darkest hour. Okay. And the point to think about here is how did they respond to that encouragement? Paul says, man, you should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss. And now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, Do not be afraid, Paul. You must be brought before Caesar. And indeed, God has granted you all those who sail with you. Therefore, take heart, men, for I believe, God, that it will be just as it was told me. However, we must run aground on a certain island. So I think we can say, when we look to the future, that the unrepentant sailors clearly received this encouragement in a self-focused way, believing they could have their best life now, if you don't mind me going to a modern colloquialism. They were thinking of themselves, of their own skin. They didn't repent and say, I'm going to listen to Paul now, right? They didn't repent and say, you know what, Paul, you're right. I should have listened to you and I'm going to listen to you. They didn't. They said, oh, well, maybe there's a chance I'm not gonna die. It's all about me, see? So do you receive the gospel selfishly as a message about poor, pitiful sinners? Oh, you poor, adorable, pitiful sinner. And now you can have a great life. God looks at you and he looks at you the way that maybe you and I might look at a mangy dog and just be like, aw. Isn't that sweet? When the reality is God looks at you and apart from Christ has nothing but constant, endless wrath and disgust with you apart from Christ. So do we, because if we start in the wrong spot about why we're saved, then we're going to maintain the wrong thoughts about what's happening during our sanctification. So do you receive it like, you know, the mangy dog? That's me. God just pities me because I'm so terrible. Or do you realize that it's utterly unmerited and just God's benevolent grace placed upon you for reasons that you and I will never ever be able to explain, only in the mind of God. Don't think that you're more pitiful than others and that's why He saved you. Don't think that you're anything and that's why He saved you. He saves us because of His matchless grace. And that is it. And that's good news, brothers and sisters, because that means the same motive that saved us will keep us and hold us to the end. So that's how we should receive the gospel, right? Humbly, despising our own worthlessness and our own wickedness apart from Jesus Christ, and with the true God-centered repentance unto glad service to him as nothing but an unworthy servant. It's all about you, Lord. and that our hearts cry day by day, louder and louder as each day goes by, never with a crescendo, always growing louder as we cry out to him, you must increase and I must decrease. That would really be true. That's how we receive the gospel. But that's not how these sailors received it, right? Sailors like, oh good, I'm gonna be saved. I'm gonna be delivered, it's all about me. I mean, Paul even said he would be cut off for the sake of his people. Clearly, Paul didn't believe it was all about his own salvation or any one person's salvation. It was about God and his glory and the demonstration of his greatness and his mercy towards wicked sinners. And this is why we can read in Luke 17. And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field? Come at once and sit down to eat. But will you not rather say to him, prepare something for my supper and gird yourself and serve me till I've eaten and drunk and afterward you will eat and drink? Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded to say, We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do. And you know, you see the connection here between humility, between admission of sin, between a new paradigm of understanding yourself and growth in Christ that can occur, that leads to this true selfless servant mentality. That it's just a beautiful thing when we're all in that together like that. And we can begin to get a peek at this later on. So they obviously received this encouragement the wrong way. And then we go on to see their selfish works. Okay, now I'm not saying it's true for all of them, but at least we know it's true for some of them. We know it's selfish because what they wanted was to survive. We see it when they abandoned. We see it when they abandoned their posts. So we can interpret everything prior to this in light of their abandonment. Now, when the 14th night had come, as we were driven up and down in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight, the sailors sensed that they were drawing near some land. And they took soundings and found it to be 20 fathoms. And when they had gone a little farther, they took soundings again and found it to be 15 fathoms. Then, fearing lest we should run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. So we know that these sailors, at least some of them, enough to fill a skiff, were committed to their own skin. And so this fathoming that they were doing was to make sure they didn't die. Now, isn't it beautiful how God uses their selfishness for the good of the rest of the people in the ship? Isn't you see that wonderful providence? God often uses selfish behavior of others or even ourselves for the good of others. How about that? Now, that's never an excuse. Well, you know, this is for your good. Don't ever say that. Just repent, right? But we can see God's hand of providence here. So these are self-focused efforts looking for personal survival. That's what they want. And they're really not sincere acts of love and service. It's faithfulness to their calling, doing everything as unto the Lord for His glory. So why do you serve others? Why do you serve others? Little ones, little ones, listen. Why do you serve others? Ask yourself that question. Now there's a lot of answers you might give. You might say, because I want to obey mommy and daddy. That's a good start. You might say, because I want this other person to be pleased with me. What's that really all about? The worst thing would be if you realize, you know, it's to promote myself, to get other people to like me so that I can have influence and money and fame and power and whatever else comes from that and just feel really good about myself because others do. There's a lot of bad motives for doing things that look good, okay? And God calls us to look into our own hearts by His grace and to help one another understand our motives. Will we ever understand them perfectly? Probably not. Probably not. But does that mean we stop looking? No. This is what we must pray over and over again, right here, what John said, he must increase and I must decrease. And what happens when Jesus increases? His motives take over. His loves, his affections take over in us. That's what we want to pray for. That's what we want to go after. So ultimately their selfishness is revealed. I call this covenant breaking. They had a job to do. They had a commitment that they had made and they broke it and they did it by lying and pretense. This is how bad it can get. And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, when they had let down the skiff into the sea under pretense of putting out anchors from the prow, so they were acting like they were trying to help the people that they were actually about to kill. Now, they weren't gonna kill them with their own hands, but Paul said, you won't survive if these sailors leave. You have to have their help. So without their help, those people on the ship would have died, at least some of them. And likely, these sailors are justifying it. Maybe these are the ones that kinda disagreed with the original decision. We don't know. But somehow, they justified jeopardizing all the people in that boat, rejecting them. Not even caring if they were left to die. These are covenant breakers. Herein lies the evidence of their hearts. They're willing to abandon the ship to the fate of the sea without the full complement of sailors there to serve and help. They end up despising their neighbors for their own skin. Think of all the ways they needed to justify themselves to get to this complete moral failure. Think of the things that they had to go through in their minds, the justifications, the rationalizations, probably the ones I've mentioned and many others they had to put to use to justify getting to that point. May God spare each one of us and our children and our offspring forever and ever from from such thinking and such such behavior. And of course, obviously, the biggest thing for me to warn you about is your commitment to God's church, your commitment to God's church. The the Lord commands us not to forsake the gathering together. The Lord calls us to worship him as his people. The Lord calls us to submit ourselves to the doctrine and the practice of biblical ecclesiology and biblical practice and biblical beliefs. And the church is the pillar in the ground of truth. And so for you to separate yourself from God's church, if you do that, you make yourself a covenant breaker. Now, and applying it from this text, think of this. You've been given gifts. You've been given abilities. You've been given strength. You've been given weaknesses. Everything you've been given, a part of the reason you're given it is for his church, for the body, to strengthen the body, for the body to grow. And when you separate yourself from the body, you become like these sailors who despise their neighbors for their own skin. So do you see where a self-centered view of the gospel will lead? Self-centered service, self-justification and rationalization, and finally on to covenant breaking. Oh, Pastor Clark, I'd never do that. Well, I don't know. Again, looking at these sailors, do you think they were, what were they thinking about themselves when the winds, when they got those fair winds coming off on their way to Phoenix? So this is, you know, the warnings are there for the people of God. The warnings are there for every single one of the people of God, for us to examine ourselves and see, test yourself, see if you're in the faith. So this is the life of the flesh that we need to be really concerned about, where you're deceived about the gospel, deceived about our self-worthiness, deceived about why we're saved, Deceived about why God has placed his favor upon us and why he continues to place his favor upon us. Deceived about his greatness and the abundance of his mercy. And then we go on depending on our own strength instead of upon God. And our souls shrivel. See, such branches are cut off and thrown into the fire is what we're told. So which branch are you as you examine your life in light of today's scripture? Right? Are you bearing good fruit? That's what Jesus said. Jesus says, are you bearing good fruit? Right? So right, it doesn't say, are you sinless? It doesn't say the branch has to be the most fruitful branch in the world. It doesn't have to say the branch has no spots or no diseases. It's not what it says. Listen to what Jesus says. I am the true vine and my father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. By this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples." Now, as your pastor, I could sit with sincerity and honesty in every home and say, I see you bearing fruit. I see you bearing fruit in the Lord. And so I want to encourage you in that today. And yet we do need to hear these warnings. Maybe your pastor's wrong, right? Maybe you got me fooled. Maybe you got me tricked. It's not what I think that really matters. So, receive these warnings before the Lord. Be a vine in Jesus, with his word abiding in you, bearing much fruit, and be encouraged. And if that's not occurring in your life, if you can't, like children, if your parents can't tell you, yeah, I see fruit in your life, then what branch are you? What branch are you? Right? And so adults write to their spouses. So these are honest conversations we want to encourage each other with. and help each other and exhort one another with. So when this change occurs, we start to move in the right direction, the example of the centurion, we see faithfulness, communion, encouragement, and service. The first act of faithfulness is that the centurion does what Paul says. Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skiff and let it fall off. Paul had been ignored, not anymore. So that's faithfulness. The next thing we see is this communion and this fellowship of encouragement that they have. And as day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying, today is the 14th day. You have waited and continued without food and eaten nothing. Therefore, I urge you to take nourishment for this is for your survival. Since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you. And when he had said these things, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all. And we had broken it. He began to eat. Then they were all encouraged and also took food themselves. And in all, we were two hundred and seventy six persons on the ship. So there, you see the faithfulness of the centurion leading to this wonderful time of communion and encouragement together. So I think we can say the centurion stands as our example in this story of faithfulness. So while we don't know the state of his soul, we see his actions flowing from Paul's instructions as an example to us for our actions to flow from faith in God's word. So have you ignored God's word in the past? Confess your sin, repent, and now start to listen and to heed and to obey God's word as he leads you and guides you. And as a result of this faithfulness, see where faithfulness leads. See where faithfulness leads. In the midst of difficulties, in the midst of storms and tragic events, life-threatening events, look at where faithfulness leads. As a result of the centurion's faithfulness, the passengers all survive to dawn and they go on to enjoy communion, and encouragement together. This serves an example to us how simple faithfulness to God in times of trial can bring his people together in sincere worship, communion, fellowship, and encouragement. Doing the ordinary things at an extraordinary level. That's all the centurion did. He just did the ordinary thing, obey. And we can do the same thing. We can obey as well, and when we do, especially in the midst of great trials and difficulties, we keep our head, we just obey God. Look what it does. It brings people together. And then we see what happens afterwards. So when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw out the weed into the sea. 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. And they let go of the anchors and left them in the sea, meanwhile, loosing the rudder ropes, and they hoisted the mainsail to the wind and made for shore. So this is a different kind of work. This is a work that's coming forth from communion and fellowship and encouragement. Yeah, they lightened the ship, but their hearts were already lightened by the grace of God that he gave to them in that moment. This serves, this helps us to see as well. So encouraged together in appearance, sincerity, and unity for the first time on this voyage, they come together in what appears to be genuine corporate work and service together for one another, not just for self. Now, I'm not claiming that's true for all of them, but it has the feel, right? It says they were all encouraged. That includes the prisoners, too. Not just the crew, not just the soldiers. Now, do note, though, that even during this turn towards faithfulness, the encouragement, the fellowship, the people on the ship are getting it right now, the ship is still in trouble. So even during this time, the ship is still destroyed, okay? So we need to see the faithfulness to God by no means guarantees against shipwrecks that may occur in this life. We might lose our fortune. We might lose our land. We might lose our health. We might lose our spouse. We might lose the child. We don't know what we're gonna lose in this life. There's nothing secure except for God himself and the salvation that he's given to us. That's it. Oh, and that's enough. That's more than enough. It's more than enough forever and ever. It's more than any soul can ever take in, for an eternity of eternities, the salvation that God has given to us. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It's like the precious oil upon the head running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore. The only life forevermore, of course, is the salvation that is ours in God. And when we come together to celebrate that salvation, we rejoice. We work together for good reasons, for the right reasons, with Christ's heart, with his motives. Not caring if the ship gets smashed. Now, there can still be misplaced priorities and urgent moments. I think this one is given to us here to see that even When we're all in it together, we're all encouraged together, there can still be misplaced priorities that people need to jettison. This growth in wisdom that's necessary that we have to go through together. I mean, these soldiers, think about it. They're just being faithful to their duty, right? At least they think they are. I mean, imagine what it was like for the centurion to try to dislodge that from them. It looks as though probably the only thing stronger here was the fact that he was their leader. And they had, you know, the Roman obedience, the Roman soldier. Misplaced priorities persisted. And even though Paul had already told them that everyone on the ship would be saved, he told them everyone on the ship would be saved. And yet these soldiers are going to try and kill the prisoners. So they're focused upon doing their duty without an eye to Paul's words or to true justice. You see, they have misplaced priorities. Wanting to do their job is not a bad thing, but wanting to do it in that moment in that way would have been a bad thing. This may seem admirable towards them, but it is not. Had they killed these prisoners, they would have been guilty of shedding the blood of their neighbors without warrant. Yet they would have considered themselves wise at that moment to carry out their vocational duty. So this should serve as a warning to us. We've all probably got these kinds of misplaced priorities. We are just convinced this is the thing to do and we're dead wrong. Isaiah 521 puts it this way, woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. So somehow the centurion had been brought out of that same perspective. And what we see coming next is faithfulness and deliverance, and this is the way God encourages us in this story. You know they were gonna get killed, and they're not, and they're all delivered, and they get to the shore safely. And of course, the Lord puts a beautiful whipped cream and cherry on top with the natives and the fire that they were able to warm next to. If you can leave out the venomous snake part. We don't want that for dessert, do we? So the centurion teaches us, he's acting according to the highest priority in the situation, and the highest priority in that situation on that boat for God's plan is to save Paul. And he had joined into God's priority, wanting to save Paul. Somehow God had granted this man wisdom from heaven that outweighed the ship-wide, under-the-sun reasoning. As a result, all souls on board survived. And this should be greatly encouraging to us because all it took was one soul to get Paul safely. If it had been up to anybody else on that ship, Paul probably would have been dead, along with the rest of them, or most of them. That's very encouraging. It should encourage you, too, to think about the impact you may have in the lives of others, the impact of one soul on others. Rejoice, brothers and sisters, in the salvation that is ours in Christ and how he's gonna bring us home. And when we look back on our lives, it may feel like we arrived holding onto boards or some of us treading water until we barely got there. It may feel that way. And it may end up being kind of like that, because we're all this terrible blend of sinfulness and faith. I guess it's not so terrible. I'll close with this scripture. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Kept by the power of God through faith for salvation. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom, having not seen, you love. Though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Let us pray. Almighty and gracious Heavenly Father, bless us, we pray, Lord, to be wise and prudent in this life. Grant us the humility we need to receive your light shining into our souls, to bless us, Lord God, to repent and to grow up and to be like Jesus. Lord, bless us to grow up in faith unto the salvation of our souls and that along the way, Lord, we would be faithful, that we would trust you, that we would enjoy communion and fellowship together and working side by side in genuine faith towards you and in sincere love towards you and towards one another. Lord that we would do all of these things and be this way simply for your glory for the sake of your glorious name That all would see you and worship you and praise you and that you would be honored above all in Jesus name