But we're going to be in Acts chapter 28 this evening and looking at the first 10 verses entitled the message this evening on Malta, or we could say on Melita. The old term for the island upon which Paul is shipwrecked is Melita, but we know it today as Malta. But we're studying the life of Paul on Wednesday evenings and where Paul is making his journey to Rome. He has been now shipwrecked. He's a prisoner. The ship he's traveling on is wrecked just off the coast of Melita or Malta. God has promised that all that were on board would be saved and only the ship and its cargo would be lost and so all made it safely to shore. In the first 10 verses of Acts 28, we read of then what happened after they came on shore. The islanders built a fire to help warm and dry the people. And as Paul is adding sticks to the fire, a poisonous snake bites him and he shakes it off into the fire and suffered no harm. It's interesting, if you look in Acts 28 in verse 3, it tells us that Paul gathered a bundle of sticks and evidently in there was this snake. If you're familiar with, if you've had any dealings with snakes, you know that they camouflage themselves. They're designed by God to be camouflaged. So it'd be easy for Paul to pick up a bunch of sticks and think he's picking up a stick when he's actually picking up a snake that's so cold that it can't move. But when the fire warmed it up enough, it comes out of this pile of sticks that Paul has and bites him on the hand. It is called a viper. It was a poisonous snake. Interesting, there are no poisonous snakes on the island of Malta today. And it's interesting, as I was reading the commentaries on this passage, that many of them want to either make this a non-venomous snake, or say that it didn't bite Paul, or didn't break his skin, and that's why he didn't die. I just thought that was interesting. There were viper there. is a word for a poisonous snake. And when the snake bit him, the barbarians, as they're called in verse four, the Greeks called anybody who didn't speak Greek, they called him a barbarian. It didn't mean they were barbaric as we would think of that today, but that was a term that they used for anybody who was not a Greek speaking. So when Luke uses that term, he's just using common term of the day for anybody that didn't speak Greek. But when they saw the venomous beast, and by the way, if your Bible has italics, You'll notice the word venomous is in italics, and I think the translators supply that. That's what that means. It means that that word's not in the original. It was supplied by the translators, but they're pulling from the word viper in verse three, which is the term for a poisonous snake. So they're just reiterating that in verse four, that indeed, this was a venomous snake. This venomous beast is hanging on his head. But they said among themselves, no doubt this man is a murderer, whom though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth him not to live. They're fully expecting, they know this is a poisonous snake. They're fully expecting Paul to drop dead. And they're amazed that he didn't. So clearly, obviously, We understand and we believe the word of God. But it was interesting to me that even some that were maybe in some other ways, not orthodox, but more orthodox in the things they were saying, would nonetheless try to deny the supernatural in this case and try to say that this wasn't a poisonous snake or didn't actually bite Paul. But it did. And so they're expecting Paul to drop dead, and he doesn't. He shook the beast into the fire, verse 5 says, and felt no harm. And by the way, this is an instance of the promise that Christ made to the apostles in Mark 16, verses 17 and 18. He said, and these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name, they shall cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents. And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They'll lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. This is just the fulfillment of that. The Lord wasn't telling us we needed to play with snakes. But what he was saying is there would be times when his servants and something like this could happen where they were unintentionally bitten by a snake and God would preserve them. And all of that, those sign gifts that God gave to the early church were intended to verify, validate the message that they were preaching. to indicate that indeed the message was God's word, was real, because this is new. The gospel, as it's preached, fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The gospel is in the Old Testament, but the fulfillment of it in Christ is a new truth. And so God is vindicating his messengers and his message through these signed gifts that are no longer valid for today. We'll touch on that again a little bit later, but that's what's happening. God is preserving Paul. He's bitten by this poisonous snake and nothing happens. We also read in this chapter, in the first 10 verses about Paul and Melita, that the chief of the island, a man named Publius, provided a room and board for Paul and his companions for three days. I would assume that was until they could find other lodging. His father had a fever and dysentery and Paul healed him. And then when the islanders heard about that, they brought their sick to him for healing and Paul healed all that came to him. So when the time came to leave, the islanders provided all that was needed for the journey. And you remember that when they landed on this island, they'd been shipwrecked and everything had been thrown overboard. All they had was the clothes on their back when they got there. So as they're preparing to leave after three months, They were honored with many honors, verse 10 says, and when they departed, they were laden with such things as were necessary. The people gave them things to help them. So, as we think about this account that we have here in Acts 28, there's three truths that I want to present this evening. One, I'm going to give you a quote. Well, the first thought is this, God is the godly man's defender. And I just as I was reading commentary someone pointed this out. I thought that's a good thought. Let me share it with you God intended for Paul to get to Rome and nothing was going to prevent that from happening One writer said how Satan tried to hinder Paul from breaching Rome how he attempted to pose God's will and God's plan By the murderous Jews by the storms of the sea the suggestion of the soldiers to kill the prisoners and now by the Viper Satan tried to frustrate the Lord's plan, but God kept his servant so that no harm came to him God had a a plan and a purpose for Paul's life that included his preaching the gospel to Nero and to those in Nero's palace. And he had told Paul that was what was going to happen. And no matter what happened to him, and no doubt Satan was opposing, God was watching over him so that he could fulfill that purpose. And it reminds us that we are safe in the will of God until God is through with us. We sometimes say the safest place to be is in the center of God's will. It doesn't mean that we won't suffer You know, Paul was in the center of God's will in his missionary journeys, and he was beaten three times. He received 39 stripes. He was caned three times. He was stoned and left for dead. Paul suffered greatly in the will of God, but he didn't die until God was through with him, until it was his time. God was watching over him. God was protecting him. And the same is true for us as we who know Christ as Savior, as we seek to go about and serve God and fulfill His will for our life, God will watch over us. It doesn't mean that there may not be bad things that happen to us, that we might even have to suffer, perhaps even some of the things that Paul suffered, but God will take care of us until He is through with us, and we can count on that. Think about how many times they tried to kill Jesus, but they couldn't do it because the Father had a time and a way for Jesus to die. One time they were ready to stone him, they were gonna cast him off the hill at Nazareth and stone him, but it wasn't God's time, it wasn't the Father's time, nor would that have been the Father's way. Jesus had to die on the cross. It had been prophesied in Psalm 22, the manner in which Jesus would die, and there's this beautiful description of the sufferings of crucifixion in Psalm 22. pointing to Christ's death. God had a plan even for how he would die. And so that had to be fulfilled. So that's one thought. Number two, God is no man's debtor. There were at least three of God's servants in the group that was shipwrecked. Who were they, by the way? Who are the three? We know there were at least three. Who are they? Paul? Luke? And there was a third one that's mentioned by name. a man named Aristarchus of Macedonia. There may have been others. Among those 276 people that were on board that ship, there may have been other believers. You can be sure that for all the time that Paul was on there, he was trying to get others saved. He was no doubt sharing the gospel as God gave him opportunity, and maybe he even led some to Christ. The Lord did not preserve that information for us, but there's at least three. that are there. And in verse 2 we read about the islanders showing kindness to them, not just to those three, but thinking about what they did and how it affected God's servants. They built this fire to warm them, to help them to get dry when they escaped. They knew they were on the island that was called Melita. And the barbarous people showed us no little kindness, Luke writes, for they kindled a fire and received us, everyone, because of the present rain and because of the cold. They're soaking wet. It's cold, it's wintertime, and these people see this shipwreck, see them coming on shore, and so immediately they run around, they gather sticks, they build a fire, build a big bonfire to provide for these people. It says that they were received, they welcomed them. Even though they don't know these people, they welcomed them as guests. They showed them no little kindness. And the word kindness there, the Greek word literally means loving men. We get our English word for philanthropy from the Greek word that is translated there, kindness, in verse two. A loving of men. They saw these people in need and said, let's help them. And then in verse seven, the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius, received them in Lodz in three days courteously. He took them into his home and took responsibility for them. Even though, again, they're strangers to him, but he takes them into his home, provides hospitality for them, treats them courteously. With thoughtfulness is the idea, again, of the Greek word behind that word. Translated courteously, the idea of thoughtfulness, thinking about them and their needs, and how can we help you? These people are going out of their way to help these strangers who have washed up on their shore. And at least three of those strangers are servants of the Lord. God is no man's debtor. These people are helping God's servants. God helps them. And I think it's interesting that the Lord repaid their kindness, and he did it through the character and the gifts of the Apostle Paul. The character of Paul is seen in the fact that they build this fire and Paul is, verse 3, gathering sticks. The fire is for him, to help him get warm and dry. What is Paul doing? He's gathering sticks for the fire. That speaks of his character. He could have just stood around and warmed himself and watched them serve him. But instead, he couldn't do that. He had to get involved in helping because that was his nature, because that is the Holy Spirit guiding and directing him. If I can put it this way, we ought to be looking for every opportunity that God would give us to show kindness to others, to be a help to others, showing them the Lord through our actions. As they would express kindness to us, we ought to be kind in return. At the very least, we ought to be thankful. We ought to express our thanks for the kindness. These are not believers, and yet they're doing all this kindness for Paul and the others. Paul couldn't just let that go and just take advantage of it. That wasn't his nature. It's not the nature of Christ. Paul's a servant. Paul's a giver. And though he certainly appreciated the fire and would take advantage of the warmth and the fact that it would help dry him out, he wasn't just going to stand there and take advantage of that situation. That's not his nature and not the heart of Christ in him. He's going to gather sticks for the fire. He's going to do what he can to help. And then he heals their sick. He's taking a gift that God had given to him, the gift of healing, one of the sign gifts, and he's exercising that gift first in healing Publius' father, and then as people find out about it, they bring all their sick to him. He's healing them, and probably this went on, you know, not just, it wasn't just one time, but the whole time he's there, people are bringing sick people to him, and he's healing them. And God used that. By the way, I mentioned we'd come back to this idea of the side gifts. One writer stated it very well, very clearly. He said, no case was too hard for Paul. No one was turned away. No one had to come back a few days later complaining that his cure was merely imaginary and that the original condition had returned. No one was told that he could have been healed if he had exercised more faith. No mass hysteria was generated. Paul is manifesting the gift of healing as that gift had been given to the early church to validate its message. Paul simply emptied all the hospitals on the island and healed all the sick. He was the last of the healers, and this is the last occasion of the gifts being used in the New Testament. No one can doubt that God still heals. but that he now uses the gift of healing is open to question because of the dispensational nature of the gift. Send us a quote-unquote healer today who will invade the city hospitals and cure all and sundry, and we will believe that apostolic miracles are again on earth. As for today's quote-unquote healers with their mass psychology manipulative techniques and high quota failures, we certainly are permitted to be highly skeptical of them. God does heal today. But there's no indication that God gives men the gift of healing. Again, nobody's going into hospitals and emptying them. And how often, you know, what he says at the beginning of this, how often it's true that supposedly those who are supposedly healed, sometimes there's no way to verify that they were actually sick or that they were actually cured through a faith healer. Or, you know, it may be mind over matter where they come back a few days later and they still got the same condition they had before. Or the excuse is he wasn't healed because he didn't have enough faith. Those things are happening here. Paul is exercising a gift that God had given him to do the healing. And so certainly Paul had that gift and exercised it, and God used that. Because his kindness to them resulted in their honoring him, it tells us in verse 10, and providing for his and others' needs. But through Paul, God is giving back to them as they have given to God's servants. But the last thought that I want to share with you tonight, and this was the first thing that came to my mind as I was studying this passage, and let me put it this way. God magnifies us. so that we can glorify him. God magnifies us so that we can glorify him. In Matthew 5 16, Jesus said, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father, which is in heaven. That as as God uses us and we serve him, that that it should cause others not to glorify us, but him. I was even thinking about the shipwreck. And granted, they should have listened to Paul, but they didn't. But how would they have known that Paul was right unless they had rejected his advice and paid the price? Once they were in the storm and they lost everything, all of a sudden, they have a new respect for Paul because that's what Paul had told them. We ought not depart from Fair Havens. If we do, I'm afraid we're going to lose everything. And they did. And Paul was right. When all this is taking place, what does Paul do? We're going back to the chapter 27 in the shipwreck, but, you know, after they've given up hope of being saved and Paul finally stands up in the midst of them and he says, sirs, you should have listened to me, you should have hearkened to me and not have loosed from Crete and have gained this harm and loss. But now I exhort you to be of good cheer. For there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night, the angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve. Let me back up. Paul's reminding them, I said this. And they're listening to him now because he said this and they wouldn't listen to him. And now they're in the middle of it. But he says, look, so let me, but now let me tell you about God. Let me tell you about my God. The angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve, said, Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar, and lo, God hath given all them that sail with thee. And so, sirs, be of good cheer. I believe, God, that it shall be even as it was told me. Paul took advantage of that opportunity where God did magnify him. All of a sudden, they're paying attention to him, and this guy knows more than we gave him credit for, and he takes that opportunity and turns it around to point them to his God. You should have listened, but you didn't, nevertheless, God. When the poisonous snake bit him and he didn't die, they thought he was a God. Verse 6 of chapter 28, when they looked when he should have swollen or fallen down dead, suddenly after they looked a great while and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a God. First they thought he was a He was just a terrible criminal and he survived the shipwreck, but the gods were getting him through the snakebite and then all of a sudden they realized, no, this guy can be bitten by a poisonous snake and it doesn't affect him, he must be a god. And it doesn't tell us specifically there that Paul, you know, pointed to his god, but we know that Paul would not be one if knowingly to take worshiped to himself that was only due to God, his first missionary journey. And I should have gone back and looked, where was he? Was it in Pisidian Antioch? Or one of those cities that he was in. They came to worship him. They brought, they're bringing sacrifices. You know, he's Mercury and Barnabas is Jupiter or vice versa. And they're acting like this is a God, the men of Lycaonia. And they're saying, Paul didn't understand them, they're saying, these guys are gods and they're going to worship him. And when Paul realizes what is happening, he runs out, no, no, no, stop. We're not gods. We're here to tell you about the true God and that you're not to do this, worship these idols, these false gods, but to worship the true God. And we're going to tell you who he is. Paul wouldn't take worship that belonged to God to himself. So if Paul knew or when he would have found out that they thought because he had not been harmed by the snake that he was a God, he would have taken that opportunity to say to them, no, no, no, I'm not a God. I'm here to tell you about the true God. Let me tell you who is God. It's not me. And let me tell you, the reason that snake didn't kill me is because God preserved me. God protected me. Let me tell you about the God who can protect us from poisonous snake bites and who can ultimately take care of your greatest need. Even in healing the sick would have given him an opportunity to preach the gospel and telling of the one who can heal the greatest sickness that we have, the sickness of sin. And so there are times in our lives where God will, as it were, magnify us. But we need to be careful to take advantage of that situation to glorify him. There's another healing that we read about earlier in the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 3, Peter heals a lame man. He and John are going to the temple at the hour of prayer, and they encounter this lame man who's begging for alms. And Peter says, look at me. And then he says, silver and gold have I none such as I have I given to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Ride up and walk. And the man got up and walked. And the people are looking at that. They're amazed. How in the world is this? And they're marveling. And they're looking at Peter. They didn't say it, but they're looking at him like he must be some kind of a god. And he said to them, you men of Israel, why marvel you at this? Or why look you so earnestly on us as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, had glorified his son Jesus, whom he delivered up and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. Peter took advantage of that opportunity. No, it's not me. It's Christ. The one that you crucified is the one who has done this, not me. It's not my power. It's the power of God. And he pointed them to Christ. When Joseph was in prison and the butler and the baker were cast in there and they had dreams and Joseph asked them, you know, why are you so cast down one morning as he came to take care of them? Why are you so cast down? We had dreams. We don't know what they mean. And so he, Joseph said, well, I know God can interpret dreams. Tell me your dreams. And they did. And he interpreted them and the dreams came true just as he said. And so when the butler was serving Pharaoh again, as Joseph had predicted he would, after a period of time, Pharaoh has a dream. I don't know what it meant. And the butler remembers, oh yeah, there's a guy in prison who can interpret dreams. And so they bring Joseph before Pharaoh and he said, I understand you can interpret dreams. And he says, no, not me. But God, tell me your dream. And he does. And then Joseph says, now here's what it means. But he gave the glory to God. He was magnified by the fact that God enabled him to interpret dreams. That he reflects all the glory back to God. It's not me. As if I can do this in my own power. It's not me, it is God. And let me tell you about my God. And so, God may magnify you in some way or another. Maybe you excel on the job. and you do well and you get promotions and people observe that and they see that and maybe they not even comment to you or something, but use that opportunity to give the glory to God because you don't get that in your own strength. Even if you say, well, I used my intellect, and my education, and my gifts and talents, and I put all that together, and I worked hard, and I got this promotion, I got this raise, I made this, but who gave you the ability to do that? It is God that gives us the ability to do the things that we do. And if you excel, yes, okay, you worked hard, and good, we should, as believers, we should do our best. But still it is God that exalts us. And when God exalts us, the glory belongs to him. And it's an opportunity for us to let our light shine before men so that they will glorify not us, but our God. I just thank the Lord for this promotion. I thank the Lord for this raise. I thank the Lord for what he has allowed me to do and publicly declare your faith in God and your confidence, not in yourself, but in your God. Thank you, Lord, for allowing this to happen. Even out there on the ship, you know, as Paul later on is encouraging them. They've been fasting for two weeks and he says, you know, he knows what's coming. We need to eat. You need your strength. And he takes bread and right there in front of them, he breaks it and he and he blesses, he prays to God right there on board that ship in front of everybody, most of whom are not believers. But he prays and thanks God for the food. And publicly gives glory to God. And again, he's on the stage, as it were. And he's using that stage as an opportunity to glorify God. God may magnify you through some sickness or trouble or trial that comes into your life all of a sudden. And it may not be in the sense of you're exalted, but you've got people's attention. They're watching you. And it's an opportunity for you to walk with God through the sickness, or the trouble, or the trial. And as people watch that, and they see that, and they see your faith, it's an opportunity for you to give God the glory. There is a lady by the name of Becky Vaughn, who's a young lady, but she's getting up in years now, but still relatively young. But when she was, I think, three years old, there was a fire. in their home and she was severely burned and disfigured. The real Becky Vaughn lives inside that disfigured body. It didn't affect her or her mind or any of that, it only affected her body. She's as whole inside as anybody. But her body was severely burned and she's disfigured. Her father's a pastor, and in giving the testimony of all this happened, he told her, he tried to teach her, now God has allowed this to happen to you. And this is your platform to glorify God because people are looking at you. It's a way, a different way, but it is a way that God is magnifying her. She's got people's attention because of her disfigurement. What do you do with that? Well, because you're a child of God, you glorify God. You use that platform to point others to Christ. He has magnified you so that you can glorify him. God may magnify you through your children, they succeed, they excel, or something, and somebody comments to you about that, and you say, yeah, I really raised them well, and I taught them to work hard, and they're just, we're reaping the fruits of what we did. Don't do that. Maybe you did raise them well, and you taught them to work hard, and as a result of that, but it's not you and what you did, it's God. It is the grace of God, it is not us. And when God would, in whatever way, that God would magnify you, and there are many ways that he can do that. I don't think you're gonna get bit by a poisonous snake and not suffer any effect, but God can do that, even today. God can do that, even today. It's not his norm, but he could. But there can be many ways that God can magnify you, but when he does, it is not so that you can bask in the limelight. It is so that you can then deflect glory to him. God won't share his glory with another. Next, chapter 12, we read about Herod, the father of Agrippa that Paul has recently stood before. And he was hailed as a god and he accepted that worship. And the Bible says immediately God struck him with a deadly disease and he died a horrible death on the spot because God would not share his glory with Herod. He wouldn't do it with an unbeliever. He won't do it with a believer either. So don't try and take God's glory when he chooses to magnify you. Use that to glorify him. So as I in closing, let me just say tonight, the circumstances of our life afford many opportunities to see God at work. Paul has seen God at work in his life throughout his life, and we're still seeing God working. in the shipwreck, the storm in the shipwreck, and what's happened on the island of Melita for those three months that they were there, God was working and God was showing himself to Paul and through Paul to others. And so God does the same today, not necessarily in the same ways, but God is showing himself in our life through the circumstances of our life. Look for that, look for God. in the circumstances of your life and look for the opportunities that he would give you as well to point others to him through the things that happen in your life. Well, let's stand together for prayer. Father, we pray that you would take these simple truths tonight and that they'll find lodging in our heart, that they will be planted in our heart to bear fruit for your glory. in days ahead. We thank you for the way you worked in the Apostle Paul's life, the things that he experienced, his faith and his walk with you. Thank you for the demonstrations of your power to him and through him to others. We just pray that you'll continue to teach us and even Lord as we might go back and Be reading and studying the life of Paul on our own. Lord, may many of the things that we're learning come back to mind. May you continue to teach us through his life. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen.