Good to see you in Sunday School this morning. Find a seat in the Bible and take our text. Tonight's chapter number 27. Good to see you this morning. Good crowd for Adult Sunday School. A good number over next door. And I've said before, but I haven't said it in a while, so I'll say it again. I do esteem Sunday School to be one of, if it's done correctly, to be one of the most important services of the week. And it's not necessarily as amped up and high as maybe a quote-unquote normal service would be. But from my own personal experience, as Sunday School has done correctly, from the youngest of children all the way up to the adults, this is where we'll learn as much Bible as what you will in any other service. throughout the week, just going verse by verse, looking at the scripture, comparing scripture with scripture, spiritual things with spiritual things, line upon line, precept upon precept. And the truth is, even for the younger children, many of you, the first place you learned about Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark, the miracles of the Lord, you know, parting of the Red Sea, feeding of the 5,000, Joseph and his brothers, all that stuff, many times, If you were grown up in church, you learned about that in Sunday school. And even if you ended up getting out of church and walking away from the Lord, there's still those things that stuck with you, those fundamental elements that you got in Sunday school as a child. And I thank the Lord for that time. It's a wonderful thing. And we're living in a day where so many people are departing from traditional elements of the faith. there's nothing wrong with tradition. Paul said to hang on and hold on to the traditions. Nothing wrong with traditions as long as they're scriptural and biblical. And so many people now just getting rid of this time. And I know why they do, because people don't want to come in and just sit, listen, and learn Sunday school, teaching. They want to come in, and they want the band to be pumping, and the lights to be flashing, and the music to be singing. And they want a feeling. There ain't a whole lot of feeling in this other than just you're here to learn the Bible. So anyways, but I still think it's a necessary element of what we do. I like it. I'm glad you're here. So Acts chapter 27, last week we finished looking at their sailing towards Rome in the first nine verses and then started looking at Uh, the storm that begins to rage, the storm that rages and, and you'll notice again what we talked about last week, this entire storm story all the way from verse number nine, when Paul starts admonishing them all the way to the end of verse 44, this is a great picture of what the church age looks like as it comes to a close. It's a great picture of the church age and the Laodicean church as it is coming to the close and getting towards the rapture of the church. Things start coming apart. Things get tossed overboard. Preaching is not responded to or listened to like it should be. Anyways, we looked at all that last week. One thing that I will throw out at you that I didn't get a chance to deal with last week is you'll notice early in the story, there are two different ships. Now, if this is a picture of the church age, just making picture of this, the Bible says in verse number 2, back up to verse 2 real quick. We're not going to recover ground, but we do want to hit some ground we didn't cover. Verse 2 said that entering into a ship of Adramidium, We launched, meaning to sail by the coast of Asia. That ship, Adramidium, it is from a place called Mysia, which is in Asia Minor. You say, so what's that mean? Well, that ship, that's the place it came from, is where all those churches in the Revelation came from. The churches of Asia Minor, Philadelphia, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, and Smyrna, and Laodicea, that's where those churches were. So it's a picture of the church age. It's a picture of the New Testament church. But you'll notice it ain't long after they get on that ship, they get off that ship, and the one that sinks is the one in verse 6. Watch this ship they get off of, or they get on, after they get off of the one from Asia where all those churches were started. Verse 6 said, There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria, Sailing into italy alexandria, that's north africa. That's egypt And alexandria and egypt is where all of your corrupt bible manuscripts come from Your new international version your new king james version your english standard version your modern english version new living translation all of them they don't use the Manuscripts that came from Antioch where they were called Christians first in Acts 11 26 That's where you King James Bible come from the received text the Antiochian text or what is called the textus receptus the received text That's what translated you King James Bible. That's not where these new modern versions come from they come out of Alexandria Egypt And so it's interesting that the ship they wind up on that crashes, that goes astray, that gets messed up, don't want to listen to preaching, that's where all those messed up versions come from. And if you'll notice, where's the ship headed? It's running as hard as it can towards Rome. Brother, a lot of what we see today in the last day's church, what's it going towards? It's headed back to the mother of harlots, Rome. Amen. Isn't that what the Bible said over there in the Revelation? It said that Babylon the Great, she was the mother of harlots. That's the Roman Catholic Church. What's most churches today running towards? An ecumenical mindset, holding hands with everybody. You say, where's that ecumenical mindset come from? It comes from Rome. The word Catholic means universal. The word Catholic means whole. It's good for everybody. Let's just all hold hands and we'll go to heaven together. No, you won't unless you go in a Bible way. So what happens with this Alexandrian ship? It comes apart. But a blessing is, even though the ship's headed the wrong way necessarily, and even though it ends up coming apart right in the middle of it, there's still some Philadelphian church-age believers. There's Paul, and there's Luke, and there's their brother that's on there, Aristarchus. There's still a few fellas. It's not the majority of them, but there's still a few fellas that believe God and believe the Bible. And that's the way we know it will be in the last days. It's not going to be the mass majority seeing revival. But there's still a few that want the truth and want the book and want to live for God. And I thank God for that. So let's notice some things about this. We looked at several of these verses. Let's just start back here in verse number 14. Verse 14, we'll read some verses just to give you context and get to where we stopped at. Verse 14, but not long after, there arose against it a tempestuous wind called Gerakladon. And when the ship was caught and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive. And running under a certain island, which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat. It's funny that I had talked to y'all last week about that boat in the text when I said we had much work to come By the boat and verse 17 then says which when they had taken up they took up the boat Remember, I told y'all that the boat in the text and you find it later on. That's not the ship It's the little dinghy boat that they would carry with them like a life raft But it was a big, fairly large vessel made out of wood, too. It's funny, I told you that last Sunday, and this past week we was watching a movie called Master and Commander of the Far Side of the World. And it's a really interesting movie if you want to see like old-time ships sailing like this. It's with Russell Crowe, and it's old ships fighting. And I think you was over there. Y'all was over there watching that thing with us. And all of a sudden, here's this old ship in the 17, 1800s, and behind it is their little boats. They're dinghy boats and they'll pull them behind them for a while and then pull them up next and hoist them up. That's Acts 27. Look, there it is right there. I mean, you watch that thing, it's on there. And anyways, verse 17, which when they had taken up, they used helps undergirding the ship and fearing lest they should fall into the quicksand, strait sail and so were driven. And we being exceedingly tossed with the tempest, the next day they lighten the ship. Notice in the last days they'll start getting rid of things that they esteem as non-essential. Verse 19, the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling. That's like the extra pulleys, the extra ropes, extra things that they're going to need to keep the ship running like it should. They throw that stuff out. Well, let's not throw that out. Let's throw out the luggage. Let's throw out the extra shoes and let's throw out the extra. No, no, no. We need to stay looking good. No, you're going to need the tackling of the ship. You know, in these last days, the church has now thrown out things they esteem as non-essential. Modesty. You know, non-essential. That's still a Bible doctrine, by the way. I mean, it's still in the book. Music. Well, that's non-essential. It's just, you know, music is neutral. Music has never been neutral. Let's just make it whatever you want to make it. That's non-essential. And mark this down. I'm fixing to show you this in the scripture. Whenever they start throwing out things they esteem as non-essential, like just tackling, it's non-essential. Let's throw out the modesty. Let's throw out the music. Mark this down. The manuscript and the manual is going to go next. Matter of fact, watch the next thing they throw out. The next thing they throw out, come down to verse 38. Verse 38. They've thrown out the tackling in verse number 19. Watch verse 38. The next thing they throw out. And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and cast out the wheat into the sea. You know what wheat is? That's how they make bread. You know what they're throwing out? The next thing they throw out, they throw the food out. They throw the bread out. I don't care what nobody says. I've watched it too many times. And they can say anything they want to say, but I've watched it over and over and over and over again. And you just won't, you know, the only thing men don't, the only thing, what do they say? The only thing men learn from history is that men don't learn from history. And so people can say whatever they want, but I've watched this happen in too many churches over and over. When the music starts going, then the modesty will go. Or vice versa on either one of them. Either the modesty starts going, then the music goes. Normally it's the music first. The music starts getting eh, tossing out, then the modesty goes. Then anybody can just dress and look any way they want to. And if those start going, the manuscript will go. The bread, the wheat, the manna, it'll get tossed out too. And I hear these guys saying this stuff all the time. I've literally talked to them. I'm not talking about like, I've watched a podcast. I'm talking about multiple men that I could call their names right now, who I love and are friends of mine, but have personally confronted them, personally. Face-to-face or on the phone talk with them about their music and the way the modesty is going and I've told him I said you're gonna drop that King James Bible Oh, no, sir, brother Cody. You know me better than that. No, sir. I'm just telling you doc I'm telling you it's gonna happen and if it don't happen while you're there it'll happen when that next regime takes over that you taught not to believe nothing and I don't care what they say, it's going to happen. And here they finally toss the wheat out. Now, it took a while, but finally the wheat, the bread, whoop. And after a while, they'll get down to the place where they say, well, we done tossed the tackling out. We don't need that. I mean, what's the difference if we use this version or that version? What's the difference? Well, it don't matter. Let's just toss that King James Bible out. It happens every time. Okay, keep reading here. Verse number 20, back to our text, Acts 27, 20. And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. We commented on that last week about how in the last days they'll say there ain't no hope. Where's the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued even. as they were from the beginning of the creation. Verse 21, here we go, we didn't hit this last week. But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, sirs, you should have hearkened unto me and not have loosed from Crete. Even though Paul's got a, you know, streak in him that says, I told you so. All of us, I guess, got that in us. "...should have hearkened to me, not to lose some creed, and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you but of the ship." Now, thank God, even in the midst of what is a picture of the last day's church heading the wrong direction, done about to come apart, throwing things overboard, thank God, there's still some voices. There's still a voice that's got along with God and still preaching the Bible way. You say, what do you mean he's preaching the Bible way? Well, in verses 21 and 22, Paul preaches just the recipe that he told Timothy that preachers should preach. He said in 2 Timothy 4-2, preach the word. Be instant in season, out of season, and this is how you preach the word. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. That's the three elements he said of preaching the word. Use the word to reprove, use the word to rebuke, and use the word to exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. That's what he does in the text. Look, even in these last days, there's still some Bible preaching going on. All hope is taken away. It's dark. Sun nor stars have appeared. It's a dark time. The Bible said it'd be that way before the coming of the Lord, before the church leaves out in the rapture. It would be that way. But Paul steps up, notice what he does, he reproves. That's the first element of Bible preaching. Watch it, verse 21. Paul stood forth in the midst of them and says, he reproves. Sirs, you should have hearkened unto me and not have loosed from Crete. What is that? That's reproof. You didn't do it right, you didn't listen. It's a reproof for not doing something the right way. Aren't we living in a day in the mass part of churches? I don't want to be reproved. Don't contradict anything about my life. Anything. Just let me live how I want to live and then tell me everything's alright. Y'all, I don't know what you've listened to or what you've heard. I've literally spoken with people. I'm not talking about things, experiences somebody else had that then I'm drawing from their experience. There's nothing wrong with that, but I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about people I have spoken to, Brother David Fields, that literally said, I stopped going to X or Y or Z church because when I went, they preached against things that I was doing and it offended me and so I left. And so I asked, what's the things that they were talking about? And it's Bible things. So they're preaching against Bible sins and you got mad because you were doing those things and you didn't want to hear them no more. But reproof is good for all of us. We're taking that out of our child training and our child rearing. Children need to be reproved. The children of God need reproving. God does that through his word for us. Matter of fact, go to Proverbs. Proverbs is probably the greatest book on reproving and rebuking and exhorting that there is. And it's a father speaking to a son. In the physical sense, obviously, it's David speaking to Solomon. And then it's Solomon writing this down, talking to his son. Solomon says at the beginning that these are the words that he learned from his father. So David taught Solomon a lot of this, then Solomon taught it to his son, but then in a spiritual sense, you read Proverbs because it's God the Father speaking to you and I as his sons and teaching us. Watch what he said in Proverbs 6 in verse number 23. Proverbs 6, 23. He's talking about the commandment of the Lord. A father's commandment, a mother's law, bind them about your heart and your neck. And he said in verse 22, when thou goest, it shall lead thee. When thou sleepest, it shall keep thee. When thou awakest, it shall talk to thee. Verse 23, for the commandment is a lamp. You know, thy words are lamp to my feet and light to my path. And the law is light and reproofs of instruction. Sirs, you should have hearkened unto me and not have loosed from Crete. Reproofs of instruction, check this out, are the way of life. What do they do for us? Verse 24, to keep thee. Reproofs of instruction will keep you from getting in the wrong way. It'll keep you from loosing from Crete and getting in a mess. In the immediate text, in verse 24, it'll keep you from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. It will keep you from lusting, verse 25, after things you're not to lust after. Verse 26, it'll keep you from taking part in things you're not to take part in. And over and over down through here, you can look at it. Reproof's a good thing. Look at chapter 10. Look at chapter 10, Proverbs chapter 10. Watch this. Proverbs chapter 10, verse 17. Proverbs 10, 17. He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction, but he that refuseth reproof erreth. You're out of the way. You're out of line if you don't receive and you don't want reproof. Don't tell me nothing that's going to reprove me in my life, preacher. Well, you're erring. That's the wrong direction to be going on this thing. Go to chapter 15 real fast. I could show you this over and over. The word reproof is in Proverbs over and over and over and over again. I'm just talking about it's a picture of preaching. That's what Paul's doing. Chapter 15 and look at verse number 10. Chapter 15, verse 10. Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way, and he that hateth reproof shall die. Oh, I ain't listening to that preacher no more. I'm tired of listening to mom and daddy and their rules. I'm tired of listening to somebody tell me what to do. You're gonna wind up in a mess. May I just look down at verse 32? Verse 32, it's over and over. Verse 32, he that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul. He hates himself, but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding. You say, what about that verse 32, he that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul. Well, that's what Paul said in 2 Timothy chapter 2, when Paul said, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will. And before that, it says this, in meekness, instructing those who oppose themselves, oppose themselves. This here says it despiseth his own soul if he was to talk to somebody running away from the scripture and running away from God running away from the house of God and doing their own thing. Hey, do you hate yourself? No, man, I love myself Do you oppose yourself? No, I'm I'm right in line with myself, but you really are Because your very lifestyle is going to destroy your life No, I love life. Yeah, that's what's going to destroy you because Jesus said I If you want to love life, you want to have life, hate life. And if you want to find life, you got to hate your own life to find His life. And if you're loving your life and wanting your life, you're going to wind up hating your life. It's those oxymorons of the Christian life. You understand what I'm saying? Back to our text, look back now. We not only find that Paul does that reproving, but then watch Paul do this rebuking here. Acts 27, 21, he said, sirs, you should have hearkened unto me and not have loosed from Crete. And then he says, now he's going to rebuke. And to have gained this harm and loss. It's going to cost you. I'm not, now we've not just reproved for going the wrong way. Now we're rebuking because now we see what it has costed you, what it's done in your life. And we can go back to Proverbs and just hang out almost all Sunday school and look at different verses. But talking about rebuke, the Bible says a wise son here at his father's instruction, but a scorner here, if not rebuke, they won't listen to it. Don't rebuke me. Proverbs 27 five. I'll just read you some of these 27 five says open rebuke is better than secret love. Here's where we are today. Ecclesiastes, same guy writing this, Ecclesiastes 7.5 said, it is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. In other words, you'd do better for a wise man to rebuke you about the direction or the things you've done than to just run on down the road with your buddies listening to I'm on a highway to hell. Boy, we saw a picture of that here. two weeks ago on the street. Man, broke my heart. It really did. Broke my heart. Talking about it's better to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear and sing the song of fools. There was, I'm assuming these were his boys. I'm sure they weren't somebody else's. I imagine it was a daddy. But it was a fella in a big jacked up F-250 pickup truck and they pulled up on Main Street there. And when he pulled up there, they were listening to us preach. I don't remember who was preaching at the time. One of the boys were. And he was listening to us preach. And he had all the windows down. And he had a little boy in the front seat with him and another little boy right behind him in the back seat. And he was sitting here and we were right out here preaching. And you could tell they really kind of tuned in. You could tell he was saying stuff and kind of laughing. And they pulled off. In about five minutes, on purpose, they went around the entire block and came all the way back down around and pulled right back up. And the sole reason he pulled back up was so he could turn his radio wide open and sit there. And he turned his radio wide open, ACDC, I'm on a highway to hell, and had his boys back there laughing and singing it with him, crunk it up as loud as they could while one of them boys was sitting there preaching at him. So you say, what is that? That's a daddy that's singing the song of fools to his boy instead of saying, hey, listen to the rebuke of these wise people trying to tell you don't go to hell without God. I thought, man, it broke my heart. It really did. And what broke my heart was if that family don't get right with God and get saved, can you imagine the horror of being that guy on judgment day? and your son's going to hell right in front of you and the Lord replaying that scene back in front of his mind and say, hey, daddy, you're one of the reasons why your boy's fitting to get pitched off in a lake of fire. Highway to hell, funny now, ain't it? Let's laugh now. Ain't it funny? It was funny then, ain't it funny now? Come on, daddy, laugh now. You say God won't do that, you ain't read Proverbs 1. Said, I'll mock when you fear cometh. I'm going to mock when you calamity cometh. The Lord's going to stand there and say, hey, hey, ain't that funny now? There's hell. There's your boys. Ain't y'all having a big time now? There's them preachers up here. Rebuke's a blessing if you do something with it. The Bible said, he that being often reproved and hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed in that without remedy. Enough reproof and enough rebuke, and you don't let it soften you, but you let it just tense you up. My boy used to be like that. I remember when Cody, you know, now he's up here. But when he was down here, and I'd be getting on to him, or he'd be wanting to do something or whatever, and doing something I didn't like, I'd put my hand on his neck. And I could tell when he was in a rebellious mode, Brother Mark, because I could literally feel his neck tense up with my hand on it. It's that stiff neck. I ain't listening. I ain't, you know, and I, you know, if I was trying to get him to look or do something, I'd try and pull him that way. That's God. Well, you keep being often reproved and hardening your neck after a while, the belt comes off. Suddenly be destroying that without remedy. Anyways, back to our text. It's not just reproving and rebuking though, ain't this a blessing? Watch this. The Bible says back in our text, Paul has reproved. Sirs, you should have hearkened to me, not loose from creep. He has rebuked. You've gained this harm and loss, but thank God for the exhortation. Verse 22, and now I exhort you. All three points of preaching is found in this text. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer. Yeah, you've messed up. Yeah, you've gone the wrong way. Yeah, we're in the middle of a storm. Cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine. Yeah, it looks bad. Cheer up, child of God. It's going to be all right. How can we have cheer, preacher, in the midst of all this mess? Well, he says here, for one, there shall be no loss of any man's life among you. We're going to make it. Preacher, I walk into church, I've let the Lord down, let myself down, and the Lord's beat me up, and I've been rebuked and reproved, and I've gotten right about it. Or preacher, I'm going through a storm in my life, or I got something going on. Where can I find exhortation in this messed up world? Well, if you're saved, you're gonna make it. There'll be no loss of any man's life among you. We're gonna make it to the other side. And if that wasn't enough, how can we have good cheer? Because we know the Lord's with us. Look at verse 23. Here's the cheer. Be of good cheer. Why? Verse 23. For there stood by me this night the angel of God. Now, once again, we have highlighted and dealt with before that the angel of God in the New and Old Testament is what we would call a Christophany or things of that nature. It is literally a pre-incarnate, in the Old Testament at least, it's a pre-incarnate appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the New Testament, it's just Jesus Christ himself. You say, how do you know that's Jesus Christ? Because Paul tells us not to worship angels in Colossians. And look what he says about this angel. Verse 23, there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am. I belong to him. Paul don't belong to no angel, but he belongs to this angel, and whom I serve. I serve this angel. It's the angel of God. The angel of God, when you read about him in the Old Testament many times, it'll say the angel of God said this, or the angel of God did that, and then it'll roll over after that in another verse or two and say, and the Lord said. Talking about the angel of God said it, but it's the capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. It literally is Jehovah God. It's deity. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Anyways, how can we have cheer preacher? Because Jesus is with us. And he said in Hebrews 13, hey y'all, don't worry, cheer up. Because he said in Hebrews 13, that he would never leave us nor forsake us. And we may boldly say, the next verse, the Lord is my helper. He'll be with us. And not only can we have cheer because He's with us, we can have cheer because His Word is true. His Word's true. Keep reading, verse 24. And He said this, saying, Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar, and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer. What's he of good cheer of? The Word of God's true. For I believe God. that it shall be even as it was told me." How can we have cheer in a messed up world like we're living in, preacher? Because I believe God. I believe His word's true. And if I believe His word's true, and I've really put my faith and trust in what His word has said, then that means I can have joy even in the most messed up of circumstances and situations. I can have joy even when people listen to the word of God, and when they don't, when you witness to them at work, and they accept it, and when they cuss you out and reject it, when everything's good in finances, when they're not good in finances, when the storm's raging, and when the sun's shining. According to the Bible, I can rejoice evermore. But that's according to the Bible. If you believe the Word, then you can have some cheer in this life. If you don't believe the Word, then I don't know what you find cheer in in this life. How in the world somebody that doesn't know God, doesn't know they're going to make it, doesn't know the Lord's with them, and doesn't have the Word of God to lead them and guide them, how they find cheer in this life? I don't know. It must be a real disappointing, discouraging, depressing life. You can remember when it was such with you. We can remember when it was such with us. I thank God since we come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and walking with the Lord, we've got cheer. And it's not fake and it's not phony. We're not talking about we're walking around like with some fake Joel Osteen smile 24-7. We're not talking about like we don't go through storms and we're, you know, Paul even said, we're troubled on every side. And, you know, we're tossed about and not destroyed and cast down, always bearing about in the body of the dying of the Lord Jesus. And we got problems, yeah. We're not being fakes. We're not walking around like, oh, we never have a problem. That's not true. We hurt, we cry, we suffer, we have pain, but in the midst of all of it, we have cheer. That can only be described if a person knows Jesus Christ. Amen. How in the world can people that believe what we believe anyways about politics and such as that, how can we have cheer for four years of a nincompoop like Joe Biden? How can we have, I mean, people that believe with what we look, the way we look at, I'm just talking about conservatively, the way that we look at the world and look at, you know, the way things should be done and governed and all that, how can we have cheer with eight years of a wacko like Barack Obama? I know how. My cheer's not in the White House. My cheer's not in who's in the White House. My cheer's in the Word of God. But my cheer's in what God said, so I can have cheer all the time. Amen. And he says this, he says, wherefore sirs be of good cheer, I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me. Now I want you to notice something. Paul is a man of unshakable faith. He is a man of unbreakable faith. I mean, right in the middle of the storm, I believe God. Praise God, that's shouting ground right there. It's alright to say I believe God when we're sitting here this morning, but that ain't where he's at. He's a prisoner on a prison ship headed to Rome, gonna lose his head in the midst of a big old storm, and still saying, I still believe God. It hadn't shaken my faith. It hadn't broken my faith. Paul said, I'm confident of this very thing. He, which has begun a good work in you will perform it to the day of Jesus Christ. Paul said, I know whom I have believed in and am persuaded he's able to keep that which I've committed. He's a man of unshakable, unbreakable faith. But I want y'all to notice the next verse. I used to preach a message on, on, on these two verses, verse 25, I believe God. But then verse 26, notice this, the caveat, how be it? In spite of me believing God, in spite of me having cheer, I want y'all to know something, how be it, verse 26, we must be cast upon a certain island. I used to preach a message years ago when I was in evangelism, I preached on believing God and getting blown apart. That's a real cheerful sounding title, ain't it? But it's what happens in the text. Brother Charlie, in the text, Paul believes God. He's 100% sure that God's word is true. He's 100% sure God's with him. He's serving God, living for the Lord, and everything gets blown to pieces. And if you think serving God is going to exempt you from storms or extract you out of storms, that's not Bible. There are times you're going to believe God, and the whole ship's going to come apart. You know, proverbially, life just going... But Lord, I was believing you. Yeah, Paul was too. But Lord, I was serving you. Yeah, Paul was too. But Lord, I was trusting you. Paul was too. How be it? The ship's still going to come apart. I will say this, believing God may not get you out of a storm. See, some people think, well, if I believe God, that'll get me out of the storm. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Misconception on faith and believing God. Misconception. Believing God will not always get you out of the storm. Believing God will get you through the storm. Believing God doesn't all of a sudden mean, y'all, Paul says, stands up in the midst of them. Y'all, I believe God. Water stops, sky parts, everything's back to normal. That's not what happened. I believe God and then like two weeks longer of a storm. And they have to swim to shore. And some of them hold on to broke pieces of the ship. Hey, Paul! I made it! That's the way some of us gonna ride into heaven. Hey, preacher! I made it! My little broke piece of grace. I got it! But we gonna make it. come floating in on barrels, come floating in on broke boards, but we're going to make it. Making it is better than not making it. Right? I'm mad I got a broke piece. Just be glad you got a piece. Would you rather drown? I'm just saying, believing God's not going to always stop the hurricane. It's not going to stop the howling windstorm. But it'll help get you through to the shore. Don't quit believing God. And listen to what I'm about to tell you. Please don't miss this. When you're in the middle of a storm, when you're in the middle of a catastrophe like what he's in the middle of, you've got to believe God in spite of what you see and in spite of what you feel. Here's Paul. I believe God. On what basis, sir, have you looked around? Look at what you see, Paul. Yeah, if I put more stock in what I see than what I believe, then I ain't got no cheer. Because what I see is big old tall waves coming over the top of the ship. What I see is people throwing stuff off the ship. What I see is neither sun nor moon nor stars. That's what I see. But I can't trust what I see. I got to trust what I believe. I can't trust what I feel. What does Paul feel? Well, I mean, I imagine Paul and some of these other guys, they're not shipmen. The Bible talks about there are shipmen here. Now, those are veteran sailors. That's not Paul. A non-veteran sailor now on a ship that is constantly doing this. You know what they're doing? What I feel is I feel sick. I feel terrified. I feel like there's no hope. That's what they said. But I can't lean on what I feel and I can't lean on what I see. I got to lean on what God has said. See, what Paul sees and what Paul feels, y'all mark this, he said, I believe God that it shall be even as it was told me. God told him something, said something. We got what God told us and said to us right here. And throughout your Christian life, what you see and what you feel will totally contradict what God said. Now here's where cheer comes in. You can trust what you see and you can trust what you feel and you can chunk your cheer off the ship. Or, you can trust what God said, and you can chunk what you see and chunk what you feel off your ship and have cheer. But you won't have both. I just preached on it Thursday night. From faith to faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. The just shall live by faith. And that's not just blind faith, like we don't know what our faith's in. No, we have substance. It's the Word of God. I'm putting my faith in this. You say, yeah, but you know what science says. Yeah, I've chosen not to believe science. I've chosen to believe what God says. Yeah, but you know what they say about y'all and how crazy they say you Christians are. Yeah, but I've chosen to believe what God says and not believe what those crazy people say. Yeah, yeah, preacher, but you know what's going on in society and how messed up society is. Yeah, yeah, but I've chosen to believe what God says and not believe what's going on in society. And I have cheer for it. Look at how this is a Bible principle. Watch Romans chapter 4. You're in Acts. Go just to the right of Romans. This is a Bible principle. I believe God. How be it? In spite of the fact that I believe God, it don't look good. It don't feel good. But it's still going to be true. Romans chapter 4, watch old Abraham. This is one of the greatest statements in the Bible. I love this statement. I've never had the liberty to preach on it yet, but one day I will. Romans chapter 4, and he's talking about Abraham being the father of faith. And we'll just start in verse 17, Romans 4, 17. The Bible said, as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations. This was God speaking to Abraham in Genesis 17, somewhere along in there. As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations, before him whom he believed, even God. Abraham's believing God, who quickeneth the dead. Abraham's body is dead. He's an old man. His wife's womb is dead. But God has said, you're going to have a pile of young'uns. Oh God, I'm an old man. My body's dead. I can't reproduce. My wife's body's dead. Her womb has long since quit bearing children. But I believe there's a God who can quicken the dead. And watch it, even God who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were. What a wild, that ain't the statement I'm getting to, that's a blessing, but what a wild statement that is. God, it said in verse 17, God calls those things that aren't as though they were. God came to Abraham and said, Abraham, you a father of many nations. And your wife's gonna be the mother of many nations. He's calling it like it is, but it ain't. Lord, have you looked at me lately? I got bags under my eyes big enough to fly to China and back. Lord, have you checked out my hair done turned gray and loose? And I don't know if you noticed about Sarah, but the old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be. I mean, Lord, you're saying we're fathers and mothers of many nations. But God's calling it, even though it ain't happened yet. God's sitting up in eternity and he's already seen it happen. And he's calling it that it is, even though it ain't. And what's Abraham's response to that supposed to be? What's Abraham's response to God's audacious, audacious claim that you're a father of many nations? What's Abraham's response to that? Verse 18, check it out. This is what's blessing to me. Watch these words. Who against hope believed in hope. Against hope. There is no hope that you can be a father of many nations by Sarah. And against that, against hope, I'm going to believe in hope. Hope's against him, and I'm going to believe in hope anyways. What is that, preacher? That's Paul on board that ship, and everything around him says, you're dead, you're dead, you're dead, you're dead, you're dead, and everybody on board here is dead. And that's Paul saying, against all that, I'm going to believe what God has told me. That's what you're going to have to do, child of God. Check out Psalm 27, the same principle, Psalm 27. Sometimes hope will be against you. What do I do? Believe in hope. The hope of the scripture, the hope of what God says. Man, I like this principle in the Bible. Psalm 27, verse number 12, Psalm 27, 12. Psalm 27, 12. Well, hang on, before you read verse 12, go all the way to verse 3. Back to verse 3. He said, though an host should encamp against me, my heart should not fear. Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. He said, man, they're all around me. Enemies on every side. Verse 12. Verse 12, deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. Lord, it seems like everywhere I look, I am surrounded. Verse 13, here you go, talking about Paul believed God. Verse 13, I had fainted unless. You will not make it through this storm-tossed life, you will faint unless. I had, watch these three words, y'all. Believed to see. See, the world says, seeing is believing. But God says, believing is seeing. Right? A blind man sits there. And he says, hey, Jesus in Nazareth patterned this way. Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. They tell him, shut up, shut up, shut up. Mo Bartimaeus just won't shut up. And they finally mark 10, bring him to Jesus. And Jesus says, what do you want me to do for you? I want to receive my sight. You say, what's that? He's believing to see. What happened when he believed Jesus? Jesus made him see. That's believing to see. And sometimes you're not going to see, look what he says he believed to see. Unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. There's just going to be some times, I'll be honest with you, you're going to look around and you're going to say, the devil's going to tell you, where's God's goodness in this? Show me the goodness of God in this. Where's God's goodness at now, sister? Where's God's goodness now, old big faith brother? Where's it at now? I don't know, but I'm believing that God's still good. Why? Because God said he was. And I choose to believe God is good regardless of what I see and what I feel. And you say, what happens if I believe to see? Verse 14, wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. What am I doing while I'm waiting to see whatever God's gonna do? Just keep believing. My mind's so messed up. I said, keep on believing, and my mind immediately went somewhere that my wife would have got on to me for I'd have started singing. But don't stop believing. I hope Tristan don't watch Sunday School. She hates it when I do that. I can't help it. It just comes to my mind. Let me know I'm still flesh. Let y'all know I'm still flesh too. Some of you small town girls out there, just don't stop believing. That's terrible. I'm about to tickle myself up here. I got to pray and quit. Let's just go and quit. Back to our text. Back to our text. That's all y'all going to remember out of this whole lesson now. Y'all ain't remember nothing spiritual. Nothing spiritual about this. Don't go getting in your car and playing every who that was song and thing. Don't even, Journey. Don't go listen to all Journey on the way home. Anyways, it said here in the text, how be it we must be cast upon a certain island. Now we got to close this thing out. Watch this. Verse 27, but when the 14th night was come, 14 days of doing what? Believing God and the ship falling apart. Man, listen to me, y'all. Paul gets that revelation, and then 14 days of still bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. Don't you know every once in a while, Brother Steve, somebody looked at him and said, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Paul, I thought you said we was all gonna make it. We are, just hang on. 14 days, we still in bad shape. Yeah, but I know what God said way back there, and I'm still holding on to what God said. He said, but when the 14th night was come, as we were driven up and down in Adry about midnight, the shipmen deemed that they drew near, hallelujah, to some country. Y'all, are we getting close? You say, well, are we getting close to the country? According to Hebrews 11, 14, we're looking for a heavenly country. Yeah, we're getting close to the shore. And next week we'll deal more with this, we didn't get a chance to, but notice when you get down to verse 28, watch this, and I'll just bump this and we'll be done, verse 28. The Bible said, and sounded and found it 20 fathoms. That's just a device they would let down to be able to tell how deep the water was. They sounded and found it 20 fathoms. And when they'd gone a little further, they sounded again and found it 15 fathoms. You know what starts happening the closer we get to the shore and the farther along we go in this Laodicean church age? It gets shallower. The preaching gets shallower. The music gets shallower. The Christians get shallower. And here are my feelings. Well, God bless you. Them Christians back here about 500, 600, 800 years ago, they was burned at the stake. But the closer we get to the shore, everything just starts getting shallower. You know what happens in the shallows? Ask any of these fellas that fish. You don't catch as many fish in shallow water. That ain't where the big multitude of fish is at. The multitude of fish, Jesus told them, said, launch out in the deep, let down your nets for a draw. It's out there in the deep water where the bunch of fish are at. It's not on the shore. You know what you catch on the shore? One, two, yeah, catch bait. You know, but it ain't from the shore. It ain't in the shallows where the bunch of fish is. It's out in the deep. But we're hearing these latest in church age, and what are we doing now? We see one saved here, another one saved there, and two saved here. We ain't seeing it like it used to be. 20 saved here, and 25. Brother, what happened last year at Bring the Book was an aberration. 30-something saved on one night. That ain't happening on a regular. That's an aberration. That used to be the normal. Now it's the abnormal. Why? We're nearing the shore. So you discouraged about that? No, I try and take it as I'm getting encouraged because I'm getting close to the house. Amen. So just hang in there, child of God. Be of good cheer. That's what Jesus said. Be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. We're going to make it. Don't become part of this shallow Laodicean church age. Keep believing God and serving God and doing what's right in spite of what everybody else on the ship of Christianity may be doing. Just keep serving the Lord like we should. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. It helps us. It leads us. It guides us. It directs us. And yes, Lord, it reproves us and rebukes us and it exhorts us. And we thank you for all of it. Lord, you know what we need and when we need it. And I pray that you would distribute to God's people today and to sinners exactly what it is they stand in need of. Father, I pray you'd save souls and encourage the church and do that work that only the Holy Ghost can do through his precious word. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. All right, we're dismissed.