Reading: Acts 27.
"Acts" is a book of
principles. This whole story, and a great deal more in the life
of Paul, is a commentary upon, and exposition of, verse 23 -
"God whose I am, whom also I serve". Paul might have
been the Lord's on this voyage and kept silent. The power and the
value of his being there at that time was due to his being
pronouncedly the Lord's, and letting it be known without any
uncertainty. That power and value is recognizable in different
connections.
Divine
Overruling of Human Mistakes
First of all, it constituted a
link with, and made possible the action of, the Divine
sovereignty. There were not lacking those things which could have
been the ground of some real misgiving in Paul's life at that
time, for this whole thing was directly the outcome of his going
to Jerusalem, when, in the first instance, the Lord had told him
quite plainly that it was no use his going back to the Jews. The
Lord had said, "They will not receive of thee testimony
concerning me... Depart: for I will send thee forth far hence
unto the Gentiles" (Acts 22:18,21). Moreover, his brethren
besought him not to go, and warned him in the Lord's Name what
would happen to him if he did (see Acts 21:11). But Paul went,
and when he got there he was caught in a trap, resulting in his
being taken prisoner. Then came his appeal to Caesar, and Agrippa
said, "This man might have been set at liberty, if he had
not appealed unto Caesar" (Acts 26:32). Paul had all that to
reflect upon, and the Devil had good ground to try and bring him
under condemnation and to say, You disobeyed the Lord, you
flouted your brethren, you appealed to Caesar - a carnal thing to
do, thinking that you would get your liberty that way. Now the
Lord has let you have your own way, and you have got yourself
into trouble. The Devil does take up anything he can get of our
own mistakes, and builds upon that to paralyse us and make us
believe that the trouble that is on us is because the Lord has
left us. But with all that, if it was a mistake, Paul was so
pronouncedly the Lord's that there really was no personal
interest at any point in this going up to Jerusalem. He did not
go there for something for himself. It was all a way of suffering
and sacrifice, even though there was a certain amount of
self-propulsion, not the leading of God. He was so utterly the
Lord's that, having no self-interest in view, it linked him with
the Divine sovereignty so that even his mistakes could be taken
hold of by the Lord and turned to glorious account. When
barrenness and disaster come in, it is because there has been
some personal interest, something of ourselves, governing. There
was none of that with Paul, though he made mistakes.
It is something to remember. We
are not going to be faultless or infallible. No, but if the life
is the Lord's, and we are not keeping quiet about it - if we are
pronouncedly the Lord's, He will look after our mistakes, take
responsibility for our imperfections, and even use them to His
own end. That is what happened here. This linked Paul with the
Divine sovereignty, and that got the better of all Satan's
accusations and all Paul's misgivings and the results of all his
mistakes. Is it not something to encourage us? We look back on
our lives and say, If I had my time over again, I would not do
this and that. But if we are really the Lord's and there is no
reservation about it, He is working good even through those
mistakes, and will get Divine ends even by means of them.
Moral Power
with Men in an Hour of Crisis
Notice a second thing about the
strength and value of being pronouncedly the Lord's - the moral
power of this in an hour of crisis. There was no mistake about
where Paul stood and what his relationship to the Lord was. For a
time the others ignored him. But an hour of crisis came; and now
the one man in whom they hoped was this man whom they had
rejected. He was the key to the situation.
This is how it often works out
today - the moral power and value of being pronouncedly the
Lord's. You may have to wait for your day, until things have
worked up to a crisis, and for the time being you may be ignored;
but if you stand there in relation to God, and it is known, the
others will be very glad some day that you let it be known, and
they will seek your help because they know that you know God.
There is a great power in being pronouncedly the Lord's. Sooner
or later the day of such will come.
Divine
Sovereignty Acting in Relation to Other Lives
But there is something still
more in this story - the tremendous power that lies behind such a
position in relation to the mysterious placings of God's
representatives by His foreknowledge. God knew, before ever that
ship was built, the people who would be on board on that voyage,
and He had His eye in foreknowledge upon them for the saving of
their lives. From Acts 27:6 we infer that the ship would have set
sail for Italy in any case. What would have been the fate of
those on board if Paul had not been with them? Would they have
been saved from death? The inference is that they might not, for
the angel's message to Paul was "God hath granted thee all
them that sail with thee" (v. 24). God gave them to Paul.
And so it would seem that Paul had to be on that ship and go
through that harrowing experience because in the foreknowledge of
God there were lives which were to be saved from drowning.
If you think that is an
over-statement, go back to your New Testament. Paul came to
Corinth and found an awful situation in that city of sin and
worldliness. It must have been a terrible situation, because when
writing later he said, "I was with you in weakness, and in
fear, and in much trembling" (1 Cor. 2:3). But the Lord
stood by Paul in Corinth and said: "Be not afraid, but
speak... for I have much people in this city" (Acts 18:9);
they are not saved yet, but "I have much people in this
city". God knows who in the city will respond to the Gospel.
He has got them, in effect, because He lives in the eternal
present, and the future is now with Him. With God there is not to
be another soul added to the Church; He has the total secured
already. And on the ship came a similar message: "Fear not,
Paul... God hath granted thee all them that sail with thee".
What a wonderful thing that in spite of Paul's failures there is
the working of this sovereignty in putting him there on that
ship! He was not there by accident but in the foreknowledge of
God in relation to an issue in other lives.
Sometimes we may be in a
situation like that. We do not know why we are in the place that
we are in. Everything seems so difficult, so contrary, and then
we see things begin to break up. It looks like calamity, and in
the end there is something secured for God. But it necessitates
our being there pronouncedly the Lord's to secure it. This does
not just happen. We can be there and hide our light, and think it
will all work out. No; for this, pronounced proprietorship of the
Lord is a necessary factor. There is a great deal bound up with
our being unmistakably for God on this earth; the foreknowledge
and sovereignty of God operate through us, the moral power of
that position operates. The strategic opportunities are put into
our hands when we are there for the Lord and people know it. So
from every standpoint it is a position of strength, of value, of
possibility.
Human
Weakness Need Not Limit Utterness for the Lord
But you may say, Paul was a
superman; I am not. But look again. Why should the Lord have to
say to him such things as: Fear not, Paul? Evidently he was very
human after all, capable of being afraid. Most of us are capable
of being silenced by fear, or by pride - and pride can be just
another form of fear: fear of losing something, fear of losing
'face', reputation, influence. More often than not, it has been
those people who are very human, knowing weakness in themselves,
who, trusting in the Lord, have been the ones whom He has used
most mightily. The secret is just this - they are the Lord's, and
they are His a hundred percent, and everybody knows it. What He
is needing is not just that we should belong to Him, but
pronouncedly so, and that those around us should know it; and the
hour will very likely come when the Lord will put them into our
hands, because they know that we are the only ones who have what
they then need. It is a matter of being faithful to the Lord unto
such a day. He may hold us in a place and not let us go until
that testimony is there established, and then perhaps He will
give the situation, or those there, into our hands. We may know
nothing at present about them or the Lord's designs in their
lives, but they will be delivered into our hands for the Lord.
Then perhaps that voyage will be over and there will be another
phase of things for us. The Lord help us to be faithful.
First published in "A Witness and A
Testimony" magazine, Sep-Oct 1946, Vol 24-5
