Dennis Tuuri

# Acts 27:39-44 – Man’s Plans and God’s Provision

We’ll be reading at verse 39 through verse 44. We’ll read about the advent of Paul to the island at which he will find people and he will go to them as the lightbearer of the truth taking the light to the Gentiles. So this is the advent of Paul on the island.

Acts 27:39-43 our topic will be man’s plans and God’s provision.

And when it was day, they knew not the land, but they discovered a certain creek with a shore into the which they were minded if it were possible to thrust in the ship. And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves under the sea and loose the rudder bands and hoisted up the main sail to the wind and made toward shore. And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground, and the four parts stuck fast and remained unmovable. But the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves. And as the soldiers council was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out and escape.

But the centurion willing to save Paul kept them from their purpose, and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get to land, and the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass that they escaped, all safe to land.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for your scriptures and pray that you would illuminate them to our understanding and help us, Lord God, to be encouraged and built up and comforted, Lord God, in the context of our particular times in life and the plans that we make and your provision for us often in contradiction to those very plans. Lord God, help us to rejoice this day in your provision and help us to praise and honor you. And to that end, we pray Lord God, you’d bless this text to our understanding. In Jesus name we ask it and for the sake of his kingdom. Amen.

Particular account in Acts 27 where we have arrival by Paul safely after this incredibly harrowing venture on the ship is as I said the advent of Paul at the island of Malta. And we’ll see in next week’s account where he begins to be manifested amongst the in the context of those people the grace of God coming with him as he preaches the gospel.

It’s not exactly how we picked it. Sure. Usually the way we want to go places and how we want people to perceive us, what’s going to happen here is he’s going to get over there and they’re going to light up a fire to get warm and a snake’s going to grab a hold of his hand and you know these guys watching Paul watching the advent of this fella. They think first of all a shipwreck that means he was in trouble from God and God was mad at him. And then this snake bites boy he’s sure some kind of problem you know he’s got a lot of sin in his life.

God doesn’t bring Paul a lot of external glory. Needless to say in his advent at Malta. God works in mysterious ways and he manifests himself and his providence and his grace frustrating often the plans of men. And here in just these short four or five verses we see a couple of plans frustrated or made changes to by the providence of God for different reasons.

Frustrations is one of the things we can think of this ship voyage that’s occupied all Chapter 27, we can think of frustrations over and over again. People are frustrated as men make plans and God changes things. And our lives are filled with frustrations. And while this is a tremendously joyous time of the year at which a lot of the church becomes postmillennial for three or four weeks as they sing these great postmillennial hymns, and as the world itself, you know, the godless praises God even at Christmas time, singing forth words that God finds no pleasure in their hypocrisy.

But we should understand this is a joyous time of year meditating upon the incarnation of our savior and the implications of that. Nonetheless, it’s a very frustrating time of the year as well for many people.

It’s like the Lord’s day. This is a great day to come together and be refreshed one to the other and encourage each other and edify each other and come together to praise God and be built up in the faith and grace etc. But it’s a frustration getting here for a lot of us and other things may happen today and your interactions with people that are going to frustrate you. Frustrations are part of what we live with.

And sometimes we think that’s because we’re doing everything wrong or things just aren’t working out right and this isn’t the way it should be. But if we think of the life of Paul or the life of God’s great saints, they were lives typically marked by quite a bit of frustration.

In Genesis 47:9, Israel Jacob is presented to Pharaoh. And now there’s a very real sense in which Israel and Joseph provide an advent. The message of God to Egypt. And I believe that there’s evidence where all of Egypt converted praised Yahweh and became submissive to him and to his messengers as indicated by the obedience that Pharaoh pays to Israel and to God through Israel.

But again here when Israel arrives and Jacob arrives and talks to Pharaoh here, here’s what Pharaoh asks him. Pharaoh says to Joseph in verse 8, “How old art thou?” And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are 130 years. Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained under the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. Few and evil have been my days of sojourning Israel, Jacob says to Pharaoh.

Frustration was a great factor in Jacob’s life as God taught him patience and developed his character. God frustrates oftentimes man’s plans he did with Jacob over and over again. And yet he brought Jacob to maturation and development. And I would imagine that, you know, you can imagine the Apostle Paul responding somewhat the same way as we look at an account of his life portrayed for us in the book of Acts.

We think of Paul as this great missionary and a great blessed man. And of course, he was most blessed of men to take the gospel to the Gentiles. But you know, his days were not exactly days without frustration. They were filled with frustrations. And we can imagine Paul recounting his life to someone like Pharaoh or to perhaps these barbarians that he’ll meet on Malta or perhaps when he gets to Rome and talks to some of Caesar’s ministers, etc.

He could probably tell, well, you know, things have not been easy for me in my life. I was a god hater, and then when God converted me, I became blind. You know that song, “I once was blind, now I see.” Well, you know, Paul saw and then God made him blind. And the context of his conversion to Christianity and apparently many people think that problem with his eyes persisted over the rest of his life. I mean he certainly recovered sight a picture of you know the removal of the spiritual blindness he had but nonetheless you know as he became a Christian his life didn’t get easier his life became totally dark as God brought him to conversion he was blind and then in Damascus where he was blind and when his sight is restored he begins to preach and you know he thinks you know I don’t know what he thought but we think if you preach correctly God will bring gospel success and what God brought to Paul in the context of his preaching was a plot by people to kill him.

And Paul had to be delivered from Damascus by being let over the wall in a basket. Well, then Paul goes to Jerusalem, the city of peace, the city of God’s people. And do you find his life less frustrating there? No, probably not in external ways. He wanted to fellowship with the Christians and everything, but they were afraid of him. And you know, God then brings along a great friend and encourager to him, Barnabas, who settles up his relationship with the Christians and gets them to trust him.

We’ll mention Barnabas again in a couple minutes. But there is in Damascus, he preaches the gospel and the Jews make a plot on his life to kill him. So here’s a Christian who becomes a Christian, gets struck with blindness, has a perpetual eye problem, starts to preach, gets plots against his life, goes to our holy city where people are supposed to listen to such things. Christians don’t trust him. Yes, he’s befriended by a friend, and then he preaches and plot to kill him again.

Well, he takes off and eventually ends up with this good friend, this great encouragement to him in the context of much of these frustrating difficulties. He’s at Antioch and this friend takes him to Antioch and begins to work with him there and they’re actually sent on a missionary journey. But that missionary journey is filled with frustrations. The first account that we’re given of a city that he preached at, he was kicked out of that city at Antioch Pisidia. He was kicked out of Iconium. And then at the next city, Lystra, he was killed or nearly so left for dead perhaps was dead. That’s what happens to him on his first missionary journey.

They go back to Antioch, back to the holy city, now the new center of Christian faith. And what do they find there? They find frustration. They find difficulties because now some Judaizers have come from Jerusalem, supposed Christians. We’re talking about the need to be circumcised. Trouble to trouble to trouble. Goes to the Jerusalem council. Even that was a bit dicey for a while, but it turned out good.

After which the second missionary journey begins. And you know what? This fellow who had was such an encouragement and got him back on the good side of the church who wouldn’t fear him in Jerusalem, Barnabas. Well, then they have a tremendous fight, a big blowup, tremendous problem between the two of them. And they part and we don’t never know if they became friends again or if they ever worked it out at all. So even in the context again of being back at Antioch, we have the trouble with the Judaizers in the beginning of the second missionary journey, we’ve got a big split between Paul and this close friend and encouragement that had been so much to him. And of course, the reason for that was that one of the men they took along to help him on the first journey, you know, bugged out and didn’t fulfill his responsibility.

Well, then Paul eventually goes into the second missionary journey and what happens? The city he goes to in Philippi. He’s chased around by some demon-possessed girl making fun of him the whole time. He cures her. He doesn’t hate her. He doesn’t kill her. He cures her. And as a result of that, he’s thrown in jail, eventually released. Goes to Thessalonica. Tremendous uproar and problem and riot goes on there. And they have to, you know, secret him out of town to Berea. And then in the middle of the night, problems to problems to problems.

Paul ends up in Athens and he gets mocked by the people, the philosophers at Athens. Then goes to Corinth and at Corinth he’s actually hauled into court again before the Roman court accused of being a terrible bad person. Now he’s delivered for that and the Jews to get beaten there. It’s a you know the head of the synagogue is one who gets beaten not Paul but nonetheless his second missionary journey has been marked by trouble and conflict and difficulties and frustrations.

Then the third missionary journey proceeds and he ends up at Ephesus where they are chanting out uh cultish phrase raises in opposition to Paul for a long time as he’s surrounded by these ravenous beasts who want to kill him essentially. So he has a riot, more troubles, more difficulties.

Then he finally goes back to Jerusalem at the end of the third missionary journey. And he even tries very hard not to give offense. He tries to do what’s right in the context of being a good witness to the Lord Jesus Christ in the context of temple worship. What happens there? More frustration. He’s taken and beaten nearly to death. It would be to death, but he was rescued by the Roman soldiers. He then doesn’t hold that against the Jews who are beating him to death and he tries to talk to them about it. Talk to them about the Lord Jesus Christ and again there’s a riot later on he’s held called up before the Sanhedrin and again a riot essentially ensues and then they plot against his life for yet another time in the context of his ministry at Jerusalem.

He’s plotted against he’s delivered. He’s taken to Caesarea but he’s plotted against there. They try to get him to come back to Jerusalem so they can meet him in the context of the trip and kill him. Frustrations, difficulties, difficulties. And now finally he gets to go to Rome and he gets aboard the ship and has smooth sailing, right? So that God will take him there quickly and give him a good account of reputation as he gets there. Not exactly the way it worked out. Tremendous shipwreck and difficulties at sea.

And even here in the context of Acts 27:39-44, now they’re in sight of the harbor actually and all they got to do is run on in there with the ship. But no, that’s God’s that’s man’s plans. But God brings frustrations to those plans. The ship breaks up in the very sight of shore. The ship busts apart and they either got to swim in or be carried in on little pieces of wood. Flocks him and jets him from the shipwreck itself.

Difficulties over and over and over again. Frustrations, problems in his life. And then of course, as we get there, we’ll see next week immediately bitten by a snake.

Frustrations are a regular part of human life. And if you have had difficulties this past week, and I can guarantee you have, unless you’ve just been sleepwalking or unless you’ve been literally asleep all week or just removed from life, you would have probably had some pretty big frustrations, either small ones or large ones in the context of your life.

Man makes plans and it’s good that we make plans. We’re not supposed to say we’re not going to go from here to here and there, for instance, but we’re supposed to say, “God willing.” Planning is good, but plans are frequently and regularly frustrated by God. And we can see it in the life of the great saints. We can see it in the life of Jacob and what he had to go through in terms of the difficulties that his life portrays to us. And the apostle Paul, the difficulties of his life, man’s make man makes plans and God frequently in his providence frustrates those plans. And so it is here in Acts 27:39-44.

We see a couple of plans, you know, made by men. And we see those plans being changed and frustrated by God. Now, remember the context here. They have just had this tremendous Thanksgiving aboard a sinking ship. It’s where we’re at a couple weeks ago. And that’s the text immediately preceding this account. They were really scared all night. And as morning begins to dawn, Paul has them gives thanks to God. He tells them to take encouragement, take some food, and they have a Thanksgiving meal, so to speak, aboard a sinking ship.

And you remember we talked about that Thanksgiving meal that it wasn’t a natural Thanksgiving from the eyes of men because they were in great difficulties in the context of the shipwreck. It was a historic Thanksgiving. It demonstrated a change or a transition of authority in the context of what was going on board ship. Thanksgiving is central to the text lit in a literary structure. The Thanksgiving is the kind of this the high point of what this text is all about and prepares us then for the deliverance into this harbor that they come to.

So thanksgiving is the context of all this. The thanksgiving was communal. They partook of the food together and Paul thanked God openly in the presence of those who didn’t uh necessarily have an understanding. They had not necessarily been born again by the spirit of God. He gives praise in the context thanks to God rather in the context of the ungodly a good model for us as well. And this thanksgiving is what’s what’s happening here and it is it is as I said central to an understanding of the text.

And so we’ve been kind of brought through all these difficulties. We have Paul observing this Thanksgiving feast in the context of the ungodly and the ship. We’ve seen sort of a transition then and authority to Paul and we think things now are going to get better but as I said they don’t.

There are two plans that I’m want to talk about from Acts 27:39-44 that are frustrated by God. The first of those plans is given to us in verse 39.

And when it was when it was day, they knew not the land, but they discovered a certain creek with a shore into the which they were minded if it were possible to thrust in the ship. So their plan is they’re sitting there near a harbor and they say, “Well, our plan is then that we’re going to if possible, thrusting the ship into this harbor. We’re going to run her in real fast.

And when they had taken up the anchors, so they got the anchors up, so they’re going to be able to move quick. They committed themselves under the sea. They let themselves at the mercy of the sea, so to speak. And then they loosed the rudder bands. So they lifted the they the rudder bands were holding the big rudders up so they couldn’t steer the ship because they were anchored. Now, they loosed those bands so the oars can go down in the water, these big huge navigating oars, so they could steer the thing. as the wind blew it into the harbor.

So they loosed the rudder bands. They hoisted up the main sail to the wind and they made toward shore. Okay. So they lift the anchors up. They let the oars down so they can steer into the harbor. They pull up the mast and the wind’s going to blow them right in. If you’ve ever seen the Dory fleet run down in the Oregon coast, you know there that they have to get a running start to make it in to that particular harbor that’s there. And in a way, this is the picture for us. This is going to be a real fast movement into this because the wind’s blowing strong and they want to drive the ship right in there if possible. So that’s their plan and they then begin to execute that plan here in verse 40.

The plan’s in verse 39. They begin to execute the plan in verse 40. Verse 41, however, gives us God’s plan for them. And God’s plan is not exactly what their plan was.

We read in verse 41 that falling into a place where two seas meet. Now they couldn’t see that But in the context of what this means is there was a sandbar or a ledge out there that they couldn’t discern. They fell into this. They didn’t attempt to get there. In the providence of God, as these men are going about their plan, he has them land on this place where two seas meet before they get into ground. They ran the ship aground. That doesn’t mean at the harbor. It means out in this bar that’s kind of out there holding them away from the safe landing.

They ran the ship aground and the four parts struck fast. Stuck fast. and the uh and remained unmovable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves. So, they’re going to run this ship in, but they hit bottom. They get stuck right there in that sandbar or whatever it was, reef, whatever it was, and then the waves start to beat the ship literally to pieces.

You know, they don’t make it into land here. God, it’s their plan. God’s plan is to get them stuck and then as a result of that to beat the ship to pieces. so that they end up going making it safe to land with complete abandonment of that ship. So this first plan that man has is a good one, something they should have done and yet it’s something that God frustrated them in. And just as many plans you might have made this last week were ones in which you were frustrated.

Now it’s interesting in terms of the Greek text in this particular verse, these two verses here and the execution of the plan in verse 40 and verse 41 and actually in verse 39 all the way in verses 39-41 the tense of the Greek verbs is imperfect. In other words, it doesn’t really say they knew not the land. It says they weren’t knowing the land. They couldn’t they weren’t discerning what the land was. They were discovering a certain creek with the shore and they were attempting to thrust in the ship. Imperfects, imperfects, imperfects all the way through the tense through the next three verses 39-41.

Man’s plans are placed in the context of imperfect verb tenses. They were doing they were doing this. They were doing this and then the first time we hit what’s called an aorist tense point action boom is when the ship sticks fast into that place where the two seas meet. And so there’s a literary picture here for us of man making his plans and going about and boom he hits the wall and the stopping point the wall is God’s frustration of man’s plans.

So the text builds this boom hitting this place and that’s what God does frequently to the plans of men. And it’s not because this is an improper plan. These men aren’t being chided or chastised by Paul or anybody else in the text be reading it into the text to say they’re doing something wrong. They were simply trying to do what they were supposed to do. And so when you hit a wall, so to speak, in executing your plan, it doesn’t mean the plan was bad or wrong. But it means that God is going to frustrate your plans frequently for no, you know, moral reason on your part, but for his own purposes. And that’s what this first plan is a picture of to us. The frustrations of men’s plans.

Here they are. They suffer shipwreck in sight within spitting distance, so to speak, of the shore itself. Very ironic in the context of how this story plays itself out.

Well, then we see a second type of man’s plans in verse 42. And this is not a good plan. This is not the sort of plan you should make.

Verse 42. The soldiers council was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out and escape. So, their plan is I don’t think they think that it’s going to help them to live, but they’re afraid the I think what’s going on is the soldiers are afraid that they may die in the context of this effort. But some of their prisoners might leave the ship and actually escape unheard. And that would be a tremendous blow to their honor as Roman soldiers. Roman soldiers honor was a big deal to them. And if they were to let prisoners go, their life was frequently the result the resulting punishment to them particularly these kind of prisoners the indication are that most of them except for Paul were prisoners who were going to Rome to get killed in the execution things that went on there at Rome.

So these death penalty people were being guarded by soldiers if they let them get out the soldiers would take the punishment upon themselves. So they had both their own personal safety to fear at the escape of the prisoners but I think more importantly according to the text if we understand that there probably wasn’t a lot of thought of them getting away it’s very important to recognize the honor that is due to men.

So these men want both physical safety for themselves and honor. And that’s not a bad thing to want. All men want glory. We’re made in the image of God. We want to be honorable in how we execute our offices. And we should want we should have a healthy fear of being somehow doing things that bring disrepute upon ourselves or upon our position as fathers or mothers or husbands or wives, whatever it is. But they take their own counsel and plans and that plan is to kill these men. including Paul.

Now, Paul wasn’t set wasn’t set for execution. So, this is really a godless plan of man. And so, while the other plan represents things that are not necessarily wrong in and of themselves, this plan represents something that is wrong in and of itself. But once again, God frustrates this type of plan.

In verse 43, but the centurion willing to save Paul kept them from their purpose and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea and get to land, and that the others should go on ahead in on the wreckage of the boat. So, this second plan is an evil plan really, although its purpose really the honor of the office to which they were accountable to is understandable.

Now, it’s interesting that the centurion here over and over again, you’ve heard me say this many times, you should know this real well by now, but the Romans are not the bad guys in the book of Acts. The Romans are still in that position where God is using them as Mr. Jordan talked about as a good Doberman. to attack the enemies of the church. So I mentioned earlier that instead of Paul being beaten in one of those cities where he was being persecuted by the Jews the head of the synagogue was the one who was beaten. And here the centurion the commander here also rescues Paul. His desire is to rescue Paul and he’s acting really in the same way that God acts.

God has told Paul and told the rest of them through Paul that for Paul’s sake he’s going to deliver the rest of them safe as well. And so God works through this centurion whose primary desire is Paul’s safety and he works to keep all the other prisoners safe as well. And so that’s the way it works. And the picture there for us is that our plans should work should connect up with God’s plans of course, but also that the world moves this microcosm of the world moves in relationship to God’s chosen vessels. And so these prisoners fate is all wrapped up with Paul.

See, Paul’s the focal point of what’s going on here. Nobody else really. They’re secondary. And the centurion acts that same way. He acts in relationship to Paul that has effects upon the world around him.

I guess some of the uh kids at the classes in January are going to start going through a history, I think Egypt. And it’s very important to think as we think about the history of the world, of the relationship of the world to God’s people, Israel. God apportions out the nations. draws the lines and the boundaries for the sake of his people. The scriptures tell us that. And we usually think of world history isolated from biblical history. But world history is like these men aboard this ship. They’re given sense and understanding as we read about their history in relationship to the Apostle Paul, the relationship to the church. And the Old Testament, Egypt, and other cultures should be understood in relationship to what they learned from and the degree to which they rejected biblical truth centered in God’s people, Israel.

See what I’m saying? We want to take this world history and biblical history and bring it together and recognize the world history is biblical history and its effect of God’s working with a particular nation on the cultures round about it. Okay? Well, that’s what’s going on here. The centurion commander here reminds us of all that by wanting to save Paul and as a result telling him they can’t kill all the prisoners.

Notice also that there’s probably indication, seems to me Good indication here. The centurion is the commander here is acting on the basis of God’s prophetic word to Paul which he is then relayed to the centurion and the centurion knows that they all have to be kept safe. Okay, that Paul has told him the word of God has told him that and so the centurion has a vested interest in keeping all the prisoners safe for the sake of the apostle Paul because he believes the prophetic word.

Okay. So God uses the secondary means of the centurion here or the commander rather the same way he used the secondary means of that hidden reef or sandbar and they have these plans and go boom into the secondary means of God’s that frustrates man’s plans in the in the context in this particular account of the centurion. And so it is in the context of those two plans of men being frustrated by God that we read in verse 44 that some were broken some came in a broken piece of the ship.

The last half of the verse 44, and so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land. And there’s the climactic point of the whole historical picture of what we’ve been dealing with for the couple of months now of Acts 27 and the ship problem at sea.

And so it came to pass. That’s a meaningful phrase. It is a phrase that’s used over and over again in the Old Testament in terms of fulfillment of what comes to pass in the providence of God. It’s like this is the end result. Then this is what happens. It all leads up to and so it came to pass. The word of God was fulfilled. You see is what’s happening here. Prophecy is fulfilled and history of this particular voyage reaches its culmination and them all being brought safe to land. That means that in the context of again of our understanding this culmination of these men on the ship and then by way of application, the culmination of the things God has called us to do.

God puts these little pictures at the end of this story of the plans of men being frustrated by him. Now, it’s interesting that this in two words I want us to think here in terms of this story, two specific words that are used. And the first is falling into things. in verse 41, they fell into the place where the two seas met. Okay? And that specific word in the Greek where they fall into this reef that’s going to boom bring them up short.

Now, that word is used in two other places in the New Testament. And the first one is in Luke 10:30 where Jesus is talking about the man that went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves. That’s the story of the good Samaritan. And in that case, he falls among thieves. And the word fall into here in the case of the two seas that go together in this reef means to end up in the context of something which you weren’t necessarily planning but surround you. Okay? And it becomes now you’re in the context of this and this only just about.

So they fell into this place in the sea. Jesus says that this man down going down to Jericho falls into this group of thieves. And the other place where it occurs is in James chapter 1 verse 12 or verse two rather. My brethren Count it all joy when you fall into a diverse temptations.

Look at that verse in James 1:2. And if you haven’t committed this to memory or at least a real good understanding, you should because it’s really central what I’m talking about today in terms of our lives and the frustrations that our lives bring to us. And I know, see, I know I may not be as connected with some of you as I should be, but I’m connected enough with enough of you and have been this last week to know that there’s a great deal of frustrations going on in the context of your lives.

Both of the type where you fall into the providential acts of God that just don’t meet up with what you’d hope things would be or in the context where you’re running into the sins of men like the thieves. And you know, last week when I talked about friendship, well, much of the frustrations we have is a result of the actions of men. Sometimes good and sometimes not so good. But my point is you need to understand James chapter 1 verse 2 and following or verse two rather verse two and three my brethren count it all joy when you fall into and that’s what it feels like doesn’t it when you when you have a frustrating problem it seems to engulf you like those waters or like those thieves you fall into diverse temptations.

God’s difficulties frustrations that he brings to our lives are not always the same they’re thieves or they’re one and water or they’re whatever they are diverse different many different types of temptations, knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience. When you fall into the various kinds of difficulties and frustrations that God can bring to your plans or your life, you should know that it is, this text tells us, the trying of your faith that’s going on. Paul is try, God rather is trying the faith of Paul here in the context of these things. And God is trying your faith in the context of the difficulties and frustrations he brings to your plans.

And you know, again, here we’ve talked before about how part of what goes on in these texts is you’ve got these Greek guys, these Roman Greek philosopher, whether they were the common man or the philosopher kings. The point is these common men were also affected by the philosophy. And their view of God was that God, well, one of the predominant views or preeminent views is that God is a god of fate. The gods are fate. You know, they kind of play with men and don’t really have a purpose. is for their good. They sort of almost get enjoyment out of kind of building men up and tearing them down and just sort of frustrating.

But James writes and it’s important for us to understand that we should count it all joy. It doesn’t mean we should feel like it’s joy. You count it or consider it joy when you fall into or engulfed by these various temptations. Knowing this, this is understanding that’s going to help you to do this to count it all joy. What do you have to understand at the bottom of your soul about this stuff? That it is the trying of your faith first of all and it is a trial by God. and that it works patience. It develops something. It creates something in you that wasn’t there before or in a fuller sense than you’ve had it before. And that is patience.

And then let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing. It’s not just patience. Patience results in a fullness or maturation of you as an individual Christian being transformed in the power of God through various diverse temptations and trials into a sparkling jewel. That’s what you want, right? And you want to be a sparkling jewel. You want to exhibit the fruits of the spirit. You want to be a full-grown tree. You want to be spirit-filled. You want the joy of the spirit and the fruit of the spirit. And the way you’re going to get that is through God’s frustration. That’s what the scriptures say over and over and over.

You know, it’s how you make a pearl. You know, you got a grain of sand in there. You got frustration to the clam. It’s a you know pain in the neck, pain in the body, whatever part of the anatomy that pearl has is in the context of but develops the pearl that sand becomes a pearl. Same thing in you. You go through various frustrations and trials and in the context of this particular words falling into things. Okay, God says you’re going to fall into frustrations probably yet this week, maybe today. They’re going to seem to engulf you. And understand that this is God trying your faith and developing patience and maturation in you as a Christian man.

So falling into and in the context of the rest of the uses of the term in the Greek sins of men, the providence of God, the sea or the men that the thieves that beat the guy in the story of the good Samaritan. Well, so God’s frustration, but you know, my title today is not man’s plans and God’s frustration. My title really is man’s plans and God’s provision. And you can see from James 1 why I call it God’s provision. Because if you view the temptations and the difficulties as frustrations, then you’re not understanding what James 1 says, you’re not knowing what you need to know to count them all joy and to stay under the difficulties that God places you under trying to cast them off. You got to look at them as God’s provision.

Whether it’s the being, you know, thrust into this sandbar or whether it’s those thieves, it’s the provision of God. Okay? And so, you got to understand that. Now, for the ungodly, for many on that ship, it was frustration. It’s not meant to be provision for them because God, they’re not electing the Lord Jesus Christ. They’re not called by God. He has sovereignly determined that their path will not lead to heaven. But their path will lead to hell and their life is one big long frustration.

But it should not be so with you. With you, the difficulties that God brings in your life today, tomorrow and the rest of your life are provision for your development and maturation. Now the climax of this is they escaped to land. And that term is used several times in this text, the word escaped. In chapter 27, the centurion is willing to save Paul. That word save is the same word as escape. Verse 44, the rest some on boards and came to pass that they escaped safe to land. In chapter 28:1 we read, “And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita.” Melita Malta, same name. So three times, verse 43, 44, verse one, the same Greek word is used. First of saving Paul, escaping and escaping.

And again, this word is not used a lot in the context of the scriptures. So, one other time in verse 4 of chapter 28, we’ll read about how they had escaped the sea. Okay? Well, there’s only several other places of scripture where this word is used. One is Matthew 14:36. And this talks about those who had touched the hem of Jesus’s garment. And as many as touched were made perfectly whole. They were brought to salvation. They were brought to a physical healing or curing. And that’s the same word for escape here.

And then in Luke chapter 7 verse 5, we read about Jesus healing some man’s servant. Say escaping out of physical maladies is the picture that’s being presented for us. Acts 20:24 this is where they provided Paul and the his protectors beasts that they might bring him safe to Felix the governor. Remember the Jews were plotting Paul in Jerusalem and they give him donkeys to go ride and get out of there quick to go to Caesarea so that Paul might be kept safe and the context there from physical death.

So my point is this that this word is used not just of escape from difficulties being saved physically but it’s you also used of healing in the gospels several times. And so my point is again it isn’t just a frustration. It’s God’s provision not just for our physical health in the context of Acts 27 but for our whole well-being of spirit. And so the difficulties and frustrations that God brings to our plans result from us falling into things that we have no control over. But they result so that and thus it comes to pass that we are made whole in the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay?

So he causes our plans to be frustrated. We fall into problems that it might come to pass that we might be made whole in the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay. And that’s really I think the message of these four or five verses from this section of Acts. And the application of course is that when these difficulties come, understand that you’re going to fall into things and understand that you’re going to through those very things be brought to deliverance.

The idea is that it is God’s frustration to man’s plans that provides God’s provision for their being delivered. Thus it is that they escaped to land and thus it is that your life will manifest the fruit of the spirit through those difficulties and frustrations.

I wanted to read a quote from Chrysostom here. I watched this I didn’t watch much of it. I don’t recommend this movie but I did watch some of the madness of King George and it’s you know there are various objectionable things in it. I do not recommend it. But there was a very interesting lesson in it that reinforced something that I had read that very morning from Chrysostom in his commentary on this portion of the book of Acts. And I probably should have written down the quote from the movie. But I’ll just explain it briefly.

King George was the king at the time of the American colonists were doing their thing over here in rebellion or not rebelling but moving in obedience to God in America. And King George was the king in England then. And he was uh mad. Some people thought odd. Well, he probably had some physical maladies and then other difficulties. And as a result, Parliament was trying, many people in Parliament were trying to let him loose power so they could have more power. And that was really one of the points of the movie is a correct understanding of history that you got to understand the political machinations of political powers in the context of Parliament and the king to understand what was going on back then.

But in any event, they finally have a doctor who’s going to help King George and does help him. And the way the doctor helps him to the frustration of Parliament and other people is he treats him not as a king. He you know the doctor says you know one of the problems with kings is everybody’s always you know saying yes and submitting to them and doing anything they want to do and he said it’s through denial it’s through difficulties it’s through the trials we have that that a soundness of mind develops that anybody who’s treated like a king you know it’s not good to be king maybe just for one day but not good to be king all your life because if people in the context of how they treat you just say yes to everything you do because you develop an insanity that says you’re God.

And so what he would do at the king is he’d tell him if the king acted completely terribly in the context of his speech or whatever he was doing. The doctor had authority to command strong men to take him and bind him into a chair and take a gag over his mouth and make him just sit there completely restrained. And what he was pointing to the king was you’ve got to be restrained in your actions. And men who are not restrained go mad.

Nebuchadnezzar was like a King George and he went mad because he thought all this stuff happened because of him. And God tied him in a chair and put a gag over his mouth. Well, he didn’t. He caused him to go out and crawl the dew of the earth and like an animal and stuff and his nails grew long and his hair grew long. Gave him over completely to that insanity that he might come to a humility before God.

You see, we’re living in the context of a culture that is doing everything possible to create the illusion that you can be all you want to be in the army or in civilian life, whatever it is. The illusion of our culture is there are no restraints upon you. The illusion of our culture is we’re each King George and we’re each going mad because we’re denying our creaturliness and our need to submit to God and to men and to his providence and to the various things that we fall into.

In other words, the more money you have, the more ability you have a power you have to create a situation where you don’t fall into as many things now ultimately you can’t do it totally that’s one reason why King George would go mad because he couldn’t really control everything but the illusion increases as you have more and more money and power to get rid of the difficulties okay and this quote from Chrysostom is about the same thing about the relationship of how God causes to fall into difficulties that he might cause us to escape or come to wholeness as people and this is what Chrysostom says about this subject he says let us for a while examine these things.

Suppose there were no wild bees, no irregular states of the atmosphere, no storms like we had last night, no freezing rain. See, let’s suppose that there were no sicknesses, no coughs or colds for us, no difficulties, no heart problems, no pains, no sorrows, no annoying annoyances of any other kind. What would not man have become? Chrysostom’s answer to that question is that he would have become a hog rather than a man ruing in gluttony and drunkenness and troubled by none of those things.

But as it is, cares and anxieties are an exercise in discipline of philosophy, a method for the best of training. For say, let a man be brought up in a place having no pain, nor care, nor anxiety, and having neither cause for anger nor failure, but whatever he sets his mind upon, that let him do, in that let him succeed, and have all men obeying him. See whether such a man would not become more irrational than any wild beast.

And that again was the story of the madness of King George. But as it is, our reverses and our afflictions are, as it were, a wet stone to sharpen us. For this reason, the poor are for the most part wiser than the rich, as being driven about and tossed by many ways. Thus the body also, being idle and without motion, is sickly and unsightly. But that which is exercised and suffers labor and hardships is more comely and healthy.

And this we should find to hold also in the case of the soul. Iron also lying unused is spoiled. Iron roughs and so Chrysostom says it is with our soul. It needs exercise to be sharp and to be fit in the providence of God. He mentions this other quote which is sort of interesting. He says see you not that we exhort nurses not to make a practice of carrying children always that they may not bring them into a habit of wanting to be carried and so make them helpless.

This is why those children which are brought up under the eyes of their parents are weak in consequence of the indulgence which by sparing them too much injures their health. Apparently there was a practice then as there was with the Puritans later to move children around occasionally as they got a little older to other families for training for a while because parents too often indulge their children and so try to keep them from falling into things and so keep them actually from their escape or becoming really uh what they could be in the development of God’s personality and character qualities and fruits of the spirit.

R.J. Rushdoony has talked about how the Indian culture and the reservations where he served as a missionary for some time was that way. They’d give their children everything and wouldn’t let them cry. They’d always hold them and cuddle them and as a result when they grew up to be men they were completely incapable of dealing with the world and so there was a lot of drunkenness etc because a far too much indulgence of children when they were young on the reservation.

Well, the point I think is clear here that God does frustrate men’s plans, but for the Christian, that frustration itself is not really ultimately a frustration, but rather it is a provision for our well-being. And so, we should carry this attitude with us into this Lord’s Day and into this holiday season.

God frustrates man in the context of two plans in our text. First, the attempt to drive the ship in. Second, the council of the soldiers to kill the prisoners.