Suffering and Deliverance (Part 47) – Paul (Part G); Saints at the End of Time

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Paul is delivered from a storm at sea (continued)

They spent two weeks in the storm before finally finding land (Act 27:27).

1. You may suffer the winds of the storm for a long time before being delivered.
2. They got close enough to anchor for the night and wished for the day (Act 27:28-29).
   1. People under God’s judgment long for the days and nights to pass quickly (Deut 28:67; Job 7:4).
   2. Those who have rejected God’s counsel and are suffering for it will know that desire.
3. Some were going to try to flee the ship, but Paul told the centurion and the soldiers that if they didn’t keep everyone in the ship they would not be saved (Act 27:30-31).
4. When you are suffering through the storm because of rejecting the counsel of the word of God from the man of God, do not try to escape the punishment, but endure it patiently and faithfully if you want God to deliver you from it.
5. They had learned their lesson and therefore listened to Paul this time and cut the ropes and let the boat fall off (Act 27:32).
6. After suffering for rejecting the counsel of the man of God, be sure to learn the lesson and not disregard his counsel in the future.

The next morning Paul exhorted them to eat and assured them that they would have no harm (Act 27:33-34).

1. Having learned your lesson, the man of God will provide you with comfort and hope.
2. Before they ate, Paul gave thanks for the food in the presence of all 276 sailors, soldiers, and criminals (Act 27:35-37).
3. Let this be an example and an admonition to you to give thanks before you eat no matter where you are or who is in your presence.
4. After they had eaten they lightened the ship by casting out the wheat into the sea (Act 27:38).
5. Even after learning your lesson there may be lingering consequences which will cause you loss.

When day came they took up the sails and ran the ship aground so that they could escape to land (Act 27:39-41).

1. The front of the ship remained unmovable, but the rear was broken by the violent waves (Act 27:41).
2. Learn a lesson from this ship.
   1. Those who are established in the faith and unmovable will be stable and abounding in the work of the Lord (1Co 15:58).
   2. Those who hear the word of God and do it are founded upon a rock and will not be shaken and destroyed (Mat 7:24-25).
   3. Those who are not sound in the faith nor knowledgeable in the scriptures will be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by deceivers (Eph 4:14).
   4. Those who don’t hear the word God and do it are built on a foundation of shifting sand and will be destroyed when the storms of life come (Mat 7:26-27).
3. The soldiers were going to kill the prisoners so they wouldn’t escape, but the centurion stopped them in order to save Paul (Act 27:42-43).
4. Everyone made it safely to land just as Paul had prophesied would happen (Act 27:44 c/w Act 27:22-24, 34).

God had again delivered Paul from death, both at sea and from being killed by the soldiers, because He still had work to do for the Lord.

1. There are some lessons we can learn from this.
   1. God can deliver us from natural disasters as well as the storms of life.
   2. Worldly people often reject the counsel of God to their own peril.
   3. God will often send what appear to be favorable circumstances into people’s lives to confirm their foolish choices as a judgment against them.
   4. There are dire consequences for rejecting the wise counsel from a preacher who is relaying what the word of God says to you.
   5. God will sometimes let us get to a point of desperation before He delivers us just so that we cannot take credit for it.
   6. It’s not wrong to say “I told you so” to people who rejected your wise counsel and are suffering for it.
   7. Being around godly people can be your temporal salvation.

Paul from being killed by the Romans the first time

1. Paul eventually made it to Rome and spent two years under house arrest where he was able to preach the gospel (Act 28:16, 30-31).
2. It appears that Paul was tried in Rome before Caesar for the first time and was delivered by God, though he was forsaken by all others (2Ti 4:16-17).
3. Answer n. – A reply made to a charge, whereby the accused seeks to clear himself; a defence. Spec. in Law, The counter-statement made in reply to a complainant’s bill of charges.
4. The Lord would continue to deliver him until it was time for him to be martyred, and even his martyrdom would be a deliverance from his suffering and struggling against sin in this life (2Ti 4:18).
5. Paul prophesied that he would be “offered” as a martyr to God (2Ti 4:6), and history has it that he was beheaded in Rome.
6. There are some lessons we can learn from this.
   1. God will deliver us many times until it is His time to bring us home to be with Him.
   2. Even when our friends, family, or even church brethren forsake us, God never will if we stay faithful to Him.
   3. Previous deliverances should encourage us to expect future ones.

The camp of the saints at the end of time

1. The last example in this series on Suffering and Deliverance is God’s faithful saints at the end of time.
2. Near the end of time Satan will be loosed from his prison (Rev 20:7).
3. He will go out to deceive the nations again and gather them to battle against Jesus Christ and His people (Rev 20:8).
4. He will finally have the camp of the saints surrounded, and it will look like they will be destroyed by him (Rev 20:9a).
5. But at the last moment, fire will come down from heaven and destroy them when Jesus returns in flaming fire to take vengeance on the wicked who persecuted the saints (Rev 20:9b; 2Th 1:7-10).
6. There are some lessons we can learn from this.
   1. God can deliver us even in what looks to be impossible circumstances.
   2. If God be for us, it doesn’t matter if the whole world is against us.
   3. Satan and his followers will ultimately be defeated even if they have successes along the way.

From past deliverances of other people in history by God, and from our own past deliverances, we can have confidence that God will deliver us now and in the future (2Co 1:10).