Shipwrecked!

WELCOME

Welcome! (in-person/online)

1 Peter journals (last day)

Christmas in July packing party (OCC), July 24 at 6:30

No more Sunday evening Zoom calls (monthly prayer meeting beginning 7/26)

Sunday School resumes 8/2

Hope to reopen nursery after Labor Day—take PBC Kids survey

Special Members Meeting, after service (if want/need to leave, do so during final song)

NEW CITY CATECHISM #28

What happens after death to those not united to Christ by faith?

At the day of judgment they will receive the fearful but just sentence of condemnation pronounced against them. They will be cast out from the favorable presence of God, into hell, to be justly and grievously punished, forever.

PASTORAL PRAYER

Shudder at the idea of hell, but we THANK you that heaven is offered to us!

Thanksgiving (Glorification)

You who began a good work [in us] will bring it to completion

Those whom You predestined, You also called; and these whom You called, You also justified; and those whom You justified, You also glorified.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; . . . the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Supplication:

PBC . . . our identity as Disciples

Brothers and sisters . . . Brentwood Baptist Church (Matt Childress)

Country . . . .VP Mike Pence (protection, family, wisdom, courage)

World . . . South Sudan (12.2 million; world’s newest country; churches)

Sermon

SERMON

In Greek mythology, the hero Odysseus was sailing home from the Trojan War through the narrow Strait of Messina, which separates Italy from Sicily. Along the way he was forced to navigate between a giant sea monster on either side. He was caught between the monsters Scylla and Charybdis (kah-rib-dis).

Scylla was a giant with six heads, each having three rows of shark-like teeth, who devoured whatever came her way. Charybdis (kah-rib-dis) was a gigantic whirlpool Monster near the shore of Italy that sucked in ships that sailed near her. Avoiding one monster meant coming too close to the other.

That's the way some Christians feel about two giant doctrines in the Bible: DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY & HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY

During the final sermon on Lamentations, we said then that God is sovereign over sickness and disability, over nature, and over the tiniest creatures. God is sovereign over kings and rulers, over Satan and His minions, and over seemingly random events. God is sovereign over daily events, over life and death, and over all things. No one can stop God’s sovereignty.

But the Bible also teaches about the responsibility of human beings.

Adam & Eve

Days of Noah

Abraham

Israel

Moses & David

Because some Christians have found themselves shipwrecked sailing between the giants of divine sovereignty and human responsibility, many Christians have chosen to avoid the topic altogether. It’s as if we’ve discovered a third option, instead of sailing near Scylla or Charybdis (kah-rib-dis), we’ll just stay on land.

But the doctrines of divine sovereignty and human responsibility are not enemies to be avoided. Together they form an anchor for the storm-tossed soul.

Turn in your Bibles to Acts 27 à Context

With God’s help I want to show you two truths that cause these seemingly contradictory doctrines to work together to form an anchor for the storm-tossed soul.

1) God Ordains the ENDS.

Holly reading movie and TV show spoilers.

Paul did know how this chapter in his story would end. He knew he would arrive safely in Rome.

Acts 19:21–“Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, ‘After I have been there, I must also see Rome.’”

Acts 23:11–“The following night the Lord stood by him and said, "Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome."”

Acts 27:23-24—“this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar.“

When we say that God ordains the ends, we’re saying whatever God ordains will come to pass!!!

Job 42:2—“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Psalm 115:3—Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.

Proverbs 21:30—No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the LORD.

Isaiah 14:27—For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?

Because God ordains how our stories will end, we should believe.

“It’s different for Paul, because God told him how he would make it to Rome!”

True that God hasn’t told us all the nitty-gritty details about our stories

I would personally be cynical about anybody who claimed to know details about their personal story that weren’t revealed in Scripture

Had a friend at my youth group years ago who was a little older than me. He insisted that God had told him that he would die before his 30th birthday. Happy to report he’s still alive and well.

Charles Spurgeon—“There are two great certainties about things that shall come to pass. One is that God knows. And the other is that we do not know.”

God can still tell people additional details about their stories, but most of us have a hard enough time believing the details He’s already told us in His Word...

People from every nation, tribe and tongue will worship Jesus

Everyone whom God has elected will believe

No one who has been truly saved will be lost

You will be free from sin

This broken world will be set right

“It’s different for Paul, because we’ve had to wait a LONG time for those promises to be kept!”

At this point in the story it’s been over two years since the Lord first made this promise to Paul.

When the promise is repeated on the ship, it flies in the face of everything Paul is experiencing

Paul knows what it’s like to be in situations where it’s hard to believe!

The doctrines of divine sovereignty and human responsibility form an anchor for the storm-tossed soul. The first truth that forms that anchor is the truth that God ordains the ends.

2) God Uses MEANS.

NOT ROBOTS OR PUPPETS. God is sovereign. We are responsible.

If that seems like a contradiction to you, let me ask you a question. I first read this in Orlando Saer’s marvelous little book, Big God. He asks this: is light a wave or a particle? If you have a scientific background you can likely answer that question much more precisely than I can. But the answer, as I understand it at least is both!

Ever since the rise of quantum physics, it’s been accepted that there are some ways light acts like a wave, and some ways it behaves more like a particle. That’s frustrating for those of us who like everything neat and tidily categorized in different boxes. But it turns out reality is far more complex. Physicists realize they cannot take a single, flat approach to light. They need to think about it in different ways at the same time if they’re going to understand it properly.ii

God ordains the ends, but He also uses means.

That’s what we see repeatedly in Acts 27.

Remember, Paul is on his way to Rome by ship. He’s been given a promise concerning how his story will end. He will stand before Caesar. But that promise doesn’t lead Paul to frantic risk or foolish apathy. It leads him to faithful action.

Act 27:9-12—Since much time had passed, and the voyage was now dangerous because even the Fast was already over, [EXPLAIN] Paul advised them, (10) saying, “Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.” (11) But the centurion paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship than to what Paul said. (12) And because the harbor was not suitable to spend the winter in, the majority decided to put out to sea from there, on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete, facing both southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there.

If you know you’re going to arrive safely in Rome, why speak up? Why try to encourage the centurion to alter his plans? Paul knows that God’s sovereignty doesn’t negate human responsibility. Yes, God ordains the ends, but He also uses means.

Imagine you receive a massive inheritance and decide to use some of the money to buy a $475,000 car, the Rolls Royce Phantom. According to legend these cars “never break down.” Let’s just imagine that when you buy the car they actually make you a guarantee. This car will NEVER break down. Now that you’ve received this assurance, would you stop filling it with gasoline when the fuel indicator light comes on? Would you stop taking it for routine maintenance? Would you no longer put air in the tires when the pressure was low? Hopefully you would continue to provide normal maintenance and care for your car, because you know this guarantee doesn’t mean that normal means are no longer necessary.

The same is true for the Apostle Paul. He has been given an assurance: “you will proclaim the Gospel in Rome.” But he doesn’t expect he’ll just arrive their magically. God is going to use normal means to get him there. And as an experienced sailor, when Paul noticed concerns about their intended voyage, he expressed them to the centurion.

Luke, the author of Acts and Paul’s travel companion, tells us that the centurion doesn’t listen to Paul. Eventually a strong northeaster wind beats down on the ship, they were driven along by the wind and are forced to throw cargo overboard.

Acts 27:20-26—When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned. (21) Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss. (22) Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. (23) For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, (24) and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ (25) So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. (26) But we must run aground on some island.”

In these verses Paul encourages his fellow shipmates. He shares the promise he’s received that he will stand before Caesar, along with an additional promise that no one on the ship is going to die. But why tell anybody? Because God doesn’t just ordain the ends, He also uses means.

Paul is making free decisions to encourage

God is using Paul’s free decisions to (1) give hope to sailors (2) demonstrate Paul’s character to the centurion. God ordains the ends, but He uses means.

One of the coolest movies released in 2003 was the remake of The Italian Job. As the protagonists attempt a major revenge heist, one of the key scenes involves a massive traffic jam in Los Angeles.

We see the film’s antagonist frustratedly driving an armored car filled with gold through city traffic. At each traffic light he makes decision after decision about which way to go: left, right, or straight. But despite making a whole series of perfectly free choices, he eventually arrives at the exact spot his former colleagues have planned for their ambush.

How? Because behind the scenes we see the ambush team has exclusive access to the city’s traffic light network and traffic cameras, so they can see and control everything. We watch as they manipulate the lights so that they effectively ensure the driver will go where they want him to go and nowhere else.

As far as the driver is concerned, he’s making perfectly free decisions every step of the way. He could easily choose another route, but he doesn’t. And yet, the bigger picture shows that while each of those choices were free, there is a higher power involved in the background making sure the driver’s free choices end up going a particular way.ii

It’s not a perfect illustration, but it does get the point across, doesn’t it? Yes, God is sovereign. Yes, our choices matter. So God uses Paul’s encouragement of his shipmates to accomplish His purposes. God ordains the ends, but He uses means.

Acts 27:27-32— When the fourteenth night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. (28) So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms. A little farther on they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms. (29) And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. (30) And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered the ship's boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, (31) Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” (32) Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it go.

If God has promised they will survive, why is there a warning that unless they still on the ship they won't survive?

Preservation

Romans 8:29--“And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

Phil. 1:6 -- “He who began a good work in you will bring it completion at the day of Jesus Christ"

Perseverance

Philippians 2:12-13 -- “work out your salvation…for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work His good pleasure”

Col 1:21-23-- And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, (22) he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, (23) if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Commentator P.T. O’Brien says it this way: “If it is true that the saints will persevere to the end, then it is equally true that the saints must persevere to the end.”

God ordains the ends, but He uses means.

Acts 27:33-38—As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing. (34) Therefore I urge you to take some food. For it will give you strength, for not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you.” (35) And when he had said these things, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and began to eat. (36) Then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves. (37) (We were in all 276 persons in the ship.) (38) And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.

If God has promised that you and all the sailors will survive and make it to Rome, why eat food? In chapter 28, after the entire ship has run aground on the island of Malta, Paul is seen gathering wood for a fire to warm his shipmates. Why bother fighting off hypothermia with a warm fire? Because God ordains the ends and uses means.

EXPLAIN VERSE 34

APPLY

Think about some of the examples of God’s promises I gave you earlier.

people from every nation, tribe and tongue will worship Jesus

kick back, and relax, and say “God will save whoever God wants to save!”?

Everyone whom God has elected will believe.

TELL PEOPLE!

Imagine you were taken to the locker room of a massive high school. There in that locker room are hundreds of lockers. Someone then gives you a key and a promise. “This key will unlock a limited number of these lockers. Most of these lockers will not be opened by this key, but each locker that is unlocked contains a pile of cash that is yours to keep. A fortune is waiting for you if you will just use this key.”

What would you do? Would you try a few lockers and then give up? If you truly believed the person who made this promise, you wouldn’t stop until you had tried to unlock every locker with this key.

‭‭John‬ ‭10:14-16‬—“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”‬‬‬

Invite lost to repent and believe

The doctrines of divine sovereignty and human responsibility form an anchor for the storm-tossed soul. God ordains the ends, and He uses means.

Why did you need to hear this today? I believe most of us struggle believing one of those two truths.

If you struggle believing that God ordains the ends (or that God can be trusted to ordain the ends rightly), you will be prone to ANXIETY.

Acts 28:3-5—When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand. (4) When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.” (5) He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.

Paul isn’t anxious!

What about you, anxious Christian? Do you believe that God is in control, even in a pandemic? Even in a season of great national turmoil? Even as the church becomes increasingly marginalized by a secular culture? Even as your family turns their backs on you? Even as you suffer? Do you believe that God can be trusted, whatever He ordains?

Some of us don’t struggle believing the first part. We struggle believing that God uses means (or that God wants to use me). If that’s you, you will be prone to APATHY.

Paul healing islanders—not apathetic!!!

What about you, apathetic Christian? Do you believe that God uses means? Do you believe He wants to use you? Instead of praying for God to send someone to share the Gospel with your children, what saying ‘God use me’? Instead of wishing that someone would serve your neighborhood, why not say, ‘God use me’?

The doctrines of divine sovereignty and human responsibility form an anchor for the storm-tossed soul. God ordains the ends, and He uses means.

J.I. Packer —“In the Bible, divine sovereignty and human responsibility are not enemies. They are not uneasy neighbors; they are not in an endless state of Cold War with each other. They are friends, they work together.”

This is seen most clearly, not on a Roman ship, but on a Roman cross. Nowhere are the doctrines of divine sovereignty and human responsibility more clearly visible than on the cross of Christ.

Act 4:26-28—The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’— (27) for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, (28) to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

PRAY

If you want to skip MM, you are dismissed during song

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CLOSING CHORUS

Praise God from whom all blessings flow

Praise Him all creatures here below

Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

SPECIAL MEMBERS’ MEETING AGENDA

Call Members Meeting to Order (Mike Klaassen)

Preamble (Mike Lindell)

Proposed Resolutioniii

Although we fully understand and appreciate that many people view the Confederate battle flag as a symbol of heritage, and not as a sign of support for slavery and white supremacy, we also recognize the flag is used by some and perceived by many as a symbol of hatred, bigotry, and racism, offending millions of people; and

We recognize that, while the removal of the Confederate battle flag from public display is not going to solve the most severe racial tensions that plague our nation and our churches, those professing Christ are called to extend grace and put the consciences of others ahead of their own interests and actions (1 Corinthians 8:9–13, 10:23; Philippians 2:3–4); and

Since the state of Mississippi, with the support of state Southern Baptist leaders, signed legislation on June 30, 2020 to remove the state flag due to its Confederate imagery;

We the members of Poquoson Baptist Church:

commend the governmental officials of Mississippi for their sensitivity on this issue; and

pledge to remove the former Mississippi flag from our gymnasium; and

acknowledge both the importance of remembering family heritage and sacrifice, as well as the urgency of pursuing a unified Body of Christ and racial healing in America; and

urge one another to exercise grace and strive to apply 1 Corinthians 10:32, "Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God," so that the only offense we give is the offense of the cross, "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame" (Rom 9:33), being "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph 4:3), to be a bold witness to the transforming power of Jesus.

Motion on the Resolution (Mike Klaassen)

BENEDICTION

(John Rogers)

Romans 15:5-6 — May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

ENDNOTES

________________________

i Orlando Saer, Big God: How To Approach Suffering, Spread the Gospel, Make Decisions and Pray in the Light of a God Who Really Is in the Driving Seat of the World (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2014), 37.

ii Saer, 43–44.

iiiAdopted from a 2016 SBC Resolution, On Sensitivity And Unity Regarding The Confederate Battle Flag. http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/2268/on-sensitivity-and-unity-regarding-the-confederate-battle-flag. Accessed July 7, 2020.