My dear reader friends.  I came across the article below by Charles H Spurgeon and thought it an excellent article to insert for all of you to benefit. To give a little background, Charles H. Spurgeon was a famous preacher in the United Kingdom in the middle 1800’s.  He had a huge impact on England and on the world for the cause of Biblical righteousness and the Kingdom of God. He was pastor of the London Metropolitan Tabernacle for 38 years.  He greatly affected all denominations around the world with his written sermons and books that are still greatly used today around the world. His sermons were transcribed into various languages and distributed around the world by mail.  Today many Christians hold his writings in exceptionally high regard among devotional literature.  

The background to the comments on Spurgeon’s article below is taken from the book of Acts chapter 27, which is really an account of a shipwreck during a journey to Rome. The ship crashed onto the rocks with 276 souls on board.  It is an amazing account of God’s wisdom shown in a shipwreck incident Every soul survived because they listened to and followed the instructions of the preacher that was on board. I think this shipwreck story serves another application for us today.  First, the story is given at the end of the book of Acts, which is a historical record of the early church. We have been living out the church age for 2000 years now but we are getting to the end of it. In our day we are witnessing brutal storms over this world. There are wars that could very easily evolve into nuclear war.  We have wars in Ukraine, in the middle east, in Africa, all of them costing thousands of human lives and all indicating we are at the end of the church age journey.  We have just gone through a global pandemic that has affected the world like no other global crisis in history.  Global control did much more damage than the Covid.  Now we have a global environment war against industry and progress causing the world to further plummet into economic chaos with shortages of fuel and food. 

I believe our world is about to suffer a brutal shipwreck—foretold in the Bible—that will come at the end of the age we are presently living.  However, note the lesson from verse 25.  The Apostle Paul was on the ship and he received revelation from God that all on board would get through safely.  He then communicates this message of “good news” to all the souls on board.  His message was that they were not going to perish if they followed his instructions. 

The following by Charles H Spurgeon (1834-1892) Confidence and Courage in The Midst Of The Storm 

 “Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer:  for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me” (Acts 27:25).    The presence of a brave man in the hour of danger is a very great comfort to his companions.  It is a grand thing to observe Paul so bold, so calm, in the midst of all the hurly-burly of the storm, and talking so cheerfully, and so encouragingly, to the crew and to the soldiery and to the prisoners.  You must have seen in many events in history that it is the one man, after all, that wins the battle:  all the rest play their parts well when the one heroic spirit lifts the standard.

    Recollect, Christian man, that wherever you are placed you are to be the one man, and you are to have courage and independence of spirit and strength of mind received from God, that with it you may comfort those around you who are of the weaker sort.  So act that your confidence in God shall strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees, and your calm quiet look shall say to them that are of a faint heart, “Be strong; fear not.”

    If you are to do this, and I trust you will do it, in the sick chamber, in the midst of the troubles of life, in the church, and everywhere else, you must be strong yourself.  Take it as a good rule that nothing can come out of you that is not in you.  You cannot render real encouragement to others unless you have courage within yourself.

    Now, the reason why Paul was able to embolden his companions was that he encouraged himself in his God; he was calm or else he could not have calmed those around him.  Imagine him excited and all in a tremble, and yet saying, “Sirs, be of good cheer.”  Why they would have thought that he mocked them, and they would have replied, “Be of good cheer yourself, sir, before you encourage us.”

    So my dear brothers and sisters, you must trust God and be calm and strong, or else you will not be of such service in the world and in the church as you ought to be.  Get full, and then you will run over, but you can never fill others till you become full yourselves.  Be yourselves “strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might” (Eph. 6:10), and then you will be as a standard lifted up to which the timid will rally.

    Paul was strong because he believed.  Faith makes men strong – not in the head, but in the heart.

“I Believe God”

    Notice that Paul’s faith was faith in God.  “I believe God,” said he.  Nobody else in the ship could see any hope in God.  With the exception of one or two like-minded with Paul, they thought that God had forsaken them, if indeed they thought of God at all.  But there had that night stood by Paul’s side an angel fresh from heaven, bright with the divine presence, and, strengthened by his message, Paul said, “I believe God.”  That was something more than saying, “I believe in God.”  This many do and derive but slender comfort from the belief.  But “I believe God – believe Him, believe His truthfulness, believe the word that He has spoken, believe His mercy and His power.  I believe God.”  This made Paul calm, peaceful, strong.  Would to God that all professing Christians did really believe God.

    Believing God, he believed the message that God had sent him, drank in every word and was revived by it.  God had said, “Fear not Paul, I have given thee all them that sail with thee.”  He believed it.  He felt certain that God, having promised it, was able to perform it; and amidst the howling of the winds, Paul clung to that promise.  He was sure that no hair of any man’s head would be harmed.  The Lord had said the preserving word and it was enough for His servant.  Has He said it, and shall He not do it?  Has He spoken it, and shall it not come to pass?  He believed God that it should be even as it was told him.

    And he did that – mark you, dear friends – when there was nothing else to believe in.  “I believe God,” said he.  The fierce Euroclydon was sweeping the vessel hither and thither and driving her toward the shore:  but he calmly said, “I believe God.” Ah, that is a grand thing – to believe God when the winds are out, to believe God when the waves howl like so many wild beasts and follow one upon another like a pack of wolves all seeking to devour you.  “I believe God.”  This is the genuine breed of faith – this which can brave a tempest.

    The common run of men’s faith is fair-weather faith, faith which loves to see its beautiful image mirrored in the glassy wave, but is far away when the storm clouds are marshalling the battle.  The faith of God’s elect is the faith that can see in the dark, the faith that is calm in the tumult, the faith that can sing in the midst of sorrow, the faith that is brightest when everything around her is black as midnight.  “I believe God,” said he, when he had nothing else to believe in.  “My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him” (Psalm 62:5).  Say thou, O my soul, “Though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, yet will we not fear, for God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (see Psalm 46:1-2).

“God liveth still!
Trust, my soul, and fear no ill;
Heaven’s huge vault may cleave asunder,
Earth’s round globe in ruins burst;
Devil’s fellest rage may thunder,
Death and hell may spend their worst;
Then will God keep safe and surely
Those who trust in Him securely:
Wherefore then, my soul, despair?          

In Your Shipwreck, God is there”

to be continued……….. 

The content of this article is solely the personal opinions of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Prince Albert Shopper.