Shipwrecked on God

God is not interested in self-reliant churches. God is not interested in self-reliant denominations. God is not interested in self-reliant individuals.

If you doubt that statement, I challenge you friends to look in your Bible and see what God thought of a self-reliant king. Go look up and see how God dealt with self-reliant King Saul and how this man ended up in apostasy seeking out the witch of Endor. No friends, God is not interested in self-reliant individuals, but he is deeply interested in those rare individuals who are utterly cast upon him, whose hope the Lord is.

God is looking for individuals who were shipwrecked on God. C.T. Studd was a man shipwrecked on God. He was a man who gave up wealth and reputation to gamble his life away for perishing souls.

At the age of 53, he bought a one-way ticket to Africa and left England against the counsel of family and friends and physicians. He didn't see his wife for 16 years. C.T. Studd lived to spend and be spent for the sake of the gospel.

He wrote the famous poem, Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. He was a man totally shipwrecked on God.

And that's the title of my message this evening, friends. Shipwrecked on God. And my text can be found in the book of Acts in chapter 27.

You can turn your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in verses 41 through 44. The apostle Paul was a man who lived his life, if I may so speak, shipwrecked on God.

Broken and shipwrecked on God for the spread of the gospel. Let us look at our text, beginning in verse 41. And fallen into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground.

And the forepart struck fast and remained unmovable. But the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves. And the soldier's counsel 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.

Our passage describes a shipwreck. The ship which Paul was on became broken up upon the rocks. This message, friends, is on the doctrine of brokenness.

And brokenness is the opposite of pride. I believe, friends, that spiritual pride is the main hindrance to revival in our day. I have known many pastors and evangelists who were full of spiritual pride.

When a church or a denomination becomes prideful, that's when God withdraws himself in a judgment upon that spiritual pride. We like to boast about how many we've led to the Lord. We like to boast and brag about the size of our church campus.

Listen, friends, God is only near broken people. Isaiah 57, 15 declares, For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

That word contrite means broken, crushed to powder. I believe it was Alan Redpath who said that before God can use a man, he must first crush him. The apostle Paul, before he was saved, was a prideful Pharisee of Pharisees.

Then God broke Paul. He gave him a thorn which would not go away. Paul relates how he prayed on three occasions for God to remove this thorn in his flesh, but God answered, My grace is sufficient for thee.

God used that thorn in the apostle's life to keep him broken before God and utterly shipwrecked on him. If you want to study brokenness and how God uses those rare individuals who are broken, then go read David Brainerd's journal, or go read the life of Jonathan Edwards, who was kicked out of his church and thrust out into the wilderness of Stockbridge, or go read the life of George Whitefield and how broken that dear man was as he spread the gospel across two continents in the midst of great awakenings, and you'll find a calm denominator there which links the holy lives and that is brokenness before God. They each were individuals whose lives were shipwrecked on God.

Men whom I've known personally, who I feel God has used in remarkable ways, all shared that calm denominator of brokenness. I remember sitting with my homiletical mentor, Dr. Stephen F. Oldford. We were in a study, and he related the following story to me.

He said a fellow pastor had asked him to go visit a church in a neighboring town to listen to a young pastor who had remarkable talents as a preacher. Well, Stephen Oldford went along with this pastor friend to hear this man preach, and on the drive home, the pastor asked Dr. Oldford what he thought of him as a preacher. Stephen Oldford replied, yes, he was quite remarkable, but, and he paused and added, but he hasn't suffered enough.

Stephen Oldford understood this principle of brokenness. There was a time in my own life when I was full of pride and self-reliance, but God had to break me. He had to smash me.

He had to break me because he had called me to preach, and God only uses broken men and broken women. Look at the life of Amy Carmichael and how God used that broken woman for his glory in India. I repeat, God is not interested in self-reliant churches or self-reliant denominations or self-reliant individuals.

He is looking for a man so empty of self and dead to this world and dead to the opinion of men who is willing to trust him utterly in a life of brokenness before him. God can work wonders through such a man. Listen, friends, this present world is a ship broken up and on the rocks, full of sin-sick and perishing souls on the way to hell who need to hear about the remedy for sin in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Oh, how much more good we could do in advancing the gospel of the Son of God if more evangelists and pastors and missionaries were taken off their self-reliance and cast entirely on God's spirit, being shipwrecked on God for his glory. Let us pray.