How to avoid shipwreck

Jesus, his own creation, was proclaimed, all by his body, skin and heart, blood and mane. Jesus is born, the universe prepares him, Chancres and Psalms in heaven, Christ Jesus is born. Jesus is born, Jesus is born, Praise him, hallelujah, for Jesus is born.

Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, made an alliance with Ahaziah, king of Israel, who was guilty of wickedness. He agreed with him to construct a fleet of trading ships. After these were built at Ezion Geber, Eliezer, son of Dodavahu of Marashah, prophesied against Jehoshaphat, I wouldn't have chosen this reading, saying, because you have made an alliance with Ahaziah, the Lord will destroy what you have made.

The ships were wrecked and were not able to set sail to trade. And now we turn into the New Testament and to the first letter of Timothy. We move into much safer waters as far as the reading is concerned.

1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 18. Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith.

Finally, we turn to the Gospel of Mark and chapter 4. Mark chapter 4 and we begin reading at verse 35. That day when evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, let us go over to the other side. Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was in the boat.

There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.

The disciples woke him and said to him, Teacher, don't you care if we drown? He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, quiet, be still. Then the wind died down, and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? They were terrified and asked each other, who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him.

Now may God be pleased to add his blessing to those portions of his word. So ably read by Andrew. Just ten days or so ago, I was in a place called Llandudno.

Not in the Principality of Wales, but actually a bay in Cape Province. I went there deliberately. I wanted to see if what I had noticed before, two years earlier, when I had been in that rather beautiful spot, was still there.

Sure enough, on the rocks were the remains of an ocean liner. The Cape of Good Hope was known also as the Cape of Storms. Many a good ship down the centuries has plunged to a watery grave, failing to negotiate the rapid currents, the treacherous wind, and the nearby rocks of that part of the world.

As I was looking on that ship, so firmly lodged on the rocks, I thought of the Apostle Paul. The way he tells us in the second letter that he wrote to the Corinthians, that three times during his work as an ambassador for Jesus, he was shipwrecked. On one occasion, he tells us he spent 36 hours in the open sea, maybe clinging to some piece of wood broken away from the ship, hovering between life and death, wondering if the next billowing, gushing wave might also cause him to be drowned.

The Apostle was remarkably preserved from those unpleasant experiences of being shipwrecked. And it seemed to me as I was thinking about the Apostle more recently, just last evening, that not only was he concerned about his own physical well-being, but also the possibility of shipwreck, as far as Christian folks were concerned, as far as ordinary people who make their way through life are concerned. And so, what was impressed upon my mind, which I want to share with you now, somewhat briefly, in my closing Sunday morning address in 1985, is how to avoid a shipwreck.

How to avoid a shipwreck. The shipwrecking, I'm referring to, of your faith. So, I direct you to the first reading that Andrew brought to us, tucked away at the end of 2 Chronicles chapter 20, is this statement.

The final verse, the ships were wrecked and were not able to set sail to trade. Now, this refers to a man by the name of Jehoshaphat, who is the king of Judah. Israel has been split into two countries.

One takes the name Israel itself, and the southern part is Judah. The king of Israel is Ahaziah. Now, Jewish people were not naturally maritime people.

Although from time to time, but very little reference is found, in the Old Testament there is some acknowledgement of the significance of the sea. But on the whole, Jewish people were landlubbers. The sea to them was a terror.

That's why in the book of Revelation, John has to say, there will be no sea in heaven. You take that quite poetically. There is no reason for fear at all in heaven.

The Jews, as I say, were landlubbers. They, by and large, apart from a small company of them around the Sea of Galilee, preferred to be agriculturalists rather than sailors. From time to time, however, there were merchant navies that were launched in the history of Israel.

But generally, this came as a result of other people sharing the expertise that they gathered about the sea with the Jews. For example, in the first chapter, or rather the first book of Kings and the ninth chapter, reference is made right at the end of that chapter to King Solomon, who has a friendship with the king of Tyre, a man by the name of Hiram. Now, Solomon wants to launch some ships.

And so we read in the 27th verse of 1 Kings chapter 9, Hiram, king of Tyre and Sidon, twin ports, sent him men, sailors who knew the sea, to serve in the fleet with Solomon's men. And they sailed to Ophir and brought back 420 talents of gold, and they delivered to King Solomon. Now, here you've got more or less the same thing.

In the reign of King Jehoshaphat, he wants also to send ships from the port of Ezion Giba to Ophir, where there is gold, so that he can make his store of treasure that much larger. But we read that poor old Jehoshaphat, well, he has problems. The ships were wrecked and were not able to set sail to trade.

They didn't even get out of harbor. Now, that was a tragedy, wasn't it? Imagine spending all that time, all that effort in constructing a fleet and then launching those said ships and to discover that they don't even get just a few nautical miles away from the place where they were built. They were shipwrecked before they even were launched out into the sea channels of the world.

Now, why? Why did this king discover that his enterprise was such a ruin, such a ruinous experiment? Well, it seems to me that the reason is simply this. It's not that he was following a bad example. He got out of Solomon, as we've referred to earlier.

Solomon, with King of Tyre and Sidon, was able successfully to launch a fleet. But Jehoshaphat was not within the purposes of God for what he was doing. He made an alliance with a wicked king by the name of Ahaziah, and together they embarked upon this project, and it didn't have the sanction of God upon it.

And it seems to me that there are people who, if you like, if we can put this through into New Testament terminology, are very much like Jehoshaphat. They launch out into the Christian faith, or so they think, and they don't recognize that before you can embark on a journey and sail on the seas of life as a Christian, that there are certain fundamental things that you need to have in mind. And one of these is that you can't sail with a mixed crew.

You can't sail with a mixed crew. You see, the true Church of Jesus Christ is not the conglomerate, the aggregate of men and women who attend on ministries in various churches in this country or around the world. The Church of Jesus is within that group, but not exclusively made up of that group.

The Church of Jesus Christ is composed of men and women who have determined that they will follow Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They will not compromise with the world. They won't compromise, if you like, with the Ahaziahs.

They appreciate that you cannot follow the Lord Jesus and also have in your company, in some way controlling your lifestyle, others who are not Christian people. Amos makes this very clear, although his reference is not a nautical one. He says, can two walk together unless they be agreed? Now, he's an agriculturalist.

He's a man who comes from an area of Tekoa, and it's largely a scrub area. And Amos knows that when he goes on a journey with a friend, it's very, very important that the two of them agree. Why? Well, you see, water is most important.

And if one of them is to squabble, if there's to be a fallout, if there's to be a breakdown in relationship, then two men on a journey across scrubland, it can be a very perilous business. So Amos says, can two walk together unless they be agreed? No, it's too dangerous. And neither can a crew set sail on the seas of life unless they are agreed as to the way the ship is to be steered and the set horizon, the set port that they have on the horizon is one to which they all agree to sail towards.

You know, the story of the merchant navy in England is a very exciting story. From time to time, there were mutinies aboard the ship. You see, in days gone by, sailors were not just volunteers.

They were pressed men. Sometimes the king's officers would go along the streets, the cobbled streets of Southampton, and impress men into the service of the king. And as a result, sometimes mutiny occurred.

But as far as serving Jesus Christ goes, the men, the women who are called to serve him are those who recognize what it means to be a disciplined sailor who want to serve alongside the captain of their ship, the one who is the admiral, the one who is in the lead ship. And they'll stay very, very close to him. And unless this is done, then I predict that such a person who launches out onto the seas without recognizing the particular requirements that Jesus Christ has on those who will be sailors, they will be shipwrecked.

They will never achieve their goal. So here in these early chapters of the Old Testament, we read of an incident where a king embarks upon a particular expedition, and it's fraught with a disaster. The ships were wrecked and were not able to set sail to trade.

Was that your experience during this past year? Have you not really known what it is to successfully sail alongside the Lord Jesus? Well, let's move along to the second passage that Andrew brought to our attention, because here we've got something that is similar, and yet the difference in it is such that I ought to bring the slight qualification to your attention. Here is Timothy being addressed by Paul, and the letter writer has in mind those who seem to have been Christians, and yet the very outfall of their lives indicates that the genuineness of their profession is very much in question. My son Timothy, verse 18 of chapter 1. I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience.

Some have rejected these, and so have shipwrecked their faith. Among them, I didn't give Andrew this verse, I didn't think he could manage the names. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, who I have handed over to Satan to be taught, not to blaspheme.

What's the apostle referring to here? Well, you remember my opening illustration took you back to the apostle Paul telling us about the physical way in which he had known shipwreck. But one of the things that he's concerned about as he makes reference in 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 27 for those of you who've got the authorized version of the Bible, is that he himself, the apostle, might not finish up as a castaway, might be an invalid sailor of the Lord Jesus. Now, there were some who came under that category.

These men who have rejected the faith, and they have been shipwrecked as a result, Hymenaeus and Alexander. One time it seemed as though they were able-bodied sailors. But as the journey continued, as the boat was launched, the very way that they conducted themselves indicated that their profession of faith in Jesus was a spurious one.

They rejected the faith. The faith, says the apostle Paul, which earlier on in that chapter he refers to as the blessed gospel, or the glorious gospel of the blessed God. These two men, and there were others, they seemed to be Christian.

And yet as the months went by, as the years went by, they rejected the very thing that gives Christianity its buoyancy. What is that? Well, it's the faith. The faith that we have in Jesus Christ as Lord.

This is very fundamental, you see. There is an irreducible minimum that every Christian must believe in for him to bear that name in regard to who Jesus is and what he is trusting the Lord Jesus for. Well, says the apostle, it seemed as though these two men, Hyman Niasse and Alexander and others, it seemed as though they were valid, able-bodied seamen.

But as the ship continued its voyage, as they were questioned, it was obvious that the very life belt of salvation was not something that they had agreed to. They jettisoned it. They threw it overboard.

This tendency as a result of confessing Jesus as Lord, to live a holy and an honorable life, which is part of the responsibility of every Christian. Again, they weren't illustrating this. They surrendered a good conscience.

The dividing line between what is acceptable and not acceptable, what is pure and what is unholy, this was obliterated as far as they were concerned. And so, says the apostle, here were these. These two men, symbolic of others, who set sail.

They weren't smashed on the rocks at the beginning. It seemed to those of us who were in attendance that they were valid, genuine sailors following the admiral of the fleet. But as the years went by, it became very obvious in the way they talked and in the way that they lived that they had never genuinely confessed Jesus Christ as the Lord, High Admiral.

Now, it could well be that one of the reasons why today you're saying I'm in great difficulty as far as the Christian faith is concerned is because your faith in the first instance was not a genuine one. You didn't really know what it was. Hand over your heart to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Maybe you were moved just by the emotion of some meeting. Maybe you didn't fully consider what it meant to be a sailor, if you like, or a soldier of Jesus Christ. The hardship that might come, even though there were blessings that Jesus promised as a result of following Him.

And in effect, yes, you're smashed on the rocks. Not because He let you down, but because your profession was never a genuine one in the first instance. You fooled yourself.

You fooled others. But it's possible for that to happen and for you to be shipwrecked as a result. But one person, of course, you don't fool is the Lord Jesus.

So, you see, these two contrasting illustrations we've got from the Old Testament from the New. They're all dealing definitely, specifically with some tragic attempt to launch a flotilla of ships. And it all came to nothing.

The reason being, well, the man who was concerned didn't seek out the purposes of God. He engaged in an unholy alliance. And here is the Apostle Paul.

And he's not now speaking in terms of a literal ship, but he is talking about literal followers of the Lord Jesus. But they were spurious. And as a result, they shipwrecked themselves on the rock of unbelief.

But finally, let's come to the most happy part of our consideration this evening, this morning. Here is our Lord Jesus. And you discover in Mark's Gospel that often a ship and the Sea of Galilee play a great role in the ministry of the Savior.

You'll find that in the first chapter, the fourth chapter, the fifth, sixth, and eighth chapters. Much is made about the Lord Jesus and the fishermen who He called to be His disciples. From this small number of Jews who did have a lifestyle that of sailors and fishermen.

That day, verse 35, when evening came, He said to His disciples, this is Mark 4, leaving the crowd behind, let us go to the other side. And leaving the crowd behind, they took Him along just as He was in the boat. There were also other boats with Him.

And what happened? Well, it wasn't the best occasion for a trip across Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is a very remarkable place, you know. It's often very, very placid, very calm.

You can sometimes see the reflection of your face in the sea. And yet it's a very treacherous sea for this reason. You see, it's encompassed by mountains.

And the way that the wind gets in is through a narrow corridor down on the southern part, the southern tip of the sea. And when the wind comes, it comes with great ferocity. And it's usually during an afternoon.

That's the reason why, if you're fishing in Galilee, you would normally select the late hours of the evening or the early hours of the morning. But, when there is an exception and you go at night and the wind starts to blow, as it does occasionally, it comes with an even greater ferocity. And that was the experience that these disciples, fishermen, a lot of them were, had to go through that particular evening.

And yet remember, they'd taken the Lord Jesus on their ship with them. You read a similar incident in John's Gospel, where it says that they were glad to take Jesus on board the ship. But taking Jesus on board the ship does not immunize them from the difficulties, from the treacherous nature of the Sea of Galilee.

No more than you becoming a Christian made you immune to the problems and the difficulties that life brings. You see, Christianity is not a sort of insurance policy against life's ills. It would be nice to preach that, and there are perhaps certain sectors of the church which seem to suggest that once you come to the Lord Jesus, well, you'll be healthy, wealthy, and happy forevermore.

I don't find that in the New Testament. In fact, I think it's a mischievous doctrine. But one of the things that you can be assured of is this, that as you set sail under the flagship of the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever difficulty comes your way, with His help, you're able to negotiate it, however high the waves may be, however ferocious the wind may be.

Now, it seems to me most interesting that the gospel of Mark includes in this incident certain things which he could have left aside, some extraneous little bits of information that he gives us. And he does this because I believe he's prompted by the Holy Spirit. And here he's not just setting down a literal happening, though I do believe it was historical, simply to show how the Lord Jesus met the needs of the disciples.

But Mark is writing for a much wider audience. You see, the people who read this gospel are largely people at Rome and throughout the whole of the Roman Empire. And they receive and read this gospel when they're going through great difficulties.

Storms are not only things that you have at sea. You can go through life and it can be terribly stormy. And when Nero unleashed his persecutions amongst the early Christians, the storm was ferocious and the consequences seemed to be disastrous.

And here is Mark with his poetic flair and the inspiration of the Spirit upon him. He sets up the picture of the church. This is what we're seeing.

Jesus in the leading vessel. And all the other little ships are with him. And the storm comes.

And Jesus is asleep. Jesus untouched by the incidents or so it seems. Not appreciating that the lives of his disciples and all those other men and women crammed into the little ships are at stake.

Jesus with his head on the cotswain's pillar, asleep. And the disciples rudely waken him. Don't you care that we perish? Jesus, you don't seem to be informed as to what is happening.

And our blessed Lord with the majesty that is his. As he is awakened, he gets up, verse 29, and he rebukes the wind. And he says to the waves, quiet, be muzzled.

Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. My friend, don't you know that the whole of the Old Testament is laced with illustrations of the miraculous power of God and the wonder of the world that he has created. He parts the waters of the Red Sea.

He does so by sending a wave that divides those waters and causes them to stand as a heap to let the Israelites pass through. And when the psalmists start to compose their hymns, their Hebrew poetry, time and time again, they speak of this great God who can open the waters of the seas and let the people through. This great God who can make his path, make his track along the path of the ocean bed.

It is not difficult for him to withstand the storm, to withstand the elements, because he is the master of them all. And as it was with Jehovah God in the Old Testament, so it is with Jesus Christ, the representative of Jehovah in the New Testament. As God came to the rescue of the Israelites, so Jesus Christ comes to the rescue not just of his disciples, not just of those in the flotilla of ships, but for the whole of the Christian church down the centuries.

Jesus is not immune from the difficulties that encompass us. Sometimes it seems that way. Lord, why are you asleep? Why don't you wake up? Lord, if you had been here, things would have been different.

Do you remember Mary and Martha and the way they reproached the Lord Jesus? And the fact of the matter is, my dear brother and sister, he's always here. Sometimes he appears to be asleep. Sometimes it seems as though the frail bark that you sail in is tossed around, a victim of the treacherous currents of life.

And it seems as though he's not in control. But he is. There is not one thing that happens to you.

There is not one thing that has happened to you down the years of your life that he does not know. You see, he's in control. He's in the flagship.

The Lord High Admiral. Jesus Christ. And at times when you rudely waken him, he gets up and he rebukes the very circumstances that cause you to be afraid.

And then he turns around and he says, Why? Why did you panic so much? Do you really believe that with me in the vessel, with me in control, something so devastating can happen to you that you should be in such a state of panic and flurry and turmoil? Where is your faith? He turns to the disciples. Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? Verse 41, they were terrified. And asked each other, Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him? How during this next year will you ensure that you're not shipwrecked? Well, by putting together these three incidents that I've tried to propel in front of you, proclaiming, put in front of you this morning, old Jehoshaphat, he got it wrong.

Because you see, he didn't really recognize the laws of God nor the laws of seamanship. And he went on his own and he tried to, if you like, illustrate a person who makes his own religion. We'll do it my way.

But the Lord says, No, Jehoshaphat, not your way because, you see, you don't control the elements and I do. And God help you. If the elements are out of control and you're not under my control because you're in trouble.

And here are Hymenist and Alexander. They fooled everyone else in the church. Probably even Paul.

That they were really true. But they hadn't made that commitment to Jesus Christ which ensured that they believed in him and the depository of his gospel more than anything else. They jettisoned what would alone keep them buoyant as they went through the seas of life.

And as a result, they finished on the rocks. Shipwrecked. But here were the disciples.

Thank God that Mark put this in. Aren't you grateful? Wouldn't it have been terrible if the New Testament had been full of illustrations of Christians who always got it right on every occasion. I'm so glad that the Lord picked the bunch of disciples that he did and that many, many times they made a mess because it resembles me and my pitiful attempts to be a sailor on the sea of life.

But Jesus reminds his disciples as now he reminds us that as we follow him and as we insist that he's on board as we take reference to his word which the hymn writer calls the chart and compass, so we will navigate ultimately to our heavenly harbour and there is no force in heaven on earth or under the earth which will deflect us from one day being where he is because he has guaranteed our eternal well-being even though in the achievement of that we might have to withstand the storms and the fluctuations of current and sometimes feel a night seasick when we're disturbed emotionally but here is the Lord giving us the example with Christ in the vessel we can cope with the storm that's how to avoid shipwreck that's how to ensure that you never become a cast away by keeping close to the Lord Jesus in your prayers and in your reading of his word and offering your life as you move into 86 in his direct control, Lord Jesus you are our high admiral, we want to sail in your flotilla, stay with us Lord and whatever happens we know that we have security and we have safety in your presence let us pray Father as we brought these three seemingly unrelated incidents together and discovered common denominators that help us to find advice and instruction in the days that are ahead help us to respond to them and bless each dear brother and sister here particularly those for whom this last year has brought tremendous storms and who have come or so it would seem perilously close to the rocks, help them Lord to see, help us all to see the light coming from the house that warns us from where we are to steer clear and help us to hand over the wheel to our Lord Jesus and stay close to him during these next 12 months never to be a cast away never to be a shipwreck but always to sail truly confidently and correctly because we're in his Armada Amen Let's turn to hymn 104 we were going to sing Will Your Anchor Hold but the words are not on the overhead so let's go to 104 Eternal Father Strong to Save It's a hymn about the sea and we ought to be praying for seafaring men John and Sue Mende sent a request that we remember their ministries in our prayers as they work amongst the deep sea fishermen so perhaps we can be thinking of them as well as of ourselves as we sing this seasonal appropriate hymn Eternal Father Strong to Save 104 Eternal Father Strong to Save It's a hymn about the sea and we ought to be praying for seafaring men John and Sue Mende sent a request that we remember their ministries in our of ourselves as we sing this and we ought to be praying for seafaring men John and Sue Mende sent a request our Lord throughout this day and as we move on into the new year we may hear the echo of the voice of our Lord Jesus calming us in our circumstances and enabling us to continue, come wind come weather, here is then for his sake, amen