Know God and Do
Great Exploits
Pastor Jeff Seavey - February 22, 2006
Surfing? In The Bible? Some believe the apostle
Paul may have been the first man to do so. After a
ship on which Paul was being held as a prisoner shipwrecked,
a Roman soldier “ordered those who could
swim to jump overboard first and make for the land, and the
rest on planks or on pieces of the ship. And so
it was that all were brought safely to land.” (Acts
27:43-44) All right, I agree! It’s not the best
place to support the idea that Paul was a surfer dude, but
it is actually one of the best chapters in the Bible to go
to when defending the doctrine of predestination against
one of its most common objections. Does predestination
really take away all motives for human exertion? Some
say it does. I’ve personally had people ask me, “Why
do anything if all has been predestined?” Not
only do people excuse themselves from responsibility for
past things they’ve done on the basis that they did
it because they were predestined – but some will also
excuse themselves from doing what they ought to do because
of predestination. They argue that if they are meant
to do it, then they will do it… by the miracle of
predestination. And then they sit and wait…
But the apostle Paul, who probably wrote more about predestination
than anyone else in the Bible, did not share this thinking
at all. In verses 43-44 of Acts 27 we read, “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. Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there
will be no loss of life among you, but only of the
ship. For 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. And behold, God
has granted you all those who sail with you.’ So
take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be
exactly as I have been told.” Notice, all passengers
have been predestined to be saved from death.
Observe the rest of the text and its implications for our
own lives. After putting down anchors near some treacherous
rocks and joining in prayer for day to come, the sailors
secretly began lowering a boat on which to escape (27-30). But
in verse 31 “Paul said to the centurion and the
soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot
be saved.” Isn’t that interesting? Even
though Paul was assured all would live, the sailors who were
planning to leave the others helpless, were necessary in
getting the ship closer to shore and so he commanded them
to stay. Notice that Paul never adopts the erroneous,
fatalistic attitude, thinking that the ship would just magically
get to the shore because it was predestined. When Paul
realized what was going on, he took immediate action. Not
only that, but the following day, in verses 33-34 we read, “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.
Therefore I urge you to take some food. It will give you
strength, for not a hair is to perish from the head of any
of you.” Again, why eat or do anything
if they are all predestined to live. In fact, notice
Paul says, “take food… for (or because) not
a hair is to perish”. Or, in other words, “Since
you are predestined to live, you better eat to provide for
yourself strength!”
Why the need for sailors? Why eat? Why the
need for strength? Paul is no fool. Paul wisely
knew that God’s predestination of all things still
involved the use of ordinary human means to bring it about. Paul
even goes so far as to say that those means are necessary
- “Unless these men stay in the ship, you
cannot be saved”(31) – and “since
you are predestined, EAT!”. And
I have no doubt they all did just as Paul said.
Interestingly, we all employ Paul’s example quite
well when it comes to matters outside our spiritual lives. If
we want to lose weight, we know what to do (diet), and that
we must do it. If we want to correct
our vision, we get glasses. If we get sick, we take
medicine. If we want to pay the bills, we work. How
come it is often so much easier for us to employ the necessary
use of means in such matters, but struggle to employ means
when it comes to our spiritual lives? Speaking of
people who use this particular objection against predestination,
Louis Berkhof says, “this is generally the mere
excuse of indolence (laziness) and disobedience.” Or
as Wayne Grudem says, “To say that we are trusting
in God instead of acting responsibly is sheer laziness and
is a distortion of the doctrine of providence.”
Since all future events are hidden from us, or in Paul’s
case the actual means that would be used to ensure safety,
we ought to be as industrious in our work and as earnest
in the performance of our duty as if nothing had been predestined
concerning it. It has often been said that we should
pray as though everything depended on God, and work as though
everything depended on ourselves. Ecc 11:6 says, “In
the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your
hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that,
or whether both alike will
be good.”
So then, we must combine absolute trust in God’s sovereign
providence with a realization that the use of ordinary means
is necessary for things to come out the way God planned them
to come out. Scripture, in fact, urges us to be diligent
in using the appointed means, Phil 2:13; Eph 2:10. Unbending
belief in the fact that, according to the divine decrees
of God, success will be the reward of hard work, is an stimulus
to courageous and persevering efforts.
“…the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” Dan
11:32
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