Acts 27:20

HERE was a case of extreme peril, in which there seemed to be no possibility whatever of any of the lives of nearly 300 persons being preserved. In this emergency the Apostle Paul resorted to prayer. We may avail ourselves of this privilege in the worst pinch. When things are so black that they cannot be any darker we may still pray. God is good at a dead lift. Our extremities, as we well know, are always His opportunities. When we can do nothing to help ourselves, let us pray and we can get help from God in everything. Or, after we have done the little we can do, let us leave all with God and resort to Him in prayer. This is one case out of many in which prayer has averted peril while faith has grappled with fear and despair has been routed from the heart by a calm dependence on the Lord. Thus Paul was enabled by his supplication to save the lives of all that were in the ship. Do not think, dear Brothers and Sisters, then, that your prayers in time of extremity will prove fruitless. God enable you to pray with faith! Remember there never was a prayer of faith that failed yet! Heaven and earth shall pass away but this Truth of God shall never cease to be true, that God is the Hearer of prayer if we will but believe in Him. He that wavers must not expect to receive an answer, but he that is confident in his God shall never be confounded. However, I am going to take the text out of its connection—I need to use it for different reasons and purposes. We have frequently known men to be in a condition in which they have said that all hope that they should be saved was taken away. We are going to speak to such tonight. Sometimes I have been glad to hear that cry and sometimes I have deplored it. Sometimes I have heartily sympathized with it. Upon those three phases of the cry we shall speak. I.

[Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon, upon parts of this passage, are as follows—Sermons #1070, Volume 18—WRECKED, BUT NOT RECKLESS; #2952, Volume 51—THE CHURCH—THE WORLD'S HOPE and #1355, Volume 23—A CHEERY WORD IN TROUBLOUS TIMES.] HERE we see a Believer full of comfort cheering others. The words of good cheer now before us are from a man, but inasmuch as he does but repeat what the Lord had spoken to him, they are none the less precious. And they may be all the more profitable if they move us, by their example, to speak words of cheer to others.

[Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon, upon parts of this passage, are as follows—Sermons #1070, Volume 18—WRECKED, BUT NOT RECKLESS; #2952, Volume 51—THE CHURCH—THE WORLD'S HOPE and #1355, Volume 23—A CHEERY WORD IN TROUBLOUS TIMES.] HERE we see a Believer full of comfort cheering others. The words of good cheer now before us are from a man, but inasmuch as he does but repeat what the Lord had spoken to him, they are none the less precious. And they may be all the more profitable if they move us, by their example, to speak words of cheer to others. The Believer is sure to come to the front. He may be hidden away in the crowd and his condition and circumstances may put him in the rear rank for a time, but his light will by some means rise out of obscurity. Paul is nothing but a prisoner all the time the ship sails safely. He is courteously entreated, yet he holds rank among others who are being carried to Rome for trial. But the storm comes on and the ship is driven before the tempest—and he who was only a prisoner becomes practically the chief man in the ship! The owner, the captain, the centurion—these are very small figures in the picture. You scarcely notice them in the group huddled together in the laboring boat. Paul is the center of the whole company, the observed of all. He is as much the master of the ship as Caesar was when, in the tempest, he encouraged the mariners with the words, "Fear not, you carry Caesar and all his fortunes." Paul is greater than Caesar, for he says less of himself and more of the Eternal God. He is evidently reverenced and esteemed even by those who hold him in chains. Paul on board that vessel was strikingly like the Lord Jesus when He came into the ship upon the Galilean Lake. There are many parallels between every true Believer and his Lord.

Neither sun nor stars ... - As they could see neither san nor stars, they could make no observations; and as they had no compass, they would be totally ignorant of their situation, and they gave up all as lost.