1 Thessalonians. We'll be looking
at a couple of places, but our text will be found in chapter
3 and verse 3. We can begin our reading in verse
1 of chapter 3. And the title of the message this
morning is, Appointed Afflictions. appointed afflictions. The scripture
says in verse 1 of chapter 3, Wherefore, when we could no longer
forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone. and sent Timotheus our brother
and minister of God and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ
to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith, that
no man should be moved by these afflictions. For yourselves know
that we are appointed thereunto." Appointed afflictions. And before
we look at this text, it would be wise for us to be reminded
of the occasion that Paul writes to these saints. He writes to
these saints at Thessalonica, and he says for us to remember,
it's important for us to remember, that the apostle, after he had
came from Philippi, After he had preached the gospel at Philippi,
then he came to Thessalonica and preached the gospel of Christ.
Go over to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17, we read of this account. In verse 4, we read of the result
of his preaching. The Scripture says, And some
of them believed. and consorted with Paul and Silas. And of the devout Greeks a great
multitude, and of the chief women not a few." Them, those that
believed, it said, some of them. That's the Jews. Some of the
Jews believed. And not only some of the Jews,
but of the devout Greeks. A great multitude. In other words,
these Greeks were proselytes. These were the ones that came
to the synagogue and heard the apostle. And not only a few of
them were converted, a multitude of them were converted. And of
the chief women, not a few. This was a result of... And so
this is the church of Thessalonica. It's made up of some Jews. Multitude of Greeks and not a
few women, which was... which is an amazing account of
the gospel because the Jews considered the women to be second. They
said, second class. And when the women were coming
in and the Gentiles were coming in, this made the Jews very,
the Jews that didn't believe, it made them very jealous. But is this not the heart of
everyone who believes in Jesus Christ to see this happen? It is my heart as a preacher
of the gospel to see a great multitude come. I would love
to see that in our day, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you love to see
a genuine conversion? I'm not talking about this freewill
works religion garbage. I'm talking about true conversions. True believers in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the heart of the church.
And as Paul desired the salvation of his kinsmen, he said, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. And that's our prayer for our
kinsmen. That's my prayer for this nation. For these people around us in
my family and your family, it is our desire to see them saved,
that God would save them. But we, like the Apostle Paul,
do not use gimmicks or tricks to convince men to come to Christ. Faith in Christ is not done by
trickery, nor is it done by legislation. Ted Cruz were elected president,
then we would all have to bow to Jehovah. Well, that's not
going to happen. I don't care who's king, and
you can dictate all you want to. That doesn't make men bow
to Jehovah. Only God does that. Salvation
is of God. It is God's salvation, and He
gives it to whom He will. We don't do this by trickery.
Faith is not just a mere consent of the truth. That's not saving
faith. Every one of you this morning,
if I were to ask you a simple gospel question, every one of
you would nod your head in, yeah, that's right, that's right. Yeah,
Jesus died. Yeah, he rose again from the
dead. Yeah, I know all that. Well, see, all you've done is
consent to the truth. That's not faith. Anyone can
do that. That's not faith. True faith
is a gift of God's grace. Faith in Jesus Christ is the
result or the evidence of the new birth. It's not the cause.
Faith is not the cause. It's the result of God's grace
and power of the Holy Spirit. True faith in Jesus Christ knows
that our election is of God. Look at that. Go back to verse
1 of your text. No, chapter 1. Go back to chapter 1. The apostle
writing to these believers, he says this in verse 4, Knowing,
brethren beloved, your election of God. True believers know this,
that salvation's of the Lord. If you're a believer in Christ,
you know that. That is, you don't have to know all the theology
of it, but I'll tell you this, you know this, salvation's of
God. You know you couldn't merit it, you couldn't earn it, you
couldn't work for it. You know that it must be, if
I've got faith, it must be of God. It must be. We know that salvation did not
begin with us, it began with God. And how blessed is this
truth of God's eternal election, that it was the Father that chose
us. It was the Father who loved us.
It was the Father who purposed our salvation. It was the Son
that redeemed and accomplished our salvation. And it was the
Holy Spirit that came to us in power and regeneration and quickened
our dead souls to life by the hearing of the gospel. Look at
that in verse 5. Knowing, brethren, your election
of God. 4. For our gospel came not in
word only, Listen, a lot of times this gospel goes out and you
only hear a word. It comes in word only. I don't
know how many times I heard the gospel in word only. I mean,
I heard the preacher, I don't know how many times. Nothing. I came in, I sat down, I listened,
I left the same way I came in. That's word only. But he said, I know your elections
of God because our gospel came not in word only, but also in
power and in the Holy Ghost. Here is the evidence of our election
and our redemption in Christ, even the calling of the Holy
Spirit to faith. I'll ask you this morning, is
the Word of God powerful to you? When I say the word effectual,
that's what I mean, powerful. That's what the Word means. If
the Word of God is effectual, the Word of God is powerful to
you. It does something. It's not words
on a page. It's real. It's alive. It's sharper than any two-edged
sword. And it cuts us to the quick. in our soul. The Word of God
is powerful to our souls and it moves us to confess our sin. Doesn't that do that to you when
the Word of God's... Aren't you moved to confession?
I'm moved every time I hear of the gospel of Christ, I'm moved
to confess my unworthiness. I'm moved. As the Word of God
cuts your soul and exposes you To be absolutely guilty before
God and no hope of self-salvation? That's what the gospel does to
men that the Holy Spirit comes to. He comes in power and He
exposes us. There's no hope of me saving
myself. I know that. I know that to be
true by the power of the Holy Spirit. And then what does it
do? It causes us to look to Jesus
Christ. That's what the Word does. It
causes us to look and to flee to Christ. We flee to Christ. The Scripture says, The kingdom
of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
In other words, we must have Christ. That's what the Word
of God does to us when it comes in power. We must have Him. I must be found in Him. He is
the only refuge for my soul, and I flee to Him. That's what
the Word does in power. Is Jesus Christ? Is His salvation
for you? Is it for you? Well, taste and see. Believe. Trust on Christ. Cast your soul, even this very
moment, on Him. And listen to me, He will save
even you. Even you. That's what the Word
does when it comes in power. You cast your soul upon Christ
and He saves us, even as He has to you, to other believers. He
will to any sinner who casts himself upon Christ. Why? Because
casting yourself upon Christ is the work of God. It's not
your work. It's the work of God in you,
both to will and do of His good pleasure. What is His good pleasure
for sinners? It is to cast their soul on Christ. And when you cast your soul on
Christ, you've just done what He told you to. He's just worked
in you what He wanted to, which is salvation, faith. You who do believe. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? If you do, then notice this,
the word of power and comes in the Holy Ghost in much assurance. Much assurance. Believer in Christ, let us never
try to find assurance in our faith. We do not have faith in our faith. But our assurance of our faith
comes rather from the object of our faith. If you want any
assurance, if you have any assurance of salvation, it will not come
from your faith, it will come from the object of your faith,
even Jesus Christ. Upon him cast all the weight
of your soul and he shall sustain you. You'll find much assurance
in Christ, much assurance. Over in Romans chapter 1, it
says this, Romans chapter 5, sorry, Romans chapter 5 and verse
1. Scripture says, therefore being
justified by faith. We have peace with God. through our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, your faith, the action
of your faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ does not have
any justifying power. Rather, it is the object of your
faith that justifies you. It is through the Lord Jesus
Christ we have peace with God. It is through His work and His
person that we are justified. And on that, you can find much
assurance. You can find much assurance on
that. Over in the Apostle John's epistle
in 1 John, in 1 John chapter 5 and verse 13, the Apostle said,
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. If you wanna go through the epistles
of John and underline those that you may know, that you may know,
that you may know. I'll tell you what, if you're
in any doubt, you should go to the epistle of John because that's
what he writes it for. He writes it that you may know,
that you may know you have eternal life. Do you desire to know? Do you desire to have assurance
of eternal life? Do you believe on the name of
the Son of God? Do you believe on the authority, the name and
the character of the Son of God? Do you trust in His blood and
righteousness? Because that's what it is to
believe on the name of the Son of God. The name means His character,
His person, His deity. So to trust on the Son of God.
If you trust on the Son of God, you may know this, it is a fact,
you have eternal life. Isn't that what the Son of God
told us? He said, I know my sheep and have known of mine and I
give unto them eternal life. Isn't that what John said? That
you may know. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Have
you received Him by faith and rest upon Him alone? Then I want you to know the Word
of God is written to you. John says, I write this unto
you. Now this word is not for everybody.
You know that? People pick up this book every
day and they read this book and it's not even for them. This
book's not for everybody. Matter of fact, doesn't every
one of the epistles begin with to the saints? or to those called,
or to the elect. That's how every epistle begins,
to the elect, to those who are redeemed and called of God. Are
you called of God? Are you a believer in Jesus Christ?
Well, this letter's to you. This is to you. It's not written
to everyone. If you were to read a last will
and testament of someone who died, You would have no interest if
your name was not in it. Isn't that right? What good is
a last will and testament of somebody who died if my name's
not in it? If I'm not written in it, if
it's not for me, then what interest would I have in it? That's why
people don't have any interest in the things of God, because
they don't see their name here. Even so, the lost find no beauty
in Christ. They have no desire to hear His
Word except to mock it and reject it. They have no desire to receive
it as it is. Yes, men love to change it. They love to hear it and change
it to fit them, to fit themselves, to make it their own. But truly
the Word of God and all its promises are for only those who believe.
It's only for those who believe. All eternal life, joy, peace,
heaven, sanctification, redemption is only for you who believe.
That's for you. It's God's last will and testament
to you. You're named in His will. And
you know what you get? Everything. You get it all. Everyone who's named in this
will gets everything. That's the glory of the death
and the righteousness of the Son of God to those of us who
believe. It's ours. It's ours. This last will and testament
is only to the children. And who are His children? Those
who believe on the Son of God. God manifest in the flesh, the
only mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. We
have faith in Him whose blood cleanses us from all our sins. And we believe that He is all
our righteousness to stand before God. I tell you, if I got any
hope at all, it's all wrapped up in the person of Jesus Christ. That's all I've got. My faith
rests completely on Him and Him alone and nothing in myself. I find no good here. I find nothing
to rest on here. I find all my rest in a person,
in the person of Jesus Christ. Our Savior, Believer, is not assurance. Our assurance
in our salvation is never based on the strength of our faith,
nor is our unsecurity based on the weakness of our faith. Isn't
that how you feel? When your faith is up, don't
you feel secure? And when your faith is down,
do you feel unsecure? Well, that's just trusting in
your faith. That's not trusting in the object of your faith.
Your faith will move. Today you may have strength.
Tomorrow you may be in utter weakness. But I tell you, your
salvation has not moved. You moved. He didn't. Your rock is still as firm now
as it was from eternity. Your salvation is still just
as secure. Our salvation is founded completely and absolutely on
the person and work of Jesus Christ alone. Therefore, we have
assurance in Christ Jesus. Because Jesus Christ did not
fail. I love this because I can identify
with it. Luther had multiple occasions
of great depression. I understand that. Blackness,
darkness. And he would go about for months
and days without any, all sorrow. And his wife got tired of this.
So she dressed up in black and she went around just crying all
the time. And he said, sweetie, what's
wrong with you? She said, God is dead, God is
dead, God is dead. He said, no, God's not dead.
She said, the way you're acting, it seems He's dead. I know that. You see, our faith is not founded
upon that. Our God is alive. It doesn't
matter how we feel. Our salvation and assurance depends
upon Him who cannot fail. Cannot fail. Behold, my servant
in whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth, he
shall not fail nor be discouraged." These were the saints to whom
Paul was writing. These are the believers in Christ
to whom the Word of God is given in power and the Holy Spirit
and much assurance. Is this you? Before I go any further, is this
you? Is this letter written to you? If it is, then hear the
word of the apostle to you and me about this matter of affliction. Let's go back to our text. This Word is to us who have light,
precious faith, who have been given life and power of the Holy
Spirit. Notice also that these believers,
these believers were followers. Followers of the apostles and
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at chapter 1 again. He says,
In much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among
you for your sakes, and you became followers of us and of the Lord,
having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy
Ghost. As it was true of these believers,
even so it is true of all the saints of God. Those who believe
on Christ need and love the fellowship of the saints. Isn't that true? We need it. This is not an option. We need it. We have to have it. These believers were not mere
believers as those of our Lord who said were stony ground hearers
or thorny ground hearers. Now these who believe like that,
they say, well, I believe on Christ so long as I can continue
on doing what I want to do. That's a thorny ground here,
stony ground here. They're a person that is, I love
the gospel when it is convenient for me. As long as I don't have
to give up anything, okay, You got me preacher, I like eternal
life and I like all those things you just said. I like that, I'll
take that, but as long as I don't have to give up anything for
it. As long as I can continue in
my sin and when it's convenient for me, I'll drop in every once
in a while and hear the gospel. If I have money left over, After
satisfying all my earthly pleasures, then I'll give to God. I believe in Jesus so long as
I can keep my family and friends. As long as I don't make them
mad or offended, then I'll believe. Some say, I'll believe in Jesus
so long as it doesn't cause me any trouble. Friends, that is
not faith. That faith will come and it will
go as fast as it came. It'll go as fast as it came.
This faith will fade away and die. This type of faith appears
good to men, and you may even believe in election and God's
sovereign grace. But those who hear the word of
God as it comes in power, listen, they will follow God's men. They will follow God's men. These people did. You read of
the early church, what was the first thing they did when they
believed? They joined themselves together. That's what they did.
I don't know if you know this about sheep or not. Bible pictures
us as sheep for good reason. You know if a sheep is by itself,
it's either lost or sick. It has to flock together. It has to be with others of its
likeness. It must be under the care of
the shepherd. I can't tell you. There are at
least three instances, 1 Corinthians 4, 1 Corinthians 11, and Philippians
3, where Paul says, be you followers of me, even as I follow Christ. Preachers are not men raised
up by our own desires or ambitions. If any man puts himself in the
ministry, don't you dare follow him. But God has given to His church
pastors after His own heart, and God's saints should submit
themselves to the rule and leadership even as it was given by the Holy
Ghost. Acts chapter 20 and verse 28,
take heed unto yourselves. Speaking to pastors, preachers,
take heed unto yourselves. to feed the flock of God over
which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, which he purchased
with his own blood. And see, preachers are not anything
of ourselves. We're sinners saved by grace
just like you. There's no difference between
me and you. In our salvation, there's no
difference. But we are here, rather placed
here by God for this purpose. Your edification. Your comfort. That's what we're
here for. That's what we do. We preach
the gospel for your comfort. For your blessing. For your growth. That's why God has placed preachers. For feeding of God's saints. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse
7 says this, Remember them which have the rule over you, who have
spoken unto you the word of God, listen, whose faith follow, considering
the end of their conversation. Verse 17, Obey them that have
the rule over you, and submit yourselves For they watch for
your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do
it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for
you. Verse 24, Salute them that have
the rule over you and all the saints. You see that this is
something God has instituted. This is something God has set
up. This is not like a government where we vote. We don't vote
about these things. We just declare them to you.
And you who believe, you rejoice in these things, do you not?
Have you not rejoiced in the message of your faith and assurance
that you have in Jesus Christ? This is what we're here for.
Pastors are here for the edification. We rule not as lords, but as
your servants. Pray for me, because there's
a lot of times I forget that. When I labor in my study, I'm
blessed in my study. I'm blessed by the Word of God
as I see it, and it comes out to me, and God reveals it to
me, and I write it on the page. I'm blessed. But really, this
is not for me. It's for you. I'm here for you. That's it. I'm here to serve you. And how
do I serve you? By giving you the truth. By giving you the truth. Believers,
follow me even as I follow Christ. Submit yourselves and come to
the worship of God, which is the means by which you are edified. Why do we need edification? Well,
he goes on to say this. He says, "...become followers
of us and of the Lord, having received the word..." Why? Here
it is. Why? "...in much affliction." Affliction. Paul in this letter tells these
saints to take heart. because it was a time of separation. Paul was taken from them after
he had preached the gospel, and after they had believed, these
evil men came in and disrupted them, and they were separated. The Apostle Paul was forced to
go to Athens, and I tell you, by the reading of his word, it
was a stench to his nostrils to be there. There was no church
there. There was no believers there. He had to preach to those
heathens there with all those statues and everything. But his
heart was for Thessalonica. His heart was for these people.
He said, I want to see you face to face. He said, I want to see
your face again. I want to see your face again.
And so he longed, he desired to preach the gospel to them
again. And even so, listen, I desire to preach this gospel to you
because it's necessary, because you're going to suffer affliction. In chapter three and verse three,
he says that no man should be moved by these afflictions. Saints of God, saints of God, you will suffer. Who didn't understand that? You will suffer. I keep telling
people that's my sales pitch. That's my sales pitch for Christianity.
If you would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, prepare to suffer
because that's what you'll do. You will suffer. But when you suffer, That should
not move you one inch from your Savior. Now that I've told you,
you should expect it. It won't take you by... Peter
said, why are you taken by surprise? As though some strange thing
happened to you. Don't you... When affliction
comes, isn't that how we take it? As though some strange...
Oh! How in the... Oh wait, God said it was coming.
Yeah, I forgot. We forget. Well, that's what
I'm here for. I'm here to remind you. That's
why you should be here, so that you should be reminded again
that you should suffer affliction in this world, and when you suffer,
don't move. Don't move. Not one inch from
your Lord. He said that no man should be
moved by these afflictions. For yourselves know that we are
appointed thereunto. Listen, you're going to have
afflictions in your flesh. You who believe in Jesus Christ,
the first enemy you'll face is you. That's it. This will be
the most constant enemy, yourself, your flesh. The flesh lusteth
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these
are contrary one to another." You mark this down, that if a
man doesn't have warfare within, he has no new life. If there's
no warfare, there is no life. If you are content in the flesh
and at peace with your old man, and you're either lost or deceived. Believer, when your flesh rises
up, don't be moved from your Savior, but rather stand firm
on Jesus Christ. You know, your Lord knows your
frame and remembers that you are dust. That's good. I'm thankful He remembers. Remember,
believer, to confess your sins, and He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins. Remember, believer, mortify the
deeds of the body, put off the old man with all malice, and
set all self-righteousness and lust aside, and cling to your
Savior. Hold fast and don't move. For remember, your affliction
is appointed. It's appointed to do what? Why does the Lord allow this
old man to remain? To draw you to himself. That's what it does. Doesn't
that do that to us who believe? Doesn't the flesh and all its
corruption draw us closer to Christ? does mean. The second
enemy, the second affliction is the world. Believer, the Lord
tells us, I came not to bring peace but a sword. That's totally
against the world's vision of Christianity. Jesus said in John
chapter 9 in verse 39, He said, for judgment I am coming to the
world. That word judgment means to make
a division. Isn't that what judgment does?
Makes a division between the righteous and the unrighteous.
That's what judgment does. He said, I've come to make a
division among men. And what's a division? That the
blind should see and those that say they see should be made blind. That's it. That's what he does. He divides men and separates
the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the chaff, the eternally
loved from the eternally hated. Those sheep of Jesus Christ are
those who were by nature blind sinners. And now we are given
sight. But the goats, they always say,
well, I see, I know God. What makes you so special? I
know God just like you do. Do you? That's great if you do. But these goats are men who are
ignorant of God's righteousness and go about to establish their
own righteousness. I tell you that if you are trusting
in something other than the work of Jesus Christ alone, you are
a goat and not a sheep. And you know what that does to
the goats? It makes them mad. You make them
mad. When the gospel comes and brings
a division, that just makes the world angry. Believers, we call sin, sin. We who are in Christ are free
from the law. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And I'll tell
you, when you call sin, sin, you know you're gonna be hated,
despised, called names. Isn't that right? Tell somebody abortion's murder.
Tell them. They'll hate you. Tell them homosexuality
is an immoral, it's ungodly, it's abomination. That's what
God says. Tell them that. They'll call
you a bigot. I don't care. Sin, sin. Fornication,
sin. But our Lord says to us, these
enemies, of these enemies, they will be even closer than the
world. They'll be of those of our own household. Haven't you
found that to be so? You who believe, haven't you
found that the strongest enemies you have are in your own home? I have. But we who are believers in Christ,
disciples of Christ, we must and do forsake all of them and
are not moved from our Savior. And the third enemy is the prince
of darkness, Satan himself. What does he do? He accuses you. Believer, have you been accused? Are you not daily accused? The enemy comes in and says,
there is no way you could be one of his. There is no possible way he would
ever redeem you. How do we answer such a thing?
Because, man, it's true, I don't deserve it. You remember Joshua
the high priest when he stood before God in his filthy rags?
You remember what he said in his defense? Nothing. That whole chapter there,
he says nothing. What do you do in your defense?
Confess. Who then defends us? Jesus Christ,
our Advocate. He's the one that defended Joshua,
and He's the one that will defend us against our enemy. And so
then, believer, when the world, the flesh, and the devil are
constantly bombarding us, remember this, that all the tribulation
and affliction we suffer is appointed. This is good. It's not random
acts. These are specific afflictions
for you designed by God. So what affliction do you have? What troubles do you have? I
know you got them. Have you understood they're of
God? Has He not loved you? Has He
not given you His Son? How then shall He not with Him
freely give us all things, even suffering? I'll tell you this, if suffering
wasn't good for you, you wouldn't have it. It's good for you. God gives it to you so you might
grow. Who here has grown enough that
they don't need any more growth? Who? Who has enough patience? No. God uses these things for
our good. And so when they come, what do
you do? Don't move from Christ. and you'll find joy of the Holy
Spirit even in your troubles. I pray God blesses to you.