Okay, look over here in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 3. Let me just read a few verses,
and we'll comment upon verse 3 mainly this evening. 1 Thessalonians
chapter 3. Wherefore, when we could no longer
forebear, We thought it good to be left at Athens alone, and
sent Timothy, 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 thereto." For verily, when we were with you, we told
you before that we should suffer tribulations, even as it came
to pass, as you know." The title of my message this evening is
Afflictions Appointed. Afflictions Appointed. You and
I looked this morning briefly at chapter 1, and mainly there
in chapter 2, of the Apostle Paul taking the gospel unto these
Thessalonians when they were lost. And we see the result of
his preaching the gospel to them, and basically we could sum it
up in this. The gospel saved those people.
It saved those people. And that's the thing about the
gospel, ain't it? It comes to us. There's never been a man
that come to the gospel until the gospel came to them. It came
to them, it saved them. It saved them from Satan and
brought them to God. Saved them from sin and brought
them to Christ. The gospel saved them. That's
what we learned there this morning. But one thing that we begin to
learn, if we read chapter 2, that it wasn't long until they
begin to suffer opposition. They begin to be confronted with
trials, testing. Look here in chapter 2 and verse
14. For ye, brethren, became followers
of the church of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. for ye also have suffered like
things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews."
And look at one more place with me. Look over in the second epistle
of Thessalonians. And look here in verse 4. 2 Thessalonians
chapter 1 and verse 4. so that we ourselves glory in
you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all
your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure, which is a manifest
token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted
worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer. See it, it is a righteous thing
with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you." So
what we find is when the Lord saved them, they began to suffer. Afflictions came upon these people. Now that sounds strange, doesn't
it? Of all the people in this world
that should suffer, it sounds strange that a child of God should
suffer. Because a child of God, when
the Lord saves him, what's the first thing he begins to do?
And he does it through a lot of weakness and much inferiority,
but the first thing he starts doing is to seek to honor the
Lord who saved him. Seeks to sing his praises, show
forth the praises of him that called him out of darkness unto
his marvelous light. Seeks to walk worthy of God. And it seems strange that a man
like that should begin to suffer. But that's what we find out here
in this epistle. We sometimes think things are
going to go easy. That's what I thought when the
Lord first saved me. Things are going to go easy. But that's
not the way it is in the believer's life. Solomon talked about fools going
to the house of mirth. Fools are in the house of laughter,
and that often happens, while the poor lambs of God go to the
house of mourning and weeping and affliction. The Lord Jesus
said, The world shall laugh, They shall rejoice, but you shall
weep and lament. And how often that's brought
to pass in every child of God's life to some degree. In this
world you shall have tribulation. Many are the affliction of the
righteous. You and I know something about
peace. A peace that we never knew before until we come to
know God. It's a peace that passes all
understanding. We know something about the joy
of the Lord, don't we? The joy that's brought to a man's
heart by the Holy Spirit. A joy the natural man knows nothing
about. We know something about that.
We know something about what it means for the soul to find
its rest in Jesus Christ the Lord. To be burdened and heavy
laden, and Christ come to the soul and give it its rest. We know something about that.
But we know something about sorrow, don't we? We know something about
what it is to water our pillar with our tears. We know something
about that. The children of God know something
about that. Family trials. I think sometimes
family trials are some of the worst trials you can face. Burdened
over your children. Conflict with your neighbors.
Conflict at work. Conflict within your own heart.
That warfare that takes place there. Doubts and fears and unbelief. Sin and sense molesting our spirits. We know something about affliction.
We must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom of heaven. Why does afflictions come to
a child of God? No doubt he's going to have them,
but why do they come? Well, we have it recorded here
in this text, in verse 3 of chapter 2. The scripture says, they are
appointed. They are appointed. Oh, we're
surprised when we suffer. We're surprised when he comes.
As children of God, we're surprised and we're troubled when afflictions
come. We should expect them. We're
told all through the scripture that they're coming, but it surprises
us when they come. Oh, Jacob said this about his
own wife, all these things are against me. Ain't that what he
said? He got so bad in Jacob's life when he first met Pharaoh. Pharaoh said, how old are you,
old man? He said, I'm 130 years old. And he said, every one of
my days has been evil, full of evil. That's what he said. We
should expect that, but we're surprised when it comes, afflictions
and evil. But why do they come? Well, my
text here this evening says this, they are appointed. And I take
it when he says here that we're appointed to afflictions, I just
reverse that and say the same as so. If you and I are appointed
to afflictions, then afflictions must be appointed to us. You
can't separate the one from the other, can you? Afflictions are appointed. I don't have much comfort this
evening if I look upon afflictions as accidents. I can't get much
comfort out of that. If I look upon the things that
happens in my life that afflicts my soul and my body as accidents,
I can't get much comfort out of that. And I can't get much
comfort out of looking at second causes. Whatever instrument God
may use in our affliction, I can't get much comfort out of looking
to them. But here's where we find comfort,
that our afflictions are appointed of God. And this word appointed
means to fix beforehand, to determine and log out accordingly. And we say according to God's
purpose, our Father in heaven's purpose, who works all things
after the counsel of his own will. Now, this is a mystery.
When Paul said to you, you're appointed to afflictions, and
afflictions are appointed to you, this is a mystery. And let
me give you a good example, one that all of us are familiar with
this evening. You know the story about a young man by the name
of Joseph. He was a teenager, as far as I know. A young teenager,
probably. When he started having these
dreams, he had a dream that In some way or another, he's going
to be exalted. He's going to be exalted to the
point that his eleven brethren was going to come and bow down
before him and do obedience to him. Every time he had this dream,
he went out and told somebody about it. He just bragged about
it most of the day. Told his dad, he said, you know,
all you guys are going to come down to Everport. I'm going to
be somebody. God had revealed that to him, that he was going
to be exalted, going to be a ruler, and his brother, even his dad,
was going to come and bow down before him. The boy almost immediately, some
terrible thing began to happen. First thing, his brother got
so jealous of him, got so mad at him, caught him out one day
and threw him in a pit. and got him out and sold him
to a bunch of foreigners for a slave. He wound up down in
Egypt, and down in Egypt he was falsely accused of trying to
rape his master's wife. Stuck him in prison for years.
He would have got out of prison, but through human error, he slept
in there for two more years. A man forgot about it. They put
his feet in the stocks, and his ankles bled, and he suffered
for years and years down in that prison. And then there come a
day when almost suddenly God exalted him out of that prison,
put him there next to Pharaoh on the throne. Even the princess
of Pharaoh was subject to this man. His brethren came down,
He revealed himself to them, they bowed down before him, finally
confessed, and he forgave them. And they were sitting around
talking about it all. And everything that Joseph had
suffered, and all his afflictions, and why they came upon him. And
his brethren began to consider themselves. And said, boy, we're in trouble.
We are in trouble. And they thought for sure he
was going to deal harshly. And no doubt what they did to
him, they meant to do him harm. And no doubt Joseph knew that
God would deal with him accordingly. And Potiphar's wife had falsely
accused him, got him thrown into jail, and no doubt that God would
deal with her accordingly. But you know what Joseph said?
Joseph said, you didn't send me down here. Ain't that what
he said, Larry? I know that you meant it for
evil, but God meant it for good, to save much people alive. Now,
that's what we mean this evening when we say afflictions are appointed.
Now Joseph come out of that, and he began to look backwards
from being out there on the throne underneath that great King Pharaoh,
and he looked backwards at each step of the way, and he could
see God's hand in it. It's always easy to look backwards,
ain't it? When you've come through these afflictions and trials,
and then you can see the good come out of it, then most of
the time, or at least some time, we can see the hand of God in
it. It's easy looking back. But how much comfort would Joseph
have gotten from that? If while he was in that place,
if while he was in that pit being despised of his brethren, if
while he was in the dungeon with those bracelets on his ankles
holding him to the wall, what if every step of the way he had
known and believed that God had appointed him for that? How much comfort do you think
you got out of that? That's what I'm saying this evening
about these afflictions. That God has appointed them. Our Father in Heaven has appointed
these afflictions. I can't understand all the ways
that come. It's a mystery to me. It's a
mystery to you. But here we have it. They are
appointed. God has appointed you to these
afflictions. I know God's purposes in our
life, in each of our lives, can be a great mystery. We don't
know what tomorrow holds. And furthermore, I don't want
to know. It scares me sometimes to think
about it. But where you and I find comfort,
brothers and sisters, is this, we know who holds tomorrow. Whatever
evil may be appointed tomorrow, we know who regulates and rules
that evil. It's our Father in heaven. But knowing, now listen to this,
here's the comfort I get from this. Knowing that God himself
has appointed the afflictions And when I say God, I mean our
Heavenly Father. And since He has appointed those
afflictions, He will regulate those afflictions. That is, He
says when they come, He says how severe they will be, and
He says when they'll end. Now don't you find some comfort
in that. Paul tells this church here,
Thessalonica, he says, I'm sending Timothy to you to establish you
concerning your faith. And here's what he seems to tell
Timothy to tell him, that no man be moved by these afflictions.
For you know, you know that we're appointed to them. And who but
the God that appoints them? Aren't you glad the devil don't
appoint it? Aren't you glad you don't appoint Him? Haven't you
come to trust your Heavenly Father to the point you're glad when
you know that He doesn't? Listen now, whether we know,
as Paul said, these Thessalonians knew, and whether we believe
that God has appointed these afflictions or not, that won't
change the affliction. I don't care if you believe it
or not, they're coming. You ain't going to change that. Many are
the affliction of the righteous. They will not change the afflictions
themselves, but knowing and believing that our Father in heaven has
appointed these afflictions will change our attitude towards these
afflictions. And firstly, he'll do this, he'll
keep us from being offended at all these second causes. There's no doubt in our mind,
brothers and sisters, that Joseph's brethren sinned against him.
They did him wrong, but was he bitter over it? He wasn't bitter at them at all,
was he? He forgave them. He didn't hold any of this against
them, and you know why? He knew all they were, what second
causes. What they did, they did out of
their wretched hearts, but he freely forgave them, because
he said, I know who appointed this. That'll keep people getting
bitter and getting mad at people. And secondly, instead of despairing
over our afflictions, When we remember that our Father in Heaven
has appointed these afflictions, it will strengthen our faith. As soon as faith hears that God
has appointed this affliction, why, it takes comfort. It lays
hold upon that and says, if my Father has appointed this, then
I can bear it. Would He give too much for me
not to be able to bear it? So first of all is this. Do we know? You know, he said,
that we're appointed to these. Do we know that? Do we believe
that? No accidents? If you want to
believe in accidents, that's fine. That's fine. If you've
got some scripture that you can latch hold to and say, here's
an accident, then that's all right. If you can find some comfort
in that, I ain't Lord over your faith. Ain't no chair in your
conscience for me to sit in. That belongs to the Lord Jesus
and His Word. But brothers and sisters, for
my own sake, I find great comfort in knowing and believing that
my Father in Heaven has appointed these afflictions. I may never
tear that which my cheek. ever sigh that only God himself
can hear in my soul. He appoints that. Every grief
that I feel in my spirit, in my infirmities, He's appointed
all that. I find great comfort in that.
I find great comfort in that. Do we know that? Paul says you're
knowing that. Knowing that these afflictions
are appointed. Secondly is this. Do we know,
as God's children, that all these afflictions are appointed? You
say, Bruce, I thought that was your first point. My first point
was, do we know these afflictions are appointed? My second point
is this, do we know that all these afflictions are appointed?
See, we like to pick and choose, don't we? We like to look and
say, well, we know this was appointed. Why? Because, oh, that did me
so much good. What about that that seemed to
bring me down? You believe that's appointed too? I understand David being appointed
to walk beside still water. I can understand the Lord preparing
a table in the presence of David's enemies, because that's good.
But what about when David was in that horrible pit, in the
mire of clay? Was that appointed? Huh? Was that appointed? There are some mysterious things
in the Scriptures, and you and I have to be so careful with
them. David was forced out of Jerusalem, bless his heart, because
of his sin, really. And I could almost see him, and
I almost weeped every time I read it in the scripture. David and
his men, here are the ladies, going up the malolens. Every
time you think about the Lord Jesus, they're all malolens.
David went up malolens, ascending up that mountain, and he was
barefooted. Here's the king, he was barefooted. Had his head
covered. Everybody else put covers on their head, too. All of them
wept. They all wept. David's own son
sought to overthrow David's kingdom. David had to flee, run from him.
And they got up there to the top of the hill and got a ways
out. And this wretched man, some kindred of King Saul, came out
on the hill and started cussing David. You bloody man! You reprobate, he called him. Joab's brother wanted to go up
and take his head off. Didn't he? Oh, king, don't let
him talk to you like this. He got no business cursing my
king. Let me go up and take his head off. And you know what David
told him? He said, you let him alone. God has told him, curse
David. Now, can you understand that?
I can't understand that. I can't understand when Israel
began to afflict the children of Israel. They got mad at them. Got envious of them. and started
making slaves of them. I can't understand this, but
use what Psalms 105 verse 25 says. God turned their hearts
to hate them. I can't understand that, can
you? I can't explain that. I know this much. I know this
much. God's not the author of sin, and God does not infuse
sin into man. I know that. All I know is that
when it says God did this in some mysterious way, He either
gave the devil permission to do it, or He draws back from
the hearts of wicked men and lets them do it. But in any case,
it's Him that appoints it. He appoints it, you see. And
therefore, since he's the first cause, and without any sin in
it whatsoever, and I'm sure, brothers and sisters, on the
Day of Judgment, that will be perfectly clear. You and I may
not understand it now, and it seems like sometimes when we
read some of these passages, it seems like it makes God the
author of sin. But we know the nature of God,
therefore we know that's impossible. And Your Honor, on the Day of
Judgment, when everything is made clear, we'll say, Oh, we
see now. We see now. But all I know is
this, that these things are appointed in the lives of God's children,
and they're mysterious things. And you and I are just called
upon to believe it, to know it and believe it, that we're appointed
to afflictions. We don't pick and choose. All
these things are appointed. The good things and the bad things.
Our falls and our standing. Our sickness and our health.
Our death and our life. Our loss and our gain. All our
times. All our ways are in His hands. He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. Job found comfort in the midst
of all his troubles. When he's sitting there on that
ash heap, and he said this, he knows the way that I take. And you go back over and read
chapter 1 and chapter 2 of Job, and we find out God didn't know
the way at any time. Because God ordained His way.
God appointed the way. The time that He should begin
His sufferings, did He not? Satan could not touch Him. Nothing
could touch Job unless God had appointed it. Everything, whether
it's the devil, or men, or principalities and powers, when anything touches
a child of God, they first must get permission from God Himself. And God says, now you can do
it. And it has to be to this degree. You don't touch His life. And right here, when it's going
to end. And I take confidence in that. He knows the way that
I take. Because He's appointed. If Job
had it all to do over, would he change some things? Why, of
course he would. If David had it to do over, don't
you think he'd change some things? He laid there on his deathbed,
and he said, boy, my house just ain't like I'd like it to be.
But you know something, brothers and sisters? They didn't have
that option. And neither do you and I. We go through this world,
and we walk by faith. We have our ups and downs, our
strugglings, we have some victories and we have some defeats. We
have some good times and we have some bad times. We can't change a thing. We can't
go back and change a thing. We come to the end of our way
and we say with David, oh if I had it to do over. But one
of the comforting things that we find in this above everything
else It all worked out as God appointed, and He appointed it
all. And you know something? If He
had to appoint it all over again, I doubt seriously if He would
change a thing. You think He would? He wouldn't
change a thing. And Paul said, I'm writing here
and sending Timothy to you to encourage you concerning your
faith, that you may know these afflictions are a point of God. Now listen to this, I'll give
you a couple of things and then I'll close. The more the children
of God are convinced of this, the more bold and daring they
become. in trying great things for the
cause of Christ and truth. The more they're convinced of
this, the more daring they become in trying great things for the
cause of Christ. This is a lively thing. I can't
explain it, but it's a lively thing. If you believe in your
heart that God has ordained for you to do a certain thing, I
mean, if it's dead certain that God has appointed that, what
would you do to endear whatever you had to endear just to see
the end results? Because you already knew what
God had appointed. What if this sprang? Let me give you this
example. What if this sprang? Larry, God had appointed you.
He told you that. A big field out there in the
country. You sow that field. He's telling you to plow that
field and sow it. And this fall, you're going to have a crop and
you're going to do great good with it. And the Lord says to
you, Larry, I've already appointed. I've already appointed. If you
had to, you'd go get a mule and you'd plow that thing with a
mule. And I don't care how dry it got or how wet it got, you'd
watch that crop, you'd take care of that crop, because you knew
that God had already appointed the great harvest this fall.
But here's where faith comes in. We don't know. We just don't
know, do we? But faith don't need something
absolute. Faith just needs who can tell.
Or maybe. What if? What if? Boy, I can't explain this, but
this gets lively in our souls. Faith knows that God, when He's
purposed to do something, when He's appointed something to come
to pass, nobody can hinder Him. And faith says, oh my, let me
in on this. Perhaps God is going to do some
great thing, so let me have at it. Let me put some sweat into
it. Let me put a few blisters on
my fingers. Let me hornys up the mule. Let me plow, because
God's appointed a great harvest." See what I'm saying? I had a
man say one time, if I believed that, I'd stay at the house.
That's not the way it affects you at all. Paul believed, he
knew that God Ardang had appointed that all his elect obtain that
salvation that's in Christ Jesus. Did he believe that, at what
he preached? All of them was going to obtain the salvation
that's in Christ Jesus. How did that affect his attitude?
Did he just go on and said, anyway, here's what he said, I am dear
to all things. For the elect's sake, that they
may obtain that salvation. He'd go from one country to the
next, from one town to the next, from one house to the next. I
don't care if they made a whipping post out of him, because he knew
that God had appointed something. And he was willing to get in
on it, because he knew it was sure. If God has appointed my
afflictions, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to burn
up under them. I'm going to be patient. You
read the second Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 3 and verse 4.
I just read verse 4, do you? Paul talked about, we're thankful
that you're patient. You're patient. You're hopeful
in all these tribulations and afflictions that you endear.
Ain't that what he told them? What made them endear and be
patient and whole? Why, he reminded them, these
afflictions are appointed. Well, if they're appointed, they
will wear upon them. We'll wait. Since God has appointed all these
things, when all is said and done, everything's
finished, Everything has been mixed together. All the eggs
have been broken. The flour has been poured into
the bowl. And all the ingredients. And
it's all been mixed together by sovereign divine providence. And it's all baked up and the
supper is ready. And you and I sit down there
and go over it. You know what we're going to say. Didn't this
come out very well? Didn't everything turn out very
well? Is it not so what they used to tell us, that God is
too wise to error? Hasn't He proved that to us?
That's what we'll say when we sit there in glory. He's too
good to be unkind. And we'll find out that through
all our afflictions, He never was unkind to us, not one single
time. And he was so wise, he never
did error in every step he appointed to us. God works in mysterious
ways, his wonders do perform. He plants his footsteps in the
sea and he rides upon the storm. Judge not the Lord by your feeble
sense. And that's all we have. But trust Him for His grace. Behind a frowning providence,
He hides. And that's why you and I are
confused about all this. He hides. But what does He hide? A smiling face. Your afflictions
are pointed. Don't that encourage you? All things work out for good,
we know. Such is God's great design. He orders all our steps
below, for purpose is divine. Listen to this. This is the faith
that keeps me still, no matter what the test, and lets me glory
in His will, for I know His will is best. So now the future holds
no fear. God guards the work begun, and
mortals are immortal here until their work is done. Someday the
path he chose for me will all be understood. In heaven's clearer
light I'll see all things worked out for good. God appoints our
afflictions, and I bless Him for it. Father, we do thank You. We praise You, our Father in
Heaven. We praise You that You're so kind and tender to us, appointed
all these things. You're so mysterious. Your ways
are so above us. They're fast finding now. Your
blessing and dear Son hang upon the cross by the hands of wicked
men. And yet you appointed it all. We bless you, our Father. We
praise you. We find no other words to say.
Forgive us of our murmuring. Forgive us of our doubts. And give us eyes to see and faith
to receive that you hold our ways and you set our path. And then we can praise you for
it. Amen.