Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 86 and the last verse,
verse 17. Specifically, the first clause,
show me a token for good. The whole verse reads, show me
a token for good that they which hate me may see it and be ashamed. because thou, Lord, hast helpened
me and comforted me. It is particularly the first
clause, thou show me a token for good. But the context here
is that the psalmist, David, has those that hate him, those
that are round about him, and he desires that this token might
be given so that they actually see it. There's not just something
that he has personally, but that is so evident that it doesn't
need explaining. It can be self-explanatory, it
can be seen by those round about, And the other aspect here in
this verse is that it's implying here that that token is a help
from the Lord. Because thou, Lord, hast helped
me. The Lord has helped him and the
Lord has comforted him. So you put these things, it's
an open thing, it is seen, and seen by adversaries, It has the
Lord's help in it, and it has comfort for the soul. There is one reason why we read
the third psalm that we did, because we have in the psalm
there, when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were
like then that ring. Then was our mouth filled with
laughter, and our tongue with singing, Then said they among
the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them. The heathen
could see it, they could notice it. And then they said, the Lord
hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. That's the
kind of token, the kind of blessing that's in the context here. I don't want to confine my remarks
solely in that way this evening. But this is the context and this
is the idea of the token that is given by the evident pleasure,
help and blessing of the Lord that others see and need not
to be explained. When we think of tokens, sometimes
it's very good to go back to where something is first mentioned
in the Word of God And so we have the token of the bow, the
rainbow, that is given in Genesis chapter 9. And we have then in
verse 11 and 12, the Lord saying that, I will establish my covenant
with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters
of a flood, neither shall there be, shall there any more be a
flood to destroy the earth. And God said, this is the token
of the covenant which I make between me and you and every
living creature that is with you for perpetual generations. I do set my bow in the cloud
and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the
earth. And it shall come to pass when
I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow shall be seen in
the cloud. And I will remember my covenant,
which is between me and you and every living creature of all
flesh, and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy
all flesh. The bow shall be in the cloud,
and I will look upon it, and of course we see it, that I may
remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living
creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And so God is
setting this token of the covenant that we see. We're told he sees
it and he remembers. Now I want to draw your attention
in this way, what that is a token of and aspects of that token.
We think of the bow with all its colours and it's really a
terrible thing that in our land that there's so many other associations. I think if you ask many young
people Today, what do you associate with the rainbow? They'd either
say the pride movement or they'd say the NHS. They wouldn't come
to the scriptures. Most solemn thing. God has put
that there. God has given us the creation
to know that he is God. He is the true and living God. But we're told in the schools,
you can't say this creation. You cannot ascribe that to God. The very things that God has
said He's given to man, so man will be without excuse in the
judgment day. And man is trying to banish them
away so that people do not understand, do not think, do not associate
those tokens with the true and the living God. They ascribe
it to something else. But God has put this here. And
when we think of what it is setting forth, We had the Noah's flood,
the whole earth destroyed with the water and with the flood,
a massive flood. Yes, there shall be local floods.
There are local floods. But here we have this token. What relevance does it have to
the flood? Well, the time it shall appear
is when there is rain. That is when, when the water
is coming down, when the sun shines upon the water, Then it
shall bring forth the rainbow. We might say, well, it is something
of nature. God is the God of nature. He's
put it there. He's decreed it there. I used
to, when we water the plants in the nursery when I was young,
I used to get where the sun was shining, here in Australia, and
you'd spray the water, and you can make yourself a little rainbow,
because the water and the sun shining through it. But God has
put it there, and you see that the Correlation between the token
and what it is a token of, there is a relationship between it,
because it is the coming of water and the sun that brings it, but
in the magnitude, it seems very, very different, doesn't it? It's
not a token that, well, God is going to make a great, great
big rainbow. No, no, that's not it, is that
he will not drown the whole world, destroy the whole world with
water. And it's the scriptures that
tell us what that is a token of. Man doesn't decide. God decides
that when you see that, this is what it means. This is what
God is associating with that token. And that is a very important
principle We might reason in our minds and say, well, it doesn't
look much like it, or it doesn't marry up to it. I want something
different. But no, God has said that. And
that's where its strength and its power is. And of course,
you can see that later on. We turn to Exodus and chapter
12, where we have the Passover in Egypt. when God was going
to destroy all of the firstborn in Egypt. And in Exodus 12, we
have the institution of the Passover and the blood, the lamb was to
be slain and the Israelites were to put the blood upon the lentil
and the two side posts and the door. They were to eat that with
haste, eat the lamb. with their staff in their hand,
their shoes on their feet, ready to go out of Egypt. And they were all to do that. And God says here in verse 13,
the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where
ye are. When I see the blood, remember
with the rainbows, God seeing the rainbow, I will look upon
it. I will remember. We see it as
well. They knew that they had put it
in obedience on the doorpost. According to the word of God,
they had been obedient. They did it. And God said, he
will look upon it. I will look and see the obedience
of the children of Israel. I will see the evidence of that
blood. And when I see the blood, I will
pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy
you when I smite the land of Egypt." And that came to pass. Wherever that blood was, that
night, there was no death. But where there was no blood,
then there was the death of the firstborn. It made the difference
between life and death. And so later on, in the next
chapter, chapter 13, then they were commanded to observe that
Passover in their generations. And it was to be told their children
what this was. And it shall be a token upon
thine hand, or frontlets between thine eyes, for by strength of
hand the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt. The shed blood,
the Passover, all that was associated with loosing them from Egypt. And in a spiritual way, it is
the precious blood of Christ shed at Calvary that sets the
people free. It is the redeeming blood of
Christ. With desire, says our Lord, I've
desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. And
it is the Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.
It is through the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ that
the Lord passes over a people that deserve to die and gives
them life. There is satisfaction. There
is the blood shed. There is already one slain. And
it is God's appointed one, God's beloved Son, our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ. The Lord cannot demand two payments
for one. No wonder the Church of God has
been given by the Lord that token, given the ordinance of the Lord's
Supper, ye do show forth the Lord's death till he come. And
the Church is not to forget that, they are to remember that. The
Lord ordained it. The Lord set it forth so the
Church should never forget they are redeemed. And it is that
precious blood that avails, and that is why God's wrath is turned
away from them. And so we have these two very
early in the Word of God, the very clear tokens, very important
tokens, tokens given by God, so we can see the principle of
them. The token itself might seem small,
But there is a relation between that and what it is a token of,
and the important thing, it is God that makes the connection
between the token and what it is a token of. In other words,
it is a true token. When Rahab was in Jericho, and
Jericho was to be destroyed, and the spies, they came to her
house, and she asked for a true token that when the inhabitants
were destroyed that she and her family would not be destroyed. And the spies, they gave her
really the same token in a similar way as to what they had in Egypt. I've no doubt that they saw as
she got ready to let them down by a cord down through a window. They saw that cord and they saw
the color of it. They saw it was a scarlet line.
And that would have shown them so clearly that was going to
hang out that window. That was exactly the scarlet,
the blood that they had in their houses. And that was what they
said. When you, when we come into the
land, you come into the house, you shelter in the house with
all your loved ones and you put that line in the window. She
bound the line in the window. And the Lord honoured her because
the walls fell flat, but her house was on the wall. Not that
part of the wall fell. God honoured what the spies had
promised her and that token that they had given, which was so
answerable to the blood that, and I believe by faith, we read
in Hebrews 11 that it was Rahab that by faith she received the
spies and sent them out another way. By faith in what? Faith
in Christ, faith in the blood, faith in God, faith in His promise,
faith in His provision. You may remember this, that when
our Lord preached and when the disciples first preached before
He suffered at Calvary, they were not preaching the cross
of Christ. They were preaching the kingdom
of God was at hand. God had come. He was on his way,
he was working, the kingdom was coming, thy kingdom come, thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That's what was happening. When he did die, they said, we
trusted it should have been he that should have redeemed Israel.
They thought he would order things in a different way. He would
make the Lord King and restore the kingdom to Israel. No, that
is not what he was doing, but what they were clear on, is that
the Lord was come, his time was at hand, he was moving, and he
was bringing redemption. This was the promised seed, and
he would bruise Satan's head. How he was to do it, exactly
how, though the sacrifices all pointed as to how it would be,
needed the Lord to tell those on the way to Emmaus, ought not
Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his
kingdom? And so we have with Rahab that
trust in the Lord and in the promises of God and in what he
would do to save her alive, and he did. So I want to then try
and confine our thoughts to three points this evening. Firstly,
what we need a token for. What we need a token for. And
then secondly, the need of a true token, thinking of what Rahab
said, that she desired a true token implies this, that there
could be tokens that are not true. And so then thirdly, what
are true tokens? So what we need tokens for, we've
already spoken to you about the bow in the cloud and what that
was a token of. But we think of the death of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord died, the sacrifice
was made, the sacrifice was accepted, He rose from the dead, He ascended
into heaven. Those are facts, they are facts
of the Scriptures and facts, those things that happened. But
we need those tokens of that. We have the Word of God that
the Lord has seen fit, as we mentioned, with the Lord's Supper,
the tokens of it. We have the empty tomb, the Lord
giving assurance unto all men that he hath raised him from
the dead, a token, that sacrifice, accepted. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
died to put away the sins of his people. He says, I lay down
my life for the sheep. We have in Isaiah laid on him
the iniquity of us all. But we need tokens that we might
know that the Lord has put away our sin and our sins were laid
upon him and that he died for us. Those are tokens that we
have set forth in the Word of God. We know that there is heaven. The Lord has clearly set forth
that there is a place called heaven. The Word of God tells
us of that. It tells us, I go to prepare
a place for you. The Lord speaks of the glory
He had with His Father. He ascended up into heaven. He
sat down on the right hand of the throne of God on high. But
he was pleased to give them a token as well. I will pray the father,
he will give you another comforter which will abide with you forever,
tarry at Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on
high. And we have a real token of his
intercession in heaven. I will pray the father, the spirit
comes, the power comes. the evidence that he is in heaven.
Just what he said did happen. And thousands were converted,
thousands were brought to a knowledge of the Lord. And there is the
evidence of it was known here below. Remember the account that
was given, I think it's in Mr. Ransbottom's little book of Bible
doctrine simply explained. They were asking over the question,
how can we know that we are elected? And several had several ideas
as to how they should know. And then there was an old soldier
there, and he spoke up. And he said, as you know, that
I am an old soldier. And because I'm an old soldier
once a month, I get a pension. He says, and in London, he said,
I know there is a book There's a book with the names of all
the old soldiers there. He said, I've never been to London.
I've never seen that book. But he said, because every month
I get my pension come, I know there is a book, and I know that
my name is there. And that was his simple explanation,
a token where he hadn't been to a place, hadn't seen it. And
so we may apply the same. Of course, we haven't been to
heaven. We haven't seen there. that every
blessing that comes from heaven, it tells us that there is a heaven,
there is a God there, that our names are written in the Lamb's
Book of Life, and therefore he sends forth those blessings,
just like the old soldier traced those blessings of election through
the blessings that God gives to his children. We wouldn't
think, would we, that there is a Father in heaven, that there
is a God that cares for his people, But there's never ever any evidence
or token of that care, of that knowledge of them, or of his
love for them. We wouldn't think that that was
so. And I hope each here, you know
that God does care for his people. He does love them. And that is
shown here below. And those things that are shown
and done, they are tokens and through tokens. But we need those
tokens. We're told that God guides his
people, he directs them, I will instruct thee and teach thee
in the way that thou shalt go, I'll guide thee with mine eye.
And we think of Jacob, we think of Isaac and the servant going
for a wife or Isaac and they sought guidance and they were
given those relevant tokens of it. We do, if we are to be guided,
if we are to have an interest in heaven and know that we are
the Lord's people and know that we are going to heaven and have
the assurance of that, we need tokens, that we need true tokens. I want to look then secondly,
the need of true tokens. The need obviously is we want
a token that God will honor. not deceived in it. You think,
what tokens did those have that our Lord spoke of, that came
to him and said, Lord, open to us? And he says, I never knew
you. Oh, but they say, thou'st taught
in our streets, we've been called by thy name. And he says, depart
from me, I never knew you, all ye that work iniquity. a solemn
thing, that one could be in the house of God, thought to be taught
the things of God, and the Lord there, and the Lord knows nothing
about it. Whatever tokens they thought
they had, they didn't come from the Lord. And that's a very searching
thing, isn't it? You want a true token. And if
it is a true token then, and comes from the Lord, it must
be based upon the Word of God. It must come from God. Not from
words from the Lord or thoughts of our own that we say come from
heaven independent of the Word of God. So many fall into this
error. We don't want to go into mysticism. We don't want to go into the
idea that God somehow speaks to his people separate from the
Word of God. If someone says of a token that
they have, you should be able to examine it by the Word of
God. Does it stand up to what God has said? Is it actually
in the context and the order that he has said it? That is
absolutely vital. If you and I are going to trust
In that token, and we're going to pass through this life, passing
away the years of the days of grace and pass to our grave,
resting on something in a token that's not a true one, then we
shall have the sign said to us, depart, I never knew you. It
is vital to have a true token, not a silly sign. Remember when
a Lord's servant saying, well, someone has said, well, and it
was raining outside, and they prayed, Lord, tell me that I'm
a child of God, and stopped the rain. The rain stops now, then
I'm a child of God. And the rain stopped. Did that
prove them a child of God? Of course not. They are silly
tokens. They're not tokens that are provable
from the word of God. They're not relative to the word
of God. We're not to ask those things. You know, when Abraham's servant
asked for a token with the wife, he asked a very sensible thing. That would have been a gracious
and a kind woman that when he'd asked for water, immediately
went the second mile and said that she'd give for camels as
well. That's not a silly thing. If
he wanted a godly wife and a wife that would think beyond, do this,
do that, do that, Then he'd ask the right thing, hadn't he? Ask
those things where you expect to see the graces and expect
to see the evidence of the grace of God in the person you hope
to take and go with. That's the principle that is
there. That's not a silly thing at all. It's a token that can be truly
trusted and rested on You think of those children of Israel in
Egypt. They believed and truly believed
that destroying Angel was going to pass over. They had to really
believe that God had given them that token. He would honor him
and he would pass over them, especially if you were the firstborn.
And I always think of that because I'm the firstborn in my family.
What a difference it would have made to those particular white
people, the thinking. that if that token is not true,
then I'm going to lose my life. So we do need a true token. But
we bless God that the Lord has in his word, given those true
tokens. Now I know probably I will leave
some out, but I want to bring several that are before you. The first one I bring in this
is what our Lord says in John 10. My sheep, they hear my voice,
they follow me. And why I bring that first is
because in the letters to the churches in Revelation, at the
end of every one of those letters, it's he that hath an ear. Let
him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. When the Lord
converts a person, that is instantaneous. He gives them eternal life, and
he gives them faith at the same time. And at the same time, he
opens their ear. In the scriptures, when they
believed, they didn't go on to get a doctorate in theology before
they were baptized. They were baptized because they
believed. But if you ask them about all
what they believed, there'd be so many holes in what they believed. But where they were given a hearing
ear, the Lord said to those that believe, if ye continue in my
word, then shall ye be my disciples indeed. You shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. There's a clear separation
between being saved, being born again, the beginning, and sanctification,
which then goes on throughout that person's life, growing in
grace and in the knowledge of the Lord. taught of God, but
they need a teachable spirit, they need a hearing ear first.
You try and teach a child at school that's not teachable,
doesn't want to, knows it all anyway, doesn't want to learn.
But when the Lord gives a hearing ear, that is so different. You know, when the Lord began
with me and gave me eternal life, quicken my soul, that was the
first abundant evidence, went straight from wanting to get
away from the things of God, not interested in them, hating
those things, to immediately wanting to go to every service
I could, however distance it was. It was nearly an hour's
journey to go to the chapel where we were in Australia. And anyone
that would tell me the things of God, that's what I wanted
to hear. And I can truly say on that,
my ear hath he opened. and the appetite and the desire
and the longing for the Word, that is a true token. And the
Lord says that, Maestri, they hear my voice and they follow
me. It's not just a hearing. Be ye
not hearers only, deceiving your own selves, but be ye those obedient
hearers, those that follow, those that put into practice the Word
that they hear. How many times have we had to
go from the house of God and change what we were doing, or
start doing what we weren't doing, or stop doing what we were doing,
because of the Word that we've heard? There is an instruction
and teaching in it. And so that is a true token. Now as I mention these things,
may the Spirit bear witness, and that is another token, May
he bear witness where the Lord has given you, dear friends,
these tokens, these true tokens. Don't start reasoning them away.
Now, if the Lord throws you a rope, as it were, if you were drowning
in the sea, you wouldn't say, oh, that rope's not strong enough,
I'm not gonna hold onto that. Or you wouldn't grab onto it
and take a knife and cut it in pieces. If the Lord has given
you a token, may the Lord give you to believe it. and to be
thankful for him. I speak that to myself because
we can get into times of real doubts and darkness and fears,
as if the Lord hadn't begun with us and hadn't done these things,
hadn't given us a token. But if he has, you know the children
of Israel, we read that they limited the Holy One of Israel,
that they questioned his ability to save and his power, and yet
they had such abundant evidences and tokens of it. But really,
it was such a sin for them to do so. That is not sin in that
way. So, the true token first, a hearing
ear. We start to hear what is preached,
what is read, and when we read the Word of God. The Tulsi Jealous,
my member here, said that when the Lord began with her, she
had a new Bible and a new hymn book. As she read them, they
meant so different to her. Before, she hadn't got a hearing
ear. She wasn't interested. She didn't hear it as those that
were having a real, it applied to her. But when the Lord opened
her ear, then she did. Another true token is that which
is set before us in Paul's letter to the Romans. and in Romans,
chapter 7 in Romans, but I'll bring the one before you in Romans
10 first. In Romans 10, we have what the
word of the gospel is, and it's contrasted with a people that
are ignorant of God's righteousness, they are trying to save themselves
by their own works. The apostle then says before
us what is the true gospel, what does, the righteousness of faith
say, the true saving faith of God, the word is nigh thee, even
in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which
we preach. Remember that the Lord has said,
it please God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. We are to expect a token, a blessing,
an evidence that we are a child of God through the preaching
of the word. and how we hear that word preached. And so he
says here, The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy
heart, that is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. Very, very clear. This is the
Lord joining these things together. heart and confession and saving. Now who are we to say that we're
going to take those away? We're not going to say that's
a true token, it is. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. So with the heart belief
we have a confession, we have not being ashamed of the Lord.
There is the true token, the true evidence. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And the passage is very much
joining the preaching and the hearing of the preaching and
the response to that preaching as to being a true token. What a difference. We're going
year on year as a door upon its hinges and you're hearing the
word and it doesn't make any effect. And then it starts to
have an effect, may be used first to bring us into conviction,
bring us as a needy sinner, and then we have our ears open to,
can there be hope, can there be mercy? We start to hear the
gospel, we start to hear what Christ has done, we start to
hear what he says before poor sinners. What a token that that is, and
it is, all through the Gospel, through what is preached, and
how we are listening, service by service, and we're living
soul, we're drinking in that Word, and drinking in those truths. Sinners can say, says the hymn
writer, none but they, how precious is the Saviour. So that's another
token. In 1 Peter, chapter 2, unto you
which believe, He is precious. In verse 7, real token, Christ
is precious. Not precious to the unconverted,
not precious to the world, but precious to a child of God. So
vital to them. What about love to the brethren?
In 1 John, chapter 3, verse 14, we know that we have passed from
death unto life Because we love the brethren. Very, very clear
token. Token of passing through death
unto life. And what is the token of it?
Love to the brethren. You say, well, don't even those
of you who've been a long time in the way, you get cross with
some of the brethren, don't you? You're offended in how they act,
and you think, how do I do? I really can, I really love them. But you know, when that, love
is felt, you love them for the truth's sake, you love them for
Christ's sake, and there's those precious times when that love
is really, really felt. I know I've probably mentioned
it before here, the time when we used to have the prayer meetings
for the ministers at Clifton, and we'd been there and met with
all ministers of the gospel standard, had the prayer meeting together,
probably 20 or so ministers all together, and driving home in
the middle of the M1, and it suddenly swept over me. Oh, how
I loved the brethren. I didn't call it forth. I didn't
think of it. It just swept over me, and the
tears flowed. I had such a love to them. Now
I drove on that motorway, I'm not sure, but I've never forgotten
the occasion. And those times, they don't happen
a lot. But there'll be those times that
sometimes the brethren will say something. They'll share something
of their experience that just so flows with your own. And you
think, you know, I know, I know what you know. And there's that
real love to them and knitting together. And I love the book
of Ruth. That's how that begins, isn't
it? How many perhaps would be tried, whether they really are
a child of God Because they first began with a love to a loved
one, a mother-in-law, father-in-law, something like that. Think, well,
maybe I'm not really called. Maybe it's just because I love
that person. Why do you love that person?
Why is it that the all-person is only Ruth? And there she claimed
to a mother-in-law. Thy people shall be my people. Thy God, my God. Where thou dwellest,
I will dwell. and there will I be buried, but
death part them, may she claim to her as beautiful evidence
of the love to thee, brethren. You say, well, yeah, but what
about the arguments that Paul, Silas, and Mark, and John Mark? Yeah, there will be those differences. Often there will be, sadly, amongst
brethren. But they had to be, as it were,
the exception. I believe that that was healed.
The Lord said, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples
indeed, and that ye love one another, and we should seek to
nurture that. Now one said years ago, over
in Australia, regarding the late aged pastor there, and he was
a difficult man, perhaps in some ways, But he says, I loved him
for the truth's sake. And that's a lovely thing to
say. Even when outward things we may find people's characters
a bit abrasive or difficult, yet to love them in the Lord
and love them for the truth's sake, that is a scriptural witness. If we go to Romans 8. That beautiful
chapter, we have again the witnesses that he's spoken of there. In
verse 13. And, well, it leads up to verse
14. If we live after the flesh, you
shall die. But if you through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as
are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." What
a clear token. Led by the Spirit of God, they
are the sons of God. In other words, walking according
to the Word of God, not according to the sinful lusts and desires
of the old flesh and old nature. To be spiritually minded is life
and peace. To be calmly minded is death.
And so we have the evidence of the spirit for ye have in verse
15 not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but you
have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry have a father
the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the
children of god and that's my prayer desire for you this evening
that some of these tokens, some of these true tokens, the Spirit
will bear witness and say, you deny that you have that token. You say that you haven't had
that. You say you don't love the brethren.
You say the Lord has not opened your ear. You try and deny that. The Spirit will bear witness
as to what really is the truth what really has come from Him
and what He has done. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Blessed thing to have that witness
then. What of other witnesses? We have
in Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 12. This is an evidence for all the
people of God. It is, My son, despise not thou
the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of
him. Hebrews 12 verse 5. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. For if
ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what
son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, all God's children are partakers
of that, then are ye pastors and not sons? What if you lived
in a family, a family of eight, say, and you saw all your brothers
and sisters, they did something wrong, they got corrected for
it, but your parents never corrected you? So what's the difference? Why am I getting away with that? Why am I not being corrected?
Why can I do what I like? And everyone else is being corrected.
You'd be questioning, am I really your child? They all partake
of it. And this is what God says here,
but mark this. We can think that, well, when
things go wrong or the Lord is chastening me. Don't make that
mistake. The true token here is, it is
enduring chastening. not rebelling against it, but
it is how we go under that chastening and how we get out of it. In
verse 11, now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous
but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit
of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. So going
through it, there is exercise, there's searching of heart, searching
of our ways, looking at what we're doing, what we're not doing,
examining our thoughts and trying them before God and before His
Word. And that chasing isn't pleasant
for us. It may be in some providential
thing, it may be in spiritual darkness, it may be with people
rising up against us, it may be with things going wrong, a
car accident or things like that. The Lord uses many things. You
know, like with a child, a parent will always tell them first.
It won't just bring out the rod. They'll say, don't do that. They'll
warn you again, you'll get punished, you'll deal with it. And so with
the Lord's dealing, if the Lord chastened us in the way of providence
or things happening in our lives, His Spirit will always bear witness.
There's a reason. This is why it's come. You've
had the word, you've had the warnings, you've rejected it,
you've gone against it, and now this has come. The Spirit will
bear witness. And so you bear it. Of course,
David, in all his life, the Lord said, the sword shall not depart
from thine house. The Lord had forgiven him his
sin. It was blotted out. But you know, when Shimei was
casting stones and dust, and Abishai said, go over, I'm going
to cut off his head. David says, no, let him curse.
The Lord has bidden him. It may be the Lord will requite
me good for his cursing this day. And you see a real submission
and bowing before the Lord. It is bitter. It is hard, but
the Lord will bring me out in due time. And the flesh does
like it, and sometimes through, especially if it's a long running,
chastening and a trial, there's times we think we're submissive,
and then times we're not. And part of the exercise is because
there's this struggling within. Sometimes bowing before it, and
sometimes struggling and rising against it. And there's that
conflict of the flesh and the spirit under it. But there's
the afterwards. yieldeth the peaceable fruit
of righteousness unto them that exercise thereby. So really the
true token is the chastening, but it is not until we get out
of it and see the prophet and able to say with the psalmist,
It is good for me when I have been afflicted. Before I was
afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy word. And we see that that chastening
has worked according to the scriptures. For good. There's another token. We know that all things work
together for good. To them that love God, to them
that are the called according to his purpose. Not that we'll
always have good health and wealth and everything like that. No. Work together for good for our
souls. For profit and for eternity. And we see those things working
together for good. And there've been those times,
you know, things happen in the week. You've come to the house
of God and heard the word preached and the two work together. What
has happened in the weeks opened your ear. Maybe the word has
interpreted what's happened and has been a message to you. Maybe
it's like John 6, that there's been the miracle of those of
the fishes. One day and the next day, we have a whole sermon on
the manna from heaven. Labor not for the bread that
perisheth, but that which comes from heaven. and the two went
together, they weren't disconnected. Don't disconnect your life with
the preaching and for the word of God and what you hear in the
house of God, because the tokens will come in that working together. We could look at many things.
The graces of the Lord. Remember how the apostle signs
off all of his epistles, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
be with you. and those gifts that the Lord
gives, that comes from Him. My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. Grace to help in time of need. He giveth more grace. That grace
to the apostle was a token, a token he valued more than all of those
visions from heaven. Remember that. Don't be one seeking
for visions and wonderful things from heaven. The Apostle Paul
would say, no, I value God's grace more. Don't be like Peter,
or to say, well, I want Peter's token of the Mount of Transfiguration. I want a view of the Lord Jesus
Christ, a vision on the Mount. No, says Peter. There's a more
sure word of prophecy where you could do well to take heed. as
a light which shineth in a dark place until the day star rise
in your heart. That's the word of God. That's
more sure than all of the visions and things that we might see.
The Lord may give visions. He may give dreams. I've been
blessed through dreams and in that way. And Paul had that on
the Damascus road. But it will be through the word
of God that is solid and spoken to us. The graces of being submission
to the will of God. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. Humility, by nature we're so
proud. You think of even Naaman, who
wanted to be cured of his leprosy, who needed to be cured. And yet,
when Elisha dealt with him as he did, he rose up in pride to
do this humble thing. to do this simple thing and be
washed and be cleansed. I want something more than that.
It's pride, spiritual pride, you might say. You might be like
that. I want to be saved. I want a
token for good. I want to be the people of God.
But I don't want something simple. I don't want just a token of
a hearing ear or grace or love to the brethren. I want something
better than that to put in the church book and to tell to the
church. I want something better than
that. Don't despise the true tokens of the Word of God. What about prayer? When Ananias
was to be backward in going to Saul of Tarsus, go thy way. Behold, he prayeth. But he's
a Pharisee. He always prays. No, now he's
praying as a broken-hearted sinner. God be merciful to me, a sinner. That's a true token. It was given.
God gave it. Ananias, it was something that
Paul had been given. May the Spirit bear witness with
you. Has there been a change when
you didn't pray but now you do pray, or when you prayed formal
prayers and now you pray prayers from the heart? But who's made
that difference? What about faith? That is what
the Lord gives when he first converts, when he gives the new
birth. And you read Hebrews 11, how
many different ways that faith is evidenced. But you find in
the middle of that, from verse 13 to 16, something that applies
to them all. Those all died in faith, not
receiving the promises, that is, Christ did not come, they
had not seen him, but they saw those promises of Christ afar
off and embraced them. Have you got promises in the
word of God that you embrace? And you plead them. That's what
we sung in the hymn, isn't it? Thy precious promises be to me
and for my good. And the tokens then are given
here. They persuaded of them, embraced
them, confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims in the
earth. That's an evidence of faith.
They declare such things, declare plainly that they seek a country. They desire a better country.
It isn't heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called
their God. It is our faith. Seek those things
which are above, and look for those things above this world,
not on this earth. We have another token. When the
Lord putteth forth his sheep, he goeth before them. The timing
of the Lord and the Lord going before. I think right through
our lives there's been in my employment, partner in life,
moving home, pastorate, ministry, how many times we've seen the
Lord go before, opening the way, moving men's hearts, moving providence,
things completely out of our way. When we first, when we had
the invite to come over 25 years ago to the pastorate, well there
was more than then when we had the invite, but to take the pastorate
here, when we actually moved from Australia to here, I've
still got the graphs, the graphs of the house prices when we bought
our house and it goes right, right down, very low, and that's
gone up ever since. And then the graphs of the exchange
rate between Australia and here, and the best for 10 years before
and afterwards, just at the time the Lord brought us over. If
those two things had not met, We could never have bought a
house. We had just enough money to buy a car, to put down a deposit
on the house, and it relied on the house prices being low and
the exchange rate. And what's more, the mortgage
advisor, he said, my computer says I should not touch you.
There are no payment records in this land at all that come
from the other side of the world. They're a three-page contract.
for a company the other side of the world, and he gave me,
gave us 75,000 loan. A week after we moved in, that
representative left the company. Three years later, we wanted
a small loan extra, and we had to provide three years accounts
and all sorts of things, and we realised the miracle then
that had happened those three years before. And you see how
the Lord moves even many things for our good. And you want to
say those are providential things. They are. But they're tied up
with his dealings, with his leadings and teachings and the way that
we are to go. And I hope some of you know also
the Lord going before. And to see his hand. Know those
of, in Genesis 24, When Abraham's servant rehearsed it, they said
the thing that proceeded from the Lord, it is of the Lord,
they could see that handiwork. Well, may the Lord be pleased
to bless this word, grant unto you, grant unto me a token for
good, and may it be like is in the context here, a token that
others see, cannot but see it, and that it be a comfort to us
and a help to us.