Psalm 86. Back in Psalm 14, David wrote, The Lord looked
down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside
They are all together become filthy, there is none that doeth
good, no not one." God told Adam in Genesis chapter
3, Cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat
of it all the days of thy life. God said in Genesis 6 that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that
he had made man on the earth. That's terrible, isn't it? Man
at his best state is altogether vanity. Even our righteousnesses are
filthy rags. Sin has infected us like a cancer,
exactly like a cancer. From the crown of our heads to
the soles of our feet, and sin demands a wage. It demands a
payment. It is appointed unto men once
to die, and after that, the judgment. That's the truth. As we look
at ourselves, and as we look at our state before God, from
every angle, it is only bad news. It's only bad news. Everything
about us is only sad news. We just talked about carnal-mindedness
and spiritual-mindedness. And wouldn't that be wonderful
if we could enter into spiritual-mindedness? But you know what? This flesh,
man, it is tough. It is tough. Everything about
us is only sad news. That's all it is. Sad news. And if we didn't bring up the
name Jesus Christ, this morning's message would
be the worst news you've ever heard in your life. That name is the only piece of
good news I have. All, all we would be able to
talk about is vileness and wickedness and rebellion and absolute hatred
and damnation and hell's eternal fire. That's all we'd have to
talk about. We know that that's true, don't
we? It's terrible. The horrible reality of this
world, the reality of sin and man outside of Christ, it is
terrible. It's terrible. There's a song and it says, change
and decay in all around I see. Change and decay. That's all
I see. Change and decay. All that my
worldly eyes are capable of seeing is the death that's all around
me, and in and of myself, the death that's coming to me. That's
it. So look at Psalm 86, verse 17, this one line is our text,
okay? David says, A token for good. Lord, show me some good. It's just bad. It's all bad. You turn the news on and it's
all bad. It's all bad. If you want to
be afraid in life, just turn the news on and see what's going
on. It'll make you afraid to go anywhere. It'll make you afraid
of everybody. You won't be able to trust anybody. Well, we left our kids with them
and we thought they were so sweet. Isn't it true? Lord, show me some good. I would
love to see some good. Show me something that will remind
me of the good that You've purposed for me in Christ. I need it. Just give me a token. Just a
token. David said in Psalm 27, I had
fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living. Lord, I want to see the land
of the living. I'm in the land of the dead,
and it's all dead, and it's all dying, and it's all bad. Let
me see the land of the living, the goodness of the Lord. Show me a token for good. Lord, I acknowledge there is
none good but God. None. Show me the promises of
God. Even our babies are upset. Their
world is just bad. They got it so hard. Show me the promises of God.
I say that right along with David. Show me some tokens for good. Would you like to see some? I would. I hope the Lord will
bless this. We're going to look at some tokens
for good, and I hope the Lord will bless this. Go with me to
Genesis 9. Genesis chapter 9. Noah built an ark, and Noah loaded
that ark, and then Noah survived in that ark, and now he and his
family and the animals, they're all coming out of the ark. Alright,
look at Genesis 9 verse 8. And God spake unto Noah and to
his sons with him, saying, Behold, I establish my covenant
with you and with your seed after you, and with every living creature
that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast
of the earth with you, from all that go out of the ark to every
beast of the earth. And 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 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, and the bow shall be in
the cloud." Now watch this. and I will look upon it." We see that rainbow and it's
a beautiful rainbow. And I love the thought that as
I'm looking on it, so is God. If I make one, I'll look at it. I will look upon it, he said
in verse 16, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between
God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the
earth. And God said unto Noah, this is the token of the covenant
which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon
the earth." Every time you see that rainbow from here on out,
especially if you see two of them, Every single time you see
it, you remember that is not just science taking place. That is not just light reflecting
at the proper angle. God is giving the whole earth
a token for good. Our God is so good. God made
a promise to the entire earth I will not destroy the earth
by water ever again. And that rainbow is a reminder
of his promise. The Lord, the scripture says,
is good to all. He really is good to all. The
fact that he makes his sun shine on everybody is proof that he
is good to all. He's good to all men. But let's
acknowledge the truth concerning all men. Okay, now here's the
truth. As this declaration goes forth,
and as men and women hear this, by whatever means, whether it
goes out on the radio, whether they pull it up on sermon audio,
or whether they walk in the front door, here's the truth that all
of mankind must acknowledge. Turn with me to 2 Peter chapter
3. 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 5 says,
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the
heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water
and in the water, whereby the world that was then being overflowed
with water perished. but the heavens and the earth
which are now, by the same word, are kept in store, reserved unto
fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men."
Verse 10 says, "...but the day of the Lord will come as a thief
in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great
noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth
also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up." Our Lord has made a promise.
He's given us a covenant. He will never destroy this earth
by water ever again. Not by water. But may all the
world be warned. May all the world be warned.
He is going to destroy this earth by fire. The fire of God's wrath. Everybody must be warned. You know, the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. Total destruction is coming to
this earth. Total destruction of this life,
total destruction of the life to come. Total destruction. Why? It's because of man's sin
against God. There we go, more bad news. As
soon as we start talking about man, it's bad news. You know
that? As long as we're talking about
Jesus Christ, it's good news. We preach good news. What is
it? Christ and Him crucified. Let's talk about man for a minute.
Oh man, that is bad news. It's terrible. Most people think, you know,
by the time that comes, I'm going to already have died. I'll be
buried in the ground. I won't even know what's happening
anyway. Not true. Go over to Revelation chapter
1. Revelation 1 verse 7 says, Behold,
he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him. And they also which pierced him. The ones that put him on the
tree. The centurion that pierced his side. They're going to see
him too. And all kindreds of the earth
shall wail because of him." You know what the Spirit of God
says and all of God's people who have received the Spirit
of God say? Even so, amen. He's coming. And every eye is
going to see him. Gabe Stoniker, be warned. Before that dreadful day comes,
the graves are going to open up. Every eye is going to see
Him and wail because of Him. Bad news. Really bad news. Outside of Christ, if man is
left to himself, it's bad news. Lord, show me a token for good. I need a token for good. Is there
any hope to be found that day? You know that day is the deciding
day. That day when He's going to say
to some, depart from Me, I never knew you, cast them into the
lake that burneth with fire. And to the other He's going to
say, welcome in thou good and faithful servant. Is there any hope to be found
on that day? Any good news to be heard that
day? That's what a woman named Rahab wanted to know. That's
a question she had. Turn with me over to Joshua chapter
2. It's right after Deuteronomy. Joshua
chapter 2. Rahab hid two men that she knew
were spying out the land. Verse 9 says, Joshua 2 verse
9, and she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given
you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us. and that all
the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard
how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you
came out of Egypt, and what you did unto the two kings of the
Amorites that were on the other side, Jordan, Sion, and Og, whom
you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these
things, Our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any
more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God,
He is God, in heaven above and in earth beneath. Now, therefore,
I pray you swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed you
kindness, that you will also show kindness unto my Father's
house and give me a true token." And that you will save alive
my father and my mother and my brethren and my sisters and all
that they have and deliver our lives from death. And look at
verse 14. And the man answered her, our
life for yours. Our life for yours. Verse 18 says, Behold, when we
come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread
in the window which thou didst let us down by, and thou shalt
bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all of
thy father's household home unto thee. And it shall be that whosoever
shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his
blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless. And
whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall
be on our head, if any man be upon him. Verse 21 says, And
she said, According unto your words, so be it. And she sent
them away, and they departed, and she bound the scarlet line
in the window. As soon as they left, she bound that scarlet line in
the window immediately. Why? That was her token. That was her token. Her token
for good. Total destruction is coming through
here. I'm holding on to this with all
of my might. This is all of my hope. It's my only hope for good. It
was her token. Now, what's our token? Go with
me to Exodus chapter 12. Exodus 12 verse 3 says, Speak
ye unto all the congregation of Israel saying in the 10th
day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb. According to the house of their
fathers, a lamb for a house. Verse five, your lamb shall be
without blemish, a male of the first year. You shall take it
out from the sheep or from the goats. Verse seven. and they shall take of the blood,
and strike it on the two side post, and on the upper door post
of the houses wherein they shall eat it." Verse 12, "'For I will
pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all
the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and
against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am
the Lord.'" And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the
houses where you are. 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." Do you know
what my only hope is going to be on that great and terrible
day? And it's going to be great. And
it's going to be terrible. And all of God's people are going
to see it and say, even so, amen. May God be true and everybody
else a liar. But do you know what my only
hope is going to be on that great and terrible day? One hope. It is the blood of the Lamb. That's my only hope. When God sees the blood of Christ,
this is what He said, I'm going to put a bow in the clouds, and
then I'm going to look at it, and I'm going to remember my
covenant. God spilled the blood of His own Son. And God said,
I'm going to take that blood and I'm going to apply it to
your house. And when I see the blood, I'm going to look at what
I have done. And when I see that blood, I'm
going to remember my covenant. And I'm going to pass over you.
That's my only hope. If I did not know that right
now, in this life, today, I would be a miserable, sorry man. Because I don't have much money. And I don't have much fame. And
I don't have much of anything. But I have the blood of Christ.
And it's my token that keeps me going and living every single
day. I have the blood of Christ. Bind
that on the window. And hold on to that. It's my token that I died in
Him. It's appointed unto men once
to die. And that Lamb slain is my token
that I died in Him. I was delivered. Remember that
flesh. You've been freed. Remember that
prisoner of sin. You've been redeemed. Remember
that fallen man. You've been redeemed in him.
Go over one chapter to Exodus 13. Verse 14 says, And it shall be
when thy son asked thee... I hope Isabella and Sophie ask
me one day. And it shall be when thy son asked
thee in time to come, saying, What is this? What are we doing? What is this sacrifice all about?
Why do y'all meet together? And how come everybody sings,
whether they want to or not, or whether they have a good voice
or not? Why are we doing this? Isn't it kind of strange? He says in verse 14, that thou
shalt say unto him, by strength of hand, the Lord brought us
out from Egypt from the house of bondage, and it came to pass
when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all
the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of
man and the firstborn of beast, therefore, I sacrifice to the
Lord all that openeth the matrix being males, but all the firstborn
of my children I redeem. And it shall be for a token upon
thine hand and for frontlets between thine eyes." Everything
you do and everything you purpose, everything you think is going
to be a token of this. For by strength of hand the Lord
brought us forth out of Egypt. Free at last. Free at last. The blood of Christ is my token
of death. I'm dead to sin. See, I can't feel that yet. I
can't really enter into that yet, so it's my token. I'm dead
to self and I'm dead to this world. Go with me to Genesis
17. Genesis 17 verse 9 says, And God said unto
Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou and thy seed
after thee and their generations. This is my covenant which you
shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee. Every
man child among you shall be circumcised. And you shall circumcise
the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the covenant
betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old
shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations. He that is born in the house
or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed, he
that is born in thine house and he that is bought with thy money
must needs be circumcised and my covenant shall be in your
flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man-child
whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall
be cut off from his people. He hath broken my covenant."
When Christ was cut off, I became accepted in the Beloved. I believe that. That's not just
me quoting Ephesians 1. I believe that personally. I
became adopted into the family of God. He said, I'm going to
give you circumcision as a reminder. You keep remembering. Christ
was cut off from the family of God. Therefore, you will never
be. This is your token. Token of
acceptance. I'm not going to turn for the
sake of time to numbers. But here's what happened in Numbers. The Lord told Moses to tell all
the people, I want you to bring me a stick, a rod, one for every
tribe represented. Jacob had 12 sons, 12 tribes
of Israel, and all the people were from one of those tribes.
He said, I want every tribe to bring me a rod. And I want you
to write the name of your tribe on there. One of the sons of
Jacob. And for Levi, I want you to write
Aaron's name there instead. Because Aaron was the priest.
And he said, every rod is going to represent that tribe. Because
the people were murmuring and complaining. You know, we're
out here in the wilderness. It's dead out here. There's nothing
but death out here. So he said, have everybody bring
a rod and put it in the temple. So Moses did. And the next day,
Moses went in and gathered all the rods. And the Lord said,
hand them back to the people. And he handed one by one the
rod to the tribe. But when he got to Aaron's rod,
it budded with flowers and almonds. It turned back into a tree. And all the people, He said,
you show that to all the people that they die not. He said, this
will be their token. This is going to be their token.
I am the God of life. Show all those who will bow the
knee and warn all those who won't bow the knee. I'm the God of
the living. How can something that is dead
with no root in it and no hope of life at all live? How is that
possible? With God, all things are possible.
He said, I can make it live. This old dead flesh can live
eternally? He said, you keep it. That's
what he told Moses. You keep that for a token. This
dead flesh is going to live. I don't feel it, but because
of the rod of Jesse, that's Jesus Christ, I'm going to live. All
right, last one. We'll close. Exodus 3. The Lord God met with Moses on
top of a mountain, right? And He told Moses, you warned
the people, do not approach this mountain. You remember that? This mountain is burning with
fire. This mountain where God's holy
law was etched in stone, you tell them, do not come up this
mountain. And if their cows start getting
too close, you tell them they better go get them because I'm
going to burn up their cows. If they come too close to this
mountain, they will die. Make sure they all know that. Verse 11, Exodus 3, verse 11,
And Moses said unto God, Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh,
and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of
Egypt? And he said, God said, Certainly
I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee. that I have sent thee. When thou
hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve
God upon this mountain." This mountain that they could
not approach before, they're all going to be allowed to ascend
up to the top of it. Everybody's going to be welcome.
You tell them all, come on up. And they're all going to worship
God on the top of that mountain. The fire will be over. They will
not be burned. They're all going to be safe
in the hand of their deliverer. You're going to bring them out
and they're all going to be safe. This shall be a token unto thee,
a token of deliverance. That's good. That's good. We know that all things work
together for good, don't we? To them that love God, who are
the called according to His purpose. We got a world full of bad. I
got two little girls that are going out in the world and I'm
anxious and worried over them. Which is carnal mindedness, right? The Lord protected me. The Lord
protected you. He is able to protect them. I have two girls who are going
out into this evil world. I've got to personally endure
the rest of my time in this evil, wicked world. We've got to endure
hurt feelings. We've got to endure our selfishness. We've got to endure our wicked
thoughts. We've got to endure all this
mess. We've got to endure all this pain. We've got to endure
all this sorrow. But we have some good. We have
some good. Lord, if you will allow us to,
the rest of our time, will you let us see our good? And it's in Christ. It's in Christ. Outside of Him, there's just
no good. Lord, cause us to look to Christ
and see our tokens of good. I hope He'll do that. Alright,
let's stand together.