I won't think of it. I didn't
think last time to turn it on. It seemed like we were just here. I could rejoice with what Donnie
read from Colossians chapter 1. The love which you have for
all the saints. Trish and I truly feel loved
here. We feel at home. We're so very
thankful for this congregation and for the encouragement that
you give to us. Would you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 86. Psalm 86. The very last verse of Psalm
86. David is praying and he asks
the Lord to show him a token for good. Show me a token for
good. That's the title of this message.
Show me a token for good. Now, a token is a sign. And the
Lord said, a wicked and perverse generation seeketh after a sign.
Remember the Pharisees said, prove to us that you're the Christ.
Show us a miracle. So my question this morning is,
is it okay to ask God for a sign? David did. Show me a token for
good. And the answer to that question
is, yes. As long as that sign can only be seen by the eye of
faith. As long as that sign can only
be seen by the eye of faith. If you're looking for a sign
that you can see with your physical eyes, then the Lord says that's
wicked. But if you're looking for a sign
that can only be seen by the eye of faith, That's a good sign. That's a prayer to pray. Lord,
show me a sign for good. Truth is that the eye of faith
is much more reliable than physical sight. How many eyewitnesses
have been proven to be wrong in a court of law? Your eye can
fool you, but the eye of faith will never fool you. God gives
you sight to see that token, that sign, which can only be
seen by faith. It's sure. It's sure. The Psalms are glorious only
when we understand them first as being messianic. It's amazing to me that the self-professed
theologians of religion have identified about 15 or 20 of
the Psalms as Messianic Psalms. The truth is that those Psalms
that they identify as Messianic Psalms could be seen as Messianic
by any unbeliever. They're clearly repeated in the
New Testament. and I'm afraid that's what most
theologians are that say these are the few messianic psalms.
Truth is that all the psalms are messianic. Truth is that
all scripture is messianic. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. For lo, I have come to do thy
will, O God. all of scripture. I love that
passage in Luke chapter 24 when the Lord's walking with those
disciples on the road to Emmaus. And the scripture says, and beginning
with Moses and the Psalms and the prophets, he expounded unto
them those things concerning himself. And then later on in
that same chapter, when he met with the disciples in the upper
room, he opened up their understanding that they may understand the
scriptures. This psalm is titled a Psalm of David. But we know
that David is a type of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
the son of David. He is the sweet psalmist of Israel. He is the shepherd of his sheep.
He's the king of Israel. And so, the only way to properly
understand this psalm is to see it as it is. First and foremost,
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 1 in Psalm 86.
Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me, for I am poor and needy. This is every believer's prayer,
but it's especially the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ as he's
hanging on Calvary's cross, bearing the sins of his people, suffering
the wrath of God's justice, and crying out to his Father, my
God, my God, whilst thou forsaken me, help me. I am poor and needy. Preserve my soul for I am holy. Now, our holiness can only be
found by virtue of our union with the Lord Jesus Christ, but
He's holy in and of Himself. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God of hosts. So here we see Christ praying
to the Father, saying, Father, preserve me, keep me, for I am
holy. Oh, Thou, my God, save Thy servant
that trusteth in Thee. The Lord Jesus Christ trusted
His Father perfectly. He was the faithful Son. that
to his dying breath, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
He had perfect faith. Perfect faith. Skip down with
me to verse 14 of this same psalm. O God, the proud are risen up
against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after
my soul, and have not set thee before them. But thou, O Lord,
are a God full of compassion, and gracious, long-suffering,
and plenteous in mercy and truth." The Lord Jesus Christ trusted
His Father to be faithful to the covenant of grace that they
had established between themselves before time ever began. when
God in His own will and purpose chose a particular people before
time ever began. Christ entered into that covenant
relationship with His Father and agreed to pay the ransom
for His bride. to purchase them with His own
precious blood. And the Spirit of God entered
into that covenant and agreed to go in the day of power and
make them willing, give them faith, give them eyes to see
and hearts to believe. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
is reflecting back on that covenant. He says, He's full of compassion.
He's full of mercy. He's true to His Word. I'm going
to trust my Father. Oh, turn unto me and have mercy
upon me. Give thy strength unto thy servant
and save the son of thy handmaid. There's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was the son, the son of Mary, the handmaid of God. The one
who came in the likeness of sinful flesh and suffered the contradiction
of sinners. The one who bore our sins in
his body upon that tree. He was the son of man and he's
praying to his father says father father deliver me Bring me when
he said bring me from the lowest hell that word hell is grave
and so he's praying to the father to bring him forth and and and
the father said I would not allow my holy one to see corruption
and We can say that the Father was obligated. He was obligated
by the perfect faithfulness of His Son to reward Him with the
resurrection. And that's the proof. That's
the sign. Remember when I quoted this part
of this verse when the Lord said, A wicked and perverse generation
seeketh after a sign. No sign will be given unto it
except for the sign of Jonah, who spent three days and three
nights in the belly of the whale. God brought him forth. That's
the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the token. That's the sign. And that sign can only be seen
with the eye of faith. That happened 2,000 years ago.
We can't look for an eyewitness to that sign. We have the testimony
of those who were eyewitnesses. We have the Word of God. But
that's the token. That's the sign. And so David
says, show me a token for good. And here we have the Lord Jesus
Christ praying to His Father. Father, show me a token for good,
that those who hate me might be made ashamed. He's talking
about His resurrection and the coming of the Spirit of God.
What happened on the day of Pentecost? When Peter preached, he said,
you, speaking to those same people that had cried, crucify Him,
crucify Him, he said, you, with your wicked hands, have crucified
and slain the Son of God. And the Scripture says, and they
were pricked in their hearts, and said, men and brethren, what
must we do? And Peter said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. and I shall be saved." So there's
the token for good. There it is. It's the death,
burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ revealed by
the Spirit of God. And Zechariah says in Zechariah
chapter 12, when the Spirit of grace is poured out on the house
of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, They will look
upon him whom they have pierced, and they will mourn after him,
as one mourneth after his only Son." So the same thing happens
today that happened at the day of Pentecost. It's the same message. You with your wicked hands. It
was my sins that put Christ on the cross. And we mourn after
Him. And so David says, show me a
sign for good. We know the Lord Jesus Christ,
the only one that's good. What did Paul say about his goodness? In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing. What did the Lord say to that
rich young ruler? He said, good master, what must
I do to inherit eternal life? Why callest thou me good? There's
none good but God. There's none good but God. Show me a token for good. is
the believer's prayer for God to reveal to his heart, through
the eye of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ in all of his glory, in
his accomplished work of redemption. The Lord said, if you being evil
know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more
will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that
ask Him? Lord, show me a token for good. Show me the goodness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when He shows us His goodness,
that's when, that's when we see our badness, isn't it? Isaiah saw the Lord high and
lifted up. was the first words out of his
mouth. Woe is me, I'm a man, I'm undone, I'm a man of unclean
lips. My eyes have seen the King. When
Job saw the Lord Jesus Christ weep, behold, I'm vile. I had heard of thee by the hearing
of my ear, but now mine eyes have seen thee, and I repent
in dust and ashes. There's a difference, isn't there?
A big difference. Show me a token for good. That's
a good prayer. And that is every believer's
prayer. Reveal to me the Lord Jesus Christ. That they which hate me. You see that
in the rest of this verse? Someone said, well, I never hated
God. And my response to that would
be, I fear that you still do and you don't know it. The truth
is that we all come into this world as God-haters. Until the
Lord shows us a token for good and causes us to love Christ. The Lord said, if you're not
for me, you're against me. You're against me. Show me a
token for good that they which hate me might be made ashamed. We're ashamed of our hatred for
God, aren't we? When the Lord shows us a token
for good. In Hebrews chapter 1, the Lord says, God who at
sundry times and in divers manners, in times past, spoke to our fathers
through the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us
by his Son. by His Son, who is the express
image of His person. That all the tokens, the types,
the pictures that God gave through the prophets in the Old Testament
were for the purpose of pointing to that which can only be seen
with the eyes of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. And each one of
these tokens, we look back at these Old Testament types, and
we're not looking for a physical token. We're looking for what
that token represents. Remember when the Lord Joshua
sent the spies into Jericho to spy out the city? What does a
spy go into a city for? He goes into a city to find out
where the weak points of that city
were and what the strategy would be for attacking that city. Did
Joshua need the report of the spies in order to conquer Jericho? No. No. God brought Jericho down. All the walls of Jericho came
down. Those spies didn't go into Jericho in order to figure out
a strategy on how to defeat Jericho. Those spies went into Jericho
for one reason. Rahab was there. That's the only
reason they went into Jericho. For Rahab's salvation. And Rahab
said, give me a token. Give me a sign that when your
God destroys this city that you'll spare me and my family. And what
was the token? What was the token? It was a
scarlet cord hanging out of a window, wasn't it? Now that's a good token. We know what scarlet is. That's
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're redeemed by His blood.
Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins.
When I see the blood, I'll pass by Thee. And that's what we're
looking, that's when we ask the Lord, show me a token for good.
Lord, enable me to trust the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ alone for my redemption. Keep me from adding anything
to or taking anything away from the redemptive work that the
Lord Jesus accomplished all by Himself on Calvary's cross. Show me a token for good. And
it was a cord. Now that cord, the scripture
says that we're drawn to God with the cords of a man and we're
bound to Him with the cord of love. And that's how the Lord
draws us. He doesn't drag us kicking and
screaming. All the Lord has to do is make
Himself known to us. That's why we preach Christ. We preach Christ so that He said,
If I be lifted up, I'll draw all men to Myself. If the Lord
ever makes Himself known to you, you don't come kicking and screaming.
You run to Him. You fall in love with Him. And
that's the cords of kindness that He uses to draw us to Himself. Now in contrast to that, what
does the scripture say in Psalm 2? Turn with me to that passage. We're right close to it. Psalm 2. Verse 1, Why do the heathen rage,
and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth
set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against
the Lord, and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands
asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth
in the heavens shall laugh, and the Lord shall have them in derision. What do they say? Let us cast
His cords away from us. We will not have this man reign
over us. And just the opposite is the
ravens of this world, those who are by nature harlots, those
who are by nature been unfaithful to their husband. And they say,
show me a token for good. Hang that scarlet cord of kindness
and draw me to thyself. And where did it hang from? It
hung from a window. And what happened when God opened
the windows of heaven? And righteousness came down.
And the only way the cords of kindness are going to be is if
God opens the window. We can't get to where He is.
He's got to come to where we are. Render the heavens, Isaiah
said, and come down. Show thyself, Lord. Make thyself
known unto me. And so all these tokens that
God gave in the Old Testament were types of the Lord Jesus
Christ and what He's done.