Shew me a token for good

Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 86 and verse 17. Show me a token for good, that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed, because thou, Lord, hast opened me and comforted me. especially the first part, show me a token for good. Psalm of David, Psalm 86 and verse 17. We're told in verse 14 that David was having those that were rising up against him. Sandwich of violent men have sought after my soul and have not set thee before them.

Then in verse 15, he reminds himself and sets before the Lord his profession and trust. But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. Then he prays for inward help and strength. So turn unto me and have mercy upon me. Give thy strength unto thy servant and save the son of thine handmaid.

So he is seeking for that primarily that is inward, God's strength unto him and to be saved. And then in our text he is asking for a token and a token for good and in such a way that those that hate him may see him, an outward token, and that they might be ashamed. And also, that token was because they would see as well that the Lord had helped him and comforted him. So in one sense it might not be an outward token that they could actually see in Providence or see in that way, but they would see very evidently that God had helped him and that he had comforted him. In Psalm 126 we have a similar setting forth of what David is asking for here. We read from verse one, when the Lord turned again in captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing.

So that was a blessing that they had. Then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them. They could see that. The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. The children of Israel in the wilderness, all that God did with them was observed by the nations round about. They could see when He blessed them, they could see when He chastened them, when they were in the Promised Land, they could see when they were brought into captivity, when their enemies triumphed over them. They could also see when the Lord appeared and delivered them small companies and they were able to defeat large armies. seen by all the nations round about.

But David here is asking for this token for good, and is that which is upon my spirit applied to us personally? And I want to look then at three points. Firstly, show me that is God's way of teaching, of showing his people And then secondly, a token. What is a token? And to highlight here, although you'll look at several tokens in our last point, but it is not showing you many tokens. It is showing me a token, and that is sufficient, one real token. token, or like Rahab said, give me a true token. We only need one true one. And then lastly, those tokens for good, true tokens, what are they scripturally, and what can we view them as true tokens?

Firstly, God's way of teaching showed me The beautiful word in Isaiah 30, that thy teachers shall not be removed into a corner anymore, but thy eyes shall see thy teachers, thy ears shall hear the word behind thee saying, this is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, when ye turn to the left. And it's good when we see our teachers, When we think of here, something that is shown is not just in word, but is something that is seen, opened to our eyes.

When I was a fitting attorney, apprentice at 16, I had a very good boss, fitter, that taught me very, very carefully for the first three years. He hardly gave me free reign to do anything my own way. He showed me His way. He didn't just tell me what to do, but He showed me how to do it. A very effective way of teaching.

And then, the last year when I went to ask Him things, He said, no. He said, now whenever you think to want to ask me a question, Don't. You think first whether you know it. Think back to what I've taught you. And so it was amazing how many times that I realized Ed did know.

And it's a good way. No doubt you're in farming. If you have someone new or something that needs to be taught someone, you don't just tell them, you show them. And those things that are shown, And they often stick a lot longer than those that are just told.

And so the Lord uses this way. So this should be our prayer, that the Lord would show us things. This has been the prayer of the Lord's people right down through the ages. Especially we would think of Moses in Exodus chapter 33. Moses in the wilderness, the children of Israel had just sinned in the matter of the golden calf. And Moses, he desired that the Lord would show him thy way, show me thy way. And the Lord's answer was, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Moses said, if thy presence go not with me, then carry us not up hence.

But that was God's way. And of course, Moses and the children of Israel were shown that with the fiery cloudy pillar, with the Lord's presence with them. And of course, pointing to our Lord Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. And when the Lord ascended up into heaven, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. And this was given then in Moses' answer that the Lord would show him his way. The Lord's way is, as the Lord says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Moses was shown that. But then Moses had another request and he asked the Lord, show me thy glory.

And the Lord's answer to that was, I will make all my goodness pass before thee in the way. Now that was something that was to be seen and to be noticed, the Lord's goodness going before them in the way. They were to see it. It was going to be a tangible, evidence of the Lord's presence with them and blessing with them. And in answer to Moses asking the Lord to show him something, may that be our prayer also. We want the Lord to show us his way and we want him to show us his glory.

When Gideon was called to lead the children of Israel against the Midianites, a vast company, and yet they had only just a small company, and the Lord then reduced it even less, down to 300. Gideon, he rightly, he wanted a token that the Lord was with them, a sign He puts it, show a sign that thou art with me and that thou talkest with me. Because he was given the fleas wet, the fleas dry. And some have said, well, was he not tempting the Lord? No, it was a great matter that was before him. and he really needed to know that the Lord truly was with him.

We should not just think, well, because someone in the scriptures, like Gideon, asked for tokens and asked for more than one, that we've got to imitate that, even if we don't inwardly feel we need that token. If the Lord has given enough, so that we can trust Him, we can believe, don't tempt Him by asking more. But if we really do feel fear, and remember, the Lord knew with Gideon, even after those tokens, He said to him, if thou fearest to go down, then go down tonight, hear what I say.

And he went with his servant, And he listened while one was telling a dream and the other interpreted. And he said he saw this cake of barley falling to the camp and lay a tent low. And his friend said that this is none other than Gideon, son of James, by whom the Lord will deliver the host of the Midianites into his hand tonight. And Didion, he goes up, he says, up, the Lord has delivered them into our hands.

A wonderful token that he hadn't even asked for. The Lord had seen his fears and gave him what he needed. It was a very big undertaking, but he asked at first for these tokens. It was the Lord that was speaking to him. Let me think of Jonathan, David and Jonathan. Jonathan asked of David a token. It was of the kindness of the Lord. Kindness that he would not cut off his seed. Jonathan knew that David was going to be king. Well, actually Saul knew and that's why he's fighting against David. The token of that kindness resulted in a covenant. It was a covenant, a promise, an undertaking by David that he would not cut off the seed of Saul, or Jonathan's seed, and it resulted in Mephibosheth being brought to the king's table. The greatest blessing we can have is to be shown our interest in the covenant of grace. That covenant, that agreement was made before Mephibosheth probably was born, but he was the beneficiary of it.

Now David says, although in my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, and this is all my salvation and all my desire, though he make it not to grow. Why any are saved? Because of a covenant between God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, and we are the beneficiaries of it. But then we have David in Psalm 16, and of course this is a very prophetic psalm of our Lord Jesus Christ, having the 11th verse.

Thou wilt show me the path of life in Thy presence is fullness of joy at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. The blessed thing to be shown the path of life. Our Lord speaks of the broad way and of the narrow way. And the men cannot find that narrow way because the way that is broad many go in that way. There's a blessed thing to realize the Lord has shown us that path of life. The life through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Because I live, ye shall live also. And this very much setting forth our Lord Jesus Christ. The word quoted in verse 10. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer, Lord Holy One, to see corruption. The Lord living the path of life, the resurrection from the dead, and the find to a soul quickened into spiritual life here below, and then at the last day, the body also raised to life again. That is the path of life through our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is 25. We have the petition to be shown the ways of the Lord in verse 4. Show me thy ways, O Lord, teach me thy paths. Again, like it was with Moses, desiring to know the Lord's way, so here with David in this psalm, show me thy ways. The way the Lord teaches, corrects, instructs, all the ways of the Lord, show that to me. And then in Psalm 60, we have another desire of the psalmist, and this time it is a testimony It is setting forth what God has done, in verse three.

Thou hast showed thy people hard things. Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. And God will, he will show his people hard things. He will show them their sin. He will show them what they really are in Adam. He will show them what they are in the fall. He will show them that way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Turn again, we read in Ezekiel, thou son of man, thou shalt see greater abominations than these. But what a blessing it is if we understand this is the way the Lord teaches to show his people things.

But by nature we are blind, we cannot see. And if the Lord is showing us things, if he's opening things to us, then he's opened our eyes spiritually. So this is, open thou my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Lord. And so when we have this desire to be shown, and when we do see things, and in the context here, it is, of course, tokens, or token for good, then there's an evidence there the Lord has given us sign. He's given us to perceive, to be spiritually alive.

And so these things that are hidden from the wise and prudent, they are being revealed unto us. May we notice this then in our lives? I wonder how many of us here The Lord has shown us things that we hadn't seen, we didn't know before, and opened our eyes to perhaps even deceits of our heart and plans and schemes of our heart that we perhaps tried to keep under and imagined that we weren't following that of our own heart, for the Lord's shown us, He knows what we were doing, and He stopped us in that path. And we've actually seen what the Lord has shown us, what we didn't see, and didn't know ourselves, didn't understand ourselves. We say, now I know because the Lord has shown this to me. Now I know. What to do? Now I know the way of the Lord. Now I know how to answer. Now I know what the secret is. Now I know what the matter is. Because the Lord has shown it to me.

I want to look then, secondly, at a token. Not many, but one. or a token, and here's a token for good. A token is something that assures us of our title. It's not the actual thing, but it is that which is vital to the receiving of that thing. A little tally perhaps, or one token, we might say is a token, if you have a passport. That passport is a token that that country or the country in which the passport is issued, they will watch over us. We are citizens of that country and that passport then is used to be able to travel elsewhere, then you have another token that is needed, which is a visa, to be able to get into another country. And to have that little stamp on the passport, to see that stamp, then you know what that actually means. From your first order, newly born daughter, she's just six weeks old, over to this country, to attend my wife's mother's funeral.

And we had her added to our British passports. She was born in Australia. And when the passports came back, and it was added, there was also lots of leaflets on pieces, and I threw them in the bin. Because I said, well, she's on our passports, so she didn't need a visa.

Well, she did. But if I'd have realised, then we would never have come back for that funeral. It's one of those times the Lord overruled a mustang. My mustang, the travel agents mustang, the airports mustang, until the very last step of getting on that aircraft. And they looked at the passport and they said, little girl, she hasn't got a visa.

She can't get back into Australia. And I said to her, She's the only one of us who's an Australian citizen. She was born here. We're in, we're British, that's a guess, but she's on a British passport, and therefore she needs a visa to come back, or her own Australian passport. And we could take her out, but we couldn't bring her back.

We took her out, and we had her apply for that visa while we were here in the UK. Guess what that, that little stat, how much that meant. You might say that the stamp was valued for nothing, but what it meant was whether or not she could actually come into the country or not.

And so when you think of things in a spiritual way, a token given by God to assure a sinner here that they will gain entrance to heaven, that they are his people, that he has redeemed them, However small that token might be, as long as it is a true token, as long as it is a real token, that is worth everything. Heaven assures eternal comfort to the soul that has it.

It's vital that we have a true scriptural token I mentioned before about our text saying, show me a token. One token, it doesn't need a whole lot of tokens. But the Lord is pleased often to give more than one token. And right through our lives as well, those are three times when suddenly, unexpectedly, the Lord gives us tokens of His overruling. of his guidance, of his interest in us, of his keeping of our souls, and we should value those tokens. A token for good.

On to look then, lastly, at those tokens What are they? And in a way I hesitate, and it's a very important thing. I don't want to lie down or lay down wrong tokens, set you short, or put a stumbling block so you think, well, I haven't got those tokens, therefore I cannot be the Lord's people. So I do want to be very careful in that way. and try to be very scriptural. So what are true tokens?

The first one that I'll mention is the chastening of the Lord. Some of the Lord's people find it very hard to discern that they are being chastened by the Lord. Some of us are very wayward and we often need chastening and correcting. Others, maybe living closer to the Lord, don't have it in the same marked way.

But in Hebrews 12, the Lord says, he received the chastening of every son whom he received it. Now if you receive not chastisement, whereof all are partakers then are you bastards and not sons. It is that one mark that applies to every single one of God's people.

What was the difference between Esau and Jacob? God had said, Esau have I hated, Jacob have I loved. even before they were born. But how did that show in their lives? Jacob stole the blessing from Esau. But Esau was blessed by his father nevertheless. And if you look at the blessings that Esau had, the Lord gave him all that he said that he would give. He had wealth, he had lands, he had prosperity, he had all those things. And so when Jacob came to him and was giving him gifts to pacify him, then Esau, he said, I have enough. He didn't want any more.

So what was the difference with Jacob? Because Jacob also was blessed with wives and wealth as well. Jacob was chastened again and again through his life. Jacob had deceived his father once. Laban deceived him in the matter of his wife. He wanted Rachel, he's given Leah. In the most tempestuous sin, what we reap What we sow, that is what we reap. And Jacob would have known the chastening hand of God, but that wasn't all, because Jacob had Laban change his wages ten times. Because later on in his life, Jacob's sons deceived him regarding Joseph.

They said that he'd been killed by a beast. Well, they didn't say. They told a lie by a deceit. You know, that happens a lot. That's very difficult. And even those with a profession of the Lord's name who deceive themselves and think that they're not telling lies, they don't tell it directly. They tell a story, or they imply something, and how it is received by the person listening or seeing is the lie that that person wanted to tell.

They didn't tell it in words, but it was received and believed the same as if they had told the lie. And that's with Jacob's brothers. Jacob's sons, they just showed him the the coat with the blood. They let Jacob decide. They suggested what might have happened, but if someone said to them, you've told a lie here, oh no we haven't. Jacob just chose to come to that conclusion, that's all.

But dear Jacob had to walk this path and ride through his life The Lord chastened and corrected him. What about David? David in his adultery and his murder, God in mercy sent Nathan to him. What a blessing. He could have just left him. That is what God did with Esau. He just left him. Whatever he did, he just left him. He didn't correct him, didn't deal with him at all. David could have been left like that. But God sent Nathan, convicted him, and then said, the Lord hath also put away thy sin as soon as he confessed his sin.

But then there was a walking of an hour. The sword shall not depart from mine hands. The chastening hand of the Lord really is a mark of sunshine, a reminder of whose he was. He was one of God's children. And so the Lord gave him that constant reminder in the correct and chastening hand of God.

You find in this Solomon. Solomon with his many wives is making alters for their idols. And so God raised up adversaries for him. Jeroboam was one of them. A couple of other adversaries. Now our first point, show me, token. Now Solomon sought to fight against those that rose up. But if we're showing, we can see that they are the sword, the hand is thine. And with chasing the one mark, I almost put me there.

When we're chasing our children, the first thing we'll do is to tell them, don't do that. And they will know that what they have done is against our word. So then when it comes that they need perhaps the rod or something else to go further in their chasing, they will know why. The young child is not smacked and then turned round to the parents and said, what was that for? They should always have been told so they know exactly what it was for.

And so when the Lord chastens us, then we can see why that is. Or if we don't see it first, to ask the Lord, show me why. Why has this happened? So chastening. a very scriptural one, an evidence of sonship. I believe in my life I've found times it's been of great comfort when I've seen, and it may have been in tribulations and troubles and things going wrong, but I've seen the Lord's hand as being one of the most sweet, sacred tokens that one could have.

Another one is to be kept from occasions of temptation. I made reference before, we can have a deceitful heart. We think, oh, we want to see this person, we want to, we're not doing it ulterior motive, but we'll just go around that way, or we go and visit that chapel and we see this person It's a wrong relationship. Your mind shouldn't be going to that person or to that thing or whatever it is. And we're deceiving ourselves.

But then the Lord either impresses upon us and shows us what we're actually doing and makes us willing to turn the car around and go another way, or he'll actually change providences so he puts a separation between the thing that was going to be a snare and temptation at us, so we don't fall into it, and to actually discern, Lord, thou carest more about my soul than I do.

I have been running into sin and you've stopped me and stopped up my way, and those are comforting times. Those are real tokens for good when the Lord does that. You know, the devil and our own wicked heart are constantly putting snares and traps before us. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And sometimes, to be honest, we know if the temptation to something and the opportunity to that thing met together, we would fall. And there's countless instances Those are Lord's servants falling, grievously falling, and are to be kept, to be preserved.

And when you see a keeping like that, that is a token for good, a real token of the Lord's care. And also it makes us think, if the Lord cares so much for me in that, He gives us much more incentive and a love for the Lord and a wanting to flee from sin and to hate sin and to love righteousness, because you see the Lord's care.

You know, as a child, we were running into evil and wrong things, and they wanted to go, and the parent physically stopped them or put a barrier up. One of our grandchildren just wanted to crawl up, not even walking yet, but to crawl up the stairs. And he gets hauled down and the gate puts up. And it's an evidence of, it's a token of the love and care. The child would know what it's doing. He'd fall down the stairs. And we're like that.

When we see the Lord knowing better for us, at a time we might fret against the Lord, not like that. Then we look back and we might say to the psalmist, it's good that I was afflicted. Before it was a thing that I went astray, and now I've kept thy word. But then there's providence as well. When you have mercies mixed with tribulation, and I remember one, and it's associated with this text.

Many, many years ago I was preaching at Barrow in the afternoon, morning and afternoon, no, morning and evening, and at Southery in the afternoon. Well, for the evening, I had planned to preach from this tank, show me a token of good. But then they said that they hadn't got an organist for savoury, so I said, I'll play the organ as well. So they gave me the hymns, and the first hymn was 736. And I thought, have I chosen the wrong, I've chosen the wrong hymn, wrong, wrong text. I should have that at savoury and not at pharaoh. But I didn't change it. I thought, no, I'm going to stay. So in the evening, all of those from Southery came, I got up into the pulpit, and they were all there, at Barrow. And they just had their hand there, it's Southery. And, you know, I was taken over to Southery by media.

And so I didn't have to drive that distance. Well, when I came home, when I drove home, I got within a mile of home, and my front wheel bearing went. And it had! And I just got home, I managed to get it to the garage in the morning, and he said, that was a miracle you got home. He said, that just about cheered off. If I hadn't have been taken to Southerly, and I'd used my car, I would have been halfway down the M25 at 70 mile an hour, and that would have ripped my front wheel off.

That's something you never forget. I preach from a token, the Lord gave me a token in a providence on the way home, or through the day. And it's when those things are joined together, you can't argue with providence. Providence is one of the most strongest tokens of the Lord's goodness for us. Another token is to be blessed through the word preached, but Sometimes we can be mistaken in that, but you cannot be mistaken in what the Lord has brought to pass. Who is he that saith, that it cometh to pass when the Lord commandeth it not?

And often when the two go together, like the preached word and the providence, something might happen in the week, a very providential thing. And you see the timing of it, that's another token, how the timing works. And then on the Lord's Day you have it explained from the pulpit, or the other way around. On the Lord's Day it's set before you, you have the text, you have the teaching, and in a week the Lord shows you in those things that are happening.

Those things that work together for good, them that love God. These tokens They are things that work together for good. Show me a token for good. And so the Lord going before us in the way. We can see that as well. I'll make all my goodness pass before thee in the way. Notice those tokens for good.

We mentioned the blessing through the word. and please God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. When the Lord blesses the Word, those are tokens for good. Bless us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Prize those texts, those scriptures that the Lord has made precious and sometimes the Spirit brings back years afterward, you can't forget. those specific verses or somebody might think you forget and then the minister will read the passage or you open it up and suddenly it all floods back, what means that text to you?

Those are good things. Answers to prayer as well. God's people are praying people. You think of Hezekiah told to put his house in order, he should die and not live and he goes and turns his face to the wall and he cries to the Lord And the Lord answers his prayer.

He heals him. He adds 15 years to his life. You can't imagine that. And he was given a child in the line to Christ in that time as well. To do notice. Answers to prayer. And as he says, for this child I pray. And the Lord hath given me my petition that I ask of him.

Another thing is the spirit's witness, bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. We read of that in Romans 8. The spirit is the power of God and the Lord makes known to his children, gives them that assurance, the spirit of assurance, the spirit of adoption as being his children.

Now I've only touched on some of those things that Our tokens, I trust me and say, they are true tokens. It's not just a grasping at straws. It is those things that are recorded in the word of God that the Lord makes known to his people whose they are, where they're going.

Central will be the Lord Jesus Christ. The blessings that he gives us, the tokens that he gives us, should always lead us to heaven. To see that these things flow to us because He bore our sin on Calvary's tree. He suffered for us, and not only put away our sin, but purchased that He should be a mediator, that He should bless us in our lives, and give us these tokens, and give us these blessings. They only come, Hymn writer says, they come to us with Jesus' precious blood. So may this be our prayer, And may you know some of these tokens or a token for good. Show me a token for good. Amen.

Shew me a token for good

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Shew me a token for good

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About Rowland Wheatley

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