Cordially Invited

I am not a coward. And if you
came here expecting to hear me preach on First Corinthians 11
today, it is not because of cowardice that you’re going to have to
wait. I have a great task in front
of me in taking up First Corinthians 11. Just like any passage of
the scriptures which I’ve had the privilege to preach, I intend
to do so. I intend to study and preach the passage objectively. But I didn’t want to start and
stop. And given the fact that I’m out
of the pulpit for five weeks coming up, I wanted to take the time to
delve into that passage without being pressured to start
and stop. It’s a great chapter. I’ve already
begun to study it, and I’m sure that there are many questions,
and I’m sure you’re eager to hear. But for our purposes this
morning, I want to take you to Psalm 95. 95. Invitations are a fascinating
thing. Sometimes we’re bothered if we
receive an invitation. Sometimes we’re offended if we
don’t. It’s awkward and sometimes even hurtful not to be invited
to some big event that others are attending. But the very nature
of an invitation suggests that not everyone is invited. An invitation
has a measure of exclusivity to it, doesn’t it? And we should
acknowledge that there are some invitations that we eagerly anticipate
and others for which we’re relatively indifferent. And for our part,
sometimes we even host an event for which the guest list must
be limited. Just the way things go. I chuckled
to myself this week when I pondered the standard wording of an invitation. You are cordially invited. That sounds so official, doesn’t
it? So sincere. How could you refuse
that? You’re not just invited, you’re
cordially invited. And I wondered, is it possible
then to be invited, but not cordially invited? If I get a blander invite, should
I hold out for a cordial invite? And if and when I RSVP, should
I do so with an equal measure of cordiality? I cordially accept
your invitation. Psalm 95 could be well described
as a psalm of invitation. Over and over again in this psalm,
there is the language of invitation employed. And because of the
nature of an invitation, I want to make it clear to you this
morning that this particular invitation is universal. to all
who hear it. You are all invited. You are
all cordially invited. Unlike many psalms, Psalm 95
has no God-given title. Spurgeon’s title for this psalm,
itself provocative, was the psalm of provocation. He titled it
such because he saw it as the psalmist’s attempt to stir complacent
sinners to repentance and response. In his beautiful and almost haunting
description, he said this, it has about it a ring like that
of the church bells. And like the bells, it sounds
both merrily and solemnly. at first ringing out a lively
peal and then dropping to a funeral knell as if tolling at the generation
which perished in the wilderness. Spurgeon no doubt had heard London’s
iconic Big Ben ringing out that famous tune each hour officially
called the Westminster Quarters. that lively blend of four notes
played twice through in various order. It’s a fascinating tune. It’s only four notes that are
used, which in almost any order form a merry tune. But then they’re
followed by the hourly one note. If you’re curious, it’s E. and it’s played in riveting 4.5
second intervals, which brings a gripping solemnity to each
portion of the day, reminding every hearer that time is fleeting
and time is hastening on. So the psalm has no official
title, neither is the writer of the psalm officially identified
within the psalm, but we are treated to a piece of divine
revelation regarding this psalm. We find it in the New Testament
epistle of the Hebrews there. This psalm is referred to twice
in that letter. And rightly so, for the first
time, the writer of Hebrews references this psalm. He attributes it
to the Holy Spirit. That’s well and good. But the
second time that the inspired writer of Hebrews quotes from
Psalm 95, he plainly attributes this psalm to King David. And
that’s new information. The Jews for centuries didn’t
know that for certain. They may have hoped or believed
so, but the writer of Hebrews makes it explicitly sure. David
wrote Psalm 95. With regard to the theme or the
content of this psalm, most scholars and students of scripture believe
that this psalm, Psalm 90, is one of a grouping of psalms that
belong together. Psalms 95 through 100 contain
a general theme about the world that God created. This particular
Psalm, Psalm 95, is the first in that grouping, and it mentions
God’s sovereignty over all creation. The Lord is a great God, a great
King above all gods. Psalm 96, presents a call to all the world
to worship. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Psalm 97 pictures God as reigning
over all creation. The Lord reigns, let the earth
rejoice. All the peoples have seen his
glory. While Psalm 98, having brought
salvation to all the earth, verse three, God is preparing to judge
the world, in verse 9. And then in Psalm 99, God is
pictured in His majestic glory. He is exalted above all the peoples. So Psalm 95, we find it as a
title-less, Davidic psalm, and generally a psalm of invitation. That’s what we know thus far. Would God’s people just glance
down at this very short psalm? O come, let us sing for joy to
the Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the
rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence
with thanksgiving. Let us shout joyfully to Him
with psalms For the Lord is a great God, and a great king above all
gods, in whose hand are the depths of the earth. The peaks of the
mountain are his also. The sea is his, for it was he
who made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship
and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord,
our maker. For He is our God, and we are
the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today,
if you would hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as
at Meribah, as in the day of Massa in the wilderness, when
your fathers tested me, they tried me, though they had seen
my work. For 40 years I loathed that generation. And they said that they are a
people who err in their heart, and they do not know my ways.
Therefore, I swore in my anger, truly they shall not enter into
my rest. It’s a psalm of invitation, and
we hear it three times. The psalm breaks up very nicely
into three sections, a call to worship in verses one through
five, a call to reverence in verses six and seven, and a call
to salvation in verses eight through 11. So while this psalm
has three parts, which I present as three different portions or
elements of this invitation, the psalm is really one great
invitation. And that even squares with the
purpose for which the writer of Hebrews quoted this psalm
in the first place. He quoted it twice. Would you
turn briefly to Hebrews chapter three? Keep your finger in Psalm
95. We’re not going to be there long.
Psalm 95 and go to Hebrews 3. Hebrews chapter three and look
at the opening verse. Listen to the appeal, the heart
of this writer. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers
of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus. Look to Christ. Consider Him. This is a gospel
call. This is for those who had claimed
that they had placed their faith in Christ, whose faith was wavering,
and the gospel writer here pleads with them to turn their hearts
to Christ. Consider Jesus, the apostle and
high priest of our confession. He was faithful to Him who appointed
Him, as Moses also was in all his house. Jump down, if you
would, to verse seven. Listen to this appeal. Therefore,
just as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me. As in
the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried me by
testing me and saw my works for 40 years. Therefore, I was angry
with this generation and said, They always go astray in their
heart, And they did not know My ways. As I swore in My wrath,
They shall not enter My rest. That’s a quote of Psalm 95. Turn,
if you would, to chapter 4. Chapter 4 and also verse 1. Listen to this writer’s appeal. He’s relentless. Therefore let
us fear. What if while a promise remains
of entering his rest, any one of you may seem to come short
of it? He says, don’t let one sheep wander from the fold. He
calls them to this rest. Jump down to verse seven. He
again fixes a certain day. Today, Quoting again from Psalm
95, saying, through David, after so long a time, just as has been
said before, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your
hearts. The writer of Hebrews did not
want his Jewish converts, Jewish converts to Christianity, he
didn’t want them to waver in their newfound faith. And so
he turns to cite this Psalm, a Psalm of invitation. Psalm
95 was a psalm that the Jews would have known well, but the
everlasting message of this psalm would have resonated with them
anew. I want to look at this invitation
this morning, Psalm 95. Back, if you would, to Psalm
95 where we want to look at this invitation. And the first portion
of this invitation is a call to worship. It’s an invitation
to church. And I would even lay the groundwork
here that some people might think that there was a mistake in the
music today and that we were all prepared for one thing. It
was perfectly designed by the Lord as you’ll watch this unfold.
The music fits this passage perfectly. And I didn’t even say a word
about it. The first portion of this invitation
is a call to worship. Oh, come, let us sing for joy
to the Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the
rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence
with thanksgiving. Let us shout joyfully to him
with psalms. As I’ve indicated, the first
portion of this running invitation is a call to worship. Now, this
psalm is not formally among those psalms that are referred to as
the Psalms of Ascent, and neither did I talk to anybody about mentioning
this this morning. Those psalms, the Psalms of Ascent,
Psalm 120 through 134, were those songs that the pilgrims would
sing Jews approaching Jerusalem for
worship would sing those songs in preparation for worship in
the temple. It would sing them as they walked.
And this psalm, Psalm 95, is not part of that grouping, but
it immediately reminds us of them. Psalm 122 famously opens
with this line, I was glad when they said to me, let us go to
the house of the Lord. Some of us woke up this morning
and perhaps were thrilled, excited at the privilege to be drawn
into corporate worship. Others perhaps came quite reluctantly. But the psalmist says, I was
glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord.
This psalm reminds us of that. But here, instead of speaking
of an invitation that had already been accepted, as in Psalm 122,
making the person who was invited glad, our psalm today issues
the invitation afresh. Come, It’s a newly opened invitation. It’s an invitation, really, that
no one has yet RSVP’d. And it’s not merely a suggestion
to bow one’s head, perhaps over a dinner prayer or an encouragement
to personally give the Lord praise, No, the psalmist’s intent here
is a summons to God’s people to gather for corporate worship
at the temple. And if we read between the lines,
we wonder, if there must have been some great cause for this,
did he notice complacency among God’s people? An inattentiveness
to spiritual things? Was there hesitation? Was there
a lack of faith like those in Jerusalem to whom the writer
of Hebrews wrote? Was there a coldness of heart
that he sensed? All of those things are possibilities. The very fact that the psalmist
feels compelled to issue a formal invitation to church leaves a
hint of sadness to it, doesn’t it? The specifics of this invite
are so appropriate. It basically is an invitation
to church, an invitation to worship. Oh, come, let us sing to joy
for the Lord. What more natural response could
there be for any person? Everyone knows that God exists. Paul tells us this in Romans
one, right? God has made himself known by
that which is known about God is evident within them for God
made it evident to them. Listen to this. For since the
creation of the world is invisible attributes, his eternal power
and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through
what has been made so that they are without excuse. Everyone
knows there’s a God. And they have to discover, all
they have to do rather, to discover God is to be born and to open
their eyes to God’s self-manifestation every day in everything that
we see. That alone should lead them to
worship. This is why years ago I put together a little card,
kind of a tract thing to hand out to people. On the outside
it just said, you’re invited. And then it went on to ask, do
you have a place of worship? I didn’t seek to prove that there
was a God. That was not the purpose. They know that there’s a God.
And it presupposes that they know that there’s a God and that
he is a God that should be worshiped by them. We were made to worship. All people everywhere worship
someone or something. The need to worship is embedded
in our nature. Whether it’s a stone and stone
deaf idol or even themselves, people will worship something.
And so when the psalmist here says, oh, come, let us sing for
joy to the Lord. What could be more natural than
that? And note there’s a particular spirit in this worship. It’s
a spirit of joy. Look at verses one and two. Oh,
let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the
rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence
with thanksgiving. Let us shout joyfully to him
with psalms. As you know, I was at a pastor’s
conference last month. And while there, a speaker asked
the gathered pastors, what is the greatest musical instrument? And you could begin to see the
wheels churning and some of these guys’ minds and opinions forming
and some murmuring going around through the, you know, perhaps
sharing with their partner the piano or whatever. Most of us
wisely held our tongue. rather than blurting out our
own personal favorite musical instrument. But then he offered
that the greatest musical instrument is the human voice. And the psalmist completely agrees
with that. Here, let us sing for joy. But then the psalmist adds, let
us shout joyfully. One recurring feature of the
Lord’s table over which we have to keep watch is that the solemnity
of that occasion not decline into a sullenness. It’s not a
funeral. It’s a time of great worship.
The Lord’s table ought to be a place of solemnity, but it
surely should also be a time of great joy, shouldn’t it? Our
sins have been paid for in full. The Hebrew here in verse one
is remarkable. We could justly translate this
as joyful noise. That’s about what the musicians
up here hear when we are singing, right? It’s a loud eruption of
musical expression by musical instruments and voices. but together
it’s sweet. It sounds sweet in the Lord’s
ears. This ought to be the response of even the most ignorant heathen.
A song of joy, if for nothing else than for life and breath
and for all things, as Paul instructed the Athenians, everybody ought
to worship. But how much more should a song
of joy be in the heart and the mouth of every child of God who
has been reconciled to Him. When we sing, we must sing heartily,
and not even for the sake of those around us. We sing heartily to God. The
psalmist’s call is not just to the act of worship. but to the
one legitimate recipient of our worship, the Lord. The Lord,
the rock of our salvation, he refers to him. This is the run
of the mill act of idolatry. Everyone worships. This is the worship of the living
God to which we are invited. We are invited, we are bidden
by God Himself to worship, to sing praises to our God. What
could be more appropriate than that? This is the God who made
us and everything that we see, and He sustains us. He provides
for us. He cares for us. He loves us,
and we love Him. Why should we even need a reminder
like this? to bring him worship. So it’s to the Lord, to Yahweh,
to which we turn in our worship, to the one that the psalmist
further identifies as the rock of our salvation. Without doubt
here, the psalmist is referring to that miraculously provided
rock in the desert by which he provided the nation of the Hebrews
the most basic sustenance, water. Remember, we just studied this
in First Corinthians 10. Well, think of this. If the Hebrews
were called to worship God by such a reminder, for such a deed,
a rock that provided water in the desert, that Paul referred
to as Christ in First Corinthians 10, we know What for Israel was only a shadow. How much more should we worship?
Because we know the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. We know
what was captured, the truth that was captured in that old
hymn. Rock of ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in Thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy riven side which flowed be of sin the double cure. Cleanse
me from its guilt and power. We should come to worship the
rock of our salvation. And the psalmist clarifies further
that our song of worship is no general or mundane song. It is a song of gratitude. Let
us come before His presence, literally His face, with thanksgiving. When we come to worship, we come
to express our gratefulness to God for His innumerable blessings. And he adds that we do this with
psalms, songs of praise to God sung from sincere hearts. And so, as verses one and two
issue the invitation to worship, they explain to us the one we
are to worship. And verses three and four explain
to us why. Why worship? Because the Lord
is a great God and a great King above all gods, a thought that
is echoed in the adjacent psalms. Psalm 96, Psalm 96, four says,
for great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared
above all gods. For all the gods of the people
are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Here now the psalmist
challenges these dead idols that others worship instead of worshiping
the living God. What utter madness is this? We
see it in full display in Romans 1. The psalmist dismisses the
idea entirely that Our God is just one of many gods. This God is no statue carved
out of a piece of wood, part of which was burned in a fire
in the courtyard. This God is the Lord, not one
of these so-called, so many so-called gods. Deuteronomy issues a number of
different charges where God says, you shall not dread them for
the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.
Idols are nothing before Him. Deuteronomy 10, 17 says, the
Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great,
the mighty, the awesome God who does not show partiality or take
a bribe. That’s how the idols function. He is to be feared above all
gods. He is to be exalted above all
gods, as the psalmists constantly admonish. But the sovereign and
omnipotent Lord, the creator of heaven and earth, with whom
there is no equal, He has absolute dominion over the entire universe.
You see, the heathen nations, they were well content with the
fact that everybody had their own little gods. And they were
content with the idea that worship of any such God was okay, tolerable. One God was as good as the other,
but not the God of Israel. He was no dead idol. He was not
one who would share his glory with others. The psalmist by no means acknowledges
here the legitimacy of these so-called gods any more than
Paul did in first Corinthians 10. He says that his God is a great
king above all gods. He merely acknowledges the heathen
practice of idolatry. The world hates our intolerance
here, don’t they? They hate the idea that there’s
only one God. They hate the idea that there’s
only one Savior. They hate the idea that there’s
only one way to heaven, and that is by faith in Christ. They hate
it. The psalmist doesn’t back off
at all. The world hates our intolerance, that there is only one God, but
the God of the psalmists, the God of Israel, our God is no
statue. He’s the creator of heaven and
earth of whom he says are all things. Look at this, three times
he poetically mentions God’s hands. Verse four, the depths
of the earth are in his hands. end of verse five, his hands
formed the dry land. Verse seven, we are the sheep
of his hand. Our God, the creator God, in
whose hands are the depths of the earth, whether mines or caverns
or the depths of the oceans. In his hands are also the peaks,
the mountain peaks, proof of his omnipotence, his great power,
Not only that, but the sea is His, and it is His because He
made it. Likewise, the dry land from the
tiniest island to the great continents, all of it is His. In both illustrations,
the depths or the heights, the wet or the dry, it’s all His.
Everything is His by virtue of the fact that He created it.
He’s got the whole world in His hands, doesn’t He? And He oversees and He overrules
all creation in His sovereign goodness and providence. And
because of this, we are called, we are invited to worship Him. But there’s another aspect to
this invitation. We find it in verses six and
seven. It’s a call to reverence. And our worship should be exuberant. It should be lively. It should
be, we should make a joyful noise. But there must be a reverence
to it as well. Look at verse six and seven. Come, let us worship
and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord
our Maker, for He is our God, and we are the people of His
pasture and the sheep of His hand. We’re cordially invited,
not only by way of a call to worship, but a call to reverence.
It’s stunning and should even be alarming to us that the invitation
addresses this element. But if you look at the great
scope of Christianity in our day, you see that reverence is
not typically a portion of our worship. We have a tendency to
think that all we have to do to worship, and I hate to burst
your bubble, all we have to do to worship is to show up. No. All the effort toward worship,
all of our worship is inherently pleasing to God. No. Not so, and the psalmist here
spells it out in very direct and staggering terms. All worship
is not pleasing to God. We are called to reverence. Come,
let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel. Those verbs all
commanding the full reverence of our God. The psalmist begins
here in verse six, And what he suggests that is it’s more than
possible to be in worship, but to be there with an entirely
wrong countenance. God is not inherently pleased
with our attendance, as if our mere presence was worship enough
The psalmist speaks not only of worship, gathering with the
saints for the purpose of corporate praise, but he adds here, let
us bow down. And quite literally, the word
implies lying prostrate, that is face down on the floor before
God. This is a recurring image in
the Old Testament, where worshipers would use this gesture, whether
in repentance or gratitude. It’s recorded in Second Chronicles
chapter seven, that when Solomon finished praying at the dedication
of the temple, the glory of the Lord so filled the temple that
the priest could not enter. Their only response, reverent
worship. All the sons of Israel, it says,
seeing the fire come down and the glory of the Lord upon the
house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces on the ground.
They worshiped and gave praise to the Lord, saying, truly He
is good, truly His loving kindness is everlasting. You will recall
that the wise men whether there were three or 300, we don’t know.
They came to Christ’s bedside bearing gifts. Remember? Luke
records there that after coming into the house, they saw the
child with Mary, his mother, and they fell to the ground and
worshiped him. Either way, whether this gesture
was one of solemn repentance or joyful gratitude, it’s an
indication of humility and reverence. as one pastor described it, that
we count ourselves to be nothing in the presence of the all glorious
Lord. Sometimes we show up to church
and we almost expect applause for just walking in the door.
The psalmist adds yet another position, a bodily position of
worship. Let us kneel Let’s not just show
up. Let’s not just fall prostrate
on our faces before Him, but let us kneel before the Lord,
our Maker. Kneeling was a common posture
assumed in moments of deep humility. The great King Solomon assumed
this posture of humility. He knelt on his knees in the
presence of all the assembly of Israel. And we know well that no other
than Daniel was not afraid to assume this posture in all humility,
kneeling on his knees, even before those who had forbidden it. What else could they do? It has
been well said that God is more concerned about the position
of our heart than a position of our body. We may pray standing
or sitting or kneeling or as here, face down before the Lord.
Still there is, you would acknowledge, there is something that takes
place when we intentionally conform our bodies to worship before
the Lord. Whether we bow down or whether
we kneel, we do such homage before the Lord, our maker. We acknowledge
that He is indeed a great God and a great King above all so-called
gods. One who holds the depths and
the heights, the seas and the dry land in his almighty hand. But consider the main reason
that the psalmist provides here on why such worship is rendered. Verse seven. He is our God. The world may reject him and
does. They may turn their attention to lifeless statues, but God
is our God, and He has drawn us to Himself. He has loved us,
and we in turn love Him. That’s why we worship. But I want you to see how the
psalmist softens and personalizes our God. over against the earlier
assertion about God that he’s a great king above all gods,
which could leave him appearing as austere and foreboding. Who can approach him? He’s in
charge of everything. Psalmist captures God in his
most tender state, that of a shepherd. In verse seven, he reminds us
that we are the people of his pasture. We are the sheep of
his hand. All the world is God’s, and yet
He personally attends to His delicate flock. This, our Great
Shepherd gently cares for His flock, feeding and protecting,
providing for His flock by allowing her to graze in His own pasture. All the while cared for, by His
own hand. That’s our God. A more fitting
description of our God as a loving shepherd, there could not be more than Psalm 23, right? The
Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down
in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides
me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. How could
we not fall reverently before Him, our loving shepherd in humble
worship? But there’s a final aspect to
this invitation, and we find it in verses 7b through 11. It’s a call to salvation. We’re
cordially invited in this call to worship, a call to reverence,
but thirdly, a call to salvation. 7b says today. Today, if you
would hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. The first
portion of this invitation the psalmist addresses the possibility
that someone might be in existence, alive, and maybe even inclined
to spiritual things, generally speaking, but not worshiping
as they ought. That’s what he addresses first.
In the second portion, the psalmist addresses the possibility that
someone might be worshiping, but they’re not doing so reverently. But in this third portion, The
psalmist addresses the possibility that someone might be worshiping
and they might even be doing it reverently. But behind it
all lies the fact that they are not really saved to begin with. What a powerful way of awakening
us out of our spiritual malaise than to introduce the disturbing
example of God’s own people in the wilderness. We are saved
to worship. We’re not saved by our worship. That’s an important distinction.
Being here is great. By being here, you’ll hear the
Word preached. You’ll hear songs sung. You’ll
hear prayers prayed. All of those things are a testimony
to you, but being here alone doesn’t save you. Being here
alone, Offering God His worship will not earn you one moment
in heaven. Still the psalmist, lover of
God, will not be silenced here. There may be worship and it may
even be on some human level. It may appear to be reverent,
closed eyes and you know, gyrations and swaying. Swaying is always
a good indicator of real worship. But if someone is unsaved, they
need a formal, cordial invitation. And so the psalmist with all
urgency says, today. Today, if you would hear his
voice, This is the third element of this general invitation. It’s
an invitation to salvation. The hearing of God’s voice is
a sweet and familiar image in scripture. In John’s gospel,
remember, the shepherd of the sheep, emblematic of Christ,
calls his own sheep by name. And the sheep hear his voice. And the sheep follow him because
they know his voice. And that picture is the loving
shepherd delicately calling out to his dear flock. And the flock responding. So the psalmist quotes an appeal
by the Lord Himself. Do not harden your hearts as
at Meribah, as in the day of Massa in the wilderness. Don’t
be clumsy. Don’t be careless. Don’t be indifferent
to me. God says, The reference to these
two places, Meribah and Massa are not two separate incidents. They’re one in the same described
two different ways. Meribah could be translated as
rebellion. And Massa could be translated
as testing, rebellion and testing. That’s what Israel was known
for, provocation and temptation. But both of them refer to the
same incident, as we saw in First Corinthians 10. You can trace
it in Exodus chapter 17. In God’s good providence, we
only recently considered this incident in our study of First
Corinthians 10. And there Paul recounts that
even though God had miraculously provided, remember, spiritual
drink, water, by means of this supernatural
rock that was said to follow this nation through the desert. Even though God had done all
of that, the nation of Israel tried the Lord and grumbled against
her leaders, which was ultimately a complaint against God. Right? The psalmist here says, do not
be like those in the wilderness. Do not try the Lord. Do not grumble. Israel, the psalmist said, had
seen God’s work. They had witnessed as many miracles
and theophanies, self-revelations. They saw it. They had seen Him
miraculously provide and protect them from the parting of the
Red Sea to the provision of manna. They had seen God’s works. Still,
that did not prevent them from demanding more of God, asking
Him to prove Himself again, testing Him in the process. And this all, of course, left
God offended beyond measure. It brought about the strongest
possible response from God. You remember this. He loathed
that generation. This all established Israel’s
erring from the heart. God saw their heart. Their issue
was not a food and water issue. It was not a sustenance issue
at all. It was a faith issue. It was a matter of their heart.
And though they had seen God’s works, they did not know His
ways. A note here in the Old Geneva
Bible says that Israel was without judgment and reason. They were
insane the way that they were reacting to Almighty God. They were ignorant to the manner
in which God would have them to live and to walk. And God, we saw this in first
Corinthians 10 as well, God was irreparably offended at them. And ultimately He restricted
all but two from entering the promised land of Canaan. What
the psalmist here refers to is God’s rest. Doesn’t that have
a pleasant sound to it? God’s rest. If rest is good,
imagine if it’s God that has provided it. You can read about that in Numbers
14. That rest for Israel meant the
promised land of Canaan, but it’s metaphorically applied to
heaven. in the book of Hebrews, would
God’s people turn back to Hebrews one more time? It’s metaphorically applied to
Hebrews, really throughout these two chapters, three and four. Recounted in chapter three, especially
where this same solemn warning is recited. Look, if you would, at verse
12. Take care, brethren, that there be and not be in any one
of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living
God. That’s what was happening in
Jerusalem. There were Jews living in Jerusalem as the soldiers,
the Roman soldiers amassed outside the city gates, their knees clacking
together. They thought that they were done. And they wondered that perhaps
a return to Judaism might be better off. Take care, brethren, that there
be not in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls
away from the living God. He’s trying to remind them of
exactly what the nation of Israel experienced in the wilderness.
Look at verse 13, But encourage one another day after day, as
long as it is still called today, so that none of you will be hardened
by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers
of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm
until the end. While it is said, today, if you
hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked
me. For who provoked him when they
had heard? Indeed, did not all those who
came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he angry for
40 years? Was it not those who sinned,
whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that
they would not enter His rest, but those who were disobedient?
So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. The writer to the Hebrews, he
isn’t threatening The Jewish people who had come to Christ,
living there in Jerusalem, watching the Romans amass outside their
city gates. He wasn’t threatening them with
the loss of a land. He wasn’t threatening them with
the loss of Canaan. He’s cautioning them, warning
them. that if their faith did not hold, if their faith was
not legitimate, if their faith was not truly in the Lord Jesus
Christ and in Him alone, it wasn’t Canaan that they would
miss. It was heaven itself. Remember
this writer of Hebrews uses the same account, Psalm 95, to snap
the Jewish Christians out of their stupor. For the Jews, back
if you would to Psalm 95, for the Jews, to whom the psalmist
was originally writing, this alarming psalm would have been
a call back to the Jewish faith, to join them in their daily,
weekly, yearly rites and rituals of their long wait for the Messiah. That’s what he would have meant
when he called out to them and said today, get back in line,
get back in the classroom, come back to the temple, come back
to church, come back to Judaism. But for us, but for us, this psalm is a call
to the Messiah. who has already presented and
shown himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, who’s already come. He’s
already come in the flesh. He’s already died on the cross.
He’s already paid the full price for our sin. He’s already risen
from the grave. He’s already issued the call,
come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give
you rest, eternal rest. Not the rest of Canaan, not an
earthly land, but the rest of glory, the rest of eternity,
the rest of heaven. And so the psalmist began in
this appeal today. And he does so, you see, because
we don’t typically respond to general invitations. Hey, let’s
get together sometime. Yeah, right. Wives know this very well. Honey,
someday I’ll get around to painting the garage. Yeah, right. With regard to the gospel, with
regard to salvation, with regard to the spiritual care of their
own souls. Too many people are too apt to
procrastinate. They’re too much like Governor
Felix. Remember, Paul had just poured out his heart to Felix
and his wife, Drusilla. And Luke records that he preached
to them about righteousness and self-control and the judgment
to come. They were right there on the
cusp of engaging with the great subject of the gospel, faith
in Christ. And suddenly Felix pressed pause. Go away. Go away for the present. When I find time, I will summon
you. And Paul likely knew right then
it would never happen. This is how it is for most people.
Most people’s motto regarding spiritual things is never deal
today what you can put off till tomorrow. And the eternal care
of their soul is deferred until a later date. Or is it? The psalmist urges that such
a mindset will never do. Today, you must not wait. As Paul applied those great words
of Isaiah, behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now
is the day of salvation. Tomorrow may never come. Today is the surest time to respond. As one Puritan pastor put it,
if we put off repentance another day, that’s one more day to repent
of, and one last day to repent in. For millions and millions of
people, tomorrow will never come. It will be too late, too late.
Today, Today is the day of salvation. You see, the psalmist’s point
is simple. It’s possible that someone might not be worshiping
as they should. It’s possible that some might
be less than reverent in their worship, but it’s entirely possible
that someone might be here in worship, and yet they’re not saved. would you humble yourselves in
his glorious presence?