Our sermon text this evening is found in Psalm 95. Psalm 95, a continuation from this morning as we look at Jesus Christ as the King. Psalm 95, before we read from God's holy and inerrant Word, let's ask Him to bless it this evening. Father, we pray that You would indeed bless the reading and the teaching of Your Word. May we continue to find joy in reading it.
May we continue to find your grace and your mercy proclaimed, and may we continue to see Christ proclaimed from every portion of Scripture. May the meditations of my heart and the words of my lips be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. We pray all this in your Son's name. Amen. Psalm 95.
O come, let us sing to the Lord. let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise. For the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth. The heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his for he made it and his hands form the dry land. O 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 hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as at Meribah as on the day at Massa in the wilderness when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof though they had seen my work. For 40 years I loathed that generation and said they are a people who go astray in their heart and they have not known my ways. Therefore, I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.
Now friends, there are many fables and stories that have circulated throughout all of history that I quite enjoy. The tortoise and the hare. That's a good one. It teaches us to focus on what we're doing. Robin Hood.
That's another good one, right? That teaches us that taxes are unjust. one of the stories that I have a deep love for is any story dealing with the Arthurian legend. See, maybe just saying the name Excalibur will shake some dust off your mind and remind you of the story of the mighty King Arthur, the magical sword that he pulled from the stone.
Now you remember the story, right? A magic sword is stuck in a stone and the person who pulls it will be king over all Britain. Isn't the mighty man that pulls the sword? Isn't the scholar of war that pulls the sword? A young teenage Arthur pulls the sword from the stone and unites the scattered peoples of Britain.
I love this story for many reasons. One among them being a call for men to live chivalrous lives in which we are ruthless in battle but gentle and loving in peacetime. In a sense, a call to be a warrior poet.
Now the story changes and the details kind of merge a little bit depending on who's telling the story of Arthur. But ultimately, Arthur is betrayed, he is killed, and he's set adrift in a boat to be healed on the magical island of Avalon. And it's said there he will slumber until Britain has need of him and he will rise again, lead the people to victory. That's why they call Arthur the once and future king. and we talked about this story theme this morning friends it shouldn't take much brain space for us to connect where this story originates from where it's not a slumbering once and future king of britain we wait for we wait for the return of the living king jesus christ the one who was lifted high the one who did indeed die was raised alive three days later and sits at the right hand of the Father, He will come again.
This morning and tonight, we are focusing on how Christ is King. And fitting, we end here tonight in Psalm 95. It reminds us that serving the King faithfully is a difficult daily choice. The theme of Psalm 95 is this, Christ is the King over creation and the rock of our salvation.
Now when we say that Christ is the rock of our salvation, we are not talking about some small rock that you use to decorate your landscape. We are talking about a boulder that cannot be moved with human hands. We're talking about a rock of substance. This day and every Lord's Day, we enter into worship of our Lord as our rock, as our steadfast Savior with joy.
Now, we'll see this theme in four ways tonight. Worship the King, honor the King, trust the King, Follow the king. Worship, honor, trust, follow. These four elements in Psalm 95 tell us who our God is, what our God has done, and what our God will do. When it comes to the Psalms, we constantly read them alongside the New Testament, the truth that's found there.
Christ's name is not present in this psalm.
However, we know that Christ has been exalted in his resurrection, and thus all that is ascribed to Yahweh includes Christ and the Holy Spirit. See, Psalm 95 begins in the same way that we begin our worship. Psalm 95 begins with a call to worship. All right, verse 1. O come, let us sing to the Lord.
Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Now, it's important for us to understand that the call to worship, much like the benediction, are not just mere words. We are called into worship through the words of our God. He's the one that calls us to worship. As well, there's a reason that we don't do the announcements after the call to worship. Brother Larry did a wonderful job this morning, but no matter how much fun he makes it look, It's not part of the worship service.
From call to worship to benediction, we are in communal worship with our God and all the hosts of heaven. When we are singing, praying, partaking of the Lord's Supper, hearing the word preached, we are worshiping corporately together.
Now know that when the psalmist calls us to worship with joy, he's also invoking the covenant name of God, Yahweh. And what are we to make a joyful noise to? A rock? The imagery of God as a rock is prevalent in the Psalms all over. Why?
Well, first you got to know something about rocks, right? They didn't have the technology to break rocks like we do today. No. Large rocks could protect you because they were hard to be moved. They were hard to be broken.
You could hide behind them. Large rocks like cliffs could be built upon, providing structure, giving a sturdy foundation. As well, large boulders were used as boundary markers. If you wanted to know where your property began and your neighbor's property ended, you would put a large boulder there that could not be moved easily. As well, rocks marked places where amazing things happened.
The Old Testament is filled with God people making piles of rocks in order to point to an action that took place from their God Remember back to the book of Joshua you remember that large rocks were drawn out of the Jordan River and placed on the bank in order to point to the miracle that God did there, imparting that Jordan River so that the Israelites could walk across the Jordan River on dry ground. God, as the rock of our salvation, puts a tangibleness to this salvation, like a drowning victim that's placed on dry ground. God's salvation should be evident in our lives, which is why the psalmist continues here in verse 2. It says, let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise.
Now verses 1 and 2 are giving us that Hebrew poetry again, where one line explains the previous in a different way. But the people viewed the presence of God as a tangible and present thing before them. For one really specific reason. They saw God's actions over and over and over again. A pillar of cloud by day.
A pillar of fire by night. The glory cloud filling the temple so that no one could enter. The plagues. The bread that fell from the sky. They could see God's actions over and over and over again.
You might say, but hold on. It's easy to believe in God when you see amazing things like that. Friends, over 5,000 people saw the bread and the fish multiplied and still marched and yelled, crucify. Seeing a flashy miracle does not guarantee faith. I would contend that while I may have not seen a pillar of fire in the sky, I have seen on the regular basis how the Lord has spared me from dreadful situations.
I've not seen him leading me by a cloudy pillar, but I have seen him leading me through his word. I bet that you can look back. You can see where God has led you in your lifetime. Tonight, as we're looking at Psalm 95 and we're seeing this call to worship opening here, we ask the question, where is God leading us now?
Well, first and foremost, God is leading us to worship. He leads us to worship him and to glorify him. It's inside that worship that our God calls us to honor him. Honor him with our thoughts, our prayers, our worship. Why?
Because of all that he has done. Look at verses 3 and 4. For the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, the heights of the mountains are his also. We should already be aware that God's creation is astounding.
The vast mountain peaks that have been formed by God are amazing. And we can only now see them for what they are and chart them because we have the ability to fly. But one thing we cannot do is we cannot survey the depths of the earth. Verse 5, the sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
Now you may not know this, but 95%, about 95% of our oceans remain unexplored. Our God has formed this earth in such a way that we cannot even fathom the size and depth of the soil we walk on.
Now if you look up instead, the picture gets even bigger. How far does space extend? How many thousands of planets are there? how many galaxies. We don't know, but God does.
And all of these things were created through Jesus as John 1 tells us.
So we honor God when we proclaim him king overall. We honor him when we recognize that we can never know the depths of his creation, and yet he can know every single inch of his creation and every molecule of our body. The Lord knows the heights of the mountains and the depths of the sea, but most importantly, our Lord knows the depths of our hearts. You see, the greatest work of God is not in the lofty mountain grandeur or the dangerous seas. The greatest work of God is the human soul.
No other creature has this part of them. Animals will come and go. Plants will live and die. This flesh will waste away, but our souls are eternal. We honor the King when we remember that He has not only created us with an eternal soul, but He has also chosen us to be with Him.
And that choosing came at a steep cost. We must understand this. Not just anyone gets to come into the presence of God. There are countless times in our Bible history where God tells His people not to come into His presence. For if they do, they will perish.
The high priest of the day would go into the Holy of Holies. When he would go into the Holy of Holies, he would have a rope tied around his leg in the event that he died in there so that they could then pull his body out because they could not go in lest they die. See, our God is holy. He cannot stand to be around sin. Sin cannot enter his presence.
Which is why at the appointed time, the Christ who had been with God in the beginning arrived to stand in the gap between us and the Father. We worship and honor the King because standing in the gap meant death and hell for Jesus. The Father choosing us came at a steep cost for the life of His Son. But in His providence and in His plan, this is how He ordained it to go. Verse 6, O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our maker.
How could we not have a posture of worship before him? He has rescued us. God has obliterated sins hold over us so it would not claim us any longer. And God put our sins onto Christ, charging it to his account instead of ours. That is how we can stand before him one day, spotless and righteous.
That is how we can pray to him as his children and know that he hears us. With Christ at the right hand of the Father, interceding and speaking on our behalf, we have nothing to fear. For he is our God, as verse 7 says, for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep of his hand. What a blessing it is to know that we don't have to do this life on our own. it should bring us comfort to know that the good shepherd is no hired hand it should bring us comfort to know that he does not flee at the first sign of trouble he is our god he doesn't take vacations he doesn't take breaks he calls to the sheep and he leads them forward constantly if you've been following along in your text you'll notice that i only read the first portion of Psalm 7.
You might be thinking to yourself, well, yeah, that's all well and good, but what about the rest of this psalm? You see, this is an odd psalm, right? The psalms usually wrap things up in a nice bow somehow, kind of end things on a note that is consistent, but this one doesn't. See, it's imperative why you must understand the call to worship in the first half of Psalm 95 is so robust and you must understand why we must have such a high view of our God because when we transition to the second half of the psalm we see an important truth While we are guided by the shepherd through the wilderness of this life to our eternal home, we must learn from the negative examples of our forefathers, those who came before us. What follows is a call to trust God even in the most dire of circumstances.
We must trust our shepherd. unlike those who came before us. Look at verses 7-9. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day at Massa in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
see the word meribah comes from the hebrew word meaning to strive or contend the word massa comes from the hebrew word meaning to test to prove or to tempt see these are two different places and two different events but both are roughly the same the first one we'll look at is an exodus the people of israel are in the wilderness and they don't have water to drink so what do they do just what you would do if you were in the middle of a hot sun with no water and no idea where to go they complain they grumble against Moses but more importantly they grumble against God they insinuate that they had all the water they could drink back in Egypt all while forgetting that they were in slavery so in Exodus 17 God tells Moses what to do verses 6 and 7 And he says, Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb. You shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massa and Meribah because of the quarreling of the people of Israel. And because they tested the Lord by saying, Is the Lord among us or not?
See, they saw great sight after great sight, and they dared to wonder, Is the Lord among us? and even though the generation in the wilderness was ungrateful the lord provided water moses goes out he strikes the rock as he's told and water pours forth this would not be the only event that would feature the hardening of hearts right the people constantly grumbled and complained the people constantly questioned the motives of this god that they were supposed to follow that would never be us though we would never doubt the words of our lord and king we would never grumble against him for what is happening to us oh no no no no no no we we do this all the time we grumble and complain and cry out why is this happening to me god friends we must not harden our hearts as the shepherd calls us through the wilderness See, the wilderness is fraught with danger. It is fraught with sickness. It is fraught with salvation and doubt. And until the Lord returns, wandering in this wilderness will eventually lead to our deaths.
But all the while, the Lord gives us His word to guide us towards Him. He calls us to trust Him. He calls us to walk the path that He has put before us. and just in case we were tempted to think that this Israel's grumbling was a fluke we see it happening again see the stage is the same the people have no water to drink they grumble against God and Moses right we already read from Exodus let's now read from Numbers 20 verses 7 through 13 and the Lord spoke to Moses saying take the staff and assemble the congregation you and Aaron your And Moses took the staff from before the Lord as he commanded him. Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, Here now, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?
Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice. and water came out abundantly. The congregation drank and their livestock. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel. Therefore, you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.
These are the waters of Meribah where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord and though through them he showed himself holy. He's not a fluke. right this time it's different right these are two different accounts they're two different events very similar but this time Moses is mad and decides not to follow the Lord's commands he does not follow the Lord's voice the congregation of Israel and Moses fail to trust the Lord now the Lord did not loathe Moses but God nonetheless punished him he punished Moses by not allowing him to enter the promised land now this isn't to mean that Moses was somehow thrown from God's presence. No. Moses walked with God, was shown the promised land from afar, and then walked with God into the wilderness where no one would see his burial.
Moses trusted his God and lost out on the thing he had been working towards because of his temper.
However, rest assured that while God kept Moses from entering the promised land, he did not keep the soul of Moses from entering its rest. For it is in the work of Christ on the cross that all was changed, past, present, and future. The work of Christ is available for Moses as well as for us. For even in those moments of Moses' life, he did not cease to be found in the presence of the Lord. Paul expounds on this thought in 1 Corinthians 10 verses 1-5.
For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate of the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. You see, Christ, while not having been born yet in the flesh, was present with his people. Christ was the burning bush.
Christ was the cloudy pillar, the fiery pillar. Christ was the rock that watered them. Christ is the visible manifestation of God. Before He comes in the flesh, He is pre-incarnate. If Christ was with His people in such a time as this ancient history, how much more then is Christ with us since His Holy Spirit dwells inside us?
Friends, trust the voice of the King. Do not be tempted to grumble against God. Do not be tempted to hold God accountable for where you are in this life. Trusting the King means following the King no matter where the King leads. As we close, our psalm reminds us why it is important to follow the King faithfully.
Look at verses 10 and 11. For 40 years I loathed that generation and said, They are a people who go astray in their hearts. They have not known My ways. Therefore I swore in My wrath they shall not enter my rest There you have it God speaks to the psalmist to remind us of the plight of the generation in the wilderness who spurned their Lord's leading. How many of that generation entered the promised land?
Two. Caleb and Joshua and their families.
now there are many stories of the bible that i enjoy right the story of king josiah is high on my list but as much as i love that narrative i think the narrative of joshua and caleb is my favorite two men out of the entire congregation of israel that came out of egypt made it to the threshold of their promised land and stepped foot inside it these two brothers in the faith saw it better to follow God faithfully than to follow their own desires. They were there when no water could be found, both times. And rather than grumble and complain, they waited on their Lord. And as their brethren died, were overthrown in the wilderness, these two faithful battle buddies encouraged each other not to give in to despair. What a day it must have been.
when their eyes beheld the land that they had been working towards their whole life. What a day it must have been when they stood side by side, saw the object of their hope, knowing all their striving was worth it. Friends, this life is short, but the call from our King is to serve Him faithfully, not to serve ourselves. You see, Paul reminds us the merit in studying the plight of the Israelites and Psalm 95. Continuing in 1 Corinthians 10, verses 6, 11, and 12.
Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.
Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. Friends, I urge you today, do not harden your hearts when things start to get tough around you. Our forefathers were tempted to abandon the hard path that God had put before them and return to a previous life of slavery in Egypt. We will be tempted to abandon the hard path that leads to God for a path that leads to despair.
We will be tempted to abandon the hard path that leads to God for a path that leads to sin. If you study the book of Hebrews, you will see the audience of Hebrews wanted to return to their old ways of Judaism, forsaking the gospel of Jesus Christ. Friends, there will always be a road backwards. I want you to make a note. Read Proverbs 9.
It outlines two feasts. A feast with wisdom and a feast with folly. See, there will always be a call to rest in the household of folly. Partake of the stolen feast that she provides. She will always call with the wine of wrath that she pours.
Do not eat there. Do not dwell there. Flee from folly and find your King. Friends, the King calls us to live faithfully. think about how many people have lived on this earth many will hear the call to worship the king many will come and worship the king still less will truly honor the king fewer still will truly trust the king and of all the people ever lived very few will truly follow the king this is a very sad reality but as paul reminds us the call to us today is to not turn from the path do not forsake christ's work on the cross if you hear the voice of the lord today do not harden your hearts put our secret sins to death that is what we are to do flee temptation friends this is the promise from scripture if you endure the path and if you live faithfully before your God.
You will enter the glorious rest of the promised kingdom to come. What good is it to gain everything in this world but forfeit your soul? We need to hear this message over and over again like a daily vitamin. Whether we've been following God faithfully for many years, a whole life's worth, or maybe we've been following God for just a brief time. Either way, we need to learn from the negative examples of our forefathers.
And even if you've seemingly been lost in the wilderness for many, many years, you are not so far gone that you can't find the way back. But do not delay. Seek the Lord while He may be found. For if we endure through the power of Christ, there will come a day when we will see the nations fall around us. The generation will pass away.
Like Joshua and Caleb, we cannot help but smile as we stand and stare at the threshold of our inheritance and the bountiful light of our God streaming forth. If we follow our shepherd king through the wilderness, we will reach that mighty Jordan River. And it will be parted before us. And we will see Caleb and we will see Joshua and all those who persevered in the faith. But above all else, we will hear the words of our Jesus.
Not just the words, we will also see our Jesus face to face. If we endure, friends, we will hear words contrary to the end of Psalm 95. If we endure, we will hear our King Jesus say with boldness and excitement, You shall enter my rest. Welcome home. this is the good news of the gospel, that our God takes sinners who should be far, far away from him and reconciles them and brings them to their inheritance.
Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have done the work in giving up your son to reconcile us back to you. For the chasm was far too wide.
We could never cross it. and yet your son stood in the gap. And now we belong to you. Help us to hear your voice through your word. Help us to stay on the path no matter how hard it is, no matter what sickness we have, no matter what pain or ailments, no matter what is going on in our lives.
May we follow your voice faithfully. and then we will see it. We will see your kingdom. One day, we will see your kingdom and we will smile and we will cross that mighty river and enter our rest. We will dine with you and we will reign with you forever and ever for all eternity.
We thank you for this promise. We thank you that you have given us this gift that we do not deserve. We pray all this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
