Sermon Tone Analysis

Psalm 95:6-11

Recovering Intimacy with a Loving God[1]

 

/Come, let us bow down in worship,/

/let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;/

/for he is our God/

/and we are the people of his pasture,/

/the flock under his care./

/Today, if you hear his voice,/

/do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,/

/as you did that day at Massah in the desert,/

/where your fathers tested and tried me,/

/though they had seen what I did./

/For forty years I was angry with that generation;/

/I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray,/

/and they have not known my ways.”/

/So I declared on oath in my anger,/

/“They shall never enter my rest.”/

| O |

ur relationship with God is founded on love.

In love He sought us and if we are saved we responded lovingly to His loving call.

Inherently we recognise that God is love and we long for those times of intimacy which each Christian has experienced in greater or lesser measure.

What happens, however, when intimacy with God is lost?

How can we ever hope to recover such intimacy?

Perhaps we have sacrificed intimacy with God through flagrant rebellion.

More likely, however, we look back and realise that it is a series of minor choices to resist God’s clear leadership which has culminated in estrangement.

Perhaps in the midst of conflict our vision was obscured and we momentarily took our eyes off Him only to awaken alone and forlorn.

Though we are still Christians, though we know we are His children, we are miserable.

We are disturbed because we become aware of a growing hardness of heart and an accompanying helplessness to recover what has been lost.

The common perception is that a Christian can return to intimacy with God whenever we decide to do so.

Somehow we think that intimacy is at our discretion.

However, thoughtful reflection will shortly convince each of us that we did not first come to God through our choice but as result of His calling, just as the Master Himself has said: You did not choose me, but I chose you [*John 15:16*].

If somehow that cautionary note were insufficient to give us pause there is always the sobering statement of the Saviour which cautions all people that /no one comes to the Father except through me/ [*John 14:6*].

We who have wandered from intimacy with God discover in moments of deep searching and quiet desperation that even the willingness to turn again to God is missing.

At the last we are compelled to confess that we must come to Him on His terms and at His time or we will not come at all.

The underlying plea of this *95th Psalm* is that we guard against hardening our hearts.

In order to illustrate the nature of this dangerous condition the Psalmist refers to a critical moment in Israel’s history.

The people were camped at Kadesh Barnea and God’s leader, Moses, dispatched spies into the neighbouring land of Canaan.

God sought to encourage the people whom He had only recently delivered from slavery.

However, when the spies surveyed the land they could only see giants.

They were unable to see God walking with them.

Therefore, their report discouraged the people and they turned their eyes from God in their midst and thought about the giants before them.

They refused to follow God or do what He told them to do with the result that they lost intimacy with Him.

God judged their disobedience by sentencing them to wander in the wilderness for forty years, and informed them that they would die in that same wilderness as result of their disobedience.

That night the whole congregation reflected on God’s judgement.

The next morning they repented and returned to Moses.

Now they were willing to obey God.

Now they were willing to enter Canaan and conquer the giants.

“It is too late,” was Moses’ warning, but the people refused to hear him.

They assumed that they could turn again and enjoy the same intimacy with God which they had enjoyed previously.

The people precipitated a battle which cost them dearly.

The lesson was obvious—God had opened a window of opportunity and they had failed to obey.

Their refusal to obey was costly, for their hardened hearts cost them a sentence of wandering for an additional generation in the wilderness.

God would give Canaan to another generation of faith.

God speaks to men and women of faith.

God speaks to churches, calling them to obedience.

We are responsible to obey Him when He calls so that we may accomplish whatever it is that He may call us to do.

Our God is the same God as Israel’s God and the need for immediate obedience has never changed.

The other side of that issue is also unchanged.

There are consequences when we fail to obey.

With every delay opportunities are lost and intimacy is sacrificed.

A Calling Master —

 

Today, if you hear his voice…

 

God calls man to listen, to heed His voice.

This divine call tests our understanding of God.

If we know Him, if we truly understand who He is and what He desires, we will eagerly accept His call to walk with Him.

Can we ignore His call?

Of course we can ignore God’s call, but only with serious consequences.

Can we substitute our own plans for His?

Of course we can pursue our own will, but it will always result in disaster.

Is there anything God will accept in the place of simple obedience to His expressed will?

We know the answer is *No*.

Nothing at all will suffice except obedience to His will.

Take note of *the profound significance of God’s call*.

The urgency with which we respond to any voice is directly related to the personal significance of the one calling.

Should you question that statement I challenge you to watch a group of mothers visiting with one another while their children play nearby.

The noise created by children at play can only be described as raucous as the air is filled with the clamour of little voices.

Yet those mothers will sit calmly visiting until one of them hears the voice of *her* child.

That is a voice she knows; it is a call she will not disregard.

The One calling us to intimacy is our Saviour, for He is /the Rock of our salvation/ [*Psalm 95:1*].

The One calling is our Sovereign.

The Psalmist says He is our God and we are the people of His pasture [*verse 7*].

The One calling us is our Sustainer.

Again, the Psalmist writes that In His hand are the depths of the earth [*verse 4*].

This One calling us is our Source.

The sea is His … and His hands formed the dry land [*verse 5*].

According to the Psalmist He is also our Maker.

/Let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker/ [*verse 6*].

This One who calls us has accepted the responsibility for our welfare.

He calls us.

Shall we ignore His voice?

Some of you may recall the congressional hearings during the Iran-Contra affair in the United States during the second term of office for President Ronald Reagan.

During testimony, a Marine lieutenant colonel at the centre of the congressional hearing (Lt.

Col. Oliver North) was asked how he would respond to any request the President of his country might make.

He stated that his President was also his Commander-in-chief and that no request, however ridiculous it might seem, would be denied.

He recognised that in human terms the President holds the ultimate authority for American citizens and soldiers.

The Psalmist is not referring to a mere mortal, though that mortal may be a commander-in-chief, but he speaks of the True and Living God to whom we must all answer.

This God calls us to intimacy with Him.

Notice also *the personal subject of His call*.

Today, if */you hear/* his voice…  In years past I was frequently engaged to speak on the campus of the University of British Columbia.

Not uncommonly the students I addressed were struggling with issues related to the call of God.