Warning To The Church: Unbelief Disobedience

Psalm 95 is a warning passage in which God brings up the unbelief and the disobedience of the children of Israel after they had been taken out of Egypt. Remember, God had delivered them by the plagues. He’d opened the Red Sea. They had crossed the Red Sea on dry land. It had closed down and drowned the Egyptian army and Pharaoh. And then they were wandering in the wilderness in sin and disobedience. And that’s what he’s referring to. They were there having been delivered from Egypt. They were in that middle ground. They had come out of Egypt and they were ready to enter the promised land, but they never could enter it because of unbelief.

There they were in the wilderness, murmuring, complaining, griping, building a golden calf, worshiping an idol, hardening their heart toward the true God. Verse 9 says they were testing God. They saw my works for 40 years and they still would not believe. 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. The rest referring here to the land of Israel. They never entered. They all died. Their carcasses were strewn all over that wilderness.

They never entered the promised land. And that is a metaphor, that is an analogy, of salvation. People who come out, as it were, like Peter said, they’re clean from the pollution of the world. They step out of the world into the community of believing people, but they never enter into salvation and they will be judged. The problem is, verse 10, they go astray in their heart and they did not know my ways. They don’t really know God. Their hearts have never been changed. Verse 12 says, take care, brethren. Don’t be like that group referred to in Psalm 95, those wilderness wandering Jews.

Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart in falling away from the living God. You get this close. And that evil, unbelieving heart causes you to fall away. You better encourage one another, verse 13 says, day upon day, as long as it’s still called today. In other words, while you still have opportunity, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. What hardens the heart is the fact that you love sin. Sin deceives you into thinking it offers more to you than the gospel offers.

That is a deception, isn’t it? That is a deception. So keep encouraging each other, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sins. In verse 15 he repeats it, today, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked me. And as a result, verse 18 says, they were disobedient. Verse 17 says, their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Verse 19 says, they never entered in because of unbelief. Chapter 4, verse 1, he says, therefore let us fear also, lest, while a promise remains of entering his rest.

You’re hearing the promise, the gospel’s offered, heaven is offered, forgiveness, salvation. You’re hearing it, but fear, lest any one of you should seem to come short of it. You come all the way, this close. You come near to God, and then you fall away. For indeed, we have had good news preached to us, the gospel, just as they also, but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not mixed with faith, is what the Greek says. And when it’s not mixed with faith, it’s useless. Those kinds of people, verse 3 says, won’t enter into rest.

We who believed enter that rest just as he has said, as I swore in my wrath, Psalm 95 again, they shall not enter my rest. Again in verse 5, they shall not enter my rest. Verse 6, they failed to end because of disobedience. Verse 7, today, again he repeats it again, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Then in verse 11, let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience. Disobedience, love of sin, unbelief, deception by sin. You’ve come all the way this far, you get involved with the church, you get on the edges of the church, maybe you get into the church, you socialise in the church, you hear, you understand, but you never embrace Christ.

You will never enter into rest. You will never enter into heaven, and you’re in grave danger of deception by sin, and of disobedience that causes you to fall away, and feel only the wrath of almighty God. And verse 13 says, there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. God knows your heart, he knows if you’re in that condition, he knows that. Why don’t you come, verse 14 says, to the great high priest Jesus the Son of God.

Why don’t you come, verse 16 says, to the throne of grace and receive mercy and grace to help you in the time of your great need. Tremendous warning passage. Chapter 6 takes us to another warning passage, and this one, perhaps the most familiar. Verse 1 he says to these fringe people, these people who have come out of Judaism, but not into Christ. They’re hanging around, they’re a part of the social entity of the church, they’re there, they’re tears as it were among the wheat. He says to them, leave the elementary teaching about Messiah.

You’ve got to come beyond that Old Testament teaching of Messiah, you’ve got to come to maturity, and that is a synonym in Hebrews for salvation. You can’t go back and talk about repentance, and dead works, and faith, and washings, and the laying on of hands, which they did with animal sacrifices, and simply believing in the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. That, that was all part of the Old Testament teaching. You’ve got to go beyond that. Come on, you’ve got to leave that behind and move on to the fullness of the New Testament gospel.

And here’s the warning in verse 4. Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem, of a virgin Mary, lived a perfect life, died a substitutionary death, rose three days later. Ascended into heaven is a great high priest will someday come again. You understand the gospel. You understand he died for our sins. You understand that you have been enlightened. You understand the gospel. You are therefore in a very dangerous place. You have also, he says, tasted of the heavenly gift. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of the warning to the church, unbelief and disobedience. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world.

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