Whereas many of the People of Israel did not attain to the Law of Righteousness (Romans 9:30-32), because they sought it not by faith, so also the Children of God in the Church today will only attain Righteousness if sought by continual Faith in Christ and Him Crucified.
If we try to follow after Righteousness without the Cross of Christ as the object of faith, our end will be the same as the Israelites, who did not attain Righteousness, because they sought it not by Faith. Rather they tried to attain Righteousness by the works of the Law. If people in the Church today try to attain Righteousness by any method, other than Faith in Christ, it will still be considered as trying to attain by some form of works.
SANDS OF THE SEA
Isaiah also cried concerning Israel (Rom. 9:27), Though the number of the Children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant (small part) shall be saved.
Why is this, the case? Were the Israelites not the Chosen People of God?
Lets take a brief look at their past.
When the Israelites were preparing to be delivered out of Pharaohs hands, they applied the blood of the Lamb to their door posts. It was an act of Faith which prevented the first born in that house from dying. For the Lord said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you”. If anyone in Israel had not had Faith in that promise and so had not applied the blood; the first born would have died. They would have suffered that loss because they were not walking in faith, and did not apply the blood to the lives of all who were in their house. Also, notice: the Lord did not say, “When I see your good works, I will pass over you. Neither did he say, when I see all of your great accomplishments, I will pass over you. In actuality, the Lord passed over them because he saw the Blood to the Door Posts (looking forward by Faith to the Blood which Christ would shed on the Cross in the future).
These same Israelites were promised through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob a land which the Lord said, “to your seed will I give it” (Exodus 33:1).
The Lord said, (Exodus 33:2) “And I will send an Angel before you; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: (Exodus 33:3) Unto a land flowing with milk and honey
However, they would not enter in because of unbelief. It was because of a lack of Faith in what God promised. They did not believe the promise which God had made them. They believed an evil report from the spies which were sent in to spy out the promised land. Joshua and Caleb delivered a good report but the people inclined their ears toward the evil report. Therefore they were not allowed to enter in because of unbelief.
The sad thing is that there will be many in our Churches today who will suffer the same disqualification. They will not be allowed to enter in because of unbelief (or by simply believing the wrong thing). They will have applied all kinds of various acts or works or doings, if you will, to their lives: but they will not apply the Blood of Christ to their lives by Faith in what Christ has accomplished for them on the Cross.
EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF
Heb. 3:7 Wherefore (as the Holy Spirit says, Today if you will hear His Voice,
8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years.
10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known My ways.
11 So I swore in My wrath, They shall not inter into My rest.)
12 Take heed, Brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the Living God.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
15 While it is said, Today if you will hear His Voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation
Notice in verse 12 Apostle Paul said, “Take heed, BRETHREN.
He was talking to Brothers in Christ. These were people who had trusted in Christ for Salvation. Undoubtedly, they had been baptized to show their Faith in the Blood of Jesus Christ. They had made a decision to live for the Lord.
Yet, Paul says to take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief (just as the Israelites had faith, in applying the blood to their door posts, but later did not trust God to deliver the Promised Land into their hands, so also, we can trust the Lord for Salvation and then later have an evil heart of unbelief). This unbelief is sin, and is aways predicated by a belief in something else. In other words, we for whatever reason, allow the object of our Faith to be moved from the Cross of Christ and what Christ accomplished thereon, to something else. It could be anything else.
If we want to be partakers of Christ, we must hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end (if we do not keep our Faith in what Christ has done for us on the Cross, we can also loose out on partaking in the Resurrection of the Righteous). Someone finding themselves in this condition after having missed the rapture, will simply have not entered in; because of unbelief.
