The Meaning of Disobedience

Bulletin

Dan Peters
10/22/23 - Obedience

Here is the test, do you really believe in Jesus?. There is a way you can test if you believe or not. If you do believe in Jesus, you will obey him. If you do not believe in him, you will disobey him. Consider the following passages that show this to be so:
“And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:18-19). This generation that Moses led out of Egypt refused to believe and obey God. So God says, “they shall not enter my rest” (3:11). They didn’t obey, they didn’t believe.
A second passage:
“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (John 3:36). If you find yourself not obeying Jesus, then you find yourself not believing him either. It is truly a wonderful thing to find yourself obeying Jesus from the heart, then you know you believe in him.
A personal example:
Nicodemus claimed that he believed in Jesus, but Jesus saw his unbelief and said so. Nicodemus said to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” (John 3:2). Wow, it looks like Nicodemus really believed. From his words, he seems to have great faith in Jesus. But Jesus was not impressed, because he saw right through Nicodemus. Jesus says to him, “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (John 3:12). How do we know that Nicodemus was simply paying lip service to Jesus? Because he would not obey a simple command of Jesus. “Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom ” (John 3:3-5). Now there were many other people being baptized in this same chapter (John 3:22-26) and the next chapter (John 4:1-3). If we believe him, we obey him. Therefore the meaning of disobedience, is that I am failing to believe him. We must repent then, and obey. Writing about Jesus, “And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,” (Hebrews 5:9). So let us obey all things from the heart (Rom. 6:17). Dan Peters