Rebellion: In its purest expression- it is a complete failure to imitate the character of God.
Rebellion: The Illusion Of Choice. Rebellion in its purest expression is a complete failure to imitate the character of God. Satan pretends to offer a better option. Yet, all the serpent offers is death. Lucifer parades around like an “Angel of Light.” When in reality, he is a demonic angel of death, cheating God’s people out of their authority and inherence in Christ Jesus.
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Rebellion-Illusion-of-ChoicePart One: The Illusion of Choice…
There is only one choice that provides life, peace, and security.
“Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: A blessing if you obey the commandments of Jehovah your God which I command you today, and a curse if you will not obey the commandments of Jehovah your God, but will turn aside out of the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.” (Deuteronomy 11:26-28)
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
*Obedience and the ability to Obey is a gift from God.
What is Rebellion?
Rebellion is Witchcraft, married with Stubbornness, in Iniquity, and birthed into Idolatry of Self.
“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idol-worship. Because you have rejected the Word of Jehovah, He has also rejected you from being king!” (1 Samuel 15:23)
- Rebellion of the heart is failing to fear the Majesty and power of a Righteous and Holy God.
“But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they have revolted and are gone. And they do not say in their heart, Let us now fear Jehovah our God, who gives both the former and the latter rain in its season; He reserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you.” (Jeremiah 5:23-25)
- Rebellion is unfaithfulness to God
“For He set up a testimony in Jacob, and ordered a Law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their sons; so that the generation to come might know; sons shall be born, and they shall arise and tell their sons, (7) so that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His Commandments; and might not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set their heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful with God.” (Psalms 78:5-8)
*Verse 7 tells us that Rebellion is failure to set your Hope on God instead of your own devices. It also says it’s a failure to remember the works and power of God you have experienced in your own life. This is purely expressed in a failure to keep his commandments.
- Rebellion is seeking the advice and provision of another!
“Woe to the rebellious sons, says Yahweh, who make advice, but not of Me; and who cover with a covering, but not of My Spirit, that they add sin to sin; those who set out to go down to Egypt and have not asked at My mouth; to take refuge in the strength of Pharaoh and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!” (Isaiah 30:1-2)
- Rebellion is creating a God in the image of your own understanding and ways, and often it looks just like you!
“And now they sin more and more, and have made themselves a molten image of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves.” (Hosea 13:2)
*Rebellion is turning yourself into your own image of god, setting yourself up to be God within your own heart.
- Rebellion is thinking you are wiser than God
“I am sought by those who asked not for Me; I am found by those who did not seek Me. I said, Behold Me, behold Me, to a nation not calling on My name. I have spread out My hands all the day to a rebellious people who walk in the way not good, after their own thoughts; a people who without ceasing provoke Me to anger to My face; who sacrifice in gardens, and burn incense on the bricks; a people who remain among the graves, and sleep in the tombs, who eat swine’s flesh, and broth from hateful things in their vessels; who say, Keep to yourself, do not come near me; for I am holier than you. These are a smoke in My nose, a fire that burns all the day.” (Isaiah 65:1-5)
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways, says Jehovah. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)
“Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool so that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God; for it is written, “He takes the wise in their own craftiness.” (1 Corinthians 3:18-19)
*With Rebellion providing the illusion of “Choice,” we will see there is only one side that provides blessing and life, and the other is death.
“God causes the lonely to live at home; He brings out those who are bound with chains; but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.” (Psalms 68:6)
*Spiritual speaking, it is the highest form of self hatred. The illusion of choice presented by the devil makes you think that you are getting your way, but you are actually committing spiritual suicide.
“He who refuses instruction despises his own soul, but he who hears reproof gets understanding.” (Proverbs 15:32)
Another version says it this way:
“Whoever ignores instruction hates himself, but anyone who heeds reproof gains understanding.” (Proverbs 15:32)
*Those who obey God love their own soul, and will find true life!
“He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; he who keeps understanding shall find good.”
(Proverbs 19:8)
Example 1: the Rebellious (Isaiah 30:8-14)
“Now go, write it before them in a tablet, and note it in a book, so that it may be for the time to come forever and ever, that this is a rebellious people, lying sons. They are sons who will not hear the Law of Jehovah; who say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Do not prophesy to us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy falsehood; go out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. Therefore so says the Holy One of Israel, Because you have despised this Word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rest on them; therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant. And He shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces. He shall have no pity, so that there shall not be found in the breaking of it a shard to take fire from the hearth, or to take water out of the pit.” (Isaiah 30:8-14)
EXAMPLE 2: The Obedient (Revelation 2:24-29)
“But to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, and who have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak, I will put on you no other burden. But that which you have, hold fast until I come. And he who overcomes and keeps My works to the end, to him I will give power over the nations. And he will rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter they will be broken to pieces, even as I received from My Father. And I will give him the Morning Star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Revelation 2:24-29)
So, the “Obedient” will destroy the “Rebellious” and wicked.
The Obedient will Judge the Rebellious.
“Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels, not to mention the things of this life?” (1 Corinthians 6:2-3)
PART 2: Rebellion- in its purest expression, is a complete failure to imitate the character of God.
What Rebellion is Not:
Being Like God-
“So be imitators of God, as his dear children.” (Ephesians 5:1)
Being Like Jesus-
“For you were not called to this? For Christ also suffered on our behalf, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps, He who did no sin, nor was guile found in His mouth, who when He was reviled did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but gave Himself up to Him who judges righteously.” (1 Peter 2:21-23)
PART 3: How rebellion is formulated and conceived in our own hearts.
Rebellion creates in your own mind an altar for your desires.
“But each one is tempted by his lusts, being drawn away and seduced by them. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin. And sin, when it is fully formed, brings forth death.” (James 1:14-15)
*So, it’s our own desire, baggage, and experiences that produce rebellion.
When we convince ourselves that what we decided is right and correct and is the will of God, not realizing that we have made an idol of our own desires, and the god we are now serving is ourselves.
- “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who listens to advice is wise.”
(Proverbs 12:15)
- “There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end of it is the ways of death.” (Proverbs 14:12)
- “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but Jehovah ponders the hearts.”
(Proverbs 21:2)
Not doing what we know we should.
“Therefore to him who knows to do good, and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
(James 4:17)
Rebellion does not always have to include a direct sin, it can be as simple as failure to do the good and right thing. Both options can be good, yet one may be supreme and the right thing to do. Satan will conceive a plot within your heart to do something, while not a sin on its own, provides the opportunity to sin in failing the supreme good.
We find a great example of this in the Bible.
“So then as we have time, let us work good toward all, especially toward those of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:10)
*Both options are good, but only one is supreme in the eyes of God. Failing to support the Body of Christ by choosing to support those lost in the world- would be a sin. A rebellion of not prioritizing the desires of God as supreme.
Final Example:
We find everything we learned above in the story of Eve and the Serpent Devil.
Satan used a desire she wanted, then he coupled it with an illusion of choice and of a greater good to get Eve to sin. Eve was consumed with her own desires and made herself into god, an idol of her own making. She reasoned away the clear direction of God to fulfill her desires, giving birth to sin, and destroying the earth and all creation.
(Genesis 3:1)
“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said to the woman, Is it so that God has said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”
Genesis 3:2-3 (EVE REPEATS WHAT GOD SAID):
“And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”
Genesis 3:4 (Satan soothes away Eve’s fear of Death with a lie, giving her false hope, based upon another lie that God was withholding from her another blessing):
“And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die,’
Genesis 3:5 (Using a half truth, Satan uses Eve’s desire to be like God to get her to use her own understanding, forsaking the God that loves her.)
‘for God knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil.” (This is truth. They became like God knowing good and evil, but it was not the blessing promised, as they were shielded from evil before, and now they are consumed by it.)
Genesis 3:6 (Eve reasoned away God’s direct command, being consumed with her own lust and rebellion.)
“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make wise, she took of its fruit, and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”
Genesis 3:7 (THE DREADED OUTCOME)
“And the eyes of both of them were opened. And they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made girdles for themselves.”
- God compares Adam to a traitor for his Rebellion.
“For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But, like Adam, they have broken the covenant. They have acted like traitors against Me there.” (Hosea 6:6-7)
- Adam pays the price for his Rebellion.
“And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years. AND HE DIED.” (Genesis 5:5)
- NOW WE MUST DECIDE: LIFE OR DEATH, BLESSING OR CURSING
“For since death is through man, the resurrection of the dead also is through a Man. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22)
OBEY GOD AND RECEIVE THE BODY THAT CAN INHERIT HEAVEN!
“These ugly and weak bodies will become beautiful and strong. As surely as there are physical bodies, there are spiritual bodies. And our physical bodies will be changed into spiritual bodies. The first man was named Adam, and the Scriptures tell us that he was a living person. But Jesus, who may be called the last Adam, is a life-giving spirit. We see that the one with a spiritual body did not come first. He came after the one who had a physical body. The first man was made from the dust of the earth, but the second man came from heaven. Everyone on earth has a body like the body of the one who was made from the dust of the earth. And everyone in heaven has a body like the body of the one who came from heaven. Just as we are like the one who was made out of earth, we will be like the one who came from heaven. My friends, I want you to know that our bodies of flesh and blood will decay. This means that they cannot share in God’s kingdom, which lasts forever.” (1 Corinthians 15:43-50)