Cosmic Rebellion

Introduction

Today we are going to look at the enemies of God.

Particularly we want to see the enemies as they are presented in scripture and see them without the veil.

This will help us in our next lecture when we look at the triumph of Christ over these enemies.

The First Rebellion

In Genesis 3, we do not have recorded for us “the first rebellion.”

Satan, the serpent, has already rebelled.

What we have in Genesis 3 is man joining a rebellion already in progress.

The chief rebel is Satan (Jn. 8:44).

He is the one that has already broken faith with God and his aim is to convince you to do the same.

He lies and tells you that you can be like God.

So we sign up for his rebellion thinking we have become our own man, but we are signing up for slavery (Jn. 8:31-34).

You do not break “free” of God’s truth.

You can only choose another master.

And he is a hard one.

We do well to keep reminding people that there is a real and present enemy behind every temptation (1 Pet. 5:8).

You are at war. Act like it.

We walk around like we are in a neutral no fire zone.

There is no neutral territory in this world or in your heart.

Notice how this pattern continues in the next chapter (Gen. 4:7).

God says sin is a force outside of you.

It is trying to get in the door.

FIGHT BACK!

Rebellion Breaks the Boundaries

What happens when we sin?

We do not merely break a rule.

God’s rules are not merely rules.

They are tied to who He is and what He has created.

Sin is a rejection of and rebellion against God’s order (1 Jn. 3:4).

Breaking God’s order has terrible consequences (Job 14:5; 38:10; Deut. 6:24; Gen. 7:11).

We are breaking REAL things when we break God’s laws.

We as a culture are suffering the real breaking of God’s real laws.

Notice in Genesis 6, a possible continuation of the pattern of influence from the unseen realm.

Rebellion and Babel

Babel is not merely an origin story for languages (though it is that).

It is story of man seeking a reunification of heaven and earth on his own terms.

It is a false Eden.

Men continue to strive for unification of heaven and earth on his own terms.

There is a constant call for us to “all come together” and if you are looking at it only on the earthly level, you might think you see something good and noble.

But if you see the unseen realm, you will see that all calls for the world to unite behind and movement but Christ is a call for rebellion against God.

The antidote to Genesis 11 is Acts 2.

At Babel, the nations unite to make a name for themselves.

Mankind gathers in pride and is scattered in confusion.

At Pentecost, God gathers the nations under the name of Jesus Christ.

People from the nations hear the mighty works of God in their own languages, confusion is removed.

Rebellion Hides Behind Idols and Empires

The nations exchanged God for a lie (Rom. 1:25).

Idols are nothing, and they are not nothing (1 Cor. 8:4; 10:19-21; Deut. 32:16-17; Psa. 106:35-38).

People worship more than they know when they worship false gods.

This is not just something that used to be true.

The powers behind idols and empires are real (Dan. 10:10-21).

Does that sound like real personalities or mere personifications?

If the prince of Persia and of Greece are mere personifications, then is the one speaking to Daniel real?

What about the timing issue?

Daniel lives in real time and the battle with the Prince of Persia has cause delays in terms of earthly time.

What about the beasts, the harlot, the dragon? Mere personification? Or is this the reality on the other side of that veil?

When nations rise and fall, what do you think is happening?

Do nations rise because of sound economic policy and fall because of bad political decisions?

“If goods and services do not cross borders then guns soon will.” - Frederic Bastiat.

Or does God raise them up and tear them down?

Rebellion Rules Through Death

This is the ultimate end of all rebellion against God (Gen. 2:17; 3:22).

Death is an enemy (1 Cor. 15:24-26).

It is also a weapon wielded against us (Heb. 2:14-15).

Conclusion

In The Last Battle, men walk into a shed where “Tash” is. One of the things Lewis does is show that there is a real demon who has been accepting the worship aimed at Tash.

Even those who did not believe in Tash but did the worship to him found out what the demon they were worshipping actually looked like.

I believe in the end, we will all see the true face of what we worship and we will either be delighted because it exactly who we thought we were worshiping or we will be horrified because we believed the lie that the demon was hiding behind.