The Tragedy: How Rebellion Divides Creation

Last week, my goal was to paint a new image in your mind of an invisible war with very visible consequences. The spiritual war is real. I shared stories from my own personal experiences . In fact, Even this week during week shortly after a time of prayer, the enemy has made himself known. But since I do not want to glorify the enemy, I will leave it at that, but once again ask that you will please keep praying for my family. I truly feel that this series has enemy on defense as we are exposing him for what he is. A liar and a thief.

We talked about how the enemy is powerful but he is defeated. So we live without fear.

This morning, we are going to trace the lines of division through out Scripture with the goal of you seeing everything through the lenses of a spiritual battle. in order to do that, We will go through many passages of Scripture.

But before we do that I want us to read together our key verse for this series.

Ephesians 6:12 CSB

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.

The first division we see is not really one but multifaceted. Think of it more like a fracture. With multiple cracks.

The First Division-Satan Vs. God

Now we know that Satan rebelled that much is clear. What scripture doesn't tell us is when others began to join him. Some Scholars suggest an almost instantaneous event where some went immediately with Satan.

Other scholars suggest a more gradual approach where Satan continues to slander God and the rebellion spreads over time. I favor this view because I think you can see elements of this in the OT narratives. As example in Genesis 6 we see more angels rebel by taking human wives.

Have you ever wondered why part of Satan’s plan was to deceive the image bearers? Why Bring humanity into a war that was between Himself and God? Why did Satan want mankind to join him in his rebellion?

The Next division we see is

Satan Vs. Humanity - Satan Deceives the image bearers

We know that Satan wants to be God. He wants all of creation to worship himself, but there was just one major problem, Mankind.

Let’s look a little closer at the creation passage.

Genesis 1:26–28 CSB

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female. 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”

We were the rulers of the the physical realm but yet Satan has been exiled from the spiritual realm. He has to exist here. If he is going to be a god than he must find a way to rule the rulers.

Now doesn’t this idea explain the governments of the world.

2. We were created as image-bearers.

That means that every human being is made to reflect the image of God. It is part of our very nature. In fact, it is the primary characteristic of every human being.

So in order to rule the earth Satan must deceive men in two ways.

1. Get mankind to submit to himself.

The tree of knowledge of good and evil

2. Make man forget our true identity

Get us to question the character and nature of God

Has God withheld good from you?

so that we do our own thing and forget our primary identity. Mankind has forgotten who we are. I dare say that Christians have forgotten who we are.

Church we have been created in the image of God...let that sink in. We are created in the likeness of God. Don’t confuse this with being a god. We are not. But we are created to reflect the Glory of God to all creation.

Just by our mere existence we reflect the very thing that the enemy hates.

so if he can make us afraid than we will forget the power of God in us.

If he can get us distracted than we will forget the mission of pointing all of creation to himself.

If he can get us to doubt that God’s ways are good, We will pursue things that obscure our true identity.

So this is his plan. It is the same plan that has worked for millennia.

In Genesis 6 we will see that the enemy tried to destroy the image of God by taking wives of mankind. We will talk about that more in the next few weeks.

So Satan succeeds in his plan to make man doubt and forget.

So once Satan convinces mankind to doubt God we see the effects in mans relationship with God.

Humanity Vs. God - Sin creates separation from God.

Genesis 3:1 CSB

1 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Now just for your information. The word “wild” here means a cultivated place. And the word “animals” means living things besides plants and man. So again, this understanding paints a picture of not just an animal but a way of referring the enemy in way that degrades his original position.

Genesis 3:2–24 CSB

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 “No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” 11 Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.” 13 So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. 15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. 16 He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children with painful effort. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you. 17 And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’: The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.” 20 The man named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them. 22 The Lord God said, “Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.

So we begin to see these elements of separation. Fallen Man now fears God due to our sin instead of looking forward to his presence. You will eventually grow to hate that which you fear.

We see that Adam and Eve are forbidden to enter into the Garden the place where a spiritual God meets with the physical creation. Again, think of temple language here.

This is why most cultures build temples to gods today. It is built into us that deity meets mankind only in special places.

So this separation begins but is complete in

Genesis 6:1–8 CSB

When mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any they chose as wives for themselves. And the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind, who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of old, the famous men. When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved. Then the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I created, off the face of the earth, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.” Noah, however, found favor with the Lord.

So because the wickedness of man grows so great. God removes his general presence from mankind. Meaning that there is a distance between God and man. We see this language in the tower of babel account. Where God says let us go down and see. It isn’t that he his unaware of the situation but he is separate from his sinful creation.

In fact again when we talk about the great rebellions we will see that God appointed angelic rulers in his stead to manage mankind. God divides mankind into nations to be ruled by lesser entities.

Deuteronomy 32:8 ESV

8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.

We see this in Psalm 82

Psalm 82 CSB

A psalm of Asaph. 1 God stands in the divine assembly; he pronounces judgment among the gods: 2 “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah 3 Provide justice for the needy and the fatherless; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute. 4 Rescue the poor and needy; save them from the power of the wicked.” 5 They do not know or understand; they wander in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken. 6 I said, “You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High. 7 However, you will die like humans and fall like any other ruler.” 8 Rise up, God, judge the earth, for all the nations belong to you.

We will talk more about this passage next week. But for now you can see that God appointed rulers over the nations that eventually rebelled.

It is in this context that our key verse makes sense

Ephesians 6:12 CSB

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.

So that the division did not end with God, Satan. This division spread and continue to spread...

The last division that we will see here...

Humanity Vs Humanity - Sin Separates the image bearers

So quite literally those who were supposed to reflect the glory and the beauty of God begin to turn on each other. We begin to kill and hate one another.

Because of our wickedness. The image bearers begin to defraud, enslave, and use each other for thier own purposes.

Why do you think the enemy is so skilled at splitting churches. Because those that were made in the image God now fear and mistrust each other.

As I already told you, you eventually begin to hate all that you fear. Nations fear each other, so they attack and kill. In fact most of our technological advances has been because of warfare.

In the church, the enemy spreads distrust, distrust breeds suspicion and bitterness. Sides form and thoe who are supposed to image God instead image thier sinful selves.

So Pastor Brett Where is the Hope in all this?

Satan might have created division but Jesus destroyed it.

James 4:1–2 CSB

1 What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you? 2 You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask.

Ephesians 2:11–22 CSB

11 So, then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh—called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. 12 At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, 15 he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. 16 He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. 17 He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.

So while Satan has caused division Jesus has brought unity through the gospel. He has brought people from every tongue and every nation to himself.

Revelation 7:9 CSB

9 After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands.

For this reason, we can already declare that the enemy has failed in his mission. He is a desperate loser who will fight until he is thrown into the abyss. There is no other destiny for him and he knows it. The victory has already been assured.

So until that time, he will use his powers to bring confusion, deceit and fear to all those who are slaves to sin still living under his domain. He will try to convince those in Christ that the battle is to hard and that we are too weak to continue. He will try to make you forget who you really are.....But

God has reconciled everything to himself. The relationships of man to God, Mankind to each other.

Galatians 4:7 CSB

7 So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir.

Galatians 4:8 CSB

8 But in the past, since you didn’t know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods.

We are his and we already share in the victory!