(Youth Bible School 2007) the Path of Rebellion — Mose Stoltzfus

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Thank you so much for your inspirational singing. It's a rare thing these days and we thank God for it. It truly is a blessing. Tonight, I'm supposing that you may expect me to go on to the next type of soil, but I'm going to divert a bit tonight and stay a bit on the stony ground, although I think that it is probably something that can just as well be found in the thorny ground soil that we want to hopefully speak of tomorrow night.

The Path of Rebellion as the Worst Stone in the Soil

But I would like to speak about what I believe to be the biggest and worst stone that can be in our soil, the path of rebellion, the path of rebellion. Shall we bow our heads? Prayer. While in heaven, you know what has happened to America and the world over these past number of decades.

And we stand here tonight in only a glimmer, perhaps, of how bad the situation or problem is. But we are well aware of it and we hear about it probably weekly and sometimes more often than that. And we pray tonight, God, that you have given us these students to come in from around the United States and Canada and here in North America and a few from other parts of the world.

And oh, would to God that we could turn all of their hearts away from this awful, awful sin. We pray for that, dear God, to help us to see it for what it is, help us to see it as you see it. And I pray that for the next hour I could be your mouthpiece to somehow try to transmit the heart of God concerning this sin to the people.

Do look again for you to break the bread of life and to give me help by the Holy Ghost. Lord, we feel our inadequacy for this subject and feel like it is something that would need much more study and searching of the Scriptures for a better and clearer understanding of it.

But God, we bring to you what we have, a few loaves and a few fishes and ask you to multiply. We pray it in Jesus' name, Amen. When I first looked at this subject, these subjects here on the different kinds of soil, this was one of the burdens of my heart behind it.

I realized the malady of rebellion and the dilemma that many that find themselves across the country in churches of all kinds. And I had that in mind for a special session to speak about because I believe it is the worst stone in the garden or the worst stone in the soil.

It is a stone so great that it is not a little bit of a garden rake that will just rake it out of the side or you can't put up your foot and just kick it to the side. I believe it is something that needs a very thorough and a very clear acknowledgement of it.

And I also believe that it is sometimes so big that you are going to have to need help to get out of it. I feel impressed to speak on this tonight. I believe it is one of the worst sins of our time. I believe it is worse than sometimes the greater sins that we speak about as the most awful, disgusting type of sin that is going on in our day because I see it as the root of most other sins that you can be bound with.

And that is why I believe it is one of the worst that are existing all through time. The Bible is filled with accounts of it. I mean we have Satan's fall being rooted in the path of rebellion that he took when he was in heaven or wherever the dwelling place of God is.

Eve likewise. It was a problem there. We have it with Cain of which some of you remember I think I spoke of last year in Bible school concerning the way of Cain. And it is founded on that. The old world before the flood was almost totally engulfed with it.

And soon afterward we again have Nimrod and many others in their day went out from the presence of the Lord, became a major rebel in his time along with Samson and Saul and most of the kings. Most of the kings ended up being rebels living in defiance and rebellion against the God of heaven and against his word.

Saul's Disobedience and the Priority of Obedience

Now this is taken, my text tonight will be taken from 1 Samuel 15 on the story of Saul. And I just want to read that scripture for a foundation for our subject here tonight. 1 Samuel 15. Now this of course is the, if I can give you a little bit of the background.

It is when Saul went out to fight against the Amalekites. And of course he took Akag the king of the Amalekites alive. And he had a clear command of God that he would destroy men, women and children, everything, animals and all living of the Amalekites.

God was through with him, finished with him and he wanted everything wiped off the face of the earth. But you know Saul he began to reason with this thing and come up to Samuel in kind of a bold nonchalant way and said, I have fulfilled the commandment of the Lord.

And Samuel said, but what do I hear? This bleeding of the sheep, you know, and the lowing of the oxen. And he clearly reminded Saul of what he was hearing. And Saul of course blamed the people for sparing the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord.

Isn't that amazing? Sounds like an excuse that many people make today. And the rest he says we have utterly destroyed. Samuel said unto Saul, stay and I will tell thee what the Lord has said to me this night over in verse 16.

And he said unto him, say on. And Samuel said, when thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed thee king over Israel. And the Lord sent thee on a journey and said, go and utterly destroy the sinners of the Amalekites and fight against them until they be consumed.

Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord? And didst fly upon the spoil and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said unto Samuel, yes, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. And I have gone the way which the Lord sent me and I have brought Agag the king of Amalek and I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

But the people took of the spoil, the sheep and the oxen and the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. He blamed the people. And Samuel said, hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

A very profound, very phenomenal scripture and a verse that had been memorized and preached about many times. Let me read it to you again. Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he also hath rejected thee from being king.

And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and thy words because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now therefore I pray thee pardon my sin and turn again with me that I may worship the Lord.

And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee. For thou hast rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. Now there's a couple of the statements here that I wanted to emphasize which I've already emphasized.

One, that it is far better to obey the word of the Lord than to delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices. God is more interested in someone obeying His word than He is in all the ceremonies that Scriptures can give you.

And that is what is important to Him as well, I believe, in the New Testament as it was in the Old. That He finds a heart and He finds a soil that is soft and moist and has its stones gathered out. That the seed of the word of God can fall in there and take root and the heart of an individual is interested in obeying the voice of God and just becoming a servant to Him and serving Him with all his heart, mind, soul and strength.

But we have the next phrase that I was keenly interested in is that rebellion is as a sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. And I have for a number of years pondered that Scripture.

Why is the sin of rebellion like witchcraft? And this time I decided to try to study that and pray about it and ask God for an understanding of some kind on what makes that that way. Why is the sin of rebellion as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry?

Witchcraft, Rebellion, and the Spirit of Self-Rule

Now let me just give you some definition of witchcraft. There are many different things that could be read here, but I just want to give you Webster's definition here at the beginning. Many times you think of witchcraft as the craft of witches and that it is.

Or maybe you think of Halloween and some of the things associated with Halloween and truly that comes close to it. But here in the Bible we have this matter that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.

Witchcraft has dawned a new mask of respect in many places. All of you are probably well aware of the Harry Potter series and has flooded the world with this matter of witchcraft. And movies and television have played a tremendous role in the acceptance and also the reduction of fear.

And so it seems like each new book or movie can turn up the heat on this whole matter. And the fear gets less and less because the people get used to it. But what's happening is that the masses of society are being ushered into not only an acquaintance but a direct involvement with witchcraft.

Hollywood is making the witches more appealing to a very large and easily influenced audience. Witchcraft is one of the fastest growing spiritual movements in the country. Many are the young girls and teens described above.

It is inspired by the feminist movement, which is part of the New Age movement. Many seek fulfillment in various forms of the craft. There are so many forms of witchcraft that the practitioners disagree on what a witch is.

Most do agree with the dictionary's definition. And I'll give you Webster's definition here. A religion influenced by pre-Christian beliefs and practices of Western Europe that affirms the existence of supernatural power as magic and as both male and female deities and that emphasizes ritual observance of seasonal and life cycles.

Many simply refer to themselves as pagans or neo-pagans. Throughout history, witches have been hated, persecuted and tortured and even killed, as many willingly point out. But we realize today is something very different of a phenomena that is coming upon our world and our country here in America, especially in this manner.

Witchcraft gives one the freedom to pick and choose who is divine and worthy of worship. There are many deities, gods or goddesses to choose from. So for simplicity, witchcraft is the worship of Mother Earth, awareness of the cycles of the universe and becoming in tune with nature around them.

I want you to think of many of the New Age medicines today or the practices today by practitioners who try to fix you physically and they want to put you in tune with the Earth. Many different kinds that are acknowledging that and the whole matter of lining up with the meridian lines of Earth between the North and South Pole, they claim is this invisible field of meridian lines and they're trying to put you in tune with that.

They will tell you it's not at all Satanism. It's not witchcraft. This is all natural and has to do with the Earth, you know, and all that. Witchcraft and paganism are Earth's religions, they will tell you.

Their law is this, and ye harm not, do what thou wilt. That's their law, both Satanisms or Satanists. And the law of witchcraft is, and ye harm not, do what thou wilt. What this simply means to say here is that you can do whatever you like as long as you don't harm anyone else.

Does that sound familiar? That's the same thing with adultery and fornication and uncleanness today of all kinds. You can do what you want as long as you don't hurt anybody, is what they're telling you.

And so that's the definition I would like to give of witchcraft. And just to know a little bit what we're talking about when we say that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Now, I'd like to read another scripture back in Proverbs chapter 30 that has also deeply intrigued me over the years.

As I've studied, I've been meaning to preach on it some time and it seems very profitable, I think, and fitting to quote these scriptures. Proverbs 30, verse 11 through 14. There is a generation that curses their father and doth not bless their mother.

There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness. There is a generation, oh how lofty are their eyes and their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation whose teeth are as swords and their jaw teeth as knives to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men.

Now this is Agur's confession of faith. The words of Agur in verse 1 in chapter 30 of Proverbs. And I'm not sure, I have not dug into all that I've concluded on what all this means, but I would like to suggest to you at least tonight that it seems to me that he's speaking of the generation in which we live here today at least it fits.

And this doesn't mean that there were not other generations throughout history that were also guilty of this type of thing. And you have the examples of that in Israel when rebellion was so rampant that it was given almost as all inclusive and that Israel was in that bad of a shape sometime before the captivity and the Babylon.

But I have to think of our generation because I'm old enough to remember when the shift and the change took place. I remember the 60's very keenly. I was just a young man, a young teenager in the early 60's and the mid -60's I began courtship and got married in 66 and then on through the early 70's I remember the Beatles when they came to America and the change they brought on young people all across the nation that made them screaming mad in their devotion and their fascination with them and all that the music did to them.

Right in the middle of that we have the hippie movement which was also, they were called the rebellious children in that they wanted to rebel against society and against the establishment and just simply, they were just backing away from everything that was normal and going to work and have a job and making money and getting married and all these things they just said taboo to the whole works and went into what they called free love and roaming around between Florida and California and New York and everywhere in between and just simply trying to live off the establishment and off of society feeling that the rich owe them a living and so on.

So we have that in that generation and of course ever since it seems like that has increased and has deepened not so much per se in the hippie culture and their specific interpretation of it but what we have today as far as the music is concerned and the general attitude upon youth we still have massive amounts of rebellion and especially against the laws of God and against the truth of the Word of God.

They will not submit themselves to it. They will not hear it. They will not accept it but simply rebel against that and all of the music and literature and so on a lot of the literature and the CDs and movies and television and everything have been geared to ever increase that entire situation and problem.

Now we have the modern psychologists coming on the scene in the last 30 years and here's what their interpretation of it is. Now this is just a stage of adolescence. This is what all people have to go through, you know.

You come from the innocency of childhood to adulthood and you pass through this valley called adolescence and rebellion is just as normal and as natural as a pimply face or some other difficulties that we run into in that time span.

And they are trying to convince us, church leaders and parents are trying to grapple with this problem. They are trying to tell them all the time that this is just normal. You just accept it. This is the way it is and you can't do anything about it.

But I want you to know tonight that I don't buy it. I don't buy it. To me it's the cancer of society. It is a horrible and frightful dilemma of the land. And what bothers me most is to see it having crept into the churches like it has and into the so-called Christian homes where godly converted fathers and mothers are wrestling with this to such a degree that there's hardly anyone alive that is 50 years of age or even 40 or 50 years of age that has not in one way or another had to deal with this problem in their home if they've had children and they've been in church life and they've been in a community and one way or another this problem of rebellion has loomed up in ways that we would have never thought and never dreamt even to our very experience in preaching and teaching and having meetings in churches today.

We deal with this problem to a greater degree than I have ever seen it. I believe I can say that. Now, I would say it was pretty prevalent in my traditional background, but I would say as I look at churches at large, not specific groups, but maybe I should say the evangelical church at large, I see it as a major, major problem.

Now, in hearing the older men talk when I was a boy, they did not have the modern psychologist's interpretation of this. You know, when you heard them talk about it or face it, it seems like many times when I hear the older men in the 50s talk about how they were raised, it seems like they knew how to declare holy war if such a thing ever broke out in their homes.

And some of those homes were not very spiritual, but they simply and absolutely could not go on if rebellion showed up in their home. If I look at the neighboring farms around me where I was raised, I could point to you on a number of them that I did not know of one child, although they had eight, ten, twelve.

And my next farm across the way I think had eighteen children. I never knew one of them to be a rebel in the home that would defy the parents and disobey them directly and go where he wanted and do what he wanted and all that and dress like he wanted.

It was unknown. It was unknown practically. And I do not know if I know what the fathers would have done if they had a situation like that. But I have to admit that I believe there would have been a holy war and the place would have shut down until things would have been in better order.

I am not speaking about having a few secret things as we grow up, you know, and maybe our parents do not find or do not know about. I am talking about defiance. I am talking about disobedience, direct disobedience.

I am talking about slithering around in secrecy behind your parents' back to have what you want and do what you want and think how you want. And then you have the attitude that just let me alone. Don't get out of my face, so to speak.

That is the typical problem that I see and how it expresses itself, and I want to look at that more specifically. But the Bible says that rebellion is as witchcraft. And I looked at why that is, and here are some of my thoughts.

Rebellion as a Path of Darkness and Bondage

I would like to share with you tonight why I believe that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. First of all, it seems to be directly connected to Satan's fall. If you look at Isaiah 14, and we have the Scripture there concerning Satan when he fell from heaven, Isaiah 14, verse 12, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning?

How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend unto heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. If you look at the attitude that Satan had, which caused his fall, and the angels likewise who fell with him, it was an open, direct, disobedient, and defiant heart against the God of heaven.

I don't need you, God. I'm actually, I'm going to try to overtake you. I'm going to be like you. I'm not going to submit to you anymore. Get out of my way. I'm going to do what I'm going to do, and no one shall stop me.

That's the attitude that it seems like Satan had. And that, of course, caused him to be cast out of heaven. And I believe a third part of the angels went with them, and Jude and 2 Peter chapter 2 talk about that they are reserved in chains of darkness, under darkness, reserved unto the judgment of the great day.

So that is one of the things. When we look at witchcraft, we look at a powerful, wicked, and evil power that comes directly from Satan. And if rebellion takes place in the heart of young people, they make themselves next or akin to the devil himself, and to his program and his way.

And I believe that's one of the reasons that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, because you're following the footsteps and tracks that Satan did himself when he rebelled against God in heaven. The next thing I would like to say is that rebellion is dark.

Rebellion is dark. If I look at a rebel, and I can do this practically anywhere I go, and I find out that parents tell me they have a rebel in their home, or a couple of them, or their children are rebellious, or some church brother tells me we have some rebellious children in the church, and I have experienced this many times, I would say almost 100 this is the way it is.

There's a couple of them that have the power to put on a good face and smile at you and act like everything's fine. But for the most part, a darkness comes upon their countenance. And that clear, bright face of an innocent childhood has departed and is gone.

And you see this darkness that comes over their face. And the singing, the innocent singing of childhood has disappeared. And they don't hardly smile. And they don't want to meet you as a stranger. And they don't want to sit you and have a conversation with you.

It's off to their room, or off outside, or off somewhere else. And maybe together with another buddy of theirs, or a friend of theirs. But for the most part, there's a darkness upon their countenance.

And they do not have an open-facedness. You know, and we have that, you know, the innocence of children. It's so beautiful when they have a clear countenance and an open face. And they're smiling and singing in the back seat of the car.

And, you know, sometimes there's some shyness when they meet a stranger. But if you're in the home for an hour or two, they return to normal. And they're just bouncing around there and playing and singing and doing their thing with just a clear and open heart.

But when the spirit of rebellion settles into their life, a cloud comes over them and a darkness in the eye and a darkness of the countenance and face. And they begin to act in dark ways. Well, witchcraft is a craft of the night, a craft of darkness.

And I see a correlation between rebellion being as the sin of witchcraft because it is dark and individuals lose their innocence. They don't like to make eye contact with you. I notice that also. You go into a home where there's a rebel, they don't want to come out and very clearly look at you in the face.

Of course, I'm a preacher. And that might increase the guilt a little bit, you know, when they are a rebel. And they might want to keep their distance a little extra far away from me because of what I represent.

I realize that's a possibility. But when I go into a home and there's just a scattering of people and you don't find them and they're off in their bedroom, like I say, or outside, and when the food comes, they come to the food line and they fill their plates at the table or at the counter.

If we eat cafeterias down and they go outside to eat or somewhere else with a couple of their friends, then that's about the last you see of them. And I believe it's because of the guilt that is in their lives.

Truly, I want to tell you, if anything, I am not for believing that there are spirits everywhere and that there's a demon behind every door. But if you want to talk about a spirit being in a home, you can have a rebel in that home or a couple of rebels.

And I'll tell you, if there's any place that you're going to find something that resembles a spirit, it's in rebellion. When there's a rebel in the house, a whole house is permeated with it often and is affected.

Mom and Dad are sad many times and have sad countenances because they are at their wits' end and they don't know what to do. And everything is affected and it is a spirit in a bad way, I would say, that can be felt and permeates the whole house.

There is a heaviness many times because of the conflict between Mother and the conflict between Father. There is a heaviness. When we come together at the table or come together at mealtimes, it is heavy and tight and as many times we say, you can cut the air with a knife.

It almost stops all communication. If you ever notice a conversation between a mother and a rebellious daughter or a father and a rebellious son or crosswise the other way, between father and daughter or mother and son, they give a curt yes or no or in some cases they don't even answer.

Communication gets limited right down to the bare have-to things in order to exist together in the same house. And then it is off to their bedroom and they love to spend time alone and it is just like I said before, they have that attitude, get out of my face, let me alone.

I want to live my own life. I want to make my own decisions. And I don't want my mother and I don't want my father guiding me or telling me what to do. And it is sad. It is just heartbreaking. It's just when you feel that spirit and you see that situation, your heart just sinks because it is nothing.

Anybody likes to be around. You don't like to visit with it. Often the home is so affected by it. And it's just very, very sad. You don't ask, can I go somewhere? You simply just announce, I'm going. I'm going to Walmart, Mom.

It's not, can I go? And she might say, well, you have to go now and maybe later on or tomorrow, some more of us would like to go. Why don't we go together and save the gas? And off they go. It affects younger siblings.

A rebellious spirit in a home will always affect. Have you ever noticed when there is a curt and sharp, hard conversation going on between a teenager and a parent, the little children quiet down. They know something is wrong in the home.

And, of course, it brings great grief and tears to a mother and to a father. And I have all these scriptures in Proverbs that I thought of quoting, but for the lack of time, I cannot do that tonight. But it is truly a situation, a spirit, and an activity which brings a mother and father to grief and shame.

Rebellion's Effects: Sin, Curses, and Loss of Judgment

It causes other sins to grow and to proliferate in your life. If you have a spirit of rebellion, the Bible says even in 2 Peter 2, you cannot cease from sin. You cannot stop sinning. If you have the heart of rebellion in you tonight, you want a victory in your Christian life.

And there are a lot of people who actually have accepted the Lord as their Savior and tried to live a Christian life and have never, ever truly parted with a spirit of rebellion or a selfishness or wanting to go their own way and do their own thing.

They have tried to put Jesus into the equation and maybe even were baptized, did enough to persuade the ministers to get baptized. But the very core of the heart, the very problem has never been rooted out.

It is a stony soil and it is a huge monster of a stone in your garden. It causes other sins just to grow and proliferate. Like I said, 2 Peter 2 is the one that mentions you cannot cease from sin. You cannot stop sinning.

And also in 2 Peter 2, we find out that it brings you under a curse. It brings you under a curse. The Bible says in 2 Peter 2, verse 14, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls, and heart they have exercised with covetous practices.

Listen to this. Cursed children. Cursed children. Rebels are cursed because they are under a rebellion. There again, we notice that an involvement with witchcraft often brings a bondage and a curse upon an individual.

Loss of blessing or whatever you want to name it. But it is not good. When you dabble with a Ouija board or you go to a seance of some kind and get involved in those kind of things, there is something happens to you.

And a bondage often comes upon you that you cannot get out of by yourself. It is like witchcraft. And rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. And I believe it is very, very similar. A bondage comes upon you if you give yourself, you align yourself with Satan to that degree and you identify with him and his rebellion and his fall.

When he defied his authority, now you defy your authority and a bondage comes upon you. And you begin to be shackled with his spirit and with something that is beyond your control. And you will often feel bad that you are responding perhaps the way you are, but you simply seemingly can't help yourself other than fleeing to Christ and you don't want to do that because you are stubborn also.

You lose your good judgment. And simply because in your communication and because of the attitude you have, you will not ask your father and mother for counsel. You will not ask them concerning decisions.

You will talk about it with some of your friends or peers, but you will not submit yourself under authority and ask for counsel. And therefore, you will make stupid mistakes. You will buy the wrong car and it doesn't work out.

You will buy something else and it breaks and there is no blessing upon it. And the graces of God are not flowing in your life. And you will find out you will lose your good judgment. I believe it blinds your eyes to good teaching that you received earlier in life.

When you were young and innocent, you accepted a lot of teaching that your Christian parents gave you. And you received them and learned from them. But when that spirit of rebellion comes into your life, it blinds your eyes and you simply cannot see.

The Bible would further say, according to James chapter 3 verse 15, that it is wisdom that cometh from beneath, meaning it comes up out of the pit. It does not come from above. And it says there, it is earthly, it is sensual and it is devilish.

And usually, and there again we have its alignment with witchcraft because rebellion is sensual and devilish and earthly. In plain words, I'd like to say it is satanic. It is satanic. It's not just eating a little too much food.

Or it's not just having the tongue uncontrolled at a time or so, or being intemperate. It is not just a weakness of the flesh. You are yielding yourself to a satanic power and a grip upon your life. It's subtle.

It's amazing. It starts in small ways. I don't know how much time we have to look at some examples of that in Scripture, but it comes in a very small way and then begins to grow in your life. It is deceptive.

And again I say, it is binding. It is subtle, deceptive and binding. Let me read to you Proverbs 17, 11. It's a Scripture that I must turn to. An evil man seeketh only rebellion, therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.

Let's listen to that and let's look at it for a little. An evil man seeketh only rebellion, therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him. What do you suppose that is? It's a logical and right question, isn't it?

An evil messenger shall be sent against a rebel. You have friends, but they're the wrong ones and your parents are grieved that you have made friendship. We always say we can always see it. It's just amazing when we know a group of people, you know, and you see these young people always connect with these young people, but they never connect with these over here.

You think we're blind that we can't see that? That you gravitate to people like you. And if you're a rebel, you will spot another rebel in a minute in a crowd of a thousand people. I have amazed myself at the public coming in here or just, you know, open meetings here at Bible school over the years and I know there's a rebel in the community or maybe on the fringes of the church and he always finds another rebel and connects with him and will never connect with a godly young man or a godly young lady and say, can I be your friend?

Never. Rebels always find rebels and the godly find the godly. And that's the way it is. You have friends, but they're the wrong ones. You go places, but they are the wrong places many times that you go or want to go.