In this sermon, the preacher discusses the consequences of rebellion against God and authority figures. He uses the story of Samson as an example of someone who rebelled and suffered the loss of his strength and sight. The preacher emphasizes that rebellion leads to a grinding and destructive life, with loss of innocence, beauty, and glory. He warns that rebels will attract others who share their rebellious spirit and encourages listeners to heed the instruction of their parents and forsake rebellion. The preacher also references Proverbs 17:11, which states that those who seek rebellion will face harsh consequences.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the free will offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. 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. 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 in 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. 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. I 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're 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 expounded 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. 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, 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 have gone the way which the Lord sent me and have brought Agag the king of Amalek and 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. That 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? 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 it's 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 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? It'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 a 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 sometime, 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, that Israel was in that bad of a shape sometime before the captivity into 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 60s very keenly. I was just a young man, a young teenager in the early 60s. And the mid-60s, I began courtship and got married in 66. And then on through the early 70s, 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 a, 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 is 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. In 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, though they had 8, 10, 12, and my next farm across the way I think had 18 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 don't 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'm not speaking about having a few secret things as we grow up, you know, and maybe our parents don't find or don't know about. I'm talking about defiance. I'm talking about disobedience, direct disobedience. I'm 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. I'd 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 did weaken the nations? For thou hast set in thine heart, I will ascend on the 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. 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 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 the 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 the spirit, it's in rebellion. When there's a rebel in the house, the 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 wit's 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's off to their bedroom, and they love to spend time alone, and it's 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, it's 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, maybe later on or tomorrow, some more of us would like to go. Why don't we go together and save the gas? No. 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. 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, 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 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. You dress in a way that your parents don't want you to and there's a constant tension and strife concerning all those things. You have possessions that they don't want you to have. You're listening to music and trying to sneak it into the house that they don't want you to listen to. And so you just hide it and then in the privacy of your bedroom you put your earphones on and stick it into your CD player and listen to it anyhow. Sometimes late at night when they're sound asleep, you do your own thing, you do it your own way. Rebellion as the sin of witchcraft. Oh, it is a terrible, horrible malady and sin and disease in our land. And yet you just cry, I just want to be left alone. Don't bother me. I'll be alright. I'll handle my own situation. You don't have any idea how many from our age that we can see of the shipwrecks lying along the way. The terrible shipwrecks. If you don't repent, I'll have to tell you, it'll take you to hell. I believe that with all my heart. If you don't turn around, if you don't get rid of that spirit, if you don't submit yourself to godly authority in both a home and church and employment and wherever you go, if you don't submit yourself to authority, it's going to kill you spiritually and it'll take you to hell. Let me turn to some of the examples of Samson. I just want to look at Samson back in Judges 13 and just show you on the path of rebellion some of the things that happened to him. He was a young man and he's only one of what is it? I think two. John the Baptist and him whose birth was announced by an angel. And I believe he had godly parents and he was to have the vow of the Nazarite on him. He was dedicated. He was to be consecrated to god. He was not to touch a dead animal or a dead person. He was not to cut his hair. And he was to stay away from strong drink, wine and so forth. And those are some of the requirements that were upon him from his birth. But, excuse me, I'm in the wrong Scripture here. Judges 13. And I don't have time to go over the entire story, but I just want to highlight his life here a little bit. The first thing we notice with him after the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times between the camp of Dan and between Zorah and Eshtoal. In verse 14 it says, Samson went down to Timnath and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughter of the Philistines. And he came up and told his father and mother and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. Now, therefore, get her for me to wife. I want you to notice that at this point there was still he was he still had the respect to ask his parents. He wasn't telling them what he was going to do. He was still asking. But you can tell in the language that he was asking in a very persuaded and bold way. He was not asking his father, what do you think? Because his father was grieved with his choice and grieved with his decision. He only came and told him what he was going to do. And he wanted to marry one of the daughters of the Philistines. Now, I know in the case with Samson that God was in some of this and I want to say that it's a situation a little bit like we have later on that God winked at their ignorance, but now calleth every man to repent. That's where we have to put Samson in some of this situation. But the lessons we can learn from him going down the path of rebellion, it started in a very small way when he decided to marry a young girl. And the Bible says here in verse 14, I just underlined it and circled it in my Bible in that verse 1 of chapter 14. And Samson went down. Later on, when he met Delilah, it was in the valley of Sorek. It was down some more. And it just seems like you can trace his life in this whole experience and it always was a downward path, further and deeper and deeper and deeper into sin and unrighteousness. And you have to say, like I said there according to 2 Peter 2, that he couldn't stop. You would think he was a total fool by some of the things he was doing toward the end of his strength. And yet it seemed like nothing could stop him. The next thing I want you to notice is when he saw the young lion and he, with his bare hands he tore the lion up and threw him or the carcass off to the side and then went on his way. And the lion of course decayed and rotted when he came back. We will notice that he had, bees had made a honeycomb in there and there was honey in the carcass of the lion. And here again we notice disobedience to his Nazarite call. He was not to touch a dead animal. But he reached in there and got that honey defiled himself according to the commandment of God, took some down, gave it to his parents and defiled them. And I'd just like to tell you, you'll never get honey out of disobedience to God. You will never be able to draw honey in rebellion. Even though you think you can just handle the situation and do what you want to do. But it doesn't work that way. Well, we have him going on down and what I want to do is to go over and you know what happened there. He went to get his wife and then as he was away from her, his father gave her to another man, to his companion, whom he had used as his friend in the end of chapter 14, verse 20. And of course that upset him and then we have him also visiting a harlot later on and then finally he comes down to meeting Delilah over in chapter 16, verse 4. It came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And there the Bible teaches us very clearly in these passages, his downward path. We notice here that he went down there once again. It was a worldly girl. He liked the worldly girls. Obviously it seems like everyone he was choosing was one of them. And she of course wanted to know the secret of his great strength. And I know that that is true for us as Christians. You know the devil is out to find out what the secret is of the strength in us and try to mess it up and get rid of it. And if we're at the wrong place at the wrong time like he was and that's what happened, you know he would give them, finally share with her some of the things that would probably bind him and he probably knew it wouldn't because of the strength he had. And she'd get the Philistines to bind him up with this and bind him up with that and he would just break them like nothing and go his way like before. But finally he comes so close to the secret of his strength because it was in his long hair that he laid his head on her lap and fell asleep. And you say how does a man ever get there? How can a person who had the vow of Nazarite and had Christian parents get to such a place? Laying his head on the lap of a worldly girl and fall asleep and simply be vulnerable to the whole thing. Well first of course he had his locks of his hair tied there, some things that he got up and break them from off his arms like a thread I think and then of course Delilah just pressed on him more and more and said that she's been mocked and you've told me lies, now tell me within thy great strength lies and pressed him and then it says in verse 13 Delilah said unto Samson, hitherto thou hast mocked me and told me lies, tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And she said unto her, he said unto her, if thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web. And she fastened it with a pin and said unto him, the Philistines be upon thee Samson and be awakened out of his sleep and went away with the pin of the beam of the web. And she said unto him, and you can just see how it's getting closer and closer and closer to his real problem or to where the secret of his strength was. And finally of course she pressed on him and wept before him and it says that his soul was vexed unto death. And finally he said, if you shave my hair I'll lose my strength and of course she put him to sleep and he held still for it again another time and off came the locks one after the other. Seven locks. You know I I had to think of some of the lists that Brother Denny gave you this morning for for a an earnest and real Christian life. Some of the disciplines of life and I had to think, are they the secret many times of our strength? You know our holy life our Bible reading our earnestness in prayer, our fasting and you know you can name seven and you can name more than seven and he just the Philistines just took them off, cut them off one after the other. And that's what the world will do to you and I. If we are in rebellion and we're at the wrong place at the wrong time we're not under authority the secret of our strength gets taken away from us and drained out of us and the next thing we know we become like other men and we're not the vibrant strong young Christian that God has intended for us to be. Well we finally have him getting up and shaking himself and acting like I'm going to go out just like I always was you know I know I haven't prayed for a long time and I haven't read my Bible but everything is just fine. I'm still a Christian. I'm alright. But his strength was gone and he was no match for the Philistines this time. His strength was just like other men. He had lost it. They took him and gouged out his eyes took him over to the mill the grind at the mill and there he was around and around he turned grinding at the mill with his eyes gouged out a picture of the rebel who went his own way finding himself at a mill grinding and it is sin and the results and the consequences of sin are a grinding life. Look around you look at your at the results of the rebel's life for someone who has rebelled against parents and more and more and the path that they took and where they are today you know where they're at. Think of them. Many of them are your relatives, your cousins, your neighbors, your former church friends and today they're gone out into sin, out into the world. Their strength is gone. Their glory is gone. Their innocence is gone. Their beauty is gone. They are shackled down with pain, child support an unwed mother trying to make a living working and taking her children off to a babysitter and all those things that are just grinding at the mill for years and years on end because of the consequences of their rebellion. Now let's go back to 2 Peter chapter 2. We notice a picture and I want to make sure you get this. The picture that is given to us in 2 Peter and how this matter is laid out before us. I think I'll turn back to Jude first in verse 5. These two chapters, 2 Peter 2 and the book of Jude are very parallel scriptures and the wording is changed just a little bit, but both of them have the same burden and the same vision there. Jude chapter 5, verse 5. I will therefore put you in remembrance how you once knew this, how that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterwards destroyed them that believed not. He is simply showing you a group of people that were afterwards destroyed that believed not. They rebelled against God. They would not follow Him. They would not submit to Him. They would not obey His commandments. And the consequence was they were destroyed in the wilderness. Next group. Verse 6. The angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, under the judgment of the great day. Here we have the devil and his angels singled out to show you that they, angels which kept not their first estate, their submission to God, their obedience to Him, and stay in their rightful place with all the blessings of God in heaven upon them. And now where are they? They are reserved in chains under darkness, reserved under the judgment of the great day. That's group number 2. Group number 3 in verse 7. Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. That's group number 3. Sodom and Gomorrah there was a time they knew better. There was a time they did better. But the Bible says here that in like manner as the angels, they were in rebellion against God like Satan and his angels were. Rebellion which is as witchcraft. It has that power and these Sodomites and Gomorrahites and all the cities in like manner they gave themselves over to fornication. They went after strange flesh and the destruction of them are set forth as an example of what happens to people who rebel against God. And then he goes down in other groups and he ends up in verse 11. Verse 11 he says, Woe unto them for they are gone in the way of Cain. He brings Cain in and run greedily after the heir of Balaam. He brings Balaam in and are perished in the gainsaying of Korah. He brings Korah, Dathan, and Abiram in there. Men and examples of rebellion. Men who rebelled against the written word of God or in that case maybe the spoken word of God. But anyway they knew what God's will was and they were defiant and set themselves up against Moses, against the law, against God and said, I'm not going to do it. I want to do what I want to do. I'm going the way I want to go. Get out of my face. Let me alone. That's the attitude. That's there. And I feel bad even describing it. But that's just the way that's the way it is. That's the way so many are. And the reason that he goes through all these different groups he says the Israelites, they didn't make it. The angels, they didn't make it. The sodomites, they didn't make it. And Cain didn't make it. And Balaam didn't make it. And Korah, Dathan, and Abiram didn't make it. And the whole thing is set up to tell you one thing. You won't either. You won't either. If you maintain a spirit of rebellion and you are defiant against God, against God's Word, against God's given authority, you will likewise have the same problem. You'll come to the same end. And here's some of the awful description that he gives. And if we go back to 2 Peter chapter 2, those words are just awesome. Verse 17. They are wells without water. Listen to the description. If you are a rebel tonight, you are a well without water. You can pump and pump and pump and you're not going to get any of your living water out of it. It's just not going to work for you. And you say the Christian life is difficult. The Christian life is hard and it's just not working for me. Take a look at the soil, whether that stone or rebellion is still lurking back in your garden, in your soil. And simply the plant cannot grow because it is planted upon stony soil. They are wells without water. They are clouds that are carried with a tempest. And here incidentally, he had just mentioned Balaam also who have forsaken the right way and are going astray. They've lost the innocence of childhood. Followed the way of Balaam, the son of Bezor who loved the ways of righteousness. You just simply want to go your own way and do your own thing. To whom is clouds that are carried with a tempest, verse 17, to whom the midst of darkness is reserved forever. And that shows you the eternal consequence of the sin there likewise. And then he says in verse 18 and 19, listen to this. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, I can handle it. Let me just take care of myself. I don't want to be bothered all the time. I don't want you to look down on my neck and see what I'm doing and see what I have. Just let me alone. They speak great swelling words of vanity. They allure to the lust of the flesh through much wantonness those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise themselves liberty, I want to be free. Have you ever looked at the moral mess of the hippie movement who wanted to be free? My, what a carnage. What a disaster. And many others, they promise themselves liberty, but they themselves are the servants of corruption of whom a man is overcome the same he is brought in bondage. Now, in closing, I would just like to say you know, I know that not all that are in beginning on the path of rebellion are as bad as some of the pictures and some of the examples I gave you. But as I told you with Samson, it starts in a small way. And often there is just that defiance down inside of you and a cloudy face when father or mother kindly want you to do a certain thing, go a certain way, not do some other things, not go to other places, and so on. They just try to guide your life. And you stiffen yourself. I mean, physically, this is actually what happens. You know, the Bible through the Old Testament often talks about stiff necks. But they actually do. A rebel will stiffen themselves. And they'll bristle at the command, at the request of a parent. They will bristle. If you are bristling like that and stiffening yourself, there's rebellion in your heart. And there are too many casualties today, I tell you. Way too many casualties. It gets so common, you just say, there goes another. There goes another. If that one doesn't turn around and see their need and repent, they'll soon be a statistic again. And you know, if you're a rebel today, you'll marry the wrong person. Birds of a feather flock together. Maybe you had high goals at one time of marrying someone who would be a sincere Christian, but you have succumbed to a spirit of rebellion. And now you will draw the rebels to you. And I'll tell you, it's not going to be well. I call you to a remedy here tonight. In closing, Proverbs chapter 1 verse 8 and 9. Familiar Scripture here. My son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother. For they shall be an ornament of grace around thy head and chains about thy neck. If you ever want to wear a necklace, you wear that one. And I'll tell you, your life will be blessed. But if you will continue in that way, it will not be well. Remember that rebellion has the sin of witchcraft. I believe if you are given to this spirit, and you have this, maybe you can be nice at times, but it's there. And as soon as authority will tell you to do something that you don't like and you don't want to do, this thing comes up. You need help. I beg you to get help here at Bible School for it. And to let God so change you and so transform you that you can go home and fall upon the necks of your father and mother, ask their forgiveness, maybe even on the telephone before. That's happened many times here. And they say to me after they meet us, oh, I don't know what happened, but my son, my daughter is a different person since they came home. Completely changed. Oh, it's such a blessing. It's such a difference. And I want that to happen to you here tonight. If you have a spirit of rebellion in you, and you just want to kick an authority and resist it, I want you to know that it's as a sin of witchcraft. It's devilish. It's sensual. It's deceptive. And it's binding. And many times it's a weed that big, a stone that big that you're going to have to have help to roll it out of the way. On that one, I'll tell you I don't believe for the most part. You're just going to say, oh, I'm going to do better. I'm going to straighten up here. And I'm going to be better. I'm going to ask you to do serious business with God tonight. If there's rebellion in your heart, I want you to respond at the invitation. And I want you to turn your heart around. That's what repentance is. We use the word repentance. But we simply want you to turn around with an open heart and an open face. Confess and forsake. Renounce that spirit of rebellion in the name of Jesus. I want you to call upon someone to pray with you. Someone who is spiritual or a couple of them to gather around you back there in the prayer room and pray for you. Maybe even with a laying on of hands. If you have a serious case of rebellion in your life and it has followed you for years and you have never been able to deal with it, never been able to get rid of it, and it is like a cancer in your life and you have tried and tried to be better but you have not been able because there's something wrong. You have a straight stone in your life and you need that to be rooted out of you. I want you to confess and openly acknowledge it. I have rebellion in my life. I am a rebel at home at times. I've given my mother and father fits and I want you to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ because the Lord Jesus Christ is able to take that rebellion away and He's able to change you by His power. He came as I said in the first night to save us from our sins and rebellion is a sin against God and when we confess it and we're willing to forsake it and acknowledge it before Him and renounce it in the name of Jesus and submit ourselves to godly direction and authority, God will change you. You call upon the name of the Lord for help. It's just like in many other sins as Brother David Lapp mentioned here about the man with the anger problem on Sunday morning. So bad of an anger problem. Went after him for years and he just couldn't shake it and couldn't get rid of it until he saw the power of Christ available for his sin and for his problem. Jesus Christ can change your ways. He can change your attitude and He can take that witchcraft, that rebellion out of your life and make you a meek and mild person. God has promised us and we have seen the effects of that many, many people as they come to Christ and I don't want you to go home. Come here a rebel and go home a rebel and have the awful statistics and consequences come upon you. Shall we sing an invitation hymn tonight? If you have been afflicted with this problem maybe it's just starting in small ways or maybe you are a real rebel. Doesn't matter what. If you have anything to do with this thing root it out tonight. Come to Christ. Let Him cleanse you. Confess your sin. Renounce the devil and his evil ways and come to the Lord. Shall we sing? 896 Oh do not let the word depart and close thine eyes against the light for sin hath hardened not your heart he saved all Why not tonight Why not tonight Why not tonight Will God be safe than one Tomorrow sun may never rise to bless thy long deluded sight This is the time of envy Why He saved all tonight Oh Why Will God safe than one More out there that it's just a far too major problem. I know that many of you have overcome it and I thank God for every one of you. I don't sense any of it in you but I know also that there are many who are struggling. They are going through a battle and I don't want you to miss an opportunity tonight to come and give your heart to the Lord and let him help you with it. Father in heaven I pray lay your hand upon them Lord. You know them out there in the crowd and what a difficult time they have had and are having in their family and in their church with their ministers and pastor and have given so much time and concern and tears to those that watch over them. Lord I pray touch them deeply tonight that they could surrender at the feet of Jesus and come and give this thing up. Surrender themselves soft in their neck Lord and bow and yield to you. I pray for that dear God. I just pray in Jesus name. Shall we stand and continue singing. Our Lord in pity lingers still and wilt thou thus his love requite renounce at once thy stubborn will be saved all tonight oh why not tonight oh why not tonight will thou be saved then why said Lord refuses none who would to believe obey the work is done be saved all tonight oh why not tonight will thou be saved then why anyone else want to respond to the call of God upon your heart examine your heart where am I which way am I going am I on a path of rebellion have I submitted myself to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the authorities that God has given me God bless you alright those that have responded go back to the prayer room either side again like we did before counselors willing to help you there