92. It really is your choice

Ezekiel 33:12: "Son of man, give your people this message: The righteous behaviour of righteous people will not save them if they turn to transgression, nor will the wicked behaviour of the wicked people destroy them if they repent and turn from their sins."

We've been looking at the sin of rebellion, the sin of pesha or the sin of adikia in Greek, a wilful kind of rebellion against God where people completely turn away from Him and completely side themselves on the side of darkness and Satan and evil and sin. Where they reject God and move away from Him completely, not wanting to do anything with Him.

The question I'd like to start off with is: "Why do people get involved or how do people get involved in this kind of sin of rebellion, this apostasy, this complete turning away from God and choosing the darkness as opposed to the light?

I believe the reason for this is that we become dragged off by sin because we start playing with sin. We first do it unintentionally and in ignorance. Then we start playing with sin intentionally. The lure and the pleasure of sin drag us into playing on the edges of the dark forest – the dark forest of sin. Sometimes we step over the line and we go into the dark forest. We think we can still come out because we can still see the light. Thereafter we intentionally start walking deeper and deeper into the forest until we can no longer hear the call of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, until we can no longer see the light and we do not know where the path is and how to return to the Lord. We become involved with the things of Satan and the ways of sin to the point where we have chosen it for ourselves.

This is the danger of rebellion, of wilful sin. It is no longer that we cannot see the light, but we do not want to see the light. It comes to a point where we literally are comfortable in the dark, where our eyes have adjusted to the dark and where a person's mind and heart have become so perverted that one wants to know nothing else. We've become comfortable in the dark forest. This is the true danger of the sin of rebellion, the sin which could possibly be the sin against the Holy Spirit where there is no forgiveness from. I believe the reason why there is no forgiveness is because we do not understand that we are in the darkness. How can we be forgiven if we've become so comfortable with the darkness that we have no desire to leave? If we cannot hear the pleading of the Holy Spirit's voice in our minds or in our hearts anymore?

How does God deal with this last level of sin?

I've kind of cut this question into two parts: where a person starts in his/her rebellion, playing on the edge of the dark forest, and where he/she has gone full-scale into rebellion, where they no longer hear the Lord's voice.

How does God deal with it? What does He do? How does He conquer the sin of rebellion? And how does He punish it? How does He deal with us when He finds us in the sin of rebellion?

Before I get into the Bible verses, I'd like to share with you a thought about this dark forest of rebellion we sometimes find ourselves in. I'd like you to take a moment to think to yourself: If you were a parent the way God is our parent and we are His children, what would you do for your child if your child has wandered off into the dark forest of sin and rebellion and transgression? Would you not try every method and means to get them out of there? Even if it meant that you start by offering your own life for theirs in return. Would you not bear the punishment on their behalf? Would you not, in a loving, caring, merciful way, overlook the things they have done and the mess they've gotten themselves in if they were to repent and if they were to take your hand as you lead them out of the dark forest? And if you got them out, would you not do everything in your power to heal them from the effects of the dark forest of sin and

transgression? Would you not want to help them so that they heal from all the effects and all the bad things that came with it?

But, what would you do if they still refused? If they kept going deeper and deeper into the forest? After you've gotten them out so many times, but they keep returning to it, what would you do? Would you not upgrade your methods? Would you not intensify the means in order to try and get them out of this kind of poisonous luring the dark forest of sin has on them? I mean, this dark forest of rebellion is going to cost them their lives. They will die in their transgressions. So then, would you not use any other methods to get them out of there, instead of just pleading and being nice with them? Would you not go in there and drag them out, pulling them by their ears? Maybe put them in chains and drag them out? Beat them out with a stick if you have to or punish them with the hope that somehow their eyes and ears will open to the dire situation they find themselves in? Would you not go over into this forceful kind of way to force them out of that which is going to take their lives? I truly believe that is what God does.