MARKED FOR RUIN Proverbs 24:19-22

Many are marked for ruin that is not yet ripe for it. marked -Singled out. Ruin - doom, downfall, destruction

Mal 3:9 Ye [are] cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, [even] this whole nation.

De 11:26 ¶ Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;

Eze 18:30 ¶ Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn [yourselves] from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.

GOD IS TO JUDGE THEM "ACCORDING TO THEIR WAYS"

(Pr 1:31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices}, their only hope is to "repent"; for God takes no delight in judging them in wrath,

I. FOUR NECESSARY DUTIES PEOPLE ARE CALLED TO:

1. Repent; change the mind and change our ways; we must be sorry for what we have done and ashamed of it, and go as far as we can towards the undoing of it.

2. Turn from all transgressions, Eze 18:30 / Eze 30:26. Turn

yourselves, face about; turn from sin, turn against sin as the enemy

you hate, turn to God as the friend you love.

3. Cast away all transgressions;

{Transgression: A violation of law, command, or duty}

1-Abandon it

2-Forsake it

3-Resolve never to return to them again,

4-Give sin a bill of divorce,

5-Break all association we have made with it, throw it overboard, as the mariners did Jonah (for it has raised the storm),

6-Cast it out of the soul,

7-Crucify it.

4. A new heart and a new spirit. Eze 11:19.

II. FOUR GOOD REASONS TO REPENTANCE:--

1. It’s the only way, & the surest way, to prevent the ruin that sins bring: So iniquity shall not be your ruin. Meaning, if we don’t repent, iniquity will be our ruin, here and for ever, but, if we do, we are safe, we are snatched as brands out of the burning.

2. If we repent not, we certainly perish, and our blood will be upon our own heads. Why will you die, O house of Israel? What a dumb thing for one to choose death and damnation rather than life and salvation.

Note, The reason why sinners die is because they will die; they will go down the way that leads to death, and not come up to the terms on which life is offered.

3. The God of heaven has no delight in our ruin. He desires our welfare (Eze 18:32): I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, meaning, he has pleasure in the recovery of those that repent; and this is both an engagement and an encouragement to us to repent.

4. We are blessed if we repent: Turn yourselves, and live. He that says to us, Repent, says to us, Live, so that life and death are here set before us.

Lu 6:49 But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

Isa 3:8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings [are] against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.

No man ever yet lost by serving God with a whole heart, nor gained by serving Him with a half one. One cause of the barrenness of the Church is the stinginess of its members Are You Marked For Ruin, because of:

1. STUBBORNNESS: HARDHEADED, WILLFUL, UNYIELDING

· 1Sa 15:23 For rebellion [is as] the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness [is as] iniquity and idolatry. …

· Jer 7:24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels [and] in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. {imagination: or, stubbornness}

· Jer 13:10 This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing. {imagination: or, stubbornness}

2. SINFULNESS: MARKED BY OR FULL OF SIN, IMMORAL

3. SELFISHNESS: CONCERNED CHIEFLY OR ONLY WITH ONESELF, SELF-CENTEREDNESS

4. STINGINESS: GIVING OR SPENDING RELUCTANTLY, CHEAP

5. SLOTHFULNESS: DISINCLINED TO WORK OR EXERTION; LAZY, IDLENESS

Pr 19:15 ¶ Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger. Ec 10:18 By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through. Pr 24:30 ¶ I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; Heb 6:12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.