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There are four stages which conduct to spiritual ruin.

I. HUMAN DISLOYALTY. Man is found (or finds himself) at enmity with God; he does not reverence, love, honour, serve, him. He owes everything to his Maker and Preserver and generous Benefactor; but he has not paid his great debt, and now he is estranged in spirit, and his life is one of disloyalty and rebellion.

II. DIVINE SUMMONS TO RETURN. God is saying, "Return unto me, and I will return unto you;" "Let the wicked forsake his way... and let him return unto the Lord." By many messengers, in many voices, God calls us to repentance and reconciliation.

III. HUMAN RECUSANCY. God calls, but men will not hearken or they will not heed. They either

(1) deliberately decline to listen; or they

(2) do listen without being seriously impressed; or they

(3) are impressed without coming to any right and wise decision; they linger and delay; they continually postpone; and every new procrastination makes indecision easier and delay more dangerous.

IV. DIVINE PATIENCE. God "bears long" with men. We see his merciful and wonderful patience when we look at:

1. The time during which he continues to them preservation and privilege. Through childhood and youth, through manhood and the days of decline, up to extreme old age, God continues to men his sustaining and preserving power, and all the fulness of Christian privilege; though all the while they are abusing his gift of life by retaining it for their own personal enjoyment, and his gift of opportunity by slighting, or despairing, or misusing it.

2. The various means he employs in order to reach and restore us.

(1) God invites men, through his Word, and through the Christian ministry, and by the voices of the home and of human friendship.

(2) He commands; he requires that all men should repent and believe.

(3) He warns.

(4) He reproves; he often reproves. "He that is often reproved;" and very commonly a disloyal heart is often rebuked of God. Time after time he receives the admonition of his fellows, or he suffers the penalty of his guilt. God makes him to understand that "the way of transgressors is hard;" the merciful hand of the Divine Father interposes many obstacles in the way of his children's ruin, that they may be stopped and may be led to return on their way. But sin does its fatal work of indurating the heart, of paralyzing the conscience, of blinding the eyes of the children of men; and the man who is "often rebuked" only "hardens his neck," and then comes the end -

V. SUDDEN AND IRREMEDIABLE RUIN.

1. Sometimes (perhaps frequently, in the case of those who are guilty of flagrant sin) the day of probation ends with startling suddenness: "They are brought into desolation in a moment." Death comes down upon them without any warning. In the full flow of iniquity their soul is that very night required of them, and they pass from guilt to judgment.

2. Commonly, the end comes without expectation, and so without preparation. Men are going on with the engagements and the indulgences of life; and they are expecting to go on indefinitely. Then comes the serious illness, the sick chamber, the medical attendant, the anxious inquiry, the unfavourable response, the solemn communication and the distressed and agitated soul has to say, "My hour is come, and I am not ready for its coming." - C.

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KJV: He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

WEB: He who is often rebuked and stiffens his neck will be destroyed suddenly, with no remedy.