Not only a few, but multitudes have become, throughout history, conceited, and arrogant in the LOVE THE LORD has for us, even leading many to totally disregarding HIM, not heeding HIM, and ignoring HIM! THE LORD should EVER be as close as our skin, for we are endangered when we rely on our selves instead...
While the righteous may have assurance, never should there be a moment of arrogant conceit in HIS GIFT! No one should be presumptuous in HIS name! There should not be a second of forgetting that HE IS SOVEREIGN LORD, and RULER OVER ALL, and EVERYTHING, and that we ARE to SERVE HIS MAJESTY! When we assume we are something, HE WILL be quick to teach us we are nothing without HIM!!!
We are to remain humble before HIM, in our existence! We are to abide in HIM, and HIS WILL! We are to BE, and DO good, THAT we ARE PRODUCING in HIS NAME, for ALL in CREATION to bear witness to! Time is relevant, and therefore, in JOYOUS HONOUR FOR HIS GLORY, we do everything, as well as for the souls of those who are lost! This is NOT a party of our glory, it is a dangerous realm which has the power to shake even the most devout loose IF one sets up the opportunity for the enemy to do so; thus, we are ever bid to remain humble and working as co-partners FOR HIS GLORY, and TRUTH!!!
Instead of concentrating on our privilege of Salvation, we ought to be HONOURING THE GIFT BY using energy to forward HIM that others find HIM, which is done through the fruits of our growth, wrought BY our increased knowledge, understanding, and allegiance to HIS WILL, and WAYS! We are taught to BE HIS REFLECTION, FOR the sake of the full number who belong TO HIM! None of this can we do on our own, yet, without our humbled willingness, HIS WORKS in us, and through us, are negated! Let us exist AS citizens of HEAVEN, and NOT be overly confident, but using every good thing, and lesson HE HAS provided AS an opportunity FOR HIS GLORY! Let us PRAISE HIM, WORSHIP HIM, and REJOICE IN HIS LOVING CARE for us, and let us BLESS HIM BY BEING the TRUTH of our reality, which IS FAITHFULNESS TO THE MOST HIGH LORD!!!
1+++After Rehoboam’s position as king was established and he had become strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the Lord.
2+++Because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam.
3+++With twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen and the innumerable troops of Libyans, Sukkites and Cushitesb that came with him from Egypt,
4+++he captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.
5+++Then the prophet Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and to the leaders of Judah who had assembled in Jerusalem for fear of Shishak, and he said to them, “This is what the Lord says, ‘You have abandoned me; therefore, I now abandon you to Shishak.’ ”
6+++The leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The Lord is just.”
7+++When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, this word of the Lord came to Shemaiah: “Since they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them but will soon give them deliverance. My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak.
8+++They will, however, become subject to him, so that they may learn the difference between serving me and serving the kings of other lands.”
Rehoboam, forsaking the Lord, is punished. When Rehoboam was so strong that he supposed he had nothing to fear from Jeroboam, he cast off his outward profession of godliness. It is very common, but very lamentable, that men, who in distress or danger, or near death, seem much engaged in seeking and serving God, throw aside all their religion when they have received a merciful deliverance. God quickly brought troubles upon Judah, to awaken the people to repentance, before their hearts were hardened.
Thus it becomes us, when we are under the rebukes of Providence, to justify God, and to judge ourselves. If we have humbled hearts under humbling providences, the affliction has done its work; it shall be removed, or the property of it be altered. The more God's service is compared with other services, the more reasonable and easy it will appear. Are the laws of temperance thought hard? The effects of intemperance will be found much harder.
The service of God is perfect liberty; the service of our lusts is complete slavery. Rehoboam was never rightly fixed in his religion. He never quite cast off God; yet he engaged not his heart to seek the Lord. See what his fault was; he did not serve the Lord, because he did not seek the Lord. He did not pray, as Solomon, for wisdom and grace; he did not consult the word of God, did not seek to that as his oracle, nor follow its directions. He made nothing of his religion, because he did not set his heart to it, nor ever came up to a steady resolution in it. He did evil, because he never was determined for good.
1+++“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
2+++“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.
3+++“You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4+++“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
5+++“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
6+++“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
7+++“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
8+++“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
Jesus Christ is the Vine, the true Vine. The union of the human and Divine natures, and the fullness of the Spirit that is in him, resemble the root of the vine made fruitful by the moisture from a rich soil. Believers are branches of this Vine. The root is unseen, and our life is hid with Christ; the root bears the tree, diffuses sap to it, and in Christ are all supports and supplies. The branches of the vine are many, yet, meeting in the root, are all but one vine; thus all true Christians, though in place and opinion distant from each other, meet in Christ.
Believers, like the branches of the vine, are weak, and unable to stand but as they are borne up. The Father is the Husbandman. Never was any husbandman so wise, so watchful, about his vineyard, as God is about his church, which therefore must prosper. We must be fruitful.
From a vine we look for grapes, and from a Christian we look for a Christian temper, disposition, and life. We must honour God, and do good; this is bearing fruit. The unfruitful are taken away. And even fruitful branches need pruning; for the best have notions, passions, and humours, that require to be taken away, which Christ has promised to forward the sanctification of believers, they will be thankful, for them.
The word of Christ is spoken to all believers; and there is a cleansing virtue in that word, as it works grace, and works out corruption. And the more fruit we bring forth, the more we abound in what is good, the more our Lord is glorified. In order to fruitfulness, we must abide in Christ, must have union with him by faith. It is the great concern of all Christ's disciples, constantly to keep up dependence upon Christ, and communion with him. True Christians find by experience, that any interruption in the exercise of their faith, causes holy affections to decline, their corruptions to revive, and their comforts to droop. Those who abide not in Christ, though they may flourish for awhile in outward profession, yet come to nothing. The fire is the fittest place for withered branches; they are good for nothing else. Let us seek to live more simply on the fullness of Christ, and to grow more fruitful in every good word and work, so may our joy in Him and in his salvation be full.
17+++But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree,
18+++do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.
19+++You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”
20+++Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear;
21+++for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either.
22+++Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.
23+++And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
24+++For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?
25+++For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;
The gospel is the greatest riches of every place where it is. As therefore the righteous rejection of the unbelieving Jews, was the occasion of so large a multitude of the Gentiles being reconciled to God, and at peace with him; the future receiving of the Jews into the church would be such a change, as would resemble a general resurrection of the dead in sin to a life of righteousness. Abraham was as the root of the church. The Jews continued branches of this tree till, as a nation, they rejected the Messiah; after that, their relation to Abraham and to God was, as it were, cut off.
The Gentiles were grafted into this tree in their room; being admitted into the church of God. Multitudes were made heirs of Abraham's faith, holiness and blessedness. It is the natural state of every one of us, to be wild by nature. Conversion is as the grafting in of wild branches into the good olive. The wild olive was often ingrafted into the fruitful one when it began to decay, and this not only brought forth fruit, but caused the decaying olive to revive and flourish. The Gentiles, of free grace, had been grafted in to share advantages.
They ought therefore to beware of self-confidence, and every kind of pride or ambition; lest, having only a dead faith, and an empty profession, they should turn from God, and forfeit their privileges. If we stand at all, it is by faith; we are guilty and helpless in ourselves, and are to be humble, watchful, afraid of self-deception, or of being overcome by temptation. Not only are we at first justified by faith, but kept to the end in that justified state by faith only; yet, by a faith which is not alone, but which worketh by love to God and man.
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