Matthew Henry

To the Little Flock

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The verse we are about to read, study, and contemplate is to the small group of 12 of Jesus Disciples, and to all the Church of the Lord Jesus down through the years.

Jesus said,

“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:32  (KJB)

This fits well with and for a small local congregation [local Church, Body of Christ] of believers joined together; a people who loves God through His Son Jesus, loves His word, and endeavors to live for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ; also having a burden for others who are lost in their sins.

The following is commentary from the late Matthew Henry on this verse…

“They have better things to expect and hope for: Fear not, little flock, Luk_12:32. For the banishing of inordinate cares, it is necessary that fears should be suppressed. When we frighten ourselves with an apprehension of evil to come, we put ourselves upon the stretch of care how to avoid it, when after all perhaps it is but the creature of our own imagination. Therefore fear not, little flock, but hope to the end; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. This comfortable word we had not in Matthew. Note, [1.] Christ’s flock in this world is a little flock; his sheep are but few and feeble. The church is a vineyard, a garden, a small spot, compared with the wilderness of this world; as Israel (1Ki_20:27), who were like two little flocks of kids, when the Syrians filled the country. [2.] Though it be a little flock, quite over-numbered, and therefore in danger of being overpowered, by its enemies, yet it is the will of Christ that they should not be afraid: “Fear not, little flock, but see yourselves safe under the protection and conduct of the great and good Shepherd, and lie easy.” [3.] God has a kingdom in store for all that belong to Christ’s little flock, a crown of glory (1Pe_5:4), a throne of power (Rev_3:21), unsearchable riches, far exceeding the peculiar treasures of kings and provinces. The sheep on the right hand are called to come and inherit the kingdom; it is theirs for ever; a kingdom for each. [4.] The kingdom is given according to the good pleasure of the Father; It is your Father’s good pleasure; it is given not of debt, but of grace, free grace, sovereign grace; even so, Father, because it seemed good unto thee. The kingdom is his; and may he not do what he will with his own? [5.] The believing hopes and prospects of the kingdom should silence and suppress the fears of Christ’s little flock in this world. “Fear no trouble; for, though it should come, it shall not come between you and the kingdom, that is sure, it is near.” (That is not an evil worth trembling at the thought of which cannot separate us from the love of God). “Fear not the want of any thing that is good for you; for, if it be your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom, you need not question but he will bear your charges thither.”” MATTHEW HENRY COMMENTARY

I love hearing Jesus say to us “Fear not…” Here He is saying it to His little flock. Let us be very encouraged, and live for the cause; the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

They Watched Him

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Jesus had a way, His way of aggravating the religious crowd of His day.  That religion was steeped in legalism, and little mercy or grace.  It seemed they knew nothing about grace for their people; but allowed much, with loopholes around some of their traditions for themselves.

When the disciples with Jesus were walking through a field of grain, and they were scooping their fingers through the heads freeing the grains seeds from the tops, rolling the grain in their hands to free the good from the chaff, then blowing the chaff away with a strong breath; and they were doing it on the sabbath day [Saturday]; then, the scribes and Pharisees considered that a violation of the sabbath.

On another sabbath day Jesus had entered a synagogue to worship, and there was a man there with a withered right hand.  The Pharisees and the scribes watched Jesus to see what He would do.  Our verse today…

“And the scribes and Pharisees watched Him, whether He would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against Him.” Luke 6:7  (KJB)

They watched Him with ill intent.  They watched Him to bring harm.  They watched Him to eventually kill Him.  Why?  They hated Him, His life, His teaching, and probably His boldness and authority with which He spoke.  He put religion on notice as well.

Those who follow Jesus, are faithful to Him, and His teaching- His doctrine will be watched too.  Sometimes for the same reasons as those who were watching Jesus. What are we to do?  Live faithfully for Christ.  Put Him on daily (Romans 13:12;  Galatians 3:27;  Ephesians 4:24; 6:11) all the things of Christ Jesus.  Do not fear; be faithful.

I will leave with you a quote from the Matthew Henry Commentary on Luke 6:7…

“Among those who were the hearers of Christ’s excellent doctrine, and the eye-witnesses of his glorious miracles, there were some who came with no other design than to pick quarrels with him, Luk_6:7. The scribes and Pharisees would not, as became generous adversaries, give him fair warning that, if he did heal on the sabbath day, they would construe it into a violation of the fourth commandment, which they ought in honour and justice to have done, because it was a case without precedent (none having ever cured as he did), but they basely watched him, as the lion does his prey, whether he would heal on the sabbath day, that they might find an accusation against him, and surprise him with a prosecution.” From the MATTHEW HENRY COMMENTARY

What Have You Said to the LORD Today?

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“Preserve me, O God: for in You do I put my trust. O my soul, you have said unto the LORD, You are my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to You; but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.”  Psalm 16:1-3 (KJV)

Of this sixteenth Psalm and its title – “Michtam of David” the Matthew Henry Commentary states…

“This psalm is entitled Michtam, which some translate a golden psalm, a very precious one, more to be valued by us than gold, yea, than much fine gold, because it speaks so plainly of Christ and his resurrection, who is the true treasure hidden in the field of the Old Testament.”

The Psalms, to me, are all golden and worthy to be called precious, and more valuable than gold.  So, also, the whole of the Bible.

One of the things the Psalmist is stating is that if we has Adamkind have any goodness it is nothing near the goodness of the LORD who is God.  His goodness is worthy of our note.  There is no goodness equal to the goodness of the Almighty.

None of even all the saints of God in the earth is equal to His goodness.  God the Lord Adonay is worthy of worship,  honor, glory, and praise.  It all belongs to Him.

To know God you can come to Him through His Son Jesus who died on the cross, was buried, and He rose from the grave, and because He lives we have eternal life through Him.

Some Things God Hates

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There are some things which God hates.  You might be one of those people who find it difficult to believe that God hates anything.  The writer of Proverbs tells us of seven abominations which He does hate.  That is what we look at today.

“These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.” Proverbs 6:16-19

We must understand that the God of the Bible is holy, righteous and just; and because He is those things there must be of necessity things which He hates the above seven things are some of them – seven in fact which cover the entirety of the human race.

Seven things which God hates. These seven things are directly related to the heart of evil.
From the ESV Study notes we read of verse 16,

“This numeric literary device presents a representative rather than exhaustive list (cf. 30:15–16, 18–19, 21–31) that seeks to draw particular attention to the final item as the focus of God’s hatred. It is easy to agree that God hates the first six items; it is also easy to overlook the seventh (v. 19b), and thus the author pulls the reader up short.”

From the Matthew Henry Commentary we find,

“God hates sin; he hates every sin; he can never be reconciled to it; he hates nothing but sin. But there are some sins which he does in a special manner hate; and all those here mentioned are such as are injurious to our neighbour. It is an evidence of the good-will God bears to mankind that those sins are in a special manner provoking to him which are prejudicial to the comfort of human life and society. Therefore the men of Belial must expect their ruin to come suddenly, and without remedy, because their practices are such as the Lord hates and are an abomination to him, v. 16. Those things which God hates it is no thanks to us to hate in others, but we must hate them in ourselves.”

I want you to realize today that God loves you.  He loves the world and you and me are part of the world and He loves us.  So much that He gave His only Son that believing in Him we would not perish, but have everlasting life.

Some one once said, “God will not allow His children to sin successfully.”  The child of God cannot continue to live in sin and its abomination without serious consequences.

Follow this link to a more thorough study of these verses.

LORD God of My Salvation

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“O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before Thee: Let my prayer come before Thee: incline Thine ear unto my cry; For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.” Psalm 88:1-3 (KJV)

For the commentary today I will let  a scholar from the past speak:

I. A man of prayer, one that gave himself to prayer at all times, but especially now that he was in affliction; for is any afflicted? let him pray. It is his comfort that he had prayed; it is his complaint that, notwithstanding his prayer, he was still in affliction. He was, 1. Very earnest in prayer: “I have cried unto thee (Psa_88:1), and have stretched out my hands unto thee (Psa_88:9), as one that would take hold on thee, and even catch at the mercy, with a holy fear of coming short and missing of it.” 2. He was very frequent and constant in prayer: I have called upon thee daily (Psa_88:9), nay, day and night, Psa_88:1. For thus men ought always to pray, and not to faint; God’s own elect cry day and night to him, not only morning and evening, beginning every day and every night with prayer, but spending the day and night in prayer. This is indeed praying always; and then we shall speed in prayer, when we continue instant in prayer. 3. He directed his prayer to God, and from him expected and desired an answer (Psa_88:2): “Let my prayer come before thee, to be accepted of thee, not before men, to be seen of them, as the Pharisees’ prayers.” He does not desire that men should hear them, but, “Lord, incline thy ear unto my cry, for to that I refer myself; give what answer to it thou pleasest.”
II. He was a man of sorrows, and therefore some make him, in this psalm, a type of Christ, whose complaints on the cross, and sometimes before, were much to the same purport with this psalm. He cries out (Psa_88:3): My soul is full of troubles; so Christ said, Now is my soul troubled; and, in his agony, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death, like the psalmist’s here, for he says, My life draws nigh unto the grave. Heman was a very wise man, and a very good man, a man of God, and a singer too, and one may therefore suppose him to have been a man of a cheerful spirit, and yet now a man of sorrowful spirit, troubled in mind, and upon the brink of despair. Inward trouble is the sorest trouble, and that which, sometimes, the best of God’s saints and servants have been severely exercised with. The spirit of man, of the greatest of men, will not always sustain his infirmity, but will droop and sink under it; who then can bear a wounded spirit?
From the Matthew Henry Commentary

May your heart hear God as He speaks with you, and draws you to Himself.

The Sign of the Covenant

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The Sign of the Covenant

“And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.” Genesis 17:9-14 (KJV).

This covenant sign is much more painful than the covenant sign Believer’s have during this day of grace.

  • “A confirmation to Abraham and his seed of those promises which were God’s part of the covenant, assuring them that they should be fulfilled, that in due time Canaan would be theirs: and the continuance of this ordinance, after Canaan was theirs, intimates that these promises looked further to another Canaan, which they must still be in expectation of. See Heb. 4:8.’ ‘An obligation upon Abraham and his seed to that duty which was their part of the covenant; not only to the duty of accepting the covenant and consenting to it, and putting away the corruption of the flesh (which were immediately and primarily signified by circumcision), but, in general, to the observance of all God’s commands, as they should be at any time hereafter be intimated and made known to them; for circumcision made men debtors to do the whole law, Gal. 5:3. Those who will have God to be to them a God must consent and resolve to be to him a people.” From the MATTHEW HENRY COMMENTARY on the whole Bible.

Though baptism is a token of salvation it does not save. It is the testimony of one’s salvation. One must be bold in one’s faith and the correct place to start is by submitting to God’s ordinances. To be disobedient we disregard God’s call and bring in shame (Luke 9:26 – “For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels.” Luke 9:26 (KJV). Lest we should forget we are reminded several times there is more.

“Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” Mark 8:38 (KJV)

” It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” 2 Timothy 2:11-13 (KJV).

With Abraham there was no doubt as to his identity. He was a man called of God. Yes, there were times he fell, but God picked him back up, cleaned him up, and calls him faithful. Failure for any of Abraham’s seed to be circumcised resulted in the broken covenant. The failure; of an individual who has recently confessed Jesus Christ as Savior; to be baptised as soon as possible is placing his/her confession in jeopardy of question, and most of all to the individual’s own heart and mind.

-by Tim A. Blankenship