Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. ~ Matthew 7:17

Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
~ John 3:7

The need for regeneration lies in man’s total depravity. Every member of Adam’s race is a fallen creature, and every part of his complex being has been corrupted by sin.

1. Man’s heart is “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9).
2. His mind is blinded by Satan (2 Cor. 4:4) and darkened by sin (Eph. 4:18), so that his thoughts are only evil continually (Gen. 6:5).
3. His affections are prostituted, so that he loves what God hates, and hates what God loves. His will is enslaved from good (Rom. 6:20) and opposed to God (Rom. 8:7).
4. He is without righteousness (Rom. 3:10), under the curse of the law (Gal. 3:10) and is the captive of the Devil.
5. His condition is truly deplorable, and his case desperate. He cannot better himself, for he is “without strength” (Rom. 5:6).
6. He cannot work out his salvation, for there dwelleth no good thing in him (Rom. 7:18).

He needs, then, to be born of God, “for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation” (Gal. 6:15). Man is a fallen creature. It is not that a few leaves have faded, but that the entire tree has become rotten, root and branch. There is in every one that which is radically wrong. The word “radical” comes from a Latin one which means “the root,” so that when we say a man is radically wrong, we mean that there is in him, in the very foundation and fiber of his being, that which is intrinsically corrupt and essentially evil. Sins are merely the fruit, there must of necessity be a root from which they spring. It follows, then, as an inevitable consequence that man needs the aid of a Higher Power to effect a radical change in him. There is only One who can effect that change: God created man, and God alone can re- create him. Hence the imperative demand, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7). Man is spiritually dead and naught but all-mighty power can make him alive.

Quoted from Regeneration by Arthur W. Pink

I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. ~ Job 23:12

I recently sat down to read Psalm 7 through 23 straight through. I had no particular design in mind, but felt a soul hunger that I needed bread from Heaven. The effect was humbling and refreshing.

The earlier part of the reading seemed full of the fierceness of God’s wrath, His extreme displeasure with wickedness. I don’t like to dwell on God’s severity in wrath. It is heavy. It is humbling.

This all led up to the last two Psalms of the reading, twenty-two and twenty-three. I did not pick these particular Psalms to suit any purpose of my own, but they came together to form quite a picture. God’s wrath built to crescendo in the twenty-second Psalm. This is the great prophecy of Messiah’s crucifixion. The fierceness of God’s wrath with wickedness put weight upon weight on my head. Then, just as I was to be crushed beneath an unbearable weight, all was taken and violently put upon Christ.

The substitution was made. The Savior hang in darkness with the crushing weight on His shoulders. He cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1). There He, the spotless Lamb of God, was made “a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people” (Psalm 22:6). He was scorned and mocked by the people because He was cursed of God.

The suffering is incomprehensible. His hands and feet are pierced. The people are like ravening lions tearing at Him with their mouths. Men mindlessly gamble for His only earthly possessions, His clothes. His bones are out of joint and He thirsts. Somehow, there is a calm surrender and His spirit is given leave. His body hangs lifeless.

He is given a good burial by two disciples who no longer follow in secret. The tomb is sealed and eery silence grips the earth. I am yet alive. How can this be? I was being buried beneath the load of my own sins feeling the heat of the burning anger of God coming for me.

I look back to the tomb and the stone is rolled away. He is not there. He has risen. He is dazzlingly radiant in white and brings me to Psalm 23. Little sheep, here is your Shepherd. He loves you. He laid down His life for you. He leads you all your days and you will dwell in His house for eternity.

This was a powerful reading and true bread from Heaven. Thank you Father.

But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
- Psalm 40:17

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little ~ Isaiah 28:10

We recently finished an expository study of Matthew’s Gospel. The whole series comprised 110 sermons from the text of the book. If you are interested, the sermons are being uploaded here.

Last Sunday we began our new expository study in 1 Corinthians. Exposition is the main course in our sermonic diet. It is the staple. This prompts the question: What is an expository study?

Exposition
Let me start by acknowledging that exposition is defined differently throughout the Christian world. Rather than deal with all the different conceptions of the term, I want to clarify what we mean by the word. In an expository study, we study a whole book of the Bible beginning, middle, and end. We do approach the study of the Bible with deliberate and biblical assumptions which drive our interpretation of the text.

All truth is God’s truth and His truth is one. There are not as many truths as there are people in the room. We do not approach the study of the Bible by taking a consensus poll asking: What does this mean to me or you? No, the preaching moment is when we are to hear the voice of God through the expounding of the Word He has given us. We are not post-modern relativist. We do believe in authorial meaning in the text. When dealing with the sacred text, i.e. the Scriptures, the author is the Holy Spirit who used human penmen. So our goal is to understand the meaning He, the Holy Spirit, intends in the words He inspired.

We interpret the verses in a concentric pattern. We first consider the verse in the immediate context of the passage where it is found. This is a group of verses that are connected in thought. This is close to our modern conception of a paragraph. The fancy term is pericope. We next consider the verse in the broader context of the book. We then consider the verse in the broader context of the whole Bible. These are concentric, so there is no private interpretation of any verse or passage that does not fit within the larger circles. In arriving at concentric interpretation, some technical aspects such as grammar and usage of words and phrases is also vital.

God has chosen to reveal Himself through written word in time. The Bible does not exist in a vacuum. Therefore, the context of the writing of the book, i.e. author, time, place, circumstances, is important in understanding the meaning of the text. The Bible is also eternal and that means always-relevant in all times, cultures, etc. There is a danger of locking the Bible in a particular time and culture and thereby nullifying its requirements on those outside that time and culture. This is a pervasive error today, so it is worth a few words of explanation. It can be fleshed out with 1 Corinthians as an example.

1 Corinthians
In responding to the church’s questions and addressing some serious problems there, Paul wrote, under the inspiration of the Spirit, to the church at Corinth. The letter, or book, is very specific to them and therefore unique. However, he drew repeatedly from the Old Testament to apply principles to their situation. This is despite the fact that the church in Corinth was predominantly Gentile and not located in Palestine and surrounding areas. It was also the first century A.D. and the last words of the Old Testament had been written 400 years before this time. Paul did not see the Old Testament as irrelevant to them though.

1 Corinthians is an interesting book where the error of locking the Bible in a particular time and culture is clearly seen in those who handle it. The book contains some difficult passages for our modern culture, particularly in the sixth, eleventh, and fourteenth chapters. Many preachers and commentators explain hard passages away by locking them into first century Corinth and declaring their irrelevance today, despite the fact that that was not how Paul viewed the Old Testament in the very same book they are dismissing. This now brings us to the last consideration of exposition.

Having interpreted and explained the verses as previously described, an expository study will then apply those verses in the contemporary context. We do want to know how the Bible applies today, but we cannot start there in order to get there. The Corinthians had a problem in giving financially to the Lord’s work. One of the ways that Paul confronted this was to appeal the principle of the Old Testament law in not muzzling an ox that was treading out corn. He did also commend the example of the Macedonian churches, but he derived the principles from Scripture and therefore bound the responsibility before God by Scripture.

If many of our modern church-goers could be transported back to first century Corinth, their first response to Paul’s letter would be, “I live in the city. I don’t even own an ox. Boy is that Paul out of touch.”

. . . remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. ~ Acts 20:35

Everybody has a Fanny.

Mark Clark Sr. shared a powerful testimony during the 2011 Missions Conference in Dover, TN of how he witnessed to an intimidating man on an airplane. He began by talking about when an offering was going to be received for a missionary, he was moved in his heart to give. But, when he pulled out his wallet, he began negotiating about how much. During his time in the airport, he felt moved to speak with this rough looking man, but began negotiating his way out of it. I appreciated his transparent honesty and I, along with most present, identified with what he said.

It is human nature. We are inspired to some difficult task or new discipline and then the negotiation begins.

“We don’t need to do quite so much.”
“We don’t want to go overboard.”
“Surely, nobody would expect us to do all that.”
“Nobody’s perfect.”

In many cases, it is not long before we have talked ourselves out of the action entirely. We usually then pat ourselves on the back for the wisdom we displayed in it all. At that moment, we are like those James reproved for their dead faith:

If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
- James 2:15-16

Like John and Fanny
Jane Austen illustrated the human nature of negotiation brilliantly in her book, Sense and Sensibility. John Dashwood was the principle inheritor of the Dashwood estate. When his father, Henry, lay on his deathbed, his dying wish to John was that he would look after his step-mother and three step-sisters. John was moved by the deathbed scene and the prospect of his rich inheritance to a certain largesse and determined within himself to give his step-sisters a thousand pounds each upon their removal from Norland, the Dashwood home.

John was pleased with his plan and thought it suit his father’s dying wishes well. Once his wife, Fanny, learned of his intention, she was displeased and the negotiations began. She provided many reasonable sounding arguments that the sum was too large. John quickly cut his purpose in half to five hundred pounds a piece.

Fanny pressed the non-specific terms of Henry’s request and soon John adjusted to only gifting his step-mother with one hundred pounds per year. Fanny then waxed eloquent on the sure unpleasantness of annuities and how long half-blood relatives are sure to live if they are to receive per annum. John could see the reason in this and confirmed that surely fifty pounds given every now and again would be far better in the long run.

Fanny returned to the general nature of Henry’s request and questioned if he could have had a gift of money in mind at all. Having come down so far from his original intention, John found it an easy step to dismiss the idea of giving money at all. He thought his father must have meant more of a general kindness and such assistance as was convenient for John to give.

He thought then a small present of furniture when they moved was all that was required of him. Fanny, undaunted, reasoned that they already had inherited more furniture than they could ever need, nor indeed were worthy of wherever they might remove to. She concluded her argument that Henry had already provided for their needs and couldn’t have thought of John giving them anything but general well-wishes and such. John was then resolved that to give them anything would be wrong of him and that he might help them, as he could, to find a place to live.

Austen was very insightful of human character and could paint characters with her words to rival any artist with brush and canvas. If Fanny had suggested in the first place that John was to do nothing for his step-mother and step-sisters, he would have been appalled since he had such a large plan. By cunning craft, she whittled and manipulated until she got him down to nothing and he was resolved to it as his own plan. Solomon has some words of warning for a wife like that.

Whenever I Would Do Good
The truth is: We all have a Fanny. To put it in more Biblical terms, we turn to Paul’s words in Romans 7.

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
- Romans 7:14-21

That pernicious wife of our flesh is always with us, and whenever we are moved to do good, she employs every cunning craft to negotiate us down to nothing. Then “the good that I would I do not.” Giving in to Fanny only encourages and bolsters her. It only makes her harder to resist the next time. Soon giving in to her every demand is a way of life for a spineless man.

If we live in slavery to fleshy Fanny, we will not and cannot please God (Romans 8:8). The end of that life is death (Romans 8:13). We are bound to Fanny by law and only gain freedom from her when she is put to death (Romans 8:13). We must stand fast, resist the evil negotiator, and gain victory through Jesus Christ (James 4:7; Romans 7:24-25).

We need not despair. They that have the Spirit of God are His (Romans 8:9) and He is at work in us to will and do His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). By God’s grace, we can labor more abundantly than all, “Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).