Biblical Manhood, Then and Now — Paul Washer

Again, it's a great privilege to be here, and I'm going to try to condense a lot into this next hour. And I just want to go ahead and get started. The first thing that I want you to know is that my country and your country, we must understand the times, we are under the judgment of God.

The West Under God's Judgment

The judgment of God has already been decreed. Now, I'm not saying that because I'm a prophet or the son of a prophet. I'm drawing my conclusions from scripture primarily, but also from history. We are under the judgment of God.

The first reason I give for that is the rampant immorality in the West. Now, you may say to me, but Brother Paul, the rampant immorality in the West is a sign that we will be judged. No, you have it backwards.

The rampant immorality is the sign that we have already been judged. Now, I want you to go for just a moment. This is important with regard to the family. Go to the book of Romans. And again, we could stay in this one place for an hour, but we're going to hurry through it.

Go to Romans chapter one, and I want you to see something. He says in verse twenty one, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks. But they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened, professing to be wise.

They became fools. Go down to verse twenty six. For this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions. Verse twenty eight. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper.

You see, what you must understand is this. God has made himself known in a special way in the West through the preaching of the gospel and the long history of the preaching of the gospel in the West. But the West, by and large, has rejected the person of God.

Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks. That is the central focus of the judgment of God, because we have had an understanding of the gospel, because we have had a clear vision of who God is and we have rejected that.

We have moved away from God. God has turned us over to our own hearts, which has created the rampant immorality that we see all around us. So do not think that the judgment of God is coming. It has come now something very important that I want to explain to you.

It was said of Benjamin Franklin's grandparents that they were Puritan in both their theology and their ethic or their morality, but that Benjamin Franklin's parents wanted the Puritan ethic without the Puritan God and that Benjamin Franklin wanted neither of them, the God or the ethic.

You see, you cannot save this country from the judgment of God by returning this country to some traditional morality. It will do no good at all. This country and my country must be returned to God, and the only way to do that is through the preaching of the gospel.

So this country and my country, other countries in the West, are under the judgment of God. Now, I want to give you one more evidence with regard to this. When God judges a country, he takes away or removes their legitimate forms of authority and replaces them with others.

Judgment and the Removal of Authority

Go with me for just a moment to Isaiah chapter three, verse one. Behold, the Lord God of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support, the whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water.

The West should know this. It sees itself so strong as its walls impenetrable, but that is not true. Do you realize that in less than a day, God can remove supply from England, from Ireland, from Wales, from the United States of America, from every other country and bring that country to its knees in less than 24 hours?

We ought to fear God much more than we do. But then he goes on and this is what he's going to remove. The captain of 50 and the honorable man, the counselor and the expert artisan and the skillful enchanter.

Now, look what he's doing. He's removing both legitimate and illegitimate forms of authority from a society and replacing that society with an authority, replacing those authorities that are legitimate with an authority that has no strength to it.

Has no wisdom to it. He goes on and he says this, and I will make mere lads their princes and capricious children will rule over them. It's literally speaking about an arbitrary, mutable rule that people will rule over them that have no foundation whatsoever for the decisions they make.

And we all know this. When a society moves away from the rock solid foundation of the word of God, it becomes arbitrary. They are no longer directed by the spirit of God, no longer founded upon the word of God, but they are directed by the spirit of the age.

And their own depraved heart. Now, when we talk about authority, this is a thing that scares people, but God has set up lines of authority. There are lines of authority in the government. Government is an institution.

There is also the church herself is an authority and has a structure of authority. There is the institution of the family and the family has a structure of authority that is ordained by God. But if you look in our society, all that has been turned on its head.

Let me ask you a question. Is it not true today that the old and the wise in our culture are made to bow down to the ideas and the whims of youth? That have no basis whatsoever for their own opinions, except that they are birthed from their own heart and motivated by the wicked culture that surrounds them.

Now, let me ask another question in the family, where are the husbands? Where are they? Where are the fathers in the church? Where are the men of God in the government? Where are the noble men, the governments, nothing more than capricious little boys who have set themselves against the will of God, and they ought to know this, that all their railings against God and his Christ amount to nothing.

They are nothing more than tiny little gnats beating their heads against a world of granite. For God has his rule, he has his king, he set up his kingdom long ago. That nations will come and nations will fall, but the reign of Christ will continue on until the end.

Recovering Biblical Manhood

Now, I want us to look at some things, our great need of the day, men, men of God, manhood has been all but lost in our post-Christian culture. Men have either become feminized or emasculated or they have become selfish, pleasure loving, lustful Neanderthals.

It is time for the men of God to rise up and take their place in the prayer closet, in the pew, in the pulpit, in the family and in the world. It is time for us to leave aside all the whims of our culture, all the lies of social sciences, to set ourselves free from all these things that have so destroyed us and return to Scripture.

Scripture defines biblical manhood for us and Scripture illustrates biblical manhood in the life of Jesus Christ. And we must once again come under his lordship and determine what it means to be a man and what it means to live out in this wicked world as men.

I'm amazed at our discipleship nowadays, a young boy is presented the gospel at college. He becomes a Christian, he's truly converted, he's given a few books on discipleship, and then he's told to go out and multiply that in the lives of other young men.

Yet he doesn't even understand what it means to be a human being before God. He doesn't even understand what it means to be a biblical man or even how or where he should take his place among other men to serve his generation.

We talk about so many things in Christianity, but the very things that are most important, we don't even begin to deal with. How many of you by your fathers were taught to be men using the scriptures, trained many years of your life in the scriptures with regard to what it means to be a man, to be masculine, to be married, to be a father, to work?

My people perish for a lack of knowledge. How many of you men, those of you who even work so hard in the ministry, how many hours do you log in each week discipling your wife, discipling your children, raising up a godly heritage to the Lord?

And what does it matter if you evangelize the whole world, but you lose your family? Are you are so responsible in secondary things, but in primary things, you've totally and completely been disobedient.

God has always saved societies through raising up men of God. Is it not true that much of the progress of England, even in these years, is still based upon the great Puritans that God raised up their theology and their faith?

Is it not true that England was saved from decline by the preaching of Whitefield and Wesley and many of those who joined with them? Is it not true that in a great way, England was sustained in its morality through the preaching of men like Spurgeon?

And is it not true that Martin Lloyd-Jones did more for his generation through his preaching than all the politicians put together? It is the raising up of men of God to serve, to love and even to die if necessary.

Standing in the Gap Through Intercession

Now, I want to talk about something just really quickly. It comes out of Ezekiel 22, 30, and it says this, God speaking, I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before me for the land so that I would not destroy it.

But I found no one standing in the gap, building up the wall and standing in the gap. We hear so many people. There are prayer organizations and prayer rallies based upon standing in the gap. What does it mean?

Building up the wall is something very important in ancient society. The wall was the only thing that protected the city from the enemy that was attacking. And so a city was always working to build up its wall, to shore up its foundations.

And how do we do that? We do that by laying a foundation of the gospel and a foundation of the word of God. But in preaching the gospel, we have to realize this, men. It is not enough in a sense just to preach the gospel, just to evangelize, just to make a church that seems to be pleasant and biblical.

But we have to do, as the fathers before us did, seek to submit every aspect of our life to the word of God. That's how you build up the wall. You ask God, not some psychologist. What does it mean to be a man?

What does it mean to be a father? What does it mean to be a husband? How shall I relate to my family? What is my task? How many have gone through scripture after scripture after scripture simply to determine what it means to be a man?

To build up the wall is to submit absolutely everything in our life. To the word of God, but what does it mean to stand in the gap? Well, if an enemy is surrounding a city. Where are they going to attack?

They're going to attack where the wall is broken down. And so what are you going to do if around your city there is a gap, then you send your finest men. Since there is no wall, they block the enemy with their own bodies.

But here's the question that I have yet and all these prayer meetings have had anyone to explain. If we're standing in the gap against whom are we standing in the gap? Well, according to Ezekiel, it's God.

It's God that's coming for the city. It's God that's coming after England. It's God that's coming after the United States in judgment. And to stand in the gap is to throw yourself in front of God. And you say, Paul, now, hold on.

No, you hold on. Listen, he goes to Abraham and he says, Abraham, this is what I'm going to do to Sodom. And Abraham stands in the gap. You see, God's mercy is so great that he will raise up men to stand in the gap and intercede on behalf of the very place he is determined to destroy.

He said, Moses, stand back. I'm going to kill them all and I'll make a people out of you. Moses stands in the gap. So as men of God, we are to build up the wall. To submit everything in our own lives, in the lives of our families, in the lives of our churches to the word of God, but also know judgment is coming.

It may be delayed, but it will come. And it is to stand in the gap, to cry out for mercy, that God would halt his hand to give us more time to preach. More time to pray, more time to minister, to take the gospel to the nations.

The True Biblical Man: Death to Self and Fear of God

Now, what is a true biblical man? I just want to read this to you. Having been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. And brought to repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. The true man is marked by death to self, the very opposite of what we saw here this morning and this afternoon, the death to self.

True men do not count their lives dear to them. Death to self, all for his glory, all for the ones that I love. Death to self, love for God and his fellow man. A fear of God alone among ministers, fear is one of the greatest sources of bondage.

The fear of man is a snare. It will keep you from being used of God, fear of God, and I might add with Wesley, a fear of sin, a fear of God alone, a passion for the honor of God, the advancement of the kingdom of God and the doing of the will of God.

That's man. Now, I want us to look just quickly, go with me to the very first chapter of our Bible. Go to Genesis one twenty eight, God bless them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

God made man in his own image. And as our brother pointed out earlier, not some God with a little G, not a deity with a little D, but made in his image in this sense that we can know him, we can respond to him.

And as his servants and stewards of creation, we can represent him. We are made in the image of God for the glory of God. That's what is so wrong, even in Christian circles. It's all about man, all about man, all about man.

But in the Bible, it's all about God. And that's a good thing. You see, we were made for that purpose. And if we live according to our purpose, there will be meaning in our lives, personal, real, vital, biblical meaning.

When we discover that we were made for his glory, for his honor, his worship, every breath that comes into us is to go out and praise every beating of our heart is for him. Every every muscle, every fiber in our body is to be given to him.

Only then do we truly live and only then do we become men. We were made for his glory and we were made to advance his purposes upon the earth from the very beginning, that is what we were supposed to do as men.

Marriage, Headship, and the Glory of God

Now, I want you to look in chapter two, verse 18. Then the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone, I will make him a helper suitable for him, corresponding to him, God made man that man might give himself to God for the glory of God and the extension of his kingdom.

God gave man a woman, a wife, that she might be a helper corresponding to him, suitable to him to help him carry out this great task. He taking the lead, he being the head, she being the wife and the helper.

Both of them together united for one common cause, the glory of God and the extension of his kingdom throughout all of creation. You say, but brother Paul, there was the fall. Yes, of course there was.

But we see this very purpose regained once again and exemplified perfectly in whom? In the person of Jesus Christ. Do you want to know what a man is? You look to him. Do you want to know what ought to be the very thing that drives the heart of a man?

Well, go with me. Let's look into the heart of Christ. Go with me for a moment to the book of Matthew. Chapter six, verse nine. Pray then in this way. Our father, who is in heaven, the perfect psychology.

Psyche that we should have in approaching God, the perfect mindset and attitude of how the Christian is to approach God, our father, he is your father indeed. And you can walk in where angels fear to tread because of the work of Christ on your behalf.

He is your father, but your father happens to be the God of glory who reigns in heaven. And therefore, also, you march in to that throne room with the greatest reverence and respect. Then he points out something in here, in this prayer, we see the very heart of Jesus Christ.

And I pray that some of this would be found in our own hearts. Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done. I want us to think about this. This is extremely, extremely important when anyone looks at me.

Especially when my wife looks at me. This is what she should see. In my, through my eyes, in my words and in my actions, she should see a man given to these things who gives no thought to his own welfare, no thought to his own comfort, no thought to his own plans or his own goal, but his heart beats and his mind burns and his body strains with this.

God, my greatest desire is that your name be hallowed among the nations, that everyone everywhere esteem your name is above all other names and give it the glory that is due it. My greatest passion is to see your kingdom expanded, your salvation reaching to the ends of the earth so that every tribe, every nation might know you.

My great goal is to see your will be done in my own life, in the life of my family, that the will of God become the delight of the nations, the food of the peoples, and that they would be transformed by it.

This is going to be very, very important when we talk about a headship in a few moments. Extremely, extremely important. Now, whenever you hear, especially an American, talk like that, obviously it must mean now that we need to get busy, we need to do something, we need to form an organization, we need to have a crusade, we need to go out and change the world, we need to get out of the salt shaker and get on to the earth, we need to do something, we need to plan a church, we need to go out and do missions.

No, we don't. We need to be obedient, true zeal and true passion for God manifests itself in the most simple and most quiet obedience to the things that God has given us to do in his providence. And so when I talk about all these things, how should they be worked out?

They should be worked out in concentric circles. What do I mean? How can I cry out, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done if that very thing is not happening in me? How can I desire that for my wife, for my children, for the nations, for my church, unless it is happening in me?

Personal Godliness as the First Circle

So, first of all, the first circle in my life is that I might grow in godliness. Now, I want us to look at that for just a moment again, we don't have much time, but I want you again. Just for a moment to look in First Corinthians, chapter nine, in our last lesson, we spoke about how we should discipline ourselves to godliness, that we should give ourselves to training, but in First Corinthians, chapter nine, verse twenty four, listen to what it says.

Do you not know that those who run in the race all run, but only one receives the prize run in such a way that you may win everyone who competes in the games, exercises, self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

Therefore, I run in such a way as not without aim. I box in such a way as not beating the air. First of all, men, we cannot be used to raise others to a caliber that we ourselves have not attained. The greatest need of my wife is that I be more godly, the greatest need of my children, that I have a more Christ like character, the greatest need of the nations is that I learn to walk at least in part in the righteousness of the Messiah, of the Christ.

You say your family, your children, your wife, all around you, everyone has such great needs. We need a godly man. We need men who set themselves, who study the scriptures, not just to know, not just to argue, but to be transformed again.

After 16 years of marriage, I can tell you the greatest need my wife has is a godlier husband. I would suppose the same would be true for your own wife and a man driven by the things of God. Now, again, this is something that I would love to speak about to a great length, but we must go on.

First circle, the man. Rather than run out and young men, listen to me, your street preaching and all that, I applaud it. I want you to continue doing it, do it more. But a superficial man does superficial preaching, an ungodly man eventually will not stand.

Your greatest need is conformity to Jesus Christ. Now, the second circle, if I am to be used so that throughout the world God's name be hallowed and his kingdom come and his will be done, what is the next thing I should take upon myself?

A Husband's First Ministry Is His Wife

The next ministry in the providence of God for me, the next ministry. Is my wife, if I'm sitting on an airplane and someone asks me and they always do, what do you do? I go, oh, I'm a husband. And they go, well, yeah, OK, what else do you do?

Well, I'm a father. What else do you do? Well, I also I preach a little bit and I work with a missionary organization. I'm not just trying to find a way to witness to people and I'm not just trying to be cute.

I have found that that must be the rule in my life. The most important ministry I have on the face of this earth is to my wife. You disagree with me. All of you, then show me your families. Show me your marriages.

Prove to me with your marriages that I'm wrong. The most important ministry is my wife. Now, many of you would probably think that I would say my family or my children. After all, our children are so important.

I want you to know I love my children and the closest I probably come to idolatry is with my children. I love them so much, but they are not first place in my life. They do not come before my wife. Let me give you a very crude, but effective illustration.

If I'm in a boat with my wife and my three children and I'm the only one who can swim and the boat goes down and I can only save one, I'm saving my wife. You say, I never heard of such a thing. Yes, probably not.

And that's what's wrong with our society. You see, if I love that woman more than any other person on the face of this earth, my children are going to be the happiest children on the face of the earth.

They are going to know that their home in this turbulent, upside down world, that this home that they're in is rock solid. Dad's not going anywhere. Also, if I love that woman passionately, my boys are going to watch me and they're going to learn how to love a woman.

And even more importantly, my little girl is going to watch me and that's going to set the standard so that when some incompetent, stupid young man makes all sorts of pledges toward her, she is going to send him on his way.

She'll say, you know nothing about love. I have watched a man love one woman deeply. Grow up, read your Bible. Then don't come back to me, go talk to my father. Now, headship, I want you to look at something in Ephesians.

That's very, very important. Ephesians chapter five, verse twenty one, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Verse twenty two, wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. Because of this, the idea of a wife submitting to a husband has been twisted all around so that we take.

Yes, wives must submit to husbands, but husbands must submit to wives and therefore there's a mutual submission. That's not what this is teaching. Paul is going through different areas of society and teaching us how to function in the body of Christ.

Verse twenty one, be subject to one another in the fear of Christ within the marriage. Verse twenty two, wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. With regard to the family, Ephesians chapter six, verse one, children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.

And then with regard to what we would now call employers and employees, verse five of chapter six, slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh. Paul is telling us how we function in society.

That although in Christ. I am my wife's brother and she is my sister and as brother and sister in Christ. I must love her and sacrifice for her. She must love me and sacrifice for me. She needs to be open to my rebuke and I need to be open to hers.

Her correction ought to be invited into my life and my correction ought to be invited into hers. We're brothers and sisters in Christ. But in the context of the family. The scriptures clearly teach that I am the head.

Now, what does that mean? Does that mean that I make all the decisions? No. Does that mean that all kinds of things are going on? She doesn't even know about. No. What does it mean? Well, the best way to show you is through an example.

Let's say that we have to make a decision to move somewhere. We have to make the decision by December 15th. Well, I come up with an idea of where we ought to go and I share it with my wife. After some prayer, she comes back to me and says, I simply don't agree.

Now, I'm not just going to follow what she says, but neither am I going to do what I think. Why? I have a great deal of respect for her. And we are one and we are brothers and sisters in Christ. So if she doesn't agree for me, that's a red flag, a red flag to do what?

To wait, to pray more, to study about the situation more, to work at it together until we can come to a common consensus with regard to what we ought to do. But let's say that it's December 14th and the decision has to be made.

It's my obligation to make the decision, and if I am right, I do not gloat over her. And if I am wrong, she does not hold it over my head. Someone has to make the decision and that is my call. It is my call to lead my family.

And yes, it is a terrifying responsibility. Gentlemen, I have been punched, I have been kicked, I have been prodded. There is very few things that have not been done to me. Grab me, throw me off a bus, do whatever you want to do.

And I'm really resilient. I'm just going to bounce right back. I'm not even probably going to get angry. You lay your hand on my wife and you better pray that Jesus comes back before I get to you. Now, why do I say that you lay your hand on my daughter?

These Americans, they're horrible, aren't they? But I want to tell you something, the point I'm trying to make is this. The most precious thing I'll ever give another man is my daughter. Yes, I'm going to lead this woman.

Her father is God. And he loves her more than I love my own daughter. Yes, I should do it with fear and trembling and for the glory of God and for her sake, not my own. Do you see that? Now, the point that I really want to get to at this moment, that is so very important.

Christlike Headship as Self-Sacrificial Service

A woman reads this scripture and let's say that she wants to be a biblical woman. She wants to be godly. So she reads this scripture and she knows that the Lord is commanding her to submit to her husband and also to be his helpmate in accomplishing certain purposes.

But she looks over at the typical contemporary Western Christian man and he is all about himself. And everybody else is an extension of him. He lives for his own work, his own profession, his own promotion in the United States.

He lives for his hobbies, his weekends, his hanging out with the guys. It's all about him, all about him. And she says to herself, I'm to submit to that. Live my life and help a man meet all his self-centered, selfish desires and plans.

You can see where bitterness would enter in, can't you? But now look at it this way. What if she looks over there at her husband and she sees self-sacrifice exemplified and she can see in his eyes and in his actions, hallowed be thy name, Lord, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

She looks at a man who has given himself over to the will of God and seen that will of God first and foremost in his care for his wife and his care for his children and then his care for the church and then his care for the rest of the world.

She's going to look at a man like that and say, yeah, OK. I can be submissive to a man like that who is all about the kingdom. She says, yes, I can help him because I'm not helping him help himself. I am helping him carry out the will of God.

You see how different it is, men, you see, you can learn all the things about marriage, but if you don't have Christlike integrity and character, it won't work. We're demanding that our wives listen to us, that they respect us, that they submit to us, but we must be men of total self-sacrifice who exist to glorify God through serving the people who are closest to us.

And that begins with our wife and then our children and then our church. Now, I want to talk just a moment about the rule of Caesar, it was self-serving, self-promoting, demanding, merciless and destructive.

It was a godlike rule in which everything was centered on Caesar and was an extension of Caesar. It was all about Caesar's person, position, place in history and vision. Daniel 7, 7, after this, I kept looking in the night visions and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong, and it had large iron teeth.

It devoured and crushed and trampled down. Some men who are always demanding that they be respected and that their wives submit to them, this is the type of rule they have in their home. Jesus said in Matthew 20, 25, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their great men exercised authority over them.

It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. What is he saying? We use our authority in the family to serve our families, to bless our families, to strengthen our families for the glory of God.

Jesus Christ in the book of John, knowing where he had come from, knowing where he was going, knowing that all authority had been given unto him, what does he do? He binds himself with a towel and he takes the lowest place among his men.

Do you want to be head of your household? Then that automatically makes you the servant of your household. You're not the king who, after work, sits down on his mighty throne in front of his television set, you get off work, your work has just begun.

Husbands' Sanctifying Responsibility Toward Their Wives

Now, I want us to look again at Ephesians. Chapter five. Oh, we're running out of time, Ephesians chapter five, and I want us just to look at this, look at verse twenty three, for the husband is head of the wife, as Christ also is head of the church, he himself being the savior of the body.

Christ is the savior of his bride. Now, we are not Christ and the church is in no way redeemed, nor is any individual redeemed through our activity. But there is a principle to be learned here. That God uses the husband in the life of his wife.

To be a saving influence, a sanctifying influence to promote her spiritual health, to help her on her way to being more and more Christ like. Verse twenty five, husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her.