August 18, 2025 Show with John M. Otis on “What Constitutes Biblical Masculinity?”

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Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father, James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer,

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George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister, George Norcross and sports legend,

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Jim Thorpe. It's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors and Christian scholars and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

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Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

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Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

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It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

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And now, here's your host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet

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Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.

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This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 18th day of August 2025, and I'm absolutely thrilled to have an old friend of mine returning to the program.

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His name is John M. Otis, ordained Presbyterian minister, author, publisher, and campus evangelist at the

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University of Georgia through Triumphant Gospel Ministries. Today he's going to be addressing what constitutes biblical masculinity, neither milquetoast nor macho, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, my old friend,

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John Otis. It's always great to be with you, Chris, and I never did like milquetoast anyway.

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Well, John, tell us something about your campus ministry,

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Triumphant Gospel Ministries. Several years ago, after 40 years of pastoral ministry and writing books,

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I realized I had never devoted the amount of time that I wanted to to evangelism.

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And so several years ago, the Lord just was burdening my heart to do this, and I began to pray, and then with the loss of my dear wife a year ago, it became more of a burden to be involved.

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And the Lord saved me 56 years ago on a college campus at the University of Utah, of all places, nurtured me in a campus ministry at East Tennessee State University.

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So I've had a real heart for college students because they're very malleable in a good way or in a bad way as well.

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So I wanted to devote the rest of my life to evangelistic endeavors. Beginning this past, this recent

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March, I began to do one -on -one evangelism, and I started something that I had never done before.

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Though I'd been preaching for 40 years, I'd never done open -air gospel preaching.

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My favorite preacher of all time is George Whitfield, and I thought, well,

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I need to engage in open -air gospel preaching at the university. And on April 1st of this year,

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I had my first ever open -air gospel preaching. And I was going well for about three weeks, and right in the middle of my ministry,

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I had a bizarre accident on a step ladder. The last time

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I'd had a fall was 38 years ago, and this was just a bizarre accident.

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The ladder took back—I didn't think I initially got hurt that bad, but I ended up breaking my back again after 38 years.

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I spent three weeks in the hospital, three weeks in rehab, and I can say it was one of the toughest times

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I'd ever experienced in my life, physically, that is. But the ladder just threw me through it.

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It's healing me up very well, and in a couple weeks, I will be going back to the evangelism.

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And also, in that regard, I'm having a very—a wonderful—can you hear me,

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Chris? Chris Yes, I can. Tom Okay. Sometimes my phone goes out. So I'm having a wonderful evangelistic website created by my sister -in -law's nephew, who does this for a living.

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Sometime this week, it's going to go live to the world, where I'll do podcasts, where I'll be doing devs.

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It's just a wonderful site. So I'm really excited. I don't know if I've ever been as excited in my life for a ministry.

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So that's what I'm getting involved with, Chris. Chris Do you have the URL yet for the new website?

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Chris What is that? Tom Okay, it's triumfitgospelministries .com

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forward slash. It's pretty cool to get that forward slash in there.

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Chris Oh, you do. Tom Yes, if you don't do that, you're not going to go to the site. Chris Really? Oh, that's interesting.

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Tom Yeah, that is interesting. But you need to put that forward slash. That's triumfitgospelministries .com

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forward slash. Chris Okay. Now, if you don't mind me asking,

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John, how old are you? Because what's fascinating about this is that you are defying what many evangelicals might think is the only protocol that would so -called work for an endeavor like you are involved in.

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They would say, oh, you've got to have somebody who's the same age of these young people in college.

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You've got to have somebody who's from a relatively similar background, whether it be income bracket or ethnicity, or you could go on and on and on.

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But you are kind of shattering that myth by what you are doing. So tell us how old you are.

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Tom I just turned 74 back in this May. Chris Well, praise God. Tom You know,

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I was talking with the pastor of the church who's been on your program, by the way, Pastor Chris Striegel in Buford.

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Chris Yeah. Tom He told me, he says, John, I think actually your age is going to be to your advantage.

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I said, I think so. Only in the sense that it means

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I've been around the block theologically a few times and had that experience.

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So I've never had the interaction I've had. No one has ever said, what are you doing, old man?

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Except that now they've been very receptive to what I've said, at least on the one hand and others.

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Chris Praise God for that. Well, you have written, I believe it's a booklet that involves what constitutes biblical manhood.

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What was the compelling factor in your mind that led you to say, you know, I've got to tackle this particular subject.

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And put it in an accessible form, where I believe there are 15 points that you've made.

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And if you could tell us about the origins of this. Chris Well, you're quite aware in our culture, both masculinity and femininity have been under attack by the woke culture.

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And within the church, I just say that there's a great need for us to have happy families, churches, and the culture for men to act like men and what the

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Bible has to say about it. There's a lot of misconception of what the non -Christian has, what constitutes a man.

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Like you said, it's either a milquetoast or it's not macho. It's not the guy who can lift a lot of weights, or shoot guns well, things like that.

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Nothing wrong with that. But if that's what we think is the essence of manhood, we have missed the mark terribly.

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Well, I've had the need for, I've written it for the Christian church, for Christian young men to examine the scriptures of what constitutes biblical manhood.

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And there's two major scriptures where David was dying, and he gathered

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Solomon around his deathbed, and he told him to show yourself a man, and he related it to the word of God.

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And then in 1 Corinthians 16, Paul says, act like men.

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And so I just say I have a need for men to be the heads of their household, to be the proper leaders of their families, of their wives and their children.

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So that was my mindset. Tom. Yeah.

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And it reminded me of, as soon as I heard your theme, it reminded me of the horrific execution of Latimer and Ridley, who were burned at the stake, who were faithful to the principles of the

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Reformation, and they died because of their refusal to recant.

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These were the Oxford martyrs killed on October 16, 1555.

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And that just reminded me, I've got to do a special on them with a scholar who knows about these two men.

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But Latimer said to Ridley, play the man, Mr. Ridley.

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And that reminded me of our topic today. Well, one of the characteristics that I left in my work is a real man is a man of biblical conviction, biblical convictions rooted in the word of God.

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He's dedicated to the word of God. It is his sole authority, and he's willing to live and die on that hill.

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And we got great examples, just like you mentioned. We got great examples in the Scripture, and I list multiple examples of men who stood on those convictions, were willing to pay the ultimate price.

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That is a great need in the church. It's a great need in our culture for men to be—for themselves to be men who will stand on those convictions rooted in the word of God.

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Amen. Well, I'm going to invite our listeners, if they have questions of their own, to submit them to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

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ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence.

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And of course, you can remain anonymous if it is—if your question is over a personal and private matter.

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Perhaps there is some issue about what we are addressing today. That would compel you to remain anonymous.

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It has something to do with either yourself or a loved one of yours, a pastor, a son, or if it's a wife writing the question, perhaps your husband, or what have you.

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And I understand that you'd want to remain anonymous about that. But if it's a general question, please, as always, give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence.

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And that email address again is ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

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C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. Well, the first item that you have for a reflection of what consists of true biblical masculinity is that it embraces a zeal for personal godliness.

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And if you could tell us more about that in detail. Yes. Well, a real man has to be someone who earnestly seeks the

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Lord. As the psalmist says, I earnestly seek thee. My soul thirsts for thee.

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My soul clings to thee as in a dry, weary land without any water.

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A man of God wants to have a deep relationship with his

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God. And therefore, it all begins with that, a thirst for the scripture.

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Without a thirst for the scriptures, no one, no male can truly be said in the scripture a biblical man.

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It begins with that zeal for God. That's where it begins.

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And that reveals how a biblical man cannot be a coward, because very often, when you have a zeal for personal godliness, that can cost you.

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It could cost you a position where you work or a promotion where you work.

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It can cost you friends. And the worst -case scenario might even cost you a marriage when you are pursuing anything regarding biblical faithfulness.

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And with men, there are men who are willing to sacrifice being in a good standing with God out of sheer embarrassment to identify themselves with Christ publicly, which is a really vibrant, glaring sign of cowardice.

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Am I right? You're absolutely correct. And one thing is for sure is that, as you just said, the biblical man will stand upon the word of God.

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It is a hero. The scripture that he loves, the God that he loves, the glory of God, the holiness of God that he cherishes, he's willing to proclaim that and willing to pay any price.

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He is not a coward. The biblical man is never a coward.

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And so, one of the things I mentioned in my paper is that we'll get into this, that God created the two genders.

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He created the male first to be the leader. He created Eve to be his helpmate, and she was to help him exercise dominion over the other.

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And one of the things that I can probably assure you, no godly young lady would ever be attracted to a coward.

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Right. Yeah, that's what's—one of the things that's mystifying about our culture, producing so many effeminate men, androgynous men, is that you are—you have to wonder, are women finding this attractive?

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I think that many of these so -called feminists will make public statements or act as if they want their men to be something resembling that.

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But secretly, I can't believe that they really want that. You know, the culture at large, they're on the road to hell, so their worldview is oil -skewed anyway.

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But a godly woman, she's looking for a man to be her leader.

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You know, in the army, the man is to lead his family, to lead his wife into godliness, to lead his children into godliness.

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And godly women want their husbands and fathers to take the initiative.

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One of the saddest things that I've seen over the years is, in my first pastorate, there were several older women.

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During the lunch time in the church, their husbands would have nothing to do when I went with the church. And it was just grievous to see that.

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But the godly woman is more than willing to have her husband and the father of her children give directions.

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After all, he was made, according to Scripture, he was made out of man, pure man.

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The Apostle Paul makes that very clear. The woman was made for the man, the man not for the woman.

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Now, that's not a denigrating statement at all. It just reveals the structure that God has given to his creation.

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And so a godly woman is more than willing, desires to have her husband lead in prayer, lead in devotions, lead the way in their family.

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Yes, and I think we should make it clear that when you say that a godly man cannot be a coward, that does not mean that godly men do not often get challenged by fear.

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There is a difference. Yes. I make a huge point in my paper,

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Chris, on the promises of God, is that our godliness is rooted in our conviction based on the faithfulness of a

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God, a God who will not lie, a God who has made promises to us. And one of the great truths that I found in the

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Scripture is this, where there is faith, there is no fear. Courage flows out of our conviction and our standing upon the promises of God.

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And we see it in the

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Old Testament when Israel was ready to take the land and God had promised that they would, and Moses appointed 12 spies to go in and spy out the land.

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It was basically a military reconnaissance. But he said, I'm going to give you the land.

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And we know from the Scriptures, according to Numbers 13 and 14, 10 spies turned back and said, we can't do it.

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We can't do it because there's giants there. They live in fortified cities. Yes, it's good, but we're not going to be able to take it.

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Well, Joshua and Caleb, they say, well, by all means, we ought to go and take it. Now, they saw the same exact circumstances as the other 10 spies.

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They saw the giant. They saw they'd lived in a walled city, but it didn't make any difference.

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See, it was a man who says, if God has made a promise, I can bank on that promise.

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And consequently, the 10 spies gave a bad report, called it an infection.

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Everybody began to complain. They wanted to go back to Egypt. They wanted to have a new leader.

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And God was very angry with them. If it hadn't been for Moses interceding,

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God was going to wipe them out. Then he said, I will tell you this. Every day that they spied out the land for 40 days,

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I'm going to make them wander for 40 years. And all those males over the age of 20, all of those people are going to perish.

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So, fear is a result of not trusting the promises of God.

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And Chris, if we get that down, I read a book on affliction not long ago, and I said, if there's anything anybody can learn out of my book, is that fear is the result of not trusting in the promises of God.

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And when you trust in the promises of God, it's going to be amazing. It activates the

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Lord on our behalf. Because, you know, I will say this one other point. Jesus is on the boat, crossing the

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Sea of Galilee, and a storm arises. He's sitting asleep in the back of the boat. One of them is scurrying out with water.

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And neither, rightly, you may think, well, if I was on a boat scurrying out, knowing it's going to sink,

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I'd be concerned, too. So they all rush to the back of the boat, wake Jesus up, and say, Jesus, do you not fear that we're perishing?

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Well, the first thing he does when he wakes up, he immediately calms the storm to their utter amazement.

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And then this is what comes out of his mouth. He says, why were you so fearful?

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How is it that you have no faith? Now, so courage is rooted in faith in the promises of God.

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Yes, and I am assuming that you would agree that even the most seasoned and courageous of Christians have done, and still do at times, do battle with fear.

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The difference between a courageous and faithful Christian facing fear and someone who is given into cowardice is their reaction to fear.

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It's overcoming the fear through your faith. For instance, you could have the most seasoned battle veteran who has courage in facing death on the battlefield.

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After the war, he's back home with his family, and the doctor calls him in, and he has a terminal illness.

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And he may experience, and likely would, as most people do—not everybody, but most people—experience a fear, and even an anxiety over that, even though Jesus has said in Philippians 4, 6, be anxious for nothing.

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We still, being sinners and not being perfect, we cave into that. But if you are living in obedience to Christ, you're going to overcome that.

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Maybe not perfectly, but you're going to overcome that to a large degree where it doesn't absolutely control your life.

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Am I making sense? Absolutely. What you're saying is true.

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We have a great enemy, as you know, the devil. And the devil is always wanting to separate us from that which will defeat him, and that is the

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Word of God. That's how Jesus defeated Satan when he was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days and nights.

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And Satan will come in, and here's what I do. You know, I've told people, and even now,

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God has placed me in a position where I'm having to trust him like never before. And in a weak moment, there's a little doubt that comes in.

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I've seen God do amazing things in my life and my family over the past year, over 40 years, and so I know how faithful he is.

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But then I know I'm a sinner, and in a weak moment, I'll go, well, and Satan's whispering,

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John, you know, he may have taken care of you years ago, but you choose what to do at this time.

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And what I have to do, I have to just stop and ask for forgiveness and say,

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Lord, here I am doubting. And what I do, I've memorized quite a few verses,

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Chris, on not being anxious and faith in his promises.

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So I'll start quoting back. And here's what's amazing, Chris. When we're tempted, what we got to do, and we see ourselves answering, we immediately ask for forgiveness.

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And then we land on the road and we start. I'll pull out my index cards where I have all these promises on, and I'll start remembering what those are.

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And here's what happens. All of a sudden, the anxiety is gone. It's dissipated.

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And it's a wondrous thing. But I mean, we always have to be aware.

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And it's not a once -for -all victory. It's a constant fight.

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We're in a great spiritual lair with the forces of darkness, we're told in Ephesians 6.

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And we got to hold up that shield of faith on which we clench all the fiery darts of the evil one.

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And so that's what we have to do when we find ourselves doubting. And we're going to fall.

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We're going to fall, but we get back up trusting in these promises. R .A.

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And I'm sure you would also agree that there is a kind—well, actually, let me say there's two kinds of fear that are gifts of God Himself.

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One is the fear that most humans have that involves self -preservation.

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The fear of falling off a cliff that prevents you from walking too close to the edge, you know, that kind of fear.

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And also, and first and foremost, and primarily, the fear of God Himself.

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And if you could tell us the difference between fearing God and the kind of fear you are saying should not be an element of the life of a true masculine

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Christian man. R .A. Well, the feeling of God we see throughout the scriptures, throughout the

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Proverbs. And oftentimes the scripture links the fear of God with obedience to His commandment.

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And it is a recognition of who He is. But then, of course, with that, there is supposed to be a fear, especially the unbeliever.

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They ought to be concerned of a God who is a consuming fire, as Hebrews says. That there is a hell, whether they believe it or not.

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And they need to be concerned about that. So there is that healthy fear there.

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And yes, I mean, if I'm near the edge of a cliff, there's going to be a certain trepidation, obviously.

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I don't want to have a misstep and fall out, you know, to my death there.

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So that's one type of fear. But the fear of God is a fear that acknowledges

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His holiness, His righteousness, and what is committed to Him in His commandments.

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So that is the healthy kind of fear. But that's a lot different than what

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Jesus says. For example, He said, I don't need to go into this story years ago.

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Well, Jesus, when I first broke my back in 1987, my family,

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I had no means to provide for my family whatsoever. None. It was gone. My children were young.

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My wife, we didn't have grandparents near us to help us out. And so I remember lying in bed, getting ready for that first operation.

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And the elders came and saw me and said, John, how are we going to pray for you? And I said, well, I've lost all means to take care of my family financially.

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I'm at the mercy of God. And I remember lying in the bed and the passage,

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Matthew 6, 25 and following, came up and it said, Jesus said, don't be anxious what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink, or how you spoil yourself.

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He said, God takes care of the birds. They don't gather or reap. He plows the lilies of the field better than Solomon and all of his array.

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And he says, I'm here in the faith. Think first the kingdom of God and His righteousness while these things be added to you.

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And Chris, I had the greatest peace come over me. And I'm going to,

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I don't know how you're going to do it. But here's a promise. And I'm not going to be anxious.

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Somehow, someway, you're going to take care of his family. And it was absolutely amazing to see what, how

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God began to bring in. We didn't lack a thing. And so that anxiousness for our provision, that's what we have to trust

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God with. He said, I'm going to supply all your needs according to my riches and glory by Christ Jesus.

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I'm going to do it. I've never seen the righteous, as Solomon said, begging bread. And so that's why we have to trust.

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And what am I trusting? That God is faithful to His promises. That's what I'm trusting. Well, we have to go to our first commercial break.

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And if you have a question, send it to chrisarnson at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, city and state and country of residence.

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Don't go away. We're going to be right back with John Otis after these messages. Announcing that this

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September, I'm heading out to Pennsylvania to speak at two events that my longtime friend

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Chris Arnzen has lined up for me. On Thursday, September 18th at 11 a .m.

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I'm speaking to men in ministry leadership at Chris's Iron Sharpens Iron radio free pastor's luncheon at Church of the

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Living Christ in Loisville. Then on Sunday, September 21st at 1 30 p .m.

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I'm speaking at Trinity Reformed Baptist Church of Carlisle on the theme Can We Trust the

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Bible Is the Authentic and Inerrant Word of God? I hope you can join Chris and me for both events.

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For more details on the free pastor's luncheon, visit ironsharpensironradio .com.

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That's ironsharpensironradio .com. For more details on Trinity Reformed Baptist Church of Carlisle, visit trbccarlisle .org.

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That's trbccarlisle .org. God willing, I'll see you in September in Pennsylvania for these exciting events.

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I'm Simon O'Mahony, pastor of Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

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Originally from Cork, Ireland, the Lord in his sovereign providence has called me to shepherd this new and growing congregation here in Cumberland County.

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At TRBC, we joyfully uphold the Second London Baptist Confession. We embrace congregational church government, and we are committed to preaching the full counsel of God's Word for the edification of believers, the salvation of the lost, and the glory of our triune

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God. We are also devoted to living out the one another commands of scripture, loving, encouraging, and serving each other as the body of Christ.

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In our worship, we sing psalms and the great hymns of the faith, and we gather around the Lord's table every

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Sunday. We would love for you to visit and worship with us. You can find our details at trbccarlisle .org.

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39:35

Dr. Moorcraft and Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia are largely to thank, since they are one of the program's largest financial supporters.

39:44

Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming is in Forsyth County, a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area.

39:50

Heritage is a thoroughly biblical church, unwaveringly committed to Westminster standards, and Dr.

39:56

Joe Moorcraft is the author of an eight -volume commentary on the larger catechism. Heritage is a member of the

40:01

Hanover Presbyterian Church, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, and tracing its roots and heritage back to the great

40:11

Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. Heritage maintains and follows the biblical truth and principles proclaimed by the reformers, scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone,

40:22

Christ alone, and God's glory alone. Their primary goal is the worship of the Triune God that continues in eternity.

40:28

For more details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, visit heritagepresbyterianchurch .com,

40:35

that's heritagepresbyterianchurch .com, or call 678 -954 -7831, that's 678 -954 -7831.

40:46

If you visit, have them Joe O 'Reilly, an Iron Sharpens Iron radio listener from a tie in County Kildare, Ireland, send you.

40:54

Welcome back. If you just tuned us in, our guest today is John M. Otis, the founder of Triumphant Gospel Ministries, who is involved in campus ministry, campus evangelism at the

41:10

University of Georgia, and he's also an author and a publisher and a very dear friend of mine.

41:18

In fact, I can remember like it was yesterday when he and his precious late wife,

41:24

Christine, were the only friends that I had who are close to me that were able to attend my graduation from Hebron Colony, which is a ministry for those battling drunkenness and addictions, and they made the long drive to be there with me and then treated me to lunch afterwards, and I really will never forget you and Christine for that act of kindness.

42:02

It's a great pleasure to see you that day, Chris. And one of the other things that constitutes biblical masculinity in your paper is that biblical masculinity exhibits a devotion to prayer.

42:22

Now, this would be an area that separates biblical masculinity from machismo, because you will have a lot of guys who think they are manly because they act outwardly rough and tough and fearless, and they would be embarrassed to pray in front of other people, especially men, and because they would view it as a sign of weakness.

42:54

Any sign of a dependency on God is viewed by many unregenerate people as weak, and this is really just another sign of cowardice, because they are intimidated about losing their reputations or something.

43:15

But if you could continue on about exhibiting a devotion to prayer. One of the things that you're going to see that I bring out in my paper of the godly kings of Judah, such as Hezekiah, Joseph, Josiah, for example, is that they were all great men of prayer, men who gave some of the greatest prayers ever, and who prayed in public in front of the whole nation, where the whole nation saw their leader making a commitment to the covenant and publicly praying.

43:59

Those are real men, and part of that being godliness is a devotion to prayer.

44:10

And one of the things that the enemy wants to do in the lives is try to keep us from praying.

44:18

And if he can keep us from praying, he's already scored a major victory in our life. And so there's nothing, in fact, we know from 1

44:29

Timothy 2 that men are to lead in prayer, in public worship.

44:34

Not only are they to be the ones teaching, and only the ones being teaching and preaching, but they are the ones who, it specifically says, who raise up their hands in prayer.

44:46

And the word there for men is the word aner, which is specifically referring to a male.

44:54

And so there's nothing unmanly about praying, and I would say, if you're not praying, you're just demonstrating you're not really a man.

45:06

Amen. And you— At that point, they might want to come beat me up, that's okay.

45:13

And you have also a section that involves some of what you just said, biblical masculinity and leadership, that involves male headship, the male was divinely created to be the leader, male headship in the church, implications for male leadership in the home and church, and biblical masculinity takes the lead in teaching and child discipline.

45:41

Now, I think we should clarify, because there is so much confusion over this, you are not advocating in any way, shape, or form men being tyrants in their homes, where they forbid their wives from making any decisions, they don't even consult their wives when making decisions, their wife and family, their children may live in terror of them because they fear violence, but these are just signs that a man, again, is really a coward, aren't they?

46:19

You're exactly right. Are you there,

46:26

John? What's that, Chris? I thought that you dropped off. No.

46:32

For example, any man, husband, father, who lets his wife lead the way, and that he will set her to lead the devotion, if they have them that regularly, into prayer, and that's just painful.

46:51

That is a type of cowardice. No, God created him to be the leader, and one of the things about leadership, servant leadership, that's a real big one in terms of biblical masculinity.

47:12

Jesus was the servant leader, and he led by example, and a husband and a father need to lead by example, and God forbid that he should be a tyrant.

47:25

For example, yes, I would say, and I mentioned that the belt stopped with him, as Harry Truman once said, and he's the final decision maker, but that doesn't mean that he should neglect the counsel of a godly wife, and any husband that does that is strength changing himself, and sometimes the wife can feel beat down by his word.

47:58

A chairman can be fearful of wavering any kind of dissenting opinion, where he says, it's my way or the highway, and that's not making the final decision.

48:10

That's someone who is, let's put it this way, he's not humble, and one of the characteristics of the godly male is that he has to exhibit humility, and the arrogant man doesn't want to have counsel from his wife.

48:27

He doesn't want his brother to ever say anything to him, and so he rules his household with an iron fist, and a man who continues to do that, well, it can lead to losing his family, losing his wife and his children.

48:48

That's what happens to arrogant men. Amen, and I'm assuming you'd also agree that men should have the wisdom and humility to allow their wives to make certain decisions that are outside the realm of his personal understanding and experience or gifts.

49:13

Like, one of the things that I lament over my parents' relationship is that although my dad was never a violent man toward either my mother or his children, he very rarely allowed my mother to make decisions, even on decorating the house, and I can still remember, like it was yesterday,

49:41

I was a little kid. I can't even remember how young I was. I was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of five or six, but I can remember when my parents went out to shop for a couch, and I can remember my mother running in the house first when they arrived back home weeping, and then following my mother were the men from the furniture store carrying in the couch that my father insisted that they buy, and it was a very gaudy red and black plaid couch with Revolutionary War battleships all over, and that's a very, you know,

50:25

I lament that my dad was like that, and, you know, that's, to me, that's, and I don't mean to be disrespectful to my father, but that's stupidity when you don't allow the wife of the pleasure of using her gifts and her talents and tastes to have a realm of leadership in the home like that.

50:46

Am I making sense? Well, you're absolutely making sense. In fact, the

50:52

Scripture says that the purpose of God creating women was to help him, but he was to bear children.

51:03

He was to manage the home. He's out working hard to provide for a home, and let's put it this way.

51:12

I'll make a joke like this. You can walk into a male bachelor's pad, and here's what you're going to see.

51:21

You're going to see women in drab places, and if there's even some beautifying,

51:27

I'll say, oh, that's the looks of a mother giving something to that son.

51:35

Listen, I'll tell God he created the different genders, and the women have the sense of beauty, half as there to be workers in the home.

51:52

Well, that means he needs to manage the home. That means the husband needs to say, okay, he could gladly want her to do that, to decorate the home as he sees fit.

52:10

Well, there's a nice saying, you know, a happy wife is a happy man.

52:17

I painted houses one time, and I'll never forget.

52:23

Normally, it's the women I'm dealing with, but she's the most concerned about beautifying the house, and one time, this husband decided, no,

52:31

I'm not going to have this color. We're going to do this, and I looked over, and I could see the expression on her face, and it was not a good one, and that he was taking charge in that regard, and he shouldn't have.

52:47

You know, one of the attributes of Proverbs 31, of the godly woman there, he was known in the gates, but who was taking care of the house?

52:58

Who did things? Yeah, she had some business acumen that she did, but everything was for the sake of her home, and then in the end there,

53:08

Proverbs 31, it says her husband and her children will rise up and call her blessed for that.

53:16

No, a man who doesn't take the counsel of his wife is a fool, and so, yeah.

53:24

And we have to go to our midway break right now, and once again, if you have a question, we do have some people waiting for their questions to be answered, but if you want to join them, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

53:35

Give us your first name, at least. City and state of residence and country of residence, don't go away. We're going to be right back after these messages.

53:42

Puritan Reformed is a Bible -believing, kingdom -building, devil -fighting church. We're devoted to upholding the apostolic doctrine and practice preserved in Scripture alone.

53:53

Puritan Reformed teaches men to rule and lead as image -bearing prophets, priests, and kings.

54:00

We teach families to worship together as families. Puritan is committed to teaching the whole counsel of God so that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.

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We sing the Psalms, teach the law, proclaim the gospel, make disciples, maintain discipline, and exalt

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Christ. This is Pastor David Reese of Puritan Reformed in Phoenix, Arizona.

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Join us in the glorious cause of advancing Christ's crown and covenant over the kings of the earth.

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54:50

I'm Dr. Joseph Piper, President Emeritus and Professor of Systematic and Applied Theology at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

54:59

Every Christian who's serious about the Deformed Faith and the Westminster Standards should have and use the eight -volume commentary on the theology and ethics of the

55:09

Westminster Larger Catechism, titled Authentic Christianity by Dr. Joseph Morecraft.

55:15

It is much more than an exposition of the Larger Catechism. It is a thoroughly researched work that utilizes biblical exegesis as well as historical and systematic theology.

55:27

Dr. Morecraft is pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, and I urge everyone looking for a biblically faithful church in that area to visit that fine congregation.

55:38

For details on the eight -volume commentary, go to westminstercommentary .com, westminstercommentary .com.

55:46

For details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, visit heritagepresbyterianchurch .com.

55:55

heritagepresbyterianchurch .com. Please tell Dr. Morecraft and the saints at Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, that Dr.

56:02

Joseph Piper of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary sends you. When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the

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Hello, my name is Anthony Uvino, and I'm one of the pastors at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Quorum, New York, and also the host of the reformrookie .com

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And finally, if you're looking to worship in a reformed church that holds to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, please join us at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Coram, New York.

59:40

Again, I'm Pastor Anthony Invinio, and thanks for listening. This is

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Pastor Bill Sousa, Grace Church at Franklin, here in the beautiful state of Tennessee.

59:57

Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support

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01:00:56

This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our sovereign

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Lord, God, Savior, and King Jesus Christ today and always.

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I'm Dr. Tony Costa, Professor of Apologetics and Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary.

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I'm thrilled to introduce to you a church where I've been invited to speak and have grown to love,

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Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Quorum, Long Island, New York, pastored by Rich Jensen and Christopher McDowell.

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It's such a joy to witness and experience fellowship with people of God, like the dear saints at Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Quorum, who have an intensely passionate desire to continue digging deeper and deeper into the unfathomable riches of Christ in His Holy Word, and to enthusiastically proclaim

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Christ Jesus the King and His doctrines of sovereign grace in Suffolk County, Long Island, and beyond.

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I hope you also have the privilege of discovering this precious congregation and receive the blessing of being showered by their love, as I have.

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That's hopereformedli .net. Or call 631 -696 -5711.

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That's 631 -696 -5711. Tell the folks at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Quorum, Long Island, New York, that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron.

01:02:42

Hi, this is

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John Sampson, pastor of King's Church in Peoria, Arizona, taking a moment of your day to talk about Chris Arnson and the

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01:08:54

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. We're now back with John Otis, who is an ordained

01:09:02

Presbyterian pastor, and he is a campus evangelist at the

01:09:07

University of Georgia. Through his ministry that he founded, Triumphant Gospel Ministries, and we are talking about what is true biblical manhood.

01:09:24

And if you have a question, our email address is chrisarmson at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence.

01:09:33

And I understand when you get this booklet in print, John, that you're going to have a photograph of me on the cover on what is biblical manhood.

01:09:47

Well, you don't have to laugh that hard. I'll be glad to share some verses about humility with you.

01:09:54

Otherwise, I want to mention this before you may be going to take some questions.

01:10:02

I want to mention this to you. Years ago, I was at a mission work in Texas, and one of the men and his family was part of that ministry.

01:10:13

And I was horrified when this man told me, he said, you know, this last week

01:10:21

I had to thank my wife. I looked at him with this horrified look.

01:10:26

I said, wow, you did what? And I said,

01:10:33

I thanked my wife. I said, would you like to share me some scriptures that would justify you to do such a thing?

01:10:42

And I couldn't believe it. And he had this certain view of leadership, and he treated his wife with such disrespect.

01:10:51

Well, needless to say, I found out years later, you know, they're not married any longer. Well, I don't blame her.

01:11:00

I wonder how he would have felt if his elders spanked him for being underdisciplined for some reason.

01:11:07

Oh, wow. Well, let me mention this. One other thing is, in the meantime, whether I put this in a booklet, anybody—this is a 65 -page paper, and anybody who wants a copy,

01:11:24

I'll be glad—if you email me at my email address, I'll be glad to send you out a pile of that paper.

01:11:35

Great. And by the way, I wanted to give an update that I had failed to mention when

01:11:41

I was talking about my own father's failures in the area of letting my mother make decisions over things like decorating the home and all that kind of thing.

01:11:53

He did soften on that when I got older, at least when I was a teenager or so.

01:12:00

And that couch that my mother hated, she eventually picked out the material to have it reupholstered.

01:12:13

A husband, Grant, he was created to be, as Paul says, a worker in the home.

01:12:21

That's what the Word of God says. And he should give her that latitude of working in the home.

01:12:34

And that's a wise, loving husband that gets to counsel and lets her make those kinds of decisions.

01:12:46

And, you know, it's another thing, making financial decisions. You know, some of the big decisions, a wife and husband, they ought to talk it out.

01:12:58

But in things going out, you know, I was telling my wife, she said, Do I need to do this?

01:13:03

I said, No. I trust you going out and buying a certain thing. I'm not going to control you like that.

01:13:12

And you have, as one of your articles here, that biblical masculinity takes the lead in teaching and child discipline.

01:13:27

Now, once again, I am nearly certain you are not intending by this that the mother, the wife and mother, is not to discipline their child, especially when the husband's not at home or away on a business trip or something, and she is to not spare the rod either and discipline the children in other ways.

01:13:52

Am I right? You're right. Especially when the father was in the home, he should take the lead in discipline.

01:14:03

Or if he's away on a trip, which some men are, then she's responsible for the discipline of the children.

01:14:09

If he's at work during the day, it's good. I think one of the things that can be very troublesome for a child is you act it up.

01:14:22

You know, when dad gets home, which is about five hours, then you're really going to get it.

01:14:29

So the child is in terror, you know, for five hours getting the whip from his dad when she could do it.

01:14:41

And so, yes, she should do that. But he takes the lead. And one only has to read the

01:14:49

Proverbs, Proverbs chapter three and four, you see the father being mentioned as the discipliner.

01:14:59

And it is a sad day when a husband says, you know,

01:15:05

I'm just going to let my wife do all the discipline. Now, that's a man who's not a leader, and that's a cowardly man.

01:15:13

That's not her role to be the primary discipliner of the children.

01:15:19

And so she should have a part in that. In fact, I have been a witness to husbands and fathers undermining the godly discipline of the children by reversing the decisions that the wife made, decisions that were completely legitimate.

01:15:39

Like, you know, the husband shrugging his shoulders and saying, oh, that's not a big deal. Just leave him alone or whatever.

01:15:47

Or a husband who says, well, you know,

01:15:53

I'm disciplining you because your mother wanted me to do that. Flameshifting.

01:16:00

Yeah. So that's a man who's completely advocated leadership in his home.

01:16:08

Now, you have an article here, Biblical Masculinity Shows Boldness in Maintaining Biblical Convictions.

01:16:21

And this is an area of failure in many pulpits and in the leadership of denominations, where there is such a fear on the part of the pastor or the presbyters or the people in charge, whatever kind of authority structure different groups have, where they are afraid of offending people with God's truth, and so they candy -coat it, or they just leave it out of their preaching and teaching or their bylaws and constitutions, and they make things more palatable to those in sin and to the lost.

01:17:11

And they—I mean, it's just such a sad thing. I have known men who were thoroughgoing

01:17:21

Calvinists who would never talk about these doctrines from behind the pulpit because they were afraid of their fellow elders giving them a hard time or even dismissing them, so they kept their mouths shut for years over these precious truths and things like that.

01:17:39

You've had whole denominations collapse because of this. Am I in the right ballpark here when it comes to that?

01:17:46

You are exactly in the right ballpark. In fact, you do see it compromising.

01:17:53

You know, you've got to—a real man will stand on those convictions.

01:18:00

One of the greatest examples in church history is that of Athanasius. Now, Athanasius was a bishop in the 12th century, bishop in Egypt, and the

01:18:15

Council of Nicaea had already come out, which condemned alienism.

01:18:23

Alienism was the ancient heresy that taught that Jesus was the created being of the

01:18:31

Father. He was not equal in power and glory with the Father, and that was a heresy. And it got to the point where alienism gained so much offendancy in the

01:18:43

Christian world, even the first Christian emperor,

01:18:49

Constantine, succumbed to alienism. It got to the point where the

01:18:55

Moroccan theologians came to Athanasius and said, you know, Athanasius, you are the only one who's holding against this.

01:19:06

And it says the whole world is against you, Athanasius. And then we have recorded that famous statement of Athanasius, and he said, then

01:19:15

Athanasius contra mundum, Athanasius against the world. And he was exiled five times, and he would not relent.

01:19:27

He remained firm, and in the end, just he won. Athanasius won in the end.

01:19:35

And he was the man who was willing to pay the cost. And of course, he knew about Luther. You're going to recant?

01:19:42

You're going to recant your teachings? He says, yeah, I stand, I can do no other. And, you know, we are called to earnestly contend for the faith.

01:19:56

And as a preacher, I have an obligation to preach the entire word of God, the whole counsel of God.

01:20:03

And I must not shrink back, even when I know it may not be popular, and when it could cost me a job.

01:20:13

There are some places I did not deliberately go and candidate because I didn't want to have anybody, if I wasn't sure about that church.

01:20:25

I've been known around to tell it like it is. I'm not afraid to tell it like it is. I don't,

01:20:30

I'm not, I trust I was never arrogant, but if I knew the truth,

01:20:36

I would speak it. And when I, you know, you interviewed me years ago on Freemasonry.

01:20:41

Remember that? Yeah. Oh, yeah. And out of that came an invitation to you from a listener in Ireland who was arranging a debate with a high -level

01:20:51

Mason in London, England, and you flew out there to accept that request.

01:20:58

Yep. And I remember when

01:21:04

I started teaching in my first pastorate on Freemasonry, I got some of their thoughts from some of their editing folks, and I said, well,

01:21:18

I'm just telling you what the Word of God says. Yeah, you were a part of a panel in the

01:21:24

PCA, weren't you, about whether or not members in good standing could be members of Freemasonry, and you came to the conclusion after your research, no way?

01:21:35

Well, I helped lead on that in the

01:21:42

PCA back in the late 1980s, and we finally adopted in the PCA that Freemasonry was antithetical against the faith.

01:21:53

And I'll never forget one time in my local presbytery, I was pushing for us to take it to the

01:22:00

General Assembly. And wisely, the stated court said,

01:22:07

John, I'm on your side. Well, let's phrase it in such a way that we'll form a committee, which we did.

01:22:15

But I had one guy come up to me, and he did not oppose me, but he looked at me, and he said,

01:22:21

John, are you planning to start the front of that? I said, no,

01:22:30

I'm just trying to be faithful. Now, he agreed with me, but you know, you've got to be willing to take a stand.

01:22:39

If it costs you your credit, then it costs you your service. Now, in the end,

01:22:45

I'm not going to stand before these congregants, and I'm not going to stand before these elders.

01:22:51

One day, I'm going to have to be standing before my own business and have to give an account. It's him that I want to please, not men.

01:23:01

By the way, is the video of that debate on Freemasonry that you did with the high

01:23:08

Mason in England, is that available on YouTube still? Yes.

01:23:13

If a person goes to my other publishing website, triumphantpublications .com,

01:23:22

that was my publishing and still is my publishing website. There you can click on and see that debate back in 2008.

01:23:35

Yes. Yeah, I remember really enjoying that. I remember your opponent trying to claim that Freemasonry was compatible with Christianity, was a

01:23:45

Sweden Borgianist. Well, the pivotal point in that whole debate was there was a guy named

01:23:57

Albert Pike. He was the grand pupil of the Southerners in the United States, and he wrote a book called

01:24:05

Niles and Dogma that they give every 32nd -degree Mason. And he made a comment that the

01:24:11

Hebrew god is a god of darkness, and Lucifer is the god of light. And my opponent says,

01:24:17

God, that's a rumor. That's a lies tale. That's not true. Well, I just happened to take a copy of Niles and Dogma with me to the base.

01:24:28

So, when we went to a bridge, I pulled that out and spread it over to him, and I'll never forget his face looking at that quilt, realizing it was not an old lies tale.

01:24:43

It was what he really did say. And we didn't really have time to develop that.

01:24:49

By the way, I wanted to mention, since I brought up Hebron Colony Ministries earlier in Boone, North Carolina, where you and your late wife attended my graduation service for having completed the course there and have never even wanted a sip of alcohol ever since then—and by the way, folks,

01:25:13

I want to make it clear, I believe that Christians have the liberty to socially drink moderately and that it's only a sin to be drunk, but I cannot do that.

01:25:26

I cannot socially drink at all, because I don't trust myself due to my past addictions.

01:25:31

But anyway, that ministry was founded by a man who fits the description of somebody willing to lose their church because they were standing for truth, and Reverend E.

01:25:49

A. Dillard is the man that I'm speaking of. He was the pastor of a

01:25:54

Southern Presbyterian church in North Carolina, and when that denomination became so overrun by liberalism, he could no longer remain in it in good conscience.

01:26:08

So he challenged his congregation to leave the

01:26:15

Southern Presbyterian church with him, and the vast majority refused.

01:26:21

So he resigned, gave up that church, moved to Boone, North Carolina, and when he witnessed many

01:26:30

American G .I .s during World War II returning home as drunkards, the

01:26:39

Lord placed it upon his heart to start Hebron Colony Ministries to hopefully rescue these men out of their addictions, and it's still to this day.

01:26:50

It's the oldest continually running addiction and recovery ministry for men in the

01:26:58

United States. Yeah, that's a great story. Let me tell you real quickly what happened to me since you're on that topic.

01:27:07

In 1979, when I graduated from seminary,

01:27:12

I went and took over the campus ministry at East Tennessee State University, trying to get that parachurch organization under the auspices of presbytery.

01:27:22

Anyway, I was coming up for ordination. So I'm a young man. I'm about 28, and I happened to come into the presbytery at a time where one of the churches was breaking up because the pastor had the audacity to think that you could moderately partake.

01:27:44

They thought total abstinence was the only biblical position, and it split that church.

01:27:53

So I'm getting examined, and I'm a campus pastor, okay, and the exam is going really well until somebody asks me this.

01:28:07

He says, John, what is your view on alcoholic beverages? And I said, well,

01:28:12

I think the biblical view is exactly what you said, Chris. Drunkenness is condemned, but moderation is the light.

01:28:21

I said, I don't usually partake. I could probably think in one hand how many times I've socially drank, but I believe that.

01:28:29

Well, he blabbed so much, and these other gentlemen came up to me, and they said,

01:28:36

John, we really like you, but we cannot vote for you. And then my own pastor and my own church opposed me.

01:28:48

Wow. And when it came down to the final vote to pray to abdain me to the gospel ministry, the vote was 13 for an alcoholic.

01:29:00

You broke up at the end of your sentence, 13 for and what? 11 against me.

01:29:07

Wow. I squeaked by, and it was all because of my view.

01:29:13

And because of that view, Chris, my own pastor, my own church, I was forbidden to preach in my own home church for a while.

01:29:22

Wow. Was this a Presbyterian church? Yes. Was it

01:29:27

Bible Presbyterian? It was EPA at the time. I've never heard of a church other than the

01:29:33

Bible Presbyterians and the Free Presbyterians who have a strict teetotaling policy.

01:29:41

Well, what happened was, two years later, one of the abbots of that church came up and said,

01:29:48

John, we need to ask for your forgiveness. We should never have to bid you to the pulpit because of that condition.

01:29:56

Oh, that was great. And that demonstrated masculinity on their part, biblical masculinity, for them to ask for forgiveness over that.

01:30:08

And one of the issues that you bring up in your paper is that biblical masculinity is diligent in his work, or a man possessing that is diligent in his work, providing for his family.

01:30:23

That's a huge area that is really repulsive when you know of men where their wives or their girlfriends—obviously, men and women shouldn't be living together if they're not married, but I have frequently seen the circumstance where the wives are the breadwinners and the husband is a layabout, as they call them, and just he's home smoking pot and getting drunk and lying on the couch all day or doing whatever else he wants to do.

01:31:02

And again, out of fear in some way, the wife or girlfriend continues to allow him to not provide for them both and their children if they haven't.

01:31:20

Well, the Bible puts a great premium on being diligent. In my paper, I quote quite a few of the

01:31:26

Proverbs that talks about the importance of diligence in work.

01:31:33

Again, when God created man, male and female, he created

01:31:40

Adam to till the garden, and then he created Eve to be his helpmate.

01:31:47

And but her greatest help would be to—and he named her

01:31:52

Eve because she would be the mother of the living—that she would help him the best by being in the home, taking care of the home, and managing the home while he's out fighting, you know, to provide for them financially.

01:32:14

And so one of the important things for young men, there's a passage that talks about you need to prepare your house first, and then, meaning vocationally, get a job whereby you can financially take care of a wife and children.

01:32:38

And then here's the reality is, it's important to try to find work—and it's not always the easiest thing, granted—but to find work where they can depend upon his income, because what's likely going to happen and what should happen.

01:32:57

So how do you get pregnant and have children? Well, he needs to he needs to stay home with the children.

01:33:04

So if he was working, you don't need to be dependent on his income to make ends meet.

01:33:13

And so he needs to work hard to provide for that home.

01:33:21

And therefore, that should be a question asked of any anybody. It says, well, what are you doing for a living?

01:33:29

A father who's going to give away his daughter should be asked in the perspective of a son -in -law, so what do you do for a living?

01:33:40

And how do you intend to provide for my daughter and my grandchildren that will likely come?

01:33:48

Those are very important questions. Amen. Well, I will say this.

01:33:54

I did some painting for a man, and he did pretty well, but he chose to be a stay -at -home father.

01:34:03

His wife was a regional pharmaceutical representative, and you know, the pharmaceuticals, they make both of them money.

01:34:13

And so he lived at one that was just sitting around doing it, but he just chose, I'm just going to sit home.

01:34:20

I'll take care of the children. I'll let you make a six -figure income for us. Then he would occasionally go out and play golf.

01:34:31

He would take care of the children, but he would go out and he worked in Pennsylvania at a nuclear engineering plant.

01:34:40

He had some real training, but his wife made a lot more money than he did.

01:34:45

And one of the areas—well, it includes several specific characteristics, but that separates true biblical masculinity from machismo is gentleness and compassion and cherishing your wife.

01:35:14

If you could give us an outline of those elements that the macho man just views that kind of thing as sissified, as being weak, when he is the one really demonstrating cowardice by not possessing these elements.

01:35:34

Granted, that gentleness and compassion, I think, is best exhibited in the female gender.

01:35:43

But we got clear, and I make it a point in my paper, that Jesus is our model.

01:35:50

He's a model of gentleness. He's a model of compassion. And then in Ephesians 5, when it talks about the marriage relationship, and Paul says the marriage relationship represents

01:36:04

Christ's relationship to the church. The wife is told to submit to her husband in all things, meaning all things biblical.

01:36:12

He can't command her to do something sinful. There is a limit to her submission.

01:36:19

But all of us men, male, what

01:36:24

Jesus, the Word of God says that the husband is to nourish and cherish his wife as Christ cherishes and nourishes the church.

01:36:36

And how did Christ demonstrate that? By dying for her, by dying for his church.

01:36:44

He was the ultimate servant, and he cherished his church so much that he went to the cross for his bride, the church.

01:36:56

And so the husband, the example in Christ and how he cares for the church, and it was not when my,

01:37:08

I mean, when my wife was still with me in the land of the living, you know,

01:37:14

I knew about that, and I sought to the best of my ability as a Christian husband to love, to nourish my wife and to cherish her.

01:37:27

And there's no, I don't care if you're the godless husband.

01:37:34

When you realize I am supposed to live my life as Christ loved the church, I can't do that.

01:37:41

And in a sense, he's right. I can't do that in my own ability.

01:37:46

I don't have that capacity. I know I'm a sinner, and I know at times I'm going to foul up, but nonetheless, that is what

01:37:53

I'm called to do. That should be the focus. And one of the things that I tried to do, well, on a certain occasion, is one way you can cherish your wife is by complimenting her on things that she does, taking her some of the chores that she would normally do.

01:38:20

You do it. Act like a servant. And I make it a point is that of writing love notes to your wife.

01:38:31

Now, granted, I didn't always do that on all occasions, but I remember some years, you know, you're trying to think, you know, when am

01:38:39

I going to get my wife, you know? And I would say, okay, some flowers, but my wife used to say,

01:38:45

I like flowers, but I can't have them. And so what

01:38:54

I decided to do on certain anniversaries and birthdays, I decided, you know, my wife was a true help to me.

01:39:03

She was indispensable. She did all the types that are in my book. She figured out how to take the

01:39:08

Good News Bible series to the world. She was that brilliant. And she was amazing in that regard.

01:39:18

And I remember deciding, I'm going to put her, instead of the flowers, this anniversary birthday.

01:39:24

She did like going out for supper. But I decided, you know, I need, I'm just going to write her a love note.

01:39:31

It's how much I appreciate her. And I said it, you know, by her bed and only to come in hours later to find her, you know, just crying over that letter.

01:39:48

And I make a comment in my paper. I said, look, I've said what's interesting here is that restaurants may be nice, flowers may be beautiful, candy may be delightful, but words spoken at the right time are priceless.

01:40:17

And as husbands, we fail. One of the greatest ways we can show that we cherish our wives is to frequently tell them how much we love them, how much we appreciate what they do for us.

01:40:33

And you do that for your children as well. A father ought to do that for his children. But the man who doesn't cherish his wife, who doesn't want her advice, runs his home like a tyrant and things of that way, he's not cherishing his wife.

01:40:57

He needs to treat her as a priceless treasure. That's to you it. And then he nourishes her.

01:41:04

Oh, how does Christ nourish his church? By sanctifying her by the washing of water with the word.

01:41:13

I nourish my life by leading her in the word of God, by always leading in devotion and things like that.

01:41:23

And I'll never forget, Chris, my wife, uh, she was healthy.

01:41:31

And then she got to the point where she couldn't walk. And 13 MRIs and 14 neurosurgeons and all that could never figure out why she could never walk.

01:41:43

And she was in a wheelchair. I was experiencing that affliction. And I experienced affliction while my painting business went downhill for seven months.

01:41:53

Then I had a ministerial affliction, all happening at the same time. And I remember after a devotion,

01:42:00

I quoted Romans 8, 28, all things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to this.

01:42:07

And I remember reaching over, held her hand. I said, my dear, I wish I could tell you what all the good is that's going to come.

01:42:17

But I can't. But I will tell you this. There is a great good because God says there's a good, and that's all we need to know that God says it.

01:42:26

And that's all of it. Only three months later, I had to get a diagnosis of cervical cancer.

01:42:33

That was the fourth affliction. And then three months later, he takes her to glory, but she never complained.

01:42:42

She was a wonderful testimony of godliness.

01:42:48

And if people came over to see her, they would always see a smiling face.

01:42:54

And the pastor said, if you don't see Chris Leonard, you're always going to be met with a smiling face, no complaining attitude.

01:43:07

It was a very hard time. I had to care for her for home hospice.

01:43:15

And it was the hardest thing I ever had to do. I don't need to go into the details. It was very labor intensive.

01:43:23

And I remember telling my wife near the end,

01:43:29

I said, you know, my dear, you have served me, you have served your

01:43:38

Lord well, the Lord Jesus. You have won the race.

01:43:46

Why don't you go get the crown? This is right near the end. She's done so much more things, she was in and out of it.

01:43:53

I said, you've already won the race. And then I'll never forget, right near the end,

01:43:59

I came in, and she feebly reached up her hand to me.

01:44:13

I want to go home. So I hung her down to heaven.

01:44:23

I said, there's nothing stopping you. Just go be with your

01:44:28

Jesus. And within a day, she was with her Jesus. But you got to tell your wife, husband, tell your wives how much you love them.

01:44:50

Well, we are going to our final commercial break. And once again, if we have time, we'll start reading the questions that are submitted to us from our listeners.

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01:52:35

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That's very important that you do that. Please do that. And we are now back with our concluding portion of the wonderful interview that we've been having with John M.

01:53:44

Otis on biblical masculinity, and we have a listener in Harrisville, Utah named

01:53:52

Abilene, and Abilene asks, one of the puzzling things about Matthew 5 -5 in the

01:54:03

Sermon on the Mount is that very phrase, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

01:54:11

Very rarely ever in our modern day do you hear the description of meek as a compliment, especially when it is intended for a man.

01:54:22

Can you explain this? That's a very good observation and question. And John, I have heard, perhaps you could correct me if I'm wrong,

01:54:30

I've just heard this, that the Greek word for this is intended to convey the idea of strength restrained.

01:54:41

Is that correct as far as you know? Yeah, and it's translated in the

01:54:47

American Standard, by the way, as gentle. Okay. Yeah, that's an interesting note there, too.

01:54:54

So, yeah, strength under control. And it's a, one of the characteristics of the elders of the church, they are to govern the church with gentleness, correcting those who are in opposition, that perhaps, as Target Timothy King says, they will come to their senses and come to the knowledge of the truth and escape the stare of the devil.

01:55:20

So, being meek is being gentle. That's why the

01:55:26

New American Standard quotes there, and strength under control. Yeah. Well, thank you,

01:55:31

Abilene. Continue listening to the program and keep spreading the word about it in Utah and beyond.

01:55:38

We have an anonymous listener who says, don't you think Christian parents have to be very careful in the way they raise their sons and not make the error that the son is not masculine if he does not fit stereotypes of masculinity according to his gifts and hobbies and desires in the realm of pastimes and so on?

01:56:05

You can have a son who is not very athletically inclined but prefers music or art or even auto repair, and just because he is not good at sports or not inclined to participate in them does not mean he is not truly masculine.

01:56:23

How do you respond to that from the anonymous listener? Well, it's true.

01:56:29

We've all been given certain gifts, and we cannot associate biblical masculinity per se with athleticism.

01:56:42

Yes, a man ought to be able to—I've got to tell this hero story,

01:56:51

Chris. My youngest son, in his early years, became a black belt in taekwondo.

01:57:01

And one day, he said to me, he said, Dad, you don't have to just own a man who's owning a giraffe and then break his wrist.

01:57:09

I said, no, I'm going to be as tall as him if he doesn't break my wrist. And so, with a trip to do,

01:57:20

I was literally failing him. He said, Dad, my recommendation to you is to win.

01:57:29

But look, God has gifted us, and there are some that may not be good athletics, but those are not out of the great male composers throughout history, and others utilize their gifts.

01:57:47

So, yeah, let's stop with that manliness to abandon a place, or put together a car, you know.

01:57:58

He's absolutely right. Well, we are out of time, and I want to make sure that our listeners are reminded of your websites, triumphantgospelministries .com.

01:58:26

Well, it has been such a joy having you back on the program,

01:58:34

John. It's been far too long. I look forward to your return frequently to this program for other interviews, and you are certainly a wealth of biblical information and wisdom.

01:58:46

And I want to remind all you men out there who are in ministry leadership, please do not forget about the

01:58:53

Iron Shepherd's Iron Radio Free Pastors Luncheon coming up on Thursday, September 18th at 11 a .m.

01:59:01

at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania. Our keynote speaker is Dr. James R.

01:59:06

White of Alpha Omega Ministries, and everybody attending not only gets a free meal, but you will also get free books donated by generous

01:59:17

Christian publishers, and we hope you join us. Please send me an email to register with this free event, chrisarnson at gmail .com,

01:59:25

and to Pastors Luncheon in the subject line. I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far, far greater

01:59:35

Savior than you are a sinner. Thank you for listening to Iron Shepherd's Iron Radio.