Act Like Men Session 1

Cornerstone Church

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May 2, 2023

CCLI Streaming License CSPL128101

00:00: but we can't stand anymore. If you want, sure. That makes sense. Hail the power of Jesus' name
00:20: Let angels prostrate fall Pray for the royal diadem
00:30: And crown Him Lord of all!
00:39: Pray for the royal bride again
00:44: And crown Him Lord of all!
00:55: Chosen seed of Israel's grace
01:00: He ransomed from the fall Hail Him who saved you by His grace
01:10: And crown Him Lord of all!
01:17: Hail Him who saved you by His grace
01:23: And crown Him Lord of all!
01:31: To every kindred, every tribe
01:39: On this terrestrial wall To Him all majesty astride
01:49: And crown Him Lord of all!
01:57: To Him all majesty astride
02:02: And crown Him Lord of all!
02:24: To Him all majesty astride
02:36: And crown Him Lord of all! To Him all majesty astride
02:45: And crown Him Lord of all! To Him all majesty astride
03:08: And crown Him Lord of all!
03:17: To Him all majesty astride And crown Him Lord of all! To Him all majesty astride
03:32: And crown Him Lord of all!
03:59: Standing at the crown All music by His throne
04:08: Awake my soul and sing
04:14: Of Him who died for me
04:21: And hail Him as my majesty
04:28: Through all eternity Majesty, Lord of all
04:41: Let every throne before Him fall
04:48: The King of kings, O come adore
04:54: Our God who reigns forevermore!
05:02: Hail Him the Lord of life
05:10: Who triumphed o 'er the grave
05:16: And rose victorious in the strife
05:24: For those He came to save His glories now we sing
05:36: Good -bye and rose from the grave
05:42: Good -bye, eternal life
05:48: To drink and live such as may die
05:58: Majesty, Lord of all Let every throne before Him fall
06:08: The King of kings, O come adore
06:14: Our God who reigns forevermore!
06:21: All hail, Redeemer of heaven
06:28: For He has died for me
06:34: His praise and glory shall not fail
06:41: Throughout eternity Majesty, Lord of all
06:54: Let every throne before Him fall
07:01: The King of kings, O come adore
07:07: Our God who reigns forevermore!
07:45: All hail, Redeemer of heaven For He has died for me
08:01: All right, in the special instructions given to men in the book of 1
08:13: Timothy, we are taught that men should lift holy hands and pray, rather than lift hands in disputing and in fighting and anger.
08:22: So, as men, we should be devoted to prayer. So, who would like to open us in a word of prayer?
08:31: I'd appreciate it. Thank you,
08:42: Tim. Father, thank you for this time together with men. I pray that you would speak through Jeff, and that we would listen to what you have to say for us through your word.
08:53: We know that your word is sharper than any two -edged sword, so I pray that we would be able to discern the intentions of our heart through the preaching of your word.
09:02: So, thank you for your word, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. The overarching theme of the book of Daniel, John Laskin, what would you say it is?
09:13: What is the overarching theme of Daniel? Sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God.
09:20: Amen. His free will to do whatever He wants in the universe.
09:26: None can stay His hand and say, Why have you done it? But He does according to His will in the heavens and on earth.
09:33: The will of God is unstoppable. Now, to say that does not mean that the will of man is irrelevant.
09:45: These are different categories. The will of God, His decree, is over everything that happens under the earth.
09:53: But that does not mean that the human will is meaningless. We are instrumental in the things that happen on earth.
10:01: And the things that we do, the choices that we make, matter intensely.
10:06: In fact, from our perspective, everything changes based on what we do or do not do.
10:13: God's eternal decree, His sovereignty, His will, is not ever overrun by our will, but compatible with His will, is the will of man.
10:24: And I will say to you this evening, that the will of man is one of the most powerful forces in the universe.
10:33: It is an important thing to consider. In the book of Daniel, you have the will of God over the nations, even the giving over of Israel to Babylon.
10:44: You have God sovereign from cover to cover in the prophecies that are unfolded.
10:49: But you also see the strong will of a man named Daniel. When told to eat the king's food and to drink the king's wine, what did
11:00: Daniel do? He refused. And by the strength of his will, empowered by his
11:07: God, he refused the king's food, and the result of that is he turned out healthier than the other boys.
11:15: Later on, the wicked king decreed that everybody had to pray to this king alone.
11:25: And Daniel exerted his will and even opened his windows in a show of defiance by the strength of his will, refused to pray to a false god, and openly prayed to the true
11:38: God. His will on display. As a result of that, what did they do to Daniel?
11:46: And refusing to back down, he was willing, willing to go face the lions rather than to obey a wicked order of the king.
11:57: There came a time when a vision was given to Daniel. He set himself to pray and fast.
12:05: As soon as he, by the exercise of his will, restraining his appetite and seeking
12:12: God all day long, as soon as he began to pray, what did God do? In the heavens,
12:17: God released Gabriel to bring him an answer. But by the strength of his will, he persevered and he endured in prayer and in fasting, and it wasn't until the 21st day that God released
12:31: Michael, the archangel, to come to his help. And the result then is he got this vision and this prophecy, which unfolded the history of the world.
12:42: This incredible revelation. But somehow, the spiritual war that was happening in heaven between Michael and the archangels,
12:51: Michael and Gabriel, against these demons, the prince of Persia and other demonic forces in the heavenlies, these were invisible things.
13:00: But here on earth, Daniel's will was in the middle of the fight.
13:06: Our human will is in the battle. When we talk this weekend about spiritual warfare, we're not just talking about invisible things that have nothing to do with us.
13:19: Somehow, the way we fight on earth affects the outcomes in the heavenlies and the way things unfold.
13:26: Now, does that overrun God's decree or change his mind? No, of course not. That's a different category.
13:33: But the will of man, from our perspective, is changing outcomes.
13:39: The will of man. Let's think of a few other examples from history or from the Bible of strong -willed men.
13:48: Who can you think of besides Daniel? Moses, the strong -willed man.
13:55: Paul. Paul was pretty hard -headed, wasn't he? He was unstoppable.
14:01: Nothing could deter him. No matter if he was stoned and left for dead, he would get back up and go right back into the city.
14:08: Couldn't turn him away. Who else can you think of? Peter. Very strong -willed.
14:15: In church history, we have, in the Reformation, strong -willed men like Martin Luther and Calvin and Melanchthon and all of the
14:24: Reformers willing to die, if need be, in order to restore the true gospel.
14:31: One of those Reformers was John Knox. Training with Calvin in Geneva, he prayed,
14:38: Give me Scotland, Lord, or give me death. And he went head -to -head with Mary, Queen of Scots, for a long period of time.
14:48: In fact, Mary had come to say that she fears John Knox's prayers more than all the assembled armies of Europe.
14:57: There was spiritual warfare for a nation, and the prayers of John Knox were instrumental in bringing that nation to Presbyterianism, out of the bondage of Rome.
15:09: It was a spiritual battle fought in the will. Knox had to be willing to die, and he was exiled and he lived and then ultimately died for the cause, but Scotland was won to the gospel.
15:23: And his son -in -law after him, John Welch, exiled to France. A cannonball shot from the wicked
15:30: Romish king of France blew the gunpowder out of Welch's hand, the son -in -law of John Knox.
15:42: Another time, he was laying in his bed, and the cannonball split his bed in half as he slept.
15:47: Wow. John Welch, a strong -willed man, but he fought and fought and then came back to Scotland.
15:54: Ultimately, the battle was won. Patrick Henry, here in the United States of America, what is his famous saying?
16:01: Give me liberty or give me death. Give me liberty or give me death. Who talks like that anymore?
16:08: Who is willing to die for the sake of the cause? Well, let's turn and meet a man that we have spent little time considering whose name is
16:20: Apollos. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verses 12 to 14.
16:27: Now, when asked about who are the strong -willed men of the Bible, we think of Daniel and Moses, we think of Peter, and somebody here said
16:36: Paul. Paul was a tour de force.
16:41: He wrote 13 books, possibly Hebrews, in the
16:47: New Testament. Possibly 14. Right. That's debatable. But the other option of who could have written
16:54: Hebrews would be Apollos, because he had sufficient learning to put that together.
17:01: I used to think it was Apollos. Now I think it's Paul. I think Paul was using like an
17:06: Emanuelson, kind of like somebody to write. That's why the Greek language is different in Hebrews, but I think it was his teaching that brought it to Rome.
17:17: Yeah, that's what I'm excited about. You know who thought that Apollos wrote it? Martin Luther.
17:24: Luther held that Apollos wrote Hebrews. Let's read. Somebody read for me 1
17:30: Corinthians 16, 12 to 14. Guys, this is the theme passage of this weekend.
17:36: Setting the stage for manliness, what it really means to be a man. And my opening message here at this retreat will be that it includes setting your will and being as strong -willed as Apollos in the battle.
17:53: Most men will waste their strength on lesser things, worthless things, and lose their will.
18:01: But Apollos did not. Who would like to read for me? 1 Corinthians 16, 12 to 14.
18:09: Thanks. Now concerning my brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers, but it was not at all his will to come now.
18:18: He will come when he has opportunity. Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith.
18:23: Act like men. Be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. Excellent.
18:29: The book of 1 Corinthians is untangling a knot. It is sorting out an absolute mess, a dumpster fire of a church.
18:39: Corinth had as many problems as there are hours in the day. And Paul goes through the book one at a time, knocking out the issues.
18:47: But when he gets to the end of the book, instead of negatively dealing with the problems, he turns around and gives five imperatives.
18:57: What is an imperative? What we should do. It's what we should do.
19:02: It's a command. It is not an optional statement. It's not a suggestion. An imperative is a command.
19:09: So here in verses 13 and 14, the first is be watchful. Sounds to me like a drill sergeant closing up this book with five hard -hitting commands.
19:23: Be watchful. Two, stand firm in the faith. The third is interesting for a men's retreat.
19:30: Act like men. You're not allowed to say that in our culture today because that would be misgendering someone who thinks that they're other than how
19:41: God made them. Be strong is the fourth. And then the fifth is let all that you do be done in love.
19:51: I've always clued in on that passage because it's so striking. Just that staccato fashion of just commands.
19:58: It makes you perk up and pay attention. And as a man, hopefully there's something in you that says, yeah, I want to be a man.
20:04: I want to act like a man. I want to be strong. But what I always have glossed over in reading this passage is verse 12.
20:12: What can we learn from Apollos? I find this incredibly interesting. Now consider who
20:18: Paul is. Paul is the apostle by the will of God.
20:25: Undisputed leader of the church at this point. He is the one who's taken the gospel where Apollos ministers.
20:32: Apollos is a Jew, but he's from Alexandria down in Egypt. He was never from Jerusalem.
20:38: And he goes up to Turkey and then into Greece, to Achaia, Corinth.
20:45: So his ministry is not around Jerusalem. He's not familiar with Peter, James, and John. He is in Paul's territory,
20:52: Ephesus and Corinth. And Paul is the one who has been planting churches in these
20:58: Gentile places. Paul is the man. But notice in verse 12,
21:08: Paul says, now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged.
21:18: Now, is that a command? No, it's not. Urging is different than commanding.
21:23: Paul understands that the soldiers that he is leading are not his puppets.
21:33: He is not directing them and commanding them as Lord over them. He's a leader among them.
21:39: And this is not a matter of sin. Apollos has stewardship over his own life.
21:46: Paul doesn't own his life. Apollos is not a slave to Paul. But notice, he strongly urged.
21:54: He had a very strong will for what Apollos should do. And that was to go visit
22:01: Corinth. Go to Corinth. Things have been rough there. I'm sending you.
22:07: I want to send you. But notice the clash of wills. This is what I find so interesting.
22:13: But it was not at all his will to come now. You know what
22:20: I love about that? Even though he's dealing with a great apostle, he himself is relating to God as his
22:31: Lord. As his one chief shepherd of his soul. And he knows who he is in Christ.
22:37: And he knows what God has called him to do. And once a man of God has a mission like that, no one and nothing, including the great apostle, should be able to move you from that mission.
22:50: Once you know what God has called you to do, nothing in heaven or on earth should be able to stop you from doing what
22:59: God has called you to do. And I love this because he was not at all willing. It was not his will to come now.
23:06: And Paul even signs it off by saying, he'll come when he has opportunity. Which tells me that Paul relented.
23:15: He could tell he's not changing Apollos' mind. This is a man on a mission.
23:22: And I see here in Apollos a man of strong will. I think in the church many times we have thought that willfulness is always bad.
23:36: Now let's look a little more carefully at the life of Apollos. How many times do you suppose
23:41: Apollos is mentioned in the New Testament? How many mentions of his name? Take a guess.
23:48: 10! You got it exactly right! And I've listed all of them here on your notes.
23:55: Right? If you notice in 1 Corinthians 3, 4 to 6, that's three references because he's mentioned in four, five, and six.
24:05: But these references, beginning at the top with the one we just saw, 1 Corinthians 16, 12, all the way down.
24:12: Let's quickly look at these 10 verses and learn why it is that Apollos was right to be so strong -willed.
24:21: What had he set himself to do? What were the things he was standing for? I'm going to go around the room, so Brad I'll probably call on you first if you could find
24:31: Acts 18, 24. You can either turn in the scripture or just read it right off the notes. And then
24:36: Bob 19, 1. Cameron 1 Corinthians 1, 12. Mike, can you do 3, 4 to 6?
24:45: John 3, 22. What's your name again? Mason.
24:51: I didn't know which of the brothers you were. Uriah 4, 6. And then Titus 3, 13.
24:57: Eric. All right. Let's look first at Acts 18, 24.
25:03: Brad, read it for us. Now in due name, Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus.
25:09: He was an eloquent man, confident in the scriptures. Did you say he was an elephant man?
25:16: No. Eloquent.
25:23: Eloquent, oh yes, yes. He's a native of Alexandria.
25:35: Alexandria at this time, as our PhD historian would be able to tell us, was the center of learning, wasn't it?
25:41: It was probably the preeminent center of learning. They followed the philosophy of Philo and were very knowledgeable, very studied.
25:52: And he comes from this place. Now he is a Jew, but notice where his attention had been devoted.
26:01: Yes, he had probably learned some of that eloquence by the schools that he was involved in.
26:06: Maybe probably the influence of Philo, which was more of a metaphorical, allegorical style of teaching.
26:13: But he was very dramatic, very well -spoken. He knew how to communicate truth.
26:20: But the key verse here at the end of verse 24, the key part of the verse, it says he was competent in...
26:27: Scriptures. Here is a man who had devoted himself to learning.
26:34: Education. Education is a good thing. Remember our friend
26:40: Daniel? Daniel and his three friends, Hananiah and Mishael and Azariah, were devoted to learning.
26:49: So much so that the king chose them out to become part of his court. They had studied language.
26:56: They were quick studies. They were willing to devote themselves to hitting the books. One of the things that made this man,
27:04: Apollos, useful in the kingdom is that he was willing to learn. Education here is not regarded as a bad thing.
27:12: But it wasn't the learning of Alexandria or of the Roman Empire that was foremost.
27:18: Sure, he read history. Sure, he read science and studied many areas of study. But the thing that is pointed out by Luke here in chapter 18, verse 24, is that he was competent in...
27:31: The Scriptures. If you ever want to be on mission for God, if you ever want to be sure of what
27:41: God has called you to do, you have to be competent in Scripture. You have to be spending time in the
27:49: Word of God, sharpening the edge of that sword. I think of David's mighty men who went into battle.
27:56: I think it was metaphorical, as well as a physical reality, that holding the sword, fighting off the enemy, the mighty man's hand froze to the handle of the sword.
28:08: What was that guy's name? Eleazar, was it? His hand froze to the sword.
28:15: In the same way, if you become competent in the Scripture, your hand frozen to your sword, which is the
28:20: Word of God, you are becoming strong for the battle. It's a prerequisite to being on mission for God.
28:28: Unless you're competent in Scripture, what do you have to say? Nobody cares about your opinion on this, that, or the other.
28:37: They need to hear from God, and the only place we learn that from, the special revelation of the
28:42: Word of God. He was competent in Scripture. Next verse, Bob, please. 19 .1
28:49: And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus.
28:56: There he found some disciples. Okay, so here in 19 .1, you have Paul and Apollos basically crisscrossing each other, going to different places, and missing one another.
29:08: Priscilla and Aquila are in the mix, but look at the previous verse indicating what he did in this
29:14: Achaea region, so probably the city of Corinth, certainly at some point, but he had gone from the
29:20: Turkish continent over into Greece, into Achaea, and lands at Corinth in verse 28 of chapter 18, he powerfully refuted the
29:32: Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was
29:38: Jesus. Here you have a man who's willing to refute the lies.
29:48: And in this, I would sum that up with the word apologetics. Is it worthwhile to spend time on a
29:55: Monday night to learn what Mormons and Roman Catholics and Muslims and atheists and secularists think?
30:04: Yes, in order to refute their views, you need to understand their worldview. But more importantly, you're there with the sword in hand to show them by the
30:14: Scripture that the Christ is Jesus. So here we're seeing a glimpse of why
30:20: Apollos was so sure of himself. Well, he was in the
30:26: Scripture and he was in the battle, fighting for that Scripture. Now we turn to 1
30:31: Corinthians 1. So here we had learned in the book of Acts that Apollos had gone to Corinthian, to the
30:41: Corinthian church. And he had begun to teach them, watering the ground where Paul had sown the seed.
30:51: Now, this presents a problem, evidently, because the Corinthians, as we mentioned, they're a dumpster fire.
30:58: They take this as an opportunity to become sectarian. Some following the teachings of Paul and others beginning to esteem
31:08: Apollos as a better teacher and assuming he's teaching something different, they begin to break off into factions.
31:16: So let's turn to 1 Corinthians 1. And the next mention of Apollos is in verse 12.
31:24: Who's that? Cameron? What I mean is that each one of these says I follow Paul, or I follow
31:30: Apollos, or I follow Cephas, or I follow Christ. Right.
31:36: So here it's possible there's four factions. Because some follow Cephas and some follow
31:42: Christ. I think it's more likely that there's two. I think that you have some who are following Apollos who are setting themselves up as now more enlightened.
31:53: They've moved on. They're the super spiritual, the enlightened. And this other group is saying, wait a minute, no, we're apostolic.
32:03: Paul went down and met with Peter. And so we have not only the testimony of Paul, but he's saying what the apostles said, and we're sticking with him, the apostles.
32:14: And then I think this group turns around and says, oh yeah, well we follow Christ directly. We don't need any apostles in Jerusalem.
32:22: So I think there's probably a division between this group who in following Apollos has thought themselves super spiritual, and others who are less impressed or less willing to devote themselves to a man.
32:38: And yet, they're claiming the same thing. So it's become ugly. I think there's two factions.
32:44: Could be four different factions. You've got your Peter group and the Jesus group, the
32:49: Jesus people, and the Cephas, I mean the Paul and the Apollos. But in any case, what you had in Apollos was leadership.
33:01: He had come and taught and poured himself into them to the point where men were willing to follow after him.
33:10: He was the leader of men. So what do you think they saw in him that they were willing to follow?
33:19: Character. Competence. They saw he knew the scripture. If he was the one who wrote the book of Hebrews, look at the depth of that theology.
33:29: Even if he didn't, we know from the book of Acts, his competence and how he was able to refute even the
33:36: Jewish scholars on their turf. Here was a man who had studied the scripture and this sword was what he was wielding.
33:46: But notice something else about his leadership. Chapter 3 verses 4 to 6.
33:52: When one says I follow Paul and another I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human?
34:00: What is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believe, as the
34:05: Lord assigned to each. I planted Apollos water, but God gave it Paul will remind them that the leadership of himself and of Apollos was not lording over anyone.
34:18: It was a servant leadership. The word servant in verse 5 is key in this passage that they were not there to elevate themselves such that someone have a faction following one and following another.
34:34: Apollos had come as a servant to help and to be willing to serve the
34:41: Lord Christ alongside of them. He was willing to get his hands dirty just like Paul making tents.
34:49: He was willing to do whatever needed to be done in the service of the church.
34:54: So his leadership was a servant leadership. We're almost done with Apollos we'll move on quickly here.
35:00: Chapter 4 verse 6. John? 3 .22 Oh yeah, 3 .22
35:06: I missed that. 3 .22 and then 4 .6 Whether Paul or Apollos or Caesars or the world or life or death, whether present or the future all are yours.
35:17: Awesome. So it's not that Apollos was over them but rather that he was a gift to them.
35:29: He was given to them. The writer here
35:35: Paul says all are yours. Meaning he was given.
35:40: He came with a concern for them and willing to pour into their lives.
35:46: He had not a desire to be elevated or even regarded as equal. Paul is saying both of us are given to you.
35:54: We're gifts in that sense and every member of the church is a gift to the church and every teacher in Ephesians chapter 4 it talks about how
36:03: God gave some apostles and other evangelists and other pastor teachers. These are given to the church because it's a gift from God for the building up of the body.
36:15: Next 1 Corinthians 4 6 I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit brothers that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.
36:35: Paul's concern is against puffing up prior and he points out the humility of himself and of Paul and of Apollos.
36:44: He says that none would be puffed up as one against another.
36:50: So here you see the humility of Apollos and also of Paul. Lastly Titus 3 .13
37:01: the final mention. Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on the way.
37:07: See that they lack nothing. Awesome, thank you. Here as Paul has been planting churches and finally appointing elders,
37:14: Titus has become a pastor where Paul had left to, I think it was in Crete and Apollos is still in the ministry.
37:24: He's still running the mission. So from this I see a steadfast endurance even to the end.
37:32: Speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way. See that they lack nothing. He's still partnering in the gospel and you see a steadfast endurance.
37:42: So in the bottom of your notes in the application section from Apollos you see him devoting himself to the same things that made him great.
37:52: He's on mission. He's willing to study the scriptures particularly becoming educated and so competent apologetics leadership, service, concern for others, humility and steadfast endurance.
38:12: Why is it a good thing that Apollos was so strong -willed? Because his will had been set to the very things that are at the heart of God.
38:23: Strong -willed, there's many women who complain that after 20 years
38:28: I still can't change him. He's still just like when we got married. I haven't been able to change him.
38:36: Did you know that is almost definitional of a man? That men are by definition strong -willed.
38:46: It's part of what it is to be a man because men are called to be providers and protectors. To go before and to go do the hard things, to be the ones who were called to be the first to forgive, the first to step up and to do the hardest work.
39:04: If there's a heavy cabinet in the house which of the two in the marriage is called to move in?
39:14: The man's got to step up and be a man and in the same way a man will be strong -willed.
39:20: Now the problem is if a man becomes strong -willed in things other than the mission of God, it tends to be useless.
39:28: Strong -willed about watching every football game that comes on on a Sunday. Every Sunday.
39:35: And nothing can change him because that's what he's going to do. But it's useless.
39:41: So now the second half of the sermon here, I wanted to turn our attention to what robs a man of his will.
39:52: What emasculates a man and takes away his desire to accomplish a mission.
40:02: Let's go back to our main passage, 1 Corinthians 16, 13. We have the positive model of Apollos, a strong -willed man.
40:15: Even Paul couldn't change his mind. He knew who he was in Christ. He knew what he was called to do.
40:21: He stayed on mission and nothing could deter him. It was a servant -hearted mission. It was competent.
40:27: It was in the Scriptures. It led other people to the point where his ministry was competitive with Paul's in the minds of the people.
40:36: This is a strong -willed man and yet Paul warns in verse 13 of what can take that away.
40:45: Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith.
40:52: Act like men. Be strong. And then we'll get to the 14th verse just to close it out at the end.
41:01: Watch out for things that will steal your strength and rob you of your manliness.
41:10: That's what Paul's saying there. Watch out. There are things to be watchful of.
41:19: There are things that make you not manly. There are things that make you flimsy, the opposite of firm.
41:31: There are things that make you weak, the opposite of strong. I was listening to a podcast by a man that I consider to be manly because he doesn't mince words.
41:47: He may not be the best spoken all the time and I don't agree with this theology all the time.
41:54: He's post -millennial and theonomic, goes a little far into those things but he is willing to say things the way they are without flinching.
42:07: His name is A .D. Robles. Anybody heard of him? A .D. Robles? You like A .D. Robles? I love that guy.
42:14: And he's funny. He titled one of his videos very strangely Keep Yourself from Pornos and Drugs and Hydrogenated Oils.
42:28: So I clicked on that like okay, that's an interesting title for a podcast. And he said he had a eureka moment.
42:37: He began to think about what is destroying this culture. And he looked around and he said, look at the sexual, just anarchy and just the absolute breakdown of the minds of the youth.
42:50: What's the common denominator behind this drift and all of those things?
42:56: And he traced it to pornography. And then he said, what would cause for the first time in the history of the world someone to walk into a school and shoot random kids?
43:11: That's not been done. Something is getting really out of it. And he traced it to drugs. Then in each case either prescribed drugs.
43:20: In the most recent case in Nashville, it was a woman who had been taking male masculine hormones of testosterone for years and years to the point where her mind was deranged and went in and shot a pastor's daughter and some other children.
43:36: How does the mind get that warped? It is the use of drugs. Now there is in some extreme cases reasons to use medicine.
43:48: But the use of fentanyl and street drugs and the quick use of psychedelic or psychiatric drugs for things like ADHD.
44:02: Children that just prescribed drugs because of anxiety or some level of depression.
44:08: The first thing that the doctors run to is drugs. So A .D.
44:14: Robles was thinking about this and thinking how bad the culture has gotten. And he said, you know what?
44:20: If you could just tell your son, the young man in your church, keep yourself away from pornos and drugs, you are doing well.
44:31: You are likely going to be fine if you can stay away from those two things. And here was his eureka moment.
44:39: Acts 15. Wasn't that a strange exhortation?
44:45: Turn with me to Acts chapter 15 verse 20. And I think he's right about this.
44:51: He said, he had always read this passage and wondered why when the church refuted the
45:00: Judaizing of the gospel, why did they turn around and pick four random commands to issue?
45:12: We still have the whole moral law of God. The ten commandments are still in effect. It's not that the
45:19: Jerusalem council would have said, you know what? You can go and murder people now. You can go and lie to your spouse and do anything that you want.
45:28: Just don't do these four things. The eureka moment that A .D. Robles had was that in the culture at that time, he was looking around and seeing the pitfalls.
45:40: The particular things that would be a major snare to a new believer in a
45:46: Gentile culture. And the first one is the same one throughout all of time.
45:55: It really doesn't change. Sexual immorality. Sexual immorality is the pitfall that has tripped up many young men who otherwise had been given by God the strength within them to stand and accomplish something great.
46:15: But how many young men who once had a fire in their heart, a vision in their mind, a mission to accomplish, became emasculated and pacified and bored by looking at pornography?
46:32: How many young men wasted their life and lost that drive?
46:37: A .D. Robles says you can trace a lot of the problems of the day to just a handful of problems.
46:43: And he added hydrogenated oils, which by that he was talking about just eating badly, overeating, those kind of things.
46:53: A handful of problems. What were they? Let's read Acts 15 verse 20. Write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols.
47:06: Because idolatry in that culture was the worship of these pagan gods. If you want to go on and have any participation in the worship of pagan gods, you're cutting yourself off from the power source.
47:17: And? From sexual immorality.
47:24: Sexual immorality. We think it's bad now? It was probably just as bad in Rome.
47:32: In fact, many of the religious practices of paganism involved sexual rituals back in that culture.
47:43: Then it says, from what has been strangled and from blood.
47:49: And this refers to particular pagan rituals and the eating of blood. I think the reason
47:55: Paul clued in on that was because the blood of Christ is so significant.
48:02: In the taking of communion, in remembering his sacrifice, in thinking about what
48:07: Christ has done, to be eating or drinking blood, dripping down the chin, would be dishonoring to Christ.
48:16: It would in this culture keep people from seeing how precious is the blood of Jesus.
48:24: I don't know exactly why they focus on these, but I find it strange that they just picked four.
48:31: And what they were saying, I think, is that you can keep yourself from these things.
48:38: What does he say? You're doing well. You're doing well. These are particular dangers in the culture in which you live.
48:46: And so Paul, let's go back to 1 Corinthians 16, 13. Paul, here, in writing to Corinth, will say to a fleshly, immature church, to keep themselves from these things.
49:08: Be watchful. Be on guard. And what are the big three that were told by John?
49:18: Really, the root of all the sins, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life.
49:24: Big categories that could cover all. But it's been the same from the time of John and the apostles right down to us.
49:32: Keep yourselves from these things, and you are doing well. Lastly, verse 14, love and strong -willed manliness don't need to be reconciled.
49:49: When you think of manliness, maybe you think of football rather than romance.
49:59: But here it says, let all that you do be done in love. Love has different looks.
50:08: Love sometimes is very stern. Love for Christ is hatred for Baal.
50:18: Love for Christ is hatred for the things that oppose Christ. Friendship with the world is enmity towards God.
50:25: And in verse 14 it says, let all that you do be done in love. These two things do not need to be reconciled.
50:34: Manliness and love are not at odds.
50:40: Remember Spurgeon said that about sovereignty and the will of man? How do you reconcile divine sovereignty and human free will?
50:49: Spurgeon said, why would I ever want to reconcile friends? They're not against each other.
50:56: The sovereignty of God is not against the will of man. You being manly is not against you being concerned about others.
51:04: You being willing to lay down your life, your love for the brother. The most manly people you know are not the, what's the
51:14: Logan Paul guy, you know, the boxer and the cage fighters. Is that his name?
51:22: Logan and Jake Paul. What makes a person manly is not the ability to beat somebody's head in.
51:29: That's not the definition of manliness. Because Paul says, let all that you do be done in love.
51:37: I venture to say that Paul was more manly than Jake Paul. For sure.
51:43: Five times receiving the 40 lashes. Three times the beating with rods or vice versa.
51:52: Stoned and left for dead. Shipwrecked multiple times. Endangered from bandits and from his own countrymen.
51:59: Constantly willing to, yeah I know you're a kickboxer, don't get mad at me. Yeah. All of these things indicate this was a manly man.
52:11: And yet he wrote the love chapter of 1st Corinthians 13. These two things are not at odds with one another.
52:20: So we're kicking off this and we have the privilege tomorrow of hearing from John and from Tim.
52:27: But where I began is where I wanted to close. Each of you is made in the image of God.
52:36: If you were just evolved space dust. If you were just primordial soup that has come out of the earth and is wandering around.
52:49: There would be nothing God -like. The image of God would not be in you. You would have no destiny.
52:57: You would have no purpose. No mission. Because you wouldn't be created. You would just be here.
53:03: And once you're gone, you would be gone. But if you were made by God, in his image, you were made with purpose and you, like God, have a will.
53:18: His is free and sovereign and nothing can affect it. I can't tell you what you will accomplish on the earth.
53:25: Some might get cancer and die in your teens. Others might take the gospel to Papua New Guinea or someplace in Africa or Medford.
53:40: What is it that our church is called to do? John Knox said, give me
53:47: Scotland or I die. And Patrick Henry said, give me liberty or give me death.
53:53: And Samuel Davies and the early preachers in America were willing to die to have freedom and freedom for the gospel.
54:03: Many of them, like John Witherspoon. These were men who were willing to go on a mission for God.
54:11: What is the limit of what God could do through these men in this room? If all of us are on a mission.
54:19: If none of us are emasculated by losing our manliness, our strength through worthless things that waste us away.
54:30: If all of us stand and are strong, could we say, give us Mount Laurel or give us death?
54:38: What if we said, give us the third congressional district? That such a revival will happen there.
54:45: So many disciples that the morality of God in that district in which we live would turn the entire culture upside down.
54:54: Different voting laws. Different legislatures.
55:01: What about all of South Jersey? We're here in Long Beach Island and my friend
55:06: Luke Frazier, just miles down where we do our baptisms in the summer. They have been going on a mission and they're building a church five times bigger than what they have and they're looking to take this island, the island on which we're sitting now and standing.
55:25: They want it for Christ and that's ambitious. But what if every
55:31: Bible believing church in this area thinks like that and every man in every church thinks like that.
55:39: Give us New Jersey or give us death. Give us the
55:44: United States of America. Give us the world. The Lord has the power to use men to accomplish
55:54: His will and He will sovereignly do as He pleases. Nothing can stay
55:59: His hand. It will go exactly according to His course. But we don't live in the realm of His sovereignty.
56:07: Here we are on Earth. So what are we called to do? I know it starts right here.
56:13: With each one of us realizing how significant our lives are.
56:19: You were given one life. Are you going to waste it? What are you going to do with this one life?
56:25: What has God called you to do? Think about that. Apollos knew it and even
56:34: Paul couldn't change his mind and send it to it in a different direction. He had his mind set on what he was going to do.
56:41: I know one of the things that I've set my mind to do is to turn the EFCA away from wokeness.
56:49: And for the last couple of years I just keep trying to get allies and fighting it and I'll fight until we just leave or return the ship, one or the other.
56:58: We'll fight until they have gone apostate and they've utterly rejected the word of God or they come back to the truth.
57:08: I just have my mind set that we're going to fight this fight until it's won or it's no longer a viable denomination at all.
57:17: Does that make sense? Absolutely. I think we need to think like that. And many people will consider you hard -headed.
57:29: Ezekiel in the second and third chapter was told by God to go and preach to a stubborn hard -headed people.
57:38: You will find that they have hard heads and they're rebellious and they're stubborn. And then he said to Ezekiel but I'll make your head as hard as theirs.
57:49: Yours will be harder than Flint. And Ezekiel went head to head with an entire nation, an apostate nation.
58:00: He was willing to stand no matter the cost. Jeremiah thrown into the cistern but never bending, never breaking.
58:09: Isaiah, when it was just him and his kids and his family to the testimony and holding on to the remnant.
58:17: That was the record of the prophets. And every man of God must be willing to do the same thing.
58:24: Are you like Apollos? Are you hard -headed? It starts with overcoming the little foxes that work their way into the vineyard.
58:42: If you can't kill that fox, he'll steal your strength. He's a thief.
58:49: Pornography. If you can't kill it, I'm not saying you're going to lose your salvation in that fight.
58:57: I'm saying you're going to lose your purpose and you're going to lose your manliness. You're going to lose your strength.
59:03: You're going to fail at your mission. You've got to win that battle. And get help if you're not winning.
59:11: Come to an elder. Come to a pastor or leader, any other man in this room.
59:19: Overeating. I've got a little thing going with soda.
59:25: But I'm about to go on a sabbatical and I've got to stop letting stress cause me to drink soda.
59:33: I've got to lick that thing once and for all. And even if I stumble,
59:39: I've got to keep fighting. What we put into our bodies. We should be setting an example for the world in our discipline.
59:50: In how we eat, in how we train. How many of you all work out? Awesome. That's manly.
59:57: That's good. You're disciplining your body. I won't ask you to raise your hand.
01:00:04: How many of y 'all look at pornography? Don't raise your hand. You've got to overcome that.
01:00:09: It'll steal. It's a fox that will steal your strength. How many of y 'all are doing drugs?
01:00:17: I don't think you'd be here if you were because it manifests. Some sins are manifest and go before a person.
01:00:26: Others are more hidden. I administer in Kensington. Tim, you went down there for a summer.
01:00:34: People who begin using drugs, it manifests before long. It's like the walking dead. Zombies.
01:00:40: They're still alive but they have no life. They have no mission in them. David, he was described as being runny.
01:00:48: What does the word runny mean? We talked about this in the Daniel Bible study. It means he exuded health.
01:00:56: His skin was reddish but it didn't mean that he was like Esau and Harry. It meant that he had health in him.
01:01:02: He had no bags under his eyes. He was runny and alive and when they saw him, they saw the blessing of God on him.
01:01:11: He must work out. He was a man.
01:01:17: When you think of David, what do you think of? They made a statue of David in the
01:01:24: Renaissance because he's a picture of manliness. He stood up to a giant. You don't kill giants if you've been wasting your life on worthless things.
01:01:36: Watch out, says Paul. Be strong. Act like men. Be firm.
01:01:43: That's what he said. It doesn't mean be selfish and just do only what benefits you.
01:01:48: No, that's not the model of Apollos at all. That's why he went through his life. Very servant -hearted. Devoting himself to the things of God, that's where his strength came from.
01:01:59: So in closing, follow the pattern of Apollos. Devote yourself to the same things that made him great.
01:02:05: Mission and education, scripture, apologetics, leadership, service, concern for others, humility, and steadfast endurance.
01:02:15: Avoid the emasculating robbers of pornos and drugs and hydrogenated oils.
01:02:21: A .D. Robles is right about that. Be strong enough to love. Let's pray.
01:02:28: Father, we're here getting away from our lives, our ordinary routines, for a weekend, and we're asking,
01:02:37: Lord, that you would meet us here and work with us in powerful ways. I pray for every man who's come here for this weekend that you would help them to be watchful, to be firm in the faith, to act like men, to be strong, and to love.
01:02:59: I pray if there's any man that's been caught up in addictions of any kind, that they would confess their sin to a brother, that that brother could pray for them, and they would be healed.
01:03:13: I pray, Lord, that you would make us men of strong will, competent in Scripture, like Apollos, and like him, on a mission, knowing what our mission is.
01:03:27: Lord, I pray over these next two days that every man here would learn from you what their mission is, that nobody ever could deter them from what you have said to them, and teach them that by the
01:03:42: Scripture and by prayer. Lord, we do pray for our battle against the
01:03:49: EFCA's wokeness. We pray in June, June 21st, that the
01:03:55: EFCA would be turned back to the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, and away from the worldly doctrines of wokeness.
01:04:07: We do pray for that, Lord. We pray for the mission that our church is on, that we would be able to build to bring more people in, to make more disciples.
01:04:18: Lord, to the point where this church, and the churches at LBI, and I think of Victory Bible Church in Hamilton, and Fellowship Alliance Church with Seth McCoy, and Bill Luke come in at Calvary Chapel, Marleton, and Pat Higgins at Harbor, and every faithful pastor in the area would lead well, and that each church would be strengthened until the culture of South Jersey, and then all of New Jersey, is changed.
01:04:49: Lord, it feels like we've been losing for too long, and maybe we're not getting overpowered by stronger enemies.
01:04:58: Maybe we've become weak. Maybe we've lost sight of our mission, and we've forfeited our manliness.
01:05:04: So we pray from this room, Lord, you would raise up 30 men who are just like Apollos, on a mission.
01:05:12: Lord, teach them what their mission is, what you've called them to do. Whether it's in their school, or workplace, give vision this weekend,
01:05:24: Lord. Help each of us to see what you've called us to do, so that when we leave, we would be just like Apollos, strong -willed, steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the
01:05:37: Lord. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the
01:05:42: Lord. Lord, we pray that you would make us men, men of courage and of valor, men of discipline, that we would not settle for temporary pleasures, but that we would seek an eternal reward, and an eternal city whose architect and builder is
01:06:09: God. Help us, Lord, to devote ourselves entirely to you.