Act Like Men!

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On Mother's Day of this year, I made a promise because on Mother's Day, I preached on biblical womanhood.
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And I said that when Father's Day came, I was going to do the same thing for fathers that I did for mothers.
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I was going to preach on biblical manhood.
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So we're going to see this morning, our focus, what we're going to study, is not only does the Bible, not only does God through the Bible commend biblical manhood, but it also clearly demonstrates what that role looks like.
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So with your Bibles, I encourage you to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 16.
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This is in the last part of the book of 1 Corinthians, and we're going to look at only one verse, verse 13.
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Let's stand together and read this as we prepare our hearts for the lesson.
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1 Corinthians chapter 16 and verse 13 says this, Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
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And then it goes on to say in verse 14, let all that you do be done in love.
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Our Father and our God, as we study the word this morning, I pray that you would first and foremost keep me from error as I am a fallible man and capable of preaching error.
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I pray that you would keep me in the truth.
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I pray that you would put a hedge of protection around the hearts of the people.
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And Lord God, that you would open their hearts to the truth.
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I pray for this message, Father, as one that I have been very much anticipating, because I feel like much of what is going to be said is very timely.
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But I pray again, O God, to never use the pulpit as a place for personal insight, but Father, to simply be a place where your word is proclaimed.
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So I pray, O Lord, today that all that is said would be honoring to your word, would be in keeping with truth, and that the truth, O Father, would be used to glorify your name and to edify your people.
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In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen.
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If you read through Paul's letters in the New Testament, you will find, usually towards the end, what I call mini exhortations.
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Mini exhortations are little short, pithy statements that Paul uses to sort of summarize a lot of what he has said in the book.
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If you go to the end of 1 Thessalonians, for instance, it says, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
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Do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophecies, but test everything, hold fast to what is good, abstain from what is evil.
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All of those are just short, pithy statements summarizing the ideas that he has given in the book, summarizing his commands to the people of God.
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At the end of Ephesians we see the armor of God.
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Take up the whole armor of God, put on the helmet of faith, put on the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace.
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We remember these things and they are all short, pithy reminders.
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Little, like I said, mini exhortations.
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Well, at the end of 1 Corinthians, we see the same thing.
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We find here a listing of mini exhortations and included in the midst of them is a small, simple passage which simply reads this.
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And we just read it.
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It's in verse 13, three simple words in the English language.
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Act like men.
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If you look back at your if you have the ESV, that's exactly what it says.
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And in other translations, it says pretty much the same thing.
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In fact, I was only able to find one that did not specifically say act like men.
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I found one that says be courageous or to show courage.
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However, that is not a good rendering of this word.
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The Greek word is very clear.
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It is andritzomai and the root word is the word anar, which is the word for man.
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Literally, the translation should be and is act like men.
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Now, the question that comes to mind or should come to mind is why does Paul commend his hearers to act like men? Well, the answer is simple to Paul, there was something apparently inherent within manhood, which he found to be commendable, which he found to be virtuous.
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We often hear of the virtuous woman.
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Proverbs 31 tells us of the virtuous woman.
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Rarely, though, do we hear of the virtue of manhood.
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This is not to say that all men are commendable.
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Not all men are virtuous, but rather manhood itself is a worthy and commendable goal.
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To say such a thing, however, in our modern society, particularly a society that has been radically influenced by what is called feminism, to say such a thing as manhood is virtuous and that masculinity is a virtue is tantamount to cursing in some circles.
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Feminists have made their way by convincing society that it is a sin to be a man or to desire manly things during the radical feminist movement, which sprung up in the 60s and 70s.
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Men were often portrayed as the enemy.
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There are books, entire books that are written on the subject of men being the enemy of the woman.
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And masculinity was seen as something to be eliminated during the Clinton administration.
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Duke University law professor Madeleine Morris advised the military.
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Listen to this.
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She advised the military to eliminate its masculine attitudes.
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What attitudes did she list? Dominance, assertiveness, aggressiveness, independence, self-sufficiency and willingness to take risks.
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These were what she said the military needed to eliminate.
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Let me give them to you again.
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The military that those people which are supposed to protect us, those people which are supposed to stand on the front lines are to eliminate from them dominance, assertiveness, aggressiveness, independence, self-sufficiency and willingness to take risks.
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These all she called masculine traits and there to be eliminated.
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Many radical feminists have put forward the notion that all things feminine are valuable and all things masculine are horrible.
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Sadly, this has led to the de-masculinization.
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Yeah, there's a word for you.
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De-masculinization of boys in our society.
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Masculinity is inherent in little boys.
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And if you have a boy, you know what I mean when I say masculinity is inherent in little boys.
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You ever heard somebody say he's all boy.
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If you've ever met my son, you know, he's all boy and most of your sons I've seen out there, they're all boy.
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And that's good.
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If you hand if you hand them a stick, what does it become? A sword, right? Boys want to run.
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Boys want to play.
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Boys want to get dirty.
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They want to wrestle.
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They want to swing sticks at one another.
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They're fascinated with things that go boom.
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And that is a natural characteristic of masculinity.
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However, as I said, devout feminism defines masculinity as something that needs to be challenged or and or defeated, according to modern feminists, those things which a boy does to display his natural masculinity should be stifled.
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We're told to take away the toy swords because they're going to teach violence all the while.
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We missed the fact you missed the fact that when you hand a little boy the toy sword or you hand a little boy the stick or you hand the boy the cap gun, what does he say? I'm going to take care of the bad guys.
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Why? Because there's an inherent natural desire to protect.
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It's part of masculinity.
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They want to take care of the bad guys.
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Rarely do you find a group of kids that are playing a game and they one of them says, I want to be the bad guy.
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No, they want to take care of the bad guy.
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There's a natural propensity for protection in the makeup of little boys.
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It's part of being masculine, it's part of growing into a man.
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However, we've been told to replace the toy sword with Barbie dolls.
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And why are we surprised that we see a feminized generation? Boys who don't know how to be men.
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Boys are being told that it's wrong to act like boys.
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And I tell you, that is wrong.
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Rather than stifling the boy's masculinity, we need to be nurturing it, we need not turn their masculinity into femininity, we need to turn their boyhood into manhood.
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We don't need to turn them feminine, we need to turn them into men.
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And that means to mature their masculinity.
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Listen to this, masculinity is not a vice, it is a virtue, as much as there is something healthy, positive and natural about a female being feminine.
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There is something equally positive, equally natural and equally healthy about a boy being masculine.
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Thank you.
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So I want to ask the question today.
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This is the sermonic question of the day.
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What does the Bible say that masculinity and manhood should be? And why would Paul commend us to act like men? That's our question.
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That's what we're going to answer today.
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What does the Bible say masculinity and manhood should be? And what would Paul, why would Paul commend us to act like men? If you're taking notes, here is something you may want to write down.
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Manhood, manhood has a particular set of responsibilities, the most unique being his role in the home.
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The man has a unique role in the home.
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Three things that you need to remember, these are all going to seem simple, but let me tell you something, it's not simple because it's been eroded, it's been put away.
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If you think it's simple, it might be simple for your family.
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But let me tell you something, it's not simple for the world because the world has left this behind.
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The man in the home is to be the husband of the wife.
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He is to be the father of the children and he's to be the leader of the home.
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Three things, he is to be the husband of the wife, he's to be the father of the children, he's to be the leader of the home, that's three things that the man is supposed to be biblically.
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And as such, within those roles, there is a threefold duty.
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These all start with peace, so they should be easy to remember.
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Number one, he is to be the protector.
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Number two, he is to be the provider.
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And number three, he is to be the pastor.
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Here again, he is to be the protector, he is to be the pastor or the provider.
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Number three, he is to be the pastor in the home.
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A man is supposed to protect, provide for and pastor his wife.
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He is supposed to protect, provide for and pastor his children.
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He is supposed to protect, provide for and pastor his entire home.
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Now, let's look at what the Bible says on this, because I want to I want to make sure that you understand this is not Keith Foskey's opinion of what a man should be.
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This is the biblical outline of what a man should be.
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Number one, under protector, you might say to me, well, there's no direct verse that says men are to be protectors of their home.
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Well, let me say this, you may not find a specific verse that says that, but you won't also find a verse that uses the word Trinity either.
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There are certain things in the Bible that are there by what we call necessary implication that is necessarily implied or inferred from the text.
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For instance, in the book of Numbers, you know, the book of Numbers is about the book of Numbers.
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Where's it get its name from? It was the census that was taken at the beginning, six hundred and three thousand five hundred fifty at the beginning, and then a little bit less than that at the end of a 40 year period of time in the wilderness.
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Right.
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That's where the book of Numbers gets its name.
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But the six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty that are in the book of Numbers.
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What is that? Is that the census of all the people? No.
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Is it the census of all the men? No, it is the census of all the fighting men.
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You look it back up and you will see it is the census of the men who are old enough and not too old to fight.
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They took a census of that and they came with six hundred and three thousand five hundred fifty.
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Why did they even care about that number? Because it was the men, the men who are old enough and not too old to stand against the enemy.
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That was his job, that was his role, every citizen, a soldier.
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He was a man and that was his job as a man when the wall was being rebuilt during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.
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You know how Nehemiah got the wall rebuilt.
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He had each one of the tribes build the wall that was right in front of their property.
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Why? Because of the natural inclination in man to protect what is theirs, to protect what their home and their property is, that is their natural propensity.
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So Nehemiah, being an intelligent man, said, all right, you build the wall that's in front of your land because they knew they would be most concerned to do that because a man protects his home.
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We look at the New Testament, Jesus Christ is talking about he's talking in a parable and he says the strong man for a robber to come in and rob his house, the strong man must be bound before the robber can come in.
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And why? Because a strong man will stand against that.
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He will stand against the robber.
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He will stand against the one who will make his family a victim.
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He will be a bulwark between his family and the evil that is in the world.
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What is a bulwark? A wall of defense.
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That is the man's job to stand between your family and the evil that is in the world and say you may come this far, but you will go no farther.
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It's the man's job.
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And you're not only to protect your family from harm, beloved men, you are to protect your family in every area.
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You are to protect your sons and your daughters from evil influences.
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You are to protect your sons and daughters from bad doctrine and bad teaching and false beliefs.
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You are to protect them.
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That is your job.
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Number two, not only is a man to be a protector of his home, he is also to be a provider.
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First Timothy, chapter five and verse eight leaves little to the imagination because First Timothy, chapter five and verse eight says this.
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If anyone does not provide for his relatives, his relatives.
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And especially for the members of his household, notice the masculine and it is masculine in the Greek masculine pronouns.
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If anyone does not provide for his home, particularly his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
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And the Bible goes on to talk about the fact that men are to provide for their homes.
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And it says, if you don't work, you don't eat.
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You do the job.
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You do the work.
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You bring home the food you provide.
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It's not limited to physical needs either.
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It is not limited to physical needs.
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Yes, it's physical, but it's also spiritual and emotional as well.
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You are to provide for your family guidance, examples of godliness and a vision for the family, providing a vision for your family.
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That that's something I think is, you know, companies spend thousands and thousands of dollars coming up with vision statements and churches do as well.
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Churches spend so much money and so much time coming up with mission statements and vision statements.
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Why? Because we want the church body to adopt the vision so that the church gets in line behind the leadership and we move forward strongly.
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And that's what vision statements and mission statements and all this.
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And we don't we don't we don't we don't do a lot of that in this church because we think that we we sort of we are moving forward strongly and we understand our vision to be a biblically functioning church.
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And we talked about that a few years ago.
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That still is what we want to be.
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And that very much in itself was a vision, a purpose statement of where we're going.
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Beloved, does your family know what its purpose is? Does your family have a vision? Have you as a father established that vision for your family? They know where you're going.
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They know your purpose, what you're supposed to be doing.
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It's important.
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Finally, number three.
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And I say finally, not to indicate that we're anywhere near the end.
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So we're going to be continuing on.
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This is the finally of these three.
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Finally, a pastor.
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Father supposed to be a protector.
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Absolutely.
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He stands as a bulwark between his between the world and his family.
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He should be a provider.
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He should provide for his family, all their needs, physical, emotional, spiritual.
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Finally, pastor.
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A pastor is a shepherd.
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And the father is the spiritual shepherd of the home.
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Ephesians, chapter four, I'm sorry, Ephesians, chapter six and verse four says fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
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That phrase bring them up.
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It means to nourish.
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It means to rear them to maturity.
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It means to train them.
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It literally means, in a way, pastor them.
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Bring them up in the fear and the admonition of the Lord.
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Man, I get to pastor your family one hour a week.
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Maybe if you come on Wednesday nights, two hours a week, but there's one hundred and sixty eight hours in one week.
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What are you doing with the other hundred and sixty seven? If I get them one hour a week, what are you doing? For the other hundred and sixty seven to pastor, are you actively discipling? Your wives, oh, wait, I'm just a cycle, my children, do you know you're supposed to disciple your wives as well? Do you pray with her, talk about God with her and seek to answer her spiritual questions, which is, by the way, your responsibility? The Bible says if a woman has a question about something, she is to ask not the pastor, but her husband.
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Now, she doesn't have a husband, obviously.
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Back up a second.
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She didn't have a husband.
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Obviously, she can come to the pastor.
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She didn't have a husband.
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She can go one of the elders.
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Obviously, there are places in Scripture where that is was is open for that.
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But what is the first Corinthians 14 tell us? It says women are to be silent in the churches.
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Oh, that's so offensive.
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Get over it.
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This is what says, you know what? It says a lot of things about men, too, that we're supposed to do.
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Get over it.
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Really, if it is offensive and it's what the word of God says, then you are wrong and not the word of God.
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Just remember that.
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Because the same thing happens all the time when I read it, I find stuff I don't like, but I still have to do it shouldn't be offensive.
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Number one, if you understand it right, you won't be offended because in the context of first Corinthians 14, the context is speaking from up here.
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The context is speaking prophecy and speaking in tongues, neither of which women are supposed to do in the church.
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So next time you go to church, you see all these people babbling in tongues, you see a bunch of women do it, let you know that that is not from God.
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It's just it's not.
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This is women to be silent in the church.
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And if they have a question, they're to ask their husbands.
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Why? Because the husband is supposed to be.
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The discipler of the wife.
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Well, she's smarter about the Bible than I am.
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Learn.
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Get after it.
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Do what you're supposed to do.
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If she knows more than you, that's your fault.
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Well, she's been a Christian longer than me.
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Bubba, you've got all the time in the world where she goes to bed at night, take an extra hour, read your Bible, study the word, get into the word, take some time out of your life and be teaching your wife the word.
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It's your job.
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I didn't sign up for the job.
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Yes, you did.
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And you accepted the role of man, husband, father.
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You got the job, whether you want it or not.
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Are you disciplined? Are you discipling your children? Do you know your children well enough to know if they are pursuing a relationship with the world or with the Lord, or even if they even have a relationship with the Lord? Do you know your children enough to know? If they have a relationship with the Lord, do you ever sit down with them and help them in a loving way, examine their walk with the Lord? Do you ask them questions about their faith and about their walk when you find inconsistencies or sins? Do you stay with it through repentance and see your children come to repentance? This is crucial.
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This is the job of a pastor in a church, and it's a job of the father in the home because the past the father is the pastor of the home.
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And there are unique roles that man that the man is supposed to fulfill.
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And as such, I believe this is why Paul urges the concept of biblical manhood in this passage.
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Again, to Paul, manhood is a virtuous thing to obtain.
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It meant the putting away of the childish and the getting on with the responsibilities of life.
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I want to show you a passage very important.
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Turn to First Corinthians 13, verse 11.
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What's First Corinthians 13 about? Love, right? Love is patient and kind.
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It does not envy.
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It does not boast.
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It does not seek its own way.
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Right.
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We know First Corinthians 13 because every Valentine's Day we've heard pastors preach that all our life.
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First Corinthians 13, very powerful.
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But very often we don't get to verse 11.
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Verse 11 is so important because this is what Paul says in verse 11.
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He says, When I was a child.
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I spoke like a child.
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I thought like a child.
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I reasoned like a child.
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When I became a man, I put away childish things.
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Men, that is what today's lesson is all about.
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Men behaving like men, that's what we're supposed to do.
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Now, I want to I want to look at a few things that are very important.
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I want us to look at some of the unique roles that men are to have in the home and compare them with the needs.
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We've already looked at the roles there to be protector, provider, priest, pastor of the home.
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I don't like the word priest.
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We use the word pastor there, protector, provider, pastor of the home.
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But I want to look at how do you fulfill that? How do you do it? I've told you what to do.
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I've told you what the Bible says.
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Do how do we make it practical? How do we bring it down and apply it? Well, let's look very quickly by looking at what the needs are.
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The only way you can fulfill a need is to know what the need is.
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The Bible describes human beings as having a three part makeup.
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Some people argue that it's two parts, but really the Bible describes man with a three part makeup.
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It describes man as having spirit, soul and body.
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That is in First Thessalonians 523.
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It says, may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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We understand that.
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We understand man has a threefold part of his being.
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And in Greek, it is the word pneuma, which is spirit, is the word psyche or psyche, which means the mind, what we would translate in our modern vernacular psyche, our mental aspect.
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And then what we call the soma or the soma is the body.
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So we have that three parts.
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We have the spiritual aspect, the mental aspect, the physical aspect, that's what makes us who we are.
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Now, I wanted to point out that threefold distinction because I believe that as men, we are responsible as leaders in the household for all three of these aspects of our wives and children.
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When we consider that we are the husband to our wives, that means we are to protect, provide and pastor her spiritually, physically and emotionally, because that's her three part makeup.
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That's the three part that makes her who she is.
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She's spiritual.
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She's physical.
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She's emotional.
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She's emotional.
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She's emotional.
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And I'm just kidding.
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That one got caught.
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I had to repeat that.
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That was a joke.
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But the truth is, do you seek to pastor, provide and to protect your wife spiritually, physically and emotionally? Do you seek to father your children spiritually, physically and emotionally? How are we going to fulfill these needs, pastor? How are we going to do that? That's such a big deal.
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I didn't know I was coming to church to get a set of things I was supposed to be doing.
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The Bible is not quiet about how we're supposed to meet the needs of our wives.
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It's not quiet at all about how we're supposed to meet the needs of our wives.
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In fact, if you want to write these down, I won't make you go there.
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But Ephesians 5 and 25 says, husbands, what? Love your wives.
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That's there.
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But it repeats the same thing in Colossians chapter three and verse 19.
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Husbands, love your wives.
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The number one thing.
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The number one thing.
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That wives need from their husbands.
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Is love.
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Now, back on Mother's Day, I said this to the women.
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I said, what do women need from men? I mean, I mean, what do men need from women? You may remember.
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Thank you.
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Thank you for remembering.
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Respect.
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More than love from their wives, men need to be respected because that is how men take love.
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That is how men receive love is through respect.
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Respect equals love for a man.
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We appreciate being respected, appreciated.
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That is how we are loved.
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On the other hand, when it talks about how women are to be treated by their husbands twice in Scripture and over and over, we see the idea, husbands, love your wives.
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What does that look like? Well, the reason why I don't want you to move in your Bible is because if you're in First Corinthians 13, it tells you what love looks like.
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First Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 4 says love is patient and kind.
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Does that describe your relationship with your wives, husbands? Love does not envy or boast.
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It is not arrogant or rude.
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Men, does that describe your relationship with your wives? It does not insist on its own way.
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Does that describe your relationship with your wife? It is not irritable or resentful.
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It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
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Men, is that you? Would your wife describe you with that kind of love? Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
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Love never fails.
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Love never ends, is how it says in the ESV.
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Beloved, would your wives, would your wives describe you with that kind of love? Furthermore, how men ought to treat their wives.
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I told you this is going to be a little longer this morning, but I want to say these things.
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It's so important.
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Men, you ought to treat your wives.
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As if she were a delicate piece of China.
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Now, you hear me on this one.
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That your opinion? No.
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Go to First Peter, chapter three and verse seven, and I will show you what the Bible says.
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First Peter, chapter three, verse seven is very clear.
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It says, Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life so that your prayers may not be hindered.
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Before you get all offended.
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Oh, he said weaker vessel.
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Understand this weaker does not mean less valuable.
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I got two vases.
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One is a Ming vase.
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The other one is a steel vase.
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You drop the Ming vase, it's going to break because it's the weaker vessel.
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However, it's going to pull 20 times as much at auction.
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Strength doesn't equal value.
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And when you look at this passage and it says that the wife is the weaker vessel, it speaks of the natural limitations and abilities of the man and the woman and the relationship in the home.
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Men are stronger than women physically, and thus we are responsible to be careful in how we are handling our relationship with our wives.
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And let me tell you this, there is an implicit and I call it implicit, it is not explicit, but it is an implicit caution in this passage.
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First, Peter, three, seven, there is an implicit caution against the abuse of women because it says it says we are to live with our wives in an understanding way, showing honor to them as the weaker vessel.
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Let me say this clearly, the command of God for a man is to love his wives and an abusive husband is not loving his wife.
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It is only a grown up child who lowers to the position of bully when he's supposed to rise to the position of leader in the home.
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Hear that again, it is only a grown up child who lowers himself to the position of a bully when he should rise to the position of leader in his home.
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Now, fulfilling your fatherly responsibilities to your children, I want to say something different about that with your wives.
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You are to show your wives love, love is patient and kind and all of those things in first Corinthians.
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I want you to think about that when you think about how you treat your wives.
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First Corinthians 13, you read those passages over and over and ask yourself, is this how I'm treating my wife now with children? Let's take a step further.
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Because with children, there's a little something different.
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I want to tell you something, men, you are given a very special grace from God as as fathers.
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Because generally, and this is generally, I know somebody is going to come to me after and say, well, they wouldn't like that for me.
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Let me tell you, I'm talking in generalities.
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I'm just preliminating whatever is going to be said.
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Hold back the emails.
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Fathers generally and by and large.
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Can do no wrong in their children's eyes until their children are teenagers.
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Now, I'm not kidding.
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Children look at their dads as heroes.
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That's the grace of God, because you ain't.
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I ain't either.
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I'm no hero.
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But to my son and to my daughter, I walk on water now, maybe not after today, because they heard me say that that's good.
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It's good because when your children are young, they need a leader.
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God gives you that grace to be that leader.
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He gives you the grace to have these little children who look up at you and say, that's my daddy.
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That's grace.
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You don't deserve it.
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You didn't earn it.
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That's why it's called grace.
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Use it, though.
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And remember it, because even when they see you do bad.
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They might not recognize it's bad because you did it.
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If you can do no wrong, you had better do no wrong, because everything that you do that is wrong, they will see as right.
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Well, you know, I was growing up and my dad didn't really care about church and he was you know, he was my dad.
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And I guess that's the way it ought to be.
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You know, my dad drank all the time and he was a good man.
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He brought home paycheck every week and he was able to chug 24 beers every night.
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So I guess that's right.
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Deuteronomy six, verse six says, In these words, I command you today shall be on your heart and you shall teach them diligently to your children and you shall talk to them when they sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and them as frontlets between your eyes.
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You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates everywhere in your house.
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Your children should be experiencing the word of God from you fathers.
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That's your job.
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They need it from you more than anything else that you can give them more than food.
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They need the word of God more than good clothing.
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They need the word of God more than an iPod or an Xbox or a leather jacket.
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They need the word of God.
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Not for a moment, and I promise it will only be a moment.
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I want to turn my attention to the wives and to the ladies in the room.
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It just got real cold because this may be difficult to hear, and I pray you will understand that it is from God's word and understand that it is not simply a man spouting rhetoric on the subject of manhood.
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The husband has been given a unique responsibility of being a leader in the home.
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The Bible is unambiguous about this.
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The Bible says in Ephesians 5 and 22, wives submit unto your husbands as to the Lord.
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How do you submit unto the Lord? You submit willingly unto the Lord.
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How should then you submit to your husband? Willingly, you should submit unto your husband.
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Wives submit unto your husband as it is fitting to the Lord.
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Colossians 3 and verse 18 says twice, husbands love your wives.
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Well, it says twice, wives submit unto your husbands.
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What kind of submission is in view here? Leadership submission.
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Why? Because he has been called the leader of the home.
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That's why.
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Because he will have to stand before God and give an account for how he leads and you will have to stand before God and give an account for your willingness or unwillingness to submit to his leadership.
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But what if my husband is an unbeliever? What if my husband's unbeliever? He's not here with me today or he's never comes with me.
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You know, he wouldn't grace the doors.
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He said if he comes into the church, he'd fall down on top of him.
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What about him? Write these verses down.
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If this is a concern for you, write these verses down.
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First Corinthians chapter seven, verses 13 and 14.
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First Corinthians chapter seven, verse 13 says, if any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever.
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Who's it talking to? Talking to you.
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If you if this is if you're concerned about this, this is this is directly toward the question.
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What if my husband is an unbeliever? If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever and he consents to live with her, that means he didn't leave you when he found out you were a Christian.
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When you got converted to Christ, he decided to stay.
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He didn't just run off the road or go somewhere else, he stayed.
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If he consents to live with you, you should not divorce him.
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For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband.
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Doesn't say they get saved, but it says that the home is sanctified because of that one believing spouse.
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There is a sanctity in the home and it says otherwise your children would be unclean.
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But as it is, they are holy.
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You have the responsibility in the home as the light to the home, whether you're a husband with an unbelieving wife or a wife with an unbelieving husband.
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You are the light of Christ in the home.
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Don't leave.
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Don't leave.
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The passage teaches clearly that just because a man is an unbeliever and that is not the grounds for divorce or disrespect.
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Instead, know that your presence as a believer in the home provides a twofold blessing to the home.
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The husband is sanctified by being in your presence and the children are sanctified because of your faith.
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Furthermore, it says in First Peter chapter three and verse one, First Peter three, one, likewise.
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Wives be subject to your own husbands so that even if some do not obey the word notice there, it says that you're still to be subject, you're still to be submissive, even if he's an unbeliever.
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Well, that's awful hard.
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Yeah.
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It's hard to be a Christian.
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If you listen to Joel Osteen, all these other guys tell you how great it is and you know, it's oh, it's it's it's it's great parking spaces and euros every day.
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Get over it.
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He's lying.
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Ain't the way it is.
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It's hard to do right.
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It is much easier to do wrong.
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It is hard to do right.
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Likewise, wives be subject to your own husband so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be one without a word by the conduct of their wives when they see your respectful and pure conduct.
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What should be the goal of the believing wife for the unbelieving husband? Salvation.
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What way does the Bible prescribe that we share the gospel with our husbands? If the husband is unsaved and the wife is saved, what method is supposed to be there for sharing the gospel? It says here you will show the gospel by your pure and respectful conduct.
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What did I say earlier? What do men need? They need respect.
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How will you share the gospel with an unbelieving husband? You will still respect him as a leader in the house.
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Well, he's a bad leader and everybody's in a different situation.
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He might be a bad leader.
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But let me share something that might give you hope, might give you comfort, might give you peace in this day of darkness if you are in that day.
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There was a man by the name of Lee Strobel, most of you know, Lee Strobel, Lee Strobel wrote many books, the case for Christ, the case for faith, the case for the real Jesus.
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Lee Strobel was an atheist.
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His wife was an atheist.
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They got married as atheists.
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They were living as atheists with their children who they were growing up and training in atheism.
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And she got radically saved.
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And he got nervous because he said, man, my wife's become a nut, religious, religious wing nut or whatever.
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He said these things.
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He said she just he said she went totally to Christ.
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And he says he said and all I did was I wanted to tell her how wrong she was.
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So I spent all this time investigating Christianity to tell her how wrong she was.
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And in less than a year, I was converted myself because I found out the evidence doesn't point away from Christianity, but it actually points to Christianity.
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And because of the light of his wife's pure conduct and respectful behavior, he was brought to the Lord.
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Beloved, is this a guarantee? No, it is not.
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There is no guarantee your spouse or your children will come to the Lord.
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Likewise, likewise, there is no guarantee that your pure and respectful conduct will be met with love and acceptance.
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But I tell you this, I tell you this now and you hear me now because this is absolute truth.
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If you call yourself a believer, yet you fail to give respect to your husband who is an unbeliever, all he sees in you is hypocrisy.
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All right.
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I want to finish with an exhortation.
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In the same way as the sermon on Mother's Day finished with an exhortation to the entire household to recognize the exalted role of the woman in the household, the woman, the mother.
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I want to finish today with a reminding us to recognize the important role of the man in the home.
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All throughout the Bible, we see examples of men, manly men, men that exemplify biblical manhood.
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Noah, the great shipbuilder, Moses, the great leader of masses of people, Joshua, the great warrior, David, the great king.
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And of course, Jesus, the greatest example of biblical manhood to ever walk the earth.
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And by the way, you get this picture of this pacifist, weak knee Jesus out of your mind.
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That's what Hollywood gave us.
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That is not what the Bible gives us.
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The Bible gives us a Jesus who spent the majority of his life at a carpenter's table and probably had many calluses to show forth.
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He was a man.
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He worked like a man and he preached.
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Like a man, he overturned tables in the temple, he stood against the evil of the religious men of his day, he was a man, most importantly.
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He loved his bride, the church, and if you want to be a man like Christ as a man, first and foremost, man, you love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.
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For in doing so, you exemplify the greatest relationship in the universe, the relationship between Christ and his bride.
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Men, we need to be seeking biblical manhood.
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There are some men who haven't gotten there yet, but they do need to be encouraged.
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They do not need to be discouraged.
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They need to be exhorted by other men in the church towards biblical manhood, and they need to be respected and encouraged by their wives at home.
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Biblical manhood is a virtue.
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It is worth seeking after.
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I exhort all of you men to seek after it.
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I exhort you, as the Apostle Paul said, act like men.
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Father, we thank you for this opportunity to be in your word.
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And I pray, Lord, that the people's hearts have been engaged in what has been said and that they have heard the word and been touched and moved by it.
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I pray, Lord, as we now move to this time where we will be separating as a body and going to our individual homes and celebrating this day where we where we venerate the fathers in our lives and exalt the work that they do.
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We just pray, O Lord, that we would not forget your fatherhood to us and for us.
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And that as we seek to love you, help us, O God, to never forget your role as father in our spiritual lives.
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And Lord God, if there's one here who does not have you as their father, who has never come to you in faith and repentance and received Christ the Savior.
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I pray, Lord, that they've seen today that the word of God affects all aspects of life.
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But the most important, of course, is our spiritual life.
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Which needs to be nurtured in faith.
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And we ask, O Lord, to move on this church and as many as need to be moved upon, Lord, we ask you move upon.
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In Jesus name we pray, Amen.