63. It's Very Good To Be A Man (Marriage Series Part 2)

The PRODCAST

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:05

Welcome back to the broadcast where we prod the sheep and beat the wolf. This is episode 63.

00:10

It is very good to be a man. Welcome back, everybody.

00:28

Today's episode is for the men. And let me just begin by saying that is exactly why they hate you, because you're a man.

00:37

You see, as society stumbles ever closer towards the cliffs of insanity, speaking the truth has become all the more offensive.

00:46

But on the other hand, if you will just suppress common sense and genetics, if you will dutifully bow down like a good little boy and virtue signal the rankest perversions, then maybe you will be perceived as a reasonable man.

01:01

All you have to do is toe the party line, walk in lockstep with the kind of people who think that 12 -year -old boys should be chemically castrated and that men can expose themselves to young girls in locker rooms.

01:13

If you believe that, then embracing the queerification of America, then maybe you will go places.

01:22

But if you're like me, and you think Dylan Mulvaney is a groomer, that homosexuality and transgenderism are abominations biblically defined, that Bud Light was never a real beer in the first place, and that Target should stop selling girls bathing suits with penis pockets, well, then you're a bigot of the highest order.

01:46

Similarly, if you think that education should not be secular indoctrination, that children's programming should under no circumstances have lesbian kisses included within them, and that pronouns are based upon God's good design of biological sex, and that it should be absolutely and irrevocably illegal for drag queens to twerk in front of young children, innocent children in libraries, if you believe that, then you are precisely the kind of rational man, steeped in objective reality that the

02:20

Rainbow Railroad is reeling to run over. They hate you because you love truth and you love reason, plain and simple.

02:32

Now, if that's you, I want to encourage you with this episode, and I want to equip you for the battle of our lifetimes.

02:41

I believe that the LGBTQ, and especially the T, is going to be the battle of our lifetimes.

02:52

Men, we were made to fight. Now, not with activism and finger -pointing vitriol that combats hatred with more hatred, no.

03:01

We don't stand on the opposite street corner as the pink -haired, colored lesbians and yell back at them, no.

03:08

But we're also not going to go with a spineless winsomeness that's popular in evangelical

03:14

Christianity today that pretends to care about everything, but takes a stand for nothing, no, no, and no.

03:25

I want to equip you men to fight, not by wasting your time calling out every single lie under heaven, which at this point are legion, not in getting angry and going to war with every ideology that we as Christian men are rightly opposed to.

03:43

Today, I want to equip you to begin fighting where you're at for what you're for instead of fighting against what you're against.

03:53

We should remember that the only way that we're going to spot a counterfeit is by knowing exactly what the authentic is.

04:01

There's a lot of counterfeit masculinity that is going on in the world. There's a lot of things that are masquerading as true masculinity that are not.

04:09

I remember seeing Harry Styles, who was an effeminate joke of a man.

04:15

I remember seeing him on the cover of some magazine wearing a dress and then maybe the subtitle saying the new masculinity.

04:24

There's a lot of counterfeits out there, men. That is not masculinity, obviously. You don't need to tell anybody that.

04:30

It's common sense. But with that in mind, we need to know what the authentic actually is.

04:36

We need to know what true masculinity is because there's characters of masculinity on both sides.

04:42

There's the weak, sickly, effeminate masculinity that is so popular today in the world, but there's also a sort of brutish, macho, ridiculously buffoonish masculinity that I'm not talking about either.

04:58

I'm talking about authentic, godly, biblical masculinity that is defined by Holy Scripture.

05:04

That is what we need to do, men. We need to go back to what the Bible says to understand what biblical masculinity is, and then we need to unapologetically celebrate it.

05:15

I want you and I to be able to hold our heads high that God made us men and that by being a man, it is a very good thing.

05:25

Now, in the weeks ahead, we're going to be looking at biblical womanhood and how that is very good.

05:30

We're going to be looking at biblical sexuality and how being a heterosexual male and female in covenant marriage is the only way to have a very good relationship.

05:44

And we're going to be talking about how covenant marriage brings all of these very goods together.

05:50

So today, I want us to focus on the men and to do that, we're going to be going back into the pages of Genesis where we left off last week, speaking about God's good design of masculinity.

06:03

So the text says this, Genesis 1, 26 through 28. Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

06:22

God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them.

06:30

And God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

06:43

Verse 31, and God saw all that he made and behold, it was very good.

06:50

And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. God's design is very good.

07:00

Now, before we dive into the specifics, let me or let us recognize the point.

07:06

When God surveyed all that he had made, everything, especially the male and female marriage that he had just got through blessing, he called it all very good.

07:19

He didn't call it kind of good and he didn't say that it could use some improvements or some tweaks along the way.

07:27

He didn't say that human beings are gonna have to help him be creative to finish the project, no.

07:33

He called it excellent, superlative, stellar and unimprovable.

07:40

By describing his design in that way, God is admitting that his opinion of what manhood is, womanhood and sexuality is, and what marriage is are the only opinions that please him and they're the only opinions on the subject that matter.

08:00

He is unapologetically announcing that his design is the only one that perfectly fits his sovereign vision for how things ought to go and no other concept or definition or re -imagination is needed or even warranted.

08:23

He did not ask us for our opinions on masculinity, femininity and marriage.

08:28

He just didn't. He didn't solicit us for improvements or modifications, people.

08:36

A gift, it is already defined the way that he wants it to be defined and we're not supposed to mess with it.

08:43

If somebody gives you a television for let's say Christmas, it's a nice television, it's a plasma, it's a

08:48

HD, it's a 40K, whatever the things are and you take it apart, take all the pieces apart and you try to turn it into a toaster, your friend is gonna be probably annoyed at you because you took the gift that he gave you and you ruined it because you didn't value it for its purpose.

09:09

God didn't ask us to take apart his thing called marriage and to redefine it according to our silly, stupid will.

09:18

He just didn't and any government or any man or woman who has the audacity to try to tear apart the thing that he created and to do design tweaks with the thing that God is already pleased with, even in the slightest ways, they're opening themselves up for the fiercest wrath, if not now, an eternal torment in hell.

09:46

Imperfect and inglorious designs do not bring pleasure to a perfect and glorious God.

09:54

The original design of manhood, womanhood and covenant marriage is the only design that brings

10:03

God pleasure and it's the only design that is ever worth celebrating.

10:12

Now, with that foundation, let us look at the very goodness of biblical masculinity because it is very good to be a man.

10:25

I'm gonna scream that from the rooftops. It is very good to be a man, very good.

10:32

As made by God and constrained by Holy Scripture, masculinity is not toxic.

10:39

Men are not neanderthalic morons simply because we have a

10:44

Y chromosome and we are certainly not just passive sperm donors to ensure the survival of the human race.

10:51

Men are well -designed patriarchs that bring their father great pleasure and joy when they live out their masculinity for his glory.

11:04

By working up a manly sweat and providing resources for a family and by taking responsibility for his own actions, by ruling and subduing and extending

11:15

God's dominion to the ends of the earth, by protecting a community against incoming threats, by growing in strength of body and strength of mind, by having courage in the face of adversity, by having integrity when no one is watching, by providing godly leadership for a wife, by being righteous and providing good godly leadership in your home and by providing godly leadership in your community, by being faithful to the commands of God, by demonstrating a manly desire to learn and to gain understanding and knowledge and discernment, self -control, compassion, and sacrificial love for his people, that man is bringing great glory to a well -pleased

11:57

God. That vision of masculinity is very, very good. Men, do not accept a perverted vision of masculinity for your life.

12:15

Do not accept a perverted vision of masculinity that the world has painted for you.

12:21

And also, do not accept the effeminate and neutered manhood that some wimpy sects of Christianity are peddling you.

12:30

Do not accept the hyper effeminate male version that the world is giving and also don't accept the buffoonish brute that some other people are giving you.

12:45

The kind of manhood that you're looking for is found in scripture because God designed it.

12:54

Stand up tall in that and be a man like that. Take responsibility for yourself and your people.

13:03

Pastor Derek, who serves at the Shepherd's Church, says it like this, and I think he's absolutely right.

13:10

Masculinity can be boiled down to responsibility. Men flourish under burden, a burden to provide for our family, a burden to raise godly kids, a burden to protect and to shelter and to lead our families.

13:27

All those burdens make men strong and make men flourish. Take responsibility for yourself and for your people.

13:37

Love your wife like Jesus Christ loves the church. Stand up for truth, brother.

13:42

Do not let lies pervade your community. Be brave. Rule well in your home and in your town and bring the fear of God into every sector that you preside over.

13:55

Don't make excuses. Stand up for truth. And above all else, do everything that you can.

14:02

For as long as you can, with all the strength and the vigor that you can, to the glory of your

14:08

God and to the advancement of his great kingdom. That, my friend, is a vision worth celebrating.

14:15

That, my brothers, is a vision worth imitating. That is a vision worth replicating. And that is the kind of men that our nation and our churches and our families so desperately need.

14:28

Remember, men, masculinity is defined by God and Holy Scripture. God's not asking your opinion on what masculinity is.

14:37

Masculinity is not going and buying a Harley, drinking scotch and growing a beard, although those are wonderful things.

14:46

Two out of those three I've mastered. Masculinity, though, is defined by God in Scripture.

14:55

When that is the kind of man that you are and that's the kind of man that you're learning to become, then you have aligned yourself with God's very good vision and you will begin to experience the very good purpose that God has for you as a man.

15:12

Don't care at all about what the haters are gonna say or what the critics are gonna spout.

15:18

Don't care about that at all. Don't apologize for your masculinity. Don't be ashamed of your masculinity and do not run from your masculinity.

15:26

Instead, embrace it. Embrace the call of Christ to live it out with strength and conviction to the glory of God.

15:34

Amen and amen. Thanks again for listening to the podcast. Next week, we will be talking about how very good it is for a woman to be a woman, and that's especially important now in a society that doesn't even know what a woman is.