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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the 16th chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians. We're going to read verses 5 to 13. We have been now in a very long study of the book of 1 Corinthians, going verse by verse.
We have arrived at the latter portion of the book and in the next couple of weeks we'll complete this study. It says in verse 5, I will visit you after passing through Macedonia for I intend to pass through Macedonia and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter so that you may help me on my journey wherever I go.
For I do not want to see you now just in passing, I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits. But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost for a wide door for effective work is open to me and there are many adversaries.
When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you for he is doing the work of the Lord as I am. So let no one despise him. Help him on his way in peace that he may return to me for I am expecting him with the brothers.
Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers but it was not at all his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity. Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word. Lord, now as we turn to your word in faith, I pray that first and foremost that you would keep me from error and Lord that you would open my mouth and that the Holy Spirit of God would speak and Lord God that you would open the ears of this congregation and that his word would go into the ear through the mind and down into the heart and pierce the very soul.
Your word tells us that the word of God is able to divide soul from spirit, bone from marrow. It is able to cut like nothing else. So Lord let it be that today be a day that cuts us to the very heart, that lays us open before you, that we stand before the throne of God bare and in need of your redemption.
Lord, for those who are believers that they Lord come today expecting to be challenged in their faith to grow in the Lord Jesus Christ and for those who come today who do not know Christ that today would be today a day of reckoning for the soul.
That they might realize their plight before you, that they might realize their need for a savior and they might realize that there is only one name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
The name of the Lord Jesus Christ and it is in his name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. I woke up this morning with a bit of a bit of a frog in my throat. So at times if I hit a higher pitch than normal you'll forgive me I hope.
And I may have to take a little more water than normal to make it through the day. But I was excited to preach to you today. Today is Father's Day. Like on Mother's Day, I have not written a special message addressing the subject of fatherhood.
I didn't do that on Mother's Day and I'm not doing that today. I'm simply sticking with the text that we have been studying. I made a commitment to preach through. And so we have we haven't stopped for holidays or anything else.
We follow not the hallmark liturgy. We stay with the word of God. However, in the providence of God, it just so happens that this particular passage that we have landed on today, I have preached on Father's Day pasts or Father's Day.
I don't think I said that correctly. On past Father's Day, 1 Corinthians 16, 13 calls for a robust biblical masculinity when it calls us to act like men. So even though I didn't plan a special message, it just so happens that today we will be addressing that subject as we make our way through the text.
In previous years, I have shown from this passage that manhood and being a man is actually a biblical mandate. The Bible does not call us to weakness. It calls us to strength. It does not call men to femininity.
It calls women to be feminine, but not men. It tells men to maintain a firm biblical manhood. Therefore, we can say that manhood is not a bad thing. It is a good thing in the mind of God. But having said that, I want to add a thought.
The Bible does not call men to worldly manhood. The Bible does not call men to worldly manhood. And you say, well, what do you mean by that? Well, the world has many portraits of manhood that are not biblical.
And yet they try to force those portraits upon us. We see one being the existential hero. Well, what is that? That is the macho man who sees himself as always having to be the toughest, always having to be the strongest, always having to be the one who laughs in the face of danger and looks to his existence as nothing more than a blip on the screen.
And if I go out, I'm going to go out in a blaze of glory. And that's what we see manhood as. OK, well, a lot of those guys who go out in a blaze of glory don't know Christ. You can be macho and be and be lost.
Being macho doesn't make you saved. And I tell you what, if you go out in a blaze of glory without Christ, you're going to stay in a blaze. Just so you know, it's going to stay hot. There is also the sympathetic villain.
So what do you mean by that? If you watch television and movies anymore, you'll notice that the villains have become the heroes. That's called the anti-hero movement, where all the bad guys get all the credit and they're the heroes.
You're Tony Sopranos, you're Walter White's, and if you don't know who those are good. But if you know what I'm talking about, it's you know, there's a show now that's called Lucifer that made Satan the hero.
It's literally called Lucifer, Satan is the protagonist, he's the hero. You see, they've so twisted what manhood is that now even the villain gets to be the hero. But there's also another manhood that the world has tried to push upon us, and that is the emasculated weakling.
That's the man who is so sensitive that he floats in a pool of androgyny. You can't tell whether he's a man or not. And that's not good either. These are all unbiblical portraits of manhood, and the Bible calls us to biblical manhood.
And by the way, if you're a woman today, I'm going to get around this applies to you, too. But it doesn't call you to biblical manhood. But this all it's going to apply to all of us as we get going. The Bible calls us to biblical manhood.
I want to say something that hopefully doesn't strike you as odd, but it might. The Bible calls you, if you're a man, the Bible calls you to be a godly man. Do you know that? We live in a world of churches that teach an easy-believism gospel.
What's easy-believism? It's the idea that just believe, just sign a card, just come down, just raise your hand, close your eyes, bow your head, don't look around because you don't want to be embarrassed, and you don't want to embarrass anyone else.
And we'll baptize you at night and on the weekend when nobody's looking because nobody wants to take a stand for anything. The Bible calls you to godliness, men, biblical godliness. And it calls you to be a godly man, not just a man who said a prayer when he was 12, not just a man who walked an aisle when he was 16, but a man who walks daily in the paths of the righteous and who does not sit in the seat of the wicked.
We are called to godliness. And I know right away, because many of you are good theologians, some of you tremendous theologians, and some of you might say, but pastor, we're Reformed and we believe in total depravity.
Total depravity means that all people are so sinful, no one is good, no not one. Paul tells us this in Romans chapter 3. There is none righteous, no not one. There is none who understands. There's none who seeks after God.
There is no one good, not even one. And you say, how can you call me to godliness? The Bible condemns me to no goodness. Well, slow down there, because you need to understand. Like any true teaching, this teaching often has the tendency of being twisted and distorted.
The Bible does say no one is good, but the Bible doesn't say there are no godly men. The Bible actually says the opposite. It says there were men who were godly, but they were godly by the grace of God.
You see, you understand, any goodness you have, any godliness you have, doesn't come from inside of you. Any goodness you have and any godliness you have comes by grace alone. You go down the list. Noah found grace in the eyes of God, and he was called a godly man.
Abraham found grace in the eyes of God, and he was called a godly man. You walk down the line, and the godly men of Scripture are not godly because they woke up one day and said, hey, I'm a godly man.
They woke up, and God, by His grace, changed their hearts and made them godly men. The Bible says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. If it stopped there, that'd be a scary statement, but it doesn't stop there.
It says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do His good pleasure. You understand that any godliness you have is because God is working within you.
Any godliness you have is because God is working out that salvation in you. And we need godly men. Oh, heaven, do we need godly men. We need men who are so governed by the grace of God that their lives become examples to other men.
And how they live for and how they serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, we don't need any more macho men. We don't need any more sympathetic villains. We don't need any more emasculated weaklings. We need men whose lives are governed by the grace of God.
We need men who are grace-driven, grace-dependent, and grace-disposed. We need godly men in this church. And one such godly man was called Saul of Tarsus, who became the apostle Paul. He wasn't always a godly man.
In fact, he was a man who knew from where he came. He was a man who breathed out murderous words and he sought to imprison the church. But by God's grace, he knocked him down, saved his soul, and made him a godly man.
Oh, that God would do that for us. That God would let the scales fall from our eyes and we see what we need. Paul was a godly man. He wasn't a perfect man. Even after his salvation, he still called himself the chief of sinners.
And yet, he also said this, 1 Corinthians 11. He said, Be imitators of me as I imitate Christ. He called other people to look to him as an example. Men, can you tell other men, follow me as I follow Christ?
You say, well, pastor, I'm not perfect. Paul wasn't perfect. But he got up every day with the attitude, I'm going to follow Christ. Get behind me and let's go together. Let's fight this battle together.
Let's go and do this together. I'm going to do this. Do it with me. Do we say that to one another or do we use the excuse, I'm not perfect, so don't look at me. Paul was a godly man. To say so should go without saying.
But I say it anyway because in his own day, there were people who questioned him. I'm teaching through the book of Galatians right now at Set Free Church on Thursday mornings. And I'm showing them how Paul had to defend his own apostleship.
Because there were people who questioned him as an apostle. And there are people today who question the Apostle Paul. There are people today who say, Apostle Paul was a sexist. Because he didn't let women preach.
That's hogwash. That's garbage. People say the Apostle Paul was homophobic because he said homosexuality was a sin. That's hogwash. I'm not saying it's hogwash that he said it, I'm saying it's hogwash what they're saying about him.
Paul loved these people more than they could ever understand. Paul wanted them to know Christ better than they would ever know. Paul loved them enough to tell them the truth. He was a godly man. Sometimes godly men say things you don't want to hear.
Sometimes I say things you don't want to hear. I've had people come in, hear me preach, and I never see them again. And that's sad because I want them to hear the Word of God, but I know that the Word of God offends people.
Paul was willing to preach the Word of God. He was a godly man. What we have in the Apostle Paul is a godly man who served Christ in the face of tremendous persecution and great personal sacrifice. He was a godly man.
And what I want to show you today from this text is three characteristics of what Paul shows us. And really this is kind of interesting because this is sort of a collection of disjointed things. I'm not saying the Bible is disjointed, but I'm just saying he's ending the letter.
So he's giving us some shots of information. It's not hanging together by virtue of a specific context. He's holding it together because these are the last few things he needs to say. But I want to show you three things from this passage that we've read.
I want to show you a godly man's plans. I want to show you a godly man's partners. And I want to show you a godly man's plea because that's what we see here. First we see a godly man's plans. Let's look first at verse 5.
He says, I will visit you after passing through Macedonia. For I intend to pass through Macedonia. Perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter with you. So that you may help me on my journey wherever I go.
For I do not want to see you just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits. But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost. For a wide door of effective work is open for me. And there are many adversaries.
Alright. Stop right there. That's Paul's plans. He just gave us his itinerary. Have you ever been on vacation? You put together your itinerary. On this day I'm going to do this. On this day I'm going to do that.
This is Paul's itinerary. He says he's going to pass through Macedonia. Which is north of Corinth. It's west of where he is now. He's going to be traveling. Going to Macedonia through there. Going down to Corinth.
He's going to go to Corinth. He's going to spend the whole winter there. Which is a significant amount of time. He's not just spending the night. He's spending a season. But before he goes he's going to stay where he's at.
Because he's got some things to accomplish. Before he leaves. From the perspective of the chronology of Paul's life and ministry. This is very helpful information. If you were studying the life of the Apostle Paul.
You could take these and you could go to the book of Acts. And you could map out where he is in the timeline of his life. And that would be helpful. But for the sake of today's study. I don't want to do that.
What I want to show you. In this passage rather. Are two things that we see that Paul understands. When it comes to making plans. Number one. He understands God's will is greater than his will. If you read this passage.
You'll notice he says, I will. Three times. He says, I will visit you. He says, I will stay in Ephesus. And he says, I will stay with you and spend the winter. Three times he uses the phrase, I will. But then also he uses phrases like, I intend.
Or perhaps. Or want. Or hope. Why does he use those phrases? Because Paul understands this. He can make all the plans he wants. And God is still sovereign. He can make all the plans he wants. And God is still the one who is in control of his life.
I want to show you another passage. In fact we already saw it this morning. It was our call to worship. But turn over to James very quickly with me. I just want to remind you of something that James tells us.
And James is written early in the history of the church. Probably earlier than even this book of 1 Corinthians. And it's interesting because James says almost the exact same thing here. But more in a didactic teaching passage.
James 4 .13. If you have your Bibles open. I'll give you a second to get there. Excuse me. Verse 13, he says, Come now you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town, And spend a year there, And trade and make a profit.
Alright, so what's James talking about? People who make plans. You ever made plans? You ever said, hey I'm going to do this or do that? I'm going to go here and go there. I'm going to go and do this. If you read this closely, He's actually talking about a businessman.
Because this person is going to go and make, He's going to make money. I'm going to trade and make a profit. Businessmen make plans. They have to. It's part of the job of living. We can't just fly by the seat of our pants.
We can't just go on a wing and a prayer. We have to make plans. And it's okay to make plans. But he says this, Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are amidst that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will do this. Or rather we will live and do this or that. As it is you boast in your arrogance. You see here's the problem James is addressing. James is addressing men who say this, I'm going to do this and nothing's going to stop me.
I'm going to do this and nothing's going to thwart my plan. I am the captain of my destiny. I am in charge of my life. I'm going to do what I want to do. No matter what anybody else says or does. And God sits upon his throne and laughs.
Scripture says God holds us in derision. He laughs at our plans. You tell God what you are going to do. You might not live to finish the sentence. That's what he says. He says your life is a vapor. You're like a mist man.
You're here today, gone tomorrow. So instead of making plans in pride, we ought to make plans in humility. And by the way that's what Paul does. You go back to 1 Corinthians 13. He says I will visit you.
That's his desire. That's his want. That's his plan. But he goes on to say if the Lord permits. If the Lord permits. You know what Paul's stating there? God is God and I am not. Proverbs 16 .9 says this.
The heart of a man plans his way. But the Lord establishes his steps. You make all those plans. And they're great plans. I tell you what. I could probably talk to everybody in here who's over 60 years old.
And ask you did you have a plan when you were 20? How's that plan working out? Very few people start that plan at 20 years old. I didn't know I was going to be a pastor when I was 19 years old. When I got saved.
I thought I was going to be just barely a saved person. I didn't know. I mean I didn't know what it meant. To really live for Christ. God saved me. Changed my heart. Changed my direction. Changed everything I ever wanted in life.
16 years old I wanted to work for Disney. I wanted to be a magician. I wanted to travel around doing magic tricks. For Disney Entertainment. Oh thank God I don't work for that corporation today. But you see.
God establishes our steps. Proverbs 19 .21. Many are the plans of the mind of a man. But the purpose of the Lord will stand. God has a plan. And you might not know what it is. You can make your plan. And hear this.
Just don't think I'm saying don't make plans. Because God doesn't tell us not to make plans. In fact if you go through the Proverbs. It says the man who doesn't plan. And who doesn't think about the future.
And who doesn't make provisions for the future is a fool. We have to consider those things. But you have to also say. If the Lord wills. We will do this. Or do that. Because ultimately you have to submit.
To the will of God. And that's a godly man. Who understands that God's will is greater than his will. The second thing we see here. Is a godly man understands opportunity. Comes often with adversity. Look with me again at verse 8.
He says I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost. For a wide door of effective work has opened for me. See he's at Ephesus right now. This is how we know where he's writing from. Paul is writing from Ephesus.
He's writing to Corinth. And Ephesus is a huge city. It's a metropolis. And he's doing great work there. And he's excited about the work there. And he says I can't come now. I'm going to stay here until Pentecost.
Which was a holiday. He said I'm going to stay here until then. To do the work that God's called me to do. And then he says. And there are many adversaries. You know a lot of people have adversaries. And what's the first thing they do?
Run. The first time somebody faces adversity. What do they do? They hightail it out of there. Paul says no. There's many adversities here. So I can't leave. There's battles to be fought. I've got to stay.
Let me tell you this. And this is the truth. Every time God puts opportunity in your way. There will probably be adversity attached to it. I've never had growth in ministry ever. That somebody wasn't fighting it.
Whether it was a small little battle. Or a major life battle. But adversity accompanies opportunity. The powers of darkness do not come against those who are carrying no light. So as you carry the light.
And as your light gets brighter. You will have more adversity against it. And what does Paul do? He says I'm going to stay and deal with it. There's too much opportunity here for me to run. There's too much opportunity here for me to go away.
Some people think that adversity means you're outside of the will of God. If you're fighting a battle. That means it's not what God wants for you. Let me tell you the true story. If you're fighting a battle.
It's probably because you're right where God wants you. Now if you're sinning. We can talk about another conversation. I mean if you're fighting a battle. Because you're causing. You're sinning. And you're bringing things on yourself.
That's one thing. But if you're doing the work of the Lord. And people are coming against you. Then you use that as motivation. I've been there. Thought the whole world was against me. Thought the whole world wanted me gone.
Thought the world wanted me to abandon the pulpit. I had a choice. Hand in my resignation. Or take a stand. And by God's grace. Tom Askell. Pastor of a church in Tampa. He said don't you dare leave. You stand for the truth.
No matter what it takes. I'm thankful for Tom. And I'm thankful for those who stood alongside me. Because it was a tough battle. But we stand for the truth. Adversity doesn't mean you're wrong. You may be wrong.
The Lord will show you eventually. But adversity isn't proof. Adversity may just be telling you you're right. If you know it's true. And you know it's the word of God. Stand for it. Paul tells us opportunity often comes with adversity.
So that's his plans. Now I want to look at his partners. I've spent a lot of time on that. So I'm going to ramp up just a little. His partners here. He mentions two people. He mentions Timothy. He mentions Apollos.
Two different men. By all intents and purposes. By all that we know about them. Two vastly different men. Timothy is young. He is inexperienced. He's godly. He is an example in faith. Paul tells us this.
But he's young. He's inexperienced. And the Bible tells us frequently ill. So he's sickly. It says that in 1 Timothy 5 .23. It says take a little wine with your meals for your frequent ailments. They didn't have aspirin and Tylenol.
So they used a little wine for their frequent ailments. So here Timothy is coming to Corinth. And what does Paul say? He says when Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you. Well that sounds kind of funny.
I don't like the way the ESV translates this. Not that I'm a perfect translator. But the translation really should be something more along the lines of what we see in the New American Standard. Which is this.
See that he is without cause to be afraid. When he comes to you, don't intimidate him. Don't try to put him down. Don't try to hold him back. You know the Bible says that Paul had to tell Timothy do not let people despise your youth.
Because he came as a youthful man, inexperienced. And he said don't let them despise your youth. But be an example in faith and godliness. And so he's telling the Corinthian church. When Timothy comes to you, you treat him right.
When Timothy comes to you, don't make him be afraid. Welcome him as if you welcome me. Because he's doing the same work I'm doing. Welcome him as you would welcome me. Because he's serving the Lord the same way I am.
He may not have my gifts. He may not have my blessings. He may not have all that I have. But he's doing what I'm doing. You welcome him. So Paul is concerned with protection of Timothy. His son in the faith.
But with Apollos it's different. Apollos is an older man. He's a well spoken man. He's a man of great oratory skills. The Bible says he's a man who could really preach. And guess what? Apollos didn't want to go.
Read it again. It says right here in verse 12. Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers, but it was not at all his will to come. Now, he doesn't want to come.
Why doesn't Apollos want to come? I don't know. But I know this. The people at Corinth thought of Apollos as a leader. And they pitted him against Peter and Paul. Remember early in the book, some of you say I am of Paul.
Some of you say I am of Apollos. Some of you say I am of Cephas or Peter. Some of you say I am of Christ. Maybe Apollos didn't want to go because he didn't want to contribute to that type of division.
Maybe he didn't want to go because he didn't want to be part of the politics of church. Did you know church has politics? Anywhere there's people. I mean it's not a good thing, but it is a thing. Anywhere there's people you got opinions.
Right? Opinions are like nostrils. Everybody's got at least two and they all smell. But that's what it is, right? Apollos, I don't know this because the text doesn't say it. I'm basing this on other passages.
Apollos is a man who has caused division. They're not on his own, but they've used him for division. He doesn't want to be a part of that political division. I think that's the reasoning. I know this, he doesn't want to go.
But Paul is urging him to go. Sometimes men have to be urged to participate when they don't want to. I didn't get an amen. Thank you. Because that's the truth. Sometimes men have to be goaded. Because honestly we are the worst at wanting to stay sewn to our couches when it comes time for the men's breakfast or when it comes time for work day or when it comes time for the meetings or when it comes time for the works or when it comes time for Bible study or when it comes time for Wednesday nights or when it comes time for Sunday mornings.
We are the worst at wanting to stay. We're the worst at wanting to go. Oh, so other men come along and push. Paul says, I urged him to visit you. But notice what Paul also says. He didn't command it. Paul is not acting as a dictator.
I love the book of Philemon. You know what Philemon is about? There's a slave who ran away, and now he's with Paul, and Paul is sending him back. And he's saying, go back. And he tells Philemon, he says, I could command you to receive this person like a brother, but instead I'm going to urge you in love to receive him.
Paul has the authority as an apostle to command, but instead he appeals, he urges. So let me tell you something, when a man reaches out to you and urges you to participate, it's because they love you.
When a man reaches out and urges you to participate, it's because they want to see you. It's not because we want to fill the numbers of this church. I don't care about the numbers of this church. I'd preach if there was five of you.
On Thursday night or Wednesday night, there's a lot of times that's all we got. I'm still here preaching just as hard. But the reality is this, we urge one another. The Bible says we seek to do all that we can to stir one another up to faith and good works.
So again, a godly man plans and a godly man partners. Paul is protecting one man. He's urging another man to participate. Finally, and this is last, we see the plea. Verse 13, he says, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
Now this by itself could be a sermon. So I'm not gonna belabor it too long, because I could. But basically what we see here, a call for three things. Number one is a call for vigilance. He says, be watchful.
The NIV says, be on your guard. The New American Standard says, be on alert. I think the King James, it says, watch or watch out. Yeah, and the idea is what? Be on guard. For what? What are we to be on guard against?
Anything that would derail our faith in Christ, be on guard. I teach self-defense classes. Y 'all know this. I teach for the NRA, I teach for self-defense, empty hand. I do all kinds of stuff because I believe in teaching, especially women and children, how to protect themselves from evil people.
And the first thing we teach is called situational awareness. Situational awareness is the concept of being on alert all the time when you were in public. Paul is calling us to spiritual situational awareness.
He's calling us to watch out for those things which would spiritually damage our hearts. You know what the Bible says to do against idolatry? Flee idolatry. You know what it says to do against sexual immorality?
Stand up to it and fight. No, flee. You see it coming? You see the opportunity coming? You see that opportunity in front of you? Go the other way. People ask me all the time, pastor, or if I'm teaching self-defense, they'll say, well, what would you do if you were in a dark alley?
I don't go to dark alleys. That's the first thing. I really don't. I do my best to avoid dark alleys. And then I don't have to worry about the question. That's the same thing spiritually. If you know you've got a problem with something, flee from it.
You know, Jesus said, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. I think that is hyperbole. I don't think we're supposed to be literally taking knives and cutting off parts of our body. But, if your Wi-Fi causes you to sin, cut it off.
That's pretty easy. If your television causes you to sin, cut it off. That's pretty real. If you can't have a cell phone that allows you to get on the internet, go buy one of those old ones that you have to flip over.
It takes you 45 minutes to send a text. Do what you gotta do. Right? Be vigilant. You're called to be a godly man. Be vigilant. Be steadfast. That's the second thing. Steadfast means to stand firm in the faith.
To stand firm. Now, I will say this. We are not called to be immovable oaks in every area. We can have some pliability in certain areas. But, when it comes to the faith, we are called to stand firm. I hear about churches all the time that split over things that don't matter.
Music types, color of the carpet, you know, whether or not we have a drum set or not. You know, those are silly. But, what does matter is the Word of God standing on the truth. And so, we stand firm in that.
Everything else is secondary, but the Word of God will stand. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of God will stand firm. So, that's what you got to stand on. Stand firm. So, we have a call to vigilance.
We have a call to steadfastness. And we have a call to biblical masculinity. Act like men. And by the way, in the Greek, guess what it says? Act like men. Just so you know. Some people think you get all fancy with the Greek.
It really just says that. Andritsomai. It's a Greek word. Andrei, meaning that is the word that means man. Andritsomai means to be as a man or act like a man. And some translations translate it as show courage.
I'm okay with that. As long as you understand that Paul's example of courageousness is masculinity. That's Paul's example of courageousness is to be a man. That doesn't mean women can't be courageous.
Boy, howdy. They certainly can. Many, many women have stood for the faith and died for it. And we praise God for their example. So this in no way diminishes the feminine. But we live in a world that does diminish the masculine.
I wrote an article a few years ago about manhood. I want to quote myself, as sad as that I guess is. But I want to just, I want to read from my own article. Anyway, I want to read this because I was pulling it out as I was studying for the sermon.
I said this is something I want to say it just this way. Many radical feminists have put forward the notion that all things feminine are valuable and all things masculine are horrible. Sadly, this has led to the demasculinization of boys in our society.
Masculinity is inherent in boys. And if we have a boy, you see what I am talking about. If you have, if you hand a boy a stick, what does it become? A sword. Boys want to run and play and get dirty and wrestle.
They're fascinated with things that go boom. These are all part of the nature called masculinity. However, in our devout femininity, we define masculinity as something to be challenged and defeated. If your little boy picks up a stick and says, I have a sword, don't take it away from him.
Because you know why he has that sword? To fight the bad guys. We need a world of knights. We need a world that stands up against the bad guys and isn't afraid to do so. It's not wrong to be a man. It's virtuous to be a man.
Now again, I said there's worldly masculinity that's wrong. But don't ever tell your child, your son, it's wrong to stand up against evil. That's what we're called to do. To be men. Don't stifle it. Guide it.
Nurture it. Channel it. Teach it. And show them that the greatest man who ever lived was Jesus Christ. Who never bowed to any fear. But stood, even in the face of Pontius Pilate, unafraid. We stand as men.
We have an example who is Christ. Ultimately, all of these imperatives fall down at the end where it says, be strong. All of these imperatives, vigilance, steadfastness, biblical masculinity, comes to the end where it says, be strong.
Be strong, be watchful, be steadfast, be courageous, be strong. Know this though, your strength does not come from you. Your strength comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. When you are weak, He is strong.
Call out for His strength. Don't rely on your own. You will always be inadequate alone. You will never be inadequate with Christ. So we began today, and I'm going to draw to a close now. We began today with a simple premise.
The Bible calls Christian men to be godly men. We need godly men. Paul has given us examples for how godly men are to behave. Not all of the examples, but some for us to learn from. How to plan our lives around God's will.
How to partner with men who are seeking to do God's will as we are. And how to plead with men to do God's will. Be strong, be steadfast, be vigilant. Certainly there's more than just this. But these are a few things that we can put in our hearts and ask this question.
Am I seeking, truly and honestly, to be a godly man or woman? Am I seeking to be a godly man or a godly woman? Here's the sad thing some of you don't hear. Whether or not you live a godly life doesn't matter to you.
You're more concerned about the world. You're more concerned about the desires of the flesh. Any passion you may have for godly living is overwhelmed by your passion for what the world has to offer. And might I say to you this morning.
If you have no desire to live a godly life, that should tell you something about the condition of your own soul. Now I'm not speaking to the struggling because we all struggle. As a believer living a godly life is not a perfect life.
And we battle every day as we get up to live that life. But if you have no desire at all to live that life. If you have no desire at all to take up your cross and follow Christ. If you have no desire at all to be a godly man.
It might just be time for a little soul searching for you. Have you truly come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you recognized yourself a sinner? A sinner against God who is now worthy of condemnation?
Have you repented of your sins and placed your trust in the finished work of Christ? If so, and God has changed your life. Then praise the Lord. But if not, I call you today by the authority of Jesus Christ himself.
Repent of your sins and trust in Christ. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we may be saved. And at the name of the Lord Jesus Christ every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.
Either now or in the end of time. Let it be that it be today. By the grace of almighty God. Let us pray. Father I thank you for your word. I thank you for the call to repentance. Because Lord that call to repentance reminds every one of us of the need to repent.
Lord as believers we repent every day. Our lives are marked by daily repentance. And I pray Lord that you would give us a heart that plans. With you in mind. A heart that partners with other men and women who have you in mind.
A heart that pleads with other men and women with you in mind. Father give us a godly heart. Give us a godly desire. And Lord may we see eyes open today. May we see scales fall from eyes and may we see ears open.
And may we see people who know not Christ come to him in faith. And it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.