TPW 97 Biblical Mahood Against Our Culture

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Welcome to the Protestant Witness, this is
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Pastor Patrick Hines here at Bridwell Heights Presbyterian Church on a Friday morning, and today
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I wanted to post a sermon I preached this past Sunday night on biblical manhood against culture.
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And this is a topic that is extraordinarily important in our day, as everything regarding gender is being destroyed and challenged and neutered.
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So I hope that just from this one Bible verse, 1 Corinthians 16, 13, that we can gain some insights and understand what it is that God wants men to be and to do, and I hope that you find this to be edifying to your soul.
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Good evening everyone. Please take your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians 16. 1
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Corinthians 16, my scripture reading is verse 13, 1
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Corinthians 16, 13. This is
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God's word. Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
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May God bless the reading of this word, let's pray please. Father, we ask that you would be with us this evening as we contemplate those very important biblical imperatives, not just for biblical manhood, although one of those is specifically aimed at men, but to all of your people, that we would take upon ourselves the responsibility of walking closely with you, of fighting a good fight against the sins that we deal with, of taking charge of ourselves spiritually and working hard to exercise ourselves towards godliness, knowing that that's profitable for all things.
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Lord, there's much that you have decreed in your sovereign providence and goodness that is very difficult and very painful and difficult for us to understand at times, even what your purposes are, and yet we trust in you completely that in your sovereign providence and in your grace and mercy and love to us that everything has a purpose, and that purpose is to conform us more to the image of Christ, and we pray you would help us to be faithful to you in our walks, day in and day out, so that we're ready for the darker times when they do come, so that the trials are not wasted on us, but that we really can learn and grow from them.
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We pray all this in Christ's name, amen. For marriage to work well, and we're looking at the section on marriage in the
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Westminster Confession, you have to have godly men and godly women, and that's one of the great challenges of the day that we live in today, is men embracing what scripture says they're supposed to be and do, and women embracing what scripture says they are supposed to be and do.
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And so I wanted to take a few Sunday nights and discuss the issue of biblical manhood, biblical womanhood for single men and married men, single women and married women.
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But if marriage is going to be a blessing, and if families are going to be able to disciple and raise their children to know and love
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Christ, we have to understand what the scriptures say to us about our genders and what it is that God expects of us in order to be godly men and godly women.
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If the church in America is ever going to revive from the onslaught of every conceivable ideology which has turned men into jello, we must, on our knees, read and teach and preach these great biblical truths to men of all ages, starting with ourselves.
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Far from the typical misogynistic, beer -can -crushing, chest -thumping, juvenile silliness put forward by our culture, the
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Bible's portrayal of manhood is that of a self -giving, self -controlled, serious, self -sacrificial, other -focused, truth -loving, courageous, strong,
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Bible -saturated individual who loves his wife, loves his children, loves his church, and loves
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Christ and his word, the Bible. The biblical man is a man with a message.
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He is a man who has something to say. He's a leader, not a follower. His manhood is demonstrated in that he has convictions and cares only to please
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God and is not swayed by the fear of man. He has convictions. He knows how to defend from scripture.
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He is humble and teachable. He hates sin and he loves righteousness. He is a one -woman man and treats women with respect, with dignity, and gentleness at all times, especially when he is secluded and surfing the internet.
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He is an encourager to others. Does that sound unattainable? In Christ, all things are possible.
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Our nation and the church today are dying because of a lack of godly men. Every time
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I'm reading through the Psalms, I come across the opening verses of Psalm 12. It just breaks my heart. The psalmist wrote, under the inspiration of the
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Holy Spirit, help, Lord, for the godly man ceases. For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.
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They speak idly, everyone with his neighbor, with flattering lips and a double heart. They speak.
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Scott Brown, who's a pastor, who's a contemporary alive today, writing and doing conferences and things like that, he wrote this in the introductory section to the section of articles on manhood in a great, huge book that came out not too long ago called
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A Theology of Family, where he put together some of the greatest articles and sermons ever preached by anybody from the
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Reformation forward on all sorts of topics related to family life. And Brown wrote this in the introduction to the section on manhood, quote, there are times in human history when manhood gets mangled.
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In times like these, there's only one hope, the sovereign power of God working through the word of God by the spirit of God.
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This is one of those times. And this is why a recovery of biblical manhood is pivotal. The task of recovery is arduous, challenging, and controversial.
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Furthermore, getting calibrated to the biblical vision for manhood is a lifelong task, which we cannot accomplish without the grace of Christ Jesus.
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Three powerful forces work continually to destroy this vision. First, the sons of the first Adam have been marred inwardly with a sinfully passive streak that deters them from the courageous and principled leadership they were designed to provide.
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You hear what he's saying there? Men are passive today, but not aggressive about anything today. Second, the most powerful institutions in the world today attempt to undermine and even usurp a man's role.
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The state in particular has mounted an all -out assault to diminish a man's leadership roles as teacher and provider, and the church often follows suit.
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Third, feminism has plagued modern man's sensibilities. Their minds have been pickled in feminist brine for so long that they can hardly think straight about the mantle of manhood that Christ has laid upon them.
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The synapses of their brains are misfiring. This is why modern men almost feel guilty that they are men, that they think like men and act like men, end quote.
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What is a man and what does God expect from a man? First Corinthians 13, four great imperatives, we just read them.
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The first one, watch or be on the alert, stand fast in the faith, act like men, be strong.
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Here at the close of the first letter to the church of Corinth, Paul makes four exhortations which are evidently directed primarily to the men of that congregation.
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Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. There's only one
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Greek word that is translated as act like men in this verse, and it's that verb andridzista, and the lexicons define it as conduct oneself in a courageous way.
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Another lexicon defines it as to show oneself to be a man. And while women would certainly be expected to watch and to stand fast in the faith and to be strong as well, they certainly would not be singled out by the verb act like men.
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That verb andridzo means act like a man. God is not saying that to women. He's not saying women act like men.
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That is specifically directed to the men at Corinth and to the men of every church, including this one.
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One great teaching of scripture which is being severely undermined by our manhood -detesting feminist culture is that men are not women.
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Isn't that bizarre? My predecessor here had to write an article for the Equal Report saying that the biggest problem we have facing our denomination is men that want to be women.
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That may sound degrading and insulting, but I'm sorry, that's a fact. That is a fact. When you have a man stand up and say he's attracted to men, he's acting like a woman.
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Stop. Act like a man. Andridzista. Be a man. And on the opposite side of that, women are not men.
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Women are not men. You know, one of the most heartbreaking things I've experienced in the last five years of my life.
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We went to that conference in Birmingham, and there were over 100 people there from all over the PCA and from other
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Reformed denominations, the Reformed Evangelistic Conference. And we had a time of prayer, and people were just praying all over that room.
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And there was one woman that prayed. And she prayed, sobbing. Sobbing.
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Why won't the men lead us? How can we be this stupid, God? How can this denomination possibly be going this direction?
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I just sat there and just wept. Isn't that pathetic? You have a woman praying like that?
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Women are not men. Men are not women. God is the creator of gender. Gender assignment is sovereignly given to us by God.
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Gender is a gift from God. It should not surprise us at all that even something that basic, even the biblical binary of male and female, even that is being attacked today by our culture.
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The rebellion is so deep that people try to live in denial of what they actually are. The increase of godlessness equals the destruction of every gift that God has given to mankind, including gender distinctions.
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In the place of our God -given gender, man wants to have the option of transitioning.
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The option of being fluid or having some qualifications in the way they think about their own gender identity.
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As Christians, we must recognize this for what it is. Denying that our biological gender is our actual gender is just another way of attacking
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God. It's just one other way of lashing out at him and denying his right to rule over us.
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Mankind, without the fear of God, is so warped in his thinking that he will actually try to overthrow the nature of the created order itself.
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Men are not women. Women are not men. Now look at each one of those terms there.
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1 Corinthians 16, 13 is one of those passages. I've actually got it up on the wall in my study over there.
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I love that first opening verb. Watch. Be on the alert, it says. That's the
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Greek verb gregoreo. The name Greg or Gregory that comes from that Greek word. It means watchful, one who watches.
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To be in constant readiness, to be on the alert. Why do we need to do that? Men have to be on the alert.
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Because we're the protectors of the church. We're the protectors of our families. The protectors of the women in our lives.
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Be on the alert. What are we supposed to be on the alert for? That term is used 13 times in the
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Gospels by Jesus. Watch, he says. Be on guard. Be on the alert. One instance in particular is especially relevant.
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A statement made by Jesus to his sleepy disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane. Remember when he came to them and saw them sleeping?
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You know what he said to them? He said, Gregoreo. Watch. Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.
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The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. You know, I used to watch a lot of heavyweight championship boxing.
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And one of the rules of thumb for fighters is you never let your guard down. If you ever watch boxers or any other kind of fighters go at one another, what are they always doing?
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They're always protecting the sides of their heads with their fists, with their gloves. They have to always have their hands or their fists up to guard the most vulnerable part of their body, their head.
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And over and over again, God exhorts his people to be on guard. Be on the alert. Don't be caught sleeping.
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Keep your guard up. Be vigilant. Look out. Remember that our enemies and God's enemies are lurking everywhere.
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Remember that both Satan and our own sinful natures are opportunistic. Cheetahs in the wild, the fastest animal on earth.
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They will not try. They're just as lazy as the house cats in your house. Okay, cheetahs have no interest in trying to catch the biggest, the strongest, and the fastest, even though they're fully capable of doing it.
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They want the crippled one. They want the weak one. They want one that's not going to put up a fight. They're like the weaklings and the stragglers.
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Satan and your sinful heart, wait until you're feeling weak, vulnerable, dry, lethargic, and then comes the attack.
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And that's why scripture says be on guard, be on the alert. 1 Peter 5 .8, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
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Satan and our temptations are masters at finding the chinks in our armor. The biblical application here for men is this, keep your gloves up at all times.
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Every day that you begin without praying or reading God's Word, without private worship of God, it's like forgetting to put a roof on your house and expecting it to stay dry if it rains.
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It's like trying to fight a pro boxer without keeping your gloves up. Your opponent is going to see their opportunity and knock you out.
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1 Corinthians 16 .13 exhorts men to watch. Be in constant readiness beyond the alert.
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Don't become spiritually lazy. Don't become lax about your pet sin issues, whatever they are.
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Remember Jesus' words to his disciples, watch and pray, he told them, lest you enter into temptation. What is the biblical man supposed to guard?
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Lots of things. Be on guard. Guard what? Your own heart, your family, your priorities.
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Here's one, family worship, family devotions, guard that. Family devotions and Bible reading have to be guarded with special vigilance.
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Everything on earth, it seems at times, and everything in all of nature, and the created order, and in our society is going to try to discourage you from your faithfulness in doing family devotions.
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In fact, when you try to do it, you will begin to feel and recognize that it's almost as if when you open the
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Bible, every demon in the Tri -Cities area comes into your living room to try to stop you, to distract you, to make it so that you don't do it, to make it so no one's paying attention, everyone's looking at something else, everyone's in a bad mood, everyone's cranky, and you're supposed to have this heart that's warm and on fire for Jesus at all times and doesn't get upset, bothered, irritated.
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That's what manhood is about, right there. That's the battlefield.
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Men, be strong and courageous about this great duty of biblical family worship and discipleship. It's not optional.
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And you must protect that time with your family. As I've said many times, and I'm just going to keep saying this to you,
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I know of nothing in our society, nothing, that promotes the whole family being in the same room together all at the same time.
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Nothing does. Nothing that you're ever involved with, outside of your home, will promote that happening. And if you don't make sure that it happens, and if you don't guard it, you don't stand on the alert and watch and guard that, it will not happen,
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I promise you. So watch. Godly man is watchful.
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He's constantly on the alert about his own heart, what he sees, what he's thinking about, where his affections are going, where his mind is drifting.
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He monitors those things. He thinks about those things. He watches those things. Be on the alert.
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Guard yourself. Guard your loved ones. Guard your heart. Your walk. Look at point number two. Here's one.
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Boy, if this isn't relevant today, I don't know what would be. Look at this one. Stand fast in the faith. There's one.
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That phrase, stand fast, it means literally to be firmly committed in conviction. To be firmly committed in conviction or belief.
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Paul uses the same term in Galatians 5 .1. After writing some of the most stirring words ever written about the gospel and it being a free justification by faith and not by our works,
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Paul says stand fast in that. In the liberty by which
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Christ has made us free. And do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. The rest of the phrase there, stand fast in the faith, is referring to the doctrinal content of scripture.
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That's what that's saying. So men of God and women of God, don't be movable in your convictions about what is true.
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Stand fast in them. Stay put in those convictions. The doctrines of scripture.
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It is the word faith with a definite article in front of it. The faith, that means the doctrines of the
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Christian faith. The doctrines taught to us in scripture. The doctrines of the gospel. Another reference to the faith, very familiar to you
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I'm sure. Jude, verse 3. Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation,
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I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints.
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So we're to stand fast in that. In the faith. Not move from it. Not enamored by the next fad that comes down the pike.
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The true man of God stands fast. He doesn't move. He knows what he believes and why, and he will not move from it unless convinced by scripture.
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Consider the Bible's description of the precise opposite of this. What's the opposite of standing fast in the faith?
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It's described for us in Ephesians 4, 14. It says that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.
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These children, of which Paul speaks here, are constantly running to and fro in their beliefs and doctrines.
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One week they're excited about N .T. Wright and the new perspectives on Paul and all the brilliant new insights.
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The next week it's some federal vision guy. The next week it's some new teacher with some newfangled angle on some doctrine and on and on and on.
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The great Charles Hodge, I've told you this before. One of my favorite theologians. I've been reading his systematic theology lately. Love that guy.
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Just a great first -class theologian. Love the word of God. And when he retired from being the president of Princeton, he said that he was the most proud that nothing new was ever taught here while I was here.
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Why? He stood fast. He was not movable from the convictions, from the faith in Scripture.
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Hodge and the men of that time understood that the faith was fixed and unchanging. You know, the Bible still says the same things today it said a couple thousand years ago and 300 years ago and 500 years ago and 800 years ago.
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The Bible hasn't changed at all. People do. Men do. Men get bored by truth and want to come up with some new insight to something but the
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Scriptures don't change. The faith doesn't change. Those old men at old Princeton, they were not enamored by theological innovation but only biblical truth.
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A godly man is just that. He's a man, not a child. He's not blown about by every wind of doctrine. In his understanding, he's a man.
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He's mature. He is not tossed to and fro by those things. As much as he is immovable in his biblical conviction, he is also always learning and growing in his knowledge of the word of God and of the great doctrines of Scripture.
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Yes, we're always being reformed by our study of the word of God but the core doctrines of the faith which are the foundation of salvation and our relationship with God, they never change in the heart of a true biblical man.
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He will stand fast in those things. The Holy Spirit of God speaking in Scripture commands us to stand fast in the faith.
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We're told in 1 Corinthians 14 20 Brethren, do not be children in understanding. However, in malice be babes but in understanding be men.
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In understanding, be mature. Paul said at the end of 1 Corinthians 13 When I was a child, I spoke as a child.
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I understood as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. There does come a time to break from childish things.
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Hopefully in your teenage years where you put those things behind you now. Now I'm going to become more serious minded about what really matters in life.
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About growing in godliness. About growing in my understanding of the Bible and of the faith and my ability to teach that one day to my wife and to my children.
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You need to be like a rock and not sand. Remember the foundation passage at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. You build upon that rock.
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You dig deep into the ground to find that foundation. And that digging deep is looking in God's word.
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Because the biblical man's God and his Savior, they don't change. The truths about them don't change either. Another reason this biblical man stands fast in the faith is because Psalm 1 verses 1 and 2 teaches that he does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly.
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There's always going to be plenty of ungodly counsel coming at you from every form of media and every direction.
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People with new angles on this and new angles on that. But the godly man does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly.
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He doesn't stand in the path of sinners. He doesn't sit in the seat of the scornful. He doesn't listen to the worldliness around him.
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He listens to the word of God. He is not like the ungodly. He is like the tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season.
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And he meditates upon the law of God day and night. The biblical man's closest companions and friends are not unbelievers.
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The biblical man, he's too sharp. He's too sharp to buy the common argument. But Jesus hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors and sinners.
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And I hate to be a wet blanket, but no, he didn't. No, he didn't.
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Jesus received repentant prostitutes and tax collectors and sinners. On occasion, he ate with them.
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But Jesus' closest friends, his closest companions, were always his disciples. Proverbs 12, 26.
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The righteous should choose his friends carefully for the way of the wicked leads them astray. The biblical man knows this.
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And thus, he's very deliberate and very careful about the choices he makes in his friends.
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He is no fool in this regard and would never be taken in by such shallow argumentation about trying to win the loss by having the loss be his closest companions.
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What did that proverb just say? The righteous should choose his friends carefully for the way of the wicked leads them astray.
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You ever notice? It's sickness that's contagious, not health. It's the same way with sin.
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If someone has a healthy child, we don't think, well, let's get all the sick kids over by him. Maybe his health will rub off on them. It doesn't work that way.
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The biblical man does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. He doesn't stand in the path of sinners. He doesn't sit in the seat of the scornful.
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He recognizes the truth, 2 Corinthians 6, 15. What accord has Christ with Belial? What part is a believer with an unbeliever?
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Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. His delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, he meditates day and night.
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Whereas the biblical man used to walk in the counsel and advice and worldview and priorities of the ungodly.
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This has all been changed now. Now, his delight is in the law of the Lord. His company, his companions are the people of God.
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He is the lover of the word of God. His life reflects that he is in constant study of that great book, the scriptures, the
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Bible. Christian evangelist and orphanage director, George Mueller. I'm sure some of you have heard of George Mueller.
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Most impressive thing I've ever read about that man in his life is that it was estimated based on his journals that he read the
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Bible, the entire Bible, from cover to cover at least 200 times during his 93 years that he lived in the world.
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200 times. Starting at age 14. I've shared this one with you too. The Puritan, Cotton Mather.
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From age 14, he simply resolved, I am going to read 15 chapters of the
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Bible every single day. And he did. Five in the morning, five at lunch, five before bed.
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15 chapters a day. That would get you through the whole Bible probably three to five times a year. What made so many of the
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Puritans such giant oaks for Christ in this world? They were men of the word of God. What made
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Luther and Calvin such godly and insightful men and men of integrity and great family men? They were men of the word of God.
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You can't help but notice when you read their books, they just breathe Scripture. These were sinners whose natural inborn sinful thinking had been completely rewired by divine revelation and Scripture.
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Such is what beats in the heart of the man of God. His love for the voice of his God and Savior in Scripture.
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That's what characterizes him. In that law, he meditates day and night. He's thinking about passages constantly.
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He's thinking about what he read that morning, what he read the day before, what he read a month ago. That man will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.
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Does that mean he won't be tested and go through things that totally vex him and rip his heart out? No, but he'll be ready for them.
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He will be carried by the promises of God through those things. He will bring forth his fruit in its season.
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His leaf shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper. A man will never stand fast in the faith, as it says here in 1
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Corinthians 16, 13, unless he spends his life on his knees before the Word of God.
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You want to stand fast in the faith? Spend your life on your knees before God's Word.
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That's the key to it. And then thirdly, you see the third imperative there? Act like men, on drzyszta.
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Great verb, on drzyszta. And the imperative, it means acquit yourselves like men. I love the King James Version there.
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It says, quit ye like men. Quit ye like men. It doesn't mean, you know, quit at everything. It simply means that's an old
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English way of referring to act like men. Quit ye like men. This is the only place in the
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New Testament where this verb appears. And yet the sense is sufficiently clear. No soldier in the army of Jesus Christ may be fainthearted.
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In his presence, there is no place for cowards and weaklings. Few verses in the Bible are more disheartening and devastating to read than Psalm 78, verse nine.
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The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. Even though they had been taught, they had been armed with the
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Word of God by their fathers and their grandfathers. When the time came for battle, they turned back.
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They wouldn't stand and fight. Now, maybe these men were, maybe they were good businessmen. Maybe they had good marriages.
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Maybe they managed their money well. Maybe they had good families. Maybe they had been well taught in the things of God. Maybe they even had high scores on their
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ACT. Maybe they graduated with honors from elite institutions. But when they were faced with a real enemy, with a real battle in the day of conflict, they turned back in the day of battle.
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And the Scripture here commands the men of Corinth, act like men. The verb means specifically to have courage.
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As a man ought to have courage. And in our day of apostasy, our day of traitors and cowards and men who will not accept the possibility that someone could actually just be bad.
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Someone could actually just be wrong about something. You just need to understand, if you're going to do that, if you're going to be a man in that way, you're going to have to do it very often all by yourself.
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You know, J .C. Ryle. You can't help but feel sorry for the guy. When you read his books, he was dealing with a church that was badly going astray.
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The guy constantly talked about, our church, our prayer book. These people saying this and saying that.
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He was watching it become liberal and more and more liberal. You know, there's a biography about Ryle that I have. I haven't read it yet, but the title of the book is called,
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Prepare to Stand Alone. Because the guy was all by himself so often.
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I want to challenge myself and every man here and all the parents who are in charge of raising young men. Will those young men stand and fight or will they chicken and run?
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What I mean is this. Will the men in this room, no matter what their age, be swept into the arms of the world or will they stand fast in the faith?
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Will they be moved away by all the emotion and the anecdotes and the stories of heartache?
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I mean, we were even told that in the Overture's Committee at General Assembly, there was no biblical exegesis. There was no argumentation going on from the
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Bible from the other side. It was all emotional stories and tearjerkers and everything else. Don't be taken in by that kind of stuff.
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That's the way the devil argues. That's what he uses to convince people. You stand fast in the faith.
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I don't care how many crocodile tears you see. The world changes. Trends change.
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Revolutions try to change the fixed boundaries of God's truth. The majority are led along.
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They go along with those changes. Will the young men stand their ground or not? Are the young men here willing to withdraw from their circle of friends if they consistently speak disrespectfully about women?
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Are the young men here willing to withdraw from their friends if those friends don't have integrity? If they speak disrespectfully to and about their parents and those friends want them to join them in their wicked deeds?
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Will they have the guts to stand their ground and say, No, I'm not going along with you. No, I'm not going to laugh at your jokes.
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No, I'm not going to show any interest in your escapades and exploits of women.
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You're classless and I'm not going to listen to it. Will the teenage men here do that? Put aside all the outward accomplishments that we're always so quick to praise and lift up in young men and think about what beats in the heart of young men.
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Are they men of integrity? Will they do the right thing even if it costs them money? Will they do the right thing if they're made fun of or mocked by their peers?
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Will they do the right thing if it costs them their friends, if it costs them popularity, approval in the eyes of the world?
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Paul wrote to the churches of Galatia in Galatians 1 .10, For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God?
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You see, Paul had to think that way because he preached a full and free justification by faith and not by your works in any way, shape, or form.
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It was because of that he was persecuted. And he even says to them, If I preached circumcision, if I allowed works to get into the equation here, nobody would persecute me anymore because that's what everybody believes already anyway.
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And the gospel is, no, you can't do anything to save yourself, nothing at all. And Paul says,
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Am I seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men,
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I would not be a bondservant of Christ. A biblical man knows what is truly important.
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He's not ashamed to tell the truth. He's not ashamed of the gospel. He's not ashamed of Jesus' cross and the exclusivity of the salvation that is found only in Him.
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He fears God, not man. Proverbs 29 .25, The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the
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Lord shall be saved. The young men in this church, the 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 year olds, need to know that.
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If you fear your peers and the kids that you hear from and that you do sports with, if you fear them, that brings a snare.
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You fear God. You trust in the Lord and you will always be saved. Luke 9 .26,
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Jesus said, Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the son of man will be ashamed when he comes in his own glory and in his father's and of the holy angels.
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Going along with the crowd, away from the faith, is not part of the biblical man's universe of discourse.
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He's not going to do it. He's not going to be moved away from the truth. The fear of man is not part of his world.
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He knows these precious truths from the word of God too. Matthew 10 .28, And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.
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And then Psalm 118 .6, The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me?
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We must ask ourselves, why is this unique verb used in the imperative mood here at the end of 1
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Corinthians? Why does Paul exhort them saying, be courageous and act like men? Why does he say that?
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Because the temptation before them and before us is to act like something other than that. It was the same temptation that they faced.
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The same temptation men of every generation face. And so the scripture says, Men, be men. Act like men, be courageous.
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Be someone that's going to stand fast on the faith. Watch and guard. Temptation is to be a coward.
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Temptation is simply go with the flow of culture change. The temptation is, I don't want people to think that I'm mean.
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I don't want people to think I'm not nice. I don't want people to think I'm not charitable. Biblical man doesn't buy such trite and unbiblical ideas as...
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This was in my manuscript before John preached or taught the Sunday school this morning. Preach the gospel and use words if necessary.
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That's one of the most... What's the word I'm looking for? Silly phrases ever. Preach the gospel and use words if necessary.
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No biblical man would ever buy such nonsense. He knows the gospel is a message.
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It's the message of Christ and him crucified, risen again, and that forgiveness of sins is found only by repenting and believing in him and his propositional message contained in the words and sentences of God in scripture.
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The man of God is a man of the unchanging message of the Bible. Yes, our lives must adorn that profession of faith in the gospel with good works and with godliness and kindness and love, but our lives can only show people the effects of the gospel, not its essence.
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Its essence is a message. The gospel's essence must be preached and spoken and explained to people.
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And the biblical man has the courage to speak the truth and love to those willing to listen. When we consider who and what we are as Christian men, let us all do what we can that no one would ever have grounds to say that we're cowards.
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Fathers, there are few things better for your sons than to see that you're not afraid to say what is true and to stand for what is right, even if it costs you something to do it.
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The young men of our church need to see the older men engaged in the battles of our time. We must engage in the battles of our time with persistence, with courage.
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For so many men, they'll get excited about family worship, about reading the Bible daily, but then the grind of life pulls on them and they go back to their old ways and they won't put up much of a fight.
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Just remember that verb, andridzesta, act like men, the
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Holy Spirit of God says to all of us. Fight for what you know you're supposed to do. If you have a pornography problem, talk to myself, one of the elders in the church, become accountable, take a baseball bat to your computer.
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You know, somehow human beings were able to live and function in the world without the internet for most of human history.
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Somehow it happened. And I also want to encourage you this. I've told you all this before.
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Please don't be a whatever guy.
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What I mean is this. So often it's the women who wish their husbands would leave their families and then the men are always like whatever.
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The wife will say, sweetheart, I think we should try to read the Bible out loud together as a family. And the husband says, whatever.
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The wife will say, honey, I think we're going to try homeschooling this year. And the husband says, whatever. You know,
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I've heard that described that way in the 1980s. A whole bunch, thousands of mothers, thousands of Christian mothers all of a sudden said, you know what?
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We're going to teach our own kids. And we're going to teach them the Bible and how to think like Christians. Honey, we're going to homeschool the kids.
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And thousands of husbands said, whatever. We cannot be like that.
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Honey, we've been married for 25 years now. I don't feel very loved by you anymore. You have so many hobbies and other interests.
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You just don't pursue me. You don't listen to me. You don't love me the way you did long ago. Whatever. Don't be a whatever guy.
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Be a man on a mission. A biblical mission. Be like Increase Mather.
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You know why I like that guy so much? His parents actually had the courage to name him Increase. Increase Mather.
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Who cried and prayed so earnestly for the conversion of his children. Be like Jonathan Edwards who never got angry.
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According to the people, the students, the missionaries that lived in that house, he did all his studying in a house that had one more child in it than my house does.
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He had 11 kids. And the people that lived there said, he never once, not once, did he ever even look irritated.
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He'd be sitting there thinking, writing, and his wife or one of the kids would come over and they said, and he would turn to them with a lighted face and give them his full attention.
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Wow. Be like George Mueller who read the Bible 200 times.
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Get a vision from the Word of God and make that a reality in your home and in your life. As a recovering whatever guy myself who has counseled a lot of whatever guys myself,
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I want to tell you that it takes courage and it takes guts and it takes determination to be a biblical man.
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It's not for the faint of heart. And you live in a society that is dominated by a feminist worldview that is using every conceivable medium to destroy your vision as a man.
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You live in a culture where the devil himself does not want you to be a man.
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And if you are tired of being that guy who has the best of intentions but just never really seems to do the right thing, remember the
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Holy Spirit of God after declaring the glorious liberating life transforming power of the freeness of God's grace in Jesus Christ.
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That no matter how you're doing in your Christian life, the blood and righteousness of Christ will avail for you.
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He is a perfect savior. No charge can be brought against you. Remember, in light of that truth, act like men.
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In the light of that gospel, give God your very best in embracing what you're supposed to do.
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And in the last imperative you see it, the last phrase, be strong. Be strong.
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Act like men, be strong. Guard yourself. Stand fast in the faith.
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Act like men and then be strong. The final imperative, it's a summation of what came before.
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We are to be strong in guarding, standing firm in the faith and in our courage.
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We guard and watch with strength. We stand firm with strength. We act like men with strength.
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Be strong. The strength spoken of here is not physical strength, folks. It has nothing to do with how much weight you can lift or bench press or how fast you can run a mile.
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It is spiritual resolve. That's what that's talking about. Be strong. Have spiritual resolve.
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There are people who are weak or strong physically, but the strength spoken of here is spiritual. It is self -control and rule over our own spirits and hearts and bodies.
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Proverbs 16, 32b, he who rules his spirit is greater than he who takes a city.
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So you could be the greatest military hero ever. Someone that can just kill people. You could take on 15 guys at a time and leave every single one of them in a puddle of blood on the floor.
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But the person who has self -control is greater than that guy. The person who has rule over what he does and is able to do it, his duty consistently, he's greater than the greatest warrior, the greatest power lifter, the world's strongest man, the winner of the
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Arnold Schwarzenegger classic. That guy is greater. He's better. He's stronger than them. 1
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Timothy 4, 7 and 8, exercise yourself toward godliness. Bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.
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Many who have great determination are able to do incredible physical exercise programs and running, and that's great.
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Scripture says that does profit a little. But the exercise that is profitable for all things is exercising toward godliness.
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Daily prayer and Bible reading. Personal and family worship of the triune God in the home. The study of great books which help us grow in our knowledge of the word of God.
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The fellowship of God's people. Attendance at the services of worship at your church. Participation in the Lord's supper.
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These are the exercises toward godliness. If you can bench press 400 pounds and run a marathon without breaking a sweat, that's great.
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But if you can do that and you fall on your face at the sight of the first temptation or spiritual trial that God puts before you, then what good are we?
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You know the winner of the world's strongest man? A few years ago, a fellow from Great Britain named Eddie Hall.
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He made the statement after doing just unbelievable training to become the world's strongest man.
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This guy deadlifted 500 kilograms. That's over a thousand pounds. And he said it nearly killed him.
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He was bleeding out of his nose when he lifted it off the ground. That's a record I don't think anyone will ever break. And he made a statement.
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He said any man that says that in their heart they don't want to be the strongest man in the world is just lying to themselves.
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And I thought that is perfectly false. Because I know a lot of men who could care less about something like that.
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What if we had that same just unbelievable zeal and determination to be the godliest man we could possibly be?
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People will devote unbelievable amounts of time and energy to accomplish things that have no lasting significance or value at all.
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Paul's final words here to the Corinthian church seem to be borrowed from many Old Testament passages which contain very similar exhortations.
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But I want to close this evening by reading King David's final words to his son Solomon on his deathbed.
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In 1 Kings 2 verses 1 -3 the scripture says this. As David's time to die drew near, he charged
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Solomon, his son, saying, I am going the way of all the earth. Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man.
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That's probably where Paul got it to tell that Corinthian church. Except he wasn't saying it on his deathbed.
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He was telling them every day be a man. Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man. Keep the charge of the
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Lord your God to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies according to what is written in the law of Moses, that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn.
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What a great thing for a father to say to his son as he's dying. Very sadly, Solomon did not listen to him.
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Solomon did not do those things. Let's not be like that. Those were
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David's last words to his son Solomon, and they're also God's words to all men everywhere. Listen to it one last time, and then we'll pray.
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Watch, stand fast in the faith, act like men, be strong.
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In the light of the gospel, let's do that. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the blessed gospel of Christ, that Jesus is a perfect Savior, that his righteousness avails for us, that his crosswork forgives us of all of our sins, those who know the graces of repentance and faith in him alone as their
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Savior. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to be godly people, and especially the men here, to take that imperative to heart, to act like men, to have courage, to stand for what is true and righteous, and to be immovable in our biblical convictions.
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And Lord, as there's so much that's contrary to your word and to the biblical truth and the biblical worldview in our culture, we especially need to be vigilant that we are not swept away or influenced by it, but that we stand firmly upon what your word teaches us.
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And we pray that for generations to come that we would stand fast in the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
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We ask in Christ's name. Amen. This is
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Pastor Patrick Hines of Bridwell Heights Presbyterian Church, located at 108 Bridwell Heights Road in Kingsport, Tennessee, and you've been listening to the
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Protestant Witness Podcast. Please feel free to join us for worship any Sunday morning at 11 a .m. sharp, where we open the word of God together, sing his praises, and rejoice in the gospel of our risen
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Lord. You can find us on the web at www .bridwellheightspca .org.
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And may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.