TPW 97 Biblical Mahood Against Our Culture

Welcome to the Protestant Witness. This is Pastor Patrick Hines here at Bridwell Heights Presbyterian Church on a Friday morning. And today I wanted to post a sermon I preached this past Sunday night on biblical manhood against culture.

And this is a topic that is extraordinarily important in our day as everything regarding gender is being destroyed and challenged and neutered. 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.

The Call to Biblical Manhood

Good evening everyone.

Please take your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians 16. 1 Corinthians 16. My scripture reading is verse 13, 1 Corinthians 16, 13. This is God's word. Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

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.

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. 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 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.

And so I wanted to take a few Sunday nights and discuss the issue of biblical manhood, the biblical womanhood for single men and married men, single women and married women. 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 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.

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.

Far from the typical misogynistic, beer can-crushing, chest-thumping, juvenile silliness put forward by our culture, the Bible's portrayal of manhood is that of a self-giving, self-controlled, serious, self-sacrificial, other-focused, truth-loving, courageous, strong, Bible-saturated individual who loves his wife, loves his children, loves his church, and loves Christ and his word, the Bible.

The biblical man is a man with a message. 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 God and is not swayed by the fear of man.

He has convictions. He knows how to defend from scripture. 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.

He is an encourager to others. Does that sound unattainable? In Christ, all things are possible. Our nation and the church today are dying because of a lack of godly men. Every time 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 Holy Spirit, Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases, for the faithful disappear from among the sons.

Of men.

They speak idly, everyone with his neighbor, with flattering lips and a double heart.

They speak.

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 A Theology of Family, where he put together some of the greatest articles and sermons ever preached by anybody from the 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. 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.

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. Furthermore, getting calibrated to the biblical vision for manhood is a lifelong task, which we cannot accomplish without the grace of Christ Jesus.

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.

You hear what he's saying there?

Men are passive today. They're not aggressive about anything today. Second, the most powerful institutions in the world today attempt to undermine and even usurp a man's role. 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.

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.

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. What is a man and what does God expect from a man?

First Corinthians 13, four great imperatives, we just read them. The first one, watch or be on the alert, stand fast in the faith, act like men, be strong. 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.

Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. There's only one 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.

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.

That verb andridzo means act like a man. God is not saying that to women. He's not saying women act like men. That is specifically directed to the men at Corinth and to the men of every church, including this one.

One great teaching of scripture which is being severely undermined by our manhood detesting feminist culture is that men are not women.

Isn't that bizarre?

My predecessor here had to write an article for the Equilibrium Report saying that the biggest problem we have facing our denomination is men that want to be women. 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.

Stop.

Act like a man.

Andridzista.

Be a man. And on the opposite side of that, women are not men. Women are not men. You know, one of the most heartbreaking things I've experienced in the last five years of my life, we went to that conference in Birmingham, and there were over 100 people there from all over the PCA and from other Reformed denominations, the Reformed Evangelistic Conference.

And we had a time of prayer and people were just praying all over that room. And there was one woman that prayed. And she prayed sobbing.

Sobbing.

Why won't the men lead us? How can we be this stupid, God? How can this denomination possibly be going this direction? I just sat there and just wept. Isn't that pathetic? You have a woman praying like that?

Women are not men. Men are not women. God is the creator of gender. Gender assignment is sovereignly given to us by God. 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.

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.

In the place of our God-given gender, man wants to have the option of transitioning. The option of being fluid or having some qualifications in the way they think about their own gender identity. 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 God. It's just one other way of lashing out at him and denying his right to rule over us. 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.

Men are not women. Women are not men. Now look at each one of those terms there. 1 Corinthians 16, 13 is one of those passages. I've actually got it up on the wall in my study over there. I love that first opening verb.

Watch.

Be on the alert, it says. That's the Greek verb gregoreo. The name Greg or Gregory that comes from that Greek word. It means watchful, one who watches. To be in constant readiness, to be on the alert.

Why do we need to do that? Men have to be on the alert. Because we're the protectors of the church. We're the protectors of our families. The protectors of the women in our lives. Be on the alert. What are we supposed to be on the alert for?

That term is used 13 times in the Gospels by Jesus. Watch, he says. Be on guard. Be on the alert. One instance in particular is especially relevant. A statement made by Jesus to his sleepy disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Remember when he came to them and saw them sleeping? You know what he said to them?

He said, Gregoreo.

Oh, watch.

Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. You know, I used to watch a lot of heavyweight championship boxing. 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? 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.

And over and over again, God exhorts his people to be on guard. Be on the alert. Don't be caught sleeping. Keep your guard up. Be vigilant.

Look out.

Remember that our enemies and God's enemies are lurking everywhere. Remember that both Satan and our own sinful natures are opportunistic. Cheetahs in the wild, the fastest animal on earth. They will not try.

They're just as lazy as the house cats in your house. Cheetahs have no interest in trying to catch the biggest, the strongest, and the fastest. Even though they're fully capable of doing it. 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. Satan and your sinful heart wait until you're feeling weak, vulnerable, dry, lethargic, and then comes the attack.

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. 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. 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.

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. 1 Corinthians 16 .13 exhorts men to watch. Be in constant readiness beyond the alert.

Don't become spiritually lazy. Don't become lax about your pet sin issues, whatever they are. 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?

Lots of things.

Be on guard.

Guard what?

Your own heart? Your family?

Your priorities?

Here's one. Family worship? Family devotions?

Guard that.

Family devotions and Bible reading have to be guarded with special vigilance. 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.

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 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.

That's what manhood is about. Right there.

That's the battlefield.

Men, be strong and courageous about this great duty of biblical family worship and discipleship. It's not optional. And you must protect that time with your family. As I've said many times, I'm just going to keep saying this to you, I know of nothing in our society, nothing that promotes the whole family being in the same room together all at the same time.

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.

I promise you. So watch.

A godly man is watchful. 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. He monitors those things. He thinks about those things. He watches those things.

Be on the alert.

Guard yourself. Guard your loved ones.

Guard your heart.

Your walk.

Standing Firm in the Faith

Look at point number two. Here's one. 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.

That phrase stand fast, it means literally to be firmly committed in conviction. To be firmly committed in conviction or belief. 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, Paul says, stand fast in that.

In the liberty by which 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.

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. Stand fast in them. Stay put in those convictions. The doctrines of scripture. It is the word faith with a definite article in front of it.

The faith. That means the doctrines of the Christian faith, the doctrines taught to us in scripture, the doctrines of the gospel. Another reference to the faith, very familiar to you,.

I'm sure,.

Jude verse three,.

Beloved,.

While I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, 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.

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. 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. Consider the Bible's description of the precise opposite of this. What's the opposite of standing fast in the faith?

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.

These children of which Paul speaks here are constantly running to and fro in their beliefs and doctrines. One week they're excited about N .T. Wright and the new perspectives on Paul and all the brilliant new insights.

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. 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.

Just a great first-class theologian. Loved 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.

Why?

He stood fast. He was not movable from the convictions, from the faith in scripture. 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.

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 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.

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. 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.

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.

He will stand fast in those things. The Holy Spirit of God speaking in scripture commands us to stand fast in the faith. 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. In understanding, be mature. Paul said at the end of 1 Corinthians 13 When I was a child, I spoke as a child. 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. 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.

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. 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. You dig deep into the ground to find that foundation. And that digging deep is looking in God's word. 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. There's always going to be plenty of ungodly counsel coming at you from every form of media and every direction.

People with new angles on this and new angles on that. But the godly 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.

He doesn't listen to the worldliness around him. 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.

And he meditates upon the law of God day and night. The biblical man's closest companions and friends are not unbelievers. 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.

And I hate to be a wet blanket, but no, he didn't. No, he didn't. Jesus received repentant prostitutes and tax collectors and sinners on occasion he ate with them. But Jesus's closest friends, his closest companions were always his disciples.

Proverbs 12, 26. The righteous should choose his friends carefully for the way of the wicked leads them astray. The biblical man knows this. And thus he's very deliberate and very careful about the choices he makes in his friends.

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. What did that proverb just say? The righteous should choose his friends carefully for the way of the wicked leads them astray.

You ever notice? It's sickness that's contagious, not health. It's the same way with sin. 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. 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. He recognizes the truth, 2 Corinthians 6, 15.

What accord has Christ with Belial? What part is a believer with an unbeliever? 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.

Whereas the biblical man used to walk in the counsel and advice and worldview and priorities of the ungodly. 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.

He is a lover of the word of God. His life reflects that he is in constant study of that great book, the scriptures, the Bible. The Christian evangelist and orphanage director, George Mueller. I'm sure some of you have heard of George Mueller.

The 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 Bible, the entire Bible from cover to cover at least 200 times during his 93 years that he lived in the world.

200 times! Starting at age 14, I've shared this one with you too, the Puritan Cotton Mather. From age 14, he simply resolved, I am going to read 15 chapters of the Bible every single day. And he did. Five in the morning, five at lunch, five before bed.

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 Puritans such giant oaks for Christ in this world? They were men of the word of God.

What made Luther and Calvin such godly and insightful men and men of integrity and great family men? They were men of the word of God. You can't help but notice when you read their books, they just breathed Scripture.

These were sinners whose natural inborn sinful thinking had been completely rewired by divine revelation in Scripture. Such is what beats in the heart of the man of God, his love for the voice of his God and Savior in Scripture.

That's what characterizes him. In that lull, he meditates day and night. He's thinking about passages constantly. 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 implanted by the rivers of water. 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. He will be carried by the promises of God through those things. He will bring forth his fruit in its season. 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 Corinthians 16, 13, unless he spends his life on his knees before the Word of God.

You want to stand fast in the faith? Spend your life on your knees before God's Word. That's the key to it. And then thirdly, you see the third imperative there? Act like men. Andrziszta. Great verb. Andrziszta.

In the imperative, it means acquit yourselves like men. I love the King James Version there. It says, quit ye like men. Quit ye like men. It doesn't mean quit at everything. It simply means that's an old English way of referring to act like men.

Quit ye like men. It's the only place in the New Testament where this verb appears. And yet the sense is sufficiently clear. No soldier in the army of Jesus Christ may be fainthearted. 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 9. 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 Word of God by their fathers and their grandfathers, when the time came for battle, they turned back.

They wouldn't stand and fight. Now maybe these men were, maybe they were good businessmen. Maybe they had good marriages. 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 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.

And the scripture here commands the men of Corinth, act like men. The verb means specifically to have courage 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.

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.

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. The guy constantly talked about our church, our prayer book.

These people saying this and saying that. 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 Prepare to Stand Alone.

Because the guy was all by himself so often. 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?

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? Will they be moved away by all the emotion and the anecdotes and the stories of heartache?

I mean, we were even told that in the overtures committee at General Assembly, there was no biblical exegesis. There was no argumentation going on from the 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. That's the way the devil argues. That's what he uses to convince people. You stand fast in the faith. I don't care how many crocodile tears you see. The world changes.

Trends change. Revolutions try to change the fixed boundaries of God's truth. The majority are led along. 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?

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?

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. No, I'm not going to show any interest in your escapades and exploits of women.

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 were always so quick to praise and lift up in young men and think about what beats in the heart of young men.

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? Will they do the right thing if it costs them their friends, if it costs them popularity, approval in the eyes of the world?

Paul wrote to the churches of Galatia in Galatians 1 .10, For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? 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.

It was because of that he was persecuted. And he even says to them, If I preach circumcision, if I allowed works to get into the equation here, nobody would persecute me anymore because that's what everybody believes already anyway.

And the gospel is, no, you can't do anything to save yourself, nothing at all. Paul says, 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, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

A biblical man knows what is truly important. 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.

He fears God, not man. Proverbs 29 .25, The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe. The young men in this church, the five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve year olds need to know that.