Act Like Men: 1 Cor 16:13-16

It is an honor to come before you this morning to present the Word of God, what God has for us.

What I have to say today, outside this church, would probably be considered controversial.

In fact, it might even be considered that way a little bit to even some people in this church just because of how much we are,

I think, inculcated with feminist thinking and gender neutral thinking, androgynous thinking.

One of the things, though, that has been on my heart, though, and I think this needs to be said, is that young men, especially in not just our country,

I would extend that even to within the church, even within this church to some extent,

I think young men are struggling with a lot of confusion. I am not really that old, but even in ways that surprise me sometimes, things that I didn't have to think about when

I was growing up. When I look around and see this confusion,

I think, well, if men were men, this wouldn't be a problem or that wouldn't be a problem.

We wouldn't have maybe the crime or the family breakdown, marriages that dissolve.

All the things that we see around us that we know are causing so many issues in our society and don't think those issues don't sometimes affect us in the church would be solved if men were men, if they took charge, if they did the right thing, right?

And so I have a burden for young men, especially, who are trying to navigate a world where now they're told that gender is not even a real thing or if you are a man and consider yourself to be a man, you're toxic, these kinds of things.

You shouldn't be taking charge. You shouldn't be leading. And so the message I have this morning is for them, is for men in general.

But I think it's for everyone. And the reality is we all need mothers and fathers.

The world needs husbands and wives, men and women, right? We need both of those things. But under attack for the last hundred years, really, has been men, primarily.

And so I want to talk about what the Bible has to say about this. I was just notified right before coming up here that my dad, who is in the

Dominican Republic right now, hosted 40 people, 40 pastors, at a hermeneutics lecture yesterday to teach them how to study the

Word of God, right? And apparently, three -quarters of the people in attendance were women, were female pastors, right?

So this just highlights the problem, and I'm grateful they were there. That's good. I think once they get to certain sections in Scripture and they apply those principles, they'll realize they probably should find a man to fill that role because that's what the

Bible has given that role to men, to pastor. So this confusion's all around us.

I probably don't need to give you a lot of examples of it. But as women who are listening to this message, you're not on the sidelines at all of this.

You can encourage the men that you know in your life. In fact, some of these things are applicable to you as well.

I think of even the video, which was very—we weren't planning this, because I'm going to be talking about chivalry and knighthood a little bit, which is interesting that that was the video.

But even in the video, you saw it was a female putting on the full armor of God. There are some of these commands, these analogies that are masculine that, in a spiritual sense, apply to both of us.

So we might talk about some of that as well. The passage, though, the main passage—we're going to be jumping around a bit, and I'll tell you where we're going to be going—but the main one,

I would say, is 1 Corinthians 16. If you want to turn there, keep your finger there. We're not going to go there first, but that's the main passage, 1

Corinthians 16, verses 13 through 16. It's Paul's final words to the

Corinthian church in his first letter, and we're going to be talking about why we need men, why the

Corinthians needed men, real men, the challenges to being a real man, the threats that real men face, and then how to be a man, just getting practical about this.

So, increasingly, what I've noticed, and this is part of my burden, is many young people are leaving the workforce, retreating into digital fantasy, and failing to take responsibility.

There's a Christian senator, Josh Hawley, who recently said, many men in this country are in crisis, and that's not just a crisis for men, that's a crisis for the

American Republic. And I'd like to suggest it's also a crisis for the church. Without shepherds, the sheep scatter.

This makes them more vulnerable to wolves, willing to fill the leadership vacuum that's left behind.

And so we need strong, virtuous men more today than perhaps we ever have. Now, we've actually always needed men, right?

God created men. A frequently quoted proverb states, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Some may ask whether men who do nothing are actually good, though, right? If you see something, and you don't say something or do something about it, and it's something that's evil, right, are you actually, are you good?

And I think the obvious answer is maybe not, maybe you'd have to question that. But according to modern standards, maybe you are good.

Male passivity is reinforced. It's championed. But it was not this way through most of human history, and it should not be this way today.

Even pagan societies recognized that in order to survive, they needed a form of masculine strength, though it was incomplete and marred by sin.

I want to give you an example of that. So you have your finger in 1 Corinthians 16. If you'd like to follow along, you can turn to 1

Samuel chapter 4. I'm going to be reading 1 Samuel chapter 4, verses 8 through 9. We see that during Israel's war with the

Philistines, in 1 Samuel chapter 4, verses 8 through 9, the record shows the way the

Israeli soldiers paraded the Ark of the Covenant in battle. You remember this story, maybe. With the hope that God would reverse their defeat.

So they're being defeated by the Philistines, and they think, well, what used to work? Well, we brought the

Ark of the Covenant, and it brought down the walls of Jericho, and maybe God will be with us, and maybe this will be the rallying cry.

And it states in verse 5, so before verse 8 and 9, verse 5, it says that as the

Ark of the Covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth resounded.

Some translations say that the earth shook, and some commentators have concluded that a literal earthquake took place.

So if you can picture the scene, Israel goes out, they've been defeated, but now they're going to win.

They're rallying the troops, they have the Ark of God with them, God's going to be their strength, and they shout, and there's the earth shakes, there's,

I mean, now if you're a Philistine, right, if you're up against this army, that may put some fear in you, and it sure enough did with the

Philistines, this struck fear in their minds that they knew they couldn't defeat Israel because they had defeated

Israel, but they had little confidence they would be successful against the God who it says smote the

Egyptians. So they're remembering, they know, they've heard the stories about what happened in times past when

God got involved in these battles. Now in order to persuade themselves to fight, this is what they said, take courage and be men,

O Philistines, or you will become slaves to the Hebrews. As they have been slaves to you, therefore be men and fight, verses 8 through 9.

So what's the charge the Philistines make? This isn't the Israelites, this isn't the people of God, these are the pagans, right?

What are they telling themselves? Be a man, we got to be tough here, we got to remember who we are, and it's linked, manhood is linked here to fighting, to courage, and we see the same kind of language in other places, even outside the

Bible. We see this, if anyone's read the play, or seen, probably more likely, the movie

Henry V, William Shakespeare's play Henry V, there's the St. Crispin's Day speech, right?

You also have things like Winston Churchill's finest hour speech, right? Many are familiar with that speech, before the

Battle of Britain, and in a small way some of these kinds of almost pep talks you can see at sporting events, right?

You watch sporting movies or you'll see the locker room, right? They're all getting ready and they're going to go win, and they're reminding themselves about who they are.

So be a man, right? This is kind of understood naturally, people should at least understand that there's something about being a man that's linked to strength, to courage, to being able to fight, protect.

The words translated men in 1 Samuel 4 is directly linked to courage and fight, and the people naturally recognize that one of the most important features a man possesses involves strength, both physically and emotionally.

When properly channeled, men use this strength to protect themselves and the ones they love, and this means that in addition to their spiritual worth,

God designed men with a temporal purpose as part of their nature. I think that's very important to say for men today that you have a place, you have a purpose.

The toxic masculinity you're told that you have actually has a function, it serves, it's not toxic, it serves a function, and that function is to use that strength to do the right thing, right?

Not to be a bully, not to abuse people, but to protect people from bullies and people who abuse, right?

That's why God gave you that, in part. So this means in addition to spiritual worth, you have, because everyone has spiritual worth, we're all made in the image of God, but you have a function, you perform, you have a purpose.

Keep and cultivate the garden, right? That's what God told Adam, hard work. And of course it got really hard after the curse of sin, with the toil that comes from working to provide.

So throughout scripture we find God often responds to threats facing his people by commanding men to be men.

I'll give you a few examples of that. Paul's final exhortation in his first letter to the Corinthians is the first one, and we'll probably spend more time on this.

It says, and this is in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, or 16 rather, verses 13 through 16, chapter 16, verses 13 through 16.

He says in this section, verse 13, be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

The phrase translated act like men in the New American Standard Bible appears in other translations as quit you like men, it's old

English, that's King James. Be men, do manfully, play the man, be brave, be valiant, and be courageous.

These are all ways that other translations have tried to correctly give us the

Greek grammar here. The root word implies sexual differentiation. In other words, don't be like women, be like men for this particular task, for this particular thing that you're facing.

It occurs in a group of commands associated with military action during a time of great confusion.

Now the specific situation the Corinthian church found themselves in demanded male fortitude more than feminine nurturing.

Let me just walk through a few things that the Corinthians were facing. We have problems in the modern

West with all kinds of things, but the Corinthians had their own problems.

They faced a spiritual crisis, they had a leadership vacuum, they fractured over allegiance to various teachers, they tolerated, it says, sexual sin, they harbored dysfunctional marriages, they dishonored the

Lord's Supper, and competed with each other for recognition in the church. These are all things

Paul is correcting in the letter to the Corinthians, the first letter. Paul warned them against participating in things, now get this, as basic as temple prostitution.

Don't visit the prostitutes in the temple, that was part of the pagan rituals, don't do that. Suing each other in secular courts, they had a problem with that apparently.

Taking each other to the court, not working it out as Christians. And even, this one might hit home a little, confusing gender roles.

That was part of Paul's correction to them as well, part of the pagan rituals that confuse gender roles.

Now in order to climb out of their spiritual slump and restore order, Paul instructed them to cultivate traits associated with masculinity.

And so these traits, this is where it's generally applicable for all of us on a spiritual level, he's telling the whole church that for the times that you're undergoing, this is what you all need corporately.

You need to cultivate this strength. In verse 13 he extols different facets of vigilance.

He tells them to continuously guard against threats, to make their defensive position on the high ground of faith, to draw upon manly instincts and exercise strength.

This is kind of like the speeches you'll hear before a great battle, or the locker room kind of like, let's go get them, right?

This is this rallying cry. He then reminds them in the next verse why they fight.

Let all that you do be done in love. And the chief problem I would suggest afflicting the

Corinthian church was an overall failure to prefer each other over themselves. They fell to love.

They didn't love each other. And that's why Paul devoted an entire chapter, the love chapter, 1

Corinthians chapter 13, to this root issue. Instead, they were to sacrifice.

Instead of being selfish, they were to sacrifice their personal desires in battle for the sake of their fellow brothers and sisters.

Finally in verse 15 through 18, Paul instructs them to form ranks behind men committed to ministry.

So the Corinthian church needed more vigilance, love, and leadership to avoid destruction.

And Paul does talk about, he uses that word in 1 Corinthians 10, 9 through 10, he talks about the dangers of literally destruction, that the devil's targeting you, you have sin, you have the threats from the world, don't be destroyed.

And so the thing he tells them, the last instructions before he ends the letter is you need vigilance, you need love, you need leadership.

And I'd like to suggest that those are all things we need as well, right? I'm grateful here at Grace Bible, we have men who, you just saw all the men participating in this service, who have taken positions of leadership.

And you don't even have to have the title to be a leader. A leader is someone who leads, right? I don't know how many of you on the workforce have experienced that where you might have someone above you who has the title, but they're really not the one taking initiative.

And so maybe you take initiative, or someone else takes initiative, and they end up getting the respect, they end up being the leader, they're actually exercising that kind of masculine virtue that is being commended here by Paul.

And so if you're someone who's sitting here this morning, and as you're listening to the scripture, as you're listening to my words, you're thinking to yourself, maybe there's things

I should be doing, maybe there's responsibilities I should be taking on, or responsibilities I have that I'm not fulfilling, or maybe places that I need to go.

Maybe I need to go to the fair, and maybe that's something that scares me, but I need to go and be a man about it, right?

I need to be strong in that. This is the hope, even for people in this church that I have.

So we have threats today. We have threats, and these are things that I've just seen, I jotted this down last night.

These are just things in the past I've seen in the church, including this church, that have caused problems, that threaten the existence of the church.

Gossip is one of those things. Lack of hospitality can be one of those things. Not using your spiritual gifts can be one of those things.

Heresies that come in, marital strife, selfishness, pride, and of course the list can go on and on.

These are all things that threaten us as believers, right? And so we might not be as bad as the

Corinthian church, that's very true. They were in a very steep decline at the time

Paul wrote to them, but it doesn't mean that we're out of the woods, that those things aren't a threat to us. The early church recognized this same language that Paul uses here from some

Old Testament passages found in the Greek Septuagint translation. You'll remember the Greek Septuagint is the translation that the early church used,

Jesus used it, it is the translation of the Old Testament, the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek.

So this same phrase is used in that translation during the conquest of Canaan.

It's used actually a few times when both Joshua and the people of Israel were instructed multiple times to be strong and courageous.

Be strong and courageous. As they're entering to conquest, to defeat the

Canaanites, to colonize Canaan, the land that God had given them, they're told this. Likewise, King David told his son

Solomon, be strong therefore and show yourself a man. So if you're looking for references, this is from Deuteronomy 31,

Joshua 1, and then 1 Kings 2 is where you'll find this reference to Solomon. Be strong therefore and show yourself a man.

Now these commands reveal a shared understanding of what being a man meant to their original audiences. In other words, he didn't have to spell it out in detail.

He didn't have to take you through an itemized list of here is what a man is, A, B, C, D. They already knew.

They understood what being a man was. When he said be a man, it was just, okay, I know what that is. And that's actually, that's a very,

I think, important point that I'll hopefully be making a little later in this as well, that we often,

I think, assume that the authors of scripture on every topic, they're giving us exhaustive information.

In other words, when you want to look up being a man, which is what we're doing this morning, they're going to give you an itemized, here's the exhaustive list of what it means to be a man.

But oftentimes, you'll see, they assumed things from natural revelation. In, of course, in the

Old Testament, we don't even have the Pauline instructions that I was just reading to you from 1

Corinthians. We don't have the example of Jesus yet, right? But yet, people knew kind of generally what that meant.

And I think that's what's missing today, in a way. That basic instinct of understanding what taking charge is, what being a man is, is kind of, is under attack.

And we need to regain that, because it is so fundamental. It really is so basic. Today as our world challenges gender norms, some self -proclaimed

Christians, unfortunately, have joined the confusion by suggesting that modern evangelicals are, quote, a cult of masculinity.

This is from a popular book, a New York Times bestseller called Jesus and John Wayne, Kristen Dumas, a professor of history and gender studies at Calvin University.

Some of you might have read this. This is actually a very popular book. And she suggested in her book that Christian men who think patriarchal power, masculine aggression, and sexual desire are biblically justified contribute to sexual abuse.

And this is a very, very common idea now. In fact, there was just a documentary, I didn't see it, but I know people who did on the

Duggars, I believe. And it makes the same point, basically, that what's to blame for some of the abuse stories and dysfunction and so forth?

Well, it's this masculinity. That's got to be it. That's got to be the thing that we can use to blame.

And so the suggestion is if we got away from masculinity, right, then we wouldn't have these problems.

What she, though, and others, I think, fail to realize is that these features are inescapably part of God's design, whether they are explicitly endorsed in scripture or not.

All men possess certain attributes, but not all of them are good. If good men suppress their strength while evil men encourage theirs, there will be no one to protect the victims of so -called toxic masculinity.

So in other words, God made men stronger in general. There's obviously exceptions to some of these things.

But in general, that's what God's designed for men, that he made them physically stronger. They do dominate more.

They do have more aggression. They have this thing called testosterone. God made that. It's not an evil thing. But if good men, if men who are influenced by the word of God, who want to do the right thing and they're motivated out of love, fail to actually take on masculine responsibilities, then something is going to fill that gap.

That's where you get dictators. That's where you get people who oppress. And that's where you get problems.

Biblical authors understood this. They did not sense the need to justify fundamental male traits.

Instead, they simply recognized God's design from creation and encouraged men to use their more aggressive natures for good.

This is why the apostle Peter, and this is in 1 Peter 3, verse 7, the apostle Peter instructed husbands to live with their wives, it says, in an understanding way, as with someone weaker since she is a woman.

Peter would be canceled today, I'm just saying. Those words alone, he would not have a political future, he would probably not have any future, but this is the word of God, right?

He's just recognizing a basic truth that was obvious even a few decades ago. Up until recently, people universally recognized this fact, which is part of the reason only men filled roles that involve things like soldiering or police work, all right?

Now, let me be clear on this. Scripture uses the analogy of spiritual warfare like we just saw in the video and applies it to men and women.

So in a spiritual sense, we're to be doing these things. That's the visual he gives you. He's drawing on something that's in their world that they would have understood, and he's saying, follow that when it comes to spiritual war.

Do something like those Roman soldiers. But when it comes to actually being a soldier, right?

A physical soldier in the temporal world here, fighting bad guys physically. When it comes to being a police officer in general, up until very recently, these roles were reserved for men.

These weren't roles that women could enter in some places, in some police departments, in some, well, you even see this today, somewhat in the military.

There were physical standards you even had to match. I was reading, maybe it was two weeks ago, my grandfather's letters from World War II, so 1943, and he's talking about his training.

And even in his training, he says that the men over 40 just couldn't, they couldn't hack it.

They were getting pushed out of the military because even though they needed men to go fight in the

World War II, they couldn't use men who couldn't keep up physically.

So we've always had this kind of standard, right, until recently, now that it's kind of deteriorating.

I saw, was it last, maybe a few days ago, I think Joe Biden just appointed the first commander of the

Navy as a woman now, which, I mean, it's sad to me in a way.

This is a military position. You would think that there would be a lot of men who, and this is an aggressive thing, going to war.

But this is where we're heading. So, Jesus, if you look in scripture, if you're not offended already, you will be now,

Jesus chose 12 men to be apostles. God limited the office and function of pastor to men.

The biblical authors were men, as were the Levitical priests who also decided legal cases.

The biblical authors did not forbid women from performing political duties, but they did assume the responsibility to lead in the home, church, and government belonged to men.

When women fulfilled political roles, it was either out of necessity or a sign of judgment. I'll give you examples of this.

This isn't my opinion, just so you know. This is all backed up in scripture. Judges chapter 4, you might want to turn there.

Judges chapter 4, there's an example here, verse 9. The prophetess

Deborah told Barak, God commanded him to lead an army against the

Canaanite king, Sisera. So, we're back to Israel and the Canaanites again. We were just talking about that, now we're back to that.

This is actually before the story we just read.

So, they're fighting the Canaanites, and he says, go lead this army of Israel against king

Sisera, with the guarantee, she said, that Israel would achieve victory. However, Barak would only do so if Deborah went with him.

Because of this weakness, this is what Deborah says in Judges 4, 9, I will surely go with you.

Nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take.

It's really encouraging, right? You're not going to have any honor from this, Barak.

For the Lord will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman.

Okay, this is a woman saying this. There's not going to be any honor for you, so there's going to be dishonor, really, because you're not going to actually defeat

Sisera, because you're a coward, is what she's saying. You're a coward. If you need me to hold your hand, you know, to be your mom, you're not going to get any glory from this.

Put your big boy pants on and do it without me. He wouldn't do it. So what happened is, after the

Canaanites' defeat in battle, Sisera escaped and sought refuge in an Israeli tent, where Jael, the wife of Heber, killed him by driving a tent peg through his head.

No one said the Bible was rated G. Deborah and Barak praised Jael for defeating

Sisera, but this did not erase the fact that it was Barak who should have defeated him.

In other words, it was really good that Jael did what she did, that she obeyed.

She should have done that. That was the right thing to do, to love her people, to defeat the enemy.

But it really didn't, that responsibility did not belong to her. That should have been filled by someone else.

So she wasn't in sin, she didn't do anything wrong, but Barak did. Likewise, the prophet

Isaiah, in Isaiah 3, verse 12, lamented that during his time, that Judah's oppressors were children and rulers were women.

That's what he says. Their oppressors are children, their rulers are women. And that's a negative thing. That means it's a sign of judgment.

Now this may be shocking to some of you, and I debated whether even to include this, but I figured it's actually a good shock, in a way, to think about this, to ponder this for a moment.

And don't get mad until I finish. At one time, in the not -so -distant past, people thought even the idea of women voting in political elections was unbecoming.

Can you believe that? So cavemen, right? Consider that in 1895, less than 4 % of women in Massachusetts, that bastion of conservatism, voted in a non -binding referendum to support women's suffrage.

This is over 100 years ago. And the vast popular opinion among women was that this wasn't appropriate.

Now why was that? Today, of course, in women's studies departments and history departments, this is all viewed as women were trained to hate themselves, and that's how they psychologize it, kind of.

There's really not evidence for that, though. The Atlantic, another bastion of conservatism right there, the

Atlantic publication, I'm being facetious, it's a very progressive outlet. In 1903, they ran a piece that claimed the reason for this lack of popular support was that women understood they were suited to nurture, not coerce.

Participating in government directly meant entering a political war, where policy decisions forced people into compliance.

So you're not the police officer or the guy with the gun in the military, but you're making the decisions indirectly for what they're going to do.

That's the idea, that you're involved in this in some way. The author of the piece in the

Atlantic, a theologian named Lyman Abbott, insinuated that voting was beneath the higher work given to women.

Can you believe that? It was too dirty. It was too beneath them. There was something they were called to that was much higher and more important and more influential.

The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world, right? That's an old saying. This higher work included nurturing through things like caring, education, keeping home, and charity.

Women carried out the ministry of life that men, using the machinery of government, were charged to protect.

So what are men fighting for? What do men make decisions for? They're preserving their home life. They're preserving what their women are doing.

They're protecting them. It's precious to them, and that's why they get involved in these things that are considered dirty.

Now, this does not mean, I have to say this, this does not mean that women should not vote, okay, please vote, when given the opportunity, or fill some positions that men normally hold in the absence of virtuous men.

If there's not a virtuous man, then you don't have a choice, right? I wonder whether it's,

I'm sure it's probably that way to some extent in the Dominican Republic right now, where, and well it's not just there, it's this country too, where sometimes females will step up and they will take leadership positions, even in the church, because there's no men around.

This is just, this is the part of living in a sinful broken world. In a way,

I think, and I appreciate the work greatly, we have, I don't know where she is,

Sarah, but we have someone here who's a representative of Moms for Liberty, right, and I appreciate the work that they do very much, and there are men even involved in that particular effort.

But I wonder sometimes, where are the men, where are the Dads for Liberty? Why isn't there not an organization called the

Dads for Liberty? If you think about it, scripture places the responsibility to educate and discipline children, chiefly with fathers, and it would seem that public schools who have violated their trust should receive pushback from them before their wives.

Not saying wives shouldn't push back. I'm saying though, it really should be the men at the forefront of this effort.

I watched a few months ago, in the Midwest somewhere, I think it was Michigan, a school district that was public, but it was controlled by Muslims.

In that area, it might have been Dearborn, but they had a lot of Muslim immigrants, refugees and so forth, that had settled in that area.

And they tried to do all this nonsense, right, this pornography books, and gender stuff, and all the stuff that you're hearing about in the headlines.

And you know what happened? They didn't get too far. The school board meeting met, and guess who showed up?

Yeah, there weren't any women there. It was angry men with beards, okay? They showed up, and they wouldn't even let the school board talk.

I mean, they were so outraged about what their kids were being fed. Why does, now

I'm not saying we should be jerks, but why does that, the scenes I see from Christian areas, or from more conservative

Christian -leaning people, how come the videos that are coming out of this are hardly ever men?

It's always a woman on the forefront who's making the case why their kids shouldn't be groomed.

That makes no sense, right? Where are the dads? Begs that question, right?

I don't know if you've ever wondered that. The answer, of course, is, and this is, I'm going to tell you where it's my opinion.

This is my opinion, this next sentence. The answer, of course, I believe, is that men are increasingly conditioned to regulate their masculinity to common boyhood activities.

You can be a man when it comes to sports and games. You can be a man in that arena, but you are not to have the confidence to live up to the potential that you have, and to take hold of the mature responsibilities that accompany manhood.

That's the no -no. Paul condemns this penchant for taking the path of least resistance in 1

Corinthians 6, 9. This is what he states, 1 Corinthians 6, 9. Again, letter to the

Corinthian church, we've been talking about this. Do not be deceived, he says, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminates, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

These aren't people who had a moment of cowardice. These are people characterized by it. That's not what a

Christian is. Christians aren't characterized by cowardice. They're not characterized by drunkards being drunk. They're not characterized by all of these things on this vice list.

Some translations, like the ESV, combine the Greek word malakos, which is the word here translated effeminate, with arsenikoites, which is translated homosexuals, into this.

If you have an ESV Bible, you might wonder, hey, where's that word effeminate? Well, your ESV says men who practice homosexuality.

They're combining the terms. What they're trying to do is they're trying to say that this designates

Paul's condemnation of homosexuality, not just the active participant, but the passive participant.

Both of those people involved in that homosexual act he is condemning here. They're taking effeminate, or malakos, the

Greek word, to mean this passive partner in a homosexual relationship. I want to point out something.

These are two separate words in the text. I don't think the ESV should have done that. In Matthew 11, 8, this same word is used by Jesus, the same word malakos, to describe a man dressed in soft clothing, who lives in king's palaces.

John the Baptist wasn't like that. He wasn't a man dressed in soft clothing. Jesus uses this same term.

He's not talking about a passive sexual partner in a homosexual relationship there. Outside of scripture, we also see contemporary historians applying this term to men with an easy life, or cowards who refuse to fight.

They're malakos. They're not real men, really.

I mean, that's what he's saying. It's kind of an insult. It is reasonable to conclude that Paul was actually condemning male passivity here in the strongest possible terms.

This also contrasts with his later command that we just read earlier to act like men.

He's saying you ought to act like men. In the same letter, he's condemning men who don't do that. Paul believed manhood was intrinsically tied to a certain kind of forcefulness.

In 1 Corinthians 13, 11, he says, Being a man means doing away with childish things and embracing the duties of manhood.

God equips men with the capacity for physical labor and mental fortitude needed to protect, provide, and prosper.

Real men harmonize their lives with a pre -written mold God wired into creation. The highest expression of this is found in Jesus Christ, who perfectly executed his purposes, masculine and otherwise.

Now, currently, a war is being waged on whether or not this standard even exists. In reality, or simply, as you probably often hear, it is a social construct.

You'll hear that. Gender is just a social construct. It doesn't actually exist. Claiming men should be manly is heresy in a modern world saturated with egalitarianism and androgyny.

Let me just give you a few quick examples of this. I don't want to spend a lot of time here. But in 2019, GQ magazine concluded in a survey on changing gender norms that men increasingly thought of themselves in gender -neutral ways.

And, of course, they were celebrating this. In an article in Psychology Today, millennial men were asked about manhood.

And the article concluded, based on some studies along these lines, that millennial men were losing their priorities to physical and financial strength.

In other words, they didn't value those things as much as previous generations. Being physically strong, being financially strong, holding a job, those kinds of things.

According to a recent survey, over half of Zoomers, people younger than millennials, the

Generation Z, believe there are more than two genders. That's over half believe there's more than two genders.

While less than half of fighting -age men are willing to defend the United States if invaded.

You think this threatens the country? I mean, I think, yes. It threatens the church and the country.

We're at a crisis point right now. The United States, including her churches, are in trouble. But fewer people seem to notice, and more seem to oppose, a return to masculinity.

And this is where the words of the early church father, Athanasius, ring out truly. When someone informed him during the

Aryan controversy that the world was against him, everyone's against you, Athanasius, you're alone, he said, then

I am against the world. And this is the moment for true men to face their fears and take charge.

Men like Athanasius, who make their stand with God alone if necessary, are indeed an endangered species, yet scripture is filled with their examples.

Think about it. There's an old Sunday school song, and it relates to the series that my dad was, well, before he went on the sabbatical and now he's away again, he was preaching on Daniel.

There was a song, though, that Mr. Ryan probably taught me in Sunday school, Dare to be a Daniel, right?

Ever heard this? Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone, dare to have a purpose firm, dare to make it known. Yeah, Randy was training some toxic masculine kids, you know, 30 years ago or 25 years ago in Sunday school here.

This is the kind of example, though, that was just common. Parents wanted their kids to sing that song. They wanted them to be like Daniel, right?

Men like Noah, Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah, Peter, Stephen, Paul, and Jesus all possessed this same daringness.

They were not lazy, timid, weak, or cowardly. Even those who struggle in these areas were told to reject these tendencies.

And you may say to yourself this morning, say, I'm not like them. Man, I couldn't do what Stephen did. I couldn't do what

Daniel did. I'm not like them. Here's the thing, though.

God knows that. And he's given you the tools to help you. Let me give you an example of this from scripture.

During the tale beginning of Emperor Nero's persecution against Christians, Paul sent his final letter to his disciple

Timothy, who pastored the church at Ephesus. This is in 2 Timothy 2.

In this letter, Paul warned the young man, Timothy, about internal dissension in the church, false teachers who would likely challenge his authority, and the kind of opposition that led to Paul's own imprisonment and eventual death.

He told Timothy, this is in chapter 2, verse 1, Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

And he also told him to fulfill his ministry. He encouraged him, saying, God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

Therefore, it was up to Timothy to use the gifts God gave him, endure hardship, 2

Timothy 4 -5, and focus on achieving his goals. Paul used masculine examples like the determined soldier, the honorable athlete, and the hardworking farmer, in chapter 2, verses 3 -6, to illustrate what he expected from Timothy.

Timothy is a pastor. These are the things he's pointing Timothy to, the images that he wants before Timothy's mind, so he knows how to pastor correctly.

Soldiers, athletes, and farmers. This blend of strength and kindness that we see,

Paul instructing Timothy to make part of his character, is characterized the kind of hero who universally captivated the minds of young Christian men, or at least young men in Christian societies, throughout,

I would say, up until maybe the 1970s. In fact, if you think about it, American men, even if they weren't in church, grew up with this kind of example being given to them as what a man should be.

They had masculine role models in space, in sports, in film, or maybe even in their

World War II fathers, who were veterans. In the American context, most of this culminated in the image of a rugged, self -sufficient cowboy, who honored a moral code and used his skills to protect the community from danger.

But he inherited this reputation, this goes back before him, from cavaliers and the medieval knights of Europe.

These legendary figures set a standard for men, and summarized in the term chivalry. Now, I'm assuming, based on the video we just watched, that the kids at BBS this week will probably be learning about the term chivalry this week.

And this isn't heard nowadays very often, but it is honestly the bringing together of these two things, this love that Paul talks about, that men should have, and also this aggression or force.

It is a perfect encapsulation of it, and so I don't think we should retire the word, I think we should revive it. Chivalry referred to a force that bound men together in the common pursuit of a higher divine purpose.

And this purpose guided social relationships and infused them with significance. People did not exist for their own pleasure in chivalry, but to serve the needs of their neighbors before God.

So a whole social code kind of grew up out of this, that men were supposed to act a certain way, women were supposed to act a certain way.

If you think about it, you ever watch those old Jane Austen movies? I'm not talking to the men. The women, right?

I've never seen those. But you know how there's a ballroom setting or something? And the men and the women know exactly what to do.

There's no question in their minds, how do I navigate this? She's pretty. I don't know what to say. There's none of that. Now, they can be jerks, like Mr.

Darcy, right? But they know what to do. There's a protocol. That's gone.

Even things like opening doors, right? That's gone. But this is the world that Christianity created.

Christianity is the thing that motivated a world to grow up where women weren't just property. Women weren't just weaker so we can just rule them and do what we want.

No, there's standards. Women are to be protected and respected. And that's what chivalry was about.

The Harvard literature professor, William Henry Schofield, described the true knight as someone who gave up all thought of himself.

He pursued nobility instead of wealth. He was generous, courteous, just, and honest. Most importantly, he protected women and the helpless.

Now, this is in contrast to the heroes of Greco -Roman civilization who inflicted pain without mercy.

So they had some masculinity, but they didn't have love. Christians developed a code of ethics that, in addition to loyalty, faithfulness, and trust, also prized mercy, meekness, and pity.

C .S. Lewis, and by the way, I'm not referencing C .S. Lewis' theology in this.

He made a good observation, though, about chivalry. So C .S. Lewis believed producing chivalrous men was necessary to maintain lasting happiness and dignity in society.

He said that it offered, quote, the only possible escape from a world divided between wolves who do not understand and sheep who cannot defend the things which make life desirable.

So he's saying if you don't have chivalry, those are your options. He uses the British word sops.

He says you either have sops, you have men who aren't men, or you're going to have wolves who prey.

Chivalry is the solution to this. Christianity thus resisted the kind of brutish men who in pagan civilizations sieved power, oppressed their populations, and quelled dissent.

They could only do this, though, because enough of their sons grew up to be both fierce and meek simultaneously.

And meek, for those who don't know, is just power under control. They had limits to where they applied their power.

They channeled it in the right directions. You think about the founding of our own country. You think about the war for independence that was fought in the

United States. You had these figures called the Minutemen. They weren't military trained.

They were just responsible men. Throughout all the wars that we've had, even in this country, there's been a population of men who were able to go out and defend and to take leadership.

In fact, you would never know about a George Washington, probably. He would be an obscure figure if he had not lived at a time in which there was such turmoil and was given the opportunity to manifest and show the masculinity that was truly there internally.

And that's the kind of virtue that Christian societies have always prized. That it's not about what you can bench or lift.

It's not about the external so much as it is the internal. Some of that shows up on the external, but it's the internal character and virtue that makes a man a man.

And in times of testing, it's shown. Social institutions at one time demanded aggressive men, bullies, right?

Be humble and gentle. And gentlemen, who had the tendency to be too passive, society demanded that they be valiant.

And this was what the social pressure helped there be enough people with chivalry to maintain social order.

These two impulses that Lewis observed, he said, have no natural tendency to gravitate towards one another, but they combined to form the chivalrous knight.

Now if you notice, these are the same virtues Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians chapter 16 verses 13 through 14.

The command to act like men is coupled with the duty to let all you do be done in love.

Perfectly together. Harmonious. Simultaneously. Those two things coming together, that's what a true man is.

Though there are many exemplary men throughout history, Jesus stands above them all as the perfect man.

From a young age, he disciplined himself by increasing in wisdom and working a strenuous job as a carpenter.

He lived a Spartan lifestyle, often going without food, walking everywhere, and without a place to sleep.

He taught with authority, stood up for his friends, defended the weak, called out spiritual bullies, overcame

Satan's temptations, and drove the money changers out of the temple with a whip. He willingly suffered more physical and emotional pain than any man.

He said himself, do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.

Yet, he also described himself as gentle and humble in heart.

He respected women and loved children. He was patient, forgiving, and compassionate.

He wept over the death of his friend Lazarus and the destruction of Jerusalem. He obeyed his father and provided for his mother.

He healed the sick. He sought the comfort of his friends. He took the form of a slave and washed his disciples' feet.

And in the most loving act ever recorded, he laid down his life for his friends. That's the gospel, right?

Right there. That's the good news that Jesus came to this earth as a man, flesh and blood man, and he did what no other man could do.

He lived a perfect life. And then he took our sins on himself. He bore a burden that no man was capable of bearing but him.

That is true masculinity, right? And without it, we don't have salvation.

That's how important this is. So here's the application part here.

For those listening here, if you're a man, your families need you. Your church needs you.

And your people need you. Your community. Your country. All of these things have obligations upon you.

Whether you didn't choose it, doesn't seem fair maybe. You grew up with it and you benefited from it your entire life.

Now you're here. And by the way, this is the only way that you can even find a degree of satisfaction and happiness.

I would say the same thing to women, by the way. Your families also need you. Your church needs you.

And your people need you. But I want to talk to men directly. And the encouragement here, if you feel like you're failing in this area, and we all fail to an extent.

None of us are Jesus, right? The very command to be a man.

Think about this. Paul comes into the Corinthian church. They're a mess. He could have said, let's plant another church, right?

That's what some people do today. That church is a mess. Let's split. Let's split off and do another one over here or something.

Paul has hope for the Corinthian church. And his hope is in part based upon the fact that he thinks men can actually be men.

He thinks the men who are present there have the potential and the capability of rising up and leading. Of putting to death these sins that plague them.

So there is hope in the very command to be a man because it means that it is possible. That you can do this.

And it can make a real difference. The Corinthian church presumably, if you read the second letter to the

Corinthians, they did take this to heart. And this did make a difference. You can do what

God wired you to do. You can take charge. All the tools are at your disposal.

You have the word of God. You have the church body. You have other men that can serve as godly examples. You have Jesus. You have the power of the

Holy Spirit if you're a Christian. You have all these things already. And the people here, including myself, are here to help.

So how do you be a real man? Here's just a few thoughts for you. Practically speaking here. Put aside frivolity.

I'd say that's the first thing. Things that are... I'm not saying you can't have leisure time. I do. I need that sometimes.

I'm not saying that you can't kick back and have fun and rest. I mean,

God rested on the seventh day. What I am saying is you need to get rid of the distractions in your life.

The things that you know and we all know. It's different for all of us. Those things that waste time, that aren't profitable, that don't even relax you.

They just distract you. And they take all that energy that should be applied to more fruitful ends that God has given you.

And they create waste out of it. Get rid of those things. That's the first thing. That's sometimes hard to do because we have addictions.

We have vices that we enjoy. But get rid of those things. It could be different for different people.

Video games could be a problem. I'm not against video games. Video games could be a problem for some men. Being on social media too long could be a problem.

Losing yourself in entertainment choices or worse. Pornography or something. These could all be problems. Put those things aside.

What they do is they actually take your masculine strength and they apply it to things it shouldn't be applied to.

They steal it from you. You are being robbed when you engage in those things. And you're being robbed of joy too.

Second thing is cut out vices. This is related but if there's sinful activities you're involved in, just stop.

It's always helpful advice. Just stop it. No practical. There are practical things. It's different for every situation.

This is where you might need to get counsel. Take measures to cut out vices in your life.

Strive for higher virtues. Strive for higher virtues. Part of this, for my life at least, has been finding concrete examples.

Paul said to Timothy, he said, follow me. The things that you have seen in me, do these things.

Follow me. Follow my example. This is part of what it means. Striving for higher virtues.

Find men who are men and look up to them. Then pursue physical, mental, and spiritual strength.

This might mean going to the gym, actually. Maybe not for everyone. Some of us were born with good bodies.

What can I say? Phil is an example of someone who doesn't need to go to the gym, but for the rest of us, sorry

Phil, we may need to go to the gym. Paul said that he said that physical strength is of little reward.

Spiritual strength is of much, but he didn't say that it's of no reward. There is a reward there, and it does help us fulfill our obligations, responsibilities.

Physical strength, mental strength, be the best version of yourself. Spiritual strength, get involved with spiritual disciplines.

Currently, I have a 1662, I'm weird, history guy, whatever. I have a book of common prayer.

Anglican book of common prayer. It has daily prayers in it. Some of you use the daily bread, but I like to go to that every morning.

I like that to be the first thing that I do so that my mind is set. These are the kinds of things that help you be a man.

I want to close with a verse since I'm over time here. 1 Kings chapter 2, verses 1 through 4.

I just think this is practical. This is the charge that David gives to his son Solomon.

1 Kings chapter 2, verses 1 through 4. If there's still confusion about what it means to be a man,

I think this helps. He charged Solomon, his son, saying, I am going the way of all the earth.

Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man. Keep the charge of the 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 so that the Lord may carry out his promise, which he spoke concerning me, saying,

If your sons are careful of their way to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.

So what is being a man? It's obedience, submission. It's finding that higher purpose and planning your life according to it.