The Masculine Mandate (part 1)

And I want to give you greetings from all your brothers and sisters in Greenville, South Carolina, how many of you know anything about Greenville, South Carolina and you still live here. What is wrong with you people man?

I tell you what I had a church in Philadelphia. Call me a year or so ago And say hey was you what do you think about being our pastor? I said, are you not aware that I live in South Carolina? You think I'm moving back to Pennsylvania?

I think not. But we are greatly blessed there, but I am so excited to see a church like this in New England which Very early turned away from the Lord and the gravity will say the grounds hard here. There's historical reasons for that.

And what do we need? We need men of God, right? We need the word preach. Although I did not know that your pastor was emergent until I got here tonight. So I I don't know what to say about that, but Really glad to be here tonight.

It's great to be among Red Sox fans. I don't believe one can be elect and a Yankee fan. There's a reason why they wear black, right? So but I had I Needed to work a little extra hard this summer so I was appreciative that Theo took the year off so that I wouldn't have to follow the Red Sox this year in 2010, but But I'm really glad to speak to a group of men and to speak on the material.

I was privileged to write on the masculine mandate. I suppose it may be because I've got an army background that I found myself a few years being asked to Speak at a lot of men's events. And so I'm the kind of person who likes to think through.

How am I out? Well, how does the Bible teach this who cares what I think? What does the Bible say is what I really care about and so I began thinking about it and and having written a book about It I I speak to men a fair amount today, and I'm glad to do that.

We have a great need for godly men today. So I'm really glad to be here. Let me say as well what a joy it is to me to be at a church That's kind of in the master. So you're a master seminary guy, aren't you?

I praise God for that. I'm an old-school Presbyterian. I'm a product of 10th Presbyterian Church and Westminster Theological Seminary, which still has a lot of vigor Bible Calvinists men and it's great for me to interact with guys in Different streams where the Lord is also doing a work.

I'm a great admirer of John MacArthur and really praise God for the fidelity and the the the gospel vigor the the doctrinal fidelity of the master seminary. And I'm glad that God has been so good as to send you one of their products to be your pastor.

So for all those reasons, I'm really glad to be here tonight. Let me just begin them with a word of prayer. Father I thank you for your grace to me and to all of us who are here tonight. Which you have shown to us by sending your son that he would take up a human nature and would live The perfect life that we should have lived and he would die a sin atoning death that we might be justified through faith alone in him.

But father what then now Lord? Well, we know that we are to live for your glory and the group that's here tonight were to do so as men. So Lord, I pray that you'd bless this time where we're going to think biblically about masculinity and I pray that your word would would enlighten and convict as needed and Inform and help these brothers that they might glorify you and be a blessing to those in their lives.

I pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Well, I was working on this book the masculine mandate and I had Spoken at a number of men's events and I think I actually had the book proposal. I may have even been under contract to write the book and I was having trouble getting started and I went into a barber Shop in South Carolina.

I did not say the kind of Stylist that your pastor goes through the but the not with a barber shop and while I'm waiting there. They had ESPN the men magazine ESPN the magazine and I opened it up and lo and behold There is an article there about Brian Deegan who knows who Brian Deegan is young guys X Games, right?

You don't know who Brian Deegan is this is not an immersion church then. Because he is the Michael Jordan of Moto X, you know Moto X is it's the loop-de-loop Motorcycle trick thing where half of them die every year and they do all these crazy stunts and he Deegan.

He's like the yeah. He's really the the superstar of that sport or at least he was the first superstar and he founded a group called the metal Militia which was the leading Moto X group. They everything they did was not see paraphernalia.

Their helmets were the weather stormtrooper helmets and they got tattoos everywhere and they were known for winning all the events and starting Riots and drug use, you know, they get the whole picture well in 1997 no, no, that's what he form it in 2000.

I think six is a year a Deegan is filming a commercial for some X-game thing. I don't know what it was and he had a unbelievably horrific Crash it's actually on the internet. But I have not been able to watch the whole thing because I know what happens.

He lands on his handlebars the handlebar goes through his body wiping out his kidney and he loses like as much blood as one can lose without absolutely dying and. And And like a lot of guys in that kind of thing, he's he's got really no family background.

Well three things happened that led to his conversion to faith in Christ that was one of them another one was he had previously gotten his girlfriend pregnant and She had left the whole metal militia thing and gone home.

I actually think somewhere in New England is where it was and she was in an evangelical church and she came home to her church. And she repented of her sins and she began following Christ and she refused to have an abortion and he kind of just dumped her but after he has this horrific accident either he has nobody else he can trust right and.

So he calls her up and he's the father of her child after all and so he comes and she nurses him back to health. And takes him to their Bible-believing church and he hears the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the people are friendly to him and he converts to faith in Jesus.

He is born again. And then he goes back down to In time he marries her and he goes back to the metal militia and this is by the time the article gets written he's leading he's evangelizing all his hooligan friends and The other guys are doing interviews saying yeah, you know the Deags came back.

And yeah, if you see pictures of Deacon, let me say right now the guys he still has some sanctification to do so this is not a broad-based endorsement of everything you will find if you click Brian Deacon into your internet browser and He will show you young men if you cover your body in tattoos and then convert to faith in Christ.

Your tattoos do not go away. Brian Dugan is living free for free for this. But anyway, he's doing Bible studies among the metal militia and these are completely unchurched guys. And so they're interested and he's leading him to faith in Christ one after another and so they have this interview by the time I'm reading this magazine in the barbershop thinking about my men's book.

They talk about Deagon is sitting in a lawn chair at the metal militia compound in California. With his child on his lap and he says to the guy dude I become a follower of Christ and now I got to figure out what it means to really be a man.

I Thought well amen to that and how much of that there is in our churches today. Guys who through the sovereign grace of God through the ministry of the Word. Hopefully in the context of a sound church.

They come to faith in Jesus Christ and then what then you know. The what then is where we in the reform movement really have so much to say. Because we believe that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

We believe in the Christian life. I like to say to new converts I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you and you die or when Jesus returns you will be received into his presence and you will enjoy the Eternal glory of the Lord forevermore.

Well, that's what they say. What's the bad news? I say the bad news is you look pretty healthy. Which means you got a long life in this world is a rotten world and you're a sinner you got a lot of repentant to do and you got a lot of work to do and One of the crying needs we have today.

Not just among really radical conversions like Brian Deegan's but more, you know, normal-looking guys like us is godly masculinity. We have a crying aid back today. I was flying my flight from Greenville to Dulles.

I was flying next to a 62 year old woman. Who's a liberal columnist in one of our newspapers and since I my sermons are printed in our newspapers. She knew who I was and therefore she was offended by me before even who she was but We were she's a feminist and she asked about lesbianism and I said I said, yeah, honestly, I of course I mean the Bible's opposed to that, but I say, you know I tell you what we need is we need Christian men to start living as godly men and the boom won't have any we won't Have a feminist problem.

The women won't be needing to do all not that women aren't sinners. But we have a crying need in our society for y 'all. But you know that word right that the English language needs a second person plural and it's not you and it's y 'all.

And y 'all need to be men of God who live out the masculine mandate. But the problem is we don't know what that is. I really do believe We are we do not know what it means to be a Christian man. Many of you are married or you're about to get married one of the things your wife is going to struggle with or is Struggling with is most Christian men do not know how to love their wife biblically.

And so here's the question I want to start with for Brian Deegan and for you because I think Brian Deegan deserves some clear Bible teaching and if he's not here today, well, then I'll give it to you.

When we're talking about gender issues like this in Jenner, where do we go in the Bible to get this information? Well, the answer is Genesis chapter 2. When Paul's talking about tomorrow, I'm gonna talk about women's roles in the church.

Paul grounds his teaching on the creation order that's found in Genesis 2. Genesis 1 is macro creation. God creates all things in six days and all very good and he and it's it's the cosmos being put together planets and stuff like that.

Genesis 2 is God's creation of human society and the man and the woman and the marriage relationship and all of these things and so when it comes to marriage when it comes to women's roles when it comes to Masculinity the Bible directs us to Genesis chapter 2 and that's where I'm gonna be tonight for the most part.

At least I'm gonna start there in the Bible's teaching in Genesis 2 and what I want to do tonight. In the first address is I want to talk about Biblically who you are where you are what you are and how you are to be as a man of God and That's what we're gonna start with first is who we are if you have your Bibles open look at Genesis 2 verse 7 where we read that the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature.

Now this tells us who we are. First of all here. We have the pinnacle of creation in Genesis 2 this is not abstracted from Genesis 1 but notice the the personal involvement the hands-on Intimacy that God does when he creates this special creature man in Genesis 1 God is doing Divine fiat.

God spoke and it was let there be there was it was good and God could very well have said okay. Let there be a man poof. There's a man. But what he does instead is he gets his hands dirty as he and he creates man.

And really the Hebrew really is getting at this he creates man face to face. Man was made to know God. We were made who are we we are spiritual creatures made by God. To know God and to declare his glory.

That's what it means to be a man and so far as we go the same is true of the woman. Although we'll say a little bit more about that tomorrow. But God makes us he breathes into man his own life. And you may know that the Hebrew word for spirit is the same word for breath.

And so God's breath goes into the man and so Man as he's made by God Has is made in the image of God in that sort of way. And so we are made in a way that we are enabled to know God. We are enabled and we are called to bear his image in the created world.

And so that is according to Genesis to who we are now. Let's answer the question secondly. Where are we you may say well pastor? I know I am actually I have no idea where I am. My wife called me today.

She said where are you. I said I'm somewhere in Massachusetts. I mean This is Massachusetts right. Okay, cuz I flew into Rhode Island. I said I really have no idea. They they pick me up. They take me there.

That's great. It's good to be here. Is there what what town am I in? West Boylston, Massachusetts. Well that is where you are, but Theologically, let's ask the question. Where are you and look at Genesis 2 8?

And The Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east and there he put the man Whom he had formed. God made this special creature uniquely made to know him to see him. Face-to-face to have his breath within him to bear his image in the world and God places him in the garden.

Where where that God has made now? What do we mean by? This whole by what am I getting at when I say that God placed man in the garden? Well the garden is let me put it this way the garden is the covenantal world of human society that God made.

And God placed us in the world and the relationships that he had made. Now I'm gonna have my first polemical moment of the weekend. I'm sure it will not be my last, but I'd already know it make your pastor happy that I do this.

One of the reasons I wrote this book was because I read John Eldridge's book wild at heart. Go ahead and raise your hand. I will close my eye no I Already know that you've read. I mean five million people have read it so some of you have read.

I got my copy for one of my elders in Florida who said let's do a get the DVD curriculum. I said well the only problem is it's heretical other than that I'm completely in favor of it and and there's a reason why why a wall to the heart was a success and made traction and that's because he timed it just.

Right and Eldridge says hey stop being a bunch of sissies and wimps and start being masculine in the church. And that got traction with people and I honor that. The problem is that Eldridge exposes or he performs.

What is increasingly popular today? We call it the bizarro hermeneutic by which he makes the text mean exact opposite of what it says. The text says that God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden.

Now help me out here. Where does this suggest that God wants us to find ourselves? In the garden right. God put us in the garden he wants us to be in the garden. So Eldridge says in his book well if God made him.

And then put him and this is this is like the theological core of this book. God made him and put him in the garden therefore. He was made outside of the garden therefore. He is wild at heart, and he finds himself not in the place where God put him.

But by leaving the place where God put him and basically you find your mask. He actually says that being a man is a bait is being on a quest. For your to find your masculine identity. I'm already I mean can you imagine Ronald Reagan saying so Ronald?

What are you doing? I'm seeking my masculine identity. I'm trying to picture Churchill or George men do not sit around saying I'm searching for my masculine. We we receive our identity from a sovereign God who made us and own us and calls us to a holy purpose.

We're not looking for it. He actually says in the book, and I'm not and he says That Jesus in the wilderness was on a quest for his masculine identity man. I Want to say this look if God and so you find your masculine identity.

Basically by leaving your wife and kids and ignoring her going on a wilderness exploit. Hunting an elk with your bare hands stabbing it in the chest and drinking its blood in a metal cup. That's basically you just keep doing that your whole life, and you go on and see here's the problem.

You got all these Brian Deegan guys who that's what they were doing when they were unregenerate. All this self-centered garbage. That's all about them trying to find themselves. It's really about avoiding Responsibility and commitment and godliness and so they're off everything's this self-absorbed ego trip and and now we're being told.

That's what we're supposed to do as Christian men. Well brothers. I really want to say to you in fact. I was talking to a Well-known older guy who's written a bunch of great books, and I said he lives in Colorado Springs.

And he's just telling me how terrible it is to have this guy in that town. I said well, why don't you write a book about he said well? I don't have time you've got to write the book and so I I did. But I just say that that part portion of water heart really helped me.

Because it made me think about this text. I said you know he's on to something that these texts in Genesis to really do have a paradigmatic form about them. There's a. There's foundations being laid here, and what it says is not that God put the man in the garden.

So the guy would leave the garden. But that men find their identity by by Obeying God and glorifying God in the place where God put him and that is the humdrum world of Covenantal relationships you find yourself as a man as it were.

By being a godly husband by being a faithful father by being a good church member by investing yourself in the kingdom of Christ. God created the garden and the covenantal he created parent family relationships.

He created marriage. He created the church and all that stuff is supposed to be so boring and what a dork you are if you're not fleeing all that stuff and what you're supposed to do is to grow a soul patch.

But He told me his wife thinks it's sexy, so what I give into that man, but. But No, no, no the where the who we are. As we are creatures made to bear God's image and to know God in a personal way and to revel in the knowledge of him and the display of his glories.

As he works in our lives, and we're to do it in the garden. You're to do it you if we're gonna say you finds yourself you finds yourself in the church. You find yourself in godly marriage. You find yourself as a father.

What are the big problems? We've got today and Is in the evangelical churches and to some extent in the reformed churches is the indefinite? Adolescence. I Got all these lovely women. They're 25 year old their eggs are drying out.

You know they feel it. No they are and They don't have a godly man to marry. Why because the 25 year old guys. And I'm not trying to pick on you to be happy 25. But because we have this culture, but I'm gonna play video games until I'm 40 years old.

And there'll be some 20 and there will be but this is not godliness. You know I say in my church I was my oldest son's 12, and I was watching with some of my elders. Our we have a church basketball league and we have church.

That's really cool dads in the church coach the teams and we have a gym. And I was watching the middle school boys basketball team. You know our duty is the leaders of this church is to minister with God's blessing.

So when these boys graduate college and are entering the workforce there there would be mature church members. They're able to be deacons in the church. If you guys have two elders, so you know to me and they're able to be married and To be godly men who as young adults it is not good for the man to be alone and this whole 29 year old trying to figure out who you are and I'm not trying to belittle you if you're wrestling with that.

But we need as Christian. We need to embrace godly masculinity. Young men are young men now and appropriate ways need to be challenged to be thinking about being husbands. To be thinking about being providers to be thinking about being fathers to be thinking about being Servants in the church, so they grow into it and that's Where God wants us to find and experience the blessings of Christian masculinity.

It's not gonna happen through Madden football. Or through halo, and I'm not they're not objectively evil per se some of them. Maybe I don't know but the avoidance of the garden. God wants you to prepare yourselves.

And then if you're in it now to devote yourself to the service of his glory in the covenantal world he is made now. What are we there? What are who are we were spiritual creatures made to know God and glorify him?

We're in the covenantal world. God has made us he put man in the garden. Well one thing we are and I want to say what we are is to two things first of all we are lords. Genesis 128 be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Subdue it and have dominion Over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Men are called by God to lordship now. That's a little L. He's the capital L. Lord.

But we are called to exercise authority and to take responsibility as God's Servant lords in the world. God part of what it means to bear the image of God by the way. It's not so much How we're made but as God is the capital L Lord of the macrocosm of the universe of the cosmos.

Of the whole covenant world. We as men are to be little L. Lords his servants. And we're to be Lords in the microcosm and God created the man to exercise and bear Authority in the sphere over which God put him and then secondly he's to do so as a servant.

We are to be servant Lords in the garden be fruitful and multiply. We are to devote ourselves and I'll talk about that a lot more to to the exercising of lordship each in our sphere. So that God is glorified and there's a bounty of grace working in the world and in lives.

That is what we are to be. Adam was not to devote himself to an endless quest for his masculine identity. But he was to be the Lord and keeper of God's realm. Bringing glory to the Creator in servant faithfulness.

Well that leads me to the fourth thing which is really where I'm going with all this is how do we do this? Who are we we are Spiritual creatures made to know and glorify God. Where are we? We're in the garden the covenantal world of divinely established relationships.

What are we there? We are lords and servants in the garden. And so the question is and here's why I think a lot of sincere guys. Undoubtedly many of you are this way and I hope to help you they go. How do I do that?

I want to know. And for this we turn to Genesis 2 15, which really is I believe the masculine mandate. And that's not just a book title for me, that's what this verse is. It's the grid. It's the place where God in the bible sets the grid for what mass godly masculinity is.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of eden. To work it. And keep it to work it and keep it now. I was uh raised in a cavalry family. I fired my first tank at age 10. It was pretty cool.

I have to admit when I was a little boy. My father was a tank battalion commander. I remember him at the breakfast table with a helmet on his head and pistols and his jeep would come when he was a boy.

His father who's a horse cavalry officer would ride off to work on his war horse. And you know and so let's suffice it to say that I own a lot of cavalry paraphernalia in fact my in my office at home, there's a A print of a of a cavalryman firing at the wicked enemy um in in uh.

In that print and of course, therefore I know what is the greatest movie for men ever made. What was that? No, it's good. I'm from the patent wing of the army. That's a very accurate movie except for you know, his voice was very high pitched.

That was the you know, no, no, it's john wayne. What's the greatest john wayne movie? It's not a westerner so you can have your westerners. She wore a yellow ribbon. Is the and and to me growing up particularly when I was a young underage I was converted at age 30.

So when I was an unregenerate combat officer in armored cavalry units to me the quintessence of manhood and masculinity. Was captain nathan brittles played by john wayne and she wore a yellow ribbon and he had two words.

That he gave his hapless lieutenants all through that movie that would help them to be real men. Who knows what the two words were? Never apologize. And so I took that to heart and let's just say because of that my early adulthood was more obnoxious than it needed to be.

Never Apologize, mister. Well, the bible gives you two words. That tell you how you are to fulfill the matriline mandate and they are not never apologize. They are work and keep work and keep and here's.

You know, one of the things you will notice you probably notice this from your pastor. Is that biblical truth is always simple and clear. You ever notice that the bible argues against alloyed? Doctrines whenever you have an alloyed a mixture of the world and and the church.

It's not true. Biblical truth is always simple not therefore easy. But it's direct and simple and here you have two things that the bible gives us as our grit. I'm, very grateful to that because I can't handle much more.

Remember why my father tried to teach me how to play golf and uh I think life is frustrating enough without golf already but uh I remember I was like 14 years old and my dad's teaching me and he's got like 15 things.

Okay, son. Knees straight slightly bent left elbow straight. Head down eyes on the ball tilt your out dad. I cannot handle any more feedback. There's some so i'm not giving you 14 things so you can hit the ball.

The bible gives you two things. The lord god took the man and put him in the garden of eden. To work it and keep it now, let's look at these two words the first word is a. Uh, both of these by the way are hebrew verbs that appear Hundreds of times throughout the old testament.

They are not technical terms. This is in the if you were to take hebrew as a language probably in the first set of vocab cards. Both of these words would be their basic plain. The word abad to work means to serve in a general way.

It's use of the. Have the priest in the temple. They served in the temple the words there now here. It's an agricultural Context and so to work has a agricultural idea. It's to cultivate to Nurture and so god says look I I want you to glorify me.

And i'm going to put you in the world that I have designed. And i'm going to give you lordship over your little piece of it. That through that you might display the glories of my name. And the first thing I want you to do is I want you to labor in the garden so that it grows and is fruitful.

It's fruitful and multiplies. I want to say right now that this is already a revolutionary idea because one of the things. One of the ways in which I think that american masculinity which has some very good strengths about it.

One of the ways in which I think we've gone wrong is the whole idea of nurture is not In our idea of masculinity if you say well, who's the nurturer? Who would you normally say the mother folks? That is not true uh.

The women get upset when I say this, but it's just not what they do. The women i'm wife who homeschools five children lord. What a wonderful wife. I have I leave for work and I see here. You know with laundry for seven going and homeschooling five kids and I just go thank god for this Tireless servant and she's meeting our needs and she's keeping the home together.

She's serving and helping. But she does not have the primary calling. I don't want to deny that women do nurture but the primary calling to really reach the heart. Say in parenting of the child and instill an identity.

And beliefs and values is not the mother's jobs. It's a father's job. And god says to the man i'm going to put you in the garden to work and you are going to devote yourself In servant lordship and labor that is designed to cause things to grow.

I got a whole book on this. I'm only doing two sessions. I in the book I work all this out in different relationships, but already right now that has that has been a revolutionary idea to me. Just in terms of clarity to my thinking.

You put me in any context and what does it mean for me to be a christian man? It means I exercise authority on god's behalf that he's given me in a servant way and I devote myself. To wholesome growth and life and blessing.

If it's a garden well, then I plant I plow and I. But I've seed and I fertilize and I water. How many agricultural metaphors you have in the bible that way and my job. I have succeeded as a man when the garden is beautiful and growing.

Now let's talk about marriage. What is my job as a husband? Well, I am to work my wife and by the way If you look at the ephesians 5 and first peter 3 7 you'll see how a lot of what's being told to husbands.

Is the nurture of their wives. Husbands dwell with your wives according to knowledge first peter 3 7. Cherish her so so know your wife be involved in her build her up. If you're a husband your fingers are to be dirty with the soil of your wife's heart.

Now I gotta tell you right now. I have just improved your marriage dramatically because you probably don't know to do that. I gotta be honest with you that has that whole idea that whole way of thinking.

Is not ways that most of us were raised. It's been a great help to me to realize that in my marriage. I am to orient myself Ministerially on my wife. Am I time to know what's going on in her heart? I'm to know what she's afraid of and i'm to minister to that with the word of god.

I am to know what her needs are i'm to i'm to provide so far as i'm able to that ministry. I know what encouraged me. She said I am to devote myself so that she grows. What does it mean to be a father?

You know, this is why the killer for men and many of you can attest this growing up is the emotional distance of fathers. Isn't that right? Well, you know, I provide a good roof of her head and uh, you know, I don't talk to them much but you know.

That is a killer. And pastors are constantly dealing with 50 year old men who come into their office and go man. You know, I don't know my dad. And so I don't know who I am. And we are to invest ourselves in the soil of my heart.

What's the what's the key verse in the book of proverbs, you know proverbs Is not miscellaneous tips. It's a it's a father manual for his son. And proverbs, I think it's 22 26 or 26 22 my son. Give me your heart Is at the heart Of the proverbs.

I was blessed with a father who was very involved in my life. And I talk in the book about 19 when I was 12 years old. My father spent the year in war. He spent two and a half years of my childhood in vietnam.

And my entire sixth grade year, it's a pretty big year for a boy. My oldest boy's that age right now. I just thought of that um. And my father's in vietnam my whole 12th, you know, and I would get letters from him.

Every week saying things like dear ricky boy. I I your mother told me about the great catch that you made and. Oh, I would have been there and i'm so proud of you and let me tell you what's going on in my life.

And I felt he was my dad and he was or dear ricky. Let me rebuke you for talking back to your mother, you know. To the lightning bolt transcontinentally, uh, yeah but we are to be workers. And so the masculine mandate.

I just lay this on your heart think about this. Open your open your own bible genesis 2 15. This is not my spiel to you. This is the word of god. The lord god took the man put him in the garden of evid to work it.