Measuring Manhood, Part 2

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for tonight. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for your word that allows us to understand who you are. We thank you, Lord, for the clarity of your word that speaks to us because your Spirit resides within us. And therefore, Lord, it brings great conviction as well as great comfort as we begin to understand your pattern for our lives. Our prayer tonight is that you would cause us to be open and help us to see wonderful things out of your law. Help us to want to follow everything that you say. Give us the desire to learn more of you, that we might learn to be like you. We thank you, Lord, for just the wonderful opportunity we have to spend time in your word. It is such a precious time. It's so brief. It's so few and far between. But the times that we do, truly, Lord, it's an opportunity for us to grow. And so our prayer is that we grow deep in our walk with Christ, that we might be able to reflect your glory to others. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Tonight we're going to look once again at what we call the measure of manhood. What does a man look like from the biblical perspective? And now I know that if you're a woman, you're sitting there thinking, "Why am I here?" Well, that's because you've got to pray for your man. I mean, you should be praying for your man, and the principles we give you will enable you to know how to better pray for the man that God has given you. If you're not married and you anticipate one day being married, then you need to pray that God would lead you to the right kind of man. Because one thing worse than never getting married is marrying the wrong guy. I mean, that's just horrible. And so you want to pray for the right guy to come along, and you want to pray for God to show you what that man would look like, that you might be able to uphold him in prayer. And so, as children, we pray for our fathers that they would exemplify biblical manhood. They would follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And so there's something here for everybody, and we want you to understand that because they are biblical principles. They apply across the board to every single one of us.

I've had the privilege of raising boys as well as girls. I count that a great honor, not to be able to raise both. I think that I'd probably be missing a whole bunch. But the Lord has allowed me to have four boys and four girls. So the score is tied at the end, four to four. But the opportunity for me to be able to understand boys as well as girls is crucial. And raising boys is different than raising girls. If you've had both, you understand that. They are so different. The makeup is just so different between the boys and the girls. And yet, I think that when I look at my boys, I want them to be men of God. I want them to follow the Lord. I raise my boys to be leaders. I raise my boys to understand leadership principles. I raise my boys because I want them to take the initiative, to be responsible. We raise our girls that they might learn to submit to that kind of leadership, that they would have meek and quiet spirits, as Peter talks about in 1 Peter 3, verses 1 to 6. Help them understand the nature of the Proverbs 31 woman, that they might understand their responsibility.

So how the sons treat the daughters and how the daughters treat the sons is crucial in our home because the daughters need to know how to treat the boys because one day they're going to be married to a boy. And the boys need to know how to treat their sisters because one day they're going to be married to a young lady. And so the work before us is quite large. It's never easy, but it's a greatest of all privileges. And so we seek to raise our children in the ways of the Lord.

Not realizing that there's a verse of Scripture that's kind of tucked away in the Proverbs that's crucial for us to begin our time together this evening. It reads this way, you probably have heard it before: "Grandchildren are the crown of old men." And the next verse, or the next part of the verse, says this: "And the glory of sons is their fathers." The glory of sons is their fathers. Now think about that with me for a moment. The word glory means brightness. It means it's a word that has to do with value and worthiness. In other words, the value of a son is their father's. The brightness of the son is their father's. It's an Old Testament principle that the sons will reflect the brightness of their fathers. That principle is passed down from generation to generation. The sons reflect the values of the fathers. We tend to forget that.

I had the privilege of doing premarital counseling on many occasions, helping the young lady to understand that she needs to know her fiancé's father. Because inevitably her fiancé, who's going to soon be her husband, is going to be a lot like his father. No matter how much he might deny that, say, "No, I'm not going to be like my dad," no, he will be. That's inevitable. Now, we know that the grace of God reigns supreme, and if you have an unsaved father and the son is saved, things can be changed, but those personality traits, those character traits, are passed down from generation to generation. That's why that principle or that command that God gives way back in the book of Exodus is so crucial. He says, "You shall not worship any other God or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children on the third and fourth generations of those who hate me."

In other words, God says there's a penalty attached to my commandments, and it's this: if your fathers are unwilling to worship me properly, worship me in the way that I am to be worshipped as the one and only true God that there is, that iniquity will be passed down to the sons. It will be, because it's a reflection of fathers who hate God. And fathers who hate God pass that down to their children that they learn to hate God. And God visits the iniquities, in that context, on the children of those fathers who portray their hatred for God.

It does not mean that every son is going to be exactly like his father, but there are a lot of similar characteristics that are there. The habits and the lifestyle of the father is passed down and reflected in the life of the sons. So think about that. That's important. The flip side of that is, I want my sons to be like me. I do. When I follow Christ, I want them to follow Christ. I want them to honor the Lord. I want my sons to have the same kind of character traits that I have. My father wanted the same thing for me. He wanted to pass those things down to his son so that they would be embedded in his life. That's crucial.

Now, I told Teresa before she married Drew, "Look at me. Because if you don't like what you see here, you're probably gonna not like what you see sitting across from you over there. Because Drew is me on steroids. And therefore, you need to understand that because this is what you're getting yourself into. Look at how I treat my wife because how I treat my wife is being passed down to my son on how one day he's going to treat you. So if you don't like the way I treat Lori, anticipate that that's probably going to be the way, to some degree, that Drew is going to treat you down the road."

So many times we forget about those things. We pass them off as, "You know, I love him, and just love changes everything." No, it doesn't. It just doesn't. Because the flip side of premarital counseling is postmarital counseling. And I do more postmarital counseling than I ever do premarital counseling, and they want to talk about those issues. And so we need to understand that we are passing down to our sons something that's absolutely crucial. We want our sons to understand their responsibility before the Lord. And so, we want you to understand biblical manhood.

It all begins with the man who hates his iniquity. It has to begin there. Because if a man loves his sin, it will affect everything he does. If he hates his sin, it also will affect everything he does. We went to Job chapter 1, verse number 1, where Job would turn away from evil. Job hated sin so much that when his wife begged him to sin by cursing God that he might die, he would not. That's a man who hates sin. That's a man who says to his wife, "Honey, you are foolish." That's what Job said to his wife. "You are speaking as a foolish woman. That's not going to happen. I'm not going to curse God and die so you are relieved from taking care of me amidst all my pain. I'm not going to curse God and die because he took away everything that we have. I'm not going to do that." And Job did not sin with his lips. He maintained his integrity. He hated iniquity. And the question comes to us as men: do we hate our sin enough to walk away from it, to turn away from it? That's what Job did. He hates his iniquity.

That allows him, number two, to demonstrate his integrity. The Bible says of Job that he was a blameless man. He was an upright man. He was a God-fearing man, turning away from evil. Because you hate your iniquity, you can demonstrate your integrity. If you don't hate your sin, you live a life of duplicity, a life of hypocrisy. Your children know that. Your wife knows that. And therefore, you can't live a life of completeness, a life of wholeness. That's what integrity means. My life and lips are equal. My lifestyle matches everything that I say. And therefore, I can say, as Daniel in Daniel 6, verse number 4, are those who sought to find something that was wrong about him or something that was wrong in him and they couldn't. They couldn't. David said in Psalm 36: "Vindicate me, O Lord, according to my integrity. Look at my life, Lord, and examine my life." And that's the way we need to live our lives. Demonstrate our integrity.

Let me show you how these two come together. In Psalm 19, these words are spoken. Psalm 19, if you're reading through the Bible, by the way, one chapter of the Psalms every day, you'd be on Psalm 19 today. Because you'll be on your second time through the Psalms in this year, 2014. My wife and I were reading through the Psalms. We were reading through Psalm 19 today. Verse number 13 says, "Also keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins; let them not rule over me; then I shall be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression." In other words, he says, "Lord, if you keep me from presumptuous sin, if you keep me from iniquity, then I will be a man of integrity. I will be blameless in your eyes." To be a man of integrity doesn't mean you never sin. It means that you don't just continue in the same sin over and over and over again. We all sin, but because of God's grace and God's forgiveness, we can go to Him, we can beg His forgiveness, and He forgives us of all of our sins.

So, the man of God is going to hate his iniquity. He's going to demonstrate his integrity. And then, thirdly, he is going to initiate his responsibility. What is a man's responsibility? When you leave and cleave, you leave, you've made a decision to lead. When you leave, you make a decision to cleave. That cleaving means that now you are the leader. Your responsibility as a man is to lead, to be out front, to initiate that responsibility, to lead and to love, to raise your children, to nurture your children, to be in the forefront, initiate responsibility.

Listen, I always tell girls when they're getting married, "Listen. If you have to tell your husband what to do, your fiancé what to do next, guess what? You're going to spend the rest of your life telling them what to do. If you have to wait for your mother to tell your future husband what to do, she'll be telling him what to do the rest of his life as well. You want to marry a man who takes the initiative, who leads the way."

You don't... Simple, simple thing. How you hold hands is crucial. You ever watch a woman who holds a hand and her hand's in front and she's pulling him along? You ever seen that? Just watch how you hold hands. It's symbolic of leadership in the home. It's symbolic that you're all going to walk out of here tonight not holding hands. But if that woman has her hand in front and she's dragging them along, if her hand is behind his hand, she is tucked into the security of his being, and he's pulling her along. That's very, very tell-tale. You need to look at those things because it's symbolic of the marriage. Who's pulling who? Who's in charge? Men initiate the responsibility. They take the leadership role because that's a God-given role. The head of the church is Christ. The head of the woman is the man. God created man, then he created woman. Man is the leader of his home. Man is the leader of the church. Man is the leader in the workplace. He is the leader. He needs to exemplify his leadership, taking the initiative.

Takes the initiative to ask for forgiveness, takes the initiative to repent of his sin, takes the initiative to care for his wife, his children, takes the initiative to teach, takes initiative to do everything in the family. That's his responsibility. And a man can do that because he has demonstrated his integrity. The reason men don't take the lead to be responsible is because their integrity has been marred. They are doubted, and therefore they can't step out authoritatively because there is duplicity in their lives. And they know their wives know that, and therefore they don't lead. That's why they can go to work and be aggressive and creative and innovative, but come home and be nothing. Because their wives know the difference in their character. And so, when you demonstrate your integrity because you hate your iniquity, you can now begin to initiate your responsibility. You can take the leadership role because you have credibility, you have believability. And what causes you to initiate your responsibility is that people believe in you. If they believe in you, they follow you. If they don't believe in you, guess what? They're not going to follow you. It all comes from integrity. See that? That was all last week.

And then, fourthly, you effectuate your priority. You cause to happen the priorities of your life. That is, you make it happen. You prioritize your life. If you're going to initiate your responsibility, then you've got to prioritize all those responsibilities. And it begins with loving your wife. "Say, what? Doesn't it begin with loving God?" Yes, it does. But the essence of that is demonstrated in the way you love your wife. Because if I love God, I will love my wife as Christ loved the church. And therefore, my priority will be to love and to lead my wife in a way that honors and glorifies the Lord.

Now, let me just explain something to you. You need to love her three ways. Number one, you need to love her naturally. That's important. How do we know that? Listen to what the Bible says in the book of Ephesians. Very familiar set of verses. Ephesians 5:28, "So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church." So here's how you love your wife: you love her naturally. It is a natural thing to do. No man ever hated his own body, but he nourishes it, he cherishes it. So if you're thirsty, what do you do? You get a drink. If you're hungry, what do you do? You get something to eat. If you're sick, what do you do? You go to the doctor. Why? Because that's the natural thing you do. So now you're going to love your wife as you love your own body. If she's thirsty, what are you going to do? Get her a drink. If she's hungry, feed her. If she needs to go to the doctor, take her to the doctor. If she's sick, take care of her. Why? Because that's the natural thing to do that you would do with your own body. Think about it that way.

We don't treat our wives that way. She gets sick. We say, "Honey, what's wrong? Get up, fix me something to eat. Why are you sick? You can't be sick today. I gotta go to work." But we gotta love her naturally, just like we love our own bodies, just like you nurture and care for yourself. You are tender towards yourself. If you get a boo-boo, what do you do? You take care of your boo-boo. If she gets a boo-boo, what do you do? "Suck it up, honey. You're going to be okay." That's what we tell her. No, you've got to love her as you love your own self, your own body. You love her naturally. So important.

The next thing I want you to see is that, oh, by the way, when you become married, you become one flesh, right? Become one. Two becomes one. One plus one is one only in marriage. So, if that's the case, as you treat yourself, so you treat her, because you're to love her as Christ loved the church. Second thing I want you to see is that not only do you love her naturally, you love her, listen carefully, equally. Equally. 1 Peter chapter 3, verse number 7 says this: "You husbands, likewise, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman, and grant her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered." She is a fellow heir of the grace of life. You see, what happens in marriages is that men somehow tend to set themselves up over their wives in a domineering kind of way. And they forget that they are heirs of the grace of life, they share in that same grace. And in the eyes of God, they are equal partners. So you love her equally.

In other words, we know that God has designed the pattern for leadership in the home, that the husband leads the wife. We know that because that's the way it's been designed from the very beginning. Adam was created first, then Eve, and that's the order of creation, and that's the order of the home. Yet, sometimes men say, "Well, you know, you need to do this for me, you need to do that for me, you need to take care of me," and you try to dominate your wife and try to tell her what to do. Instead of loving her as somebody who is a joint heir in the grace of life, you love them equally. In other words, the Bible says she is to be that honorable vessel, that precious vessel. Turn to your wife and ask her right now, no, don't do it right now, but ask her, "Honey, are you the most precious person in my life? Are you the most valued individual in my life? Is there one thing more valuable to me than you?" Because if there is, then she is not that honorable vessel, and your prayers are hindered.

It would kill me if my wife said to me, "Honey, you know what? There's something that's more precious to you than me." That would be devastating to me. My ministry at the church would be over, I'd be done. I could no longer be your pastor because I would have ceased to model to you Christ's love for his church and been ineffective in my relationship with my wife. I want my wife to know that she is the most precious individual ever. She means more to me than anything. And that she is that honorable one. And so you need to look at your wife and ask her those questions. So you love them naturally, equally, and of course you love them sacrificially. Sacrificially. As Christ laid down his life for the church, so we lay down our lives for our wives. This is what it means to effectuate your priority. My priority at home is my wife. She is number one. Does she know that I love her with all that I have? Does she know that she is the most precious person in my life? Is my priority set in order so that my wife never has to question where she stands in my life? That's important.

Because remember, leadership is developed in the home, not in some leadership seminar someplace. It's developed in the home. And as you lead in the home, it qualifies you to lead in the most precious organization in the world, which is the Church of Jesus Christ. And so, therefore, you need to understand that everything centers around how it is you prioritize things in your home. When Adam saw Eve, he said, "Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh." When I saw my wife, I never said those words because I think she would have ran the other way. But Adam said that because he knew that she was part of him. She was equal to him. She was a part of his substance. And therefore, he would love her equally. He would love her naturally as he loved his own flesh. And he would love her sacrificially, giving his life away. And that's the way you need to be with our wives: that that's our priority. Yes, we have to love our children. Yes, we have to lead our children, but it all stems from one relationship. How my relationship is with my wife. It affects everything else in the home. The home is clearly a reflection of one relationship. Husband and wife. And therefore, as a man, I must effectuate that priority. I must cause those priorities to come into play so that everybody knows what's number one, what's number two, what's number three, what's number four, what's number five. People know what it is. What is the passion of that? Passion of the Father, so important.

When you come home from work after having a long day, we forget that your wife or our wife has also had a long day. And yet, we expect our wives to serve us, to feed us, to care for us, to let us have some downtime. "I just need to have some downtime. I've been busy. I'm tired. I need downtime." She needs downtime too. Who's going to give her downtime? See, sometimes we think that our wives should never have the downtime. They are always at our beckoned service. And that's just not the way the marriage works. God never designed it to be that way. And that's why we say you love her naturally, equally, and sacrificially. She is heirs of the grace of God just like you are. She needs to be the most precious possession you have. And you love her just like you love your own body. You will tenderly care for her like you tenderly care for yourself. And yet you will continue to give yourself away, sacrificially laying your life down for her benefit. And then everybody knows your priority.

Now, principle number five. You can now, you can now understand that you can validate your masculinity. And every man needs to be able to validate his masculinity. Let me take you to two verses in 1 Corinthians 16 to show this to you. If you've got your Bible turned there with me, please. All that was introduction and review from last week. If you weren't here, I'm sorry you weren't. You can always get a CD and get a copy of what we talked about last week. But you need to be able to validate your masculinity. And Paul gives five imperatives. Five imperatives. These are not optional. They're imperatives. They're commands. And four of them are military terms. Four of them deal with warfare. To help you understand the nature of the terms. This is what he says. 1 Corinthians 16, verse number 13: "Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong, let all you do be done in love." That right there is a summation of one's masculinity, right there. And you want to be able to validate that in your home, validate that in the marketplace, validate that in the church.

It all begins with be on the alert. Be awake. It's a word that means be alive. Don't be asleep. Be alive. Be awake, be sober, be vigilant. That's a military term. We tend not to be vigilant. Listen, when you travel, you're not nearly as vigilant as when you're home. Those of you who are men who have opportunities to travel in your workplace, the hardest place to be vigilant is when you travel. Why? Because you're autonomous. You're anonymous. No one knows who you are. You tend to let down your alertness, your sober-mindedness. Not only when you travel, but when you're tired. That's another avenue you need to be alert in. Because when we get tired, we tend to let down our guard. That's the way it was for the disciples. In the midst of their weary life, having gone through the Passion week with our Lord, and now he was going to exhort them. "Be vigilant, stay awake, be watchful, and pray with me." And they were so consumed with their emotions, they were so tired, they were so weary that they could no longer be vigilant. And because they weren't vigilant, they were not able to handle the temptation that would come later in their lives.

And so we need to realize that when we're traveling, when we're tired, or when we're tempted, when we're tempted in the midst of trials, we're not nearly as vigilant as we should be. We tend to let our guard down. And so, Paul says, "Listen, you need to be somebody who's always awake, always alert, always looking out, always anticipating that the enemy, like a roaring lion, is seeking whom he may devour." Satan wants to destroy your marriage. He wants to destroy your family. He wants to destroy your testimony. He wants to destroy everything he can about you and will stop at nothing until he does. But we tend to fall asleep on the watch. We tend to get weary-eyed and droopy-eyed and not be as alert as we need to be. And we need to be spiritually awake to know when temptation comes, when trials soar, so that we are able to stand against them in the power of God. So important.

The Bible says over in Revelation chapter 3, these words about the church of Sardis. It says, "He who has the seven spirits of God, the seven stars says, 'This, I know your deeds that you have a name, that you are alive, but you are dead,' he says. 'You have a reputation. You have a church building. Everybody knows that there's a church building there. You think that you're alive, but I want to let you know you're dead. Wake up and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die. For I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard, and keep it, and repent. If therefore you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you.'" The Lord is exhorting them to repent and to turn to Him to be alert, to be awake.

When Christ talks about his second coming in the Olivet discourse, he talks about being alert, being watchful, being awake, being alive, always anticipating the coming of the Lord. You should always be vigilant when it comes to the arrival of the Messiah. It keeps you alert. And so many times we get very, very lazy when it comes to watching how Satan wants to creep into our homes, into our hearts and destroy our lives. Can't afford to do that. We're soldiers engaged in a warfare. We always need to be on guard, watching out for the enemy, all of his devices, putting on the armor of God that we might be able to withstand all the fiery darts of the evil one. That's the way we need to live our lives.

So Paul says you need to be on the alert. In 2 Timothy chapter 4, Paul says this, verse 3: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside the myths. But you be sober in all things, Timothy. You be awake, you be alert, you endure hardship, you do the work of an evangelist. You fulfill your ministry." You can't afford, Timothy, to go to sleep. You're the pastor. You can't go to sleep. Fathers, you're the leader of your home. You can't afford to go to sleep. You can't afford to go to sleep spiritually. You must be in tune with what your children are doing, where they're at, who they're speaking to, what kind of conversations they're having. What is going on on their Facebook? What is going on through their emails? You must know what's happening. You must always be in tune, always alert, being the watchdog of your family. That's your job. If we don't do that, who is? And Satan knows how to get into your home. So we need to be alert.

Against false teaching, where your children go to church. Hopefully they go to church with you. Never understood why parents go to one church and kids go to another. Never got that. Never could compute in my mind how that ever happens. But it happens all the time. Why would you allow your children to go someplace else and you go to another church? Or husbands and wives? Husbands go to one church, wives go to another church. What? What is that? But it happens all the time. I'm like, "Dude, wake up. Where's your leadership? Obviously, you forfeited it because she's going where she wants to, and you're going where you want to, and the kids are going where they want to." That's not leadership, that's followership. That's following the leaders. Leadership says, "No, this is where you're going. This is where we're going to worship. This is where we need to hear the word of God, grow in a walk with God, and serve God. We're going to do it together as a family. It's called family worship. That's what we're going to do." But you've got to be alert. They're going to another church. How do you know what they're learning? What they're hearing? You don't know. Don't know. You need to know. So you need to be alert, be vigilant.

Number two, stand firm. Stand firm in the faith. That's not standing firm in your trusting, it's standing firm in the truth. It's not about trusting God to do something. It's about standing firm in the truth of what God has already said. And that's the only way you can stand firm. Because you know what God's word says, you can plant your feet down, you can stand strong, and not be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. That's the kind of men you got to have. You can't have fathers that are teetering this way and this way with every wind of doctrine. No, remember back in Matthew chapter 11? The Lord's talking about John the Baptist. He says, "What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What did you see when you saw John the Baptist? But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' palaces. But why did you go out to see a prophet? Yes, I say to you, and one who is more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. Truly, I say to you, among those born of a woman, there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist."

When you went out to see this guy, what do you see? Somebody tossed to and fro by the wind, not knowing what they believe or how they believe it. No. You didn't see that kind of a man. You saw a prophet, strong, uncompromising. You see someone dressed in soft clothes? No, because he was the antithesis to self-indulgence. He lived a life committed to the Christ. What did you go out to see? A man who lived a life of self-denial, who was non-compromising, who stood firm so much so that he lost his head. That's the kind of men we need. Guys like John the Baptist. Guys that go out and wear camel's hair and eat honey and locusts and that kind of stuff. You know, man's man. That's what John the Baptist was. He did all that because he wasn't going to indulge himself in the pleasures of the world because he wanted his lifestyle to match his message. He lived a completely different life than everybody else lived because he preached the gospel that no one had heard or believed in. Very few repented. Very few turned. But his whole mannerisms were in contrast to a worldly system. Standing firm is crucial. Standing firm in the faith, in the truth.

You ever notice that in the history of the world, we have more marriage seminars than ever, and we have more failed marriages than ever. We have more leadership seminars and more leadership books than ever. And we have absolutely very little leadership in the home and in the church than ever before. Why is that? Because it all comes down to what God's Word says, is standing firm on God's word. It comes down to doing what God's Word says. Being doers of the Word, not just hearers only. The greatest leadership manual in the world, you hold in your hands. The greatest marriage manual in the world you hold in your hands. It's right here. The problem is, we just don't want to do what God's Word says. That's the essence of our problem. We just don't want to do it. We like to hear all the nice little funny stories that go along with the marriage seminars that make me laugh, that get me away for the weekend, away from the kids. Somebody else pays for it. I get a scholarship. Things are good, yada, yada, yada. And then I go right back home and live the same old boring life I lived before because I don't want to do what God says. That's the essence of anything. I will either do what God says or I don't do what God says. And when you do, you reap the benefits. Delight always follows duty. You fulfill your duty, the delight will always follow. But we're so busy waiting for the delight, we don't fulfill our duty. And then we wonder why things are as bad as they are. Stand firm in the faith.

That's why it says in 1 Corinthians 15, 1, "Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you have received, in which you also stand." Stand firm in the faith. Over in Psalm 119, I love these words. Psalm 119. Verse number 95: "The wicked wait for me to destroy me. I shall diligently consider thy testimonies. The wicked are waiting to destroy my life. But because of your testimonies, I'm going to stand strong." And then it says this in verse 110: "The wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I have not gone astray from thy precepts. The wicked have laid a snare. They're looking to trap me. But I'm going to stay firm in the precepts of God because that is my protection. I'm going to stand firm in the truth." Then it says in verse 112, "I have inclined my heart to perform thy statutes forever, even to the end." 133, "establish my footsteps in thy word, and do not let any iniquity have dominion over me." If I'm able to establish my footsteps firm in the word, iniquity will not have dominion over me. And then it says over in Psalm 119, verse number 163: "Great peace have those who love thy law, and nothing causes them to stumble." Nothing does. Why? Because they are standing firm in the faith. That's the way we need to live our lives. This is the imperative. The imperative is be alert, be awake, don't fall asleep. And as you are awake, stand firm in the faith, the truth of God's holy word, and you will not waver to and fro. You will stand strong for the sake of the gospel. So important to understand this.

This is crucial because, as men, we have to lead our families and we got to be able to, you know, listen. When Jesus answered the questions on that, we're talking about Sunday morning. He answered questions by taking everybody to the Old Testament. Didn't have to do that, but he did because he stood firm in the faith. So when he was questioned, he answered with scripture. When he was tempted, he answered the devil with scripture because he stood firm in the faith. He did that to provide an example for people like you and me to know how to answer questions, how to handle temptation. Someone asked a question: "Thus saith the Lord." Temptation comes. "Thus saith the Lord." Stand firm in the faith. But if you don't know the faith, if you don't know what God's Word says, you can't. That's why you got to study it. You got to memorize it. You got to read it. You got to pray over it. You got to be in a church that preaches it. So you get inundated with it. So you know what to do. Be alert, stand firm in the faith.

Number three. Act like men. That's just so good. Act like men. Well, how do you do that? There is no equivalent in the New Testament to this word, so you have to go to the Old Testament. When you go to the Old Testament, the Greek Septuagint, you have the equivalent. Deuteronomy 31 says this. Deuteronomy 31, as Moses is talking to the nation of Israel, verse 6, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid." To act like men is to be strong and courageous. He goes on to say this. "Do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is one who will go with you. He will not fail you or forsake you." Then Moses called to Joshua and said to him, "In the sight of all Israel, be strong and courageous. For you shall go forth with this people in the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall give it to them as an inheritance. And the Lord is the one who goes ahead of you, he will be with you, he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed." Instead, be strong and courageous.

You know, God gives us a command. He says, "Look, don't be afraid." "Don't do that." "Say, but I'm afraid." "Don't be afraid." Instead, be strong and courageous because I am with you. Act like a man. That's what it says. Be manlike. Be strong and courageous. He says the same thing in Joshua, in Joshua chapter 1, as Joshua takes the leadership role. Verse 6, "Be strong and courageous." Verse 7, "Only be strong and very courageous." Verse number 9: "Be strong and courageous. Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua, you're the leader. Act like a man. Be strong. Be courageous. How hard is that? Is it that difficult? I mean, if it is, let me know. Because that's what the Bible says. God's not going to command you to do something and then not give you the opportunity or the ability to accomplish it. He's going to give you everything you need to act like a man. Be mature. Be courageous. Be confident. He tells you, "Lord, I'm with you always. I'm right here beside you. You're not leading your wife alone. You're not leading your family alone. You're not leading at work alone. You're not leading your church alone. He is with you every step of the way." And the only way you can be strong and courageous is because you have the Lord your God with you wherever you go. And therefore, you act like a man.

Over in 1 Corinthians 14, verse number 20. Paul says these words, "Brethren, do not be children in your thinking. Yet in evil be babes, but in your thinking, be mature." Be mature. Boy, we need to be mature in the way we think. Don't you agree? We need to think like mature adults, like mature men. Because we're grounded in the word of the Lord. We're able to stand firm in the faith. We're alert, we're awake, we're alive, we're watchful, we're vigilant, and therefore we're able to be strong. The Bible says in 1 Peter 2, verse number 2: "As newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby." It says over in 1 Kings chapter 2, David says to Solomon, "Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man." I love that. He says to his son, "Look, son, you got to be strong and you've got to show yourself a man." Would it be that every father would tell a son that? "Be strong, show yourself a man, and 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." If you act like a man, show yourself a man, you will succeed in what you do. Because you have followed the ordinances and the statutes of God. You have done what God has said for you to do. Therefore, you will be successful in God's kingdom. And that's the way you need to be. Act like a man. Be mature because the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

So, you're vigilant because you're awake. You stand firm in the faith, you act like a man, and then it says, be strong, be strengthened. That's just so good. Be strengthened. It says over in Ephesians 6:10, "Be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might." 2 Timothy 2:1, "Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." Over in 1 Timothy 1:12, "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, for he has strengthened me because he considered me faithful, putting me into service." Psalm 27, verse number 14. "Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord." I love what God said to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 12, verse number 5. "Hey, Jeremiah, listen, if you can't run or walk with footmen, how will you ever be able to run with horses? If you can't walk with footmen, how can you run with horses? How are you going to be able to keep up, Jeremiah?"

And that's why over in Isaiah chapter 30, verse number 15 says, "In quietness and trust will be your strength. But you were unwilling." In quietness and in trust will be your strength. You see, in order for us to be strengthened, we must learn to be quiet. To listen to God speak to us through His Word. And then what He says, to trust what He says. And when we trust what He says, we are strengthened in our spirit. It's when we don't trust what he says or are not quiet enough to listen to what he says that we are weak in our spirit. That's why, over in Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40. These words are given and they're very familiar. Isaiah 40, verse number 29. "He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired and vigorous, young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord, or those who hide themselves in the Lord, or literally those who wrap themselves around the Lord, will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary."

And the reason Isaiah is told that by the Lord God is because the Lord God says earlier in verse number 27, same chapter, it says, "Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord? And the justice due to me escapes the notice of my God. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, never wearies or tires?" He goes back and gives him three descriptive titles of the Lord God of Israel. He is the creator. He is the Lord. He is the everlasting God. He is perpetually with you. And because He is perpetually with you, He is the Lord God of Israel, who is all-powerful to take care of everything. And because He is the Creator, He orchestrated and is the architect of every situation you are in. Therefore, wait on the Lord. He will give you the strength. Wrap yourself around the everlasting God, around the Lord, the creator of that situation. Wrap yourself in him. Trust in him. And he will give you the strength that you need. And that's what it means to be strengthened. Those are imperatives, military terms. Be alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men. Be strengthened.

And then he says, and let all you do be done in love. There's the other side of the coin. One side of the coin says tenacity, tenaciousness. Flip it over, tenderness. Tenderness. It's the benevolence of one's masculinity. Let everything you do be done in love. You love the Lord God and you love the people of God. And so, therefore, as you stand firm, and as you act like a man, and as you are the kind of person who's awake and vigilant and being strengthened. Let everything you do be done in love. Isn't it interesting that the Lord God said, "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another." It doesn't say, "by this shall all men know that you're my disciples because you act like men, or because you stand firm, or because you're being strengthened, but because you have love one to another." Because that is the greatest commandment.

And this validates one's masculinity. That's how we live our lives. There's not a woman alive that doesn't want a man like that. Not one woman I've ever met that doesn't want a man like that. And that's the kind of men we need. That's how you measure manhood. He validates his masculinity. He lives what God says he needs to live. He's a doer of the word, not just a hearer of the word. And by the grace of Almighty God, we can accomplish what He puts before us. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for tonight, a chance to be together. For truly, Lord, you are a great God, and you alone are worthy of praise. I want to thank you, Father, for your word. It's so powerful. It's so clear. It is so lucid. It is so simple to understand. You put it in print for all of us to read. So many times we neglect it. But tonight, Father, as we've studied your word, we pray that you'd impress it upon our hearts. That we would be strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the men of our church, they would understand their responsibility. For the young men of our church who want to be adult men, that you'd help them understand what it is they're learning in these few lessons that we are together. For the women who are looking to marry a man one day, for women who are married to men and want their husbands to be men of God. May they bathe their husbands in prayer, bringing them before the throne of grace. And for every man that's here, may we be a doer of the word, that we might live for the glory of Christ. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.