The Role Of A Man

I'm going to talk to you today about the role of a man. It's going to be the first of two sermons in a series on gender roles.

Okay, so this the one in the late for the ladies you have to wait up next week or the week after so we'll hit it two weeks from now but two sermons on gender roles today's going to be

the role of a man. If you are a woman, don't tune out because it's good for the ladies to hear as well what the role of a man is to relate to men to understand

men to help men. Okay, so before we get into the role of man, why are gender roles important? Fourteen really quick points. Okay, number one

relevance. Okay, everyone's a man or a woman, right? So check. We're good. That includes everyone. Okay, two, God creates distinction for a purpose.

There's no distinction that is an accident. If God created it, it's not just coincidental, accidental happenstance. God doesn't do that.

God creates everything for a purpose. So he created two genders and there's a purpose for the genders.

Number three, the image of God. It says he created them in Genesis 1, 26 to 27. In the image of God, both male and female, he created them.

So creating in maleness and femaleness both display or image God. Okay, number four, it's built into the created order.

Almost every single verse that speaks of gender roles points back to Genesis 1 through 3. So it's right there baked into the beginning of the beginning.

And that's typically, if you look at a verse that's in the Bible, it's going to refer back to there. We'll see that as we talk about this today.

Number five, Satan took over through role distortion. All right? He got a woman doing a man's job and got a man doing the woman's job.

The man was following, the woman was leading, and he took over. And I don't think he stopped deploying those tactics since then. It worked pretty well.

Number six, Christ and the church. Okay? So Ephesians 5 talks about the role of a man and a woman in the context of marriage and says that this displays Christ's love for the church.

Christ's love for the church is extremely important. So those things being done the way they're supposed to be done,

there's typically implications to these things. This would be one of them, Christ and the church.

Number seven, God's will and his ways. All right? Everyone who's a Christian would say,

Oh, I want God's will, but do you want his ways? Hebrews 3.10 says that God was upset with Israel because they did not know his ways.

And coincidentally, if you do something that you think is what someone wants, but you don't do it the way they want,

you're essentially not doing what they want, right? So you can't really have his will without his way.

Number eight, family and children. When roles are distorted, it messes up the family order and it messes up children.

Okay? It causes things not to work the way they were supposed to work because God created them for a specific way.

Number nine, for the angels. 1 Corinthians 11 verse 10 talks about the distinctions between men and women,

1 Corinthians 11:10

talks about head coverings. You can look at those different things, but it says that the reason this is here is for the angels.

I'll let you guys dive into that and what that's all about, but there's a cosmic reality here.

Number 10, authority and responsibility. In order to function in authority, you have to know your responsibility.

If you don't know your responsibility, how can you execute your authority? So knowing your roles is important.

Number 11, confusion and confidence. Confusion about your role erodes your confidence in what you're supposed to do.

A lot of people lack confidence because they have confusion about what they're called to do.

Number 12, erosion of the truth. It goes, kind of the pattern of things is that once you start

compromising on scripture and distorting scripture when it comes to specific roles and start to say,

well, I'm going to elevate culture in what the world says over what the Bible says,

once that domino drops, many other drop behind it. You're going to compromise on the word there,

you're going to compromise on the word everywhere. Number 13, Titus 2 verse 5 talks about women

Titus 2:5

functioning in a certain way so that the word of God is not maligned. Okay, so it's for the word of God

not to be maligned. And then number 14, last one, abuse and overreaction. Okay, what ends up happening

is when people don't know their roles or they function outside of their roles and abuse the things

that they are supposed to do, it breeds overreaction, right? An overreaction either one way or the other

way, either in an aggressive opposite direction or in a passive kind of, you know, the other direction.

So those are 14 reasons why we would even talk about this, why they're important. You could throw a 15 or

15 reason and that would just be because everybody else is talking about in the world and they don't

have it right. We do. And you might say, what an arrogant thought. It's not arrogant if it's true.

And it is true and it's coming from the word of God. So I'm saying we have the truth, we have the

Bible, so let's talk about it. Amen? Okay, so that's the backdrop. Warning, this message will be a fire

hose of information. For those of you guys who did man camp, eight weeks on what a man is and how to act

like him, this will be all that condensed into one message. So just what I'm asking you to do is

don't try to write down every verse. You're probably not going to get there, but just take

in like the fire hose, the overview of the information and just receive it and just say,

okay, Lord, help me to be the man you want me to be and convict me where I'm not. Okay? And then

women, you can listen to say, all right, how can I help these men? How can I affirm these men? How can I

understand these men? Lord, help us. All right. We're talking about eight different roles of a man.

Number one, a man is confident. Man is confident. Do you think of any man that you respect,

it would be very rare that he would not be confident? All right. We intrinsically know

that a man should be confident. Men desired it in themselves and they respected it in other men.

We love masculine confidence, but the question is why? Why do we love masculine confidence?

And I would say because it's biblical. Every great man in the Bible was confident. Let's take a look

a little list here. First one, Jesus. Okay. Mark 1 22 says, they were astonished at his teaching for he

taught them as one who had authority. Okay. They were astonished by Jesus because he didn't teach

like the other men did. He had, he spoke of authority. Paul, Acts 28 31 in the New King James says,

preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things that concern the Lord Jesus Christ

with all confidence. Paul preached with confidence. Uh, Peter in Acts chapter three,

this is post him denying Christ three times. Uh, something happens in between what he gets filled

with the spirit. And then it's a completely different story for Peter. He literally preaches

to the same people that crucified Jesus and says, you killed the author of life. Remember,

this is the guy who was saying he didn't even know him. Now he's confidently saying you killed

the author of life. That's bold. Let's go old Testament. What about David? David in first Samuel,

uh, he comes up to Goliath. He says, your servant has struck down both lions and bears

and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them for he has defied the armies of the living

God. David said, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will

deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. Then David said to the Philistine, you come to me with

sword and with spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts,

the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied this day, the Lord will deliver you into

my hand and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host

of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the

earth may know that there is a God in Israel and that in all this assembly may know that the Lord

saves, not with sword and spear, but the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand.

I know Goliath called him a dog. I don't think he realized what kind of dog he was calling him.

Typically, I mean, he was definitely a dog the way he spoke, right? He was confident, right? I mean,

the way he speaks to Goliath, you're thinking, this guy's perhaps a teenager maybe when he's doing

this. This is unbelievable, okay? But it's masculine confidence. This is what allowed David to be the kind

leader he was going to be. Psalm 27, it says, Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Though an army camp against me,

my heart shall not fear. The war rise against me, yet I will be confident. Right? Joshua and Caleb,

same thing. They go to the land, they spout the land that the Lord has given them. They say, hey,

this is a good land. And then they say to everybody, do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the

people of the land. For they are bred for us. Their protection is removed for them. And the Lord

is with them. Do not fear. The Lord is with us. Do not fear them. Everybody else was crying and

saying, God sent us here to die. And they confidently said, no, the Lord is giving us this.

Daniel, when he goes to the, to the, what would it be? The emperor, I guess, to the king, he says,

no wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has

asked. But there's a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. And he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar

what will be in the latter days. Confidently saying, hey, many of your guys can do this.

But those who hear the word of the Lord, those who have God as their God, they will,

they will be able to do this. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, same thing. They're going to go to

the fiery furnace and say, he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you,

O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.

Confidence, masculine confidence. John the Baptist confronting Herod. Elijah mocking the prophets of

Baal and saying, hey, go, you know, go put some wood over there. Let's dig a trench around it, fill

the trench with water, pour some water on top of it. I'm confident that my God will come through.

Daniel refusing to stop praying. And they said, hey, if you keep praying, you're going to be

thrown in the lion's den, keeps praying. Paul, after being stoned, I believe it was in either

in Lystra or Derby, he gets stoned. They think he's dead. The stoning was so bad, they think he was

dead. He eventually gets up and guess where he goes? He goes back there. He goes back. He goes to

the city that stoned him. I love that. That's one of my favorite stories about Paul, little known story.

The same city he was stoned and he went back. What is that? Masculine confidence. Masculine

confidence. Are you a confident man, man? Are you confident? Do you have the kind of confidence

these guys had? It's not that they mustered it up. It's that they had the spirit of God. They knew

their God and they were unashamed. It looks like being at rest. It looks like having nothing to prove.

It looks like being secure, not cocky. Free to lose because everything you have in Christ,

you're free to lose everywhere else. Free to fail because your identity is no longer in your success.

It looks like weight, presence, stature, and authority. Proverbs 14, 26 says, in the fear of

the Lord, one has strong confidence. Man, are you confident? Number two, a man is responsible.

Okay, a man is responsible. God calls men to be responsible. There's no such thing as responsibility

without action. So consequently, a man is called to be responsible and active. Definition of responsible

is liable, accountable, answerable, the ability to respond, or the ability to act. Active means engaged

in action or characterized by action. Man, are you characterized by action? Some men are characterized

by inaction. What's the verses for this? Genesis 3, 9. The Lord God called to the man and said,

where are you? So after they had sinned, you think, well, who's the one who sinned? Wasn't that Eve?

Eve's the one who gave Adam the fruit, right? But who does God go looking for? Who does God call out?

He says, the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? Was it that God lost his

creation? Adam, where is that guy? I always lose him, you know? No, he knew where he was. He knew where he was.

He's saying, where are you? Because Adam wasn't self-aware of what was going on. And said, it's like,

Adam, where are you? What are you doing? Where are you at? Do you realize I put you in charge of the

garden? I put you there to guard the garden? You just let the ancient serpent, the dragon, get into

the garden and have a coup here, essentially? Where are you? God came looking for Adam. God called him out.

Okay? Romans 5.12, same thing. You would say, well, sin came into the world through what? One woman,

right? No. Romans 5.12 says, sin came into the world through one man. God held the man responsible.

You see that? Job 38, verse 3, God is about to speak to Job. You know, we have the, you know, Job,

Job 38:3

there's this back and forth between his counselors and him, and then all of a sudden God speaks.

And the thing that he says to Job is, dress for action like a man. Okay? When God speaks and says

there's a way that a man acts, we should listen. And he just did. He said, a man, he dresses for action

like a man. That's what men do. They dress for action. They're ready to go. They're ready to act.

They're ready to act upon what needs to be done in a given point in time. Dress for action like a man.

Men, are you dressed for action? You dress for action. Luke 12.35 says, stay dressed for action

and be like men. 1 Corinthians 16.13 says, act like men. There's a way that a man acts.

There's a way that a man should act, according to the Bible. You see from these scriptures that a man

is marked by both responsibility and action. Doug Wilson says, masculinity is the glad assumption

sacrificial responsibility. General George S. Patton said, duty is the essence of manhood. Okay? Duty is

the essence of manhood. And really, you can kind of break this down to kind of three types of guys

that can respond to this. One would be a worthless man who acts like a boy, not accepting responsibility

or taking action. You might say, how could you call someone worthless? I'm just quoting scripture.

1 Samuel 2.12 says, the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord.

Jeremiah 2.5 says, thus says the Lord, what wrong did your fathers find in me? For they went far from me

and went after worthlessness and became worthless. Okay? So there is a worthless man. It's a man who

doesn't take responsibility, doesn't accept responsibility. He doesn't take action. He avoids

growing up. Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13, when I was a child, I thought like a child. I reasoned

like a child. I acted like a child. When I was a man, I gave up childish ways. Men give up childish

ways. Okay? They don't avoid responsibility and accountability. They're not blaming Eve. They're

not blaming the woman. They're not blaming God. You know, Adam, he blamed Eve. He said, it was that

woman he gave to me. He blamed the devil and he blamed God, that woman whom you gave to me. It's your

fault. You gave me that woman. Instead of taking responsibility, he was blaming everybody else

and saying it's not his fault. Just because it's not your fault doesn't mean it's not your

responsibility. Men and women have an equal capacity to be at fault. Fault knows no gender,

but God holds men more responsible, more accountable. One of the most damning verses in the Bible is

Genesis 3.6. It says, and Adam who was with her. Okay? Passive inaction. Right? But you might say,

but I'm not that. I'm more the grown-up complacent man. And this is the kind of man who is,

I go this far, but no more. Manhood with selfish limits. Okay? Manhood with selfish limits. I have

this kind of, you know, look of being responsible and I do certain things. I'm reliable in certain

areas, but there's just some things I won't do. And I'll only go so far. This is not also the man

that God wants us to be. God wants us to be mature men. Ephesians 4.13 talks about the

church rising to mature manhood. Is your manhood mature? Are you very responsible? Are you a go-getter?

Are you taking extreme ownership? You can handle more weight. You know why? Because you're a man.

If you're a man, you can handle more weight. Those shoulders he gave you, those broad shoulders were

given to you for a reason. They were given to carry weight. Men, are you responsible? Are you taking

action where you need to take action? Number three, the man is strong. Man is strong. God calls

men to be strong and courageous. Mighty men of valor, full of vigor. Okay? 1 Kings 2, verse 2.

1 Kings 2:2

This is David's about to die. So this is final words of David to his son Solomon. What does he say?

He says, I'm about to go the way of all the earth. And then this is what he says to Solomon.

Be strong and show yourself a man. Be strong and show yourself a man. When you're a man,

it shows. How does it show? Strength. Men are strong. 1 Corinthians 16.13 says, act like men,

be strong. Okay? How does man act? With strength. In fact, one of the things that was kind of looked

upon as a noble thing was David's men. What was David's men called? Didn't say David's men.

David's mighty men, right? David's mighty men. These guys were strong. They were men.

We look at the men at Christ's church and say, hey, these are mighty men. These are mighty men.

Joshua 8.3 says, Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out. And Gideon,

when the angel comes to Gideon in Judges 6, he calls him the mighty man of valor. What's valor mean?

Valor is strength of mind or spirit that enables a person to encounter danger with firmness or courage.

Okay? You can't separate strength from courage. They go hand in hand. And biblically, they do too.

You see, over and over and over again, the Bible says, be strong and courageous. Take courage

and be men, 1 Samuel 4 says. 2 Samuel 10 in the KJV says, be of good courage and let us play the men

for our people and for the cities of our God. Courage is strength in action. All right? Courage

is brave action in the face of adversity, danger, sacrifice, or risk. The more danger, the more

adversity, the more risk, the more sacrifice involved in the action, the more courageous it is.

Franklin D. Roosevelt said, courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that

something else is more important than fear. That's what a courageous man says. He says, yeah,

I'm afraid, but there's something more important than my fear, and I'm going to prioritize that.

I refuse to be inactive. I'm going to have strong courage in the face of adversity.

Winston Churchill said, courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it's the

quality which guarantees all the others. Deuteronomy 34, 7 says, Moses was 120 years old when he died.

His eye was undimmed and his vigor unabated. What does vigor mean? Vigor means active strength,

energy, or force, enthusiasm, intensity. It's strength in motion, strength being expressed,

strength in use. Okay? It's awesome when you see Moses, same thing with Caleb. Caleb was also said,

when Caleb was 80 years old. He says, behold this day, or 85. He says, behold this day, this is Joshua 14.

I am this day 85 years old. I'm still as strong today as I was on that day when Moses sent me.

My strength now is as my strength was then for war and going and coming. He says, so now give me this

hill country for which the Lord spoke on that day. For you heard on that day how the Anakim were there.

That's like the giants, right? With great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord God

will be with me and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said. So he's 85. He says, I feel just

like I did when I was a spry young 40 something year old. Those are in your 40s. They're like, I don't

feel spry young. I'm with you there. But you know, Caleb's like, I'm 85. I'm good to go. Not only I want the

land with the giants in it and I want the land with the mountain in it. That's what I want. All right.

I mean, I've been waiting a long time. I've been waiting on the Lord. I trusted him and he was full

of vigor, full of vigor. I want to be that way when I'm older. When we see an older man, you just say,

this guy's full of vigor. He's full of strength. A different kind of strength at that point, but man,

it's strong. Now you might think, well, is strength distinctly masculine? No, it's not. We'll talk about

that in a couple of weeks. It's also feminine. Strength isn't distinctly masculine, but there's a

different, there's a definite difference between masculine strength and feminine strength. Okay.

One of the most definitive differences between men and women is physical strength. Okay. One author

put it this way. Strength is not an arbitrary value assigned by human cultures. Increased strength is

one of the fundamental biological differences between males and females. Aside from basic reproductive

plumbing, greater strength is one of the most prominent, historically consequential, and consistently

measurable physical differences between men and women. Okay. It's fashionable today to put the word

weaker in quotations when you're speaking about women to avoid offending women when they are referred

to as the weaker sex. Quotation marks will not alter the basic human truth that men are still on average

significantly physically stronger than women. Serious people should be able to admit that something is

generally true when it is a verifiable fact. There's no good reason to be coy about it. Okay. There's no

human culture where men who are weak are considered manlier, while women who are muscular are considered

more womanly. This is just, this is just true. Right. It just, it passes the sniff test. You know that you can

see that by using your own eyes. It's almost inconceivable to mistake an extremely muscular man

for a woman. Right. And it's, and it's extremely easy to mistake an extremely muscular woman as a man.

God has very obviously made men overall to be characterized by strength. And this points to the

rule. First Peter 3, 7 refers to a woman as the weaker vessel for a reason, because God made men

to be characterized by greater strength than women. Men, are you strong? Are you courageous?

Are you strong and courageous? Do you have courage in the face of adversity? Are you characterized by

strength? Not just physical, but strong leadership, strong confidence, strong action. Number four,

a man is the glory of God. Man is the glory of God. Genesis 5, 1. Notice every single one of these

we're starting in Genesis. It's all going back to Genesis. Genesis 5, 1 says, when God created man,

he made him in the likeness of God. First Corinthians 11 says, 11, 7 says that man is the image and glory

of God. And that woman is the glory of man. So man is the glory of God. Men were created to display

or radiate God's glory. But when Adam sinned, we fell short. Okay. We traded glory,

glory for dishonor, glory for disgrace. Sin tarnishes the glory of God. It distorts it. It hides it.

Romans 3, 23 says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 1, 22 to 24 says,

claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images,

resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in the

lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. You see what

happens here? As soon as glory is exchanged, the result is lust. The result is lust. That is the,

that is the, God makes man in his glory. Man distorts and perverts that glory. And the result is lust.

All right. This is why 1 Corinthians 6 says, the body is not meant for sexual immorality,

but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his

power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of,

members of Christ to make the members of a prostitute? Never. Or do you know that he who is

joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is written, the two shall become one flesh.

But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality.

Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person

sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,

whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So,

so he says all this about sexual immorality. What's the final word he says at the end of it?

So glorify God with your body. You see how this works? Glorifying God with your body is sexual

purity. Not acting like the glory of God is sexual perversion and sin and immorality.

Proverbs 6, 32 to 33 says,

He who commits adultery lacks sense. He who does it destroys himself. He will get wounds and dishonor,

and his disgrace will not be wiped away. It's a disgraceful use of the body to engage in sexual sin.

God made men both glorious, as we talked about last week, and strong. Okay? Sorry, not last week,

as I just talked about the last point. The glory of young men is their strength, it says in Proverbs 20,

Proverbs 20:29

verse 29. The glory of young men is their strength. Do you see that? Being strong in the area of sexual

temptation. Or you could be like Samson, who gave away his strength and honor to the forbidden woman,

always thinking he could get as close as possible, near to the door of her house, and that he could

just break himself as free as he always had. Right? Going close to the lips of the forbidden woman,

dripping honey, her speech is smoother than oil, Proverbs 5 says. But in the end, she is bitter as wormwood,

sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to the death. Her steps follow the path to Sheol.

It says, keep your weight away from her. Do not go near the door of her house. So many men think,

oh, I could just go near. It's not that big of a deal. I'll just get as close as possible. It's not

that big of a deal. Lest you give your honor to others, or your glory to others, and your years to

the merciless. Lest strangers take their fill of your strength. Proverbs 7, 26 says, she, the forbidden

woman, has cast down many wounded, and all who were slain by her were strong men. Do you see how the

forbidden woman steals the strength of the man? Proverbs 31, 3 says, don't give your strength to

the woman, your ways to those who destroy kings. Don't give your strength. You're not supposed to go to

her. Give her your strength. Try to get her strength from you. A lot of men, they go to pornography and

lust as a counterfeit grace, because she's always there for you. She never turns you down. She doesn't

criticize you. She always looks great. It's a counterfeit grace. Undeserved experience. It's not

the real deal. You can get grace from God. 1 Thessalonians 4, 3 to 5 says, for this is the will of God,

your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know,

to control his own body in holiness and honor, not the passion of lust, like the Gentiles do not

know God. Men who are the glory of God, they're seeking to say, their mantra, their chant, it is

holiness and honor. I'm living for holiness and honor. I will not look lustfully on a woman,

but I will stand up for holiness and for honor. One thing that's really important for this is to look,

is to know the difference between lust and attraction, because men get confused on this. I want to just hit

that real quickly here. Lust is primarily strong, intense sexual desire. Attraction notices and

appreciates beauty. Lust wants or takes or possesses or consumes. Attraction admires. Lust is body-centric,

so body and or body parts. Attraction involves the whole person, characters, values. Lust says,

I want you for me. Attraction says, I admire you for you. Lust objectifies. Attraction personifies and

humanizes. Lust is sexual desire divorced from marriage and procreation. Lust determines a person's

value exclusively on sexual terms. Attraction determines a person's value based on their full

humanity. Lust reduces the other person to an object of consumption. Attraction sees someone

as a human to connect with. Lust is self-focused. Attraction is other-focused. Lust is hard to move

on from. Attraction is noted and moved on from. Do you see the difference between the two? Very

important to know the difference, so that you're not condemned for things you're not doing, and so that

you can resist these things. Men, are you a glorious man or a disgraceful man? A glorious man living,

controlling their bodies in holiness and honor. Number five, a man is a fighter. Men are fighters,

protectors, guardians, warriors. They're called the guard, protect, keep watch. In Genesis 1, 26,

says, God said to them, let them have dominion over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth,

which, by the way, included talking snakes. Right? He missed that one, right? He said,

have dominion over every creepy thing. What's creepier than a talking snake telling you,

asking the question, did God really say that? That's creepy, right? That's what they had,

that's what they had authority over. Adam abdicated that one, okay? Genesis 2, 15, in the Amplified,

says, the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to guard it. That same word that's

used guard right there. It's translated keep in the ESV. It's the same word that's in Genesis 3, 24.

After God drove out the man and the woman out of the Garden, the east of the Garden of Eden,

he placed the chair of him in a flaming sword that turned every way to what? To guard the way

to the tree of life. That same word, to guard, is the word that he told, hey, you're supposed to do

this to the garden. You're supposed to do the same thing the angel was doing. Instead, he let a

fire-breathing dragon get in there, right? The opposite of what he's supposed to do.

There's also the same word that's used when David sneaks into the camp while they were sleeping and

takes Saul's spear in a jar of water. Remember this story? 1 Samuel 26, David says to Abner,

are you not a man? Why then have you not kept watch over the Lord your king? Kept watch is that same

word. For one of the people came in to destroy the king your Lord. This thing you have done is not

good. As the Lord lives, you deserve to die because you have not kept watch over your Lord,

the Lord's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is in the jar of water that was at his head.

Okay, other versions use protect or guard for that. This is what a man is called to do.

1 Corinthians 16, 13 says, be watchful, stand firm in faith, act like men. Be watchful, guard, look out.

Man is a fighter. 1 Samuel 4, 9 says, Philistines were going into battle against Israel and said,

be men and fight. Be men and fight. And Isaiah 19, 16 says, in that day, the Egyptians will be like

women and tremble with fear before the hand that the Lord of hosts shakes over them.

Jeremiah 51, 30 says, the warriors of Babylon have ceased fighting. They remain in their strongholds.

Their strength has failed. They have become women. This is essentially saying that someone who has ceased

fighting is like a woman because men have a unique role to be fighters in battle that way.

Okay, do you see that? Men are called to be warriors. Dorothy Sayers says, we have declawed the line of Judah

and made him into a household, a house cat for pale priests and pious old ladies.

All right, this isn't the God we're supposed to be serving. In fact, Exodus 15, 3 says, the Lord is a man of war.

Lord is a man of war. Genesis 1, 27 says, God created man in his own image. We're created in the image of the man of war.

It said of David that he was a man of war. And what did David do? David was a man of war. It says that right hand,

1 Samuel. But then in 2 Samuel, this man of war, quote unquote, at the time when kings went off to battle,

what did David do? Stayed home. Stayed home. And this is what happens when men abdicate their role to be

fighters, protectors, guardians, providers. When they stop doing this, they end up getting themselves into trouble

because they're outside of the role. All right. Kings go out to battle. Mighty men, mighty warriors,

men of valor. 1 Samuel 10, 26 says, men of valor whose hearts got it touched. What a great phrase,

right? Men of valor whose hearts got it touched. We're in a battle with a real enemy.

Men, are you fighters? Are you fighting for the things you're supposed to be fighting for? Have you

gone passive? At the time when kings go out to war, are you staying home and doing other things?

Feed your flesh. Number six, a man is a worker. Man is a worker. Man's a cultivator. Man is a provider.

Where does the Bible directly say this? Well, Genesis 1, 28. God blessed them and God said to them,

be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion. Okay. So this speaks of his

cultivations working. Genesis 2, 5 says, when no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of

the field had yet sprung up, the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land and there was no man

to work the ground. Then Genesis 2, 15, 10 verses later says, the Lord God took the man, put him in

the garden of Eden for what? To work it, to work it and keep it. Genesis 2, 15, before fall or after

the fall? Before. Work isn't a result of the fall. Work existed before the fall. He created the world

to be worked. Created the world to be worked and he created men to be workers. Some people mistake.

They say, oh no, no, no, work, that was the result of the fall. No, it being toilsome and

revolting against him. That was the result of the fall. Men are called to work.

And then ASB in Genesis 2, 15 says to cultivate it, keep it, cultivate. You think of cultivating

soil. You're working the soil. You're, you're causing it to be more fruitful. You're breaking

up hard ground. FYI, the man got a job before he got a woman. Just saying there. Okay.

Got a job before he got a woman.

What's, what's the definition of work? Sustained physical or mental effort exerted to achieve a

result. Man, are you workers? Cultivate's definition is to nurture and foster the growth

of something. Examples would be a quality, a character, a garden, to improve by labor, care,

or study. So you're cultivating the different gardens of your life, man. We all have different

gardens of our life. Are you cultivating them? Where does the Bible indirectly talk about

this? Oh, man and woman were created from and for. So Genesis 2, 7 says the Lord God formed the man

of dust from the ground. And then Genesis 2, 22 says the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man,

he made into a woman. Okay. So 1 Corinthians 11 points to these things. It says man was not made from

woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. Zachary Garris says man

came from the ground and his labor is directed toward the ground. Woman came from the man and her labor is

directed toward the man. From the ground, for the ground. From the man, for the man. Okay.

Doug Wilson says the man was created for the garden and the woman was created for the gardener.

He was created for the mission. She was created to help the missionary. You see this? How about how the

man and the woman were cursed? Does that speak to that role? Yes. Genesis 3, 16. And he pronounces the

curse to the woman. He says, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing. In pain, you shall bring forth

children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband and he shall rule over you. So he curses

her childbearing and her relationship to her husband, speaking of her role. Right? Then what does he

quote? Then how does he curse Adam in the next verse? To Adam, he says, because you've listened to the voice

of your wife. In other words, because you followed her instead of leading her. Because you've listened

to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you. You shall not eat of it.

But cursed is the ground because of you. In pain, you shall eat of it. All that is your life. Thorns

and thistles, it shall bring forth for you. You shall eat of the plants of the field. By the sweat

of your face, you shall eat bread. Okay? So you're seeing he cursed the ground because that's the role

of the man. You work it. You work the ground. The specific things God cursed in Genesis 3 point to the

specific roles for the man and the woman. He cursed the woman's childbearing and the man's work. Work was God's

original design. It was given before the fall, not as a result of the fall.

Men, are you a worker? Are you working hard? Are you characterized by hard work? And not just at

your job. That's cool you do at your job, but are you characterized by hard work and cultivation at

home? Or do you let your wife do everything? Okay? Or are you someone who's doing everything for your

wife and not cultivating the garden of your wife to make her a strong woman? And for her to be

a woman who can handle a lot. Are you taking that garden? Are you just saying, no, I'm a strong man.

That means I do everything. My wife doesn't do anything. No, that's not strength. Okay? It's

cultivation. It's working hard in all the different jurisdictions. It's at work. It's at home. It's with

the kids. It's with your wife. It's as a single man, really cultivating the kind of manhood that would

attract the kind of woman that you would want to marry. Okay? Or your worker. Number seven, man is a leader.

Man is a leader. Man is a leader. Men were created to rule. Okay? I got eight different

reasons that this is here. Number one, man was created first. Okay? God created man,

and then he created woman. And 1 Timothy 2.13 says, I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise

authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain quiet. Why? Because of Ephesus? Because of the culture?

Because of what they had going on there? No. Just read the text. You don't have to read anything

into it. Just read it. Why? For Adam was formed first, then Eve. That's the reason. You don't have to

come up with the reason. The reason's already there. Goes back to the garden. All points back to the garden.

So the reason that he doesn't permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man is because

Adam was formed first, then Eve. That created order matters. Okay? Number two, woman was created from man.

1 Corinthians 11.7-8 says, woman is the glory of man. For man was not made from woman, but woman

from man. Okay? Three, woman was created for man. Genesis 2.18. Lord God said, it is not good that the

man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. The reason the female gender exists right

here is to say is for men. Okay? That makes a difference in how you view that gender. Say, oh, this gender

was put here for men. 1 Corinthians 11.9 says, neither was man created for woman, but woman for men.

Number four, man named a woman. Okay? Genesis 2.23. Then the man said, you shall be called woman,

because she was taken out of man. Then in Genesis 3.20, the man called his wife's name Eve,

because she was the mother of all living. Any of you parents here, I would assume you've never named

anyone else's kids. Right? And that would be weird if you did, because you have no authority over

their kids. You can't name them. When someone is naming both the gender and the woman herself,

this speaks of the authority that the man has. Okay? You can't name someone just arbitrarily. You

can only name, we don't think it's weird when parents name their kids. They do it because they

have genuine God-given authority to do such. In the same way, we see the authority here that a man has

in his home. Number five, the curse. Genesis 3.17, Adam said, because you listened to the voice of

your wife. He was cursed because he was out of order and he wasn't listening. He wasn't leading.

He was following. Okay? That's why that happened. Number six, Old Testament law. It says,

if a daughter makes a vow while within her father's house in her youth that her father opposes,

no pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. If a wife makes a vow that her husband

opposes, then he makes void for a vow that was on her. Okay? This speaks of men's authority.

Headship, number seven. First Corinthians 11.3 says, I want you to understand that the head of every

man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. Well, it depends what

you mean about headship. I agree. Let's look at the rest. Ephesians 5.22-24, wives, submit to your

own husbands as to the Lord. That's some pretty significant submission there. As to the Lord.

For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. How is he the

head? In the same way that Christ is head of the church. There's no ambiguity about what kind of

headship this is. It's fairly clear. Just as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself

its Savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their

husbands. In everything. That's pretty pervasive. And then number eight, the overwhelming narrative

of Scripture. Old Testament, all the patriarchs, men, the 12 tribes led by men, all the judges except

for Deborah are men, right? The kings, there's only one queen who ruled and she was an evil queen.

That was Ataliah. All the elders in the Old Testament were men. All the priests were men.

All the psalmists were men. New Testament, Jesus, someone who's not kowtowing to the culture and

afraid to ruffle some feathers, he chooses 12 apostles. What does he choose? Men. When one of them

kills himself and has to be replaced, it says, choose a man. Okay? The other apostles were men.

All the church elders, you see, what are the church elders? They're men. Okay? Old and New Testament,

all written by men, right? Because a man's role to lead is rooted in creation, it stands that he

is created to lead everywhere, not just in church and home. Not just in church and home. Zachary

Gareth says, the attempt to limit gender roles to the home and church is dualistic, in that it pits

pits the religious against the secular. But God designed men to be men in all of life, and he has

designed women to be women in all of life, in the home, church, and society. Women do not get to act

like men just because they have stepped outside of the home into a broader society. A woman takes her

womanly nature with her wherever she goes, and a man takes his manly nature with him wherever he goes.

Okay? Our culture is drifting further and further from male leadership, but as Jesus said in Matthew 19,

8, it wasn't this way from the beginning. It wasn't this way from the beginning. God created men to lead

everywhere. Not just in the home and church, but in business and government as well. These are the

default settings in the garden, not just by demand, but by design. Not just by command, but by creation.

Okay? Men, are you a leader? Are you leading? Are you leading everywhere? Are you leading just in some

places and abdicating other places? Number eight, last one, a man is self-sacrificing. A man is

self-sacrificial because of the ultimate example of self-sacrificial masculinity, which is Jesus.

Jesus. Right? Even in the proto-evangelium, in the beginning, the first presentation of the gospel

in Genesis, it's the promise of what? Messianic sacrifice. Genesis 3.15 in the NID says,

I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head,

and you will strike his heel. Jesus, the self-sacrificial skull crusher. Right? Jesus,

the highly exalted man with the name above all names because of his sacrifice.

Philippians 2.3.9 says, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others

more significant than yourselves. But you should look not only to his own interests, but also to the

interests of others. Have this in mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who,

though he was in the form of God, did not account equality with God a thing to be grasped, but

emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of man and being found

in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a

cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,

the highly exalted man with the name above all names because of his sacrifice.

Jesus is the ultimate example. He said in John 10, when he's talking to his disciples, he said,

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Okay? He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd,

who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snashes

him and scatters him. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

I'm a good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the

Father, and I lay my life down for the sheep. This is the ultimate example of Jesus. And we should

follow and imitate his example. Ephesians 5 says, Be imitators of God. Okay? As Christ loved us and

gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. He says, imitate that. Imitate

the self-sacrificial nature of Jesus. Men should sacrifice. Women shouldn't have to, one of the things

that women struggle with the most with men is believing that they love, a woman has a hard

time believing in a lot of men that she is loved, that the man loves her more than himself.

The man loves her more than himself. If we're not marked by self-sacrifice, we'll put that question

in the women in our life and we shouldn't. But we all have at some point in time. Maybe we are now.

What can we do to change that? What can we do to change that? Ephesians 5 says, Husband,

love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Sacrifice. 1 Peter 2.21,

Christ also suffered for you, leaving you examples that you might know and follow his steps. 1 John 3.16,

By this we know, love, that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our life for the

brothers. Okay? Joe B. Martin says, Jesus didn't blame, he bled. He didn't blame, he bled. He's not

blaming, he's not abdicating, he's not making excuses. He's just bleeding. He's just taking

sacrifice. He's just taking on responsibility through sacrifice. This is masculinity. The man is

self-sacrificial because every attribute of manliness that we just talked about requires self-sacrifice.

To be confident, you need self-sacrifice. Responsible and active, self-sacrifice. Strong,

courageous, self-sacrifice. To be the glory of God, self-sacrifice. A fighter, must sacrifice. To be a

worker, of course, sacrifice. To be a leader, sacrifice. Every single manly attribute requires

self-sacrifice. A man is self-sacrificial because it's the greatest love. He said in John 15.13,

Greater love is known than this, that someone laid down his life for his friends. Laying down your life

is the greatest love. If a man's going to love, well, he's going to have to lay down his life.

And a man is self-sacrificial because selfishness is the enemy of all things masculine.

The opposite of self-sacrifice is selfishness. Self-preservation, self-seeking, self-absorption,

being stingy, being cheap. Mark 8.35 says, whoever will save his life, will lose it. Whoever loses

his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. We need men who are self-sacrificial. These are

the masculine men that Jesus is talking about. So, that was a fire hose. I told you it was. Man is

confident. Be confident, man. Man is responsible. Man is strong. Man is the glory of God. Man is a

fighter. Man is a worker. Man is a leader. Man is self-sacrificing. And guess what? None of us can

do that on our own. None of us. I hope you're super overwhelmed by everything I just said,

and it leads you into the arms of Jesus, because Jesus is all these things. Jesus is every single

one of those things. And when you die to yourself, realize, I can't be the man that God's called me.

I'm going to give up trying. I'm going to give up trying to carry this cross that only Jesus can bear

and try to be something. Try to just be better. Be the man. This is, if you're hearing me and

thinking, this guy, he just wants us to be better. Just be better. Okay, thanks, man. That's great.

I just need to be better. No, don't be better. I'm telling you, you should feel a sense of weight

right now, man, and just think, oh, good grief. I'm not better. I'm bad, right? But I got good news for

you. All these things I said, Jesus is. And when we die to ourselves, it's no longer we who live,

but Christ who lives through us. The masculine man, Christ Jesus, lives through us and lives out

these things for the wives in our lives, for the children in our lives, for sisters in our lives,

mothers in our lives. God gives us these things for other brothers in our lives. God gives us these

things in Christ. In Christ. That's the key. So if you're overwhelmed by this in one sense, good.

Good. Good. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. Say, God, make me the man that I need to be by your grace.

Not by my own effort, but by your grace. Amen? Amen.