Masculine Christianity

Introduction

I want to take you this morning to the beginning. If you’ll turn in your Bibles with me, particularly your old testaments to the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter one.

Anything worthwhile, anything that’s going to last has a foundation. Jesus taught that in a parable, did he not? The idea and the need for a rock solid foundation for something to stand. God’s laws, God’s dealing with man has a foundation. And I believe that foundation is Genesis chapters one, two, and three. Everything that God does with man really springs out of these first three chapters, does it not? If we look at them in reverse order, the rest of the Bible deals with the issues of Genesis three, the problem of sin, and of the separation between man and God, the rest of the Bible, Genesis four to the end of the book of Revelation, is dealing with that sin problem. And then God’s foundational relationship to man is based upon the first two chapters of God’s creation of man.

We read in Genesis chapter 1, look at verse twenty six beginning. Then God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created them, male and female, he created them. So much springs out of those foundational verses. First of all, that God is the creator. In a sense, God is the creator, he and he alone gets to speak. He and he alone gets to decide what his creation should be like and should do.

And for no other reason, if for no other reason, he gets to dictate life and law because he is our creator. But also foundational in this is the idea that he created male and female. That is foundational to our understanding about not only our relationships to God, but our relationship to one another. Starting this morning, I want to do a two part series. We don’t do a whole lot of series here, but I want to do a two-part series that’ll be separated somewhat because we’ve got a gospel meeting coming up next week. I hope you’re planning for that. After that, I’ll be speaking again at the 9 a.m. hour, and I’ll have a follow-up lesson to this one. But this morning’s lesson is simply entitled Masculine Christianity.

1. The World Is Trying to Confuse Us

What does it mean if God created male and female, if he created men and women, what does it mean to be a man? As God would have it, as we would have it if we’re to be Christian. And this lesson, and the one that will follow will be addressed to women, is going to be a rallying call, really, for us to go back to the foundational beginnings of God, because God is the one and He alone that gets to say how things ought to be. And to what it really means to be a man, more importantly, what it means to be a Christian man. Sadly, we have to start with this premise is that the world is trying to confuse us. To a great extent, the world has confused us, hasn’t it?

The world ridicules biblical mandates for marriage, for the roles of men and women, and for man’s God given role, have been just ridicule. If you want to be laughed out in any public setting, stand up and defend God’s plan for marriage. God’s plan for the roles of men and women in marriage and in society and in the church. You’ll be called every name under the sun, and you’ll be ridiculed for standing up for what God, our Creator, said should be the way that men and women conduct themselves in the relationships. This ridiculing, this is sometimes it’s subtle, sometimes it is terribly overt. Some of the subtle forms, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, if you watch much television, and I’d advise you maybe not to watch much television or television or movies, you’ve seen a shift.

If you go back to the black and white days, the more traditional days, you saw that men, husbands, and fathers were portrayed in a certain way. And if you watch modern day television, you’ll see that men, husbands and fathers are portrayed in a far different way. It would be challenging for you to find a modern day sitcom in which the husband and father wasn’t an absolute buffoon who knows nothing, can do nothing. And I know maybe it makes for good comedy. But it seems to me that it’s a subtle, maybe not so subtle attempt at undermining the role of men in our society. When you add to that the ridiculing, the ever increasing promotion and acceptance of homosexuality and the ridiculous blurring of gender lines. All of this either has as its goal or has as a happy happenstance result of the absolutely eradicating of God’s plan for the family, God’s plan for the roles of men and women.

2. God Made Us Different on Purpose

And the world is seeking to diminish the leadership role of man. Again, just to utter those words opens you up to ridicule in today’s society. And so the world is trying to do two things. Number one is to absolutely confuse us, to confuse the rest of mankind as to what should be the roles of men and women in society, and then secondly, to try to belittle and quiet any who would stand up for what God would have us to believe and what God would have us to practice. But we need to understand that in Genesis chapter one and really throughout the scriptures and throughout mankind, that God made us different. And He made us different on purpose. Here’s a news flash for you. Men and women are different.

You chuckle at that, but much of this world would not accept that premise. As ridiculous as that may seem, much of the world would not accept the premise that men and women are different. But we are. We’re different physically, we’re different emotionally, we’re different mentally. In just about every way imaginable, men and women are different. Ask any married couple that’s been married for more than 24 hours. And if we’re honest about these differences, that many times, particularly in the marriage relationship, this is the source of friction, isn’t it? Because we don’t see things the same way. And that causes us sometimes to butt heads in that relationship. If you could just think the way that I think and use the words the way men and women are so different, though we speak the same English language, we mean different things by the exact same words, don’t we?

And if you could just think the way that I think and see things the way that I see things and talk the way that I talk and get upset at the things that I get upset at and see as silly the things I see as silly, then we wouldn’t butt heads in this marriage relationship, would we? And so we see sometimes this is a source of conflict. Because we recognize that men and women are different. But what we need to recognize is that what many times we see as a source of difficulty and conflict is what God intended to bring together in this relationship those who would see things differently and do things differently. And the whole point of this is that God did this on purpose.

We understand this about our all-wise and all powerful God, that he doesn’t do mistakes, and he doesn’t do things by accident. He made us different.

Yes, sometimes to frustrate, but more importantly, he put them together to complement one another, to bring what was lacking. And he did that on purpose. And so when we try to either blur the lines of distinction between male and female, or we trying to belittle that difference, we are contradicting the purpose of God. God did it this way on purpose. And why did he do that? Well, he did that that way because we have different roles to perform. He made man with certain strengths because he gave man certain roles to perform in that relationship and in his kingdom and in the world in general. He made women the way he made women. Because he gave them roles to perform, and he suited them for that purpose.

And let’s understand this, that that a distinction, a difference, is not talking about superiority. Let’s illustrate it this way. Which is better? A shovel or a rake? Well, you would say, well, it depends. What are you trying to do? Are you trying to accumulate leaves in your yard to put them out in a pile? Then the shovel’s not the best tool for that job. Are you trying to dig a hole to plant a tree? Then the rake’s not the best. You see, the idea of difference has nothing to do with one being better than the other. It has simply to do with one is suited for a particular job. I want us to get that concept out of our mind that because God gave men and women different roles, he therefore suited them with different strengths, that he made them different, and he did so on purpose, but that’s not to say that he made one better than the other.

He made one better at a particular job, yes. But he made us, he designed us for a purpose. And now speaking to the men in the audience, and again, in a couple of weeks we’ll be speaking to the women almost exclusively in our audience. Let’s understand this. God calls on us to be men, to be real men. And by the way, the world may not know it. They may never accept the claim, but the world needs us to be men. God equipped us. Men. He made us in such a way to fulfill a specific role. And he is calling upon us to fulfill that role. And the world ever increasingly needs us to be that. Let’s look at a couple passages of scripture. Starting in your Old Testament.

3. Be Strong and Prove Yourself a Man

Look in the book of 1 Kings, chapter 2. These are the words of King David to his son Solomon.

This is near the end of David’s life. David is handing the throne, handing the rule over to his son Solomon. David, above anyone else, understands the task that is being given to Solomon as king. He understands what it needs and what it means to be a leader over his people. But I also think David has another thing, thought in mind. To a great extent, you’ll remember that from the time of David’s sin with Bathsheba, David is no longer the leader that he used to be. His life, his family, to a great extent, his kingdom has been in shambles as a result of that failure in his life. And so now as he hands the mantle of leadership over to his son, he is saying, son, you need to be king, but maybe in some sense he is saying, you need to be a better king than I was, at least in these last days.

And so he gives this advice to his son, or this charge to his son. Then the days of David drew near. This is 1 Kings chapter 2, verse 1, that he should die. And he charged his son Solomon, say, I go the way of all the earth. Be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man. And keep the charge of the Lord your God to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn. He says to his son Solomon, who’s been given the mantle of leadership. He says, be strong and prove yourself a man. I don’t want to soften those words to any degree.

What David says to his son is, you’re going to be a leader. Be a man. David and his God was calling upon him to be what God had created him to be.

4. I Sought for a Man

Ezekiel chapter 22 is talking about the failures of Israel. David gave the charge to Solomon. You’re going to be a leader, be a man. We now see in Ezekiel chapter 22 what happens when that’s not there. Israel has failed.

Israel’s failure, his failure as a nation, understand this, started at the top. It started as a result of a lack of leadership. The type of leadership that David said Solomon was to give them. The successive kings failed in that regard. And so it says this. Look in Ezekiel chapter 22. Back up to verse. Let’s look at verse 26. Speaking of Israel, it says, Her priest have violated my law and have profaned my holy things. They have not distinguished between the holy and the unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they’ve hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths, so that I may be profaned among them. Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey to shed blood, to destroy people, to get dishonest gain.

Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, the divining lies for them, saying, Thus says the Lord God, when the Lord had not spoken. The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and the needy, and they wrongfully oppressed the stranger. I want you to notice the sequence there. He says, The priest, the princes, and the prophets have failed. And so in verse 29, the people of the land have failed. God, through his prophet lays the responsibility for the destruction of Israel right, slap in the feet of the men. The priest, the princes, and the prophets. You, as leaders, he said, failed these people. And so he says this. Verse 30. So I sought for a man. I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, who would stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found no one.

5. Act Like a Man

The prophets, the priests, and the princes, the men had failed, and God said, I wanted just one man to be a real man among you who would stand up and say, No, we’re not going to do this. To take up the mantle of leadership. And God said, There wasn’t a single solitary real man among you. Verse 31, therefore I have poured out my indignation on them, consumed them with the fire of my wrath, and I have recompensed their deeds on their own hands, says the Lord God. And he says, Men, it’s your fault. Because you are to be the leaders. Now let’s go to the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians chapter 16. In the closing remarks in 1 Corinthians chapter 16. The apostle Paul, by inspiration, knew that the church at Corinth was living in ungodly times and in ungodly location.

And they had challenges. They had challenges from without the wickedness, the idolatry, the paganies, heathenism in which they lived. They had challenges from within. This church was a church with trouble. And it was going to require some difficult choices for them to fix the problems that existed in that church. And so what is his call? 1 Corinthians 16. I’m reading from the New King James, that I think, in a sense, does disservice to the translation, but we’ll look at that as we go. 1 Corinthians 16, verse 13 says, Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, and be strong. I’m going to look at that next to the last phrase. And again, in the New King James, it says, be brave. I think that’s actually a poor translation.

That’s not the normal word for brave. The word in the original there is act like a man. The Greeks, in which the New Testament was written in the Greek language, the Greeks had two words for man. The anthropos, from which we get our word anthropology, that many times just means mankind. It’s that generic word. And we use the word man sometimes that way, don’t we? Mankind. We mean men and women. That’s not the word used here. Because the Greeks had another word that when they used that word meant men as opposed to women, not man in its generic sense, but men. That’s the word that’s used here. And so he doesn’t say be brave, which that maybe is the idea. He literally says, act like a man.

Be strong. Stand fast in the faith. Act like a man. Does that not hearken? I don’t know that Paul meant it that way, but is it not hearken back the language of Ezekiel when God said, I look for a man who would stand in the gap? I think Paul is saying to the church at Corinth, we need some men who will stand up and take the mantle of leadership and fix the problems that exist in this church. We need men who will stand at the gate and will not let worldliness creep in and defile this congregation. Be a man. God made us male and female. And he gave us roles.

6. Being a Man Means Being a Leader

And one of the roles of men was to be the watchdog. To be the bulldog who would stand up for what was right and defend it. And we have that need. We have that need because leadership, leadership is required to provide stability and to prevent chaos. We understand that. Every organization, every family, every church needs some leadership. It needs someone who will stand up for what is right, who will stand up and lead the charge. And so men want you to understand that being a man means being a leader. That’s the way God made you. In fact, I would take it further. That’s why God made you.

We won’t take the time in your own study. Turn over to Ephesians chapter 5 in Ephesians chapter 6, where it says, husbands are heads of their family? Husbands are head of the wife. Husbands, fathers are to direct their children and bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. That is not a responsibility to be abdicated to the wives and to the mothers. Fathers are to be the spiritual leaders in their families. God made you that way. He equipped you with what’s needed to be a leader in your family. We are to be leaders in the church. Elders, deacons, evangelists, those responsibilities have been given. We don’t apologize for this, have been given to men. Is that because men are better than women?

No, it’s because men are shovels and women are rakes. We’re made differently. God made us for this purpose. And maybe God in heaven today is saying, I sought for a man who would stand in the gap, who would stand up for my people. And know this that it starts by being a leader of self. The apostle Paul said, all things are expedient unto me. But I will not be brought under the control of any of them. He would say in another place, I buffet my body that I may bring it under subjection. If you can’t be, as a man, if you can’t be the leader of anything else, be a leader of yourself. God is calling for you to stand up and take control and to take charge.

Conclusion

Lastly, as we learn to accept the responsibility that God has given us, we do that in three ways. Number one, we realize you can’t learn this from the world. The world is trying to soften that. The world is trying to eliminate that absolutely. You will not learn this from the world. You’ll learn this from God in His Word. And a real man, a real man will do his best in whatever he does. Whatever pursuit, certainly in whatever spiritual pursuit you’ve been given, a real man stands up and does his best in everything that God has called him to do. And then lastly, men, you can do that now. Start in the little things, and the little ways in which you can lead. Leading yourself, taking responsibility for your own actions, your own self-discipline to be a man.

God made you to be a man. The world, your family, the church need you to be a man. I hope this lesson has been beneficial to you, it’s challenged you somewhat. And again, in two weeks, we’ll talk about feminine Christianity. What does it mean to be a woman in the body of Christ? May God help us. May God help us to be the rebels in today’s society and to do what God has called us, nay, what He’s created us to be and to do. You go to God in prayer with me, please. God, we recognize you as our Creator and we praise you for your creative power and the wisdom. Father, we’re so sorry that for those times in which we’ve tried to contradict your wisdom and your plan.

We pray, Father, that you’ll humble us, that we may accept you as our King and our Creator and our Maker. May we humble ourselves before your mighty hand. Help us to be the type of people that we ought to be. And Father, as men, help us to be the leaders that you’ve created us to be. Help us to accept the manual of responsibility, to turn to you to learn how we ought to conduct ourselves in every facet and every relationship. Forgive our failures as leaders. Give us the opportunity, Father, to be those men that you need us to be, to stand in the gap, and to be the leaders and the men that you made and need us to be. Help us always, Father, to be well pleasing unto you.

Forgive our shortcomings. Forgive our grumblings and complainings. And may we bow before you. In Christ’s holy name we pray. Amen.