Emasculating Vices

Introduction:

Vice 1: Pride

God Gave Adam a Covenant:

Genesis 2:15-17 “Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.””

Pride says I’m going to do it my way, not God’s way.

When Adam broke that covenant with God, God gave Adam a curse, and that curse disrupted his ability to worship God, and the work which God gave Adam to do.

Genesis 3:17-19 “Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.””

Men, you were made to worship God. The first primary purpose of godly masculinity is the worship of God. Pride is emasculating because it gets in the way of the first purpose of manhood.

Proverbs 8:13 ““The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate.”

Proverbs 16:5 “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; Assuredly, he will not be unpunished.”

Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling.”

Pride in our hearts causes us to rebel against God, disobey His commands, and to go our own way. The only remedy for this pride is the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Entire generations of families are destroyed by the pride of men. You cannot do anything else God has called you to do as a man until you first and foremost humble yourself, under the Lordship of Jesus.

Vice 2: Cowardice

God gave Adam a Vocation

Genesis 2:15 “Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.”

Genesis 1:27-28 “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””

Cowardice keeps men from taking dominion

Build culture

Slay Dragons

Advance the Kingdom of Christ!

This is what you were made for.

But you cannot do it if you are a coward.

God created you to advance His Kingdom on the Earth

Vice 3: Laziness

God gave Adam Work

Genesis 2:18-20 “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.”

Adam’s work corresponds to the vocation God has given him.

Adam is taking dominion in creation by naming the animals.

Notice that there is work here before the fall.

Work is not a result of the fall. It is part of God’s original design.

Work is a feature of God’s created order, not a bug.

Laziness destroys masculinity because it causes men to be weak, disinterested, and sluggish with regard to the take of dominion taking that God has called them to.

Proverbs 24:30-34 “I passed by the field of the sluggard And by the vineyard of the man lacking sense, And behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles; Its surface was covered with nettles, And its stone wall was broken down. When I saw, I reflected upon it; I looked, and received instruction. “A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest,” Then your poverty will come as a robber And your want like an armed man.”

Proverbs 26:13-16 “The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road! A lion is in the open square!” As the door turns on its hinges, So does the sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; He is weary of bringing it to his mouth again. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes Than seven men who can give a discreet answer.”

Proverbs 12:24 “The hand of the diligent will rule, But the slack hand will be put to forced labor.”

Proverbs 21:25 “The desire of the sluggard puts him to death, For his hands refuse to work;”

Proverbs 20:4 “The sluggard does not plow after the autumn, So he begs during the harvest and has nothing.”

Men, God has put you on this earth for a specific purpose. He has built you for a certain task.

He has put strength in your hands and your body.

So that you can use that strength to pursue the calling he has given it.

And it’s going to be hard. The creation is at war against you because of the curse, but by the grace of God, you can persevere!

Put your hand to the plow. Master your craft, and use it to take up space on this earth for the Kingdom of God.

Vice 4: Lust

God gave Adam a Wife

Genesis 2:22-25 “The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

God gave Adam of wife, because it was His purpose for Adam to build a family.

Men, you are made to be husbands and fathers.

There’s this strange idea floating around out there in the manosphere, that seeks to convince men that we are truly not built for monogamy.

Brothers, you are built for more than just monogamy, you are built for marriage.

Lust robs a man of his strength

Proverbs 31:3 “Do not give your strength to women, Or your ways to that which destroys kings.”

Persuing women robs a man of his strength.

Pursuing a women magnifies a mans strength.

First he uses his strength to pursue here

Then he uses his strength to provide a home for her

Then he uses his strength to protect her.

And in the process of that God matures and multiplies a man.