Biblical Manhood

Today we live in a world that is committed to the destruction of men. With movements like Black Lives Matter, the wildly support socialist “anti-race” group, has openly declared that it is dedicated to the dismantling of the nuclear family, LGBTQ+’s attack on the home, or the cultures redefining of manhood as being the “3 B’s” which mean that the definition of a man are “The Ball-field, the bedroom, and the bill-fold” and if you don’t do well if those three areas then you’re a failure. With fatherlessness at rapidly growing rate we have found suicide, criminal activity, and substance abuse growing quickly. Churches are crumbling because men have done their best to forsake their God-given duties because they’d rather pursue what an overwhelming majority of country and rap music calls a “great life” depicting fornication, alcohol or drug abuse, and criminal activity as a good time. But this is not what God intended for men and in all truth, we can easily state that these are not men, but are children running around in aged bodies. So, for the sake of our children, our homes, our community, our church, and the glory of our God, I feel like this is one of the most needed fellowships and discussions of our day. Biblical manhood. Today, I want to examine Genesis 1-3 and find what God’s intention is for us as men. If you would like to title this message you can call it “Men of Passion”.

A Passionate Relationship with God as We Lead

A man is only as strong as his relationship with the Lord for within the confines of our aging and fragile bodies are limitations that grow with age. But within the soul of the believer rests a strength that is irremovable, a strength that endures the mountainous trails of this life, a strength that will persevere us until the end, a strength that is not of us but only the grace of God.

In Genesis 2:7,15-20 and Genesis 3:8-9, we find the close communion of God with Adam as He created Adam, breathed life into Adam, physically spoke to and visited Adam in the cool of the day. In short, Adam has a relationship with God that was bound in purity and obedience to God.

Brothers, we cannot simply treat Church services as a simple box to mark off during the week and when problems arise we scratch our heads and wonder if the favor of God must’ve forgot that you attended Church that week. It is not enough for us to sit idly by on Sunday, disconnected and un-enthused about the Lord, and then expect everything to be spiritually wonderful. We need men, and we need who have a genuine, passionate, enthusiastic relationship with their God. Men who commune with Him personally, speak with Him daily, and obey Him dutifully.

It was Psalm 63:8 where David writes, "My soul followeth hard after thee; thy right hand upholdeth me." and it is in this verse we find the very heart beat of this message. That phrase "Followeth Hard" is pronounced "dabaq" in Hebrew and means "to catch by pursuit". What a deep thought that when we realize that we are held up by God, in His safe keeping and protection, it encourages us to pursue Him even more!

It is our duty not only to passionately pursue our God, but to passionately lead our family after Him. But if we ourselves do not know Him, or do not pursue Him, how in the world do we expect to lead our wives after Him?

In Genesis 3, we notice that Satan goes to Eve, tempts Eve, and Eve falls. But when we seen God in the Garden, He is looking for Adam. Why is that? It is because even though Eve, and all humans, are responsible for our sins, Adam was being held responsible for His home.

Now, I’m very aware of the arguments against male headship today. The secular culture states that it is sexist and the liberal “christians” say that it is outdated and was removed by the cross. But you and I may very clearly see in Genesis that male leadership in the home was not a result of sin, but sin is what has frustrated the harmony of the family.

In Genesis 3:16, God delivers judgment upon the newly fallen mankind and in v16 God says to Eve, “Thy desire shall be for thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” Now, you and I would like to think that this means that Eve was just going to be infatuated with Adam and he would lead her, but this is not the case. In Genesis 4:7 we find the same word “desire” as used in Genesis 3:16. What we find as a result of the fall is that within the home there will be a fleshly tendency within the wife to rise up against Adam to throw him down from his job as the head of the home.

Now, the reaction of many men is going to be one of two things: First, they will either cower down and relinquish the authority or, second, they will become tyrannical dictators. Neither of these attitudes are Biblical. In Ephesians 5, you and I find that our leadership is to be on of love, understanding, compassion and sacrifice. The word “submit” in Ephesians 5 has the Greek word “taxis” in the middle of it which means “order”.

As men, you are the leader; this is a job that you cannot retire from, abandon, escape or quit. You have been given this job by the choice of a sovereign God and you and I will answer to Him for our leadership of our home. Our homes are a gift of God that He has given us to steward for His glory. Husbands, it is not that one day you WILL BE a leader. No, you already ARE a leader but the question is whether or not we’re doing a good job or not. Voddie Baucham said, “A man failing to lead, is a man leading in failure.” You and I can do impressive things in the eyes of society, but if we’ve not led our families in a way that honors God then we have failed completely.

Now, on the topic of leadership, I want to clarify a few things. First, we must understand that in Genesis we find that God created male and female in His image. This is what is called the “imago Dei” and this is why all humans have intrinsic value, it is because we are made in the image of God. So, we need to understand that our wives have the same value as we do in the eyes of God, however, our jobs are different. Our wives can certainly have input, they should be allowed to ask questions and to contribute to conversations in the home but there MUST be an understanding that you are her LOVING leader, not because we beat her out for the job, but because it was how God ordered it to be and you both should want to honor Him. This means that we are to initiate prayer, family devotions, worship, and attendance to the local church. If they are in your home, they are under your leadership. Now, she is to follow you, however, if you are leading into sin she is not to follow you but she is to call you to repent and if you refuse the church discipline is to be enacted. This is God’s order.

A Passionate Pursuit to Honor God in What we Do

I have found that men often find their identities in the work that they do, this could be in connection with the fact that Adam was created for “the day”. Notice in Genesis 2:5, we find that God is stating that there is not man to till the ground, in v15 we find that God tells Adam to keep the Garden that He has given Adam, and in v20 we find God has given Adam the duty to name all creatures. This was a man who worked.

In our culture today work is almost considered synonymous with profanity. We have a growing movement toward socialism and laziness which is being championed as a “utopia” of peace and rest, but that’s a lie. Many people believe that work is a horrible result of the fall, but that’s not true either, now work was made harder by the fall, but it was still present before the fall of man.

In Proverbs we will find an depiction of the lazy man:

Proverbs 6:9-11, we find a man who is so lazy that he won’t get out of bed in the morning.

Proverbs 26:13, we find a man who has a excuse for everything.

Proverbs 26:15, we find that this man is so lazy that he is hungry but putting food up to his mouth is just too much work.

Proverbs 21:25, we find that this lazy man is committed to his own demise.

2nd Thessalonians 3:6-15, we find that the Apostles were dedicated to modeling work ethic. The Apostles could have easily said, “Hey, we’re apostles and we are teaching you the Word so we deserve to be paid for our work.” But they noticed how incredibly lazy the Thessalonians were so Paul decided to work to be a role model for these Thessalonians.

In 1 Timothy 5:8 Paul says, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”

In 2 Thessalonians we read that a man who will not work should not eat, so when we feed a lazy man we are actually standing the way of the judgment of God for this sin, which is hunger and that’s a huge motivator isn’t it? And when we spoil this lazy man we are condoning his sin. So, what we find here is that we need to be men who are not afraid of work and we need to raise of sons up to be men who work and our daughters up to beware of men who do not work.

Did you know that you can go to work and school every day and still be lazy? No matter your job, whether you’re a street cleaner, a student, or a CEO, you and I need to decide that no matter how big or small our job is we are going to do they best that we can for the glory of God.

A Passionate Pursuit of our Wives

We live in a culture today that places no value on the sanctity of marriage.

The Blessing of Her Presence (v18, 22-23)

The sexes are complementary: the true partnership is expounded by the terms that are used (a helper fit for him, 18, 20, literally means ‘a help as opposite him’, i.e. ‘corresponding to him’)

The Building of their Union (v24)

The union of the two in marriage is to be an exclusive (a man leaves), permanent (and cleaves), God-sealed bond (one flesh)

The Burden to Protect Her (Gen. 3, Ephesians 5:26)

Notice in Genesis 3:3, Eve does not say what God said in Genesis 2:16-17. Why? She wasn’t properly discipled. This is why Romans 5:12 says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”

Adam didn’t take his job seriously, God’s Word seriously, and his wife’s walk seriously and the blame rests on him. We’ve got to cut the TV off, put the cell-phone down, and teach our family the Word of God. One study showed that families spend an average of 37 minutes of quality time together a day. We’ve got to do better. We’ve got to lead them into truth. This is our job, these are our wives, our children are our generations who will go forward bearing our names and are we really comfortable with them growing up and entering a godless world not knowing a thing about the God of their father?

As Eve sat there being tempted, Adam stood right there. Cowering and watching as his own wife took the plunge into the temptation of sin.

Conclusion

Biblical headship is this barbarian dominating type leadership. It is understanding a fact, understanding the expectation of God, and understanding the responsibility rests on you. Notice Genesis 3:11 as Adam tries to shift the blame by throwing Eve under the bus and then he tries to throw God under the bus. Brothers, we must be Biblical men, we must repent of our shortcomings, ask God for wisdom and strength, and lead our homes for His glory. This is the will of God for us all.