Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father. Father, you know all things. Even about our hearts. Our deepest thoughts, attitudes. They're all open before you like the light of day. And Lord, such knowledge would terrify me. Except for Christ. And his blood. And Lord, now the knowledge. Of your omniscience. Makes me happy. Makes me confident. That you know all the wrong, that you have covered it all with the blood of Christ. That you know what we need to reach that great end, to be conformed to your image. Father, I pray that tonight and tomorrow things will be given to these men by your Spirit. be given to me, to Don, that we might be more like Christ. Father, I am so sick of words. Even good words are bitter. Lord, I want to see change. My own life. Lord, I've already got more truth in my head than I'll ever live out. Oh God, take the simple passages, the simple words and change us. Change me. I want to be changed. I want to be like Christ, especially among those who know me best, my wife, my children. I want to be like Christ. Father, please help us. In Jesus name, Amen. Tonight, I don't really have a sermon prepared. What I have are my own. These are my own notes to me. These are things that challenge me. If I had my way, I would preach four times tonight, 20 times tomorrow. This is what I confront myself with. This is not a sermon. These are words that kill me and do me good. And I'm going to give them to you. And I hope that they will help you. Before I start off, I just want to talk collectively about something. I just want you to listen. Jesus said, Woe to you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte. And when he has become one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves." Now, that was not written for the benefit of the Pharisees. It was written for the benefit of the church. It was a warning to you and to me. Those men were blind, bleeding blind, and they all went into a ditch, into an eternal pool. They were lost. But it was recorded in the New Testament for me and for you as a warning. Let me ask you some questions. These are questions I ask myself. Do we? Do you? Let's use that. And let's use you singular so that you draw no comfort from the crowd. Do you have a Gospel worth exporting? Or should it be quarantined? What you teach and preach and how you witness to people, your view of the Gospel, should it be exported? Or would it be best if it was confined and quarantined to a small area so as to not infect other people? Do you have a devotional life worth exporting? Now answer that question to yourself right now. Do you want to be a teacher to maybe your wives, your children, to other people? Your piety, your devotional life, would you like to give that to someone else? Would it benefit them to have your devotional life? Brothers, is there not enough right now for us to stop? and get on our faces? Would you want your worst enemy to have your devotional life? Do you have a personal godliness worth exporting? Or should it be quarantined? Would you want the whole of Christendom to have your godliness? Would that change things? We're always talking about how American Christianity has to change. The world has to change. Evangelicalism needs to change. Well, if we took what you had and gave it to them, would it make any beneficial changes? Would it? Your piety, your godliness, your Christ-likeness, do you have a unique uniquely Christian lifestyle worth exporting? Is the whole style of your life so Christian that it ought to be given out to the great multitude of humanity that calls itself by the same name? If we set your lifestyle beside A man with a secular mindset who thought only of the things of this world. What would we see different in the fullness of your life? Would it greatly contrast the secular man? Or would it be so much like his lifestyle that no one would know the difference? Here's a question. Now, remember, I'm asking these to you because these are the ones that I use for myself. Do you have a marriage worth exporting? Would you wish your marriage on your worst enemy? Not the marriage everybody sees. I mean, the one, just you and your wife, the way you address one another. The respect or lack thereof that you show toward one another. Your speech. Your glance. Your service to one another. Your preference. One giving preference to the other. All these things. Would you want the whole of Christendom to have a marriage like yours? Do we have a family worth exporting? Or should it be quarantined? You see, it would have been a great benefit, Jesus said, with regard to the Pharisees if their message and their life was quarantined. It would have been better for them and it would have been better for the whole world if no one had ever known their doctrine or had ever known their life. You know, I sit there People write me all the time. And whenever I'm going someplace, people question me theologically about so many things. And I love to speak about theology. But I'm not John MacArthur. And I'm not John Piper. And I don't rank with those men or their minds. I'm just sitting there going, leave me alone. I just want to love my wife. I know you're talking about all these great big things, but I don't want them anymore. I just want to walk like a weaned child and sort of grow to be more like Christ. Do you ever just get tired of all the noise and all the stuff and just say, Look, I'm not that right in many of these areas. Do you have a family worth exporting? Or should it be quarantined? Is there love in your family? Is there joy in your family? Is there peace in your family? Is there righteousness in your family? Do children stand at the door when they know it's about time for you to come home from work. I mean, after all, what's Christianity about if it's not about a radically altered lifestyle? And let me tell you something. Radical Christianity does not mean you wear a Christian t-shirt. It does not even mean you stand on park benches and preach until people beat you up. Listen to me. None of that is very difficult. What is difficult is to love the people closest to you and to look like Christ in front of them. Do we have a church worth exporting? Or should it be quarantined? You know, we always have to whenever we talk about changes or reform. We have to lash ourselves down to Scripture. And we also need to lash ourselves down to church history because there's so many down through history, well-meaning people who wanted to reform the church or wanted to throw the whole thing in the wastebasket and start again, wanted to change everything, and they ended up starting some cult. But honestly, folks, I look at the church. I see so much stuff. So many programs. So many plans. So many visions. And it just seems so big and complex. And not all that biblical. A man will boast to me about the greatness of their children's program. And I'll say, but how many men in your congregation are following Ephesians 6 where it says that the fathers are supposed to train their children. Well, we're doing it. You're not supposed to! The parents are. You see, everything, just so much stuff. But do we really have a biblical church? Are we really doing what Jesus said? I mean, is this what the New Testament church is supposed to look like? What we see in America today? These are hard questions. Very hard questions. Now, I want to talk about the biblical man. Again, I want you to know, when I started this last year, I started writing down things that I thought would be a sermon, But then as I kept going over it and over it and over it, it came to be mine. The thing that cut through my heart and the thing that helps me stay drawn to center as much as I am to center. I want to talk about a biblical man. Now, I'm going to use a lot of text from a lot of places. It's sort of like a systematic theology on biblical manhood. And it's very, very simple, but it cuts me to the quick. First of all, do you realize you're nothing but a product of paganism? Have you ever come to that conclusion? Have you ever looked in the mirror and realized that you are from a pagan people? You live in a pagan era. And so much of the baggage of paganism is still carried by you. There's so much in our lives that's not truly biblical. All of us must realize when people talk about free will, just that conversation always cracks me up because they'll talk about free will, free will, and when you really get down to it, folks, There's only one Being who is free. And it's an attribute that belongs only to Him. And if you ascribe that attribute to anyone else, it's idolatry. God is free. What does that mean? That there's nothing on the outside moving Him. controlling Him, directing Him. You can't say that about yourself, not even in your Christianity. You're still a man. You're still in the world. And you're still going through something of a metamorphosis, a change. And that change is a work of sanctification that lasts your entire lifetime. So you're always going to be dealing with how much of me is really Christian? And how much of me is pagan? And to the older men here, like myself, you're not brand new in the faith. You've been walking this path maybe for 15, 20, 30 years or more. How many of those radical calls of Jesus, radical demands of Jesus in the New Testament do you no longer read? Or when you read them, you can carefully and precisely explain them away. What is a biblical man? First of all, realize that we're in a post-Christian culture that despises God. and despises God's Word and despises any teaching, ideology, idea, thought, word, or lifestyle that in any way seeks to conform itself to God and the will of God. Men are either effeminate or they are pleasure-loving, lustful, disgusting beasts. who live for themselves. What is a man? He's found in the Person of Jesus Christ. That is a man. Now I want to look at a few things about a biblical man. First of all, he has a great love. A biblical man has a great love. Someone asked me a long time ago, they said, Brother Paul, what's the greatest sin you could commit? You know, I never put it that way before. And I thought to myself, well, I don't know. And then I said, well, I would suppose that the greatest sin would be to break the greatest command. The greatest command is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Now, I don't want to know what you feel in your heart. I want to know what do you think people see when they see you? When your wife looks at you, when your children look at you, do they sit there and go, there is a man who loves the Lord his God with all his heart, with the full control of his intellect, his emotions, his will. He loves God with all his soul, with his mind. He's thinking about God. He's not like the pagan man who has no thought of God. He thinks about God all the time. And with his strength, I can see my dad. I can see my husband using his strength for God rather than some vain pursuit. Eternal things. There's a great archer. I won't use his name out of respect. He's one of the greatest archers, hunters who ever lived. And it is said of him that he spent seven years hunting with all his might before he ever took a large game animal. Well, that shows some dedication. He used his strength. It's said of William Carey that he preached the Gospel in India for seven years before he won a convert. Both of them now are in eternity. I wonder which man is happiest. He invested his strength. He gave his strength to what? To ministry? No! He gave his strength to love. To love God so much you're tired. They say, well, I'm not like that. Neither am I. I don't want to be one of those preachers who tells you everything that's wrong with you and then doesn't give you a solution. I can tell you, you ought to love God more. I ought to love God more. The question is how? Well, you can't do it by pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. You say, well, how do I do this? There's only one way I know to do this. That is this, I've been married to a wonderful woman for 16 years. I love her more now than I did when we were married. Because even though she has imperfections in her humanity, even though we are not compatible in all things, over the years I have seen hidden virtue and merit come forth that draws out of my heart affection for her. So the more I know about her virtue, the more I know about her merit, the more my affections increase toward her. That is why we study the attributes of God. I don't know how Christianity has got on this long putting the attributes of God in some back room. It should be in the forefront of everything. If your heart is truly regenerated by the Holy Spirit and a man gets up and teaches you who God is, you're going to grow in love. Now if you're an unconverted church member, you're going to grow in your hatred. Because the more you will know of God, the more you will hate Him because He is good God and you're not. But if you are truly regenerate, the more you know about Him, the more you will love Him. Read Tozer's work on the attributes of God. Read Pink's work on the attributes of God. Read Charnock on the attributes of God. Most importantly, read the Scriptures on the attributes of God. You go into this book thinking your salvation is found in this book. This salvation is found in the person to whom this book points. I love what John says. This is a man of God. John the Baptist. He must increase. And I must decrease. But it's not this morbid type of annihilating of self. It is this joyful thing of seeing so much of Christ and so much of His glory. You want Him to increase. You want to run to the back room. You want to hide. You want Him exalted. You see, our great problem in biblical manhood is starting out is that we don't know our God. Teach about His marvels, His beauty, His glory, His power, His excellencies. Always in plural because there are so many of them. That's what you need to be a good man, to be a good husband, to be a good father, to be a good churchman, to be a witness to the world. You need to know God. You need to know God. Christ was the Man. Christ had one great love. He loved Him. He loved His Father. And it was that love for His Father that drove Him. And it was the Father's love for Him that drove Him. Also, one great passion. I'm just putting it this way because it helps me to remember. My great love is toward God. The practical outworking of that is this. Pray then in this way. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. A man of God, the practical outworking of his love for God is in this burning declaration of Jesus Christ. These words that He says here, they burn, don't they? Can you imagine? You look a man in the eye and this is what you see. When you look him in the eye, you see this. He burns inside. I want God's name hallowed in me. I want His kingdom to come in me. I want His will to be done in me. and I want Him to use me, that His name might be hallowed among the nations, that His kingdom might come among the nations, that His will might be done among the nations. It's what He burns for. Now, we're going to talk about this later if we have time. You know, we will talk about headship and about how a woman ought to be submissive to her husband. But can you imagine a godly sister of Sarah, a bondservant of Yahweh, Your wife, if she is truly converted, she hears this command to be subject to her own husband. She looks over at her man, and what she sees is a man who cries out, I want everything for me. My kingdom come. My will be done. He's a little trinket, a little boy of a man who does everything for his own hobbies and his own desires, and he thinks everybody in the world is an extension of himself. And she looks over at that and says, I have to submit to that. But can you imagine the joy of a woman who reads that command to be submissive to her husband, and she looks over there and she sees a man who burns with. His kingdom come. His will be done. And she sees she can't count with a calculator all the times He has sacrificed for His God, sacrificed for her, sacrificed for the children. He eats, drinks, sleeps, breathes the will of God. And not just out there on the mission field, but where it really counts with the people closest to Him. The woman looks at that and she says, I can submit to that. I can submit to that. Listen to some of these sayings. Pray then in this way, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. Matthew 6.33, But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. Oh, give us a man like that. Oh, that I would be that man. I desire to be that man. Do you desire to be that man? who seeks first the Kingdom. In Matthew 11-12, from the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and violent men take it by force. Luke 16-16, the Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the Gospel of the Kingdom of God has been preached and everyone is forcing his way into it. This idea, man. that has been lost in American preaching. Nowadays, it's just, God loves you, has a wonderful plan for your life. Raise your hand. Pray this prayer. You're in. Now God's on your side and you're going to get everything you want. So opposed to this teaching of, listen to me, men. There is one pearl of great price. Everything else is garbage. Now, sell everything you have and run for that pearl. Let nothing stand in your way. Nothing! Jump over it. Run around it. Crawl under it. It doesn't matter. Drag your body wounded to the core, but get there to that only one thing that matters. It is a zeal, a zealousness, a force. Even we can say an aggressiveness to enter into the kingdom, to be part of that kingdom, to be used in that kingdom. An aggressiveness that does not come from strength of will. It does not come from noble courage. It comes from desperation. Let me give you an example. Some pretty big fellows in here. There's a couple back over there that I saw. This guy right here, there's some pretty big fellas in here. And I imagine that any one of you could take me out rather quickly. But, put me in a lake and I cannot swim, let's say. And all three of you come out to get me. There will be such fear, such desperation in me. It will cause such adrenaline to be flowing through my veins that there is a good chance my single self, I will be able to drown all three of you. I will latch on to you and a crowbar couldn't pry me off of you. Because I know I'm dying. This is the third time I'll not let go. Even if the thing I'm holding on to begins to sink, I'll sink with it, but I will not let go. It is not powerful men, strong men, valiant men who make headway in the kingdom. It is desperate men who know they can do nothing and their only hope is Christ. Do you see that? That's all we have is Christ. These types of men, People talk about being fanatical, and there is a way in which you can properly use that word and say that it is negative. Fanaticism is a zeal without knowledge. But I'll tell you this, anyone who has true knowledge will be fanatical in the eyes of this world. As Brother Don pointed out, I know of no half-hearted Christianity in the text. 1 Corinthians 10.31, whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Do you have a concept of drinking water unto His glory? Delighting. Oh, the water tastes so much better when you do it that way. Eating unto His glory. The first sign of spring and the flowers blossoming and the grass turning green and to stand in the yard to worship, to smell the smell of honeysuckle and get down on your knees and worship with tears to realize that all things were made for His glory. Do your children get a sense of that in you? Is there a wildness and a wonder in your Christianity? This all-encompassing power that causes you just to be like almost a child? This is what we should strive for. We do not have. Folks, now listen to me. You're not supposed to have a quiet time so that you can go out and be real nice and moral. Do you see that? Christianity has a morality and an ethic, but Christianity is not about morality. You don't have your quiet time so that you're a nice person at work. You meet with God so that the fragrance of God and thoughts of God might stay with you all day. And so that you begin to think unto the glory of God. You see, John 4.34, Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. Jesus was tired. Jesus was thirsty. Jesus was hated. Jesus... so many things. But Jesus never said He was empty. We are the most prosperous Christians in the history of the world. Do you realize that? The United States of America, those who are truly converted, We are the most prosperous Christians in the history of the world, yet go into these so-called Christian bookstores. Almost half the books are written about how empty we are. Why? We are empty for the very reason that Jesus never was. He had food to eat that we know not of. His food was to do the will of His Father who sent Him. Understanding the doctrine of regeneration is so important, folks. It's the lost doctrine in the evangelical world today. That God saves a man by the power of the Holy Spirit, taking out his heart of unresponsive stone and putting in its place supernaturally a heart of living flesh that will respond to divine stimuli, making you a new creature with new affections. There's no such thing as a new creature without new affections. Now, in making you a new creature and giving you new affections, He has made you something else now. What does that mean? It means something very radical. Because you have been transformed into a child of God, literally, You have become a new creature. You have been raised to walk in a newness of life. A supernatural thing has happened to you. I keep having to iterate this because I want you to know regeneration is not just poetry. It's reality. Something really happened to you. You became a child of God. What does that mean? It means this, they can give you now the whole world all its riches, its wealth, its glory, and its fame, and you will be empty because you have become too high a creature now to be satisfied with such lowly things. And they can take all the world away from you and it cannot make you sad because you're too high a creature with too high of an affection to suffer any loss from such tiny things. Do you see that? You couldn't touch the Apostle Paul. It wasn't because he was without fear. It's because he knew his God. I was sharing out in the foyer out here with some men and we were talking about courage. Well, you know, people do come up to me and they say, you know, boy, you said some pretty. You made people mad here tonight. That one guy looked like he was going to beat you up. You're not afraid of anybody. I said, no. It could just be possible I'm the most frightened, insecure man in this room. He said, well, then how did you do that? I said, I want you to think about something. Let's say that a man walks up to me who is about three foot two. weighs about 28 pounds, has no muscle on him at all, and he challenges me to a fight. And like a coward, I go run in the corner weeping. But then let's say that walking behind that man is another man who stands beside him who is 7 feet tall, 400 pounds, solid muscle, and he challenges me to a fight. And then I find out I have a choice. I can fight the little man, or I can fight the big man. Now, it doesn't matter anymore how afraid I am of that little man. It doesn't matter anymore if I'm a coward. That's no longer in the equation. I have to fight someone, so the coward that I am, if I've got to fight one of these two guys, I'm going to jump on the little guy. You're the little guy. It's just relative. It's just a choice. I've got to deal with you or I've got to deal with Him. I choose you. All of you. All six billion of you. If you came together and amassed all your strength together and came against His throne, you would be like a tiny gnat beating its head against a world of granite. I'm fighting you. Do you see? It has nothing to do with courage. Let's do it with Him. I'm not getting out of here without fighting someone. You see how you can take Christianity, turn it around and make it just for big, strong-willed John Waynes? I want you to think for a moment. We're getting off the subject, but this will be good for you. Don't close your eyes or anything, but just picture in your mind Samson. A Jewish Arnold Schwarzenegger. Right? Well, then how come they couldn't find where his strength came from? I submit to you that Samson was probably about this tall, wiry arms, like a Peruvian mountain farmer. No fat, sinew, very few muscle, just wire. See, fleshly. Do you honestly think even the strongest man can lift up the gates of a city and carry them up on a mountain and throw them down? See, fleshly, this is not about strength of flesh, men. This is not about having muscles coming out of your ears. It's about knowing your God. And fearing. I'll tell you whom to fear. Let's go on. Acts 20-24 talking about passion. But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course in the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the Gospel of the grace of God. You say, well, how does that apply to me? I'm not an apostle, you say. I'm not a missionary. That's not the point. This is a biblical man. This is what all biblical men are supposed to say because it's what they believe. I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself. Now why? Is this just an altruistic person? No. This is a yoke that's easy. It's not some drudgery for Paul. He has seen Christ. This is about investment. Don't you see that? He's not just saying, ok, I'll throw my life away to no cause just because I'm an altruistic person. He's saying, no, I've seen Christ. I've seen heaven. This doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is serving Him. As one missionary said, we will have an eternity to gaze upon the trophies we have won on this earth, but we have only a brief moment until sunset to win them. Life is fleeting. And so he's so enamored with Christ. You fall in love. Totally given over in your mind to a certain woman. And her father says, You have to do this, this, this and this. You say, well, of course. Your father couldn't get you to do it when you were younger. Your mother couldn't get you to do it. Your professors couldn't get you to do it. But for the affection, the strong affection that you feel for this girl, you will cross mountains. You will swim oceans. It is love constraining and compelling and moving. You have become a prisoner of her love. Paul was a prisoner of Christ Jesus not just because he had chains on his arms, folks. It was the love of Christ that became his Lord, that determined all that he was. See again, to be a biblical man, to be a godly father, godly husband, it's all about a greater vision of Christ. So that when you do throw your life away in service to others, you don't count it as a cost. It's just the most sensible thing to do. Someone asked a young student one time, you're throwing everything away. I mean, you were kind of big man on campus. You were this and that and everyone thought you were... You're standing out here on the sidewalk handing out tracts. Everybody's laughing at you. The student said, well, I'm doing it because, well, you know, I always did well in economics. What? You know all the finance classes you took with me. I got A's. I'm good. What's that have to do with this?" And the student said, it's all about investment, isn't it? I can take these few years I have and invest them in something that will fill up my portfolio, but in the end provide nothing for me. Or I can invest everything in a kingdom that is eternal, a God who does not fail. Do you see that? I do want you to get this idea that somehow you rev up yourself and make yourself altruistic and devotional and giving all for the sake of giving and then throw your life away to no avail. That has nothing to do with Christianity. Christianity is seeing Christ as that great pearl and saying, I don't want anything else. I just don't want anything else. We also have a great commission. We have a great love. We have a great passion. We have a great commission. Listen to Matthew 28. Jesus came up, spoke to them saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. All nations. baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." What does this have to do with you? Show me your scars. The work of missions, gentlemen, can be divided into two categories. You either go down into the well or you hold the rope for those who go down. Either way, whether you're holding on to the rope from the bottom of the well or you're holding on to the rope from the top, your hands will be worn down with scars. Show me your scars. What does the Great Commission cost you? What does it cost you? I mean, really, tell me. What have you lost for the Great Commission? What have you suffered? What have you given? What have you sacrificed? It's men at war that become heroes, gentlemen. Not those who sit in the sidelines. It's men who go to war. And that's what you are called to do, to be men, militant, militia, but not fighting with carnal weapons, but with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with intercessory prayer, with sacrificial love, I remember the first time, and they still get a kick out of this, my oldest boy, when he was about five, he said, Daddy, what do you do? And I said, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. And then he really gets intrigued. What do you do, Daddy? I fight dragons. What? I fight dragons. Daddy, there aren't any dragons. Yes, there are, son. There's a dragon. And I fight him. What do you mean, Daddy? Well, son, you remember when you went with me last week and I preached? And all those men got so mad at me and they came around and they were saying terrible things and you were scared. Remember that? Yes. I fight dragons. Anson, I'm willing to give my life. Anson, know this. Your father will probably end up his life in prison. And I will do it for the cause of Christ. I am a fighter. I am a warrior. I serve Christ. And it will be an honor for me to die for Him. takes on a whole new perspective. Christianity. It's no longer just going to some church and being bored. Or painting pictures of Joseph's multi-colored coat. So now I have one little boy, a five-year-old, who prayed when I just recently went to London. He prayed, oh God, go with Dad. But Dad's going to be there for two weeks. So God, don't come back here. until my dad's finished, and then you can come back with him when he comes back. Because he's going to do things, and they're scary. Let me tell you something, gentlemen. There is a way in which Harry Potter, those films, are a rebuke to the church. Now, first of all, you need to know something about the Harry Potter films. They have Christian witches. Did you know that? You're saying, uh-oh, Brother Paul. We knew he was heretical, They're Christian witches. You say, what do you mean they're Christian witches? Witches eat children. Witches hate one another. Witches have no loyalty, no morals, no values, nothing. So in order to make witches attractive, Hollywood had to instill in them, borrow from Christianity, virtues that are attractive. But in Harry Potter, there is warfare. There is sacrifice. There is living for something greater even than this world. And children, look at that. The marvel, the wonder, the loyalty, the sacrifice, the war. And there's almost a nobility to it. And then they look at us. Thousands. Perishing just today. Tribes and people groups without the gospel. Widows and orphans of men who have died as martyrs and now they're starving to death. We say in Peru sometimes, tú vives porque el aire es gratis. The only reason you're alive is because the air is free. You don't do anything. What are we doing? Where is the wildness? Where is the wonder? Where is the warfare in your life? Can your children, can your wives see that you live for a greater cause? You live for an eternal cause. Can they see that You are that Man who are pulling people from the jaws of death? Who are fighting demons if necessary? Who's doing whatever is necessary that Christ's Kingdom might prevail and that souls of men might be one? What a wonder is ours! What a true privilege is ours to participate in this! I can remember before becoming a Christian saying to myself, I just want something to live for. I just want something to live for. Something worth dying for. This is it! Don't get turned aside. Don't get involved in the affairs of this world any more than you have to so that you can be free to do what? To serve Him. To serve Him. Malachi 1.11, for from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure, for My name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. What a thing it would be. You talk about a Bible study with your children? What a thing it would be for your 10-year-old to wake up in the middle of the night and thirsty, make their way down to the kitchen to get a glass of water. They pass by your office and the light's on. The door's cracked. They hear mumbling. And they crack through the door and they take a look and they see their father pacing back and forth going, Lord, there are places on this planet where your name is not worshipped. You said you would make your name great among all the nations. Lord, I am interceding right now. Lord, I can't stand it. There are places where false gods and demons are being worshipped instead of Your dear Son. I'll not have it. Oh, God, give me my desire. Instead, I'm praying for a new car to replace the new car I already have. instead of wanting houses and clothes with figures on them that make you reputable to people in the know. What a lesson! 1 Corinthians 9.23, I do all things for the sake of the gospel. Look at that. I love it when someone asks somebody, you know, what do you do? I'm a physicist. Why? For the sake of the Gospel. What do you do? I'm a carpenter. Why? For the sake of the Gospel. I hate this mindset that we still have no matter how hard we try to get away from it, this mindset of secular sacred, secular sacred. My friend, when you entered in, to Christ's Kingdom, everything became sacred. Even the pots and pans in your house are sacred. It's all sacred. It's a live and breathe sacred. Someone asked a person one time, you want to go to the Holy Land with me? He says, I go there every day. Every place I bow my knee. Sacred. You see, if your calling is to be this or that or some other thing, not a missionary, not a pastor, not an evangelist, not a minister of some sort within the confines of church walls, you are still a disciple. And you are still to do all things for the sake of the Gospel. This is also a very important truth here. Let me just share this with you. People will come to me and they'll say, I just really need to get my marriage fixed. Why? Well, I want a good marriage. That's idolatry. What? That's idolatry. You want a good marriage. It should be all things for the sake of the Gospel. I want a good marriage for Him. I do this for Him. Why are you such a good employee, Bill?" And you say, well, you know, I just want to do a good job. Oh, you just copped out. You just denied him. He said, do it, sir, for him. Well, you know, Bill, you talk like that, we'll have to fire you. Then I'll be fired for him. As long as I'm an employee here, I will serve you to the best of my ability, but I will do it for him. And if you fire me, it will be for him. Because whether I live or I die, it is for Him. But make sure that if you're going to make that boast of doing it all for Him, that you give everything you have for your employer. What is a true biblical man? I've written here, having been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and brought to repentance toward God in faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, The true man is marked by death to self, love for God and his fellow man, a passion for the honor of God, the advancement of the kingdom of God and the doing of the will of God. Now, I got through almost nothing of what I wanted to get through tonight, but I want to end. I want you to realize something, and this is something that, again, I want you to know. At least you'll know, for better or for worse, this is something that I have used for a long time, this next thing, to govern my life. And I just want to read it to you. The biblical man is not one who zealously throws himself into some missionary endeavor or crusade for social change. There are concentric circles of concern in our responsibility before God and we are to work from the inside out in accordance with the providence of God." What do I mean by that? How are men to advance the kingdom and subdue the earth? There is an order according to the providence of God. I am a married man and I have children. My marriage and my children are results of God's absolute sovereignty in my life. Let me just give you an example of how that works. You may say that my call to preach is wrong and that it's just a subjective feeling that God never called me to preach. But you cannot say it is a subjective feeling and that alone that God called me to be a father because God gave me children. And if He gave me children, He called me to be a father. If He gave me a wife in His providence, then I definitely have the call of a husband on my life. Now, what are these concentric circles of concern? When I think about God, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, it is in concentric circles. First of all, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in me. As far as Paul Washer is involved in it at all, the world's greatest need for me is that I be more like Christ. So all the other things don't matter. Christlikeness is the center of my attention. My wife, she really has only one problem with regard to her husband. He's not like Jesus. My children, the greatest malady facing their life right now is their dad is not like Jesus. My brothers and sisters in Christ, what do they need from me? For me to be more like Jesus. The world, looking on, what does it need from me? Oh, it's had its share of loud-mouthed preachers. It needs me to be more like Jesus. And so in the concentric circle of concern, my first saying is, O Father, hallowed be Your name in me. Your kingdom come in me. Your will be done in Me. Now, from that, where do I go? If someone talks to me on a plane and they say, by the way, what do you do for a living? I go, well, I can tell you what I do. What do you do? I'm a husband. And then they always kind of cut their eyes at me and go, yeah, well, what else do you do? Well, I'm a dad. Well, what else do you do? I fellowship with other believers in Christ. Yeah, but what else do you do? I preach the Gospel to the world. Those are my concentric circles. After dealing with the Kingdom coming in me, I am not one flesh with you and I'm not even one flesh with my children. I'm one flesh with my wife. She has to be the next person in line. Every day, the Lord's done some tremendous things in my life in the last couple of weeks even. But every day I'm seeing this is my joy and my crown on the day I stand before Christ Jesus. So, my investment in her. And then afterwards, My investment in my children. And then my investment in the people of God. Do good to all men, but especially those of the household of faith. And then to the world. You say, well, that doesn't sound very mission-minded. Follow me around sometime. Being obedient to Christ, that's the best way to do missions. When I was a single man, fine. Fine. No wife. No children. Study the Bible and preach 18 hours a day. Sleep a little bit. Take a shower every once in a while. Come out of the tent again and run through the jungle and preach. Knock yourself out. Go get martyred if you want to. It's fine. Why is it that I had so much freedom? Because I was free from many of the commands in Scripture. You say, what do you mean free? They had nothing to do with me. Absolutely nothing. What do you mean? What part of the Bible had nothing to do with you? The parts about taking care of a wife. It had nothing to do with me. I was free from them. Because I was single. Then I was married. And we still, a little Batman and Robin team running around, doing all kinds of stuff in the name of Jesus. And we could just do all kinds of stuff. Why? Because we were free from many commands. Many commands. Like what? Like all those dealing with children. But when the children came, we came under other commands and other commands and other commands. Now, let me teach you something about the will of God. The Bible says it's perfect. Romans 12. Verse 2. It's perfect. It's one of the primary attributes of the will of God. And one of the ways that we can look at that is this. You do not have to violate the will of God in one aspect of your life in order to obey the will of God in another aspect of your life. If you're doing that, it may be for a kingdom, but I can assure you it's for your own. God does not need you You people who believe in sovereign grace ought to believe that as much as anyone. God does not need you. As a matter of fact, the only reason He called you was to have a greater handicap so He looks better at the end when everything comes out alright. God does not need you, but God desires your obedience. Remember this. Faith. Faith. And faith tells me that in the providence of God, He has given me children. And if He has given me children and a wife, He has given me commands. And if that takes me away from a full throttleness toward the Great Commission, I believe that God is big enough to handle that part without me. The only thing required of me is to believe and obey. Now, tomorrow, I don't even know if we're going to get to the part of husband, but I hope we can. But tomorrow in the morning, I'm going to deal with the biblical man and self. And it's going to be very, very basic things. You know, I can go hear some of the greatest preachers, and oh, the Lord has blessed this generation. Men like John MacArthur and Piper and Sproul and so just so many. The Ian Murrays and on and on. All these men that are just such a blessing. But you know, when I go, I listen to them on the Internet or something, I have to admit, A lot of times I don't learn a lot. Do you know what happens? It's not that I learn something new. I remember something I forgot. Your problem probably is not that you need to learn a whole bunch of new stuff. You need to remember what you have forgotten and go do it. That's what you need. All right, let's pray. Father, I come before you and ask you, Lord, to help us in these meetings. Lord, I want to be changed. I don't want to be the same man tomorrow that I was today. God, only the Spirit of God can do the work that we need. Father, I pray that the Holy Spirit would do a work in my needy heart. God, I want to be a better son to You. I want to be a better husband to my wife. Lord, I want the love of Christ in my home, in my marriage, the tenderness the esteem, the preferring others over myself and my home. God, I just don't want my wife just to see that I'm moral. Because I'm moral, I will never leave her. I want her to look into my eyes and see that I love her in my life and in my words. That I honor her. Lord, I want my children to see Christ. Lord, life more than rules. Life more than morality. Life more than just homeschooling. God, I want them to just have the life of Christ. And my brothers and sisters in Christ, Lord, I don't want to be a stumbling block to them. I want to be just someone who's able to give in the power of the Holy Spirit. And Lord, to the world. To be like a child of light. To be like luminaries, Lord. Help us. Lord, only the Holy Spirit can do this. Only the Holy Spirit could resurrect us, Lord, from spiritual death. Only the Holy Spirit can continue the work. Oh God, fill us with the Holy Spirit. Infuse us, Lord. Help us. In Jesus' name, Amen.