It is a great privilege to be here. It is also a comfort because many times when you go to a place and you're gonna teach on something like biblical manhood, you realize that you would like to have 10 sessions over each day for 10 days. There's so much to talk about. My comfort is this, Many of you are in this place. And I would just like to say, from what I know of my years here, gentlemen, if you can't grow here, I don't know where you would grow. I have never seen so many brought together. I've seen godly men all over the world. but I've never seen so many men brought together with a single purpose anywhere else in the world with a firm hold, a firm grasp on this. What do I say? The inspiration of scripture, the inerrancy of scripture, the infallibility of scripture, but most importantly, the sufficiency of scripture. So if you are in this church or you are in another church of like faith, you really need to avail yourself because there are so many men around the world that are goodly men, saved men, and yet find it so difficult to find any place where they can congregate and grow. Remember, to whom much is given, much is required. Now, When I'm in a place like this, I don't have to think about, okay, I'm going to go into the theology of the matter. Because I know that here in this place, there are theologians at whose feet I would sit. What I want to do is to encourage and exhort and rebuke. I want you to wake up. I want you to wake up. To see your calling, but most importantly, to see the one who called you to see all that is at stake, gentlemen. I would not have done what I have done for the last three and a half decades if this was just about you getting your better life now. But this is a matter of life and death, of heaven, of hell, of eternity. And I wanna look at that. We're gonna take different, we're just gonna move through different sections of scripture because I want to exhort you in specific areas. So let's get started. First of all, go to the passage that was mentioned here already, 1 John. First John, chapter two, verse 15, do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the father, but is from the world. The world is passing away and also its lust. But the one who does the will of God lives forever. You live between two worlds in a sense. You are not of this world, but you are in this world. And the work of the Holy Spirit inside of you makes you contrary to this world and makes the world contrary to you. You must understand that, but you live behind enemy lines. This is an extremely dangerous place. You are called upon to believe in a greater reality that you cannot see, but you're constantly bombarded by the things that you can see. And although you have been regenerated. There is still this flesh, this remnant of fallenness that is in you that you must battle against that can be drawn out, can be attracted by temptation. You've got to realize you are in the middle of a battle. It's like a scholar said many years ago, the world is at war, at war, at war, and if we have a day of peace, it's only because everyone is reloading. But that's the Christian life. So many people are preaching that men should have it easy. No, everyone who is godly in this world will be persecuted. Everyone who chooses to be godly in this world must constantly swim upstream. must fight against principalities and powers and mites and dominions. This is not an easy place and it's not supposed to be. And in one sense, I'm glad it's not. You say, what do you mean? There's something in me that desires to fight. I don't mind dying, I just don't want to die like a dog. I just don't want to die like a passive frog that's been put into a kettle and gradually the water is heated up until he can't understand, can't even sense that he's being boiled to death. I don't want to go out without a fight and I don't want to go to heaven without scars. I don't want to go to heaven. Without scars. I don't want to earn heaven, I can't earn heaven, I glory in the fact that heaven is free, I glory in the fact that there's only one hero in this story, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I glory in that. Yet at the same time. Because of who he is and because he has put me in a place where I have an opportunity to fight, I want to fight for him. And you say, oh, yes, yes, Brother Paul, but the Great Commission, I'm not talking about the Great Commission. I'm talking about the fight of faith. I'm talking about the fight of holiness. I'm talking about the fight of dying to self-love and giving myself selflessly to my bride, my wife. I'm talking about going to bed tired every night because I poured my life into my children. I'm talking about laying aside all the silly little trinkets and games of silly little men who are 60 years old, laying them aside. I don't need vacations. I don't need toys. I just want to live for him in the practical of my life. That's what we're called to. Do you think that the only one who does great endeavors is the man who goes to the mission field? Now, when someone asks me, Brother Paul, how can I pray for you? I always say the same thing. Pray that I would love my wife as Christ loves the church. Anybody can be burned at the stake. It's heroic. But to live every day, walking in simple obedience to God. While all hell is coming against you to stop you. We're in this world and we're called not to love it. But you will love it. Unless you're Christian. Unless you're truly regenerate, you will love this world and you will hate God. And the only way that's going to change is if God has changed your heart through the gospel. And if you're here today to study about being a good man, but you are not reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ, none of this works. We must be changed by the gospel. But supposing that many of you are changed by the gospel, now you must understand something. We must cultivate our faith. We must cultivate knowledge, we must cultivate a right understanding of God, we must cultivate the mind of Christ, we must begin to see as God sees. And how does that happen through the study of scripture? The only way you're going to grow in your hatred for this world is to grow in your love for God. And the only way any of that's going to happen is if you stop laying aside the word of God as though it was something quite unnecessary for your life. Do not love the world, nor the things in the world, if anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. This is the part I want to go to. For all that is in the world, the lust of the eyes and the lust of the the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the father, but is from the world. The world is passing away. And also its lusts. Now, this could be a middle verb here, the world is passing away. It's kind of just floating away. But could also be passive, the world is being pushed out. That God has already judged the world. And it's being pushed out so that when we get to the book of Revelation, there's no place found for it. Heaven and Earth flee away from him, it's being pushed out. Oftentimes, you go to old museums and look at art books, you see pictures of Oftentimes monks and they're standing there in a window and they're holding a skull and they're looking at it and you think, well, that's kind of dark. It is, but you need to understand what really is going on there. It's the contemplation of mortality. It's not just looking at a skull. Do you know what he's doing? He's looking at himself. That monk knows This will be me. In a twinkling of an eye. Strong men grow old and old men die. Yes, strong men die. Men who are genius die. Strong men grow weak and die. All men die. Have you really grasped that as a man? I don't mean just played around with it and laughed and told a joke about it. Have you sat down and really thought about this? You're going to die. And everything you lived for outside of the will of Christ is going to burn. Everything. You say, well, but I'm not a missionary and I'm not a preacher. If you're in this church, you know better than to use that language. You can be a policeman. And be a policeman every moment of your life for the glory of God, and he takes it as service. You can be a doctor, you can be a ditch digger, you can work construction, so don't don't play that game. It doesn't matter who we are, missionary in the Congo or construction worker out on the highway. If we know Christ and Christ knows us, there's no longer the division of secular and sacred in our life. Everything is sacred if it's offered to him. And he takes it as service to him. One of the most. Life changing things. That I experienced, I experienced before I was converted, as a matter of fact, it's one of the things that led to my conversion. My father, I was I was many times afraid of him. He was big. He was strong. He was good. I wanted to be like him in so many ways. We're running with a roll of wire, putting up a fence for the horses. Put a pole between the wire, one man on one side, one on the other, and you roll it out. And all of a sudden, when we were talking, we were talking about upcoming basketball season and all kinds of things. And all of a sudden, I looked down and then I heard him scream. I felt the wire drop. I grabbed him. We fell to the ground. He was dead. I realized at that moment it didn't matter if I was like my father. Who I never thought I would be like. It doesn't matter, he's dead. Strong like him and die, courageous like him and die. Successful and die, intelligent and die. You fall in love. You lose her in the end. You need to contemplate, you need to get away from media and contemplate your own death. And contemplate everything you have invested in. Where are your investments? When I was at the University of Texas, I had to study a lot of different things for my major in economics, finance, just all sorts of things, engineering, everything, and I remember after I became a Christian and some of my friends said, what are you doing? And I said, I'm not doing anything that I wasn't taught in class. And they all knew it was very anti-Christian university. And they said, what do you mean? I said, well, remember investments. I've not stopped investing. I've just traded up. I'm not going to invest in this place anymore because I seriously believe it's going to burn and everything that's going to burn with it. And the one who signs on the dotted line, the cosigner with you in this world, he hates you. It's going to take you for everything you have. I'm just changing where I'm investing, where are you investing, where? Are you investing in your own godliness? How much time a day are you investing in your own godliness? Because your wife's greatest need is a new husband. A better you, how much time are you investing in your wife? How much time are you investing in the godliness of your children and an intercession for them? How much are you investing in your local church? Never forget this in the Lord's Prayer after he says, Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. He says, give us this day our daily bread. People make all kinds of nonsense about that text. Well, it's not talking about give us bread for 90 years. It's give us daily bread, all these different things, and they miss the entire point. You know what the point of it is? You know what's really going on there? You're praying in this way. Here you see the heart of Christ. You're saying, God, my only reason for existence, the reason for my breath. Is that your name be hallowed, that it be placed in a category totally distinct from all other categories and honored above all categories, I want to live for that. For your name being hallowed, for your kingdom to come, for your will to be done. Now, give me this day my daily bread. Lord, I don't want riches. I don't want luxury. I don't need anything. Just give me enough food and shelter and clothing so that I can devote my life to fulfilling those three things I prayed about. Just give me the sustenance I need to keep serving you. That's what a man does. In the creation commission, Adams told to go out. And bring God's kingdom, bring God's rule, subdue everything in the world to the will of God for the glory of God. I believe in one sense, the call of the Great Commission and every command to the family and all the commands given to us with regard to every aspect of our life is almost a recommissioning of that in some sense. We are to go out. We are to subdue ourselves. We are to subdue our families. We are to subdue the world to the reign of Christ. That's the only reason we need food. It's to do that. You see. Because the world. Is passing away. And I'm well aware that there are so many people that I love, that I love so dearly that are passing away with it. They're passing away. Depart from me. I never knew you. If we had time, we could go right now and look at at the book of Revelation and the great white throne judgment. And they were judged by all the things written in the book of the law. All the things written in the books. They were judged. You see, this is not your home, this is a place that you have been you've been thrown down into to do battle. That's why you live. That's why you live. Now, I want to go on to something else. I want us to look for just a moment at this world. And the first thing I want to do is I want to go to a strange passage over in Isaiah chapter three. God is bringing judgment upon a people in this passage. God is bringing judgment upon a people. And he says in verse one, Isaiah, chapter three, verse one, for behold, the Lord God of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support the whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water. So he's going to remove this. But what else is he going to remove? The mighty man. And the warrior, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, the captain of 50 and the honorable man, the counselor and the expert artisan and the skillful enchanter. One of the greatest acts of God's judgment upon a people. Is when he removes the noble men. From leadership. When he removes The entire population of noble men, and there's nothing left but ignoble, weak men. Now, who would dispute with me today and say this passage has no application to the United States of America? I travel around the world. I see men. Strong, angry, and many of them mad at us. I come home. I see silly older men playing with toys, I see little boys playing with video games, and I see most people no longer even knowing what bathroom they should go in. We are under the judgment of God. Look at verse four. And I will make mere lads their princes and capricious children will rule over them and the people will be oppressed. Once again. This is our world, I've been amazed for the last. 30 years, and especially in sitcoms and things like that, isn't it amazing? That the parents, especially the dad, is always portrayed as even if he's kind hearted, he's foolish and really doesn't understand anything about the world. And in the end, the children are the ones that are the counselors. But you know what? Most Christian men saw things like that and couldn't even discern there was a problem. Why not in the word? Not in the word, not with men of the word, and I think both those things are almost equally important. Brothers, the only thing that's going to keep you from this is the word, the word, the word. My wife one time was teaching a group of women in Romania, and finally, after a couple of days, one of them said, Miss Miss Chato, we really love you. You know, you're teaching and your help, but on every question that we've had, you've basically said just the same thing. We need to be in the word. Why do you do that? And she said, well, because you need to be in the word. I'm sorry. In a way, it's really wonderful that it's not mystical, that you don't have to climb up to heaven or drive yourself down into hell to grow. Isn't it wonderful that it's really quite simple? Read the word, fellowship with godly men. Fellowship with your wife, fellowship with your children around the word, learn the word. Isn't it wonderful that it's really that simple? And isn't it terrible how accountable we're going to be on that final day because it was so simple? I didn't say it was easy, but simple, there's no mystery to it, no esoteric knowledge that you need, you need the word. Now. Look, verse five, and the people will be oppressed, each one by another and each one by his neighbor, and the youth will storm against the elder and the inferior against the honorable. Is that not our society today? Is that not exactly where we live now? Look. At verse 12, oh, my people, their oppressors are children and women rule over them. Now, most people, when they read this, they think, yeah, wicked women ruling over men, but there's two possibilities here. One has to do with someone like Jezebel. Who was a wicked woman who sought to usurp authority and everything else, then there's also Deborah. Deborah's kind of difficult to explain, isn't she? Here she's raised up this leader. Trying to put everything together in the scriptures, it's my opinion that. That Deborah was raised up as a rebuke to men. And at no fault of her own. Do you know how many young girls and young men you listen to me? I travel all over, even here. Even in my own church, how many young girls between the ages of 25 and 35? Godly, smart, intelligent, strong, capable. And they say, Are we going to be single all our life? Our only option is to be single all our life or to entrust our lives to boys our age who, when they get a little bit of extra money, buy cool tennis shoes or another video game. What are we supposed to do? Brothers. The Chinese say there are no bad students, just bad teachers. What kind of legacy did you leave? Some of you were laughing. What kind of legacy have you left? What have you done? I am not going to stand here and curse the darkness and make fun of a younger generation. I'm not going to do it. Because when you look in Israel, a generation was raised up who did not know the Lord and whose fault was that? The previous generation. Yeah, you guys might not be playing video games, but a lot of you have wasted so much of your time doing the stupidest, silliest things of which men are beyond that. No, brothers, I'm telling you. It was a great thing for me to learn that my life, that I should go to the casket poured out. That life is supposed to be difficult. That self-sacrifice hurts. That it's not about me. You say, oh, it's about Christ. Be careful of a theology of glory. It is about Christ. But if it goes no further than that, the words you've said are nothing more than a meme. It's all about my wife. It's all about my children. And it's all about my church. And then it's all about the elect people of God who have yet to hear the gospel of their salvation. That's what it's all about. That's what it's really all about. I know professional men in this church and I know professional men and other places around the world that are extremely professional, extremely busy, and they witness to more people in one week than I do in six months. through their professions, through their things, they have Bible studies, they encourage, maybe they don't do that, maybe they don't have the gift of teaching, but you go to their home and you see their children and their wives, they're not about gaining something in this world. They're just using the gifts that they have in order to serve in those concentric circles of concern. Now, what do I mean by that? This is the way I've ordered my life. It was based on a book on evangelism that was written about 40 years ago by a very godly man, concentric circles of concern. But I took it and changed it up a little bit in the middle of that circle is me. You say, well, that doesn't sound very Christian. Well, it is. And what am I saying when I say the middle of that circle is me, the greatest thing I can do for everyone else on this planet is to be a better Paul Washer. And what does that mean? To seek to be more conformed to the image of Christ, if I do not start with me in the word and renewing my mind, nothing else works, nothing else works. So, first of all, as men, what do we do to combat this? What do we do? First of all, our great goal should be to be conformed to the image of Christ in character, isn't it amazing that the qualifications for an elder are almost exclusively character? And you say, well, I'm not an elder. I don't have to worry about that. What you have to understand is in that list and Titus three and Titus one and first Timothy three. What he's basically saying is this, an elder needs to be a mature Christian, and this is what a mature Christian looks like. Husband needs to be a mature Christian, and this is what a mature Christian looks like. Character to grow in conformity to Christ, which starts by cultivating the mind of Christ in the word of God and then growing. If you don't know anything about the principles of marriage, but you're a man who walks full of the Holy Spirit and bearing the fruit of the spirit, you're going to be OK in your marriage. Now, you need both things. But the one without the other just doesn't work. And so that's the first concentration you should be thinking of. I need to be a clean tool, a useful tool, an accurate tool. And then from there, what is our greatest concern? Your wife. Your wife. Her godliness, her sanctification, her prosperity as a person, her flowering, your wife. What about me? OK, you die, that's your job. You say, well, I don't like that, then don't walk around pounding your chest like a gorilla and saying you're a man. Because a man is someone who dies to self for his bride, because Jesus was not a man. He was the man. And we follow him. And then you give your life to your children. Well, I thought children were first. Now there's your problem. Greatest thing you can do for your children, men, is to love their mom. And do you know why so many women hate their daughter in laws? Because it's your fault. Yeah, sin has many consequences. So as a husband, you neglect your wife, you neglect affection, intimacy, growing as friends, you neglect all these things. And so your wife, she needs that. She needs that. She's a faithful woman. She's not going to commit adultery. But now you forced her to find it somewhere else and she finds it in her children and her children start supplying for her all the affection that she's not getting from her husband. And then when other people come along to take her children away, she can't stand it. And it's your fault. That's my fault. You see, when you see obedience and God's commands, I can remember looking at a certain thing in Hebrews 10, taking Hebrews 10 and then seeing how it seemed like the entire Bible was interwoven into that chapter. It was just unbelievable. And you've got to see that in every aspect of our life, everything is interwoven. And if there's a thread that breaks loose here, everything else starts to come undone. And so that concentric circle of concern, it is to give myself to my wife, then to give myself to my children and then to give myself to the people of God. And then to give to myself. To the world. In the sense of sharing with them the gospel of Jesus Christ. So look what we have here, brethren, look what we have, this is the world that we're living in. Now I want to go to another. Go over with me for a moment. To Jeremiah, chapter 12, verse five. If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, How will you do in the thicket of the Jordan? Jeremiah has suffered. We're early in on the book. He suffered. He prays something of a prayer of complaint in chapter 12. And you know what God says to him? Jeremiah, if you think this is bad, buckle up. Buckle up. In the last year, we have seen. We have seen that there is much darkness in the rules being made. And just in one year, we have seen a change in our society and we have seen change in society and government's view of the church. And everyone saying persecution, persecution, buckle up. Buckle up. This is nothing. But gentlemen, this is a text that I think about with regard to myself, I don't need to look at you, I can look in the mirror. You look at the difficulties that I've had throughout life. You know, sometimes you think your difficulties are so great until you meet another person. And I'm constantly asking myself, Paul, If you've run with footmen and they've tired you out, how can you compete with horses? Paul, if if slander and attacks and Twitter and Facebook and all these other things that people do, if all that. Bothers you. Makes you weak in the knees. How are you going to die at the stake? How are you going to go to prison? How's it going to be when? Well, who knows? Another way we can look at this is. I know people. I work with tribal settings, I've worked 13 years with with the Chinese, some of my dearest friends. In China. I look at the things they go through. In Myanmar. My brother's there, different places around the world, and I see how little support they have. They never studied in a wonderful seminary. They never. And yet to see them stand against. Everything at risk of life and limb, and I look at myself and I go, really? Someone says, well, it's hard to study the Bible, really? Well, you know, it's it's hard to be disciplined to go to, you know, to kind of covenant with the other group of men and grow together. Really? That's hard. Really? Let me give you some tissue paper and wipe your eyes. Really? So if we can't run with footmen, how are we going to run with horses if we fall down in a land of peace? Now, I know the covid thing has had devastating effects on families and men and everything. But honestly. Just having to spend more time at home has turned you into an alcoholic. Having to spend a little bit more time at home has made you angry with your wife, what are you going to do when you have to spend a little bit of time in a prison cell? Really? Well, you know, it's so difficult to grow. Brothers, as I said, if it's difficult to grow here, then you don't want to leave here because it gets far worse than many other places, I can tell you that. This is a thing, Paul, and I think every preacher has looked at this text many times in their life, if you think this is difficult. And what's amazing, he doesn't say, do you think this is difficult? It's not really. He says, you think this is difficult? Buckle up, because it's going to get far more worse than you could ever imagine. But throughout this entire book, Jeremiah is told, I will be with you. And that is enough. That is. Enough. Now, I want to go to one other introductory Text, 1 Corinthians 16. Some people have gotten rather annoyed with me that I said that men are not supposed to get in touch with their feminine side. I've discovered that that annoyed some people. First Corinthians 16, 13, be on the alert, stand firm in the faith. Get in touch with your feminine side. Be strong. That's not what it says. Do you realize that to many professing evangelicals today, they probably will never now again preach this text? Because it will be offensive to their crowd. Would you have believed ever that this text would have been an offense? And now, oh. Beyond the alert, the devil is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And if that devil were to take a vacation in Palm Springs for the rest of your life, you would still struggle with sin. be on the alert outside and inside. And a great rule with regard to that is do not trust yourself. Be on the alert. How can you be on the alert? You know, sometimes I take somebody deer hunting and and I go, look, look right over there. There it is. And they're like, And they're like, and you forget that as a little boy, you were trained. Don't look for a deer. Look for a little flicker of white. Look for something that stands out in that foliage, in that thicket. It just doesn't belong there. So I'm seeing a little tip of white on an ear, and I know he's there. That other person says, there's nothing there. No, he's right there. And why is that? Well, from a little boy. Remember, Timothy, from a little boy, from childhood, you have known the scriptures. Hebrews. That we grow in our discernment by training the book of Proverbs. Second, Timothy three, 16 and 17. Do you see? How can you be on the alert? You can only be on the alert in the following ways. Number one, it's the word of God. You have to train your eye. You have to train your eye so that it recognizes. Well, there it goes. I remember when my my little boy first read his first book on on logic. I think it was the fallacy detective or something. And we went and heard a preacher and we came back and I was like, oh my, a critic. My son goes, dad, he committed two logical fallacies in his sermon. I said, okay, you're not studying logic anymore. But that you see, he wouldn't have been able, there were, there were fallacies. Well, one of them was, but there were fallacies. But my point is this. He wouldn't have known that unless he had read that little book, Fallacy Detective. But by knowledge, he was then able to discern. No, that was a deviation. He was alert to it. I mean, his ears popped up. And every little boy is a legalist, so he wanted to point out really quick that everyone was wrong. Do you see the word of God trains your eye? Don't be like the man who has to see full blown sin coming at him, capturing him and eating him alive before he recognizes full blown sin. You need to be discerning. Read the word of God so that when that thing pops up. Kill it, kill it now. Another way in which you're alert is in prayer. Paul talks about being alert in prayer and Colossians 4 has the idea of being alert in prayer. We pray, we pray, we ask for God's help. We ask for God's grace. We could go on and on. But another way of being alert. That is often overlooked. Is. You can't stay up 24 hours a day. Someone else needs to take watch. One of the greatest kindnesses that the Lord has ever shown me. He's shown it to me throughout the great portion of my life is surrounding me with godly men. I'm going to choose to be around men that make me want to be more noble, that make me want to be more like Christ, that sometimes I walk away from them and I'm ashamed. at my lack of maturity and my lack of spirituality. But it's not a shame unto condemnation. It's a shame unto motivation. So we are alert, we are alert. And how are we alert? Through the word of God, through prayer. And through others. Brothers, I've said this, I think one other time since I've been here this last week, and that's this. Please do not fall into the error of thinking some people study the Bible because it's their gift. Or some people pray more than you because they're just have that kind of disposition. One of the most helpful things I ever heard, I heard from John Piper and its application to my life was unbelievable. And that was this when when I heard that he said, I have to fight for absolutely everything. And I've asked other men about this, men that I admired in the word, men that I admired in prayer, and men that I've admired for their godliness. And do you know what? For every one of them, it wasn't any easier to study the Bible than it was for me. It wasn't any easier for them to pray. They had to fight the same exact battles. Then what's the difference? They knew their life depended on it. I remember one of the greatest preachers you've probably never heard of is a man by the name of David Miller. He's just one, I mean, still preaches. He's had such an impact on so many people's lives. And I was chopping wood for him one day because he's in a wheelchair. And I was chopping wood for him out on his hunting camp. He hunts in a wheelchair. with big tires. And I was chopping wood for him. And I said, because I remember the first time that I heard him preach, he goes, he has a I can't imitate him. Well, he's going to kill me for this imitation. But he's like, turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter two. And so I did. And then he proceeded to read Acts chapter two, about halfway through it, I realized he wasn't looking at his Bible. He was just quoting Acts chapter two off the top of his head like it was nothing. And he could do that just about any place else. So I'm chopping wood one day and I said, I said, Brother David, God has really given you a gift of memory. Said, No, he hadn't. Brother Paul, don't talk like that. I just work at it harder than you do. You see, I get, you think I slam people? I get slammed so bad sometimes it's unbelievable. But think what he said. He said, no. You know, when I came out of whatever I came out of after about seven days and I like woke up and knew where I was, I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. It hurt so bad because of the machine they put on me that pounded me and pounded me to get my heart restarted three different times and went on forever, they said. When I breathed, I didn't want to do that again. It hurt so bad. And I can remember just concentrating, just, okay, breathe, just go in and go out. I didn't want to breathe. But would have that been a good option? So what hurts? Yeah, it does. OK, but you got one other option, die. You breathe or you die. You breathe or you die. You study the word or you die. You pray or you die. I'm sorry, it changes everything. It changes everything, doesn't it? If only that we could all take seriously, it would change so much in our lives. Read the word or you die. He goes on, stand firm in the faith. You know, I love taking people to Hebrews 11 one and you know, Faith, well, let's just look over there for just a second. I'll take it because there's no sense saying stand firm in the faith if you don't know what that means. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for. I've always hoped to fly, hoped to fly unaided by machine. And so this morning I woke up with a great assurance that I could fly. So I climb up on top of this. building and I throw myself off with all the assurance in the world and I die. I have the conviction of things not seen, I've never seen anybody fly unaided, but I have the conviction I can do it this morning. So I climb up to the top of this building, throw myself off with the greatest conviction and I die. But if you just take that one text out by itself, that's exactly what it's saying. But that's not exactly what it's saying, because you have to read it in the context of Hebrews and the context, the entire Bible. And the thing that I want you to see that is so important, how can you stand strong in the faith? How can you even have faith? How can you have the assurance for something that you hope for? How can you have conviction of these things you've not seen? You've not seen these things. There's only one way. And that is you have assurance of things hoped for because God promised them in his word. You have the conviction of something you've never seen because God promised it in his word. And you as men cannot stand firm in the faith apart from the word of God. You cannot. It's impossible because faith is not a leap into the darkness, it's leaping upon a rock. It's trusting in what God said. And how can you trust in what God has said? How can you do it, gentlemen? How can you trust in what God has said? Only if you've studied what he said, only if you've been in a church that proclaims what he said, that's all you can do. And listen to this, I love this is one of my favorite texts, it comes out of the servant songs of the Messiah and Isaiah, just listen. Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of his servant, that walks in darkness and has no light? You know, in 1 John, it says that if you walk in darkness as a continual style of life, not a Christian. So why is he saying here that the one who truly fears the Lord, the one who truly obeys the voice of his servant, the Messiah, Is the one who walks in darkness and has no light. It means this. This is key to understanding almost everything with regard to piety. And you need to know this. This goes all the way back to the garden. There was no reason for Adam and Eve to look at that tree and believe that it would kill them. There was no evidence. It was beautiful. There was just no evidence. There was no evidence that Abraham, when he looked at his body, there was no evidence that he was going to sire a child. When he looked at his wife, there was no evidence that she was going to give birth to a child. You look around and there's absolutely no evidence with regard to that thing. And you see, that's the whole point of Genesis chapter three, and people oftentimes don't understand it. They'll say that that one sin brought the whole world into fallenness because it was against God and God is infinitely worthy and all that. It's true. But it was a huge sin because it all came down to the character of God. Who is God? There you look at that tree, there's no reason to believe there's no reason to believe that tree will kill you except for the word of God. And if you believe that word, you are affirming God is who he says he is, if you do not believe that word, you are literally saying God is a liar about the worst thing he could be a liar and that is himself. It's a direct attack on the character of God. And so those who walk in darkness here are those who have their faith firmly set upon the word of God. They need no other stimuli. They need no carnal stimuli to worship. They don't need to get psyched up at some acquire the fire conference to go home to be good husbands. To be obedient. They don't even need to see temporal blessing for their obedience. Why? Well, it's very clear. Look what it says. He trusts in the name of the Lord and relies on his God, that's faith. So when it says stand firm in the faith. You know, it's basically saying stop calling God a liar if you want to look at it negatively. Brothers, sometimes I come across men who and we all. Who are attacked with doubting or something. But I want you to know that even though I'm going to speak kind words and I'm going to do this slowly, I try to do with most men what I do with myself, unmask that doubt. That's not just a little man who's hurting and he needs me to put my hand on his shoulder and say, I understand. Doubt is a direct affront upon the character of God. And when I see doubt in my life. It just needs to be crucified. And it needs to be acknowledged as what it is, unbelief in the character of God. Now, isn't it isn't it amazing that he says here in verse 13, stand firm and be on alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men. What does it mean to act like men? Be strong, be strong in what way? Be strong and being alert, be strong and standing firm in the faith. How do you act like men? You're alert. You're ever vigilant, you've got a family to protect. That's why I tell men, if you won't study for yourself, study for your wife. Do it for her. If you won't do it for yourself, do it for your children. They need a man and a man isn't somebody who makes six figures, a man isn't somebody who can lift a building, a man isn't somebody who fights MMA. A man is someone who is able to stand alert at his post. To be vigilant with regard to his own heart, to be vigilant with regard to his wife, to be vigilant with regard to his children and to be vigilant with regard to his church. Realizing it's a battle. It's a battle. It's a battle, men who believe their God. I've said this many times as a young man that was always very, very afraid that had gone with me into the jungle several times, and I mean, he's scared of his own shadow. Everything was going to bite him, of course, everything would bite you there, but. The thing of what I appreciated about him so much was he went. He went weak, he went afraid, but he went, why are you going, son? Because they need Christ, because Christ needs to be glorified here, that to me is a man. That to me, self-sacrifice, self-sacrifice. Selflessness. The world doesn't revolve around you, your family, your wife is not an extension of you. You have been called to serve. But we can't we do we will not have the character to serve and we will not have the knowledge to serve. We will not be able to be biblical men. That means conform to the image of Christ. We won't accomplish any of that if the word of God is not dwelling in us richly. If we are not in prayer and if we are not in fellowship, not only with a biblical church, with some really good brothers in that church that will rebuke us, offend us, and if we get offended, kick us in the pants and laugh. I tell you what, we've just become such a bunch of, I don't know, kick us in the pants. We need it. We need to act like men. We need to be conformed to the image of Christ. God bless.