Our scripture reading this evening is from Jeremiah chapter 5. The prophecy of Jeremiah. Chapter five. Along with Jeremiah, we'll read also a few verses, other parts of scripture which support the same idea in Jeremiah five. We'll turn there after we read the first nine verses, first nine verses of Jeremiah five. In Jeremiah 5, or prior to Jeremiah 5, God, through the prophet, has, with weeping, told the people of Judah that the Babylonian captivity is soon to be. Jeremiah 5 explains why. to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem. And see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man. If there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth, and I will pardon it. And though they say, the Lord liveth, Surely they swear falsely. O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return or to repent. Therefore, I said, surely these are poor, they are foolish, for they know not the way of the Lord nor the judgment of their God. I will get me unto the great men and will speak unto them, for they have known the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God. But these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds. Wherefore, a lion out of the forest shall slay them and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them. A leopard shall watch over their cities. Everyone that go without fence shall be torn in pieces because their transgressions are many and their backslidings are increased. How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They were as fed horses in the morning. Everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord, and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Stop there, Jeremiah, now turn with me to Isaiah chapter 46. Isaiah chapter 46. I'll read just one verse there. Isaiah 46. In verse 8, Isaiah 46 verse 8, before verse 8, the Lord through Isaiah the prophet, who comes about 100 years before Jeremiah, rebukes the people of idolatry and the foolishness of it. And in verse 8, we read this, remember this and show yourselves men. Bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors." We're literally rebels. And one more passage in Job. Job chapter 38. Job 38. And we'll read the first three verses of Job 38. Then the Lord answered Job out to the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man. For I'll demand of thee And answer thou me." Those same words can be found in Job 40 verse 7 as well. We won't read that. With the same spirit of Jeremiah, I stand before you this evening and say, find me a man. Find me a real man. Not just a male, but a true man. Go around the Chicago area, as Jeremiah said to the people, to go around Jerusalem Go around the Chicago area. Go around to and fro, through the streets. See and know. Look in the cars, on the broad highways, in the office buildings, in the workplaces, in the churches, in the homes, in the government buildings. See if you can find a real man. And you might think it is easy. But the point of Jeremiah in chapter five is that the whole city of Jerusalem did not have such a man. The whole population had males of that gender, but not a true man as God would define a man. There's no man Having said that, Jeremiah, the Lord, decides to search the places that are high up, those males of higher position. He has searched the streets. He has searched the public ways. He has not found a man among the simple folks. And so he says in verse four, therefore, I said, surely these are poor. They are foolish, for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God, meaning among the normal countrymen. I have not found a man, but perhaps that's understandable. Verse five, then, I will get me to the great, and by the way, men is not in the original. I will get me to the high ones, those of greater position, those in the palaces, those in the synagogue, those of office. I will get me into the great men. I will speak unto them, for they have known, or they should know, the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God. But the conclusion of Jeremiah and the Lord having gone to them of higher position is this also. At the end of verse five, but these have all together broken the yoke and burst the bonds, meaning they have all together broken the laws of God and seek to be free from the boundaries that God has set for men. The answer that Jeremiah had to come to in his day was that there would be judgment because no man was found. If Jeremiah were to search on the streets of our area and the homes and the higher places and those of position in our day, question is, would he find? A man. A real man. Or would he conclude, there is none? Many adult males today would insist, I am a man. I am a real man. But I think most in Jeremiah's day would have done the same. What if, people of God, what if the idea of what a man is is so skewed, is so confused that many today who think that they are men really are following a caricature, a false idea of what a man truly should be? What if males, even in churches today, walk around with this false idea of what a man is and do not therefore behave as a man, a true man of God. There is much confusion. It's not hard to prove, it's not hard to see. Many, both men, women, and children think that a man is someone who has a six-pack of beer or of abs, handsome and dirty. wild in the driver's seat or in the bed, with a rough voice, with rough hands and rough manners, usually packing, usually athletic or outdoorsy. But is that really how the Bible defines what a man is? Oh yes, perhaps it is true that many men have such characteristics, but there's nothing in the Bible that follows such. Many think of man as an animal. Ironic, with the teaching of evolution today. Like a horse, as Jeremiah describes in verse five, also known as a stud in our culture, neighing after his neighbor's wife. Like a beast, man is thought of as someone who lives in a man cave in his den, a garage, or a barn, hibernating there when he's not hunting for game. And everyone just says, yes, yes, men will be men. But such an animal-like idea of man is simply not what a man is in distinction from the rest of the creation. Others think men are simply those with the body parts of a man. But the Bible gives the clear command again and again, we'll see this, to be a man, which implies that not all those who have the physical features of a man is truly behaving as a man. And then what is the epitome of confusion is that many imagine that it doesn't matter whether you were created with certain features. You are a man only if you feel like a man. And if you're a female who feels like a man, then you may be a man, and so on and so forth. This is not a joke. There is utter confusion in our day and age concerning what masculinity is. and femininity. The homosexual movement is just one, just one of those gross confusions of what manhood is. Most today cannot define what a man is. Young men, can you? Do you know what a true man, as God defines him, is? And do you behave as such? It is exceedingly necessary that we go back to Scripture and understand the basics of what God created man to be. It is necessary because, as I already mentioned, of the perverse confusions that exist today in the minds of the world and in the minds of the church world even. It is necessary because God commands numerous times that men be men. It is necessary because one big reason that some of our marriages are suffering is exactly because men won't be men. It is necessary to consider what biblical masculinity is, because men not only have the obligation to be men, but women need to know what a man is, to marry one who truly is a man as God describes it in the Scriptures. And then having been married to such a man, then women also need to let the men be men. And not take on their roles as the trend is nowadays. Tonight I began a topical series, I don't do this usually, normally, on biblical manhood or biblical masculinity. Normally, I do stick to textual series through a book of the Bible. But because of the great need in our country, in our community, and in our church, I preach on this for a few sermons. Tonight, consider biblical manhood taking responsibility. Taking responsibility. First, for self, and then secondly, for others. The main point tonight is that a true man takes responsibility. And he learns, he's not perfect, but he learns how to take responsibility. And by that, I do not mean, I do not mean be responsible. That's a different topic. We'll get to that. Men are also to be responsible. They have work to do, duties to accomplish. But tonight, you're called not merely to be responsible, but the main point is take responsibility. You see the difference? Take responsibility, particularly for your actions and for your faults and for your sins. That's what a man does. Take it, as it's said today, take it like a man. Take this sermon and take this series like a man. I don't promise that it's going to be easy to listen to and it's not going to be easy for me to preach it, but we need to take it, men, like men. True men take responsibility for their own faults. Men own it. Men man up. and they stand before God, they listen to God's word, and they admit it when God's word shows them their sin. This is not something I'm making up. This is something that is biblical, and it's derived not only from one text, but text after text after text in scripture, and I'm going to take great pains to prove it to you from what we read today. Look at what God says to Job, for one, in Job chapter 38, verse three. God, remember, is talking to Job after Job has felt much affliction in his life. He was a man that was afflicted with a taking away of his family, a removal of his prosperity, his children, of his health, and of the terrible friends that came to him and accused him of sin. He was a man that was tempted to curse God and die as his own wife told him to do, but he was a godly man. He remained faithful. What we see, however, in chapter 38 and then in chapter 40 is this, that though Job was a godly man, an upright man, he was not perfect. And through his affliction, he did, he did sin. And his main sin was this. He questioned God, as we would also. He asked God, as we would, why? Why are you doing this to me? How is this good? I haven't done anything wrong, he said, when his friends accused him of it. Why is God doing this to me? And he demanded an answer from God. And what God does, starting at chapter 38, through the end of the book, is God reprimands Job. He rebukes Job. He doesn't explain to Job why he had sent these afflictions. He simply tells Job what can be summed up this way, who do you think you are to question me? You may not. But before God goes onto this lengthy, powerful rebuke of Job, bringing into play all of the great questions in creation that Job could not answer and could not demand an answer of God either, God, before His rebuke, says this, Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. What God is saying there in chapter 38 verse 3, and then later on in chapter 40 verse 7, is Job needs to be a man, a great man literally, one who is prepared to fight a battle, prepared to run a race, prepared to stand before God and face up to His fault. Don't run away, God is saying. Don't try to excuse it, but face up to Me. Listen to this rebuke. That is what it means to gird up your loins like a man. Isaiah chapter 46 verse 8 shows us the same idea or a similar idea. Remember I said that in Isaiah 46, Isaiah is rebuking God's people. He's rebuking Israel for idolatry. He's showing the foolishness, the folly of bowing down before idols rather than God. And God through Isaiah explains in Isaiah chapter 46 that These idol gods, you have to carry, you have to bear them wherever you go. They can't go there themselves. And the true God is the one who carries you. How can you serve these idol gods who can't even carry themselves? But then in verse six, after showing them the shameful folly of their idolatry, God says this, remember this, and show yourselves men, how? Bring it again to mind. Meaning bring to mind this rebuke that I'm giving you, O ye transgressors or rebels. Be men in this way. Don't ignore the rebukes. Don't let it come in one ear and out the other. Meditate on what God is saying against you. True men, acknowledge then that they are transgressors as God says it. That's what a man does. That's what the expression meant in Isaiah 46. The negative example is Adam, the first man who, when he fell, stopped acting like a man. Adam means man, but having fallen, he stopped being the man that God made him to be. When he fell, he died spiritually, wasn't manly anymore. So he showed his unmanliness. How? Here's a negative. Quickly got himself fig leaves to cover up. He quickly went with his wife to hide himself from God, even though he knew he couldn't. And then when God found him, he said, he blamed his wife. The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. That's the opposite, you see, of manliness. As what we, as males, do way too often, when it's time to own up to our sins, when it's time to hear the rebuke from God's Word, it's time to acknowledge it before Him, we cover it up with our own fig leaves excuses. We hide the truth as though God cannot see it. And we blame too often the wife that God has given us, and at the same time blame God who gave her to us. Where are the men? God asked through Jeremiah, where are the men who will stop the cover-ups and the hiding and the blaming, the deflecting, and stand before God to admit, I am that man who sinned. So different, isn't it? From the world's mentality of what a man is. Males today think that being a man means never admitting fault. never owning up to it. That's weak, you see. That'll make people think you're weak, and then they won't respect you anymore. But the Bible says contrary to that, to be a man is to stand before God and take responsibility for your sins. This is the first sermon in the series on biblical masculinity for good reason, men, because you and I won't listen. We will not listen to the rest of the series and the other important lessons that God has to give us in his word and the rebukes where we'll see our faults. We will, I will, you will. We won't listen to that. We don't understand this first, that a true man is willing to take responsibility for his sin. And then having admitted to that sin, part of this taking responsibility is repentance. It's repentance. True men sorrow for their sin. There's truth in that statement, people of God. Real men cry. They may not cry in public, in front of other people, but real men cry in their hearts. And it's not a mere outward thing. But it's something that we do really, sorrowing within for our sins. That is what real men do. Listen to Job. God told Job twice, be a man, gird up your loins like a man, stand before me, hear this rebuke. And Job listened. How did he behave as a man? Job 40 verse 4. He responds, Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. Meaning I will not speak to excuse, to blame, to somehow cover up my sin. Listen to him again in chapter 42 verse 6. I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. Listen to the Apostle Paul, people of God, the Apostle Paul. Oh, wretched man that I am. That's a real man. Listen to this man in Luke chapter 18, verse 13. The publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Real men come before God, not to challenge Him, not to say I didn't do it, not to uphold His self-righteousness, but to bow in repentance. I am sorry for my sin. This is what Isaiah and Jeremiah also show. The heart of a true man. Isaiah 46, verse eight, I read again. Remember this, show yourselves men. And then Isaiah explains, he explains how it is to show yourselves men. Bring it again to mine, and that literally says, turn again at the heart or at the mind, O rebels. It's the word for repent. Let there be a turning from a delight and sin, a turning from that to a turning to sorrow and to hate your sin. Let your heart be truly repentant. Jeremiah 5, when God says, find a man and there was no man to be found, verse 3 describes the opposite of a man. Describes why no man could be found, because every man was doing this. O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth, meaning are not God's eyes upon the heart of man, knowing the truth of the matter? Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return or to repent. There was no man, man enough to repent of their sin. A true man quits fighting God. He instead fights against his own sinful nature, which doesn't want to say sorry, but will, out of love for his God and his Savior. That doesn't mean men have no backbone. It doesn't mean that the man is always admitting wrong. Of course, it can't mean that. He better not be always admitting wrong because part of being a man is able to stand firm on the truth of God's word upon his convictions and say, this is truth and I believe it and I will not sway from it and I will not say I'm wrong. He has to be able to do that too. The point is this, people of God, men, when the scripture is brought to us to expose our sin, to expose our error, then we fall before the face of God in humble repentance. No matter who brings it, if it's the Word of God, we fall and repent of that sin. A man, according to Scripture, takes responsibility for his own sin. But more than that, he also takes responsibility for the sins of others. Here's where a man is very much distinguished and different from a woman. He's not better, he's different. And the man, if he's a man, a man of God, takes responsibility not only for his own sins, the woman needs to do that too, for her own sins, but also for the sins of others. The concept of headship is often forgotten even in Christian circles, but the headship of man demands that with the authority that God has given him over his wife, over his children, and of his God's will over the members of the church, the headship that God has given him demands that he has authority not only but he has responsibility with that authority. Men today want all the authority but no responsibility. But with that headship and with that authority, man has to take on that responsibility. This concept of headship is everywhere in the Bible. This idea of being responsible for the sins of others is also in so many different places in the Bible. It's in the texts that we read. Why did Isaiah write in chapter 46, verse eight, show yourselves men? Why does he speak to the men? Was it because the women weren't bowing down to idols? No. It's because the Word of God comes to those who represent the people of God. The Word of God comes to the men, the heads of the households, the heads of the nation. They're responsible. Why do you think Jeremiah addresses the males in chapter five? Why does he bring up the great men in verse five? Because they're the heads of the family. They're the heads of the church back then. They're the ones responsible. Jeremiah chapter 5 verse 7 makes that even clearer. Jeremiah speaks to the men. You see what he does? He blames the men for the sins of the children. How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods. Children are not to be blamed for their father's sins, but fathers are to be blamed, partially, for their children's. Think about it, men. Why are the Ten Commandments written to men of households? Think of the Second Commandment, the warning, I will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children. The fourth commandment speaks directly to men, thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter. The ninth commandment, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. It's not just the 10 commandments, but so many of the epistles, almost all of God's words gives evidence that the word of God is to the heads, to the men, Not to the exclusion, of course, to the women and the children. That's not the point. But to the men who are held responsible, whether we like it or not, God has made the male in those positions of authority to take that responsibility. Let me put it concretely. If the children are not cared for, If the children are neglected physically or spiritually, sure, yes, man, your wife is probably at fault in this too. But the main blame rests on your shoulders, men. If the laundry of the house is not washed, if the cooking doesn't get done, if the cleaning is not there, if the baths are not done for the children, if the homework isn't completed, if the kids aren't put to bed on time, if the things at home don't get done, most husbands imagine, they imagine that somehow this is under the job description of the woman. They're responsible for that. I'm not. But the reality is, while she may do much of that work, If Jesus were to knock on your door, because these things weren't done, he's coming not to talk to the woman, but to the man. Husbands, if your wife has low self-confidence, doubts her salvation, is finding it difficult to function because of how overwhelmed she is, and she is not being sanctified, not growing in her faith, it's not just her fault. It's her husband's. When feminists today bend to usurp the authority of men in church and in the home, yes, those women are wrong. But it's often due to the men. in the first place, not taking the responsibility and leading. When wives are controlling in the home and not allowing men to lead, yes, it's wrong of them. They need to stop. But men, it still comes back to you because it probably started with you not doing what you needed to do. The man, the husband, the father, the office bearer, we need to repent. Think about Job, the man Job. He not only offered sacrifices for himself, Job chapter 1 verse 5, he offered the sacrifices for his children because he saw himself responsible not only over himself and his faults, but he sought to bring as a responsible father the sins of his family, seeking God's forgiveness as their head. Think about Daniel. He's a man brought into captivity for his parents' sins. Having grown up in Babylon, though, Daniel has become a leader of the people of Israel. Here's what he says in Daniel 9, verse 5, as a leader of the people of Israel. We have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments. Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants, the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings and our princes and our fathers, to all the people of the land. Daniel had not done any of this personally. And yet, as a head, As a leader of the people, he took responsibility for the people's sins and brought them before God, seeking God's forgiveness. Real men recognize that they are responsible not only for their personal actions, but for those under them. But perhaps what is most convincing It's the example, men, of the man. The man, Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 2, verse 5. There's one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. Will you remember with me what his main work was? Will you remember with me why he came to this earth and became a man? Will you remember with me why he went to the cross? He didn't have any of his own sins to take responsibility for. But you see the exact reason that he came to this earth and took our flesh and blood and became a man, not a woman, and went to the cross was to take the responsibility, the blame, the fault of the sins of His bride, of His people who were under Him, to put it on His shoulders and to suffer the consequences that were due unto us. At the cross, it was as if he was saying, I take the blame. I'll take it as a man. Now men, of course, what we're going to try to do is not identical to what Jesus did. We cannot atone for the sins of those under us. And yet, similar to Christ, if we want to be conformed into the image of Jesus, we want to seek to be a man as Jesus was a man, that perfect man, then this is what we do. We can't atone for the sins of our wife and the sins of our children, but we will take responsibility for our own sins, and we'll take responsibility for the sins of our families, and we'll stop blaming them. We'll start standing before God in repentance. And then, men, having taken those responsibilities for our sins upon ourselves, we unload it. We take it to the cross again. You take the overwhelming load of responsibility, the feeling of guilt that you will have, and you're not going to dump it in frustration upon your wife once again, or dump it upon your children, taking it out on them with anger, or drown it somehow with some sort of substance and alcohol and busyness. But you'll take that load of guilt as you feel as the head of the family, as a head over your wife, and you get to take it to Jesus. You get to take it to your head. Thankful He's not just your example, but He is your Savior. And you bring it to the cross with your family. You even let them, men, you let your wife and your children hear your confession, your acknowledgement of sins with sorrow in your heart before God and before Jesus. You won't lose their respect. I know that's our fear. You'll only gain it. And you'll teach your sons how to be true men. And your daughters what kind of men to look for. And your wife, who Jesus is. Jeremiah 5 verse 1 says, see if you can find a man, if there be any that execute the judgment that seeketh the truth, and I will pardon. And thankfully there is one man, one perfect man, and his name is Jesus. And for his sake, God says, I will pardon. The sermon is the first in our series on biblical masculinity because, as I said, this is the first lesson we must learn or else we will not learn any others. We take responsibility and then we take it to the cross. In a church world apostatizing quickly, we need men of such courage. We need men of such strength to arise and be such real men. We live in a time that is very, very similar to the time of the judges, where everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Everyone became a man as they thought a man should be, and we know what happened in the time of the judges. There was such great apostasy where there was not many real men that the leader had to be Deborah, a woman. We live in the last days similar to the time of the judges. Paul describes what men will be like in these last days, different from what men should be like. So to close, turn with me to 2 Timothy 3, 2 Timothy 3 verse 1. 2 Timothy 3 verse 1 says, This know also that in the last days perilous or difficult and dangerous times shall come. Then follows a list for men. This is what men are going to be like. A list of many things. Lovers of their own selves. Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to their parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection or love, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, meaning without self-control, fierce or brutal, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady or hard-headed, High-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. From such turn away. If you want to know what a true man is, here's one way. Go through all these characteristics of what God describes will be men in the last days, and come up with a word for each of these descriptions, which is the opposite. That's biblical masculinity. The end of verse five, from such turn away. Don't fellowship with such, and don't be men who are such. Let men in this church contrast to the world of males. Stand in these last days as men. But first, in order to stand. We must kneel before the face of God in responsible repentance. Amen. Father, for our failures as husbands, for our failures as fathers, for our failures as sons, we are sorry for our pride. We're sorry for our stubbornness. We're sorry for our hardened hearts. We're sorry for our unwillingness to take responsibility for our sins. We're sorry for being lovers of selves. We're sorry for covetousness, for our unthankfulness, for our lack of love, without self-control, for our blaming rather than accepting our sin, for being lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, for being brutal. for having a form of godliness at times and yet not showing the power thereof. We acknowledge that openly before thee tonight. We ask that when thy word confronts us, we might be man enough to repent again. We thank thee for that man, Jesus Christ, in whom we might find full and free forgiveness We thank Thee that He, as the man, has taken the blame for all our sins, suffered in our place. Confirm, we pray to us, more and more, that we are Thy children and His brothers and sisters, and conform us more and more to His image, walking after the new man. In Jesus' name, for thy glory we pray, amen.