We've got Pat here from Poteet, and a lot of you don't know him. I just wanted you brothers to get a feel for what the relationship is here. Craig and John Seitzma and myself, we go back to the days of sitting in Community Baptist Church under Pat's leadership. Brethren, I'll tell you what happened. God saved me, and I didn't know anything. I came out of nominal Catholicism and went through this venture. I was in a Pentecostal church. I took this course. And you know what happened? Of all things, Craig and I ended up in a church in Michigan where it was just me, him, his family, and the pastor and his family. That was it. Once in a while, we had a visitor. But it was called Pilgrim's Heritage Baptist Church, and it was north of Kalamazoo, Michigan. And Craig and I would often sit on Friday nights in his living room. I remember hearing Paul Washer say that when he got saved, he wanted to tear the book of Acts out of his Bible. When I heard him say that, I said, yes! That's exactly how I felt. Craig would be up in his chair there, I'd be on the floor, and we'd have the book of Acts open, and I was reading George Whitefield and the revivals that happened in his time, and it's like looking at each other. Where is this? You recognize why Paul wanted to tear it out of his Bible. He felt like it was a mockery. Like, where is this kind of Christianity? We're looking around southwest Michigan, and I'll tell you, I began to pray. Lord, I have a burning desire for missions. Please take me to a church that has the truth and is involved in missions. Please. And Craig and I both worked for a place called InterCal. And we got the Alamo Dome project, and through a series of events, I ended up meeting John Seitzman, spent the day with him. And I remember the first time he took me out to the church. Pat was in his office, and I met him for the first time. It was in 1992. And when John spent the day telling me, John only two years before packed up his family and moved here because he visited Pat on the way to go into Mexico and heard a church that sang these Scripture songs and loved Pat's vision of the church. And so I'm not hearing Pat, I'm hearing John for a whole day. Tell me about Pat and about what the church is doing in Mexico and India. And I got on that airplane, and my heart was on fire. I said, Lord, this is the kind of church that I've been praying for, but it's like 1,200 miles away. How would I ever get here? And in just a few months, John Sytsma offered me a job to come down here. I came down, and for like eight months, I was telling Craig, I said, Craig, people get saved here! And so Craig packed up his family and he came. And you know what? Pat took, I mean, it led up the Lord, but we're just, Craig and I are these novices. And I mean, we're, come into the church here and suddenly we got a building down in Floresville, Texas and what are we going to do with it? And there was another elder in the church and he went rogue and he left and Pat's left with this, what are we going to do? Do we continue on with the men that we have or do we shut the whole thing down? And that just opened the door for me and Craig to be able to be involved in a church planting endeavor in Floresville. And then after a season of time, Pat asked me to go over to Stockdale, which is really where I ended up kind of alone, just me and the Lord. There was another family, the Skrbarsiks. That was where I began to see God using me in a church planning endeavor. And I was telling Pat this the other day, it was amazing to me, being saved through John MacArthur's ministry, that God didn't take me to California. He brought me under Pat who was a church planter and had a heart for missions, which in so many ways... And I'll be honest, when I first came here, Pat probably remembers this, I wanted to be the 1689 Reformed Baptist poster child. And Pat resisted that. I wanted to sing from the Trinity Hymnal, and I wanted to do all this stuff. And it was after we started Grace And I had to wrestle through things biblically and before the Lord, why do we do things the way we do? That I kept coming to conclusions that Pat already had come to. And I recognized, you know, I've tried to tell Pat over the years, but he probably has been one of the three most significant men in my life as just far as shaping. And I was telling him, brethren, I saw something of prayer. I saw something in Pat's faith. And there was something in the singing. And when we left, when we came out, I, Lord, please, we plant a church. Give us a spirit of prayer and supplication like was there. Give us the spirit of singing. And Pat talked about his own faith being shaped, and he specifically told me, Mueller and Hudson Taylor. So I wanted to glean from those men as well, and I think that just the example there has lent itself so much to the faith that I feel like God has given me over the years. But anyway, I just wanted you brothers to get a feel for what the relationship is here The focus for tonight and tomorrow and Saturday morning is verse 13. Watch ye, stand fast in the bay, quit you like men, be strong. Quit you like men, the old English language here. What Paul is saying, and actually he's addressing the whole church, I'm going to be addressing men, but what Paul is saying is, stand up and be a man. Act like a man. And among Christians, that is a message that is needed. And if there's going to be a generation that comes up that carries the gospel forward, we're going to need that generation to be men. Man like men. You're going to hear that phrase a lot tonight and throughout this message. Man like men. Because in our own country and in other countries, we have biological men that are not men like men. And it ought not to be so among Christians. This verse is set in the context of verses 8 through 18 here, really. I didn't start in verse 8, but I want you to read verses 8 through 18. What I want you to do is I want you to take verse 13, And I want you to read it, and I want you to think on it, and I want you to meditate on it, and I want you to memorize it, and I want it to become part and parcel of you before we leave here on Saturday afternoon. I want you to do for it to become part of you. Paul's exhortation. as he closes out his letter to this church, is you need to become man-like men. What does it mean to be a man-like man? That's the question. And we're gonna answer that question in the next four messages. But before we do, I think it's extremely important that we keep verses within the context of where they're found. Paul opens up this section here with the words, as touching our brother Apollos, I greatly desired him to come onto you with the brethren, but his will was not at all to come at this time. and then, boom, be manlike. What's the connection? You know, everything that God puts in the scripture, he puts on purpose, and the order is on purpose. What's the connection here? Apollos didn't want to come. Why? Why did he not want to come? And how does that verse fit with verse 13? These are not random thoughts. This is inspired of God, preserved for us. And there's an order here. And for more than a year, I've been meditating on verse 13 and thinking through it. And when you called me brother and asked me to preach and I hung up the phone and prayed and asked the Lord, that was the verse right there. And it's been on my heart for more than a year. Why did not Apollos want to come to Corinth at that time? Well, the short answer is Bible doesn't tell us. There's no direct statement. made in this text that says, here's the reason why. Just a statement made. But I believe we can dig into the book of the first Corinthians and we can get at least some idea as to why he might not have wanted to come. Do an internal search as to what took place in this church concerning Apollos. and concerning Apollos and Paul. You see, just as an introduction here before we get to it, Apollos knew that there were some in this church that had caused this church great problems by comparing Apollos with Paul. Some held Apollos in a higher respect than Paul. And when that came about in the church, it caused division and it caused strife and it caused conflict. Now, as Paul writes the last chapter of this book, he lets us know that Apollos did not want to come with him on this trip. And I ask the question, why? I think the answer is found in the book itself. Go with me to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1, and I want to begin reading in verse 10. And we're gonna do a little bit of a survey before we come back to chapter 16. Paul, writing here, says, I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment, for because it hath been declared unto me, my brethren, by them that which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, every one of you saith, I am of Paul, And I'm of Apollos, and I'm of Cephas, or Peter, and I'm of Christ. Verse 13, is Christ divided? Do you see this cause division in the church? Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? He is appalled at their attitude. He's taken back by the conflict and the division that has been in this church over him and Apollos. And Peter, to a lesser degree, and Christ, of course, is mentioned there. But the focus after chapter one is Paul and Apollos. Cephas is not mentioned again, and Christ in this context is not mentioned again. But when the division and strife comes up, it's Paul and Apollos that is mentioned again. Paul had learned of the sinful carnality, the division, the strife, the contentions in the church of Corinth by those of the household of Chloe. Verse 11, the phrase household of Chloe indicates that she is a woman who is the head of her house. Either she's a widow or she's unwed. But whatever she is, she is the head of her household. She's mentioned only once and nothing else is known of her. If she's a widow, her house may have had children, perhaps family members from either side of the family, and certainly there would have been servants. If she is not a widow and she is unwed, she is the head of her house and she has servants. whatever the situation is, why was it that a woman was the one who sent information to the Apostle Paul about the sinful problems in the local church at Corinth? Why was it that a woman in the church could see the problems? and knew he was destroying the church and wrote to Paul or sent a servant to Paul and said, this is what's going on in our church. Where were the men? Why did the men not stand up and be men? Why were the men not brave enough to stand up in the midst of a conflict, of a problem, of a sinful situation and say, we are wrong, we need to get this corrected? Why were they not courageous enough to stand in the congregation and say, we got to fix this? Where were the men? It is the household of Chloe. a woman who is burdened enough for the condition of her church to send Paul a message. Why were the men not spiritual enough to stand up against the sin that was entering into the church, against the doctrinal error that shows up from the very beginning of Paul's first epistle here, against the spiritual decline that was taking place in this church? Later in chapter one, he'll say, you came behind in no gift. God blessed you abundantly with abundant gifts in this church. And before we get out of chapter two into chapter three, the beginning of chapter three, he says, I can't feed you with meat, but only with milk because you are carnal, you're babes. What happened that a spiritually blessed church would decline to the place where they should have been mature, and now they're simply babes? Why did the men not see what was going on in the church? Why did the men not see the spiritual decline? Why did the men not concern themselves with the public testimony of that church? You do realize, don't you, that every local church has a public testimony. You are known outside of the four walls of your church. There is something known about every church that's represented here tonight. outside of the walls of our church buildings. Doctrinal error, doctrinal practices, unbiblical practices, all of it was taking place. If you know anything at all about 1 Corinthians, you know that from the opening pages until the end, Paul is dealing with one problem after another, one sin after another, one doctrinal problem after another. And this book closes with the statement, be men and opens with a statement that a woman has to send Paul a note of all the problems. They were not being Christian men. or like Christian men were supposed to be. They were not being man-like men. And because of their failure to be man-like men, the church had fallen into sinful practices, doctrinal errors, unbiblical errors, conflict, and strife, and contention was throughout the whole thing. And Paul at the ending chapter says, be a man. They had fallen into comparing one pastor or preacher to another. What a dangerous thing that is. There are several preachers here, several pastors here tonight, several men who have been on the mission field, several men that are pastoring churches here tonight. Do not, please do not exalt one above the other. Do not compare one with another. That is carnality. That is sinful carnality. They had forgotten this church, these men in this church, that every Christian is different because God has made them different. Every man here tonight is different. If you're a Christian tonight, though you are a Christian and God has made you a Christian, you are different from the brother next to you. Distinct. God has given you different abilities and others, different enablements, different graces, different gifts. Each man here is a different man. And each man here being different is useful in the hand of God. And to compare ourselves one with another is nothing but fleshly, carnal, worldly thinking. But that's where they were. That's what they had fallen into. What they did not know, or if they knew, they did not practice this truth of Christianity, and that is that if a person has been saved, he has been saved by the grace of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. that we are not saved by any goodness in ourself, that we are not saved by our best efforts, that this one is a Christian because he did more than this one. No, if we are saved tonight, if we are Christians tonight, God has looked upon us as sinners and God, by His grace and mercy toward us, has saved us through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we're saved tonight, that's our testimony. nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling." And that is a basic testimony of everyone here. And if you're a Christian, that testimony is yours, and everybody gets saved the same way. We're on this level as Christians. They forgot, or I'm didn't understand or didn't know and didn't remember, I don't know what happened in this church, except I do know one thing, the men failed to be men. They had forgotten or didn't know or whatever that a Christian lives his life by the grace of God and by the grace of God alone. Now whatever has been accomplished in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ through this brother or that brother or whoever else is here that has served the Lord has been done by the grace of God alone. Alone. God has helped you, brother. God has helped you, brother. God has given you the gifts that God has given you. And by the grace of God, something has taken place at Grace Community Church. They'd also forgotten this, this very important truth, that each one of us will stand alone and give an answer for ourselves before the Lord. For ourselves. Not for Craig. I'm not going to stand before and give an answer for Craig or Tim. I'm going to give an answer for Pat Horner and Pat Horner alone. Paul would say in chapter 15 of this book, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace, which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. but I labored more abundantly than they all, and yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." Apollos could have said the same thing if Apollos had penned this letter. He would have said to them, to remind them, and, by the grace of God, I am what I am. Peter would have said and could have said the same thing if Peter had addressed this letter to them, by the grace of God, I am what I am. If it had been Matthew or John or any of the other writers of the book, the conclusion would be the same. By the grace of God, I am what I am. That alone eliminates this idea of comparing one with another. And since that is true, their practice of comparing preachers with preachers or themselves among themselves, one servant of the Lord against another servant of the Lord, one member of the church against another member of the church, I speak in tongues, you don't speak in tongues, I'm more spiritual than you, that sinfulness going on in that church, all of that, all of that, produce nothing but division and strife and conflict. It will always result in one thing, a greater level of sin and division and strife in the church. It will produce nothing else, comparing one with another like that. So Paul uses Apollos, not coming. He doesn't want to come. Why doesn't, the question I ask is why doesn't Apollos want to come? And Apollos is not angry with him. He will come when he has opportunity. He's not staying away because he's mad, but he didn't want to come. And I believe that part of the situation here is this, that Apollos, Apollos' lack of desire to be among them, was a reminder to them and an evidence to them that they were not being Christian men. They were not being man-like men. Being man-like men involves understanding that a Christian man is one because God has done something for him that none other could do for him. If you stand at all as a Christian and as a servant of the Lord, God has done something for you that nobody else could have done, not only saving you, but gifting you and equipping you. God the Father in heaven has chosen you, had chosen you before the foundation of the world, gave you into the hands of his son so that he would be your substitute and representative, sent his son to bear your sin at Calvary's cross and pay the penalty for that sin. and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself accomplishing everything necessary to save His people from their sin. And then the Spirit of God was sent to draw you to the Son of God so that you might be saved. So that all three persons of the Godhead had worked together in your life individually to bring you into a saving relationship with the Father through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I said before, that is true of every one of us. If you are a Christian tonight, it's because God made you a Christian. If you are a God-called man serving somewhere, it is because God has called you and equipped you and sent you. These things are revealed in 1 Corinthians. They had missed it. But starting in chapter one and going through the end, before he makes the explanation, be man like men, he deals with all of these issues in this book. In the letter to this church, Paul teaches the church that God called men are simply instruments in the hand of God. That's all they are. God has chosen them as an instrument in his hand to accomplish his purposes. In the hand of God, one is sent to Corinth, Paul. In the hand of God, another is sent to Babylon, Peter. In the hand of God, John does what John does. In the hand of God, Matthew does what Matthew does. In the end of it, in the hand of God, John is on the Isle of Patmos and gives us the book of the Revelation. In the hand of God, God puts them in the places where God would put them. and accomplishes His purposes through them. If that's the case, then Paul and Apollos cannot be compared one with another, because each one is simply an instrument in the hand of God, and that's all they are. And so Paul teaches the church that. First Corinthians chapter 3. in verses 4, 5, 6, and 7. 1 Corinthians 3. And we'll come back to verse 4 and look at it again in a minute. But let me get over there because I want to be able to read this. 1 Corinthians 3. Verse 4, For while one saith, I am Apoll, and another, I am Apollos, there He is addressing it again. Don't forget that right before He says to them, Be man like men, He says to them, Apollos decided not to come. And I ask the question, What's the connection? Chapter 1 reveals part of the connection. Chapter 3, another part. For while one saith, I am Paul, and another, I am Apollos, are you not carnal? Who then is Paul? And who is Apollos? But ministers. The Greek word behind it is the word where we get our word deacon, and it means a servant, one who waits on tables. He did not use a Greek word to indicate a God-called man to the gospel ministry. He uses the word servant. Who is Paul? He didn't use an apostle. No, no, no, no. He didn't use teacher, master. He didn't use any term that would set him aside and set him above, Apollos. Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? Well, the answer to that question is servants. On the same level, one with another. But Brother Pat, Paul was an apostle. We sometimes use the phrase, the great apostle Paul. You ever heard that? And Apollos was, well, Apollos was a good man. He was a teacher, but Paul, an apostle, an apostle to the Gentiles. And so, as this apostle to the Gentile writes to this church, asks this question, who is Paul, who is Apollos? He says, this is the word I wanna use. God, by inspiration, God says, this is the word. Servants, deacon, those who wait on table. Servants by whom you believed even as the Lord gave to every man. I had planted, Apollos watered both necessary things in bringing forth fruit, but God gave the increase. Who is Apollos? Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? We're just servants. Then how do we become Christians, brother? God gave the increase. This man-like man, Paul, draws the attention away from himself, draws the attention away from Apollos, and focuses their hearts and minds upon the One who has saved them from their sins. God gave the increase. We were just instruments in God's hands. We were just servants. God happened to choose me. God happened to choose Apollos to be servants to you. And we came, we preached, and we left, but God gave the increase. So then, yeah, Paul writes and then he concludes, this is what you should get from this. So then, neither is he that planteth, who is that? Paul, or any thing, neither is he that watereth." Who is that? Apollos. But God, that giveth the entries. I'm nothing. Apollos is nothing. We are simply servant. Don't glory in us. Glory in the one who has saved you from your sin. A man like man is going to draw your attention to the Lord Jesus Christ and draw your attention to the one who saved you. The efforts of the apostle Paul and Apollos were only fruitful because God gave the entries. If there has been any fruitfulness in my ministry, it is because God gave the increase. Brother, same is true of you, brother. Same is true of you. And any other preacher that's in here, any other missionary here, if we can look back and say, God did this, or I have a church here, or sinners were saved here, or this happened, and we come to the conclusion, God gave the increase. A man like Christian man is going to have the attitude that God is the one that should be glorified in my life. If I'm going to draw attention at all to anything regarding Christianity, it is the God of Christianity. It is the God of Christianity. In their efforts in Corinth, Paul and Apollos were put against each other. And Paul would say in verses 3 and 4 of this same chapter, "'For ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men, walk like the world? For while one saith, I am Apollos, and another, I am Apollos, are ye not carnal?' He is rebuking them and saying that the lack of spiritual strength in this church is because men are not being man-like men. They are looking at men instead of looking to God, and looking to God alone. It is my duty as a God-called preacher, and it is your duty if you're a God-called preacher in this meeting this weekend, to rekindle in our hearts that flame that God put there in the beginning when He called us to the gospel ministry, that we wanted Christ to be exalted among. If I be lifted up, He said, I will draw. If I'm lifted up, that it is the desire of the heart of assertive God that Christ be exalted. That was missing in this church. And I'm not preaching to a church that is carnal. At least I hope I'm not. I don't believe I am. But I'm laying out the foundation as to why these men were not man-like men. They were not man-like men, because they were focused on men instead of on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you've studied the Bible very long and heard any preachers, you know that internal evidence is not definitive, right? There's no direct statement in the book of 1 Corinthians that says, this is the reason why Apollos is not here. But I believe we can look at this book and look at the texts, different texts, and say, this might be the reason why he's not here. And that's what I'm setting before you tonight. This perhaps is the reason why he chose not to come. Perhaps Apollos, being the man-like man that he was, stepped back from this situation and allowed Paul to go by himself so that this church might focus on the man that God had sent there. instead of the divided-up group, they would come together around the apostle Paul. If that's the case, and actually, I believe it is, but if that is the case, then Apollos was being a man-like man by not coming. By that, I mean this. A man like man does not spend his time exalting himself, but he does spend time exalting others, lifting others up, building others up. And Apollos, I think, took a step back and said, Paul, you go. I want you to go to that church. I'll stay away. I'm persuaded that's what it is. You may make your own decisions as to that. But I am also persuaded that a man like man, we got Scripture on this, prefer one above another, prefers others before himself. Whatever the situation is with Apollos, a man like him who made that decision not to come, at least this much I can conclude. Apollos knew himself to be nothing but a servant, just like Paul knew himself to be nothing but a servant. And being a servant in the hand of the Lord, he didn't have to be there. Paul could take care of it. He didn't need to be there. Besides that, he knew and understood that God could take care of his own. And that brings me full circle back to a man-like Christian man will seek to give God the glory for whatever he is involved in. first and above all else, if I understand Paul and if I understand Apollos a little bit, I believe they're men who want God to be glorified in this church. Because, you know, Paul's going to leave again. Apollos may visit, he may not be able to, but those men are going to go, and this church is going to be again left with its elders. And if there are going to be man-like men, the focus has got to be on the Lord Jesus Christ, on God being glorified in this church. And that's where I will leave us tonight. Tomorrow we'll look back at verse 13 again and begin unfolding that verse. Take some time to meditate on it. Take some time to memorize it. Take some time to think about what Paul is saying to these men, this church, as he closes out this letter to them. He has spent 16 chapters rebuking them for all the sin in their lives and in their church, and now he comes to this conclusion. And it is instructive, the other men that he mentions, As he closes out this letter, I'm looking forward to us looking into it a little further. If you're not a Christian tonight, this message is not for you. You cannot be a Christian man like man until you are first a Christian. And that comes only through Jesus Christ. We can pray for you. We can talk to you. We can open to the Scriptures and share it with you and let you know what God has to say. But in the end, only the Lord Jesus Christ can save a sinner from their sins. He's the only one who can. And if you're not a Christian, and you know yourself to be a sinner, and you need that sin forgiven, and long for a righteousness that God will accept because He will not accept yours, That's found in Jesus Christ alone. And there are men here who will talk to you about that and help you to try to understand. We cannot save you, but at least we can share with you the truth of what salvation is. So if you have questions, don't leave this place without getting those questions answered. I don't know if God will save you tonight or tomorrow or Saturday morning. I don't know. That's His business, not mine. But I know that we can answer questions from the Word of God, because God has given us the Scriptures to teach you and show you. So don't leave without getting your questions answered. Then what you do with those answers are between you and God. We will pray for you. I know there are some people here tonight that are lost. I've already been praying for you. Starting last week, I learned that there may be people here that are lost. And starting last week, as soon as I learned it, I started praying that God would have mercy upon those of you who are here outside of Christ. A man like man begins—the kind of man I'm going to be preaching about in the next three messages—begins with a relationship with Christ and builds from there. Father in heaven, have mercy upon us as we gather here. Use your Word to help us. We want to be what the Scriptures describe Christians to be. We are not content with status quo religion. We are not content with what others may say a Christian is. We want to open up your word and read what you said and then seek by the help of God to be there. And so we pray that You would help us, Father, that You would not leave us to ourselves, that we are not just gathered here, Lord, just to have fun for a few days, but You have gathered us on purpose and for purpose, and You've gathered us to instruct us from Your Word. But we know and confess freely that You must help us, and we are asking for that help. Be gracious, be merciful, be a help to your children in this place this weekend. You have gathered us. Help us and send us away different men. In Jesus Christ's name, amen. Amen.