Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast, where we're all about providing sound doctrine for everyday people. This is Costi Hinn, and I have the privilege of being your host. And on today's episode, I want to do something we've never done before. And I want to share a clip that has been incredibly helpful, very convicting, and thought-provoking for myself and a number of the men that I disciple. If you've never heard of Paul Washer, I'll say it up front. You're welcome. I'm introducing you to a preacher you will be greatly sharpened by. And if you are familiar with Paul, I'm sharing a clip on how to be a man of God. Now, while this may be geared towards men, I want you sisters who are listening to benefit from this. So put your Bible application ears and minds on. And here's some questions that I would ask you and some thoughts I have for you right off the bat. First, are you single? Well then what kind of man will you settle for? Are you married? Well then, how can you pray for your husband and encourage him as the Lord shapes him and sharpens him to be a man of God in your home? Are you a woman who's dating or courting someone? Well then is that guy marriage material and is he growing as a man of God so he can lead you as a servant leader in your home? Are you a mother? Well then what kind of son are you raising and influencing? There's so many applications. There's a great deal of truth to think about here, so here is my encouragement to you off the bat. Do not run from the conviction, brothers. Embrace it. This isn't something just to beat you over the head with and make you feel guilt and shame, not at all. This is a challenging message for men in a culture that has become more and more feminized. Men have abdicated their God-given role and God-given responsibility. And so I want to challenge you as the year comes to a close and people make their New Year's resolutions and say, I'm gonna this and I'm gonna that. Hey, brothers, why don't we just say, let's continue growing as men who are shaped by God's word for God's glory. This is Paul Washer speaking to men at Grace Community Church, where John MacArthur is the pastor. This is 23 minutes of truth in love. He pulls no punches. Let's go.
SPEAKER_00Oftentimes 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 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. 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 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 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. He'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 in 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? Do 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, Adam's 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. You see. 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 thirty 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 my wife one time was teaching a group of women in Romania, and finally, after a couple of days, one of them said, Miss Chato, we really love your 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. Isn't it 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 it's simple. There's no mystery to it. No esoteric knowledge that you need. You need the word. Now, look verse 5. 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, O 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 Deborah was raised up as a rebuke to men. And at no fault of her own. Do you know how many young girls, now, 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 live? 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. Then 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 in 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 that encourage their, 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 pole washer. And what does that mean? To seek to be more conform 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 conform 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 do you have to understand is in that list in Titus 3 in Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3, 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 okay 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? Okay, 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 that's your fault. That's my fault. You see, when you see obedience and God's commands, I 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.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for listening to the Further Gospel podcast. My prayers that this episode has stirred conviction in your heart and that the Holy Spirit will use it to build you up into the man of God he has called you to be. If you're a sister in Christ, well may you marry, encourage, and raise up men of God in your home as a woman, and if you have sons as a mother. Let's keep growing in the Lord. For more resources to make an end of your donation or to learn more about our ministry, go to forthegospel.org. We'll be back next Monday with another episode. For now, keep on living for the gospel.