Act Like Men - Pastor John MacArthur

this is my this is my mail week I just came from Angola prison and I mean that is some heavy-duty testosterone flowing through that place 5,200 lifers in the Louisiana State Penitentiary and I've been ministering to those men when I say men they there's not a woman in sight in that place separate penitentiary for women and it's it's been an amazing week I don't know if you know the story of Angola some of you may have heard about the rodeo they have there I was the guest of honor at the rodeo that was only part of it 17 years ago a warden came by named burl Kane Louisiana native schoolteacher who took a master's degree in criminal justice and decided he want to be a warden and worked his way up and he's revolutionized the place it was the most violent it's the largest Penitentiary in America it was most violent penitentiary in America by far a horrible place horrendous place since he's come there is zero crime there are no gangs there is a seminary with 150 students currently and they've planted 30 churches inside the prison so it's a bizarre experience to go into a prison and in every cellblock area there is an evangelical church with a pastor who's been trained in the seminary inside the prison so and he's trying to plant 30 more and every time he when he says when he's planting the church he finds somebody to give him five hundred thousand dollars so they can actually build the building so the place is full of churches it's just a really amazing thing and he estimates out a five thousand inmates 2,000 of them have professed faith in Christ in fact there's so many guys coming through the seminary that they can't even absorb them all there so they that they have the the government has allowed them to send them as missionaries to other prisons to plant churches there and the ACLU is doing st. Vitus dance all over the place and they can't get any traction because that's too successful two successful so I never been hugged and kissed so many times in my life since I left Russia and it was an unbelievable experience so this is my second time to be with men could a woman please show up somewhere this week now I'm going from here it was Steve up to the cove for a medical doctors and and Dennis convention so this is my man week and I'm so grateful for that second first corinthians right at the end just before second corinthians chapter 16 and i just really kind of want to talk this through this is more of a sort of personal thing with me there are lots of ways that we might think biblically this morning if i can i want to do that and won't want to stick to the text of scripture but III want you just to look at things first of all from this text to verse 13 and i want to talk to you about the principles that the lord kind of laid on my heart some years ago that i've tried to follow so that i could fulfill the command of first Corinthians 16:13 you know the passage beyond the alert stand firm in the faith act like men be strong act like men how do men act the verb actually means and by the way it's used only here in the New Testament it means to conduct oneself with courage inherent in this verb is the idea of courage and that's why it's connected with be strong you could actually translate this be courageous and be strong this verb while only appearing here in the New Testament is very common in the Septuagint the Greek version of the old testament and what it is telling us is that spiritually speaking we are to be courageous and strong the command is not given only to men it's given to the believer it's given to the church we are not to be vacillating we're not to be weak we're not to be defeated we're not to be depressed we're to face life in all of its challenges a spiritual life with courage and strength and just to show you that while this appears only here in the New Testament it is really part and parcel of the whole message of the Old Testament go back to Deuteronomy chapter 31 Deuteronomy chapter 31 here is the last counsel that Moses gave his final counsel pretty important right last words of a man who's making his exit who's been a spiritual leader to his people this is what he says verse 6 be strong and courageous that's the same exact phrase to be strong and courageous do not be afraid or tremble at them that is foreign Kings enemies for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you he will not fail you he will not forsake you verse 7 then Moses called to Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel be strong and courageous for you shall go with this people into the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them and you shall give it to them as an inheritance be strong and courageous because God has made a promise and he will fulfill it no matter what the enemies are like the Lord verse 8 is the one who goes ahead of you he will be with you he will not fail you or forsake you do not fear or be dismayed the positive be strong and courageous the negative do not fear or be just the last words of Moses in second Samuel Chapter ten we come verse 9 when Joab saw that the battle was set against him in front and in the rear he selected from all the choice men of Israel and arrayed them against the Arameans but the remainder of the people he placed into the hand of a bish I his brother and he arrayed them against the sons of Ammon he said if the Arameans are too strong for me then you shall help me but if the sons of Ammon are too strong for you then I will come to help you and then these words be strong and let's show ourselves courageous for the sake of our people for the cities of our God and may the Lord do what is good in his sight in 2nd Kings chapter 2 first one it came when the Lord was about to take Elijah up by a whirlwind to heaven Elijah went with Elijah from Gilgal Elijah Elijah said to Elisha stay here please for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel but Elijah said the where is my my eyes are watering this early the morning but Elijah said as the Lord lives and as you yourself live I will not leave you now I wonder if that's the verse I was thinking of hang on I'm in the second kings that's little that is second Kings I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote this one down this morning it's probably a little later there but anyway let's forget that and go to 1st chronicles 22 that's strange 1st chronicles 22 it's actually 3 o'clock in the morning my time well these are just these are just calls to be strong to be firm and I think that's why I wrote them down David preparing for the temple Solomon charged with the task my son verse 11 the Lord be with you that you may be successful build the house of the Lord the Lord give you discretion understanding give you charge over Israel that you may keep the law then you will prosper if you care if you're careful to observe the statutes the ordinance which the LORD commanded Moses concerning Israel here comes be strong and courageous do not fear nor be dismayed there's the positive again as over against the negative and this just continues to be the challenge that is laid before the people by their leaders whether or not they're exiting or whether or not they're commanding in view of an upcoming battle or conflict this same emphasis dominates in the 32nd chapter of second Corinthians of second chronicles I'm sorry we have the same thing Hezekiah down in verse 7 of second chronicles verse 7 of chapter 32 be strong and courageous do not fear or be dismayed because the king of Assyria nor because of all the horde that is with him for the one with us is greater than the one with him with him is only an arm of flesh but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles again you can see this flows through the history that unfolds in the history books of the Old Testament from one leader to another from one generation to another be strong and courageous Psalm 27 verse 11 teach me your way O Lord lead me in a level path because of my foes do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries for false witnesses arisen against me and such as breathe out violence I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living wait for the Lord here comes again be strong and let your heart take courage yes wait for the Lord and then one final one and this is the one that I think is most rich is Joshua chapter 1 a man doesn't give way to fear a man does not give way to despair or depression a man is strong and courageous in the face of formidable enemies and it all comes together here in Joshua chapter 1 and this time the Lord gives a message directly it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of nun Moses servant saying Moses my servant is dead now therefore arise cross this Jordan you and all this people to the land which I am giving to them to the sons of Israel every place on which the sole of your foot treads I have given to you just as I spoke to Moses from the wilderness and this Lebanon even as far as the great river the river Euphrates all the land of the Hittites as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the Sun will be your territory from Mediterranean to the Euphrates no man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life just as I have been with Moses I will be with you I will not fail you I will not forsake you then verse 6 says what be strong and courageous for you shall give this people possession of a land which I swore to their fathers to give them only be strong and very courageous be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success and again the Lord says have I not commanded you this is a command be strong and courageous then the positive is followed by the negative do not tremble or be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go I think this is the defining characteristic of a man this is what it means to be a man to be strong and courageous and it shows up in obedience to the Word of God at any cost right it shows up at confidence in the promises of God in the face of any conflict or any confrontation nothing to me is less like a man than compromise fear weakness evasion this is what we are called to do manly courage means contending with difficulty facing challenges meeting the enemy contending with problems bearing pain pressing to the goal never deviating from the truth it means your life is defined by convictions and even deeper than that that there are three levels I think of of approach to the Word of God one is cognition you you understand what it means to is conviction you believe what it means and three is affection you love its truth real men get all the way to affection so that they will not deviate they will not sell out they will not compromise and the way they live and the way they think and the way they face the challenges of life because they have such strong conviction and affection for the truth of God David said oh how I what love your law oh how I love your law so this is what it means to be a man and I want to break that out a little bit and I written down just a few things maybe to mention to you how can I be this kind of man how can I live this kind of life how can I act like a man how can I be strong how can I be courageous that was some years ago that I began to think about that because I wanted to be obedient after all this is a command it is command in directly given by leaders to men and women in the Old Testament is a command given by the Apostle Paul to the church in the New Testament and it is a command that comes from the mouth of God himself in Joshua chapter one it is a command and I need to respond so how do I become strong and courageous I think the first thing for me is to remember who owns me and I was thinking about this many years ago long before I began to work on this book called slave that I'll talk a little bit about tonight I was very much aware of what the scripture says you are not your own you are bought with a price or that's Peters words or the words of acts 20:28 the church which God has purchased with his own blood Paul's words rather first Corinthians 6:19 and 20 Peters words you have been redeemed not with corruptible things like silver and gold but with the precious blood of the Lamb the lamb without blemish and without spot I think it's about ownership I think being a man acting like a man being strong being courageous really begins when you understand that you are under the command of someone else if there's anything true about being in the military it is that you learn to take orders right is that important yeah that's pretty important if you can't do that they'll throw you out give you dishonorable discharge because in conflict and in battle you have to obey your commander and I think the thing is true spiritually disobedience is more likely to show up in conflict than anywhere else when everything's going fine you know we're happy to show up at the church and do whatever we're supposed to do and act like Christians and act like men but when things become chaotic and when challenges come across our paths and we lose control of things and enemies are hitting us from all sides and those are the times that challenge us to obey orders I've been watching my my grandson his first year at the Air Force Academy it's just very interesting to watch first six weeks he's there you know most kids go to college and they have four years to sort of become adults and they fool around a whole lot and eventually you become an adult well this is a 17 year old kid who walks across a red line and it's instant adulthood at a level he's never even imagined he has no opinions he has nothing to say he is a stupid idiot and far worse he doesn't even get to be called a person until next March in the middle of the night at 3 o'clock they wake him up and or 2:30 or 4 or whenever and make him run up a mountain and run down or do a hundred push-ups in the dark and they do it night after night and day after day for six weeks no one has a watch no one has a clock no one knows what time it is I asked him when do you go to sleepy City since Gramps we go to sleep about 11 o'clock and we're up about 5:00 the truth is they go to sleep at 9:00 o'clock but they don't know it and it feels like 11:00 they destroy all their familiar patterns and the theory is if we break them now and rebuild them then they won't break down in Afghanistan that's why the Lord loves a broken and a contrite heart where the will has been crushed that's why you need to embrace your temptations and we'll talk a little more about that because those are the things that may q a person who stands in the severus kinds of trials so for me at all it all sort of starts and this was long long ago with this very clear concept that I really am NOT in charge of my life and that is so foreign to contemporary evangelical Christianity that it led me to this this book on slave which I'll talk about tonight I am NOT my own I have been bought with a price I'm a man under orders there's one who commands me he has the right to command me because he purchased me he owns me and the price says we all know was his precious blood this is an honor to be purchased but it also is a grave and far-reaching responsibility a second thing and these are very personal things from me while at the same time biblical I was reading the first Peter and let's look at that for a minute many years ago when I was young in the ministry and and sort of looking for the kind of things that I needed to put into my life in a kind of permanent way and I came across verse 2 and it kind of stunned me Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who reside as aliens scattered through Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia who are elect are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit now listen to this to obey Jesus Christ that's why you were saying that's why the Great Commission says teach them to do what observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you you became a Christian for the purpose of obedience that's confessing Jesus as Lord right I mean people haven't understood that I've been trying to get that message across since I wrote the Gospel according to Jesus and every other book I've written along the same path and the slave is in the same genre literally Paul Peter says you are chosen and you are sanctified so that you may Jesus Christ we have been redeemed unto obedience and again this follows the notion that I'm a man under orders I am a man who is commanded and I have to be strong and courageous which means I obey the word we heard that read number of times you being a strong courageous is then followed by and obey the commandments this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth you meditate on it that you may do according to all that is written in it then you will make your way prosperous then you will have good success that's what that's what being a man looks like but then this interesting phrase and to be sprinkled with his blood what is that that what is that that's the only time in the New Testament you have a statement like that we understand that his blood was shed for us but what does it mean to be sprinkled by his blood and how is that a part of the sanctifying work of the Spirit to obey Jesus Christ well the answer to that comes in what Peter is referring to turn back all the way to Exodus Exodus chapter 24 verse three now you understand by the time you're in Exodus 23 the people have received what the law of God and they know now what God asks of them and they also are on the brink of receiving the fullness of God's promise to inherit the land in fact then the prior passage the end of 23 he sets them up to go into the land and to make sure they don't make covenants with the idols of the land and then in chapter 24 verse 3 is this really interesting incident and Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances and listen to this and all the people answered with one voice and said all the words which the Lord has spoken we will do collectively the people said we will obey whatever the Lord says we're gonna obey the 10 commandments we're gonna pay all the other prescriptions all the other statutes all the other regulations we're gonna obey them all I like that right I like that that's the right response essentially that's what you said when you embrace Christ that's what you said you didn't say I want Jesus to make me happy that's a false kind of approach to conversion I want Jesus to fix my life give me a better marriage boost my business straighten out my slice help me hit more home runs score a touchdown come on I want Jesus to give me what I want I want Jesus to make me rich now what you said when you came to Christ is we will obey everything you command us that's what you mean when you say Jesus is what Lord what you mean means he's in charge that's what you said that's what they said so Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord you're gonna obey a mom and write them all down and he rose early in the morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain with 12 pillars for the 12 tribes of Israel he sent young man to the sons of Israel and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed us as peace offerings to the Lord what are they doing here the people have just made a promise right it's a covenant if you want to use biblical language they've made a pledge it's the same pledge that a true conversion makes we will obey you you our Lord and so they were going to symbolize that so he took these animals is a slaughter you know these animals are slaughtered blood everywhere he took half the blood put it in basins the word here refers to a large large large pan in which the blood would kind of slosh around and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar and the altar sort of represents God the place where the sacrifice is made then he took the book of the Covenant now he's starting to call it a covenant right it's a covenant between God and man but response to that is the covenant between man and God when you became a believer just like these people are saying here you made a covenant Jesus is Lord meaning I will obey and here's the symbol of it in the Old Testament this was typical of the way they symbolized a covenant then he took the book of the Covenant verse 7 read it in the hearing of the people and they repeat this that they said back in verse 3 all that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient now this is so foreign isn't it to the kind of invitations to Christ that are used today a call to obedience a call to covenant the call to sacrifice then moses verse 8 i just love this took the blood and sprinkled it on the people that's what Peter's referring to a blood covenant of obedience he he took those big sort of saucepans and just drenched the people with the blood of the sacrifice and then he said Behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with these words today you made a promise to God a promise of obedience and to symbolize that and to seal that he splattered them with blood there's some anticipation there isn't there of the blood sacrifice that makes this possible but this isn't a covenant about forgiveness this is a covenant about obedience so that Peter is saying the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of blood he's simply referring to this he's saying when you came to Christ essentially you committed yourself to obedience in the same way that these people that day came before God and committed themselves to obedience symbolically you were sloshed with blood when you embraced Christ that's why when I look at my life and say I want to be strong and courageous number one I remember who owns me and number two I remember the Covenant of my salvation I I literally have been sprinkled with blood there was bloodshed on the altar of the Cross but there was blood splattered on me as my part of the Covenant covenant of obedience sealed in blood a dedication to obey when believers are saved by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit they're brought into a covenant of forgiveness and a covenant of redemption and they're brought also into a covenant of obedience Peter's point here is that the death of Christ both satisfies God and obligates man so have the integrity to keep your covenant be strong when the temptation comes be strong when opportunity to compromise either truth doctrine convictions or behavior comes be a man you made a covenant I would say wouldn't you that being strong and courageous means being true to your commitments true to your covenant I have a hard time and Steve's like me and we know this about ourselves have a hard time with people who compromise how can you do that either compromising the truth sound doctrine or compromising in one's life and that's what we're finding is at the bottom of this simple command to act like men well we're talking about Peter a little bit let's go back to 1st Peter again there is a third principle here that somehow the Lord in his tender Grace has worked into the fabric of my thinking and it is simply the idea that you have to recognize all sin as a violation of a relationship if you recognize all sin as a violation of a relationship listen to what Peter says in in first Peter 1:14 as obedient children there would go right back to that starting point again don't we as obedient children do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance but like the Holy One who called you be holy yourselves also in all your behavior because it is written you shall be holy for I am holy that's just that's just splattered all through Leviticus isn't it be holy for I am holy be holy for I am holy be holy for I am holy you have entered into a relationship with me and that relationship calls you to follow me as I am holy you be holy you're mine you're a child of mine that's what he's saying you have been made a child be an obedient child don't disobey me as my child that casts our obedience out of the Covenant imagery into the relational imagery okay so we enrich that concept by being identified as obedient children Psalm 51 David says against the the only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight right view all sin as a violation of a relationship if you all sin as a personal offense against God you look at another way in 1st Corinthians 6:17 Paul says to the Corinthians how in the world can you join yourself to a prostitute he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit you're one with him would Christ be joined to a prostitute this is incredulous it just can't happen you can't so diminish the glory and the honor of Christ by such an accommodation he who joins himself to the Lord is one with him so every sin violates the relationship get you past the notion that you've simply broken a law which we're familiar with in our culture you have violated a relationship you can Paul says quench the spirit you can grieve the spirit you ever think about that that's very personal you know what it is to grieve your wife you know to disagree of your children you know what it is to be grieved over the behavior of someone who has violated you you have the potential the power the ability and we've all done it to grieve the Holy Spirit to grieve the spirit of God well I won't say any more about that because I had a few other things I need to say to you let me give you in another principle to think about if you're gonna be strong and courageous you need to embrace the spiritually beneficial effect of adversity one of the greatest lessons I ever learned in my spiritual life was that not much is accomplished in me spiritually by my success but much is accomplished in me spiritually by my failures embrace the spiritual benefits of adversity remember the story of Jobe who confesses at the end of the horrors that he lived through I had heard of you with the hearing of mine ear Jobe 42 now my eye sees you and I repent in dust and ashes I never knew you like I know you now never embrace the effect of adversity Paul in 2nd Corinthians 12 what one of my favorite because it's so instructive to me you might look at it I'll spend maybe a minute there tell you a personal story the 12th chapter begins with Paul reluctantly referring to a visit to heaven and this this verse one of chapter 12 is a verse that shows his attitude toward that amazing experience of being caught up into the third heaven it's not profitable he says so when people tell you about their visions take them there it's not profitable why you can't verify it and it's not repeatable so don't tell me your visions but I'm gonna tell you anyway and he describes this being caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words and he he can't utter them he can't process this his mind can't grasp what he's just experienced there was a gift from God to assure him of the divine reality of the promises because his life was so so devastating on a human level the suffering that he just rehearsed prior to that in Chapter 11 beaten and he goes through all of the things that he suffered and the worst of it was the care of the churches and he had such a heart for believers he said who sins and I don't feel the pain now that's a pastor who sins and I don't feel the pain that was worse than all the beatings how can a man endure that he carried that he carried all the saints in his heart and he suffered outward lady suffered inwardly he suffered at the hands of his enemies and he suffered at the hands of his friends hands up in jail and people are saying he's there Philippians 1 he's there because he's discredited the ministry and he actually says they're hoping to add pain to my chains my friends criticizing me at the end of his life and of his life everybody who's krit as a Christian in the Gentile world as is so by the human means of Paul directly or indirectly and he says all in Asia have forsaken me no one came to my defense I mean that's a lot and so the Lord gave him a glimpse of glory because the suffering was so massive and the disappointments so huge he needed that and it wasn't for us it was for him but because of it because it could make him proud verse seven says to keep me from exalting myself listen that would be easy to do right you're in a committee meeting and somebody says I think we got to do this I think we ought to do that think we got to do the other hmm how many times have you been to heaven sir I've never been to heaven yeah well we'll do my plan I mean that could be a head trip right so to keep me from exalting myself there was given me by God a thorn in the flesh the word thorn is steak talking about a shaft of wood sharpened like a spear it's not talking about a little prickly thorn that you cut your finger with like when you're picking the roses there literally was a spear driven through my human flesh what was it a messenger of Satan what's a messenger of Satan the word messenger zangulus what's a satanic angel what's a what's another word for it demon what am i time there was a demon God gave Paul a demon by the way I often tell people in the charismatic circles that you better not be chasing the demons away because the Lord may be sending him as if you could anyway what idea satanic angel to torment me in what sense I'm convinced that this demon had been allowed to get into the carnal sinful fleshy congregation at Corinth and it was ripping and shredding that congregation through the false teachers that had come in there to destroy the people's confidence in Paul Paul made a trip there and they stood up in the congregation when he was there and confronted him and condemned him to the face and he left for the broken heart a church was in a state of disaffection that's why I wrote the whole second Corinthian letter and I believe that it was that those false teachers under demonic influence there were tearing up that church and you know the simple principle is that if the Lord needs to use demons to make trouble in a ministry to keep the pastor from exalting himself he will do it I prayed three times he says that it might leave me he saw it as very personal torment he said no my grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected in what and weakness see that's the principle you learn to embrace your suffering embrace your trials because of the spiritual benefit that they bring so most gladly therefore either boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me I am well content with weaknesses insults distress those persecutions difficulties for Christ's sake and when I'm weak then I am there's our word strong you want to be strong and courageous get ready there's a breaking a breaking I think that's the most emotionally charged passage that Oliver wrote on a personal level the deepest pain in your life will be in the will of God the hardest challenges in your life will have a divine purpose they will be inflicted on you within the purposes of God to make you strong and courageous so embrace your suffering I'm not talking about personal guilt I'm not talking about sinful guilt but the pain inflicted by people the pain inflicted that comes because there are around you those who are against you Paul was unloved unappreciated maligned treated maliciously so was Jonathan Edwards you can comprehend how a congregation could throw Jonathan Edwards out after what 22 years 22 years of ministering the Word of God and when they threw him out then discredit him with everybody possible so that no other Church would take him as a pastor and he ended up with 15 Indians can you imagine Charles Spurgeon being thrown out of the Baptist Union at the height of his ministry and the motion to throw him out being seconded by his brother who was his associate pastor those are pretty formidable men you say how could it happen to them they're really good at what they did yeah they were the best at what they did I'll tell you why it happens to them to keep them from exalting themselves because God's not finished with a work to do in their hearts when I'm weak I'm strong Lord deliver me from too much success Paul viewed his adversity in that way and he embraced it God uses suffering to humble his people and to drive his people to himself and to perfect their power let me just give you one more and then if you have some questions we can take a little time it's just kind of dialog about anything give yourself to the kingdom unreservedly if you want to be strong and courageous give yourself to the kingdom unreservedly what do I mean by this you're not the issue your agenda your comfort your success it is the advance of the kingdom that we live and die for whatever God wants to do in my life to achieve kingdom purposes I embrace it fully I remember when early in our ministry and I began to preach on the radio on the subject of Jesus's Lord lordship of Christ and salvation we were summarily dumped by 52 radio stations just whack and people said - how do you feel about that and I said I'm not in charge of that the Lord is building his kingdom jesus said I'll build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it I serve my king in his kingdom I can only do what I can do I can't control the outcome I learned that as an athlete when I was a football player I liked the win I hated to lose but I didn't take me long to learn that there were a whole bunch of other people on there who contributed to winning and losing and as much as I would have liked to control the outcome all I could ever control was the effort right and once I learned that I could only do what I could do I was content to leave the outcome to the complex of circumstances and I think that's how you have to approach the kingdom you give yourself to the noble cause and you let God determine the outcomes this really cleared in my mind in early years when I was teaching through the Sermon on the Mount and I got deeply involved in the disciples prayer our Father who art in heaven what next line hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come Thy will be done or 1st Corinthians 10:31 whatever you do do all of the glory of God my focus is to honor God honor Christ not control the outcome I give myself unreservedly to the noble cause of the advance of the glorious kingdom of Christ and however he wants to use me I'm not in panic I'm not trying to trying to become the pastor of the world as one writer said I'm just trying to do what God has given me to do in the kingdom to praise Him in the process to humble myself in the process to pray my way through the process to be faithful in the process to endure to the end I want to come to the place where Paul came and and said look I finished the course I kept the faith what else can I do I can't control the outcome I can only control the effort and give myself unreservedly to the kingdom so those are five things that that have meant something in a special way to me in terms of perspective as to what it means to be strong and courageous they're sort of the underpinnings of that father I want to thank you for this call to be like men act like men be strong be courageous I want to thank you Lord that you give us your Holy Spirit to enable us to fulfill these commands thank you that you also give us faithful pastors and teachers who can show us the way the principles that will lead us to being strong and courageous may these men be uncompromising both in their convictions and in their behavior as husbands and fathers and working men friends and neighbors and relatives as Kingdom citizens we see such a weak Church these days men in churches are weak pastors are weak weak pastors in weak churches preaching weak messages and patting themselves in congratulating them for their success give us strong men courageous men men of conviction men of holy conduct that you may be glorified in your church in Christ's name Amen amen all right we have a few minutes if you have any questions if you want to know anything about Steve's personal life or thank you thank you for the opportunity by the way this morning maybe you got all the answers at the bottom of the MacArthur Study Bible and you're talking to somebody who basically has taught through every passage in the New Testament and it's like asking me which of my children do I love the most it's always the one I'm with so that's a very hard question I think in my marriage I always go back to Ephesians 5 love your wife as Christ loved the church in that love there's a there's a simple principle I think in marriage that comes out of that and that is whatever whatever communicates to my wife my love for her and desire for her spiritual well-being that's what I say and that's what I do I don't think marriage is complicated whatever communicates to her my love and benefits her spiritually that's what I do that's what I want to do do I do it all the time probably not but that particular passage is to me the key to marriage love your wife as Christ loved the church how did he love the church unconditionally and he communicates that love and then officially He pours out every good thing on them everything that leads to their spiritual well-being including sometimes restrained but that that's a passage as to its other passages you know all of us go back to the Psalms a lot to deal with the issues of life and the things that we we feel a psalm that continues to ring in my heart a psalm one which is really kind of the short version of psalm 119 about loving the law and I think my favorite verse in some 119 is verse 176 or after a hundred and seventy five affirmations of the power and glory of Scripture and David's commitment to it he says I go straight like a sheep I mean that is the Romans seven of of the Old Testament I love I love psalm 119 and I go back there I look I need to be faithful to the Word of God that's that's what I do so that's that's an important one to me but I love them all I don't know there's any special I book that define for me ministry my favorite book is second Corinthians I'm so glad I didn't preach it early in my life or I would have really botched it because I wouldn't have been able to get into the heart of Paul and understand it until I'd been beaten up for a long long time until I'd had an entire staff Rebelle and condemn me and try to blow up the church after ten years of being there until I'd had 250 people including elders walk out after 18 years and again condemn my preaching and what I was doing I couldn't I couldn't understand that at the time and only in retrospect later that I know what was going on that helped me to understand 2nd Corinthians I kind of confess that I wallow a little bit in 2nd Corinthians I mean I'm glad Paul said all that stuff because it it that helps me to know that this isn't surprising that you can be treated like that in your own church by the people you lead to Christ that's how he was treated in his church by the people he led to Christ so I love that book I find comfort in that book great comfort in that book I love the book of Revelation I have to resist teaching it again and again and again and again because I like the fact that we win that that's one look I could never be a post millennialist come on are you kidding me you think we're going to bring in the kingdom hit real if anybody's going to take over the world it's the Muslims I just did a luncheon at our church last week with 40 pastors of Arab evangelical churches and they preached in Arabic and the churches stretched from San Diego to Bakersfield and they all came to our church because they were off there was a rumbling in the Arabic church about my view of Israel you know did I have the John Hagee view of Israel that we all have to bow to Israel they are the chosen people of God and you know that's kind of that evangelical notion and so they they want to know what I thought about that and so we talked about it was a great time but from their perspective Islam is taking over the world and the reason is well a lot of reasons within the purposes of God this this could be playing right into the endtime picture but the purpose is that but the uniformity of it is this they were saying to me there's no such thing as a hard Muslim and a soft Muslim there's just a Muslim and every Muslim is a Muslim because he believes the Koran and they don't all kill people but they all know people have to be killed they believed the Koran by the way they're translating versions of an into English that removed the 35,000 references to maiming destroying killing they changed the words because they're trying to communicate deception so I love the book of Revelation and I interpret Revelation the same way I Trevor Genesis literally figures of speech had a literal fulfillment I love that book I'm so glad it's there and I hate the fact that all these reform people ignore it how could John Calvin write commentaries in every book of the New Testament and leave that one out he's responsible for all the good stuff on the doctrine of salvation all the bad stuff on eschatology because he never dealt with it and left room for all these people who wander all over the map so I love the book of Revelation I love it not only because it tells us the end because it exalts Christ in the last view that the world has of Jesus is not going to be hanging on a cross any other questions yes sir thank you thank you my kids aren't perfect either but that's because they had such imperfect parents we understand that though yeah let me tell you I'll just give you a simple understanding of my how I view the Masters College and it's a very rare perspective and how I know how or why I don't get I I see it one way and that's this when a parents family send a child there that is to me personally a spiritual stewardship I've been given the most precious thing that that family has it's children my responsibility is not to hammer and try to destroy the faith of that child and break the bond of that family and devastate the child and the family but you have to understand in many so-called Christian colleges that's what they tried to do to attack that faith where they're as stewards of the most precious gift you could ever give us to educate them at the highest level but at the same time to lead them into the affirmation of everything that is precious to mom and dad everything they've ever been taught that is true to the Word of God to protect that so I am I am first of all a shepherd who feeds the good pastures and the in the running water through all of our faculty and who protects from the wolves and that's a challenging thing in an academic environment but it's so amazing how our faculty is unified and that's why we have a 14-page doctrinal statement and not a half a page so it is a stewardship it's a spiritual stewardship before the Lord and it goes right back to Matthew where Jesus said if you harm one of these little ones who believe in me not talking about babies it's talking about believers little ones who believe in me it'd be better if a millstone or put her on your neck and you were drown in the depths of the sea that's pretty clear by the way that is the first chapter of instruction ever given to the church be careful how you handle these people that are my people because they're angels in heaven behold the face of the Father what does that mean the angels are watching the father's concern over how his children are being treated and he dispatches the angels to their protection in their aid to me that passage defines my responsibility to provide the shepherding the protection the care as a as a steward of one not only who belongs to a family but one who belongs to the Lord so that's that's what defines who we are and why we do things the way we do so I feel that stewardship and it's a great one and you know you gotta get the people around you who do as well somebody asked me when I was at the accreditation Association one time I was dr. bill Mays who was the chairman of the department of ethics at USC University of Southern California there were 25 presidents and professors and they were trying to decide what to do about us because we were so different so he said what if a what if a professor in the pursuit of truth determined that the Bible was not the Word of God what would you do since academic freedom is a requirement I said fire him on the spot he looked a little incredulous and he said well why would you do that I would do that sir I said because we have a catalog and in the catalog it says this is what we believe in this is what we teach and if we have somebody who doesn't teach what we say we teach and you paid the money to come to the school and we didn't give you what we told you we would give you sir how is that integrity he was the professor of ethics so he was like there were no follow-up question so I said look this is just ethics you know what we're going to teach and you we will teach what we say we will teach that's ethical that's honest that's integrity so that was a very defining moment for us and and I don't care I honestly don't care I just want to do what's right say what's right be faithful to be true and leave the results to the Lord I'm not very political on that front okay maybe you said it you guys fading fast getting ready to go to work yeah well thank you for the opportunity this morning and look forward to seeing you tonight thank you Steve

Channel: GoodTreeMinistries

Views: 73,502

Rating: 4.8365593 out of 5

Keywords: Act, Like, Men, Pastor, John, MacArthur, Christian, Life, Sin, Christ, God, Cut, off, actions, christianity, philosophy, hypnosis, medicine, lecture, bible, elton john, gospel, jesus christ, prophecy

Id: liebL48sKZs

Length: 65min 29sec (3929 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 13 2011