Heavenly Father, thank you again for your love and faithfulness to us. Thank you for the opportunity to worship here in spirit and in truth with one another. I pray that your word would go forth now to encourage the saints to build us up in the most holy faith. Lord, that we would rest in your strength and wisdom alone. That we would be like Christ. We would come to resemble him. That we would, through the cleansing and washing, of the Word, we would be spotless and blameless bright for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, I invite you guys to turn your Bibles to the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 16. So at first I wasn't going to include this as part of our reforming marriage series, but definitely this text is relevant to that study and needed sort of a stand-in text today because I am moving on to the great mystery we call women. that takes a lot of study being a man it's easier to study dudes Christian dudes scour the scriptures and to be able to relate to that and what that's like in a little more depth and so I think in the interest of wisdom and helping you guys more efficiently and more substantially to study that a little more and to have a stand in text, but I think one that definitely relates to To what it means to be a Christian what it means to be a Christian man And I would say that this message probably is directed more toward the men it's you could call it a final rallying cry especially based on the title of this sermon and But once again, I want to encourage you guys and take whatever opportunity possible to call you to arms, as it were, to be godly men, men of conviction, men of holiness, men who love their wives. And so the title of this sermon is Muster the Broherim. It is a play on words for those of you who have nerded out with me for about five minutes or more. It is inevitable that the world of Middle Earth or Narnia will come up. And so, this is a play on words from the third episode of Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, where, not King Theoden, but as they say, Theoden King, when he gets word that Gondor is under assault, Gondor's in trouble, the beacons have been lit, and they need help. And so, Theoden King says, well, muster the Rohirrim. So I'm talking to you guys. Paul is talking to you guys. When he addresses the Corinthians, even in the passage at hand today, he's addressing them in the plural. Addressing you guys as a group, as one. Once again, a call to arms, a call to action, a call to attention. And so we call this the brohirim, this group, hopefully of valiant righteous, virtuous, godly men who answer the call to join in this spiritual battle, not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. And so hopefully we will answer this call, muster ourselves for the glory of God and for the advancement of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. And while we're at it, see that it will definitely aid us in leading our households, especially our beloved wives. So all that plays into this. And so this is a very short passage today that has some very key imperatives. And really in, I think, a broad sense, we have wonderful instruction as men. Things that I would definitely hope would rouse us, would wake us up, and help us to be responsive toward God's most sacred calling on our lives. So we keep in mind we do this together. We do this together as men. We do this together as men of the church, as men who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so most of these things we've covered already in some fashion in our previous lessons, but as 2 Peter 1.12 says, therefore I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them. Some of these things will sound familiar. And then he says, I have been established in the truth which is present with you. So no doubt the truth is present with us and has been taught, has been received, has been believed, and hopefully, having been believed, is being acted upon in some sort of consistent way as Scripture guides us and as the Holy Spirit strengthens us. So I trust this text will be a blessing to us. If you're there, 1 Corinthians 16. Let's start in verse 13. Paul says this, be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. And then in verse 14, let all that you do be done in love. And so hopefully we will make it through all of these. That's the plan. So note the commands very clear. Be on the alert. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong. Those are the initial four. And then I think really coloring all of these is this final and fifth command. Let all that you do be done in love. So when you're alertness in your standing, in your acting like men and in your strength, let all of that be done in love. Let all of that be an expression or a manifestation of godly Christ like love. So let's get into this. Of course, Paul has written this letter to the Corinthians. And Corinth has often been characterized, you're probably familiar with this, as sort of a first century Las Vegas. It is the sin city of the Roman Empire in the first century. Lots of idolatry. Lots of sexual immorality. Lots of just overall godliness and compromise. And unfortunately, that kind of compromise has found its way into the Corinthian church. And I think we could say much about the Corinthian church that we could say about our own culture. And no matter what letter is being written to any church in the New Testament, be it Paul or be it John, All of these churches in some way reflect the various challenges that we endure today as a church. As a church, especially in Colorado Springs. And we want to live a life worthy of the calling that we have received. And this is where the Corinthian church is really struggling. A church that has fallen into serious compromise. And these things are written not only for our encouragement, but also to warn us so that we don't fall into these things. We don't want to wait till we're in trouble. Sometimes it can be said the best repentance is the repentance that never has to happen. And yet the warning does stand. We don't want to be a church that has, like the church in Corinth, become like the surrounding culture. And yet claims some of those things as virtuous. Paul even tells them that they are committing some sins that would even make a pagan Gentile blush. You guys are doing these things. This isn't even talked about. This is shameful, even in Gentile circles. And yet you're doing these things. And so a text like this, written at the tail end of this letter, instructs us. It equips us. And that is the point, especially talking to you men out there. The main point of this sermon, especially in connection with the things that we have been teaching, are to instruct you, instruct godly men for victorious spiritual warfare. That is what is happening Not only in the Corinthian church, but the church throughout the ages, including Emmaus Rotiform Baptist Church. We will always be engaged in spiritual warfare, and so we need to remind ourselves of those instructions from Scripture. We don't just want to fight a war, we want to fight a war as men. And not only as men, as men victorious. Victorious in our Lord. And so this requires a few things to fight victoriously. Once again, very clear instructions. So let's get started here. What's the first one? The first one, of course, is to be on the alert. And keep in mind that the very things that Paul is teaching here stand against the various shortfalls the Corinthian church is committing. It's a challenge to them. Why would he tell them be on the alert? Well, I think if you read the book of First Corinthians, even an initial reading would indicate that many of these Christians have fallen asleep at the wheel. They are not paying attention. They're not alert. They don't know what's going on. Word here is interesting. Gregoreo. which we get the name Gregory means watchfulness means alertness speaks to someone who is paying attention to be awake more or less in a physical sense as opposed to being asleep to be paying attention and yet there's more it's more to it than just this than just the state of being awake it's being awake and knowing what is going on it's being alert And there's always appropriate times, no matter what era of church history, where we have to say, where we have to tell the congregation, it is time to wake up. It is time to wake up from your sleep. Awake, O sleeper, and Christ will shine on you. And sometimes we want to do these things in preparation, not simply in response to having fallen asleep. We want to say these things precisely so that we do not fall asleep, precisely so that we are not unawares of what is going on. And we know that we have, as a church living in any society, we know that we have various challenges, various distractions, mostly from things that do not matter. I think it can come from a variety of reasons. I think if we are like the Corinthians, we are carnal or we are worldly. We are failing to see things from a redemptive point of view. We are failing to see things through the lens of Christ and His work, Christ and His kingdom. I think sometimes, I think this is a big thing today that we've talked about quite a bit, is I think the problem is we're simply lazy. We're simply lazy. We're too busy doing other things. Other things that really don't matter. And maybe it's not even something that we would characterize as some kind of heinous sin. But things that in the long run are just a waste of time. Sometimes we're lazy because things are difficult. We've talked about that quite a bit. We're lazy and we make excuses because the work of being a godly man in any culture is hard work. It is not easy to be a man. It is not easy to be a Christian man. And it is going to come with many challenges. And if a man is truly walking with the Lord, he has to do more than rotate his body on his mattress. He has to be awake. He has to be upright. He has to be alert. He has to be paying attention. And so rather than laziness, he must be diligent. He must engage to the task at hand. Whether that be his marriage, or whether that be his employment, or any kind of kingdom activity that he joins himself to. And of course, this is a difficult situation. If you've ever worked a night shift and you've had to drive home, early in the morning, you're really tired. Some of you, myself included, it's happened to me many times. Thankfully, I was alone when it happened, but falling asleep at the wheel. And when you get those ruts on the side of the highway that wake you up and they snap you up, right? They snap you awake. And then you know to pay attention, but you also know what kind of danger you were in. And so that's what Paul is doing. He's really snapping us out of this spiritual listlessness, this spiritual stupor. and calling us to be alert. Godly men must know what is going on and not be asleep at the wheel. Must be awake. Must be alert. And I think Paul diagnoses this well. Because sometimes we hear teaching like this, right? And it's hard to hear rebuke. It's hard to hear correction. Especially when we think that we are in otherwise good spiritual condition. It's hard to admit our ignorance. It's hard to admit when we weren't paying attention. It's hard to admit when we were caught off guard. Paul uses a familiar phrase in 1 Corinthians. It's amazing how much of this is so well connected with the rest of the book. But in 1 Corinthians 5, 6, and he's warning the Corinthian church against unrepentant sinners in their midst, and he says, don't you know? That's a familiar phrase. Don't you know? Surely you guys are aware of this. Don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? And then later on in verse 12, don't you judge those in your midst? Don't you exercise your church discipline? Are you not alert to the sin that is running rampant in your church? And if that sin is left unchecked, if you do not remove the evildoer from your midst, that that will have disastrous effects on other people in the congregation. You put a bad apple in a barrel of fresh apples, the fresh apples don't make the bad apple fresh. There's a contamination that works its way through the entire barrel in the same way that that contamination is not confronted and dealt with and even removed, then it will spread to the rest of the body. Works the same way. Don't you know? A little leaven, leaven is the whole lump. Don't you judge those who are among you. Don't you know that you will judge angels? 1 Corinthians 6. And it continues. Mark these down. In 1 Corinthians 6-3 we have, don't you know that you will judge angels? That's the saints. Verse 9 of this same chapter. Don't you know the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Verse 15. Don't you know? Don't you know that you're members of one body? You're members of the body of Christ? Chapter 6, verse 16. Don't you know? that if you are joined to a prostitute, you become one flesh with her. And then finally, verse 19, don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? These are things that we would today probably consider rather elementary teachings in the Christian church. This is 101. This is basic. Oh yeah, I know these things. But based on the compromise found in the Corinthian church, they were unaware of a lot of things. Or we could say at minimum, they had forgotten a lot of very crucial teachings. And so became like the surrounding culture. And that's the first step, right? Acknowledging, or pointing out rather, you do not know these things. You have forgotten these things. And of course on the receiving end saying, yes, I have forgotten these things. I have compromised. I have not been alert. I have not been paying attention. And so that's why Paul continues to tell them, well, Be on the lookout. Watch out. Pay attention. Take care, 1 Corinthians 8-9. Take care. 1 Corinthians 10-12, take heed, right? Take heed. You think you stand? Take heed lest you fall. because you are unaware of many things. Paul was so concerned that in chapter 12, if you're familiar with the lay of the land of 1 Corinthians, he even talks to them about the spiritual gifts. He's like, I don't want you to be unaware of these things. You're ignorant of so many things. What else are you ignorant of? Do you even know what spiritual gifts are? Now that I have reminded you that you are part of the body of Christ, do you know how you are to function within that body? Are you an arm, a leg, an eyeball, an ear? What are you? Do you know that you are meant to serve one another? Do you know these things? Take heed, take care, be aware. He's calling them out to wake them up, that they'll be alert. We see a situation that's rather desperate, and we can compare that to the plight of men today. Yes, the plight for men is a desperate one. We are in a desperate situation where godly men especially need to wake up. Where we need to be alert, to be able to be with it, to respond to the various challenges that continue to arise. Men cannot be asleep. There's a really interesting verse in chapter 15, verse 34, Paul tells them straight up, awake to righteousness and stop sinning. It's an amazing passage given the context, but even in its overall application, typically when it comes to dealing with sin, we want to implement all these strategies, right? What are my 10 steps to victory over pornography? What are my 12 steps to victory over alcoholism? What are my 30 steps toward victory over not being a jerk? Sometimes we just want to consider all these steps. We want everything to be a process, and in many cases things are a process. But here it's very simple according to Paul. Awake to righteousness and stop sinning. Stop sinning in the way you are. And this is 15 chapters in, and he's covered a lot of sins of the Corinthian church. But notice that. First, awake to righteousness. Be alert to righteousness. I would say, first and foremost, to the righteousness of God. And following from that, that you are a righteous new creation with the righteousness of Christ imputed to your account, so that you are raised to life to walk in newness of it. Know how righteousness pervades all of our life in Christ. Then he says, stop sinning. That's how you wake someone up. And this is the problem, is that men are sleeping. We are asleep when it comes to righteousness. We are asleep when it comes to Christ-likeness. I think we are asleep, too, per the commands in this passage. We are asleep to loving people. Loving people in the power of the Gospel. And some of you may be asleep right now at church listening to this sermon. It's just amazing how many opportunities we take to just be asleep, whether literally or metaphorically. Men sleep a lot. And so what's the first step to not sleep? It's to wake up. That is what Paul is telling us to do. To wake up. Must be alert. Walking in the victory of Christ. That's the first thing. Now, the inevitable question comes up. Okay, you said wake up. You said be alert. Alert to what? And what's amazing is that Scripture actually tells us Tells us what we are to be alert to. Tells us what we are to wake up to. So there's no lack of clarity in an exhortation like this. What are the things we are to keep watchful for? I think here's the first thing. I think this one is the most obvious. The first thing we are to be alert to is Satan. I think one of the reasons that's the first on my list is because we know Satan deals in counterfeits. He is the ultimate phony. He is the ultimate fake. He's the ultimate liar. He is the father of lies. He is the ultimate counterfeiter. And so we have to, once we're awake, we have to be able to be discerning as to what is real, what is of God and what is not of God. So be aware, just as 1 Peter 5, 8 says, if you want to turn there with me really quick, 1 Peter, 1 Peter 5, 8. He says, be of sober spirit, beyond the alert. So same issue. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. We just talked about counterfeits. Satan prowls around like a roaring lion. Who else is a roaring lion? Lord Jesus. Lion of the tribe of Judah. So both are lions. Well, how do we know the difference? One's a counterfeiter. One's the real thing. I think one immediate way to tell is that one lion is on the throne, the other is on a chain. One is bound. We are called to serve the true lion, the true King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but one of the ways we are able to do that is being able to recognize the counterfeit nature of our adversary. And to be on the alert for all of his lies, all of his deceptions. so that we are not devoured. Instead, we also are on the attention of what the Lord Jesus is doing to discern the real from the phony. There's another one here. Be on the lookout for greed. Luke 12 15, then he, Jesus said to them, beware and be on your guard against every form of greed for not even when one has an abundance, does his life consist of his possessions, right? Do you own your possessions or do your possessions own you? And I think as men, this is very important to digest. We work, we're kind of in that great rat race. There's competition, there's ambition. Of course, we want to work hard. We want to be financially stable. Some of us want to be financially prosperous. But one thing we want to be on guard against is greediness. We don't want to be greedy. We don't want to look at what we don't have and think that somehow God has shortchanged us. Or we look at something we don't have and think, oh, we deserve that. We must have that. That's just one step away from envy, which seeks to actually deprive the person who has the thing and to take it for ourselves. We want to be on guard against greed so that we can be generous. See, the generous heart recognizes that all things belong to God anyway. And so to be greedy is basically to strip God of His title of owner of the universe. When we guard against greed, we also are aware that in Christ we already have everything, that He supplies us abundantly with everything we need. Here's another one. We are to be aware of false teachers. Jesus tells us that in Matthew 7. Beware of false teachers who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous, right? Ferocious wolves. They're looking to consume you. They're looking to divide the flock, to scatter the sheep. And so what does Jesus say? By their whats you will recognize them. By their fruit. If they are a bad tree, they will produce bad fruit. If they are a good tree, they will produce good fruit. But that is how you tell. But in order to tell, you have to be awake. You can't be asleep when false teachers come knocking at your door, when they come in our midst. The front line, men, is composed of godly men who are sound in the faith. Who believe in Jesus Christ. who are well oriented with the gospel and how it impacts everything, how it speaks to all of life. So we can guard those entrusted to our spiritual care against false teachers and by extension, false gospels. Here's another one, didn't think of but courtesy of Johnny Mac. In a sermon on this very passage, he actually talks about being on watch against apathy. Apathy or carelessness. Spiritual carelessness and indifference. And he references the church at Sardis, and I think the church at Laodicea. They weren't alert, right? Sardis had a name that they were alive, but they were what? They were dead. They were a dead church. The other warning, we've been through this passage just recently, the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3. They said, I am this, right? I am rich. I have need of nothing. And so they became apathetic. So they became self-sufficient. This is a church that blind to its own vices, blind to its own sin, blind to its own lukewarmness, sardis, blind to its own deadness. And Christ visits them and sends them a message and says, it's time to wake up. It's time to wake up. Those who I love, I discipline. I reprove and discipline. To bring you out of that listlessness, to bring you out of that lukewarmness, deadness, and spiritual apathy. It's important to be alert to those things. It's always so key for the church to be aware of its own carelessness, its own apathy. Because we give ourselves way more credit than we should. Here's another thing to be alert in, and that is prayer. We are to always pray. We learn about that in Philippians 4. That's an important passage. by everything with prayer and supplication, make your requests known to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Peter warns the saints in 1 Peter 4 to be watchful, to be sober, to be alert in prayer. Why are we alert? So we can pray. You can't pray. You can't avail yourself to all the grace and blessings of the living God if you're too asleep to do so. So he says, pray. Pray for the Lord's grace. Pray for His sustenance. Pray for His goodness. Pray for everything. We are to be constantly watchful in prayer. Jesus tells the disciples, stay awake, pray, be watchful so that you do not fall into temptation. Sometimes we wonder, how did I get to this point? Why am I so tempted? to sin. And the question becomes, well, have you been watchful? Have you been watchful in prayer? Have you asked the Lord to give you wisdom as to how you are being tempted? So important. But be watchful in prayer. Another thing, too, that the Scripture reminds us to be on the lookout for, and this is especially relevant in the first century church, was the Lord's return. Remember, throughout these letters to the churches, there is this common theme that they are awaiting. the Lord to return in judgment, which we say historically happened in A.D. 70. And as we say, what's a sermon by Jonathan Goodman without some reference to A.D. 70? Well, here it is. They were to be watching for the Lord's return in power and glory to judge. And of course, we still live in light of that right now. The Lord is currently on His throne, executing judgment and righteousness on the nations as His kingdom is advancing through the preaching of the gospel. So we are still to be watchful toward that very clear, present, ongoing activity of the Lord spreading His dominion throughout the ends of the earth. We live in light of that victory. And so, this text calls for us to be watchful. To know that the Lord is currently judging. That the Lord is currently victorious. And that one day, that victory will be consummated in history. And we are to be vigilant, we are to be alert to His Kingdom's advancement until the resurrection. And so in all these things, we say that in being alert, we look to the Word of God ultimately. That is what supplies our every need and our alertness. We're not walking blind. And here's what the Word of God does. We think if all these things were to be alert to, look how the Word of God engages them. The Word of God, one, has power to withstand Satan. We have that. The Word of God is stronger than the devil. When it comes to temptation that we just mentioned, to being watchful against temptation and praying, we would say it has beauties to withstand temptation. The Word of God is more attractive than what the enemy can tempt us with. In terms of apathy and carelessness and lukewarmness, I would say the Word of God has the conviction to withstand those things. It has truth to withstand false teachers. When we think about the Word of God, what's the first thing that typically comes to our mind? Is that it is true! that it is God speaking His truth to us. The only truth that really matters. The Word of God has encouragement for us to pray. It encourages us to always be active in prayer. And then finally, we would say the Word of God has the vision, equips us with the vision to wait patiently for the final return of Christ. And without any of that, We fail. We need the Word of God. We need to be alert to it. And then of course, we come to the next part of this passage. Not only do we need alertness, He says this, stand firm in the faith. And once again, all these things are linked. It is certainly hard to stand firm in the faith if you are sleeping, right? If you're sleeping, you're not vertical, you are horizontal. So you are awake. Here's the imagery. You are awake. Wake up now. Now that you are awake, stand up. Now, how am I supposed to stand? I am supposed to stand firm. There are so many wonderful passages in the New Testament that give this directive. Stand firm in the faith, he says. And a statement like this carries enormous weight and responsibility because, as I've mentioned before, we live in an age of very frail men. Of just weak-sauce, limp-wristed man-children who don't stand for anything. But he says stand firm in the faith. Paul says something very similar to this in the book of Galatians. Chapter 5, verse 1, he says, It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Do not be victim to that old legalism that the gospel rescued you out of. Philippians 4.1, Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. Colossians 4.12, Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may what? Stand perfect. Not only stand firm, but stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. See, we can stand firm. We can stand perfect precisely, and I would say most fundamentally, because of where we're standing. We have to consider what we're standing on in the first place. Being able to stand firm in the faith implies that we are standing on something that is trustworthy. And of course, that is the rock of Christ. We'd say a rock immovable, a rock unsinkable, a rock unbreakable, and a rock unassailable. That is the rock of Christ. That's why we can stand. It matters what you're standing on as much as it matters what you're standing for or standing in. Talk about standing firm. We don't mean standing still, standing around, or standing by. Nor is Paul simply, we don't want to truncate his understanding of this, nor is Paul simply communicating to keep believing in Jesus. Sometimes we may think that. Well, if I'm standing firm in the faith, it just means, you know, five minutes from now, I'm going to stand here and say, yep, I believe in Jesus. Then 15 minutes later, yep, I still believe in Jesus. Now definitely that's included here, but that's not the whole picture. He says, stand firm in the faith. I think the faith we have in view here is very similar to what Jude says at the beginning of his letter. He says, the faith once for all delivered to the saints. That is the body of Christian teaching related to the person and work of Jesus Christ. And yes, I would say that does include the Old Testament, because the Old Testament contained the promises that looked forward to what the Lord Jesus would accomplish. So it's that entire body of teaching known as the faith, once for all delivered to the saints. That means no new revelation is required. It's all packed up. It's ready to be delivered. We have it. We don't have any new revelation today that the first century church had back then. I think the advantage we have, we have the ability to record sermons, which is pretty awesome. So we can go back and be like, what did that person say? So we have some advantages. But we have the same revelation. We have the same truth. We have the same gospel. And that is sufficient. So that is the faith. The teaching of the apostles of Holy Scripture all culminating in the person and work of Jesus Christ. So of course we would say, well what then does standing firm look like? What does standing firm look like? Let's break this down just a little bit. These will be quick. But to stand firm in the faith means to stand firm in the truth. Even Jesus says, my words are true and they are life. It is to understand that the gospel that we have, that the faith we have, is true. It is manifestly true. It is self-authenticating. It is undeniably, unmistakably true. And that truth comes from God. That truth is verified by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit testifies to us that it is true. That's why we say, well, why do you believe in the truth of the Bible? Our first answer is, I can't not believe! I am unable to exercise unbelief in this Word that has been proclaimed to me. Because you did not conjure up that faith on your own. That faith was implanted in you. That faith was produced in you by the light of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit. It's true because God says it's true. Not only do we stand firm in its truth, we stand firm in its sufficiency. If it is truth and it is God's truth, then it follows that it is enough. It is enough for everything pertaining to the life and practice and faith of the Christian. It is the Word of Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. We don't need to borrow human wisdom. To borrow human wisdom is actually to be carried off as a prisoner of war. We stand firm in the truth. We stand in its sufficiency. Thirdly, we stand firm in its authority. What Scripture says is God's Word. It's true. It's sufficient. Therefore, it's in charge. And we disobey it at our peril. That's one of the ways we know it's authoritative. By the consequences of disobeying it. It's authority to pronounce both judgment and eternal life, depending on belief or unbelief. And note, too, that it is authoritative wherever it is proclaimed. It's not just authoritative in your home. It's not just authoritative in your church. It's authoritative at Walmart. It's authoritative at Hobby Lobby. Authoritative at Target, no matter where you go, it is authoritative. Which brings me to my next point, is that we stand firm in its totality, and this is sort of a subheading of authority, is that it is authoritative everywhere. And what we mean by that is that when we stand firm in the truth, stand firm in the faith, we are acknowledging that there is nothing that the gospel does not speak to. We don't truncate it. We don't limit it. The truth of Christ speaks to everything in full authority. A very clear example of that happened this past Friday. Bill HB 23-1119, which acknowledges personhood. Now keep this in mind. We do not grant personhood. The state does not grant personhood. God grants personhood. And this bill was simply to acknowledge that. It acknowledges the personhood of the pre-born and hence protects them from an abortion procedure. Imagine that, protecting the pre-born from ghastly barbaric murder. We have reached that point. This goes back, of course, to being watchful and alert. Rather than simply knowing what is going on, when we combine this alertness with standing firm in the faith, we have a picture of a man who is able to notice what is going on around him and how to confront those matters with the faith. We can't confront what we're unaware of. We can't confront if we're not alert. And so with the Gospel as our truth, as our standard, We stand firm in the faith in its totality. So we see this bill presented. From a Christian worldview, what are we saying? We are telling our state representatives, this is consistent with what God's Word says. And you are accountable to respond in obedience. And you are accountable, furthermore, to respond in faith. It was interesting. There were a lot of thoughts that came out of it. I think one important one to remind ourselves of is, guys, this cause is thoroughly Christian. Go up and see a bill presented like this. Who is speaking for the unborn right now? Who is speaking for those who can't speak for themselves? It is Christians. And you know what that tells us? It's more than just, well, if we won't do it, no one else will. It's more than that. It tells us that everywhere is a platform for the gospel. that its range is completely unlimited. Only Christians it seemed were there. And in one funny instance, we had a gentleman up there. I think he was representing Democrats for life. And he said he was trying to present a neutral impartial case. And of course, we know there is no neutrality. There is no impartiality. And though he said that he was going to be neutral, he then went on to present several non-neutral things. It's never neutral. You're either for God or you're against Him. You either scatter with Him or you scatter abroad. Those things matter. And yet something like this speaks to the fact that wherever we go, we do not put the gospel in our back pocket. The faith is relevant and authoritative in all situations. So we say even those state representatives, I think it was a, I don't know if you saw, guys, but it was a, once again, similar to last year, it was a four, it was a seven to four count. Seven against four, four in favor of it. And what was interesting, I think kind of sad, is when the gentleman who presented this bill, when he went up there and was able to give a final plea for his case, it was really sad to see the resignation, to hear the resignation in both his tone and in his words. I know you guys have made up your mind. I know you're not going to change your mind. And I understand the heaviness of heart. But that cannot be detached from a demand that a person obey Jesus Christ. We can't go around with this resignation. Yes, we know the heart of man. We know the heart of unbelief. We know that apart from the powerful working of the Holy Spirit, they will remain in darkness and continue to pass godless legislation. However, we cannot go in a merely defeatist, passive way and say, I know what you guys believe. No, we have to go and tell them, you cannot do this. What you believe is wrong. And you need to repent. See, that's what happens when we bring the faith to bear, especially in the public square. To take it to our state's capital and say, you cannot do this because you are defying the living God. And I think that's what's so important for us to stand and encourage on the gospel in its totality. Is to be able to bring its authority to bear. And that's our starting point, right? 1 Peter 3.15 What's the first thing we do? Sanctify Jesus as Lord in our hearts. We regard the Lord as holy. That's our starting point. In our homes, in our churches, and even in the capital. The starting point, and it was a real blessing and encouragement to hear that. The starting point of so many speaking on behalf of the unborn was that Jesus is Lord. He is Lord. And you must trust Him and you must obey Him. And I think that's a huge missing part of the application of the faith today, is we are not standing firm in its totality. Remember, the unbeliever isn't meeting you on neutral ground. They are bringing their God. They are bringing their gospel. They are bringing their law and prophets. So neither should we be neutral. We bring our God. We bring our gospel. We bring our law and prophets. We bring the hope, the saving hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ to bear. And we do not limit it to the home and to the church. We take it everywhere. So that's what it is to stand firm in the faith is understanding that there is nowhere that our faith does not touch. So stop limiting it if you are. Then he says this, act like men. Act like men. Be a man. And literally it says that. In some of your translations it says, be courageous or something like that. But literally it is, be a man. Act like a man. And I think we can kind of break this down into a couple of things, depending on what else Scripture says about it, but also in looking at other commentators, it seems to come down to a couple of things. What does being a man look like? And I think it's a combination of maturity, that's the first thing, being a man as opposed to a boy in the faith, and then of course, courage. I think courage definitely is in view here. And we would say too, well, If you're not a man, it's difficult to be courageous. Real men are brave. Real men are willing to confront sin. And so what does this maturity point to? It points to the necessity of growth, especially of spiritual growth. Real men continue to grow in the Lord. Men who are vigilant, men who stand in the faith, also grow in the faith. You're in good soil now. There's no reason that you should not grow. Just like what Peter says, 2 Peter 3.18, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul also talks about it in Ephesians 4 where he says this, and he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of knowledge of the Son of God. Now what do we call this attaining of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God? To a mature man. Even the church as a whole is meant to be a mature man, full of mature men, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. And of course, the Corinthian church was battling that. They were a church who thought they were mature. I think many churches fall into this trap. They think they're a big shot. They think they're hot stuff. They think they're very mature and strong. And yet, Paul will say in 1 Corinthians 3.3, for you are still fleshly. That's got to be a blow, for sure. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?" That's a good warning for any church of any age. You think you're strong, you think you're mature, you think you're spiritual, but is there jealousy and strife among you? If there is, that means you're fleshly. You are like mere men. You're not like godly men. You're not like courageous men. You are mere men. I think inherent in strife and jealousy is a fear of man, rather than a fear of God. And a church like that is a fleshly church. Some versions say carnal. And so Paul will go on to say to them in 1 Corinthians 14.20, Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Quit thinking like children. Yet in evil, be infants. But in your thinking, be mature." They were kind of the other way around. They were excelling in tolerating wickedness in their midst. And they were acting like children. And Paul says that you've got to switch that around. Be immature when it comes to sin. Be immature in evil. But when it comes to your thinking, Think like a grown man. Think like an adult. You know, be able to put, you know, there's, I think, inherent in that is a complexity in thought. We're able to put two and two together. We're able to track an argument. We're able to build doctrine. Think all that's in view. But it's not just thinking simply or in a juvenile fashion. It's thinking with complexity, with maturity. Israel had the same problem. Jeremiah 4.22, For my people are foolish, they know me not. They are stupid children and have no understanding. They are shrewd to do evil, but to do good they do not know. That's quite a warning. You're taking a passage from Jeremiah and ascribing it to a New Testament church. And you're acting like apostate Israel. So rather than be mature, he's saying, grow up. And many of us in here need to do just that. We need to stop acting like little man children. Grow up and be men. Be godly men who are courageous and mature in the faith. And that's the next thing. Courageous. To be courageous. Godly men throughout the Bible are told, be courageous. When David was about to die, to go the way of all the earth, what did he tell Solomon? Be a man. Think of all the things. Be a man. Be strong. Be courageous. The Lord encourages Joshua in the same sense. Be strong. Be courageous. Be strong in the Lord. I am with you. I will never leave you or forsake you. See, the courageous man, the courageous and mature man knows his weakness. He's a humble man. He knows where he falls short, where his faith may flounder. But most importantly, He knows that in His flesh He is nothing. He knows His weakness. And so attached to that is that the courageous man knows that God is with him. See, he does not derive strength on his own. He knows that God is with him. He is alert to that fact that God is with him to equip, to strengthen, to continue to instruct in righteousness. That is what the courageous man knows. The courageous man also knows that God is working. That's one of the difficulties we have. Because we keep looking at society and we think, oh, things are irredeemably bad. It's going to get worse and worse and worse and worse. Come Lord Jesus. That's typically our default setting, especially in the American evangelical church. We don't play the long game. We don't realize that we may be in an era of redemptive history where courageous men are needed to simply confront the evil tide that is assailing us and to try to turn it back. That's hard. No one wants to do that because we look like losers. But we forget that we are actually walking in a victory already accomplished in Christ. And so the courageous man is aware of the sovereignty of God. He knows that God is working. Even though this man personally does not know every detail, he knows that God does know every detail. I mean, consider Joshua at the Battle of Jericho. You want me to what? You want me to march around the city once and then Days go on and then you want me to march around the city seven times. Imagine Joshua just writing this down. It seems absurd to unbelief. But God is talking to him. And God is working in real time to accomplish his redemptive purposes and to call to himself a people. And so what happened? We know the story, Joshua won the battle of Jericho and the walls came a-tumbling down. There was victory there. Consider Christ on the cross, by unbelieving men, looked all but defeated. Even to his disciples, looked defeated. And yet, in his crucifixion was his greatest victory, because he conquered death and his resurrection. Who knew? And yet now we live in light of that victory. And so, fourthly, the courageous man knows that God is winning. Just like Joshua and Caleb, let us take the land, the Lord has given it into our hands. The Lord has won. That's what the courageous man does. That's why the courageous man can stand. Because he knows he has not lost. He knows that God has won and simply stands in the reality of that victory. I know we're going a little long today, but let's get through this. Then finally, be strong. So in all this, we're not bluffing merely in our strength. We are called to be strong. Yet note this, this is not active. This is what we would call passive or middle, which implies that we either strengthen ourselves or we are being strengthened by some other agent. We're courageous because we are strengthened by God. Ephesians 6 tells us, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. That's who strengthens us. This strength is not our own. That's why we are warned in Corinthians, this book, that whoever stands, whoever thinks he stands, let him take heed lest he fall. That is a warning against standing in our own strength. It reminds us that this is a strength from God. Listen to Ephesians 3.16. That He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man. This strength, make no mistake, comes from God. So He says, be strong. Be a man. Be mature. Be courageous. Be strong. You're not pretending to be strong. You're not pretending to be courageous. This is the reality. Your strength comes from God, and that's why you can be courageous. This is a strength also that overcomes the flesh. In 2 Corinthians 1-9, Paul says that we have the sentence of death within ourselves, so that we would not trust in ourselves. So we would not trust in our own abilities or strength or wisdom, but in God who raises the dead. It's a strength that perseveres. That's why Paul says in Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That's not a verse we plaster on our helmet or on our jersey so that we go out and win the football game. Paul is saying that in the midst of service, in the midst of persecution, he says, I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Our strength comes from Christ. So here's another thing. It's a strength that gives aid to others. If the Lord has made you strong, you use that strength in order to help others. Hebrews 12, 12. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble. You know someone who has weak hands? Well, go and strengthen them. Help them. This is the purpose of being in the body of Christ. Weak-handed and knock-kneed and you got to go and help them up. You got to fling them over your shoulder and carry them out of the fire. That's the urgency we're dealing with today. And that brings us to the last point. Let everything you do be done in love. And there is like a 10 sermon series on this verse. And we're going to try to do it in three minutes. Let everything you do be done in love. And we're going to expand on this more in our series on marriage. Because what's love got to do with it? A lot. This is sort of the guiding light to everything that Paul has just said. All of these things, standing firm in the faith, acting like men, being strong, being alert, all these things are to be done in love. And now, one of the reasons we have to understand this clearly is we often hear a statement, and we use it to usually rebuke others. And it's, hey man, you need to do that in love. I saw you exhort that brother, but you didn't really do it in love. Now what does that mean? You exhorted a brother, but you weren't nice, right? You weren't Mr. Softy. You spoke with conviction, and you maybe hurt his feelings. And whatever we do, we don't hurt one another's feelings when it comes to exhorting in the truth. But Paul says, that's what we equivocate that with doing it in a loving way. But sometimes love isn't so nice. If someone's in danger, if your house is on fire, you don't tap them gently on the shoulder and lead them out. What do you do? You fling them over your shoulder, even while they're half asleep, and you run them out of the burning building so that they don't perish. Yes, love does that sometimes. Love does that a lot of the time. Love is not always nice and gentle and pleasant. It says it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, especially difficult Christians in difficult positions. But what did love do in that instance? It preserved life. It saved a life. It pursued, as we say often, the highest good. And yet we're preoccupied with being nice and not making it awkward. Was Jesus unloving when He said, brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? Oh, that's certainly not very nice. And yet it was the most loving thing He could have said. So whether gentle or rough, love always pursues the good. It always seeks to preserve and promote life and to uphold the glory of God. And we have to stop using this, friends, as a cover for sin and an excuse to reject what another Christian says to us. Or to deflect what they are saying and then condemn them for saying it. true in marriage, it's true in the church, I think it's true in the rest of society as well. So we have to be very careful about this. Love seeks the highest good of another and does no harm to its neighbor and helps another pursue Christ's likeness. Love does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth. That means we are willing to confront that iniquity. So much more could be said on that, but that is what it means to do something in a loving way. It answers the question, am I pursuing the good for this person? Even if I have to do so in a way that is not so gentle. Because right now when it comes to men and calling them to a godly masculinity, it is not a delicate procedure. Sometimes it requires a gut kick or a throat punch occasionally, and it's not pleasant. But in the end, we would hope through discipleship and through the ministry of gospel truth that it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. That is what we anticipate in every case. And so this is the call, men. Hopefully you are alert now and paying attention. ready to walk in love, ready to stand firm in the faith, to act like men, to act like manly men, and not like boys, and to be strong, and to do all of these things in love. So this is the muster of the Broherim. But the key difference, and don't miss this as we close, the key difference is that this time we are riding to Mordor, not Gondor. Make no mistake, we are not merely defending the city of men, we are assaulting the gates of hell. And that is not a task for man-children. The city's been made safe, we know that. We've been claimed by the blood of Christ, washed in the blood of the Lamb. Now we are assaulting the gates of hell. The gates of hell are on the defense. And to reiterate that truth from last Lord's Day, what we need in this case is not nice men. We need manly men, full of conviction, who stand firm in the faith, who see it as speaking to everything in life, all the issues of life. who are strong and who are alert and not asleep at the wheel. Those kinds of men are men who are ready to walk in victory and who are ready to go forth in righteousness and tear hell down. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for your truth, for your love and goodness. Thank you for this word from 1 Corinthians, we can use it just to incite zeal for you, a passion for your word, to be godly men who are on the alert, who are not listless and lazy and careless and unawares, men who are firm in the faith, not wishy-washy, not hypocritical, who stand firm in the faith, who act like real men, who are courageous, who are mature, who want to be strong, Lord, who want to be strong in You and in the power of Your might, who do not trust in their own strength or rest in their own victories, but walk in the victory that You provide through Your Son. Help us, Lord, to do all of these things, to do all of them with excellence and with consistency, to do all of them as an act of love, as we pursue the highest good for one another, as we spur one another on to godliness and Christ-likeness, knowing that your victory is sure. So much, Lord, has been said, a lot of instruction, and it's a lot to digest, but I hope that as you enable us, as you give us wisdom and understanding, that we can truly digest this and chew on it and see you apply it to our lives to strengthen us and to strengthen Emmaus Road as well. So we give thanks ahead of time, Lord, anticipating the powerful work you will do in our midst. In Jesus' name, amen.