In the sermon titled 'Personhood and Manhood by the Book,' Jason Dohm explores the biblical understanding of personhood and manhood, rooted in Genesis 1 and 2. The series is part of a four-week exploration of foundational Christian teachings, emphasizing the importance of adhering to Scripture amidst shifting cultural norms. Dohm argues that the Bible provides ultimate truth and authority, contrasting it with secular views that rely on internal human reasoning. The sermon highlights the creation of mankind in God's image, the distinct roles of male and female, and their shared mission to fill and subdue the earth. Dohm underscores the interdependence of genders in fulfilling this mission and stresses that manhood is defined by Christlikeness. He warns against contemporary cultural narratives that reject biblical gender roles, asserting that such views are irreconcilable with Christian doctrine and have implications for understanding the gospel. The sermon concludes by urging listeners, particularly young men, to embrace biblical teachings and prepare for the role of Christlike leadership in marriage and life.

Title of the sermon today is personhood and manhood by the book. This is obviously the book, the Bible. And we're considering what it means to be a person, a human being. And then within the human race, what it means for a man to be a man. Next week we'll be considering what it means for a woman to be a woman.

So this is the roadmap for the next four weeks. Today's biblical manhood, next week's biblical womanhood. The third week will be biblical marriage, and the fourth week will be biblically forming marriages. So in some ways, it's a back to basics month of Sundays. And I want to start by just begging parents to make use of this, to drive home these fundamental points.

Will you hear a new thing in these four weeks? I don't know. I sort of doubt it. But these are things that we say to conferences. Well, we don't go to conferences together.

Some do, some don't. And we don't want the years to go by without ever saying this because we have a radical commitment to sequential exposition, working through book by book a little bit at a time. So transitioning from Joshua to Romans gives us a golden opportunity to take some time to go back and just pound the pulpit on some really basic things and especially some things that are under attack all around us all day every day and so that that's what we're doing. Once we get past this four week, it'll be a mixture of Psalms. Both James and I are going to preach a Psalm or two.

And that will be mixed in with some why we do what we do sermons, going and looking at some of our distinctives, things that characterize us, that we want to make sure that we ground in Scripture so that you don't think that we just happen to like it a certain way, but we're actually doing it a certain way because of theological convictions and underpinnings. So for today, it's a very simple road map. I'll be asking and answering a number of questions starting in Genesis 1 and 2. We're starting at the beginning of the book of beginnings to just see the design and intent of God, what God was thinking when He did all of these things. And most of our time will actually be spent asking and answering these questions from Genesis 1 and 2.

And so, is it topical? Yes. We picked a topic, and we're preaching on the topic today. It's biblical manhood. But is it still expository?

Yes. We're actually going to spend most of our time just looking at a couple of texts in Genesis 1 and 2 and unpacking those texts. So topical can be exposition. You don't have to abandon exposition to take on topics. One of the key things that I'll be doing is waging war on what is happening out there.

Why do I do that? Because what's out there never stays out there. There are people who take the name of Christ on themselves, but they don't really believe that the Bible is the final word on all these things. And so they'll adopt what's out there soon enough. And so people who are trying with all their might to cling to scriptures when that's happening have to say no we don't accept those things we can't accept those things because they're utterly Irreconcilable with what the Bible says we believe the Word of God to be the the final Answer to every question Let's ask God to help us.

Oh God, thank you for not leaving us alone just with our own thoughts and inclinations to sort through things on ourselves and to find decades into that process that we were wrong about so much and starting from the beginning again but not having any firmer ground to stand on than at the beginning. God, thank you for not leaving us in that situation, but from revealing truth from heaven, giving it to us in a book that we can go back to, we can meditate on it, we can memorize it, we can read it over and over again to have it shape and change and help our thinking. And so I pray that that would be happening now. You would shape and help and change our thinking. Please Contradict every notion that is outside of your word and help us to cling to your word with all our might in this culture where the sands are shifting so rapidly.

I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Okay, question number one. What is a person? Before we can consider biblical manhood, let's just back up and say, what are people? What does the Bible say people are?

So I'm actually backing up from the original question, what is a person, to go upstream of that to ask an even more fundamental question, which is who should answer this question. All sources aren't created equal. Some sources are trustworthy, some sources aren't trustworthy. So you ought to get it fixed in your mind before you go seeking answers. You've got to go to the trustworthy sources.

Here's what Isaiah says in Isaiah 8 verse 20. Listen to Isaiah 8 verse 20. Isaiah says, to the law and to the testimony. To the law and to the testimony. If they do not speak according to this word, It is because there is no light in them.

God through Isaiah is weighing sources in the balance. And he's saying when you need to know the answer, you go to the law and to the testimony. And that as you find other voices, other sources That don't speak according to the law and the testimony the revealed word of God in Scripture It's because their voices are speaking Out of darkness that there's there's no light in them There is the revelation of truth by God in the law and the testimony and there's darkness. Those are your choices. That's what Isaiah says.

So as we ask ourselves who should be answering this question, Isaiah says God should, and all voices that contradict his word in scripture are voices speaking out of darkness. If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Have you considered what the Bible says about itself? It claims for itself to be the revelation of God to man to be without error silver, purified seven times. Pure truth, an adulterated truth from heaven, and that everything that contradicts it is speaking out of darkness.

Well friends, you just have to make a decision about that. Is that true or isn't it true? Are the things that scripture claims for itself true? So that this book is and must be accepted as the final word if this is unbroken, unadulterated truth from heaven then surely everything that it speaks to has to be right and has to be the final word on the answer. Well, it claims that for itself, so you begin by deciding, do you believe the Bible about itself?

And how you answer that question shapes every aspect of every part of your life. Things get really easy once you've answered that question, especially if you've answered it, and you embrace what it says about itself, because then you know where to go to get the answers. And you know when there are different voices, how to sort out the voices. So that's what we're doing today. We're embracing the notion, I'm embracing the notion that the Bible is what it claims to be.

It is truth from God. It is all the truth that God thinks mankind needs on every topic, and that it is the final word on every topic. And so we go to the book of beginnings where God begins to explain what all this is, and what all this is about to determine what a person is. So hopefully your Bibles are still open to Genesis chapter 1, if not open them to Genesis chapter 1. And let's reread together Genesis chapter 1 verses 26 through 28.

This is creation week. By the time we get to verse 26, five days have already gone by. God has separated light from darkness, land from ocean. He's created all the plant life. He's created all the animal life and the stars, the galaxies have come into being.

And in day six, He creates people, mankind. And all the way along, it's been day one, he creates. It's good. Day two, he creates. It's good.

Day three, he creates. It's good. Day four, he creates. It's good. Day five, he creates.

It's good. Day six, he makes a different kind of creation, as we're going to see, and it's very good. So we're being tipped off. This is actually the pinnacle, the mountain peak of creation. You can think of creation week as a mountain range.

These glorious, soaring mountains, but there's a peak over all of them. There is an ultimate creation of God in that week, and it's actually mankind, and we're told why that is. Good, good, good, good, good, very good on day six. Genesis chapter one, follow along as I reread 26 through 28. Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness.

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them. Then God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.

Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. This three in one God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, that's why actually the plural is used at the beginning of this. Then God said, let us make God in our image, but then it says in verse 27, so God created man in his own image, singular. So you have both of these together in this text. Why is that?

Because God exists in three subsistences, three persons. Not three distinct, separate people, but it's three in one. It really is a mystery. So when you start talking about it and trying to explain it, you very quickly hit the end of what you can explain with clarity because it's a mystery. God is plural, existing in Father, Son, and Spirit, and yet God is one.

He creates man in His singular image. He is plural in a sense, but He is one God. We're not polytheists believing in multiple gods. There is one God. And this one God determined to create a creation or a creature in his own image, to make all sorts of things, but then to crown creation, to create a mountain peak in creation week with this creature that bears his image in a way that nothing else that he creates the whole rest of the week bears his image So it goes without saying that this is a tremendously privileged creation It is fundamentally unlike The other things that were created and that is crystal clear because people these image bearers are given dominion over the other things that were created on earth during the week.

All these other things are subject to this creation that God made that bears his own image that special in a way that the other creatures and creations are not. Now, within the human race, within this creation, which bears the image of God, are two genders, male and female. I Look at 27 again. So God created man, that's not gender specific, that is gender neutral. God created mankind, people, In his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.

So you have mankind, image bearers of God, but created existing in two different genders, male and female. And that is all of God. Couldn't be clearer in Genesis chapter 1. This is not human construct at all. This is in the mind of God before creation expressed in how he created.

And there's no mystery as to which is which. He created male and female. And there's no mystery as to which is which. They're made distinctly, and they are made differently. Their physical bodies, what you can see, are distinct and different.

And so the doctor has always been right, even when there when there hasn't been an ultrasound, nobody knew that the baby's just born, the doctor has always been right to say, it's a girl, because no interview was needed. This person didn't need to develop and decide and announce, the doctor can announce it right at the point of birth, it's a boy, it's a girl. Gender is displayed in anatomy. What's anatomy? Body parts, body parts.

Gender is displayed in body parts, in human history that I'm aware of, that has never needed to be said from a pulpit. When I was a boy, it didn't need to be said. When I was a young man, it needed to be said. When I was a younger middle-aged man, it didn't need to be said. When I was a young man it needed to be said.

When I was a younger middle-aged man it didn't need to be said. Now I have to say it. It would be irresponsible to come up here and not say, gender is displayed in body parts. So the doctor is right to say, it's a boy, not let's let this human being grow up and ask it what pronouns to use. That is a thorough rejection of Genesis chapter 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 and 9 and so on.

Now, God gives these image bearers a gigantic, glorious, two-fold mission. So he makes them, and he makes them as male and female and then he gives them a gigantic glorious two-fold mission. One to fill the earth, two to subdue the earth. So right off the bat, he expresses his intent for mankind. I made you male and female and you are to do these two things.

You're to fill the earth, multiply. You're to subdue the earth. Bring order to the earth. Make profit from the earth. Subject the earth.

And as we continue to learn from Scripture, we learn that the genders are utterly unable to fulfill either part of the gigantic, glorious two-fold mission without each other. Men can't fill the earth without women. Women can't fill the earth without men. Men can't subdue the earth without women. Women can't subdue the earth without men.

They're created, distinct, different, and they're given a gigantic, glorious, two-fold mission. They need each other for it. This is how God made things from the very beginning. This was His design and intent. So what is a person?

A special creation of God who bears His image in a way that None of the other creatures bears his image. And there are male people. They become adults, we call them men. And there are female people. And they become adults, we call them women.

Both are 100% people. Nobody's subhuman here. This is all mankind. And they are 100% image bearers. Women don't bear the image of God more than men do.

Men do not bear the image of God more than men do. Men do not bear the image of God more than women do. Both 100% people, both 100% image bearers, and they are given this two-fold mission that can only be accomplished together. Rather than saying they're given two missions, you notice I've been calling it a two-fold mission. That's because you cannot possibly separate them.

Filling the earth and subduing the earth go hand in hand. And all of this is before Genesis 3. What happens in Genesis 3? Sin comes into the world. All of this, everything that I've said so far, happens before sin comes into the world.

So none of this is a result of the encumbrances that sin has brought into the world. The hardships and sorrows and distortions that come into the world. All of This is before that. So this is the original intent of God in His creation before sin entered the world. So that's the first major heading or the first question, What is a person?

The second question, what is a man? Next week we'll take up the question, what is a woman? What is a man? We're going to Genesis chapter 2 now. In some ways, in many ways, Genesis 2 is a replay of Genesis 1, but details are added in.

In other words, here in what we just read in Genesis 1, there's creation, Mankind made male and female. Genesis 2 backs up to when there's only one man, there's not yet a woman, and it fills in the details. So that's what we see in Genesis chapter 2, a replay of the sixth day of creation, mankind, but then with many details added that weren't in Genesis 1. I'd like to read and please follow along as I read Genesis 2 verses 15-24. 15-24.

15-24. Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. And the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.

Out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable or comparable to him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and he slept.

And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had made from man, he made into a woman. And he brought her to the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." So God puts Adam in the garden and he gives him work. It's said that He put him in the garden to tend and to keep the garden. So again, this is before sin is in the world, work is in the world before sin is in the world. We don't just work because of the consequences of sin. It's gotten a lot harder.

It has thorns and thistles to contend with in our work life now, but work was pre-fall into sin and corruption. So Adam is set by God in the garden to tend and to keep the garden. And God gives him a single command, not very restrictive at all. He can eat from any of the trees, but only one tree he's forbidden to eat from. And the work is part of the dominion mankind is to take.

In other words, in chapter 1, God said, I'm going to make man in my image, and I'm going to give mankind dominion. And now we see in chapter 2 the outworking of this. He puts him in the garden to tend and to keep the garden. This is part of the dominion that we see in chapter 1. And so is the naming.

God makes these other creatures and God allows tasks at them with naming them. They are subject to him. They even get their name from him. This is dominion. While naming them, Adam notices, none of these is comparable to me.

I'm alone. You mean there's nothing around you? No, There's all sorts of animals, creatures, creeping things, cattle, birds, fish around him. And yet with all that, he says, I'm alone. There's nobody like me.

He has been made in the image of God different than the other creatures and feels it and knows that there's none comparable to Him. So God put Adam to sleep and made Eve out of Him. And she will and she will help him as a helper comparable. That's the term in verse 18. A helper comparable of the same kind.

King James renders it help meet. That's where you get help meet from. Meet not as in Adam meet Eve. Eve meet Adam. No, no, no.

Not coming together and meeting each other the first time. There's a secondary meaning to meet, meaning suitable. Suitable for, a helper, suitable for. So NASB translates it that way. A suitable helper.

The ESV renders it a fit helper, a comparable helper. In commenting on this, Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 11. Listen to 1 Corinthians 11 verses 8 through 12. So Paul is actually commenting on the creation account in 1 Corinthians 11, 8 through 12. For man is not from woman, but woman from man." So he's going right to what we just read.

God didn't take a rib out of Eve's side to make Adam, God took a red rib out of Adam's side and made Eve, so that she would be a helper suitable or fit to be alongside him in this glorious, gigantic, two-fold mission that God had given them. For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Continuing, 1 Corinthians 11. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. For this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels.

Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man in the Lord. For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman, but all things are from God." So woman was made from man. The rib was taken out of Adam's side. He made a woman. And woman was made for man.

He was alone. It wasn't good for him to be alone. He needed a helper for this gigantic glorious twofold mission that God had given him. But man is not independent of woman. If you have a question about that, call your mama.

She'll tell you all she went through to have you. And then you can claim to be independent of woman. You just call your mom and say, mom I've decided I'm independent of woman. And let her tell you her pregnancy and birth story and then you'll know how independent of woman you actually were. No, We are interdependent.

Woman was created from man for man, but man comes through woman. No man's ever been born since Adam that did not come through a woman. Interdependence made by God to be interdependent on one another. And then Paul gets to the point, all things are from God. Man, this isn't about you.

Woman, this isn't about you, all things are from God, this is about God. This is about God. And then back to Genesis chapter 2. Back to Genesis chapter 2. The ultimate nature of what the relationship can be is unfolded in verse 24.

So where is all this going? What can this relationship ultimately be? Verse 24, Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." Known as leaving and cleaving. Leaving the household that God gave you, that you, each of you grew up in, and coming together not just as business partners, this is not a man being given a maid or a woman, being given someone whose job is to make all her dreams come true. This is a man and a woman being brought together and each given a companion to be loved for life.

That's what's happening here. And we know because Paul interprets it in Ephesians chapter 5. So let's go to Ephesians chapter 5 and see where Paul quotes Genesis chapter 2 verse 24. I'm going to go straight to that quote and skip over lots of good stuff. We'll come back to the good stuff next week and the week after and probably the week after that.

Ephesians 5 verse 31. Watch Paul quote that verse. Ephesians 5, 31. Paul writes, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Two becoming one.

This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. So there have been shadows of this throughout the Bible, but no Bible author has ever come out and said it like that. Quoting God's design and intent in Genesis 22 to make a man and a woman to bring them together out of their households, to form their own household and to become one. Though there have been some hints at it, Paul comes right out and says, this is actually a mystery that's being revealed now. This is about Jesus Christ and His relationship with His blood-bought people, the church.

Christ is really the groom. The church is really the bride. And that's what all this human marriage stuff has been about, and now you know it. Now think about what that means. It means that ultimately, the expression of gender serves this end.

Ultimately, the expression of maleness according to God and His design and intent, and femaleness according to God and His design and intent, serves this end. What end? Christ in the church. Mimicking, approximating, reflecting the Lord Jesus Christ and His love for His people that He buys with His blood, and His people's adoration and trust and submission to him. Gender expression serves that end.

Conform to that end. So you cannot reject gender expression without rejecting what without rejecting what it's meant to reflect. Ultimately, A boy and a young man is preparing for this role. We got any boys in the room? I want to see eyeballs.

Eyeballs. You are young boys, young men. You are preparing for this role. What a role. Do you understand how profound that is?

And how that means you don't have a second to waste? You thought, this is my childhood. I can just waste it. Not if you're preparing for this role. Boys, young men, if you're preparing to play the role of Jesus Christ and how he interacts with his people, Is there a moment to waste?

There is not a moment to waste. You can still play. Will all be married? No, but marriage is the rule. And lifelong singleness is the exception.

That's what we learn when Jesus teaches on singleness, lifelong singleness in Matthew 19 and Paul teaches it on 1st Corinthians 7. Marriage is the rule, lifelong singleness is the exception And if you're going to be single all your life long, how would you know you haven't lived all your life long? You prepare for the rule, which is to play this role in marriage. And it's fundamental to manhood to be ready to be this in that relationship. It is fundamental to manhood to be ready to be this, to play the role of Jesus Christ in marriage.

You don't start that at the altar. Oh, heaven help the woman who goes to the altar and takes vows with the man who's just starting to prepare for that role when he says, I do. Heaven help her. And in the early years of that marriage. I won't ask for testimonies from the congregation.

Jim smiling. Jim smiling. He knows. So we'll be back to Ephesians chapter 5, because it has a significant bearing on womanhood, and it has a significant bearing on marriage, and it has a significant bearing on how we form marriages. So we'll spend a lot of time here.

For now, just Ephesians 5 verses 31 and 32 Paul quotes God's original design and intent, and he says, oh this is a mystery, I'm actually talking about Jesus Christ and the church. That should color everything about how we think about gender and the importance of gender. Now all of a sudden you can't throw gender overboard without having a profound implication on what Everybody in the world thinks about the gospel. Do you understand that? We just wanted to throw gender overboard.

We didn't want to throw the gospel overboard. Guess what? You don't get to choose those things. So man was created to have authority. Not every man over every woman, but every man over his home, if and when God gives him one, in his marriage and over his children, God has given him authority.

If you don't believe that, go back to Genesis 3. Why do I say Genesis 3? Because There in Genesis 3, Eve eats first. It's explicit. You can't miss that.

It's impossible to miss. Eve eats first. God comes calling and calls for Eve. No, Adam. Why didn't he call Eve first?

She ate first. Did he not know that Eve ate first? Of course he knew. He knows all things. But Adam is held responsible as the head of that two-person home.

That is so profound. Eve ate first, God called for Adam. Why does he call Adam? Because Adam's job was to lead Eve into walking with God in obedience, not follow her into sin. Exactly the wrong thing happened.

His job was to lead her into walking with God in obedience, but instead he followed her into sin. Everything was wrong about it. As James and I love to say, welcome to Headship. Little boys, young men, not so young men, welcome to Headship. We love that doctrine when we didn't understand it.

We loved that doctrine when it just meant we got to be the boss. Then one day it dawns on you and it hits you like a load of bricks. The accountability that comes with the authority. The obligation to lay down your life that comes with the authority. If you understood it, you never would have cheered for it.

You would have fallen down and Worshiped God for being wise and doing things that you never would have done. So man is given authority, but it is always to be exercised in Christlikeness. Authority is rooted in Christ, which is real authority. Does Jesus have real authority? Dumb question.

It's ultimate authority, but tender authority, self-sacrificing authority. And anything different than that misses the mark. Any exercise of human authority, which is tender in its exercise, which is self-sacrificing in its exercise, misses the mark. It is a misuse of authority. So here's the punchline.

Here's the punchline of the whole sermon. Biblical manliness is Christlikeness. Biblical manliness is Christlikeness. Biblical manliness is Christlikeness. Clint Eastwood is not our example.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is not our example. The action movie heroes is our example. The Lord Jesus Christ is the man's man of the Bible. Period. Exclamation mark.

Let's summarize. Where are we? According to the Bible, a man is one made by God in the image of God. According to the Bible, man is two given a gigantic, glorious two-fold mission and a helper to accomplish it because he can't accomplish either one without her. The garden is a microcosm.

Microcosm just means little world. It's a little world, a little example of the big world. And Adam was to tend and keep the garden and to multiply there to expand his ability to tend and keep the earth that was being entrusted to him. By the way, the Great Commission is not separate from the Dominion Mandate. The Great Commission is a sharpening of the focus and a rearticulation of the Dominion Mandate.

Our mission as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ to disciple the nations and baptize them and to teach them all things that Christ has commanded is a restatement and a sharpened focus of the dominion mandate to New Testament believers. According to the Bible, a man is three, a reflection of the Lord Jesus. And so that has to define his roles and his activities and his dispositions towards everything. If you think that you're growing into manhood, into roles that don't reflect Jesus Christ and who he is and what he does then you're not thinking right If you are growing into manhood and are envisioning activities that are out of step with the Lord Jesus Christ and the things that we see him Spending his life on in the gospel then you're out of step with biblical manhood His dispositions towards everything should shape and color our dispositions towards everything. What does that mean?

Jesus loved certain things. We have to learn to love those things. Jesus hated certain things. We have to learn to hate those things. Jesus is so much more than the ideal man.

In other words, it's a dangerous thing to just see Jesus through the lens of an example to be followed. But because Jesus goes beyond ideal manhood to be a sacrifice for us. He's not just our example. His ideal manhood qualifies him to be a substitute for sinners. And then he does his work as a substitute for sinners.

So Jesus is so much more than the ideal man, but he is the ideal man. If you want to study manhood, The best four places to study manhood are Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, because that's where we see Jesus. He's manhood in its perfection. So, what is a person? Genesis 1.

What is a man? Genesis 2 and Ephesians 5. Three, why does it matter? Let me give you two reasons why it matters. Number one, The two worldviews are eternally irreconcilable.

The two worldviews are eternally, forever, from all of time past through all of time future, irreconcilable. They cannot be brought together, synthesized. There cannot be peace between them. One view accepts what the Bible claims for itself, That it's truth revealed by God to creatures and he knew exactly what we need to know and he told us exactly what we need to know. The other doesn't accept what the Bible says about itself and therefore looks within for the answers, not without.

So the one worldview looks outside to answer all the questions. Because that worldview has accepted what the Bible says about God and about man. And so the thought that we would solve these problems and answer these questions with just what we find in ourselves is repulsive. Because the Bible has taught us to believe that you better not trust what's in there. That it's not trustable and that to trust only what's in there is to court disaster, to bring upon yourself disaster.

So people of that worldview don't look within, in fact they distrust within. They look without to say, God is wiser than I can ever be if he gave me a thousand lifetimes. I would mess it up a thousand times. God tell me what I need to know, thank you for giving me what I need to know in this book. Looking outside for the answers to the questions.

The other worldview rejects that in favor of believing that internal resources are all you need, we're smart enough to figure it out. Try to imagine a way in which you can bring these two things together to play nice together. They're opposite definitions. They define each other out. My worldview embracing scripture as truth from heaven defines out being able to answer those questions with what's in my own mind and heart.

In fact it teaches me to distrust it and vice versa. The worldview that looks to human reason to define these things Obviously exists outside of the circle of professing Christians, but just know this. As the days go by, more and more, this will exist inside the circle of professing Christians. It's called fake Christianity. It's always been around.

It always will be around. But the pressures from it are going to be increasing. You can expect that. That's happening already. And it has momentum.

Meaning children, meaning people who say, yeah, I'm just like you, I'm a Christian, are going to be rejecting explicitly Christian propositions and they won't even see the contradiction. And they'll be offended if you point to a contradiction and say, well, the Bible says, and they're going to say, are you saying I'm not a Christian? Number two, why does it matter? Number one, The two worldviews are eternally irreconcilable. I'm trying to get you to prepare for what is upon us.

Don't think this is going to subside, or that there can be a coming together of these things. This is only going to get worse. Number two. Anything other than the biblical vision destroys or distorts manhood as God intended it, which has gospel implications. So there's the Bible vision, what the Bible teaches about these things, in Genesis 1 and 2 and Ephesians 5.

And then there's all these other thoughts. All these other thoughts distort or destroy manhood as God intended it. And that isn't just limited to gender role discussions or gender discussions. That comes all the way into the gospel. What it means and how it's understood.

You cannot erase gender distinctions and leave the gospel untouched. That's impossible. You cannot have gender without implications of authority and leave the gospel untouched. That's impossible. We have a 50-50 marriage.

We flip a coin and whoever wins the coin flip decides you have an unbiblical marriage. And the gospel is not untouched by the implications of the way you live out your marriage. You cannot say that gender is a human construct which should be abandoned and leave the gospel untouched. You understand those are the prevailing wins. That gender is a human construct and that it's actually harming us and we need to abandon it.

There's no making peace with that and clinging to the Bible. Because when you say that, it's more than just about who can swim against who in college competitions. It has an implication about how the gospel is understood. And you cannot reject the gender that God made you in order to pursue being the other gender and leave the gospel untouched. Can you imagine a more basic form of rebellion than being made one gender and saying I reject that I'm going to pursue through chemicals and surgery being the other gender a more basic form of rebellion against God than that.

And our leaders want to make it a crime to say that. Applications. I'll give you two. The first one is for all of us. Make up your mind decisively about Scripture and then build.

Decide what you think about the Bible and then build. And then build. If you don't think it is what it claims to be, Then have the courage to go build on a foundation that you dream up. But I warn you, there's a way that seems right to a man. But death is at the end of it.

Disappointment is at the end of it. Destruction is at the end of it. Sorrows are at the end of it. Most People don't have the courage to do that. But they don't have the strength to say definitively, God, I believe what Your Word claims for itself, and I'm going to build on that for the rest of my life.

I'm going to build what I think about manhood and womanhood, marriage, church life, evangelism. I'm building everything. I'm betting everything that the Bible is truth revealed from heaven. Exactly what we need to know. And so I'm going to do Everything based on what it says.

Why don't people do that? Because it's scary to do that. It's scary to do that. I've come here today to say trust Scripture. Trust Scripture.

Okay, I'm 52. I've been in the faith more than 40 years now. I have more confidence in this book today than I've ever had. Every year I have more confidence because everything that I see tells me that it's true. It's true.

It's true. It's true. When I build on it, I'm only made happy. My sorrows don't have to do with building on scripture. My sorrows have to do with not building on scripture.

Number two. Boys and young men. Boys and young men. We're almost an hour in. You haven't heard a thing I've said for the last 30 minutes, probably because it's hard to listen for a whole hour.

Come back, boys and young men. I want you to hear this. Get the target fixed in your mind. Believe what God says about manhood, and especially that Jesus is the target, and especially how he relates with his people, and his self-sacrifice, and that kind of leadership. Get that target fixed in your mind.

Embrace yourself for the contempt of the world. The number of people who will applaud for you, if that becomes your target, are very few. And the number of people who will heap scorn on you and contempt on you and say, you fool are many. God is faithful. Let God be true and every man a liar.

To have the favor of God, I didn't comment on this, but in Genesis chapter 1 did you notice that He made them male and female and then He blessed them and gave them the gigantic, glorious, two-fold mission. They are under His blessing to engage the world in this way. He blessed them! You will enjoy the favor of God to pursue Jesus Christ as the model of manhood. So I've skipped one thing.

I actually want to put it on the audio record. I'm going to go back to it in Lord's Supper time, but I don't want this going out on the internet without saying this. I haven't talked about the fall of man other than as just sort of reference from the side. We are utterly unable to engage in these things in our natural selves. We have to have the grace of God and the blood of Christ, or everything that I'm talking about is worthless.

The starting point is repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then you pursue biblical manhood. Oh, please don't skip past the blood of Christ to pursue biblical manhood.