In this sermon, the speaker addresses the topic of biblical manhood and what qualities a man must possess to reflect it. The first quality mentioned is a commitment to God-honoring labor, emphasizing that laziness is sinful and that God does not approve of lazy men. The speaker references Proverbs 6, highlighting the example of the ant who works diligently without needing supervision. The second quality mentioned is a commitment to God's law, emphasizing that even before the fall, there was a standard of righteousness that man was expected to follow. Lastly, the speaker emphasizes the importance of a man being committed to the priority of the family, recognizing that the family should be a man's primary focus and responsibility.

It's my honor to introduce our next speaker, Dr. Vodie Baucom. Vodie comes from, he came from Houston, Texas today, that's where he and his family are located. Vodie is a world-renowned speaker, he speaks at conferences, he's a pastor, he's a biblical teacher, he's got some books out on a table. I'm reading Family Driven Faith right now, it's outstanding. And he's an amazing man of God, I've heard him speak at some different venues before, and I think you're going to be really blessed. He's going to be talking about biblical manhood and womanhood, and I think you're going to learn a lot. So let's welcome up Vodie. Well good evening. To teach you folks in western Kentucky a little something about Texas hospitality. Good evening. Oh that was much better. It's good to be here tonight. I have been excited about this for quite some time. I'm always excited to be in the presence of Paul Washer. He's the man that I've always admired greatly, and the man who is becoming a dear friend. And in these days where the gospel is so polluted, it is refreshing and encouraging and challenging to hear a man proclaim it without apology and with incredible clarity and passion and boldness. And it is what we desperately need in our day. It's interesting, you know, that Paul talked about the Puritans and the influence of the writing of the Puritans in his own life. And one of the things that really has knit our hearts together is that same influence in my life of the writings of the Puritans in a number of areas, but specifically in the areas of the applications of the gospel to everyday life and the application of gospel theory of biblical manhood, biblical womanhood, and the family. There are two sides of my life. There is the one side which is the professional side you heard a little bit about this evening where I serve as a pastor and as a professor, and my area of specialty is the area of cultural apologetics. Apologetics is just a fancy word that means a defense of the faith. It comes from the Greek word apologia, which is used in 1 Peter chapter 3 when Peter says that we're to always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks us the reason for the hope that is within us. And that word for the reasoned response that we're to give is apologia, and from that word we get our word apologetics. And so it's giving a reasoned response for why it is we believe what we believe. Cultural apologetics is a term really popularized by Francis Schaeffer, and it's the idea of applying that discipline to contemporary cultural issues. And so that's the one side of my life. The other side of my life is the place where I am Bridget's husband and Jasmine and Trey and Elijah and Asher's father and the father of all of the other arrows yet to come. And it is in the place where those two areas merge together where I've been spending a lot of my time lately, where cultural apologetics meets the biblical understanding of manhood and womanhood and the family from a biblical theological perspective, because I believe the culture has sold us a bill of goods as it relates to what manhood is, as it relates to what womanhood is, and as it relates to what the family is. We've been lied to, hoodwinked, bamboozled, okay? We've been sold a bill of goods as it relates to the biblical family and what it is to be a man, what it is to be a woman. We just don't get it. We don't know. Tonight we'll look at biblical manhood. Tomorrow we'll look at biblical womanhood. But again, it's something that we have failed to understand in a biblical context, just like these issues of the gospel, these things that are clear in the scriptures. But because we've heard the polluted versions so often and for so long, the truth is almost foreign to us. It is that way as well when it comes to these ideas of biblical manhood and womanhood. And we'll see that as we journey through our time together over these next couple of days. In looking at biblical manhood, I want us to go back to the beginning. I want us to look in the book of Genesis, if you will. Open your Bibles with me to Genesis chapter 2. In Genesis chapter 1, we have the creation overview. In Genesis chapter 2, things slow down a little bit. And rather than just a general synopsis, we get some more specifics about creation and specifically about the creation of man and woman. And we see this here beginning at verse 15. I want us to see this here in Genesis chapter 2 and verse 15. And remember, this is before the fall. This is before corruption has entered in. Not long before, because it doesn't take long for corruption to enter in, for the fall to enter in. But this is what it looks like in perfection. This is not what it looks like when it's marred and it's being restored. It's interesting. We're now looking at the other side of the coin. We've looked at this picture of God bringing about restoration, of God recreating man, if you will, through this process of salvation, this process of regeneration. But now we're going to look at the other side of the coin. We're going to look at this picture of perfection. We're going to look at man in his pristine form. And what we see there just might surprise you, because again, we've been sold a bill of goods. Look with me beginning at verse 15 of chapter 2 of Genesis. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden. 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. Verse 18. Then the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. I love that verse. I really do. Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I just have this picture in my mind of God creating man. And there's Adam. And God looks at Adam and says, I'm going to make it by itself. I will make him a helper fit for him. So out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. We just pause here for a moment. Every type of animal that God had created, he brought before this man and this man named them all. We don't have minds like that anymore. Can you imagine that? Naming all the animals. And you couldn't just go, that's four legged, upright crawling thing. Because there's a whole bunch of those, you know. Each one of these he named. That's the kind of mind this man had. And even with a mind like that, God said, it wasn't good for him to be alone. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock and the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. And while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up the place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, this is at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Eshah because she was taken out of Esh. In Hebrew, it's a beautiful picture that's painted there by the words that he uses. She should be called woman because she was taken out of man. She should be called Eshah because she was taken out of Esh. That she's mine. She's part of me. Next verse. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife. And there shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. And here's this beautiful picture of man in pristine conditions. And there are some things that are present here that some may find surprising. And as it relates to biblical manhood, these things are absolutely essential. If a man wants to call himself a man from a biblical perspective, these things have to be in place. Now, unfortunately, first, we got to do some deep programming here. I want you to understand what has happened to us. We define manhood, you know, it has been said by the three B's, okay? We define manhood on the ball field, in the bedroom, and by the billfold. In our culture, that's how we've been taught to define manhood. On the ball field, in the bedroom, and by the billfold. That's it. How does he perform athletically? How does he perform sexually? How is he with the ladies? And how much money does he have? That's how we define manhood in our culture, whether we like it or not. And unfortunately, for those of us who claim to be followers of Christ, and in large part because of what we've just heard, our definitions are no different. We define manhood by the three B's. I am the homeschool father of four. My oldest son is not with me today. He travels with me. I travel about eight days a month. Any less, it'd be hard for me to feed my family. Any more, it'd be hard for me to say with a straight face that they're the most important thing in my world. But I travel about eight days a month, and my oldest son travels with me. He does that full time. From the time my oldest son became 13 years old, I became his teacher. When he was 13, he went through a manhood ceremony, and one of the parts of that entering into manhood was his mother turned over the books, and I became his teacher of all of his subjects, and more particularly, more specifically, his discipler. He is my disciple. There is no man in the world that is more important for me to disciple than my son. And so, as a result of that, he spends his time traveling with me, and the interesting thing about that is I get a lot of questions, several questions I get, you know? People look at me, and they go, you know, you're a pretty big guy. You look like you maybe, you know, you're a ballplayer or something like that. I say, yeah, yeah, yep, yep, and they're done that. Okay, it's great. You know, son, you know, he's 14. He's, you know, a pretty big kid, and I'm just wondering, you know, with you guys doing this, how's he going to play ball? When people say that to me, here's what I hear. I want to know how your son is going to be able to worship at the altar of the sport god, to which I respond, who cares? I don't. It's meaningless. It's absolutely meaningless. We don't need another ballplayer. We don't. We need men with trained minds. We need men with godly biblical character. We need men with multi-generational vision. We need men who commit themselves and all their faculties to the glory of almighty God. I am raising a warrior for Christ. That's what I'm raising, not an entertainer. That's not what I'm raising, a warrior for Christ. Who cares? Well, you know, team sports, they build character. Really? Do you really believe that? Do you really believe that? Because if you believe that, let's test your premise. Team sports build character. That means guys who spend more time in team sports ought to have more character than guys who don't. So the guys in this culture with the greatest character ought to be in the NFL and the NBA. Is that your final answer? That's ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous. Besides that, how did George Washington build character? He didn't play team sports. Adams, Jefferson. I'll give you one better. How did Jesus build character? Was it Pop Warner? See, we think like that. Why? Because how do you measure manhood according to our culture? The ball field, the bedroom, and the bill phone. That's how you measure manhood according to our culture. And that's how we've learned to measure manhood. Does that mean I think sports are evil or that? I didn't say that. It's not what I said. That's not what I said. But once we step back for a moment and ask ourselves some questions, we realize that not only is that a limited understanding of what a man is, but it also doesn't come close to approaching scriptural truth. What is a man? And here's what's even less fortunate. There are women walking around some of you in this very room and you'll be married in the not too distant future. And our culture has said to you, you measure manhood by what the ball field, the bedroom, the billfold. And that's what you're looking for. Claiming that you're following Christ. But what you're looking for in a man is not a reflection of biblical manhood and biblical character, but a reflection of our carnal culture. What type of marriage do you think you're going to have? How long is the ball field going to satisfy you ladies? We don't get to do that long. How long is the billfold going to satisfy you ladies? Because certainly all women with rich husbands are constantly happy. How long is the bedroom going to satisfy you ladies? So if that's the measure that our culture has given us, no wonder those who look for that in a man end up with disillusionment quickly. But if it's not that, then what is it? Three things we see here, even before the fall, three things that a man must be committed to if he's going to reflect biblical manhood, at least these three. And this is the minimalist version here, all right? We could go into a lot more than this, but this will encompass all that we need to understand for here and for now. Three things. Number one, he must be committed to God honoring labor. He must be committed to God honoring labor. God does not abide lazy men and neither should we. You can't say amen, you ought to say ouch. He must be committed to God honoring labor. Ladies, tonight what I'm going to do for you ladies is I'm going to speak to you as a father, okay? I have a 17 year old daughter. We talk about these things a lot. My primary goal in my 17 year old daughter's life is preparing her and partnering with her to see to it that she has a biblically qualified, well-suited mate for marriage. My number one goal in my 17 year old daughter's life. It's my job to protect her from unqualified, worthless men. It's my job as her father. And tonight, ladies, I'll do that for you just for the time that we have together, all right? I will play that role for you tonight. I will treat you like I treat my own daughter. And I say to my own daughter, do not abide a lazy man. Don't look twice at a lazy man. If he is not committed to God honoring labor, he is not worthy of your hand in marriage. I will not, I will not authorize that marriage. I'm not signing off on it. Matter of fact, I refuse to allow that kind of man to get close enough for my daughter to even become interested in him. Why are you going to do that? You know, when she goes out on these dates and she does, she goes out on what? Find that one in the text. Find it in the text. Find that concept, the modern American dating concept in the text. It's not there. You have betrothal, you have marriage, you have relationships between individuals who intend to marry. You don't have this idea of people who just kick it because they like each other for right now. That's how you end up with the wrong one. You get involved before you evaluate. That's a problem. That's a problem. And again, as a father, you know, here's the picture that our culture paints. Our picture paints this culture. A father is doing his job. If, you know, when a young man comes over, a suitor comes over for his teenage daughter, he sits down, you know, and he's, he's got this intimidating pose and you stick your chest way out and you bow all up, you know, and you take your rifle out and you're cleaning your rifle, you know, and you've got a big old, you know, right there and you get your stuff, you clean your rifle and stuff. And what time you're supposed to have our home, you know, what time you, you scare him up real good. That's our culture's picture. And we think a man's doing a good job if that's what he does before his teenage daughter goes out with a young man. We just, we just change the scenario just briefly, just, just slightly change the scenario. Same picture, except now I have a $200,000 Lamborghini Testarossa in front of my house and a snot nose, 17, 18 year old boy who has not yet walked into manhood because our culture hasn't asked him to, is going to come over my house to drive my $200,000 Lamborghini Testarossa. Am I going to be satisfied just cleaning my gun and scaring him real good and then giving him the keys? See, here's what bothers me. Our culture has taught you to value a $200,000 car more than a man's daughter. That's sick. You gave your $200,000 car to a 17 year old boy. You're an idiot. But when I said that about my daughter, you thought I was crazy. Why? You've been lied to. That's why I'd much sooner give up the keys to a $200,000 car than to take a chance on some young man manipulating and abusing the emotions of my daughter. And since you're playing that role tonight, that means you, ladies. The first thing we're looking for as we partner together as father and daughter is a man who is committed, committed to God honoring labor. Secondly, we'll look at each of these in turn in the text. Secondly, a man who is committed to God's law, committed to God's law. And I know what you say, well, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. This is before the fall. There is no law. You hold on to that idea, all right? Thirdly, this man must be committed, committed to the priority of the family. The priority of the family, okay? Let's look at these three in turn. First of all, committed to God honoring labor. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden. Now this, the garden of Eden is the perfect man is in the perfect environment. A lot of people think of work as something evil, as something bad, as something odious. It must be the result of the fall, right? Isn't that the case? No, no, no. He puts them in there to work it and keep it. There's work before the fall. It's not work that's a product of the fall. It's our attitude toward work that's a product of the fall. Look with me in chapter three. In chapter three, you see the fall. And after that, you see these three curses. And look at verse 17. To Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife. By the way, stop there for a moment. Notice he didn't say, Adam, because you ate from the fruit of the tree. Yeah, I don't write the mail. I just deliver it. God said, because you listened to that woman. Take it for what it's worth. All right. Because you listen to the voice of your wife. By the way, I'll explain that later. Don't worry, ladies. And have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles, it shall bring forth for you. And you shall eat of the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground. Out of it, you were taken for you are dust and to dust you shall return. It's the toil and the labor and the hardship of work that is a result of the fall, not work itself, not work itself. You know, you hear about the Protestant work ethic. This idea of the Puritan work ethic, that in all labor, there is gain, that labor is a reward in itself. That's something that's foreign to us. But laziness, sloth is sinful. It's godless. Turn with me, if you will look to the right with me and look at Proverbs. We have Proverbs chapter six, Proverbs chapter six, and verse six. Go to the ant, oh sluggard, consider her ways and be wise without having any chief officer or ruler. She prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. So here's the end. Nobody's saying, go do this, go do that. No chief, no nothing. The ant just does it. Consider the ant. Think about that. Verse nine. How long will you lie there? Oh, sluggard. When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man. Turn to the right. Look at chapter 26 in this same book. In verse 13, the sluggard says, there is a line in the road. Laziness will make you a coward. Amen. Laziness will make you a coward. You'll always find an excuse not to work. Ladies, are you running up on men who find excuses not to work or men who always need somebody to tell them what to do and when to do it? Or a man who's diligent, which is it? Biblical manhood is characterized by a love for God honoring labor. Look at the next part of this. As a door turns on its hinges, so does the sluggard on his bed. By the way, you notice something similar between chapter six and chapter 26. A little sleep, a little slumber. You see in chapter six here, you see like a door turning on these hinges as a sluggard in his bed. Ladies, you got a man who doesn't want to get up in the morning. I don't write the mail. I just deliver it. That's laziness. It's ungodly. It's ungodly. Look at the next part of this. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. It wears him out to bring it back to his mouth. That's just lazy. I'm hungry. We'll eat. What's wrong? I don't feel like putting my hand back up. That's lazy. Okay. That's the picture that's painted here. So lazy that the effort to bring the food and nourishment that he needs back to his mouth is not even there. By the way, this is the epitome of all laziness. God says, if you want to be sustained labor and toil, so if you are lazy, you are actually committed to your own destruction. And ladies, if you end up with a lazy man, you're committed to yours. Look at verse 16. The slugger, the sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly. He's always got an excuse for his laziness. Always got an excuse for his laziness. He's wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly. You line up seven men who can just, you ask them a question and they boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. There's the answer. The lazy man. One thing he's not lazy about is making excuses. That's ungodly. That is not biblical manhood. A lazy man does not qualify when we're looking for biblical manhood. Turn with me to the right. I want you to see something else. Look at the New Testament. Look at second Thessalonians. I want you to see something here in second Thessalonians. Second Thessalonians chapter three. It doesn't look right because it's the wrong book. And verse six. Now we command you brothers in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. So the apostles taught the churches about laziness. Okay. This is not some, you know, way out there unimportant issue here. The apostles themselves taught the churches about laziness. Verse seven, for you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it. But with toil and labor, we worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. So here's what the apostles are saying. We had every right as apostles to come to you and say, because we're teaching you the word and because you're apostles, the workman is worthy of his hire. You need to take care of us because we're taking care of you spiritually. But because laziness was so prevalent here in Thessalonica, they said in order to teach this church a lesson, we're not going to take anything from them. We are going to work in order to model for them what biblical manhood is. So the apostles didn't receive the support in Thessalonica that they could have asked for. And they did so in order to demonstrate to this church a biblical work ethic. Keep reading. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command. If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.