The Critical Need for Christlike Manhood

As we bring our time together to a close, we are looking at this picture of Christ centered manhood, biblical manhood, and why it is important and why and how we must and we will recover Christ centered biblical manhood in order to understand that concept, to understand manhood. I want us to go back and look at the first man atom. I want us to look at him in the context wherein God created him. I want us to look at him before the fall, so that we can get a picture of what existed, what was lost, and what the last atom restores. I think oftentimes we forget that. We forget that the last atom is all about restoration. We forget that the last atom is all about redemption. That when Adam fell and the whole world was impacted by sin, now from that day on, the whole world is anxiously and eagerly awaiting the fullness of its redemption in Christ. In Romes chapter eight, for example, we read that even this creation groans. Well, why is creation groaning? Well? Creation is groaning because in Genesis chapter three there was a curse on the land because of Adam's sin. All creation and Christ's redemption extends far beyond just little Ou and little o me. I mean, he is about redeeming all things. So let's go back here and let's look at the first atom. And here's what I want us to do. I first want us to see the first atom in his setting and understand biblical manhood from that perspective. When we understand that, I want us also to look in each of those there's three contexts that we're going to look at. I'll give him to you now. First is man and his relationship with his work. The second is man in his relationship with God's law word. And third is man in his relationship with his family, his family of origin, and in his family of choice. Those are the three contexts where we see manhood expressed before the fall. I want us to see those. I want us to understand what is lost in each of those areas and categories because of the fall. And then I also want us to see why and how Christ restores those things and redeems those things so that those of us who are found in Him can walk in them the way we were intended to. Okay, go with me to Genesis chapter two, beginning at verse four. Now, it's interesting that first phrase in Genesis chapter two and verse four. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. The Hebrew word there for these generations is tootodote. You find that word ten eleven times in the book of Genesis, and they're like mile markers throughout the book of Genesis. These are the generations of These are the generations of The last tootodote that we see is in Genesis chapter thirty seven. These are the general of Jacob, that's the last totagum, the first one we see. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens verse five, when no bush of the field was yet in the land, no small plant in the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground. And the mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. Now note here, because again the first context wherein we see Adam as a man created in a pristine environment, walking with God in the cool of the day in the garden. The first context that we see him in is a context of his work and I want you to pay close attention to the setting so that you understand the nature and the importance of his work. Look at what he says here Again, no small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land. That's one reason. First we don't have any small plants because God hasn't caused it to rain. But secondly, and there was no man to work the ground. Now there's a mist going up that's going to be perfect to water and take care of all these plants. But here's what we see. Those small plants had not come up yet because there was no man to tend the land. So plant life on planet Earth was not made to exist for itself. It was made to exist for man. That's extremely important. Plant life on Earth was not made to exist for itself. It was made to exist for man. Will connect this later on verse seven. Then the Lord God formed the man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. This also goes to the man and his work. We'll explain this later, but for now, suffice it to say, man is made from the stuff of the earth. Man is made from the stuff of the ground. Now there are myriad implications of this, but let me just give you one that we often don't think about. Why is it that man can use herbs and other things as medicine for his body? Because God made him from the stuff of the earth. So we cultivate those plants and other things, minerals and so on and so forth that God has placed in the earth. We're made out of the same stuff, And as we cultivate those things, we are able to produce medicines that heal us from the very ground from which we were taken. Why because even all the minerals of the earth were made for man. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first was Pishan. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Habilah, where there is gold, and the gold of the land is good. Delium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihan. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Kush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Why is the man in the garden to work the garden and keep the garden? And so the first context wherein we see biblical manhood, real manhood, is in the context of a man and his work. But what implications do we see about a man and his work. The first, we've already recognized that man is to work the garden, because God put everything that the man needs in the garden. He made the garden for the man. But understand this. He put plants there that were good for food, but all also those that were pleasing to the eye. He put minerals there and other elements there that would be good for the man's body, so that as he ate those things they would sustain him, and that if he became sick, he could develop medicines from these very same things. But he also put things like gold and onyx there, which really didn't have anything to do with the man's body as much as it had to do with the same thing as those plants that were pleasing to the eye. God doesn't just put man in the garden. Here's the great myth, and this is what many of our tree hugging friends would have us believe. God put man in the garden, and God intended for the garden to always be a garden. You don't need gold and onyx to garden. You don't need precious metals to garden. You need precious met to develop something other than the garden. The idea is not that the garden is superior to any other form of life. Newsflash, the New Jerusalem is not a garden. It's a city. Amen. So God puts him here in the garden not to imply that somehow the garden or the rural is superior to all else. He puts him here in the garden with all sorts of raw materials from which he intends for the man to make things that are useful in sustaining his life, but also to make things that are beautiful. That's what our work is about. But beautiful to whom and for whom, Beautiful to God, and beautiful for God. God is the one who determines what is beautiful. Our esthetic has to be a biblical, God centered aesthetic. Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is in the eye of God. And so man creates in the likeness of God, his creator. Man creates to the glory of God, his creator. Man creates not just so that man can satisfy himself, but man creates in order to bring glory and honor to God as he stewards all of the resources that God has placed here in this earth where He has placed us. Here's what this means. Adam's goal was not merely to accumulate gold and honors. His goal was to use them to make things to the glory of God. Adam's gold with these plants in the garden was to tend them so that he met his own physical needs and the needs of those for whom he would eventually become responsible, but also to tend them in such a way that they brought glory and honor to the one who made them. That's why we work. We work to the glory and honor of God. Now this is what biblical manhood looks like. But if you go over to chapter three, turn over there with me and looking verse seventeen, and to Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife 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 the excuse me, the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face. You shall eat bread till you return to the ground. For out of the ground you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. God creates man in this pristine environment. And the first context where we see God honoring manhood is in God honoring work. Man falls and his attitude toward his work and the difficulty of his work changes. Hear this work is not a product of the fall. Let me say that one again. Work is not a product of the fall. We act like that. It is our difficulty in our work. That is the product of the fall. That's what's the product of the fall. Work's not a product of the fall. Because of that, I'm gonna say this, and it's very difficult to say in a culture like ours. In our culture, we have a fallen attitude toward work, and even in church we embrace this fallen attitude toward work. Our fallen attitude toward work. Remember, because of the fall, our work is arduous, it's tedious, it's difficult. So what do we want to do. We want to find a way not to do our work. Now we know that sloth and laziness are just wrong, But there's an area that is an untouchable area, and it's the same thing as sloth and laziness because it is an attempt to avoid as much work as possible. But it's acceptable and it's called retirement. You can't say amen, You ought to say ouch. The goal in our culture is to retire as soon as possible. In other words, I don't like work. By the way, that's the fall, that's the fall. Before the fall, Adam had no concept of retirement. How long was Adam going to work forever? Adam was never going to not work. Adam was going to work forever. Adam was not working so that he could earn the privilege of not working. Adam was working because that's what men do. Adam was working because it brought glory and honor to God for him to use the abilities, the skills, the knowledge, and the understanding that God had given him in order to make the most out of everything that God put before him. And yet we come along and say, my goal is to work as little as possible. I don't want to be lazy on the fun end, because we know that that's laziness. So what I will do is work hard on the front end so that I can put my laziness on the back end. And everybody will excuse it because I'll call it retirement now hear me. Let me be very clear, when you talk about retirement, there's the technical term retirement. Sometimes we have a job and you can only work that job so long and you have to retire and you can't do that job any longer. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about the person. You can't work this job any longer, and so you have to retire from that job. You get a picture from that job. Now you're free to go use the gifts and talents and skills and abilities that you have somewhere else, and you go and do that. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about I'm going to work, and then when it's all said and done, I want to get my pension and I'm gonna go spend my grandkids inheritance and I'm gonna ride around in an RV until they put me in the ground. That's not the way God created man. He created us to work. Here's the great irony we gotten in and the gold is to retire as early as you can. So we got guys in their forties and in their fifties who are retiring. You just stop being ignorant. Amen, you just stop being ignorant. You just figured a few things out. Now you're leaving. That's when you need to get hint I gear. That's when you've acquired knowledge and skills that can be used to bring glory and honor to God. And you check it in. I don't think so. So what does the last atom do? The last atom Christ in our redemption, Because again it's sin. It is the fall that changes our attitude toward work. The Last Atom comes, and what does First of all he model for us. I must work the work of him who sent me while it is day, because of that is coming when no man can work, not because retirement is coming. I'm going to work until i can't work anymore. I'm going to work until my father calls me home. That's what he does. And when he redeems men, what attitude is then present in men? The attitude that causes Paul to say, stay away from a brother who walks in idleness. You work hard with your hands and don't be dependent on others. That's what the redeemed community begins to think about work, that we do whatever our hands find to do as unto the Lord. So the last Adam comes, he redeems us. We are transformed, and all of a sudden, though our work is still difficult, our attitude toward our work is completely transformed, because now we recognize that, just as Adam, we work in order to bring glory and honor to the Lord, our maker, not so that we can stop working someday. Work until you can't, I mean when you can't work with your hands anymore. Sit around and supervise strong young men, and tell them what to do based on the knowledge that you've acquired. Then write books about what you did so that others can come behind you and gain from the knowledge that you've acquired from all of your years of work. Then when you can't write anymore, you can't see anymore, just sit around and talk about how good God has been to you and the things that you've been allowed to do to his glory and his honor. Then you close your eyes for the last time. You go on to glory and be with Jesus, and your work lives on after you and the attitude that you brought to it because you're redeemed by Christ. There's a second context. Look at the second context that we find verse sixteen, and 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, surely you shall die, or dying you shall die. So now we have man in the context of his work. Secondly, we have men in the context of his relationship with God through God's law word. It's interesting we talk about the law and you think about the law and he said, oh, no, no, no, this is before the law. I'm afraid not. God gave Adam a law. He was clear. He's always clear. There's never been a time when God has been unclear about what he requires of and from his creatures. And here is no different. He gives Adam a command. But notice the command, and you'll understand the relationship that we have with God and his law. You may surely eat of every tree in the garden. Stop there, because oftentimes we think about the law of God and we think about restriction. We think about the law of God and we think about a lack of freedom. Here's what God says, Adam. Look around. There are thousands of trees. And I want you to know something, son, I love you, and you can have them all. There's no way that you could possibly enjoy them all yourself, but they're all available to you. Then there's the butt, But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it, surely you shall die. Here's how fallen man looks at that. Fallen man looks at that, and he folds his arms and he huffs and he puffs, And you say, what's the matter, fallen man. God didn't want me to eat from the tree? Really, fallen man, because there's thousands of trees, and you can eat from all of them, and yet all you can think about or concentrate on, is the one from what you've been told that man lives on God's earth as God's creation, according to God's law word. That's before the fall. So it's not that we need God's law, God's word to govern us because of the fall. Before the fall, we need God's law, We need God's word to govern us. Why. Because God is the one who created us, He created the universe. He knows what is right. He is what is right, and what he speaks to us is always right. So we live in accordance with what God says. Now, what happens in the fall? Two things? By the way, let's go back to the first issue of his work in the fall? What does Adam do? His job is to work in the garden. There are things in the garden that he's to eat. There are things in the garden that he's to beautify. What is the fall? The fall is Adam doing something that he is called to do in a way that he's not called to do it. He's sustained by eating fruit from trees. Here he eats fruit from a tree, which is what he was called to do, But he eats fruit from a tree that was forbidden by God. As a result of that, there is the fall, and there is the curse, and his work changes. Now Adam is to live in a corner with God's law. In God's word, So what does Adam do. Adam acts in direct contradiction to what God has said. And as a result of that we experience the fall. And because we experienced the fall, this relationship that man has with God based on God's law is completely and utterly transformed. Now there is the questioning of God. Watch what happens. Look at chapter three and verse eight. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And a man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Just stop. They are hiding from God. They are hiding from God. They are sick and they need a surgeon, and they are hiding from the surgeon. They are lost children and they need the guiding Father, and they are hiding from the guiding Father. They are living within the context of a world that is harsh and foreboding now, and yet they are hiding from the one who is good and kind and gracious. They are now living in a circumstance where their hope has been lost, and yet they are hiding from the only one who can give them hope. That's what sends us. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, listen to the gentleness here. Where are you? How many of you know? God knew the answer to that question. Here's the first rhetorical question. And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. Here's what's interesting. Adam doesn't answer the question. That's what sends us. Adam doesn't answer the question. The question is very simple, where are you? His answer, I heard you, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid. He didn't answer the question. That's sort of like, son, why did you hit your brother? Well, or actually did you hit your brother? Not why did you hit your brother? Did you hit your brother? Say? Answer no question? Well, see what happened was he said something and then when he said that I was. You didn't answer the question. That's what sin does. Here's the other thing. I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid. He's never been afraid of God before, He's never had to be afraid of God before, but now he's afraid. Secondly, I was naked. He's always he's been naked. Adam didn't lose his clothing when he ate the fruit. He's always been naked. So I hid myself, he said. Another rhetorical question. Just the kindness of God? Who told you that you were naked? Another rhetorical question, Had you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? He knows the answer, The man said. The woman whom you gave to be with me, She gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate. There we have the double buck pass. Did you eat? Actually was that woman? And if you remember, you put me to sleep and I woke up and then there she was. So it's the woman that you gave to me. Not only is it not my fault, it's hers, But if you want to be technical about it, your fault. That's what sind does a man. That's what sendses convoluted interaction between God and man, and that which is incredibly simple becomes unbelievably complex because he disobeyed God. You and I have the same relationship with God's law word. Lost man, fallen man is afraid of God. Lost man, fallen man hides from God. Lost man, fallen man runs from God. Lost and fallen man does not want to be around God or God's people. A lost and fallen man does not want to hear the word of God. And when a lost and fallen man here's the word of God. It can never be as simple as it sounds. It must always be convoluted and complex. And that's always got to be God's fault. That's our attitude towards scripture, that's our attitude toward the law of God. That's what happens to fallen man. We no longer delight in the law of the Lord, but we sidestep the law of the Lord. Many churches in our day are attempting to appease fallen man. And here's the irony. In an attempt to appease fallen man, we move away from the law of God. We don't like the idea of the law of God. But irony of ironies, here's what many of these churches do. I sisen to the radio last night and I was listening to it. There was a song on a Christian radio station speaking about the only law there is, the law of love. It's the only law there is. That's the new mantra from the modern American church. We hate God's law. We don't like God's law. We don't want to have to live in accordance with what thus saith the Lord. So what we've tried to do, and again, irony of ironies, we've tried to get around that and say, forget all of that lost stuff, just love God and love people. Here's what's ironic, Jesus, which is the greatest commandment? Huh? Let's say the first and greatest commandment is love the Lord your girl with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, which by the way, is one through four, and the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself, which is five through ten. Jesus, what's the greatest commandment? One through four followed closely by five through ten. These people who say just love God and love people have basically said keep the whole law while acting like it doesn't exist. Feel your way to that which only God can command and produce. Irony of ironies, this law of love. You've never fulfilled that a day in your life. There's never been a moment when you love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might. There's never been a moment when you've actually loved your neighbor the way that God commands you to love your neighbor. There's never been a moment. And you are fooling yourself if you somehow try to remove the sting of what us said the Lord for something that sounds more palatable and emotionable and emotional. What are we doing. We're running and hiding because we're naked, and we're trying to reshape God in our image so that we no longer have to be afraid. You know, the only thing worse than being afraid not being afraid when you're supposed to. That's a problem. We ought to fear God. We ought to be afraid when we stand before a holy, majestic and righteous God. This idea that we stand before God and feel self confident, where do we get that from? That's a lie from the pit of hell itself. We ought to be afraid before an awesome and mighty God against whom we have sinned and whom we have offended greatly every moment of our lives. But we complicate things, we convolute things. That is the result of the fall of the first Atom. Man who does not want a relationship with God based on God's law word, what does the last Adam do? The last Atom comes and keeps the whole law perfectly, but not just that. He keeps the whole law perfectly, and then takes upon himself the penalty of his people who have broken the law that he kept. And because he kept the whole law perfectly, he is able to be a substitute and atone for those of us who have violated the law of God. He who knew no sin, became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him, so that Christ atones for us who are fallen in Adam, that we might have restored unto us this relationship with God based on God's law word and irony of ironies, there are many who want to take the law out of that equation. Adam has a relationship with God based on God's gracious law. It's a good law. We know what's right, we know what's wrong. It's clear. And now what individuals want to say is no, no, no. We come to Jesus, and the great benefit is there is no law. No. You come to Jesus, and the great benefit is the law has been kept on your behalf, and you are conformed to the very image of the one who kept that law. Then he produces holiness and righteousness and obedience in you, and you delight in the law of God. Finally we see man in the last context that of his family. Then the Lord God said, it is not good for the man that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. 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. Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the live stock, and the birds of the heavens, and every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God calls a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh and the rhythm that 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 bone 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 his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Here's the third context. We see manhood expressed before the fall in a relationship of a man to his family. Now I said to his family of origin and his family of choice, I want you to note something here. This therefore clause in verse twenty four. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife. This has nothing to do with Adam and Eve. They don't have mother and father to leave from. This is not a statement about what Adam and Eve need to do. This is a creation ordinance about marriage. Here's what God is saying. God is saying, I have formed this union. And here's how important this union is. This union is so important that this union is going to create a family, and the only reason that a person would abandon this family is to go establish another one just like it. This is the cause for a man to leave his father and mother, and that cause is to go cleave to a wife and create another family just like the one he came from. In other words, God calls young men and young women to show allegiance to their family of origin. And only when God calls them to that allegiance in a family of choice is that allegiance then superseded. And even though it's superseded, it does not mean that all bets are off and we no longer have any duties toward our parents. We read, for example, in First Timothy, chapter five and verse eight, that a man has a responsibility to his mother if she becomes widowed. So the idea here is not you go and you get married, and all of a sudden, all bets are off. You have nothing to do with your family of origin anymore. No, that is still your family of origin, and there are still obligations there. However, what happens is you create this family of choice that becomes a new entity, and your primary allegiance lies there. What happens in the fall. Turn with me, if you will, to verse sixteen, to the woman, he said, I will surely multiply your pain and child bearing. In pain, you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. God creates this family and puts man as it's head. We see this, We talked about this this weekend. We see male headship before the fall, not as a product of the fall. There are those who go there to verses sixteen and say it basically male haadship. The idea of a man ruling over his life, that is a product of the fall. So when we come to Christ, that curse is reversed and there's no longer this headship. First of all, male headship and this phrase of a man ruling over his life, they are two very separate things. The idea there is the woman shall desire to usurp the position, and there shall be this clash, this enmity when it comes to this issue of headship. That's what's being referred to there in the verse. But male headship is established in chapter two. The man was made before the woman. The woman was made for the man, a helper fit for him. The woman was made from the man, the woman was brought to the man, the woman was named by the man. In all of these things we see headship. But also when God comes to Adam, he says, because you listen to the voice of your wife, he does not mean because you had a conversation with her, you are the head. It's because of the sin of one man, Adam, death ends of the world, because he is the head. What happens then in the fall that headship is challenged and in many instances obliterated, and we don't know how to exercise loving, godly biblical headship. And so you have men who either abuse their wives or don't leave their wives, and entire generations that are devastated as a result. How is this restored. Here's how it's restored. It's restored if you go to the verse right before verse sixteen. I don't put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. There is the proto u Angelia and the promise of Christ who will come and defeat the serpent. But here's the other thing that you need to know Christ comes and he defeats the serpent, but he comes through the seed of the woman, and the Bible traces that seed all the way through until we find the person of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Not only do we have this idea of this human family and the seed of the woman bringing forth the promised Messiah, but there is also the idea that the Messiah is a bride groom, and as a bridegroom, the Messiah loves his bride, lays down his life for his bride, has gone to prepare a place for his bride, and is coming again to receive her. Unto himself. As the bridegroom, Jesus Christ now gives his redeemed ones a picture of what the marital relationship looks like, so that in Ephesians chapter five, those of us who are fallen and don't know how to relate to one another as husband and wife are given instruction in how to submit to a husband five twenty four and how to lovingly lead a wife five twenty five and following, and Paul says at the end of it, this mystery is great, but I'm speaking about Christ and his church. So the last Adam comes and, as a bridegroom, shows us what it looks like to be a biblical God, honoring Christ's centered man at the head of a human family. Ah. Then he restores, with the first atom lost in each and every category, our relationship would work is broken. He restores that our relationship with God and his word is broken. He restores that our relationship with our human family is broken. He restores that by the way, not only as a bridegroom, but also as a son who submits himself to parents. Are heard on yesterday. They doesn't just submit himself to parent. This is the god Man, who is perfect and without sin, who submits himself to not just sinful parents, but sinful parents for whom he's going to die, and he joyfully and gladly submits himself to them, giving us a picture of how we live in our family of origin as well as how we live in our family of choice. How does he restore all of this? Here's how he restores all of this. Adam is placed in a garden with trees that bear fruit and with others that are just there to be beautiful. He's placed in a garden with minerals and metals and other things that he is to use to build things, to bring glory and art to God. He falls, and this garden becomes hard and produces thorns. And the last atom comes, and the last atom redeems us with the same elements. Wherein the first atom fell, there was a tree in the garden. There was a tree at Calvary. There were thorns in the garden because of the fall. There were thorns at cavalry. There were metals in the garden that would be used to build things. And there were metals at cavalry that were used to make nails and used to make spears. There were all these things in the garden, and now we see this picture. The first atom, who was naked and unashamed because it was not a shameful thing, falls in that garden. And now the last atom is stripped naked, and there is nothing but shame. And the last atom endures. The last atom prevails, the last atom overcomes, and the last Adam finally shows the way to the Tree of life. It is in the Cross that we find our hope. It is in Christ that we find our redemption. It is in the bloody brow of the Pristine Savior, that we find the picture of true, authentic, genuine manhood, and it is there that ours is restored. There is no other way to truly become a man. But they're the cross. If we try to truly become I'm a man and circumvent the Cross, we find ourselves in the wrong garden. If we try to truly become a man and circumvent the Cross, we find ourselves outside of that relationship that is the only one that will define our work, that will define our family, and it will define it by God's law word. We may not circumvent the cross to truly be man. It is only through the Cross, and by the Cross, and from the Cross, that you gain your entrance and access into true manhood. Because essentially there is but one man, and if you would be one, you must be found in him. But are you? Are you found in him? Are you truly found in Christ? Or have you attempted to undo with your own hands that which was done by Adam? Have you attempted to represent yourself before God when the fact of the matter is you're either represented by the first atom or the last atom. Have you attempted to come before God and say I have taken these raw materials, and I have made of them something that can make you proud. Do you not realize that the only way that God can accept that offering from you is by saying that the offering of His perfect son was insufficient. Are you attempting to do in and of yourself that which has already been done by the only one who can accomplish it? If you are repent, turn from your self reliance, turn from your independence. Open your eyes and look at the thorns and the thistles and the hardened soil of your own heart, and plead with God that it might be redeemed. Plead with God that he might make you new. Plead with God that you might not reap that which you've sown, but instead that you had experienced the bountiful harvest of the one who sowed and reaped in perfecsion on behalf of those who could not, in short, flee to Christ, cling to Christ, Run to Christ because very lies your only hope. Let's pray Father, as we vow, we recognized that all of us were born in a lolly estate represented by our federal head Adam, born in desperate need and ignorant of that need. Born running and hiding from a God who we did not know. And yet we despised running and hiding because we were naked and yet not having the resource to do anything about it. And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly, And by your grace you make us alive and call us to yourself in Him. But God, even in light of that, so many wished to find another way? Would you crush that in us day? Would you allow us to seek Christ in all his glory and his majesty, that we might cling to nothing less, And as we do so, would you shape and form in us manhood in His likeness, conformed to His image that brings you glory and honor as we serve in the power and strength that He supplies. And would you be so kind as to grant us the opportunity not just to live this kind of Christ's centered manhood in our lost and hurting and dying world, but to proclaim it that others might come to know as well. It is our desire that the King would have his due. We pray these things, hope these things, believe these things, and Christ name and for his sake. Amen, Amen,