Pulpit Magazine

(Notes by Nathan Busenitz)

Alex Montoya is the senior pastor of the First Fundamental Bible Church of Monterey Park and serves on the faculty of The Master’s Seminary. He will be speaking to us today about acting like men in the world.

Following a humorous introduction, Alex pointed the men to 1 Corinthians 16:13–14. In these verses, the Apostle Paul gave us an example of what Christian men are to be.

Paul lays before us the analogy of a soldier. He does this here and on numerous occasions throughout the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 16:13–14 has to do with the analogy of the soldier. Verse 13 emphasizes being strong and steadfast; verse 14 emphasizes the love that must characterize that strength. In these verses we see several characteristics of a soldier, which is an appropriate metaphor since a soldier epitomizes manliness.

In John 17:13–19, and the high priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ reminded us that we are in the world. We are not of the world, but we are in the world.

Today, we will consider four simple exhortations for how we are to be Christian men in this world.

1. Be in the world but not of it (John 17:16–17)

From this comes the whole idea of being watchful. A soldier dare not fall asleep on his watch. And Christian men dare not fall asleep as they watch over their souls. Men are to be sober (cf. 1 Peter 5:8; 1 John 2:15–17), guarding themselves against temptation and being wary of the things of the world.

In Romans 12:1–2, Paul tells us that we are not to be conformed to this world, but are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We must not let the world conform us into its mold—even though this world system is designed to conform us to itself. We must not become intoxicated with its pleasures, such that we would become like the world, rather than separate from it. Samson in an example of such compromise, who was taken captive by the intoxication of his flesh, all because he was not careful to watch himself.

David (with Bathsheba) and Solomon also allowed themselves to become intoxicated with the pleasures of this world. And if it can happen to someone as strong as Samson, as godly as David, and as wise as Solomon, what do you think can happen to us? We must be careful not to let the pleasures and pursuits of the world conform us. We must swim against the current, and stand against the wind. Don’t let the world mold you into its own fashion. Be the man whom God has called you to be, using the Word of God as your navigation guide.

In 2 Timothy 4:10 we have the example of Demas who deserted Paul because he loved this present world. He had been part of Paul’s ministry team. And yet here, in Paul’s last epistle, we have one of the saddest commentaries on the life of this man. He abandoned the ministry because he loved this present world.

We must be watchful and sober to keep ourselves from being consumed by the world. It can be tempting to think that little compromises are no big deal. But these little compromises can lead to big downfalls. We must recognize our limitations, and we must loathe this world to some extent, remembering what this world system really is. We must learn to stand firm and resist whenever necessary — resisting it whenever it encroaches on our sanctification, even if it means we need to walk alone (meaning “just you and God”).

We need to examine our lives today. Has the world began to encroach upon us? Are we standing firm or are we compromising? Are we standing firm? Are we acting like men? Is Christ our first love?

2. We are to live as lights in this present world (John 17:18)

Though it is true that we are not of the world, we have nonetheless been left in this world, that we might be lights to this dark world.

In Matthew 5:14–16, Christ commands us to let our lights shine brightly before men. God never authorized monasteries. Rather, He expects us to be among those in the world, but to be different from them — such that they might see the difference and, hearing the gospel, might glorify God.

In Philippians 2:15–16, the idea of being lights in the world is reiterated. This is a difficult assignment in which we are to hold fast to the word of life in the midst of a wicked world. This is a manly responsibility.

In order to be lights in the world, we need first to guard our testimony — meaning that we walk our faith. It’s easy to act like a Christian here with a group of other Christian men. But it is difficult when we are actually out in the world. To be sure, our devotion to Christ will be tested and we will face temptation to sin. The authenticity of our profession of faith will be put to the test. And the world will be watching, wondering if what we claim about Christ is really true.

We must always be on the watch about what we say, where we go, and what we do. This is not only true in the workplace, but also in the home. Our children are watching us — to see if this Christianity stuff is really true. Authenticity is what matters. We do not have the luxury of being sloppy in the Christian life. Our unsaved coworkers, neighbors, and family members (both immediate and extended) are watching us.

We also must open our mouths and speak the gospel to our unsaved friends and family members. It is not enough just to live the Christian life. We must also faithfully proclaim the gospel. Living a Christian life, but never telling unbelievers about the gospel, is not enough. Living an authentic life earns us the right to speak. But, with our credibility in tact, we must open our mouths and speak about Jesus. We must act like men, step up, and speak the truth. In the same way that we can openly speak about our favorite baseball team, we must also be eager to talk about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Why does God move us from one job to another, from one neighborhood to another? It is because He is giving us a new mission field. And yet, we can sometimes get so wrapped up in our own stuff, that we forget about the main thing—which is introducing lost people to the Lord Jesus. Through our circumstances, God gives us opportunities to witness. We must not lose those opportunities.

This means that we need to learn to befriend unbelievers. We are so afraid of unbelievers that we tend to avoid them. But this is not being courageous. We need to befriend unbelievers for the purpose of evangelism. Our greatest threat is not unbelievers, but the carnal Christians around us who tempt us to be lukewarm in our Christianity.

We need to learn to love unbelievers, and have compassion on them like our Lord had compassion like us. Do we love those who do not know Christ? This is God’s injunction to us, that everything we do be done in love (1 Cor. 16:14). The problem with us is not that there are no opportunities, it is that we are afraid to interact with unbelievers.

The Lord is exhorting us in this regard: you are in the world, be a light. Share your faith. Love the unbeliever. We need to go out of our way. Let’s shine for Christ. Let’s act like men and fulfill our responsibility.

3. Act responsibly in the world

The great threat to civilization as we know it is that men are abandoning their responsibility to act like men. That’s why our prisons are full of men. That’s why we have so many broken families. Men have stopped being responsible as citizens, husbands, and fathers. We have a society that is “sissified.”

We need to live out the character traits of manliness. This includes courage – which means that we need to overcome our fears. Courage is not the absence of fear, it is overcoming fear. We need to stand in spite of our fears and be responsible in all the areas that God calls us to be men.

It also means sacrifice. It means women and children first. We get “sissified” – we become selfish “sissies” who think only of ourselves first. We find ourselves asking, “What about me?” But for a true man, it is sacrifice not self-service. We need to sacrifice for our families, our church, and our culture. We live in a selfish culture, but we need to “play the man” and be selfless.

4. Stand firm against evil (cf. Matt. 5:13; Prov. 25:26)

We are also in the world to stand firm against evil; we must be those who stand in the gap against wickedness. We know that we cannot moralize the world, but there is something inside the man of God that stands firm against evil.

In Matthew 11:7–19, Jesus gives a tribute to John the Baptist. John was a man’s man, a man who was so willing to stand against wickedness that he confronted the king to his face about the king’s adultery. He did not know a soft life. He was not at all wishy-washy. He was a man of full conviction who knew the truth and was willing to stand for the truth. He was accustomed to a harsh life.

Our culture is so soft, that we need to work at being men who are tough. Part of this includes standing against wickedness.

Alex Montoya closed with an illustration of an old western movie he had seen as a child. In the film, a group of bandits rode into a town, and a man from the town came out with his family. The leader of the bandits pointed his gun at the man and said, “Get on your knees and beg for your life.” But, refusing to kneel, the man looked up at the bandit and said, “If I kneel and beg, you’ll kill me. If I stand here, you’ll kill me. Either way, I’m going to die. And I want to die like a man.”

We are all going to die. The question is, are we going to stand firm, such that we can live and die like a man? 

We need to do our part to stand like men, where we live, where we work, and where we play.

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