A message taking a journey through Scripture to present that God made man to be a man and the importance to live life as God intended.
Excerpts from the sermon:
“It may be that we have so desirously wanting to emphasize God in creation that across the years we may have over-emphasized one side of a paradox, which is so easy for mankind to do. It`s the paradox that man was made in the image and likeness of God, and yet he was made man. We should recognize a very compatible relationship between being created man and being created in the image and likeness of God.”
“My unpretentious book, ‘The Quest for Christian Purity,’ is a book that tries to give a balance between the mistakes of history that totally incapacitated a man to zero, and yet at the other end of the pendulum, those interpretations of the Bible that made man sinless.”
“I rather be created a man than an angel. And since I have been saved by the grace of God, I`d rather be a man saved by the grace of God than a holy angel that never fell. And in that, I magnify only the grace of God with that and the purpose of creation. But what I want to establish here tonight is, thank God we were created men and women.”
“God so loved the world because there were men in it and women in it.”
“If you will understand this correctly now, the sanctified saint is not a gambler, but he will take a risk. Gambling is a perversion of something. You are going to have to quote me correctly on this point. I don`t want to go too far with you. When I courted my wife, I want you to know that I took a providence...I mean a chance...I mean a providence. I know she did. We`ve invented a lot of words. I was very fortuitous; isn`t that nice. I was fortunate, and something was favoring my ways that day. Man can take a chance, if you mean by chance like it is in the book of Ecclesiastes that we studied this year—means he will take a risk. But when you add up all the possibilities outside of this life, that man can do very little else but be a man.”
“If we`re a man, I want us to really be one. Don`t do anything to change it. Explore the wonder of being a man, if you are. Do every natural thing that men can do. Keep yourself masculine. And you women, do everything you can—pray to God Almighty—that you will die a woman.”
“When these cadets come walking down that aisle, it may occasion a smile or a laugh, but they are doing by nature what they are. No it is not a prayer meeting, but it`s manly, and manly is like reason. If you lose your mind, it wouldn`t make any difference what you are. You`ve lost it.”
“A woman not only prays and reads the Bible, but she arranges flowers and cooks meals. You know, she does, she really does, in spite of what they are doing, that`s what they do in the Bible.”
“These culture meals for this Academy—they never talked about things like that when I was a boy. In fact, I`m afraid that some in that day would`ve thought it was playing games. But anything that cultivates your manhood—I`m not talking about macho; that`s another word—but anything that cultivates your manhood and womanhood is a blessing.”
“The saints are only godly men and godly women. They are never angels. They are never some butterfly creature flying around metamorphosing. They`re men. They`re women. Elijah was a man. Do not make saintliness eliminate the man. Don`t ever allow the terrible sins of a gutter tramp to remove from your mind the possibility that he could be a redeemed man. If you see a daughter going to the dogs, remember it`s a daughter of a man, and that makes her different than the dog. We cannot afford to lose this gem. He said, Let us make man. What a word!”
“I don`t ever want to forget that I`m a man and a married man, and a father man, and a husband man, and a grandfather man. I don`t every want to forget that I was the man that fell in love with my wife. I was that man. There are times it is just a precious as it was the day I first met her.”
“The day that we can see the harmony and the cooperation between I am man and I am a saint—and let the man check the definition of a saint, and let saint sanctify the definition of the man—when that dawns on us, we can laugh and have fun, enjoy each other, love children, teenagers, old people. Whenever you lose the ability to know and to love as a man or a woman in all the compartments, you are going to be removed from so many realities that otherwise would be your joy, your true delight in life. Although I want to clearly state that being saved by grace and being a Christian is the greatest thing in the world, but that life is far richer and far more meaningful and will accomplish far more for God, if it can also find it`s place as a man and a woman in this world. You better give a good reason—I said several mornings ago—if you don`t marry a woman. You better have a good reason from the Bible. Your life better prove that your Heavenly Father ordained that rather than to think that it is something you just choose in life. The same thing is true of a woman. You better have a good reason if you live and die and do not love a man. You better have a good reason, because God intended this for a human race of men and women. This is the darling door, and the only one we know of, through which the Incarnation and Virgin Birth could come to earth. He was born the man Christ Jesus.”
