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All right. Amen. Judges chapter number four. So the title of the sermon this morning is in the land of beta males, in the land of beta males. So we're going to take a look this morning and how this happens. How do we wind up with a society full of beta males? And if you're wondering what is a beta male? Okay. It depends on who you ask, but basically I would say a beta male is somebody that's weak, possibly effeminate. The world will tell you that a beta male is somebody who's subservient, passive and social and professional situations. There's a slight problem with saying it that way because we all have jobs, we have bosses, and we are called to be servants in the ministry and of course to the world, you know, being a servant of Christ is looked down upon. It's looked as weak. I used to have a boss back in the day that would always blast me in God's name, and he would always say, oh, Christ on a crutch, you know, and that was his thing, that Jesus Christ is nothing but a crutch for weak men. Okay. And obviously we know that is not true, but we're going to look at how this happens and why it's happening now. So I got the whiteboard up here and you can tell who drew it this time. It was definitely me. We're going to keep using this, but I might have the girls smooth it out because it kind of looks like a, it's supposed to be a clock. It kind of looks like a clay, you know, like I just kind of molded it together, but it'll get the point across. Okay. We talked about this last week. So you want to understand Israel's clock when you're going through the book of judges. So we always start out here with, with, with number one, 12 o'clock. So Israel serves the Lord and then what happens, they fall into idolatry and sin that causes them to get enslaved. Then what do they do? They cry unto the Lord. It goes up and then God raises up a judge and then they're delivered. And then they have a period of prosperity, peace where they serve God. And then complacency sets in somewhere around here and it just keeps repeating. And so right now we're right here where God is raising up a judge. Okay. Now there, there's something different about this time period of them being oppressed and being enslaved than the previous three times that we've looked at. So the previous times that we've looked at, so we had Othniel. So real simple nation of Israel, they conquer the promised land. They fall into idolatry. They go through this clock here. God raises them up. He delivers back, you know, to serving God. And then we see Ehud. Okay. Go through this clock again. We see Ehud. Nothing bad really mentioned about Ehud, just does a good job, you know, frees the children of Israel. And then they have the longest run of prosperity. Last week we took a look at Shamgar who only has a couple of mentions in the Bible. And we dealt a whole sermon on him. Okay. But now you're getting into, I guess you would say the fourth judge of Israel, which they typically will group in Deborah and Barak together. Now what's interesting about that is if you read the hall of faith in Hebrews chapter number 11, you're going to find that four of those four of the 12 judges mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11 all had a lot of problems. Okay. And so we get to take a look at those problems and kind of learn from their mistakes. But this time being enslaved, hey, they cry unto the Lord. God is trying to raise up a judge. Okay. But this judge has a problem and he won't do what's required unless Deborah, the prophetess goes with him. Okay. And so what you have and what I'm going to show you this morning is what God has essentially added to the nation of Israel as a punishment or just a byproduct of this fourth cycle of going into sin really is just weak men. And you can see this obviously in our own nation, but we're going to take a look at a few things here. Let's look at this problem in the condition here. Look at verse number four. So the Bible says this and Deborah, a prophetess. Okay. Remember who was the prophetess in the Bible mentioned before Deborah, anybody know it was Miriam. Okay. So you got Miriam. Now you have Deborah, a prophetess. Okay. Now look at this next statement. The wife of Lapidoth. Now I got nicknames for everybody. We don't know anything about this guy. He's mentioned one time in the Bible. I call him lap dog. You know, he might be a cool guy. I don't know. We don't have any reason to really, you know, put the boots to him, but I want you to look at that there. Okay. And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time. So you have to ask yourself a question. Why is that? Why is she judging Israel? Where are all the men? Okay. Now look at verse number 24. It says this. So verse four, you got this phrase. Okay. You got Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth judges chapter five, verse 24. Look what it says. Blessed above women shall jail the wife of Heber. The key might be blessed. Shall she be above women in the tent? Okay. You starting to notice a pattern here. So judges chapter four. Okay. Who's the star. Who's the star of the show. It's Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth verse 24 in judges chapter five. What does it say? Blessed above women shall jail the wife of Heber beat. Okay. Now go back to judges chapter four again and look at verse number eight. It says, and Barak said unto her, if that will go with me, then I will go. But if that will not go with me, then I will not go. I want you to read that one more time. Hey, look down at verse number eight, one more time. Okay. So here you have this guy, he's a military leader and his name is Barak. Okay. And we just read the chapter. Okay. And the chapter says that God wants to raise up a judge. He has raised up a judge. Okay. It's Deborah. Obviously we know based on the pattern, you would rather it be a man. Okay. So we've got Deborah, but God has called Barak to do this. Okay. God has called Barak to move the clock to delivered so that they can go back to serving the Lord. Okay. Now, what does Barak say when the judge says, Hey, hasn't God called you? Hasn't God said, Hey, you need to man up. You need to Mount up and you need to free the nation of Israel. You need to go and conquer. Hey, what does he say? He says, I will not go unless you go. You know what he's really saying? If you don't go, we will remain right here in this enslaved period. Barak is willing to live here unless she goes with him. And that's why I'm titling the sermon in a land of beta males. Okay. We need to look at how this happens. And it's very simple. Okay. Here it is. Okay. You think about that. You know what that is? That is toxic. You want to talk about toxic masculinity. That is toxic for a person whom God has called and given truth and given tools came to take a stand against the world says, I'm not going to go. I'd rather live here unless you go with me. That is toxic. Okay. So what we're going to say this morning is toxic masculinity begins to rise when true masculinity dies. And that's what's happened in this chapter. That is what's going on. Now, keep your place there in judges chapter number four, but go to Mark chapter number three, Mark chapter number three. So masculinity, toxic masculinity begins to rise when true masculinity dies. Okay. So what I've seen, I'm sure what all of you guys have seen in life, you know, we live in the United States of America. This is not the nation of Israel. Okay. However, you'll find this pattern just, just very, very similar. Okay. What happens? Well, people decide in a culture that they're going to serve God. The devil doesn't like that. And what does he try to do? He tries to bind the strong man. He tries to take the man down so that he can no longer serve here. And so what does he do? He inserts idolatry. Okay. Now this idolatry that you're looking at today in our day and age isn't just, oh, worship this physical statue. Now that's true in some cases. Okay. But what this is, this is your Andrew Tates. This is your Jay Waller. This is all your influencers that don't really believe in God that are trying to say, Hey, you know, if you really want to be a man, you need to have all the money and the respect and the power and the hose. That's what they teach, isn't it? Isn't that true? That's what they teach. They teach that's true masculinity. But I'm going to show you this morning that the Bible says that that is false. That is not true. And that is why professing Christianity today is in such big trouble, such danger. Okay. And so what's the result? What's the result when there's a lack of masculinity and imposters come in and they try to impose their will? Well, you get toxic masculinity. Okay. But it's called masculinity. It's false masculinity. Okay. And we're going to look at that here. So toxic masculinity begins to rise when true masculinity dies. Look, God created mankind. Okay. So who are we going to go to, to learn about masculinity? Well, we're going to go to the word of God. We're going to go to the Bible. Mark chapter number three, look what Jesus says in verse 27. I don't have time to develop everything around this. I just want you to see this verse right here. So verse 27, it says, no man can enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man. And then he will spoil his house. This principle is true. Look, you have, you guys have to understand the devil understands this. The devil understands this very well. Why do you think there's so many different Bible versions? Why do you think there's so many quote unquote different truths out there? Okay. Because it's an attack on the strong man. Okay. And that's what we need today. We need a strong man to go to Proverbs chapter 24 real quick. Proverbs chapter number 24. Somebody sent me a video not too long ago and it was of a strong man competitor. His name's Brian Shaw. This guy's like six foot eight, 350 pounds. Okay. And he's not like fat. This guy is very, very strong. And he was talking about during the mask munching era and he was saying, you know, I didn't wear a mask anywhere. I walk into a store and just, I didn't care. And he's like, no one said anything to me. And I thought to myself, well, it must be nice to be six, eight and 350 pounds. Of course, no one's going to say anything to you, you know? But when he said that, I thought of this and it isn't that so true. Like most people are gonna look at this guy like, yeah, I'm not even going to try, you know, unless you're like an elite high level wrestler or, you know, a jujitsu practitioner, you know, you're probably not going to stand a chance with somebody of that stature. We all can definitely understand and relate to that. Okay. And so Jesus just brings up this principle here. Okay. The strong man protects, the strong man provides. Therefore, if the enemy wants to get what he has, he has to find a way to bind him. He has to find a way to remove him and take him out of the way. That's what the government and media are trying to do with people like us, people that believe the Bible, because we stand on hardcore truths. Now, look at what the Bible says about a strong man. Proverbs 24, look at verse number five. A wise man is strong. Okay. What does that say? Does that say, oh, a person who is rich is strong? No. A wise man is strong. Yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength. So obviously as saved, born again, Bible believing Christians, we go to the word of God. We fellowship with one another and we consume strength and we're trying to increase that strength so that we can be spiritually strong so we can strengthen that inner man and make sure that more of him is seen. Right. That's the goal. That's the idea. And what does that do? Well, that in turn helps us mentally. Right. That increases our mental strength. And I'll just throw this in here for a bonus. I do think that being physically strong is also a bonus. I do think that's very important. I think it's important to take care of yourself. You know, there's several reasons for that. And I go to Genesis chapter number six. You know, one of them, for example, is the fact that, you know, if you have more muscle tissue on you, it is harder for cancer to take you out. It is harder for diseases to take you out. This is a known fact and this is one reason why I personally believe, again, this is my opinion, why I believe people like Bill Gates want to take away red meat from us and take away anything that masculizes us, that gives us strength, you know, because they know if they can bind to the strong man, whether it be mentally, spiritually or physically or all three, ideally, guess what? They've got it. They've got the nation. They now have the right environment to insert their guy, who we all know is the Antichrist and you know how the story goes there. Okay. So just something to think about. Toxic masculinity begins to rise when true masculinity dies. And so we, as God's people, we need to be on the lookout for this and we need to understand what real masculinity looks like and not be ashamed of that and actually carry that with us throughout our everyday lives. Now, what I'm going to show you here in Genesis chapter three, when you really think about this, this is sad, but when you understand this, this is going to help you greatly because what I'm going to show you here is that being a beta male, that trait, it lies inside of all of us. Okay. We have to make sure that it's dormant. I want to show you this here. Okay. So look at verse number six. You guys know the story here. God said, Hey, that tree is off limits. Serpent comes up to Eve, yea hath God said, you know, subtly comes to her. She's like, Oh, okay. Maybe I should try this. Okay. Let's pick it up right here. Verse six. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat. Now look at this next statement here. Do not miss this. And gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat. Okay. So where was Adam right here? Right next to her. He is with her. So get the picture here. Adam's just sitting there. Okay. What is the strength of a man to be a protector and to provide? Okay. He knew what God's law was. He knew what God said and he's standing there watching this take place. Okay. Now to add insult to injury, go to first Timothy chapter number two. And Paul makes a comment on this very story here that you really need to see. Okay. So again, we've got Adam just staying there and he's like, okay, I guess I'll eat this too. Okay. What happens immediately after? Well, their eyes are open. Guess what happens? The fall of man and what is birth right there inside of every man? The beta male instinct. Okay. It is inside of every single one of us. The problem is you have so many people today in the world on the internet trying to fuel your minds with what they say true masculinity is. Oh, you gotta be rich, right? That's how you get the respect and the power. Well, funny. The Bible says labor not to be rich. Okay. Isn't that kind of funny? The Bible says labor not to be rich, but what is everywhere today? Oh, you can make money and hundreds of dollars a month playing solitaire and you know, and you got to have five streams of income and look, that's cool. Whatever if that works. Hey, there's nothing wrong with having money. There's nothing wrong if God makes you rich. The question is, do those things have you? And if those things have you, then guess what? You're a beta male. Okay. You are weak. You are subservient. You are passive. You are the problem. Okay. First Timothy chapter number two, look at verse number 12. This is what Paul says. This is the word of God here. He says, but I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. You know, it's funny. I was watching this guy give a lecture out of college and it's some Christian apologist guy. I forgot what his name is. And this guy stands up and he's like, Hey, you know, I grew up in the Nazarene denomination. And so I got my attention because Jessica grew up in the Nazarene denomination. And he's like, you know, we have women pastors and I know that's a point of contention in the world today. And I just wanted to get your thoughts on that. And this guy goes, well, you know, I just don't think it's God's best if the woman is the senior pastor. Okay. What does the Bible say here? It's not that complicated. Verse 12, Paul says this, but I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in what? Silence. He didn't say, but to be in the secondary pastor's position. Right. But to be in the third pastor's position, but to be the carwash pastor or whatever. No, but to be in silence. Verse 13 for Adam was first formed then Eve. So he's explaining why women cannot be preachers. Hey, verse 14. Look what he says. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. So when you're reading Genesis chapter three, you understand now that Adam is right next to Eve. Hey, he wasn't deceived. When he took that fruit, he knew darn well that it was wrong, but he was passive. Hey, he was, he failed to be the protector. He failed to hold the line, but he knew it was wrong. He ate. Here we are today, several thousand years later debating and having all these issues. Okay. So again, you can leave your place there. Go to Proverbs chapter 31. So in order to do anything about this problem that really is in our culture, but also obviously in the time of Deborah and Barak, you know, what do we have to do? Well, we have to learn what true masculinity looks like. And the only way we can do that is by learning the word of God, by learning the Bible again, a wise man is strong. Hey, that's what the Bible says. You want to be strong. You need to get wisdom. How do you get wisdom? You know how you get wisdom. You get wisdom by getting knowledge, by learning. Okay. And you take that knowledge and you use it in your everyday life. And in that process, you're going to fail. You're going to fall. You're going to trip. You're not going to do things right. And you know what's going to happen. You're going to learn. And in that process, you gain experience, which in turn is wisdom, which in turn is strength. Therefore you increase spiritually. Then you increase mentally and hopefully understand by that process that we need to be physically strong as well. Again, toxic masculinity begins to rise when true masculinity dies. So let's look at the standard here. Proverbs chapter number 31. Look at verse number one. So here's what we do about all of this. So the Bible says here, the words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. Now you have questions about Lemuel. We could talk about it after the service. I just don't have time to get into that part of the story, but look at verse number two. Bible says this, okay? What my son and what the son of my womb and what the son of my vows. Now, what I see here, when I read these first two verses, the Bible says that we are Kings and priests as born again, Bible believing Christians, we are Kings. We are priests. And so what I see here is an extreme warning, right? And not just an attack on men, but an attack on Christians and in general, there are two things about to be listed that destroy men. And if you destroy men, what happens to women? They get destroyed. Why? Because God gave us the order. Men are to be the providers. Men are to be the protectors. That is the way that it is here. So verse one, we're told the words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. The prophecy, the word of God that his mother taught him. Verse two, what my son and what the son of my womb and what the son of my vows. You have to understand that God has given unto us his word, his teachings, his statutes, so that we could learn and so that we could operate in the capacity that he has called us to, okay? Which is what? As the church, as the body of Christ. It's to edify one another and to evangelize the lost. That is what we are called to do. Look at verse three, says this, number one here, here is the first problem that men face in everyday life. Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings. Two things mentioned here in verse number three. Give not thy strength unto women. And it's interesting here that it's his mother telling him this. Okay? So who's really wise in this story? Well, obviously mama's pretty wise and understands very well how women are, right? It takes one to know one. And guess what? We all have eyes and ears. We can read this. We can understand this. This is very, very profound here. What does she tell him? Number one, give not thy strength unto women. Now I've heard this preach many different times, you know, and I kind of get where people are coming from. You're like, Hey, don't be, don't be simping after the girls. Don't be chasing them. But the problem I have with just saying that is how are you going to ever get a wife? How are you ever going to get somebody if you don't do the chase, right? If we're going to be masculine, you know, and you need a wife, guess what? You better go do the chasing, you know? And furthermore, what does the Bible say to us husbands? Well, it says that we're supposed to be ever learning our wives and understanding them and loving them and cherishing them and protecting them. Right? So I wouldn't go as far as to say that, but what does this mean here? Give not thy strength unto women. Well, what have I been saying all morning? What is our strength as guys? Oh, lifting weights. Okay, sure. No, it's to provide and to protect. Remember, Adam in the Garden of Eden was not deceived. Hey, what did he do? He exchanged his protection for compromise, essentially. So we are called to provide and protect, and we should not give that unto a woman. Now think about this. What is Barak doing right now in Judges chapter four? God's saying, hey, go free, go deliver the children of Israel. He won't do it. He would rather stay here if Deborah doesn't assist him and doesn't come with him. To me, that's preposterous. To you, that's preposterous. That is crazy talk that he would rather live under the rule of Jabin and Sisera than actually do what God has called him. But how many people, how many so-called preachers do we hear of, do we know today that have that mentality? They would rather just go along to get along. They're not going to draw the line in the sand and say, hey, this is what the Bible says about this issue. You may not like the fact that it says women can't be preachers, but that's what it says. Okay, we need to have real men get back up and get back into the pulpits and start preaching truth. The reason why our nation is in such trouble is because of that very fact, because men decided a long time ago that they would rather just be the couch potato and just watch TV and let the television tell you the vision. And what did that do? That caused us to rest right here, to go back and forth on this clock, right? It's a broken clock that we're in right now, just here, here, here, here, okay? Because people are stuck in this part here because they got the world saying, hey, I can tell you how to be a real man. You got to chase that dollar. You got to chase that money. You got to have lots of girls. You got to work on yourself, right? And what does that do? That just brings you here and back and forth, back and forth. You can never escape and things get worse and things go, oh, you know, the politician's going to save you. You know, Elon Musk is going to save you. No, only God saves. We understand that. That is what the Bible teaches. So give not thy strength unto women. We shouldn't give our job as a provider and a protector unto the woman, which, you know, means, and I'm not trying to judge, you know, everybody's in a different situation, but what that means is I shouldn't be like, hey wife, why don't you go to work? You know, and I'll just kind of chill at home and, you know, do whatever and I'll take care of things. Hey wife, why don't you do this heavy manual labor? Why don't you build the back fence? Why don't you put the roof on? Things like that. I think it's wiser for us to realize, hey, we're the provider. We're the protector. You know what? And if we can realize that and remain in those two things, your marriage is going to be a lot better. Your life is going to be a lot better. You say, I don't have a wife. That's still fine. This still applies to you. You're still going to be able to function in this role because the Bible again says you're a king and you're a priest. Guess what? There's two things real quickly that will destroy that giving your strength unto women and your ways to that which destroyeth kings. So let's focus on this here just for a little bit and given out thy strength unto women. Go to Psalm chapter number 51. Psalm chapter number 51. We'll take a look at just a couple of scenarios here. So we've already got Adam. Hey, what did Adam do? He gave his strength unto Eve. His strength was to be the provider, to be the protector. He could have said, hey, no, God's already provided us with meat suitable for us. He could have said, no, remember God said, no, you need to tell the snake to get lost, to get out of here. Hey, he didn't do it. He gave his strength unto women. What happened? We'll just look around. Now you got to go to work. Now we've got all these issues. Now we're under attack all the time and so on and so forth. Barak, what is he doing? He's like literally in motion here, giving his strength unto Deborah. Now what's the judgment? What's the punishment on that? Well, Deborah says, okay, I'll go with you, but guess what? God's going to deliver this victory into the hands of jail, whom what? Was a woman, Hebrews wife. Hey, you see, that's not how God desired it to be. Okay. So we realize that and understand that. Now who's another person in the Bible that gave his strength unto a woman? David. David gave his strength unto a woman. You say, how? Remember Bathsheba? What was David doing? David had lived a life so far of steamrolling people, right? Just taking out the enemy, taking out the enemy. What does he do? Well, he sends his nation off to war. And then one night he finds himself pacing back and forth on a rooftop because he can't sleep. What happens? Well, he sees Bathsheba. Hey, in a manner he ought not to see Bathsheba. And then what happens? Well, lust is conceived, sin brings forth, calls her over. And then guess what? She gets pregnant. And now he's got this dilemma. How am I going to solve this problem? I got another man's wife pregnant. Well, I got an idea. And what does he do? Oh, I'll just send Uriah the Hittite out to the hottest part of battle to be killed. That'll solve the problem. And after that's done, what happens? Nathan the prophet comes and visits him and promote, or basically tells him, hey, God is going to bring some judgment on you. Now what does David do? David actually acknowledges this. Psalm 51, look at verse number one. This is written about this very story here. Verse one, have mercy upon me, Oh God, according to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Hey, look at his attitude here. The Bible says that David was a man after God's own heart. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Now he's not saying this so that he won't go to hell. He's saying this so that fellowship can be restored. That's the idea here. Verse three, look at this right here. This is very powerful for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Okay. We are as men called to be the provider and protector. You know how we provide for ourselves? You know how we protect ourselves is by taking extreme ownership when we mess up, not by blaming other people, not by making fake YouTube accounts and going and talking trash and mocking people. Okay. No, what we do is we take ownership and say, I was wrong. I messed up. Okay. That's what Barak needs to do. And that's what David does. So David gives his strength unto women, but the Bible's giving us this, this, this great picture here of mercy where God's like, you know what? I am going to actually restore a fellowship and I am going to help you simply because of verse three, for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Look at verse four against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judge. So a real man. Okay. Real masculinity allows us to be judged by the word of God and to be corrected by the word of God. Okay. Instead of being triggered by the word of God and saying, Oh, well I'm offended and I'm going to do everything I can to cancel you now. Okay. That's the society in which we live in, but we're above that. Hey, we are called to be above that. Look at verse 11. He says, cast me not away from my presence and take not thy Holy Spirit for me. Hey, he's not saying again, I don't have time to get into this today. You guys know this. He's not saying I'm going to lose my salvation here. He wants restored fellowship. Hey, that's the goal here because sin, when it festers and it builds in our lives, okay, it blocks that fellowship. That's why God has the program of chastening to bring us back in line with him, to bring us back into fellowship with him. Now look at verse number 12. I'm sorry. Verse 13. He says, then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted onto thee. Verse 14, deliver me from blood guiltiness. Oh God, thou God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. Verse 15. Oh Lord, open down my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. So again, very powerful here. Okay. So that's a good story. They're a good picture about how David gave his strength into a woman. He let a woman's beauty just basically turn him into a puppy dog and turn him into just somebody who has no control. Okay. That is very, very important. Now who's another person who gave his strength into women? Go to first Kings chapter number 11. Well, it was his son Solomon. I mean, you start studying how many wives and concubines this guy has. First of all, you're like, this, this guy's on another level here. Hey, this guy, if nothing else, this guy teaches you what these so-called influencers and how the hell they're wrong, right? Because what do they say? Oh, you, you know, the more women you have, the more validation you get and all this stuff here. Well, Solomon's like, this was not good. Hey, look at verse three, first Kings chapter 11, look at verse three. And he meaning Solomon, David's son, and he had 700 wives, princesses and 300 concubines and his wives. What do they do? They turned away his heart. Okay. Again, Solomon was the wisest man that ever lived because God had given him that wisdom. Okay. And what does the Bible say? A strong man is wise and a strong man will increase learning. Well, Solomon did that. The problem is he still fell into a trap. He fell into this thing. Like I can handle all these women. I can go ahead and marry all of these women that are not of my nation, that don't have my beliefs. And he was wrong. He couldn't handle it. They turned his heart. He gave his strength on to women. Look at the result here. Verse four, for it came to pass when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods and his heart was not perfect with the Lord, his God, as was the heart of David, his father say, man, how in the world could David be described as having a perfect heart with God? It's because he was saved. Okay. Because he was saved because he was born again. That's why. Okay. So Solomon here in the story, we see that he gave his strength into women. What do they do? They turned him. So instead of him being in control, instead of him laying down the law, instead of him being that provider and protector. Okay. And included in that is protecting the word of God to your people. Okay. Proclaiming the word of God. That is how we protect society. That is how we protect truth, right? We're, you know, think about this. We are called to protect truth. We are the what? The light of the world. We are the salt of the earth. We are here to preserve. That is our job. But if we're too worried about what the world thinks, if we're too consumed with all of the junk outside of here, we have now let the world turn our heart away from God. Thus, guess what? That beta male instinct is starting to bubble up and take over our lives. It happened to Solomon. It happened to David. Don't you dare. I don't care how many documentaries you've watched. I don't care how tough you think you are. Don't you dare think it can't happen to you. It happens to us when we are ignorant of the devil's devices. Okay. Get that. Go to Proverbs chapter number 23. Proverbs chapter number 23. So in Proverbs 31, Lemuel's mother says, don't give your strength to women. Okay. We get that. We understand that. Or your ways. Okay. Don't give up your routine. Don't give up your ways to that which destroyeth kings. What is that? Here's a good example. Proverbs 23. Look at verse 20. Be not among wine bibbers. What's a wine bibber? Somebody wears a bib drinking wine? It could be. I mean, you get it. It's a drunkard. Okay. Somebody's just taking a wine, just chugging it down, getting drunk, not in control. Okay. What is wisdom here? This is the whole point of Proverbs to give you wisdom. Okay. Remember the Bible says that knowledge brings something to us. What is that? Well, the fear of God. Okay. Or fearing God rather gives us knowledge and wisdom. But he says, be not among wine bibbers. And here it is among riotous eaters of the flesh. This is one of the tactics obviously that the world uses to get at the strong men. Okay. It's to make the ways of the world appealing to you, the Christian, you, the king, you, the strong person and women included in this. Okay. Makes it appealing. Yea hath God said. Hey, that's how we got Eve. And that's how she got Adam. Okay. All I'm saying here real quickly, look at verse 20 again. Be not among wine bibbers among riotous eaters of the flesh. Why not be among these people? Because they will turn your heart away from God. Okay. Evil communications corrupt good manners. And we always say this. Okay. Because we get to this place where we think, well, I'm so strong. I know this much of the Bible. I know this. I know that. You know, it's okay. I'll go ahead and go to that party. I'll go ahead and skip out on serving God for this and that and the other thing. And guess what happens? They turn you. And when you find yourself and I've been there, this guy right here, I've been there. That's how I can stand up here before you today and tell you this is true. What happens? You think you're man enough to take on the world and balance both being in the world and being in here and doing all these things. Guess what? It's not going to work out that way. Evil communications corrupt good manners. This world out here, these riotous eaters, these drunkards, they will turn you if you give them your strength. If you give them what God has given you, God has given you the ability to be a provider and to be a protector. And when you sacrifice that because you just want to be like Bay rack and you know what I, I just, this, this really isn't that bad, right? Just as long as you know, this whole delivery part, it sounds good, but you know, what's involved in that warfare, you know, what's involved in that fighting, you know, what's involved in that hard work. And that's what scares people today, but we shouldn't be scared of that today. We should embrace that and realize, you know what? The work's not getting done. We need to stand up and be the protectors and be the providers in all areas of life. We had to tell these freaks out here, you know what? You're not welcome here because the Bible says so. You know what? You're not welcome here because you're a predator. The Bible says they're dogs. That's what it says. You know, it's not very popular though, is it? It's landed us in the news. It's given us all sorts of trouble, but you know what? I would rather have it that way and be able to sleep at night knowing that the world couldn't turn us than to have it the other way around, than to say, you know, I'm going to adopt the Bay racks attitude. And if every other church stands with me, then I'll fight. Then I'll go over here. We don't want to do that. We want to be the few that can be strong and make a big difference. We want to be the people that read Proverbs chapter 31 and said, you know what? I'm not going to give my strength unto women. I'm not going to give my strength unto the ways that destroy Kings. I'm going to stay far, far away from that. Now go back to Proverbs chapter 31. So we'll pick it up here again in verse number four. So she says this to him, it is not for Kings, O Lemuel, it is not for Kings to drink wine, nor for princes to drink strong drink. And you have the crowd at all, but, oh, but, but just a little bit's good for the heart. Hey, guess what? If you want to be wise, the Bible says it's not for Kings. If you want to be elite, if you want to rise above the rest, if you want to remain sober and remain a protector and a provider, you will heed to what this says and you will not go down that road. Verse five, lest they drink, and here it is and forget the law and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. That's what happens when you go down that wine beverage road. That's what happens when you give in to the riotous eaters of the flesh. Okay? Not only will you give your strength unto women, you will give your strength unto the world. You're taking that gift that God has given you and you're saying, you know what? I can lend it here. I can lend it there and it's no problem. And God's looking down and saying, it is a problem and you're going to wind up destroying your life. Verse six, give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more. Again, toxic masculinity begins to rise when true masculinity dies. We're getting very close to being done here. Look at verse number eight. Open thy mouth for the dumb and the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. He's not saying dumb like this person's stupid over here, although I guess you could kind of squish that in, but for the people that can't speak for themselves, again, our strength as men, our strength as kings and priests is to protect those who cannot protect themselves, to protect those who have not been able to see truth, who've not been able to actually rise up and protect themselves. We are called to protect them, not to make fun of them, not to put them down, not to belittle them. That's what the government does though, isn't it? The government wants to pass all these different laws in the name of protecting women and protecting this. But when you really dig in deep into those things, they're meant to drive a wedge in the family and incentivize divorce and incentivize all of these things that God has said are unclean. So he says, or she says to her son, open thy mouth. Okay. So again, what is Barak doing here? Okay. In Judges chapter four, what is Barak doing? He's been called to open his mouth and to open up warfare, but he says, I won't do it. I will not do it unless you Deborah come with me, unless you hold my hand and babysit me and walk me down the aisle. Okay. That is what God is trying to get through to us in this story here that we ought to open our mouths. We ought to be able to look and say, you know what? That's not right. Because the word of God says it's not right. And we ought to not be afraid and be fearful of what other people might think or what other people might do to us and say, guess what? I'm opening this mouth and I'm going to say, this is wrong. This ain't true. And this needs to be corrected or whatever the case is. Open thy mouth for the dumb and the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. This is why we stand up against these abortionists and people that want to promote that stuff and all this pedophilia that's trying to be normalized. Okay. Because we are providers and we are protectors and we have the truth and we are called to be the light into the world and the salt of the earth. Verse nine, open thy mouth, judge righteously. What does the world say today? Oh, don't judge. Oh, you're very judgmental. Okay. But time and time and time again, the Bible says, Hey, the spiritual judge with all things right here, judge righteously. You don't want to judge partially like how judges do today based off of their political views or what have you. Okay. No, a real wise person is going to open their mouth. A real King open thy mouth, judge righteously. And here it is and plead the cause of the poor and needy. Okay. We are called to do that, to stand up for other people. And that's what Adam was supposed to do in that situation. In Genesis chapter three should have opened his mouth. Okay. And pled for the cause of Christ, pled for the cause of God and said, no, put that back. What are you doing here? Get that thing out of here. Okay. These things are written and preserved so that we could look at these stories and learn from them and not make the same mistakes. We don't want to keep going from here to here to here to here because it gets exhausting. And each time the Israel goes on this clock, things get worse. Okay. Every time they wind up here in this enslaved region, it gets worse and it gets worse and it gets worse and it gets worse. And you're going to see that progressively every single week that we talk about this. We want to stay here. Okay. And I'm not talking about salvation. You know we can't lose that, but I'm saying what we can do is we can lose our fellowship with God. We can hinder that and wind up in a cycle of chastening and wind up just not doing anything and even ruining our own lives, ruining our marriages, ruining our jobs. Okay. We are called again to be protectors and providers. So I would say in a land of beta males lies a bunch of little boys that are only concerned with playing with their toys. That's what you see here in Judges chapter number four and throughout Judges chapter number five. Now again, I started with this subject because it's very important in the story. Obviously we're going to talk about Deborah and jail and the strength of these women here and their role and why God used them and things of that nature in the future here. But for today we need to understand something. We need to understand that toxic masculinity begins to rise and will continue to rise because true masculinity dies. The internet today, I'm not saying don't go on the internet. Okay. There's a lot of still valuable things. I get that. Okay. But you got to be very careful who you listen to. I cannot tell you how many times I get questions about what do you think about Andrew Tate? I know they're kind of wrong on this. I know. I know. It's like, dude, they're not Christians. They don't believe in the word of God. Okay. They promote fornication. They promote drunkenness. They promote all kinds of things that God would say, you know my people ought not to be seen doing stuff like that. It's not wise. It's not good. Remember, we ought to be a people that it's not just going through life like, okay, is this sin? Is that sin? Is this, we're above all, we're past all that. Jesus already paid the price for your sins. We should be looking at every single situation with this one question in mind. Is it wise? If you can live your life like that, just remember that is it wise? Guess what? You're not going to ever have to worry about whether or not something's wrong or right because wisdom is far above all of that. And you've heard me talk about that before. The true point of this is to understand that toxic masculinity will begin to rise and it will stay up very high until enough people learn the truth about what real masculinity looks like. We are called to be providers and protectors and the thing with that is, is it's not always pretty. It's not always glorious. It's not always, you know, flashy and cool and makes a good video. Sometimes it's downright boring. Sometimes it's painful. Sometimes it causes you to go out to the wilderness. Sometimes it's going to cause you to lose family members. It will cause you to lose friends. It might cause you to lose a job. It might cause you to lose church members. It might cause you to lose sleep. But the point is, if you can remember, okay, you are a provider and a protector. That is your strength. That strength is yours and you need to keep what is yours. You ought not to ever be the kind of person, oh, I'll give that away. You know, it's not going to be that. Yes, it is that bad. Too many people are doing that today and we need to stop that behavior. We need to educate people in the fact that when we as men begin to give that strength up, okay, the only thing that's going to happen is this beta male culture and society will get worse and beta male people are very dangerous. They're very dangerous. There's nothing more dangerous than a lazy, ambitious type person. I'm telling you that could be preached on another day, but hopefully that makes sense. We're going to stop it for there this morning and we will pick it up again, not next weekend. Next weekend, it's going to be Easter, so we're going to have an Easter sermon, but we'll pick it up again the Sunday after that. So with that being said, let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this church, for everything that you do for us. Just pray that you'd help us to remember these things and apply them to our lives and bless the soul winning and fellowship after the service. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right, we're going to have one more song and then we'll be dismissed.