Where Are the Men?

• A Call to Biblical Manhood*

This is summary of an urgent message that was preached at our men’s monthly meeting. The full sermon is available ( SermonAudio (opens in a new tab) , or YouTube (opens in a new tab) )

“Where are the men?”

Not where are the males. Not where are the bodies filling chairs. Where are the men who fear God?

In Exodus 18:21, Moses is told to look for “able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness.” In 2 Timothy 2:2, Paul tells Timothy to commit the truth to “faithful men.” God has always built His church, His homes, and His work through men like that.

The question is not whether men are present. The question is whether men are awake.

We are not living in neutral times. Scripture says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). Satan does not need you to become an atheist. He only needs you to remain passive. Distracted. Spiritually dull.

Many men are not openly rebellious. They are simply asleep. They are present in church but absent in leadership. Their wives are more spiritually alert than they are. Their children hear their mother pray more often than their father. That is not God’s design.

God calls men to maturity. “Brethren, be not children in understanding” (1 Cor. 14:20). A mature man walks with God when no one is watching. He is governed by conviction, not mood. He does not wait to feel ready; he disciplines himself to grow. Spiritual maturity does not come by age. It comes by repentance, prayer, and obedience.

If a man loses his home, he loses everything. Ephesians 6:4 commands fathers to bring up their children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” God did not command wives to carry the spiritual weight of the home. He commanded fathers. It ought to be normal for children to hear their father pray daily. It ought to be normal for a wife to feel spiritually safe under her husband’s leadership.

Some men were never shown what godly leadership looks like. But explanation is not excuse. Ezekiel 22:30 records God’s searching words: “I sought for a man… but I found none.” By the grace of Christ, the chain of weak manhood can be broken. A man can become the first faithful link in his family line.

This is not legalism. It is gospel calling. Christ died for weak men, passive men, sinful men. But He did not die to leave them boys. He died to redeem them into sonship. The same Christ who commands men to rise also gives His Spirit to enable them.

Biblical manhood requires self-control. “He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls” (Prov. 25:28). A man without control of his temper wounds his home. “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). A man consumed with anxiety spreads instability rather than faith. Scripture calls him to cast his care upon the Lord (1 Pet. 5:7).

Sexual purity is not optional. Job said, “I made a covenant with mine eyes” (Job 31:1). What a man watches matters. Emotional closeness with another woman matters. Maturity does not flirt with temptation; it kills it early. In the workplace, in private, online, a man guards his testimony because he is guarding his family.

Self-control is protection. It protects a man’s conscience, his marriage, his children, and his church.

Above all, men must look to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the perfect Man, tempted in all points yet without sin. He conquered Satan. He loved His church and gave Himself for her. He trusted His Father perfectly.

Where are the men?

They are those who repent, rise in the strength of Christ, rule their own spirit, and lead their homes with humble courage. God is still seeking such men. The question remains: will He find them?