3-The Loss of the Noble Male & the Rise of Malevolent Compassion
- DT
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We are going to be talking about what could well be the most controversial issue in our culture today involving a biblical view of human sexuality versus what we see going on in our culture. But we have to be true to the word of God and we have to remain firm in what God has revealed to us. Not only about itself but about the world around us.
We have gone through the first two of what I call seven storm fronts that are aligning themselves in our culture. They are converging not just here in our nation, but they’re converging upon all of western culture.
Well the storm that is arising here in our culture today is greater than simply a set of meterological events that are aligning with us. And so, my purpose is to do the best I can to help walk through what I think are those storm fronts. [There are others, but] these seven are the most serious, most dangerous, to our culture.
The first one we talked about was: The Rise of the Scoffer and the Depraved Mind. In that we talked about the possibilities that we see in Proverbs, the progression from the Simpleminded to the Fool and to the Scoffer, it is possible that we find ourselves in a culture now that is still not only with simple minds and fools but with scoffers. The scripture says the Scoffer brings deep strife. They stir up division, they stir up strife, they set the city aflame.
The depraved mind, you recall we talked about [that] the greek word means unqualified, we’re talking about the possibility that God has given us over to those three stages we see in Romans 1 that God gives a culture that has rejected Him and exchanged the truth of God for a lie. He first gives them over to sexual impurity and it appears that in our culture that the 1900’s were an increasing movement away from a biblical understanding about that which was right, ethically right, when it comes to male and female relationships into an increasing amount of sexual impurity. But without repentance, the scripture says that God then gives them over to shameful lusts. This is a depravity that involves sexuality outside the male and female relationship. And most certainly we have fallen deeply into that. We’ll talk a little bit about that again today. But our culture has moved through that rapidly, all the way to the Supreme Court. And so we find ourselves in a culture in which possibly we have moved to that third stage in that progression of God giving us over to a depraved mind.
The unqualified mind is a mind that is no longer the logical mind of common sense. The mind that has the ability to respond to God as He says, "Come, let us reason together." A mind that has the ability to understand the logic of God that is throughout His word. When He had the children of Israel stand before Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. It was a logic that was laid before them that if you obey Me then these things will happen and if you do not these things will happen.
And of course Paul is the ultimate of the logic person in the New Testament as the Spirit of God moved him to write these things. So God has given us a mind that is capable of common sense, of understanding logic and reason. And it is possible that God has given us over to a depraved mind.
And experientially you may have run across this as I have, where it appears as you are talking to someone that they have lost all common sense. In fact one of the phrases I’ve heard multiple times is: "Why bring logic into this?" We’re driven by emotions, we’re driven by the heart. So we find ourselves in a culture filled with scoffers and filled with those who no longer think according to common sense and logic.
Well, this then moves us to the next storm front that we looked at: The Rise of Homo Deus and Meo Christianity. In a thumbnail, we have, as a culture believed and have communicated to one another over years and years, decades, in fact, that it’s all about me. Eventually, I can think that it’s all about me to the point where I begin to believe that my heart is telling me what is true and we have been descended, if you want, to see it that way, rather than progressed, to the point where we as a culture have begun to think of ourselves as a god… Homo Deus.
Where if my heart declares that I am a woman, then you have to bow down to that as if that is a divine proclamation. And if you do not, then we will bring our new blasphemy laws into you. And it is possible that we might even cancel you if you speak against the divine proclamations of the heart.
So that was the essence of that second storm front. We talked about how that has infiltrated Christianity where we’ve begun to think that Christianity is all about me.
Introduction
Sept 7, 2021 - Del Tackett (modified with livestream added)
- DT
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We now come to this third storm front, entitled: The Loss of the Noble Male and the Rise of Malevolent Compassion.
It is here where we’re going to now delve into what could be one of the most dangerous areas in our culture today. The reason because, those of us who follow a biblical worldview, a biblical understanding, not only of who God is, but who Man is, an understanding, therefore, of what true human sexuality is all about, biblical human sexuality. Most of you I’m sure have recognized today that that is under a deep and serious attack. Nothing is judged more severely by our culture today than assertions of biblical male and female absolutes.
Ponder how many of the burning issues in our culture today are rooted in a contrary view of God’s design of human sexuality: pornography, abortion, adultery and unmarried sex, homosexuality, lesbianism, LGBTQIA+, transgenderism, pansexuality, personal pronouns, gender dysphoria and identity, etc. Additionally, we have human sexuality issues that are being used as political and social hammers such as male toxicity, #MeToo, ERA, pay equality, gender roles and quotas, glass ceilings, harassment and so on. These all spring from your understanding of what true Human sexuality is and the distortion of it.
In Considering The Loss of the Noble Male
- DT
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There is an interesting set of passages that we find that is spoken regarding the fall of world empires as they are presented to us in the scripture. Nineveh, Babylon and Egypt, all were world powers. And something that is said similar of all three of these, I want to show you the passage from Nahum, concerning God declaring that Nineveh is going to fall, we read in:
- Nahum 3:13
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Behold, your troops
are women in your midst.
The gates of your land
are wide open to your enemies;
fire has devoured your bars.
We find the same similar kind of statement and assessment that is given to Babylon and Egypt upon their falls. And it’s important to understand that what God is saying is this is not a denigration of women, but rather this is speaking [that] their men had left their role as a man as God had designed for them and they had become like women.
And because of that the land was now unguarded and undefended. In a little bit we will talk about [that] one of the [primary] purposes of the noble male is to protect and defend.
What we read here is that the men of Nineveh, as the men of Babylon and Egypt had become feminized. This is the condemnation that is given to men who had become feminized. Again that’s not a dissing of women, it’s the dissing of men who have assumed a feminine role.
And so, we’re going to talk about the feminization of men and the feminization of our culture as we talk about the Loss of the Noble Male and the Loss of the Virtuous Female.
So Let’s look at the
The Essential Nature of [Mankind]
As we are told in:
- Genesis 1:27 (NIV)
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So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
- DT
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What is very interesting here is that right here in the very beginning when God talks about what He has done in creating Adam and Eve that He had created them in His own image. I think it’s very interesting because we can say that the male and female are made in one essence and that essence is that they are made in the image of God. And yet they are diverse in their personhood. They are diverse in that God made them male and He made them female. And the rest of the narrative there in Genesis as well, I would submit, the rest of scripture would tell us that, and this is so radical to say what I’m about to say, it’s unbelievable, but that God made the male and the female… different. And they are different not simply because of their reproductive capabilities but they are different in their purpose and different in their role. They were meant to be complimentary which means that God was bringing that diversity together into a unity as we read in Malachi.
So this is the essential nature of man fundamentally and it’s difficult not to spend time talking about how essential the nature of man is in the male and female way that God made them. And there is also a clue as to why the enemy is taking so much pains to destroy the noble male and the virtuous female. And to destroy the proper relationships that they are to have. Why? Because it is part of the essence and foundation of who we are as human beings.
So let’s look first at
The Loss of the Noble Male and the Loss of the Virtuous Female
And the consequences associated with that.
I want to speak about the Noble Male and the Virtuous Female in terms of them both having [two] engines [think of diesel electric train engines that can be linked together] that drive them. It will help us understand, I believe, their purpose.
And so, we’ll talk first of all about
The Noble Male
The Noble Male is, first of all, driven by an engine for truth and wisdom and righteousness. He is driven by this. The Noble Male seeks truth, he seeks wisdom, he seeks righteousness. Even to the point of giving up his life in that pursuit. But it is not a cold pursuit. It is not a cold force for righteousness because the second engine in the Noble Male is the engine of grace and compassion. So he pursues righteousness, but he pursues righteousness that is tethered to compassion and grace.
So we talk about the purpose of the male here as we mentioned before that the male is built, if you look at him physically, he’s built this way. He’s built to protect and defend that which is good and beautiful. And he will lay down his life to do so. This is the Noble Male.
So, The Virtuous Female
[what] is interesting, is she has the same two engines, but they are in reverse order. She is driven first by grace and compassion. She pursues it and she pursues it with a vigor and determination. But the grace and compassion is tethered by truth, righteousness and wisdom.
It means that her actions in compassion and grace are bridled by truth, wisdom, and righteousness. And so, her purpose is to nurture and comfort. She is built for this. And she pursues to nurture and to comfort but she does so to nurture that which is good and true and right. This is the virtuous female.
Alright, so let’s look now at
what happens when a culture rejects the truth of God,
rejects the wisdom of God, rejects the righteousness of God. And that is no longer pursued in a culture.
When that happens, something happens to the purpose of the male. Something happens to the Noble Male. If there is no truth, if there is no wisdom and righteousness beyond himself, then what does the Noble Male protect and defend? Well, what happens is the that he then is protecting and defending himself. And so, it becomes, all about him. And he is no longer the Noble Male pursuing that which true and good with wisdom and righteousness bridled by grace and compassion. He now becomes either a buffoon or a brute, a beast. Why? Because what has happened is, is that it is all about him.
What has happened to the Virtuous Female in a culture where truth and wisdom and righteousness are rejected and they are no longer pursued in the culture? Well, she is no longer the Virtuous Female, her drive for compassion and grace is no longer tethered by that which is true, by that which is wise, no longer tethered by righteousness.
And so both the male and the female in a culture where the truth of God and God Himself and the Meta-narrative of God, are all rejected they loose their compass as God has designed for them.
So let’s look first at what I will call
The Brutish Male.
His purpose, to protect and defend, has been primarily now focused on himself and his desire now is to dominate. He is no longer led in a zeal for truth and wisdom and righteousness, but now the #1 thing that drives him is power and control, power and domination or subjugation. We see this happening, do we not, in eastern Europe where a brutish male, he is not a noble male, [but, a brutish male] who is pursuing power and control and the subjugation of other people. And in this case, there is no grace, there is no compassion upon people who are dying in Ukraine.
So the brutish male becomes a beast. He becomes a tyrant, pursuing and defending his own pleasures. This is what we find. We find a brutish male in our culture, for example, in gangs. We find a brutish male in the one who beats his wife. We find it in ISIS and we find it in Eastern Europe today. He is absorbed, in our culture, he is absorbed in drinking, sports, video games. Why? Because he pursues his own pleasure and brutish pursuits.
So what happens then to
The Virtuous Female in a Culture of the Brutish Male?
Well, she then becomes secondary in that culture and the brutish male becomes dominate. She increasingly becomes property in those kind of cultures and the noble male becomes the toxic male. Grace and compassion are considered a weakness. Society declares to the female that in order to survive in this culture you must become subservient.
Let’s look now at a culture in which the male rather than becoming the brute,
The Male Becomes the Buffoon.
This is what we see in our culture. Often represented in television shows like: Everyone Loves Raymond, where the male is simply the buffoon. Caring only about himself. We see it in children’s books like, “The Berenstain Bears”, I used to read these to my children until I realized that Papa bear was depicted as a buffoonish cub in an adult body and Mama bear is always rolling her eyes at Papa bear. He was the buffoon. The buffoon is depicted often in commercials and TV shows in our culture.
So what happens here when the male lives in a culture that rejects that which true and good and beautiful. He has nothing to protect and defend except himself. Grace and compassion are no longer driving him because he is only acting for himself. The buffoon male abandons his family. He can abandon them physically or he can abandon them mentally and spiritually. The buffoonish male is the male who comes home from work, plops down in his chair, turns the TV on or plays video games all night. Or absorbs himself in all kinds of selfish pursuits.
Well,
What Happens to the Female in this Culture of the Buffoon Male?
and I’m submitting to you this is what is happening in our culture. Without truth and wisdom and righteousness the grace and compassion that drives her is no longer tethered to truth and wisdom and righteousness now becomes an unbridled compassion. I will later refer to this as malevolent compassion, but we refer to it now as unbridled compassion. It is compassion that is no longer tethered by that which is true and wise and righteous, so it is unbounded and unbridled.
In this culture where the male becomes the buffoon he takes on a secondary role and she increasingly takes lead in the family, because he has mostly abandoned the family and she takes the lead in society. And she does so why? Because what has happened here is that "unbridled" compassion has become the prime ethic of the culture. And I submit to you that is exactly what has happened in our culture. Unbridled compassion has become THE prime ethic in our culture. The noble male is viewed as toxic. And society then declares to the male: to be significant, in this culture, you must become more feminine. If he evidences more unbridled compassion he will become more significant. If he evidences characteristics of the noble male, he will be rejected.
This is a culture that does not want the noble male. It does not want the male defending that which is absolute, above and beyond, because we have rejected all of those things. [Our culture has rejected a biblical Christian worldview.]
So, to sum it up, the noble male is one who pursues, truth and wisdom and righteousness. He protects and defends that which is good and true and right. The noble male we find on the deck of the Titanic, having gotten the women and children into the few rescue boats. It’s the noble male we find falling on a grenade to protect his companions. Or running into a burning building. He’s willing to sacrifice himself for that which is good and true and right.
The virtuous female is what we see in Proverbs 31. She is a champion in commerce, but her compassion as you read in Proverbs 31, her grace and compassion is all bounded by that which is true and good and right. It is driven by that which is true and wise and righteous. She does not coddle that which is evil, but she pursues that which is right.
So this leads us then to what happens in a culture when unbridled compassion becomes the prime ethic in the culture. I’ll refer to it from now on as "malevolent" compassion because I believe it is evil and I hope to show you that… tonight when we continue with:
The Rise of False, Malevolent Compassion
Invitation
We are extending the invitation, now, to anyone who is subject to it. If you need to, Come,… while we stand and sing.
Additional Information
[1] We cannot in our short space do justice to this and I commend to you the excellent and classic work “Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood” by Grudem and Piper.
The Rise of Malevolent Compassion https://dobsonlibrary.com/resource/audio/14ad77bc-748c-4046-a7ef-cff090da50b7