In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of faith in salvation, stating that a person is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. He identifies himself as a grace preacher and highlights the significance of Jesus' blood in redeeming and saving us from sin. The preacher also shares a practical illustration from his own life, illustrating the freedom that comes from following God's teachings. He concludes by emphasizing the need to share the entirety of the Gospel and not to overlook any aspect of God's teachings.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the free will offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Amen! Do you believe that this morning? Hallelujah! The cross of His salvation shall never, never fail. Let's all, since we're all standing right now, just offer up a prayer unto the Lord. Dear Heavenly Father, here we are today, Lord, looking unto You. Dear God, we trust that very thing, that You have commissioned us. You have given us a purpose. You have given us something to do in this life, dear God. And You have promised us that the gates of hell shall not prevail against us, Lord. So, Father, we praise Your name today. We ask You, Lord, to teach us today. Today, Father, I pray, Lord, as I touch on this somewhat controversial subject this morning, dear God, that You would let Dean Taylor stay way away from it, oh God. And just speak through this, Lord, I pray. Father, visit with us. Talk to us. Speak to us. Teach to us today, Lord. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Oh, one small thing, yeah. Stephen, could you bring that sermon up here real quick? Amen. Praise the Lord. Thank you, son. Well, it looks like we have a little extra time, so that's good. Amen. The sermon I'm going to preach today is a little bit different than what we usually, some usual topics that we've had around here. I was asked to share some messages that had more of a teaching style in it, bring up a particular doctrine, a particular something that we can open up the Word of God and look at. And so, my prayer is that while the mode in this topic may not be as spiritual as some would, that God could still use some dry teaching and maybe even allow a bit of dry teaching to prophesy. The teaching this morning, simply put, is the biblical teaching on modest dress. The biblical teaching on modest dress. Now, in teaching this, I feel compelled by the Lord that there are a few things, a few number of things that I want to establish before I ever get started in a topic like this. First and most importantly is this. I conclude with Paul's conclusion in Romans 3 that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Period. I conclude that. I'm a grace preacher. And I am. Just like the song that we sang there, there is a fountain filled with blood. That verse gets me. The one that says, E'er since by faith I saw the stream, thy flowing wounds supply, redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die. Is that your testimony today? When you see it, when you see what His blood has done, and what His blood changes us and saves us from our sins, it's my theme. It's my theme. And I want it to be my theme. And it's only because I feel that in times past, devotions that I might have shared or a sermon or an article in the remnant, I felt that before I could ever even write something or speak on something that had to deal with a particular doctrine or a particular teaching, that in my own heart, that needed to be established. It's by faith in Christ and His redemptive love that we're saved. And so because I feel that you know my heart there, only because of that do I feel we can go on here into a topic like this. I believe that a doctrine that mixes our works and our faith together is a doctrine of devils that has prevented untold millions of souls from ever reaching salvation. And more than this, it has caused more to fall under condemnation and to lose their way. Under this condemnation of not being clear of this, of mixing these things. So, as I go through this biblical teaching on godly dress, I do it with trembling that you will not lay one single thread upon the altar to share a place with Jesus Christ. I'm not trying to present some kind of a rule or a law or a hidden standard of charity, Christian fellowship. My desire is to look on to God and His Word on unfortunately a controversial subject. So, let's look at the first point. Our fundamentals must be set to look at something like this. Our fundamentals must be strong. You know, my second point is that I believe that if a church or even an individual is not clear on that first point, if you're not clear on salvation and where your righteousness comes from, these things get quickly put way out of place. They get muddy. You fall under condemnation. You fall under guilt. It just doesn't feel right. If a church or individual is not clear on salvation, you see, there's a tendency to prove yourself in an unhealthy way. The flesh works this way. Someone who is motivated out of a vague zeal for a cause often finds it difficult to act by love and instead finds it easier to show their zeal and to show their support for that cause by acting in hate of what they're not. Let me give you an example. Let's say you want to be a patriot. You want to love the country. You want to love democracy. Sometimes that's a little bit vague. How do you do that? Well, a lot of times what these guys will do, you'll hear them talking about how much they hate Russia and hate communism. And so this vague affection for an ideal, if we don't have a mature understanding of that, is expressed in the wrong way. And it comes out in the wrong way. This happens in religious circles too often. And it certainly has happened on this issue particularly. A church or individual that is not clear on salvation, and then let's say that this person has come from a legalistic or traditional background. You were saved. You were worshipping God in just forms or, you know, you just joined the church. You wanted to just follow the ways and you came from a legalistic background. You see, if we're not clear on where your fundamentals are, that your teachings are coming from the word of God, that your standards are coming from the word of God, that your salvation is in Christ, there may even be a tendency for that person who is liberated to deliberately dress oftentimes more worldly than he actually may even feel that he should to sort of prove to himself or to say, you know, I'm going to prove that I have my liberality in Christ. There's a danger there. And I want to just bring that danger up. Likewise, someone raised from my background that comes from a materialistic and ungodly fashion is tempted to look at their new life and their new, you know, you find out about God's standards, you find out about His ways, and there's a tendency to lose your balance on that and become censorious or harsh with yourselves or with others on it. You know, it becomes their it and it replaces Christ, it can. People from our background. So, we must be clear that our righteousness today is in Christ. I believe that if we preach our righteousness in Christ, salvation, clear enough, then you follow the line along that Paul established there in Romans, and you lead right up to his rhetorical questions, the ones like these. After he gives the explanation, I conclude that a man is justified by faith. He goes on to say things like, do we then make void the law through faith? At the end of Romans 6, he says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? You see, the teaching is so clear. God is doing this. God is changing us. God is going to take care of all of your needs. He's going to do this for you. It's so clearly taught that it should lead the audience to say, what are you saying? You're saying it doesn't matter how we live our life? Are you saying then we can go on living in sin? Is that what you're saying? Paul answers that question. The answer to this rhetorical question in Paul's anguishing cry at the end of Romans 7, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Death is answered in chapter 8. We know it all well. He goes on to say, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Listen to this verse. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in other words, his anguish there in Romans chapter 7, he could not become holy. So his crying out to God, I know your standards, I know what you want, but I can't do it. What the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for our sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Listen to this point. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. He does it. He asks those two rhetorical questions, he answers those two rhetorical questions there in 3 and 6. Do we make void the law through faith? He says, God forbid. Yea, we establish the law. He goes on there in 6. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? You see, when we are clear on this point, and God has changed us and quickened us, see, Paul sees it as an impossibility. What he's trying to express is, you see, if you understand faith right, it's impossible for this not to change your life. It's impossible for this Word not to come alive to you, that you would see these things and God's heart in them. It's impossible. So that's what I'm explaining. It's not something that we just get an influence of or agree to a bunch of standards. It's a changed life. Do you remember the prophecy in Ezekiel 36? God prophesied that He would take out our heart of stone. Remember that? And He would put in a heart of flesh. He goes on to say, listen to this, and I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and you shall keep My judgments and do them. When God gives us His heart, when He takes a sinner and takes out that heart of stone, He writes His law upon your heart. These things then are beautiful. They're not grievous to us. We can walk in them out of love. Suddenly, the law of God is no longer bondage, but it's a love note straight from the heart of God. This is what my Lord likes. This is His heart. This is where He's at. Now, Paul exhorts Timothy and he says this in 2 Timothy 3.16, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Now, obviously, the New Testament is included in that, but if you think about it, what was Paul telling Timothy? What Scriptures was he talking about? Was 2 Timothy written yet? No, he was writing it right there. He was talking about the entire Word of God. He said that when we look through this, that these things can instruct us in righteousness. They can give us correction. They can give us reproof. If you're clear that none of that is your righteousness, well, then you have liberty to walk in it, to see the heart of God. Galatians puts it beautifully. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. We know that verse well. It's good we do. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. This is where all of these types of things should be placed. When we come to the Lord and He saves us, He changes us. He puts a new heart. He takes that law, not by constraint, but these things that we see in His heart and He writes them in our heart. And then He comes right along and causes us to walk in them. So the point of this is that if we're clear there, we can talk about a subject like this with liberty, with excitement in our heart. A teaching on clothes doesn't have to be a battle or a contentious subject, but it's something that we can look at and say, Lord, how can we praise You today? So, it's not my desire, I hope I have distressed enough, to place a burden or condemnation on anyone. It is my desire to set you free to who God has made you to be. What does He want you to be? Just like up there in Galatians. What has He before ordained that you should walk in? What works? What things? What glorious things? Like I said the other day, a fish only has liberty in the water. A bird only has liberty in the air. You, a child of God, only has liberty in holiness. You were created for it. It's the environment in which you will grow, which you have liberty, which you will find the grace of God, and it's there for you, for the taking, and to dwell in, and to enjoy the fruits of God in. So, as we look at this, let's keep that premise completely in mind. I don't want to in any way stray from that premise. John Wesley, who was kicked out of just about every church in England, says right in his diary, I preached faith at such and such chapel, and I was kicked out. I preached faith at so and so here, and they booted me out. He had a very clear understanding that we were saved by faith alone. And the church of England, especially in that time, said, well, we can't hear that. And so he was kicked out of church after church. But interestingly enough, he went on to say that us who are saved by faith should go on studying the law and continue to study, he said, even more diligently than we did before we were saved, because now it's all out of love. The compassion is love. You want to know God's heart. You want to know these things. And so we look on to them in this way. So let's get to the meat of the discussion here. 2 Corinthians 7-1 is a very good verse that I'd like to kind of start with this verse. 2 Corinthians 7-1. I'm just going to quote it. I'm not going to go that far in it. Having therefore these promises. Remember what we just talked about? Isn't it beautiful what God has done for us? How He saved us. How He promised that we can walk in His way and eat from His hand and put our head on His chest. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. The flesh and the spirit. Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. That's the heart of God. And that's what we'd like to do a little bit looking at this topic. The biblical teaching on modest dress. You know, there are a few areas in the Christian walk that cause more debate and conflict than the biblical teaching concerning Christian dress. It's been the source of splitting churches. It's been the source of many contentious arguments. It seems as soon as the issue is even hinted at, you get images of Pharisees with their long phylacteries and their tasseled robes and furrowed brows looking at you. You get these ideas come up. And while this is very unfortunate, it's not without reason. It's not. And we have to admit that it's not. The sin of hypocrisy, of being a hypocrite, is exemplified. It's personified. It's shown by the very act of looking godly on the outside while inside there's wickedness and uncleanliness. And we who are a church that believe in having to walk in the ways of God and looking at some of these things must keep that in mind. That that's personified in that way of looking good on the outside, but not being any change on the inside. Scripture is plainly stated, for a man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. That's in 1 Samuel 16, verse 7. It's an interesting passage too at the end of Malachi. There it refers to a little family situation where husbands are mistreating their wives and they're dealing treacherously with them. They're divorcing their wives and things. There's an interesting little passage that comes up there. And it says, For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away. For one covereth violence with his garment. You know, we can have a home that's all a mess. We cover it up with plain clothes. We go about living our life. The Lord sees that. That's a real risk. And we need to remember that. We cannot fool God with outer appearance while the inside remains wicked. On the other hand, dressing in modestly and worldly doesn't make us spiritual either. Listen to this point. While it is possible to be looking good on the outside, but inside is all wickedness, I'll far say it's almost impossible to purposely dress foolishly on the outside and the inside to be unchanged. Let me repeat that. While it's certainly, obviously possible to have a clean outside and the inside is nothing but wickedness, it on the other hand, if what you're doing is purposely dressing rebelliously, that it is impossible for that not to have coming from the inside. The same could be said with our speech. We can have a lofty spiritual language. We can have a spiritual vocabulary full of spiritual lingo with no real change in our heart. We can have all the amens and hallelujahs and all this, but inside, there's no real change. Such religious boasting is also called hypocrisy in the Scripture. We may feel and even think we're righteous, but inside, if it's full of wrath and hate and slandering and blasphemies, it becomes obvious what's really in our heart. We may feel even impure rights, but if our lips are full of... If we're feeling now righteous on the inside, I'm trying to make my point with the clothing, on the other hand, if we're feeling we're righteous on the inside, but out of your mouth is coming wrath and anger and blasphemies, that's coming out of your heart. It's impossible to say, well, I know I'm blaspheming, I know I'm angry, I know I'm saying all these horrible things, but my heart is clean. It's the same way I'm trying to make the analogy to our clothes. If we're saying, well, I'm dressing foolishly and I'm doing all these things, I can do it, it represents something that's in our heart. Jesus puts it this way, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. God desires holiness inside and out. Not the outside only, but not the inside only either. As Peter exhorted us, listen to this one, 1 Peter 1.14, As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. We were fashioned in a way, some way when we were raised up. Somehow, some things were putting into our minds that makes the decision of what you do when you wake up in the morning, what you say to your wife at the breakfast table, what you do when you drive down the car, how you drive that car. Some of those things, a lot of those things were fashioned in our old lust. Peter here is exhorting us to look at every bit of our life and to purify it, to take every bit of it to the Lord and let God clean that. You know, unfortunately, just as Israel slipped time and time again as it started to mingle with the world, the same could be said with the church. By allowing the world's values, the world's fashions and moral standards to replace the Word of God, we have in essence gone into a spiritual adultery. We have allowed the world to change the church instead of the church changing the world. There's a quote by Leonard Ravenhill that I like. He says that the church is called not to be a thermometer. The church is called to be a thermostat. Let me catch you what that means. A thermometer measures the temperature around it. The thermostat sets the temperature. And so what the church is supposed to be to the world today is an expression of what God's heart is. It's not supposed to say, okay, well this is where the world is now. So this is where we are. And this is where the world is 50 years later. And this is where the world 50 years later is. And so we just keep reflecting what the world has. That's not it. We're called to set that standard. That's what He wants of us. Leonard Ravenhill said again, the world out there is not looking for a new definition of Christianity. The world out there is looking for a new demonstration of Christianity. We've had definitions and definitions and here and there over and over again. They're tired of it. They don't want to hear it. They don't want to hear our debates. They don't want to hear our words. They're waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity. That's what they want to see. So that affects us. If you take that deeply in a lot of ways, I need to make a little explanation of what George was saying in that book. That book had some ideas that what we need to do is change the way we present the Gospel to meet the world. In other words, it was saying what used to be an 8-track tape later became a record. Then the record became a cassette. Then the cassette became a CD. And the CD finally became an MP3. So we need to be as a church, be MP3s to reach the world and not 8-track tapes. They gave many analogies how different foolish things that a church underwent to try to reach the lost. I knew that that church wasn't there where that book was saying. So George and I talked and we did go to the ministry, their ministry about that to let us know what our heart was in that. But it's subtle. It's subtle in different ways when you allow your mind to start to think, okay, I'm going to be like them to win them. And we want to relate to them. And we're called to do that as Paul's example was that. But we must be careful here because it's subtle. And it gets into us and we see what ends up happening is the church is changing generation after generation after generation after generation. It's changing. The world is not getting any better. God, let God be true in every man a liar. The ways of God, His teachings, His understandings, what He has in His heart to tell us is endless. It does not end. And how we present that, how we place that, here it is. Is it complete? You know, Jesus told them in Matthew 28, to go ye therefore into all the world, teaching them all that you observe. And then baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and then lo, I'll be with you. We're called to give the entirety of the gospel. The entirety of what God is teaching. It's part of that. Again, let's not get this out of balance. Let's not look at this in a wrong way as I made all those statements at the beginning. So, let's get into some practical teaching. How would God dress me? What I'm going to do, this is where the... I'm going to go through some teachings here and I'm going to bring up some different Bible passages. I'm going to focus in towards the end on the passage there in Timothy and also in Peter that deals specifically with the way we should dress. I'm going to first show us a glimpse of heaven, of how we're going to be dressing in heaven. And then I'm going to show us some ways that God has looked at the way we dress through the Bible. And I'm going to give out some key words in the Hebrew and in the Greek and I'll write them up here so that you can study them and take them home and look at them. And you'll have to bear with my Greek pronunciation. Brother Victor's back there. Try not to laugh too loud there, brother. He's from Greece. And you can take that home and look at some of these. It'll be edifying, I think, for us to take these and look at them and break down the Word of God. Alright? So, let's look at it. First of all, let's take a glimpse of heaven. Shall we? Let's take a glimpse of heaven. By reading the book of Revelation, there's a neat thing about Revelation that I don't want you to miss. We're permitted to snatch a few glimpses of a place, watch this now, where the world and the devil have no influence. You look at them. Look at the way they worship. Look at the way they adore the Lord. Look at the way they dress. Look at the way they fellowship. It's a place where the world and the devil have no effect. You know, we're instructed to ask that Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. How many people have prayed that? We all have prayed that. Do you mean it? As it is in heaven, I'm praying that that way will be established here on earth. It's an important point. Okay? The worship, the adoration, the prayers, the entire purpose in this holy place are without question existing for no other reason than to give glory to God. It is in this heavenly atmosphere that we see Jesus receiving His expectant Holy Bride. It says, not having spot nor wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. When He receives us in this place, the Bible tells us that He will house us. He's going to give us a house, a room. He will feed us. And yes, He will clothe us there as well. In the reference to the martyrs, we're going to look at some of these. Revelation 6.11 says, And white robes were given unto every one of them. We're going to touch on that word robe here a little later. It's the word stola in the Scriptures of the great multitude of believers that John witnessed. It is said, After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindred and people. Tongues stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands. Revelation 7.9 Jesus Himself is described here as having a modest garment that went all the way to the ground. It says here, One like unto the Son of Man and clothed with a garment down to the foot. This word, robe, that appears in Revelation can be found in many places in Scripture. Like I said, it's the Greek word stola. I'm going to write this one up. Here we go. It's Greek. And you'll look in your Strong's Concordance at 4749, stola. This word is a loose outer garment usually extending to the feet worn by kings, priests, and persons of rank. It is the same article of clothing that Jesus describes there in the Prodigal Son where the Father says, Get Me the best robe and put it on Him. It's that same word. It's a beautiful prospect of thinking of coming into Heaven and having our Heavenly Father running to us, clothing us, not only with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, but also providing us food, clothes, and a dwelling place to live in as we live there in our glorified bodies. Now, agreeably, a lot of the book of Revelation is metaphors and allegories. However, I believe that when we get a snapshot of Heaven, like the martyrdom of Stephen, or these glimpses of Heaven, the revelation of John, we see Isaiah and these different things. When we get glimpses of Heaven, it's there to give you expectation in your heart of what it's going to be like. It's so that you can, when you pray, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, you can have some idea of what that's like. But since it is filled with much allegory and metaphors and things, I do think that we need to look at some other scriptures before we draw some more conclusions on this subject. God has shown us more than just an expectation of what it's going to be like in Heaven. He's given us His heart on the way it is here while we're on earth. Now, here's a big point. I think a lot of church divisions and breaking ups and fights over hooks and eyes or whatever may be over this next point. Often discussions about modest dress miss a very important point. When discussing modest dress, the object of concern is not necessarily the clothes. It's not. The object that we see in the Bible when He's talking about it is the nakedness which the clothes is covering up. You see, if our focus is on what's supposed to be the right kind of clothes? Is it supposed to be a white shirt? Is it supposed to be a plaid shirt? Is it supposed to be a collar or not collar? All these kind of things. Is it supposed to be a hook or is it supposed to be a button? Let's go back to the main point. The main point when the Scripture brings about these things is the nakedness which these clothes that God gives us is supposed to be covering up. If we focus on our clothes only, we can make the mistake of walking around very conservatively dressed, but still exposing ourselves to a flood of nakedness in our homes through magazines and newspapers and catalogs or worse. Until we understand what God calls nakedness and that He considers it a sin to look on it, we are somewhat missing the point. You catch that? It's an important thing because we don't want to debate about these different little things, but we do want to see what's God's heart in it. What is He calling this nakedness? Well, where does the teaching of God's nakedness start with? Where do you think it is? What's that? Yeah, more? And then, I mean, in the Bible. Genesis, that's right. God's teaching on modesty and nakedness starts right back in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve first became conscious of their nakedness, they created garments that they thought would be sufficient to cover themselves. It says here, this is Genesis chapter 3, verse 7. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. That word in Hebrew, aprons, I looked it up. It's a thing like they would have had in battle. It just kind of covers over. It's an apron. It's not a full apron. It's something that would have been a sash that they would have used to be covering like an apron. And just like today, and I say this as a point that it grieves me. What we see has grown up in the last hundred years is the same type of thing. When we in the fallen state try to find the holiness of God, you see the world out there has their own righteousness. They have their own standards. Adam had made up his own thing. Okay, now I'm going to get myself right. And unfortunately, the world today does this. If you go to... I know you wouldn't, but if coming from like swimming pools and things like this, the idea that just as your reproductive organs are covered, that this is considered covered to God. It's not. It's not. And it's a serious point, but it's interesting to see how the lost continue to fall into the same trap that Adam did of, okay, well, here's how we're going to fix this problem. What did God do? In verse 21, it says that unto Adam also and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them. He made coats of skins. All right, here's another word. We're going to write up. This is Hebrew word 3801. I'm going to butcher it and say katonet. I got this little talking strong at home, and so I tried my best to get the pronunciation from my talking strong as concordance. Okay. He made coats here to cover them, and this is katonet. You can write this in your margin. The word coats here use the Hebrew word katonet, which can be translated a tunic or a coat. And even though they had made them their own aprons, it's interesting to see that only when God had covered them with this tunic did God say that he, quote, clothed them. You know, you've got to be careful with these children Adam and Eve books. One thing I don't like, I don't think a post-fallen man, it's okay to just write put paintings of Adam and Eve in a pre-fallen state. I tell you, every one of these little books that I've ever had, we've gone through with a marker and changed that, you know. But, nevertheless, where they usually show that God, after he changed them, of how they made this tunic here out of flesh, that it's sometimes this little thing like this. It's a tunic. It's a tunic. It's a tunic. It's something that completely covered them. So that's the first place there that we see. Adam and Eve had sinned. They felt guilty about their nakedness. And because of their nakedness, they thought, we have this thing figured out, we're going to clothe ourselves like this. We're going to cover these particular spots and then we're going to go on. And God said, no, I'm going to clothe you like this. And he completely covered them. It's just something we need to look at. Alright? Let's keep going. Another graphic example of God's heart towards nakedness is in the incident with Noah's son. Remember that story? It's a very sobering story if you let it sink in. After the flood, you know the story, Noah had started to build a vineyard. And on one occasion, he actually got drunk. When he got drunk, he fell naked onto his bed there and was just laying there in that state. Well, his son Ham saw him. And instead of covering up his father's nakedness, he ran and joked and told the rest of his brothers. Now, his brothers on the other hand, seeing that this was a grievous thing, went literally out of their way to protect their father's nakedness, putting a blanket on him to cover him up and then went on. Let's look at this. This is found in... Oh, you know, I didn't write that one down. I'll read it to you. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and went backwards. They went backwards to cover the nakedness of their father. And their faces were backwards and they saw not their father's nakedness. Now, Ham and his descendants, Canaan, the Canaanites, became cursed by Noah. He said, you're going to be cursed because of this incident. The Canaanites later became the enemies of Israel. Now, what the world today calls liberating, perhaps funny, drunken guy, you know, this is funny. Practical, this is the way I should practically dress because of the heat or because of this or that. It's a travesty to God. And God called it sin. And it's sin that grieved him. And so, again, I don't want to get this focused on a bunch of threads. I want us to understand the heart of God in this. Is that He takes this stuff very seriously. And so, you can put that into the heart of a young man also, or young women alike, and the ideas of what we're opening our eyes to, and open our eyes to the internet, and these different catalogs, and things that are coming about. The sin of nakedness is serious. God takes it serious. So, with that, we go further into this teaching on the dress. There's still another, one more example from the Old Testament. It's interesting. It's found in God's judgment on Babylon in Isaiah chapter 47 verse 1 through 5. He says to this, it's a prophecy, it's an allegory, but there's some interesting points that come out of it. He says, Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen. I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man. What is the notable point about this prophecy is what God calls nakedness here. He goes on, he says, uncover thy locks, make bare the legs, uncover the thigh. The woman described here as being shamed by having her head uncovered, her legs showing all the way up to her thighs, and having her hair just flowing out. Again, what the world would consider acceptable, even practical, it's in just the heart of God, we can see a glimpse that to him it's considered shame. You're shaming yourself. I gave you this, and you're making us shame. It's an embarrassment. So, what does the Bible specifically say about our clothing? Those are some applications from nakedness. Let's look at some passages here that deal directly with the clothing. Probably the primary one that's usually quoted in these types of things is found in Deuteronomy chapter 22, verse 5. You can turn to there if you want. I'm going to read it to you. 22, verse 5. Like I said, in through every bit of this, do you hear my heart coming out? My heart wants to love Jesus, to love God, to take what he has given us, and to walk in liberty. I'm not trying to put a condemnation or a burden on anyone. It's the word of God, and because of that, it's like a little love note. You know, how many of you dads or husbands, sometimes my wife will run out to the grocery store to get something, and let's say the house is cluttered with this or that. I just love to be able to quickly pick up the whole house, so that she wakes up, she comes home, and she says, oh, what a blessing. That's a joy to me. I get to bless her in that way. I want us to be able to look at these things with a love in our heart. How can I please the Lord? What is it He wants? Just show me, Lord, we often say. And I'd love to do it. That's my heart here. I'm not trying to lay some sort of bondage or condemnation. I want us to see that. Just to let you free to worship the Lord in this way as well. Alright. Deuteronomy 22, verse 5. The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment. For all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God. Throughout the law, God speaks of many things as being a sin. Several things. Lots of things. He brings out that this is a sin, and that's a sin. But on a few things, to show His vehemence, vehemence, things like homosexuality, bestiality, and things like that that are mentioned, He reserves the word abomination. It's serious to God. It's an abomination. And this is an area that He brings, that God has brought up as being a point of an abomination. The practice of unisex clothing styles and cross-dressing are specifically mentioned as abominations. The effeminate styles of the modern man, and effeminate means the girlish types of materials and the girlish types of a way of dressing that the modern man is falling into, and the increased masculinity that the women are more and more falling into, find no support in the Word of God. Period. No support in the Word of God. As a matter of fact, I'm not going to say that particularly if a woman has this or that, it falls into that thing, but do we hear the heart of God? I've created a woman, I've created a man. And to mix that, even that dress, God calls an abomination. Although the subtleties of how that unisex clothing is kind of hard, as it goes through the ages, how it affects, where do you draw the line on that, where do you do this? One thing that has been very clear is that of the area of the woman's dress. The woman wearing a dress. You know, throughout all ages, in almost every civilized country, the woman has been shown wearing a dress. Even today, even today, no matter how much the world has tried to remove this eternal icon of the woman, you go to any bathroom, in any airport, in any country, in every restaurant, how do they show the man and how do they show the woman? It's very clear which bathroom you go into, right? It's a timeless icon of the man and the woman. It's there. It's built in to our culture. It's built in, I believe, written upon our hearts. So, you look at this and you see that in the last couple hundred years, this thing has kind of been, you know, it's been changing. It's been, they wanted a more liberal, they wanted more to have your freedom to do this type of thing. Hey, we're building airplanes now to go over to Germany to kill the Germans. We deserve to have this masculine type of thing and do these things. If you look through history how Satan has used these things, I believe it's a shame. And even worldly women today are trying, against all odds, some of them at least, to say have we lost something in our losing our femininity? It's a beautiful thing. The feminine is the beautiful part of what God has presented for the woman. Don't lose it, ladies. It's beautiful. And even Satan wants to kill that, wants to destroy that and take away the feminine away from our culture. Some have reasoned, looking at the Scripture, that in Biblical times there was no real distinction between man and woman's dress. They all wore, you know, robes and it was the same anyway. So, what we do today is the same and so it doesn't matter. You know, I, it's strange because I think the commandment itself should let us know there was some difference between the man and the woman's dress. There's a commandment there that was so serious it was an abomination to God. And while it is true that in Biblical times both men and women wore a loose-fitting outer garment, the men's outer garment did differ in that it was more suited for work. Furthermore, I want to bring up a little point, that the men's garment, I'm not even going to try to draw Old Testament garment, but the men's garment underneath it had a trouser that they were, the priests and we see some others wearing, a trouser that was under the robe. Let me give you that. It's called breeches in the King James. That's found, if you're doing a study here, Exodus 28, 42, 39, 28, Leviticus 6.10 and 16.4 and Judges 5.7 where God is instructing His priests there and when He gives the explanation of the dress in detail, He says, and to cover your nakedness, I want you to wear these breeches. These trousers that I want you to wear. Nowhere do we find in the Word of God or in history women wearing these sort of breeches. Later on as it goes into the Middle Ages these came to the word something like braries where these would wear under their tunics and still even modern costume historians have not found any trace of the women wearing these things. It was something these trousers, these breeches, that were something a part of the men. The men would in their work have these robes on, yes, and it was a conservative, it was a loose fitting, it was a robe, but then they would often gird up their loins, take that robe, tuck it into their belt, and they would have these trousers and they would out there and they'd be working. And this was something that the men were doing. So, I don't want to take that too far, but it's there. It's in the Word of God. There's no instruction for any woman to wear those sorts of things, but it's there. We pick it up in one other place in Daniel chapter 3, verse 21. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and it just mentions what they went into the fiery furnace with. It says that they had hosen on. And this word hosen is from the Hebrew word Petzias, Petzias, Petzias or something. It says there in Daniel 3.21 that then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen and their hats and their outer garments and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Again, it's just a reference of what if you think, wouldn't you love sometimes when you're reading the New Testament, you're reading the Old Testament, you're studying the early church, I wish I could just take a glimpse. Couldn't I just see? It helped me so much if I could just take a glimpse. What was church like in Acts? What was it like there in the fiery furnace before they were going up? How did they interpret and deal with those things? Well, let's not just wash out sometimes when God gives us a little detail, a little glimpse. This is what they were wearing. I'm not going to make a law out of it, but again, we see that even in the Old Testament days, the men had on these breeches and the women have no instructions of wearing those. Now, let's go into the New Testament. There's two scriptures that go into detail on how the Christians should dress. And those are 1 Peter 3, 3 through 5 and 1 Timothy 2, 9 and 10. We're going to look at those two in detail here. So, I'll take a breather. You take a breather. And we'll hit the New Testament. Are you still hearing my heart? Am I trying to lay a standard or am I trying for us to be set free to worship the Lord? To go hunting for some gold about something beautiful of how He wants His Holy Bride to be. If I stress that, I'm not going to stress it enough because I think it is something we need to be careful for, but that's my heart. Alright. Are you ready for the New Testament? Okay. Two scriptures go into detail. 1 Peter 3 through 5 and 1 Timothy 2, 9 and 10. Peter's interesting. Turn to there. 1 Peter 3 through 5. Peter, I think, kind of warns us against making this closed standard part of how you consider your good works and your righteousness within you. He kind of, although there are some prohibitions there listed, the heart of it is to say, let it not be putting this stuff on and thinking yourself like that. Let me read it to you exactly. 1 Peter 3 verse 3. Who's adorning? Let it not be that outward adorning or plating of the hair, the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God a great price. I think there's some prohibitions there. Let it not be. But I don't want to stress Peter too much here because I do think that the whole context there is, please don't look at, you know, running after the world and dressing like this and doing these types of things to where your good works are, but let it come from your heart. Let it flow from your heart. And I think that's where we are as a fellowship. We don't want this, even if we were going to make a even if we want to dress in a certain way to look at this and say, well, this is my righteousness because I've got a white shirt on or whatever. That's not what we want it to be. We want there to be something true in the heart that's coming out. But he does say, let it not be. It's interesting. Some of the other versions of the Bible has actually added a word here. I think it's the NIV. It says, adorning, let it not merely be. And if you look in that, if anyone had those kind of versions, the word merely is written in italics, which means that that word was added to help you understand the meaning. You see, I don't think it helps us understand the meaning, but that's when you see italics written in any of our versions. That's what those italics are telling us. But it says, let it not be in the wearing of gold or putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart. I'm not sure how more clearly it could be said, and let it not be the outward adorning and this prohibition against the plating of the hair and the wearing of gold. Nevertheless, today, millions of Bible-believing, so-called Bible-believing Christians would look at these two passages that we're going to look at and say, it's just a cultural thing. It's a bit of history. It's a novelty for us to look at. But again, what's making that standard? Has God changed as His Word said that would never fail? The grass can wither, the flower can go away, but the Word of God will stand forever. Is that changed, or have we changed? It's interesting. John Wesley said on this passage, three things are here expressly forbidden. Curling the hair, wearing gold by way of ornament, and putting on costly or gay apparel. These, therefore, ought never to be allowed, much less defended by Christians. That was John Wesley, the man who preached salvation by faith alone. That's the way he saw it. All right. Let's now go, perhaps the clearest teaching is in the letter to Timothy, and we're going to break these words down bit by bit. So let's go over to Timothy. 1 Timothy 2 9. 9 and 10. You know, you can't take this stuff out of context. One bad thing, if you just read your Bible in quotes, you will miss it entirely. There's a spirit that comes out of it. There's a... If all you're doing is looking up references and checking this and checking that, you have the scattered faith. Read the Word of God through, and you'll catch the spirit of it. Because even this, it starts off I will, therefore, that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. That's the context of what we're about to get into this stuff on clothes. Worship the Lord and put your hands up and praise Him. Now let's talk about clothes. Okay? So I just wanted to throw that in because if we just look at the Scripture in a wrong way, you get a wrong taste of it. I don't think that's the way we get an idea that these guys were different than I think what they are. Alright? Let's break down in word by word here in verse 9. I'll read it first. In like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh woman professing godliness with good works. Okay, that's the Word of the Lord. Let's look at it. Okay. The first word that we're going to look at is the word both the two words, the word adorn and the word modest. Okay? We're to adorn, we're to put on this modest and then we'll get to the next word in a second. The word adorn and the word modest are two words that are actually quite close together. And they are the words adorn is cosimo c-o-s-m-e-o c-o-s-m-e-o 85 in the strongs and then cosimos, cosimos I tell you how this came out I even got interested in this, it was a hospitality and a lady, a Remnant lady came to our house and she said, why do you all dress the way you do? Give me the Bible. I don't want a bunch tradition, I want to say because it's in Lancaster County or whatever, tell me why you do this." So, you know, I turned to the scripture and kind of hymn hauled around and, you know, and after she left I thought, that was weak. That was weak. So I went in and I realized it in myself, my own journey. I was, I've been dressing like this for years, you know, we looked at the early church and how they embraced a lot of these things and I just kind of had that in the back of my mind, but I said, Lord, I want the Word of God to be complete, that it answers every question, that I can lean on it alone. And so I went to study and I went to look at these scriptures and say, teach me Lord. And I was so blessed. I'll tell you, I was so blessed that at the end I just got on my knees and I said, Lord, thank you that your Word is complete. And I believe this morning that it is. It's complete. These two words are a blessing, especially coming from my background. Okay, Cosimo and Cosimos, the words adorn and modest, these words both portray the ideas of putting things in order or of being orderly to be arranged or to make ready or to prepare. It's where we get our word cosmos. Okay, so the idea of this is that it is an orderly and an arranged appearance. This is how I want you to dress, orderly and arranged. Here's what happens. Remember how I told you, if you don't, if you're not clear on your fundamentals, you tend to try to prove yourself. You know, I came from a church that, you know, you saw materialism, you saw worldly people dressing this way or that. And so to try to say, I'm not there. I'm not going to do this. A lot of us young men would try to dress as sloppy and as, you know, as many holes, wholly in the jeans, you know, as how much we could be, you know, just saying that we're not going to conform to this world. And here we are, our hair all messed up, our beard all hanging out, and we're going to be all looking like this. Okay, it's a tendency that we try to do. And in some way, it's motivated by a good spirit. I'm not going to go the way of the world. I'm not going to go into that riches and that materialism, so I'm going to look all kind of tore up. This word helps keep us balanced. Kosmos, orderly, in order. It's a beautiful word, and it teaches us the heart of God. God is a God of order. Look at the universe, not just haphazard. Worlds don't just float around. They float in a system, and they have order. God is a God of order, and this is something, a beautiful word, that God teaches us. Okay, they help us to keep a balance of maintaining modesty without becoming sloppy. All right, and that doesn't mean being fancy in a plain way, but that means just orderly. And okay, all right, I'll leave that. All right, the next word's a big word. It's a beautiful word, and that's the word apparel that is in here. And this is a word, write this word in your Bible, because you need it. It's a word, it's a specific word used, and it's the word katastole. Katastole, let me write that up. The word apparel is the word katastole. The accent there. Okay, this word, literally broken down, has two words. Kata, meaning down, and stelo, meaning to sin. Used together, the context is used for a garment that is flowing down. Remember, we're talking about ladies dress. The idea is that this is something that's flowing down. In ancient Greece, the way this word was used, the katastole was a free-flowing dress worn over the stole, providing two layers to conceal the form of the body. The word designated a specific style of dress worn in this day. I mean, I want to read you from a commentary by a man named Adam Clark, a 19th century holiness commentator who I've appreciated in a lot of different ways. Here's what he says about this Greek word. He says, the apostle seems to refer here to different parts of the Grecian and Roman dress. The stole, and that was that first word that we got about in Revelation and such, seems to have been originally very simple. It was a long piece of cloth doubled in the middle and sewn up both sides, leaving only room for the arms at the top, and a piece was cut out, a slip made, so that the head could pass through. It hung down to the feet, both before and behind, and was girded with a zona around the body, just under the breast. It was sometimes made with, sometimes without sleeves, and that it might sit the better, it was gathered on each shoulder with a band or buckle. Some of the Greek women wore them open, remember they were a material that was like this, and some of them would not sew that down. And this had a term in those days, I'm not even going to try to determine, but it meant literally the scuppers of the thigh, but it was in general only young girls or immodest women who wore them this way. So here then Paul comes to the word katastole, that's how I want you Christian women to dress. Watch this. Seems to have been the same as the mantle, which being made nearly in the form of the stola, hung down to the waist, both in the front, and was gathered at the shoulders with a band or buckle, had a whole slip of the top and a head to pass through, and hung loosely over the stola. So the way he brings this analogy is you have this stola, this dress, and then you had this, if you'll mind me using the Lancaster County word, a cape that would come over and cover this area that would be doubled over, and this was the way that this katastole was, that style of dress. He says this, and I just I threw this in because I appreciate his spirit in it, he says, speaking specifically of this style of dress, Adam Clarke says, a more modest and becoming dress than the Grecians was never invented. It was in a great measure revived in England about the year 1805, and in it simplicity, decency, and elegance were united, but it soon gave place to another mode in which frippery and nonsense once more prevailed. It was too rational to last long, and too much like religious simplicity to be suffered in a land of shadows in a world of painted outsides. Adam Clarke, you have no idea where we are today. That's the way he saw it. I'm not sure when he died, but it was a long time ago. Today, I think it's a blessing when I read that. I praise the Lord, because I would see that a lot of this, in this style, the cape dress, or the the jumpers, and the way that it has that sort of two-layer is very much like what I would read in the way that this would be describing out of this word. It's something that's two-layered. It's something that covers more modestly than just a one-layer type of thing. I think that's a beautiful, again, a beautiful insight to the heart of God. And this is the New Testament. Okay, let's look at the next word, shamefacedness. Shamefacedness is translated from the Greek word aidos, a-i-d-o-s, 127. It's a lost word, portrays a sense of shame or honor, modesty, bashfulness, reverence, regard for others, and respect. In Paul's day, the katastole style, sometimes that style was then taken by the rich and embroidered with a bunch of gold and fancy stuff all over that style. So this, in context, the shamefacedness from the katastole, he says that even if you're wearing the katastole, that even if you're wearing this sort of dress, be careful that even that dress is not all embroidered up and made all fancy. And you know, and here's something that we can apply to us. We've found it's true that a lot of times even a plain dress can sometimes get awful fancy. And this would be just a careful for us to looking at that, that not to let, just because it's this right style, it should have that image of shamefacedness. The next word is sobriety. Sobriety is another challenging word coming from the Greek word. Oh boy. Sophrosoon, I butchered that one completely. Victor, you're going to have to help me out on this one. Okay. And that's 4997. The Greek, you can get a better. It means soundness of mind, self-control, sobriety. Vine's Bible dictionary says it this way. It is that habitual inner self-government with its constant rain on all passions and desire, which would hinder the temptation of these from arising. This attribute is not esteemed in the world today. And it in itself would be something that we should learn to hold on to. It's interesting. It's the same word that says, and the young and the old women should teach the young woman to be sober. It's an attribute that God wants us to grow in. All right. Getting towards the end of it. Braided and plaited hair. The plaiting of the hair is mentioned in 1 Peter 3, comes from the Greek word. And this word here in 1 Timothy 2.9 comes from the Greek words polygma and imploke. 4117 and 1708. Both of them portray the idea of the hair being put into, when you look it up in the Greek, it's actually made into like a basket. It's a very entwined, it's a very much of a fancy hairstyle. And I think in simplicity, what this is saying is that fancy hairstyles is something that the ladies should avoid. It's that all this intertwining types of very fancy hairstyles is something. These spoke to this idea of making this very detailed net of the hair that they made here. Moreover, another scripture tells us that the woman's head should be covered. We know that from 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and that the woman should have long hair and that the man's hair should be short. I'm not going to go into a detail about the head covering or about long hair or short hair. I'm just bringing it out. It's the New Testament. It's the Word of God. And we're dealing with hair that's there. I did just want to say one quick thing about the head covering. And I'm gonna leave it alone. It's been kind of said lately that the hair is the covering. It's coming back up around again. And that if you have cloth on your head, that this is an extra covering. And I just wanted to touch real quick on that. It doesn't make sense. It does say in verse 15, but if a woman have a long hair, it is a glory to her for her hair is given for her as a covering. Corinthians chapter 11, verse 15, her hair is given to her for a covering. He's giving an example of nature there of how the God has covered women with with long hair. But it doesn't take away from the head covering itself. Let's apply that. Let's say, OK, it's the hair. It's the hair. Now let's put it back in. Let's plug it back into verse five. But every woman that prayeth or prophesied with her hair cut dishonors her hair for that is even as one who has her hair cut. For if the woman has short hair, let her also get her hair cut. But if it'd be a shame for a woman to have short hair, then let her have long hair. It just doesn't make sense. If we apply this and look at it and erase yourself from the culture we have today, it's very clear. He is talking about a symbol of authority, he says, upon the head. And he's talking about the head covering. It's a blessed, wonderful thing. That's not a bondage. It's not something that you should look at as a law. But again, it's something that's a hidden power and a blessing that God has given you. All right. Coming now real quick, I couldn't help but give you this another quote by Wesley on this Timothy passage. He says this, not with curled hair, not with gold worn by way of ornament, not with pearls, jewels or any kind. A part is a part is put for the whole, not with costly raiment. These four are expressly forbidden by name to all women. Here is no exception professing godliness and no art of man can reconcile with the Christian profession, the willful violation of an expressed command. Do you know that today a Methodist minister agrees to the sermons of John Wesley as what they will use for their doctrine and teaching? Well, that was right from one of the sermons. So gold, pearls and costly array. It would seem that these words need no further definition. And it's true. Guess what? In Greek gold means gold. Pearls mean pearls and costly array is costly array. It's very simple. It's not permitted to the Christian woman. You know, sometimes we can look at this. And again, if you look at it as a law or you're sharing this to someone from my background or something, they may say, well, you know, your belt buckle has a little brass on there. You know, your your glasses have a little gold on the rim or something like that. And that's an example of how we look at this from the wrong end. We start looking at this as a law or something that we got to, OK, we got to spill it out. All right. We got to have all these things and and all these things. And we're going to say this and we're going to say that the whole idea of the gospel and the New Testament is to set you free with liberty and here to see the heart of God and saying, here it is. Here's the way my heart is walking. It it plainly states that if you're wearing gold or pearls or costly garment as for an ornament, it is wrong. And as Wesley said, no art of man can take away a commandment of God. Let me give you a quote from Menno Simons on this. Menno Simons spoke on this issue strongly saying they say they believe and yet they are no and yet there are no bounds to their foolish pomp show of silks, costly clothes, gold rings, chains, silver belts, pins and such like foolish finery. Peter and Paul have in plain words forbidden this to all Christian women. And if this is forbidden to women, how much more than should men abstain from it who are leaders and heads of their women? So Menno Simons brings it back to the other side of the room here. What about the men? Although most of the prohibitions are aimed specifically at the women, I think it would be presumptuous to say that these applications don't apply to us as well. The concern for wearing of these conservative loose fitting and looking at these types of way is something that we should look as an heart of God. Remember the nakedness of Noah. Remember, let's not get caught up in what it looks like, but remember how God is seeing that. And sometimes the very idea of just being sort of dressed lightly is looked at as nakedness in the Bible. This is the way I read John 21 7. It says now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fishers coat into him for he was naked and didn't cast himself into the sea. You know, I see that when he was in that boat, he was not dressed properly. And interesting when he went into the water to get to Jesus, he put on his coat to go swimming in there to get to the Lord. Well, that's just kind of the opposite we would look at. Clark put it that way as well. The naked is often used to signify the absence of the upper garment. Only when Saul had taken off his garment, it was considered to be a sort of nakedness. And so looking at that scripture in that light, it gives us just a little bit idea of the way the word is used. Again, they were out there working in the boat, putting up a hard work. OK, but when they came around other people and they came around ladies and they came around, you know, something over here, they were able to put his coat on to go swimming, to go meet the Lord on the on the shore there. I don't want to make a rule out of that. I just want us to look at that and to consider it into our hearts. Again, the Old Testament instructions about wearing of the breeches and extra covering. He puts God puts it strongly, he says, and thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness from the loins, even up to the thighs they shall reach. You know, it's disappointing. And I'll tell you this coming into this, I struggled over a lot of these issues when I first came to them and when you very clearly see these inconsistencies very clearly. And when you come into this county and you see these guys with tight jeans on and a T-shirt going up to Walmart with their wives, with these caped dresses on and head covering and walking, you know, it's it's a it's an inconsistency. And in the world, don't you see the world sees that, oh, we're leading our wives. We're we're going to to press on in this. And yet we're letting our wives walk around like this while we look just like the world. And I wouldn't want to put on a false standard and say, OK, well, we're going to make ourselves dress this way just because we're going to, you know, because our wives have to dress this way. But to look at the heart of God and to look at this, that how we see ourselves and how the world sees us when we're wearing these little tight garments or these tight little things that God perhaps is looking at this as nakedness. Final point that I wanted to make and then we're going to close is what by what do you make your cues? What decides what you do? And I want you to think about that. You know, I was raised on, you know, how many thousands of television programs with his arms flickered before my eyes as a young man, you know. And then I saw Beaver doing this way and coming out that way, the Brady Bunch doing this, and Johnny Carson doing that, and those images then flicker in little parts in my mind. This is how guys act. This is how fathers act in their home. And I'll tell you what, it is an abomination to God to see scenario after scenario after scenario made and resolved without God. They don't have to have some outward blasphemy against God for it to be sin. It's something there that is godless. And so when we look at ourselves, what's making your cues? Are you impressed by some sort of a cowboy image? Are you impressed by some sort of a television personality? Or are you impressed by something you saw in the workplace? Maybe someone who's a golfer or something. And you've got this image that that guy impressed you, and it's in the back of your mind making your cues. It's making your decisions when you get up in the morning. What goes through your mind? I want to ask us today to let these things be our cues. Let it shape our mind. Let it come into our heart. And when we decide and when we come to the Lord and say, okay, this is where I want to be. I'm not there or I'm here. I'm looking at these things. Let's just let the mind of Christ. Remember heaven. Remember the way it's there. The way we're going to be. And let that shape us, who we are. One more quick thing on this. I like going to resale shops. We buy almost all our stuff at resale shops. I think we should do that. But a lot of you people from this background, let me just give you a little warning. You do not know who Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and Isaac are. And they are not men of God. They hate the Gospel and they are Antichrist. And I just want to give you a caution. Amen that you've got a polo shirt or a polo pair of something that would have usually cost $85 at the store and you picked it up for 75 cents. Amen. But you've got that name that's on those pants. That billboard that you're portraying, this person. Be careful with that. I just want to say that coming from my background, I look at this and I tell you, I see it from the plain people. I don't think you even have any idea who these guys are. They are not friends of the Gospel. So just be careful with that as we look at that. So, men, let's lead out in this. Yes, this is something that our ladies have a lot put on them on specifically being spelled out. But let's not use our license as an opportunity to sin. We need to be leading our wives in this area and being shaped by the Word of God. So, can I reiterate it again? My heart, I am so emphatically telling you today that if you lay one single thread of this teaching upon the altar of Jesus Christ for your righteousness, you will fail. And you'll come under condemnation. You'll start to say, well, it's inconsistent if I do this, but what about him? He does it that way. And what about this brother over there? They're doing it that way. And that church does it with hooks. And this one over there? It'll be a mess. A big mess. But if you want to serve God and see what His heart on it, let me set you free of what you were created to be and use this Word for the standard that we want to be pure and holy before God. Amen. I'm not sure that I know how to close a message like this. I do know that I agree with Brother Dean that I'm also very grateful that God's Word has instruction for practical life. You know, in this area as well as other areas. God's Word has instruction for us for practical life. And do we love God's Word? You know, and is it written upon the tables of our hearts in such a way that it does make a difference in our practical life, in the area of dress and so forth? I believe it's very needful, this message this morning. I think back over the years being a part of the church here and I think of different times when we've had a message like this. And it seems like it's very real that the world has an effect on the church. And not just on the churches out there, but that the world actually does have an effect on us in the ways of dress. And it's very necessary, I believe, that we hear a message like this, that we think about these things, that we consider, you know, that we are representatives and a citizen of a heavenly kingdom. Not of this world. Not of this world, but we're representing a heavenly kingdom. How are we representing that kingdom? When a worldling looks at me, does he think in his mind, is that man a Christian? Or when he looks at you, does he think, is that woman a Christian? And I think something can be said for that, you know. And yes, the Lord gave us a mouth to speak and we ought to speak the Gospel to every man as we have opportunity, but yet we also, our ways of dress speak to the world as well. What is the church's response this morning? Anybody have a word to share? We'll open it up for a time here. Anyone has a word? Feel free to share with the congregation. A testimony, perhaps, of how you've overcome in this area. Go ahead, Brother Glendon. I just want to share with the congregation this morning. I'm so blessed that our brother was, by the grace of God, free to share the Scriptures as they are. That was such a blessing to me, brother, to hear the pure, unadulterated truth, the Word of God. And I must confess that I'm in some of the same things. I don't want to put all this, I don't want to go around with condemnation, but I'm finding my way through the same struggles. And I must admit that just as a little bit of testimony from my own life, I was in Rockvale Square yesterday. And I have to admit that I come out of that place feeling like I'm not going again. And it was so empty, and I realized that my focus was in the total wrong spot. And yes, I do have a desire to look nice, dress nice, and for all those things, self-esteem, whatever it be, but my focus is wrong. And I don't want to go, yeah, I don't want to go leave there with condemnation and try to change my dress real quick. But I do know that I thank God for the Word He's brought this morning. And I want to trust Him to help me shape my life in a way that's pleasing to Him. Thank you, Brother. Yes, I really appreciated the message today. The emphasis on that God hates nakedness. I thought that was a good thing to bring out. And you know, how does that apply to our lives? It can be many different ways. Yesterday, we were having a picnic lunch at a park. And I was eating my lunch. I was observing some fellows playing basketball. And they had their shirts off and shorts on and things. And I was just realizing how I was seeing it as not an attractive thing. I was seeing the nakedness of it and didn't want my family to look at them. And then I got to thinking about it and realizing, well, that's who I was. When I was a teenager, that's the way I dressed. I didn't wear a shirt. I wore shorts. And I had no clue that there was anything wrong with what I was doing. And to realize, as we follow the Lord, many of these people really don't know what they're doing. You know, that we not judge them. I guess that's what I saw. I saw myself there and was thinking, I wouldn't want someone to judge me when I was 18 years old. Having a hard time saying what I was feeling. But you know, it does set us free. How many of us have had the experience, especially when we were in the city, we'd have someone in and they had on a mini skirt, let's say, and they'd sit down. And the whole time they were pulling it down a little bit lower. They were so uncomfortable. They were aware that something was immodest. And you know, when you have a nice long dress on, you don't have to worry about that. You're free. And so God's principles are there to set us free. Set us free from lust. Amen. Set us free from all the bondages that the world is caught up in because they don't even have a clue of what they're doing. So thank God for that message today. I thought about something as Paul was sharing here, how it does set us free. Just a practical illustration from my life. If we have to go away in the evening, if we go away in the evening and I'm a little late from work, I instruct my wife to have the children ready. And almost going out to the van, by the time I come in the front door, I can be in the shower, in my clothes, and out in the van in five minutes flat. I'm free. I don't have to spend a lot of time getting dressed. I just grab a shirt, grab some pants, pull up the belt, put my shoes and socks on in the van and we go. I'm free. Why spend a half hour? Why spend an hour getting ready to go away? Brother Aaron? I think this was a very needed teaching and thank you, Brother Dean, for sharing with us. The glorious freedom that it brings is what I was also going to share and touch on. And to just consider, I just really appreciated the way the message was shared in the liberty that it brings and the desire to not bring us into a code or a standard of dress. And there's many things could be said this morning. We know that a code or standard, if the heart isn't there, it still shines through, you know, the immodest spirit shines through. And of course, also Dean mentioned about changing times and how that things change and the church moves along with the current times. But I don't think Brother Dean was saying that we should all go back to dressing like they were in the Old Testament days, but rather that we are separated unto God in holiness and that we're dressing for the reason that God gave us to be dressing and that is to cover the nakedness. And so I just say amen to the word this morning, you know, and clothing for modesty, it's so simple, it's so freeing, but clothing for fashion and style, you know, it just goes down a whole road of bondage. So I just thank God for the word this morning and want to say, I agree. And we want to walk in that in practical everyday living in our lives and not just say we agree this morning, but to walk in it and practice it. Do we love the truth this morning? You know, like, do we love the Lord Jesus? Amen. Do we hate the world? Amen. So I just thank God for His word this morning and would encourage us to take to heart the spirit in which it was given and the message. This is something that we definitely need in our day. It is a truth that is fallen and perverted and twisted. So I thank God for the word this morning. Thank you, Brother Dean. I want to bless my husband this morning for being a man of conviction. I remember when I was being convicted by the Lord about modesty and going to him and asking him, do you mind if I start wearing a dress? And he said, that was fine. And I talked to him about the girls and he said, they can wear dresses sometimes, but I need to see it in the word of God. And we had, through the process of moving, we had one group that said, you need to wear dresses. They're just more ladylike. They're just, you know, they had these different reasons. And then another group that, you know, said that's legalistic. And I was just really blessed that he said, if I will do anything that God tells me to do, but I am not convicted about dresses. And so until God shows me, this is what we're going to do. And so he took a weekend. He said, you gather some information for me and I'll take a weekend and fast and pray and study about this. And so I gathered up a couple of things some friends had and it was through this study that Dean shared this morning that he said, now I see it. There are verses, there are verses that say a woman is to wear a long flowing garment. I remember him telling me the coat in Genesis is the same as the robes in Revelation. It's from the neck down to the knee. We will now wear dresses. Go through the house, get rid of, you know, any immodest books or draw, you know, draw clothes on them, get rid of the clothes. And it was quite a party of getting rid of things. And I just, and I remember the same with the head covering. We talked about it and I said, what do you think? Not knowing how much it would change my life. And he said, until God shows me, I'm not convicted about this. And so there was a time where the Lord lay on his heart to study the head covering because, you know, it's interesting how God sometimes hides his truth. We have to humble ourselves and study it. Sometimes we can't read it at face value or read it, you know, just right there. We need to see what, because it can come across by glance that the hair is given for a covering. And so when he saw that it is a different word, the hair for covering, a different Greek word than the covering that it's talking about, two different things. That was it. So that's it. Handed me a pink handkerchief, put it on. And that was the beginning. And I remember those first few months we were in Texas and I don't, I'm sure there were other people somewhere in that big state who were wearing head covering, but I never saw them. And I, it was a crucifying in my flesh. It was just the hardest first two months. And I realized it's because I had put worth and value in fitting in, in being like other people and trying to look like a good Christian. And I really became an alien. I started taking my walks in dresses first and then I eventually stuck head covering on. And I just pictured the neighbors inside their houses eating popcorn, watching me walk by, you know, like this is, you know, watching a movie, but who is this alien that's moved into our place? And I just rejoice. I rejoice that my husband was a man of conviction. And I realized now as we've moved here and I've talked to neighbors, you know, that are Mennonites, they're not sure sometimes why they wear their dresses and their head coverings. And I rejoice in my background that we had to just, we had to climb and claw and cry out and find out why we believe what we believe, because now we know. We are convinced, we are convicted and we can freely share. And I can see that that would even be a pitfall maybe, people from the plain background to fall into. I wear this because Mama wears this. And that's why, you know, things maybe get slowly more immodest because the heart of God is not being maybe sought out there. So that's all I want to share. Thank you. Thank you for sharing with us this morning, sister. God bless you. Brother Tim. My heart is full. I just really appreciate this teaching today. I especially appreciated the emphasis on getting God's heart on this. And as I was just listening to this sister share, another thought kind of popped in my mind and my mind's kind of whirling. I'm hoping I make sense until I'm done. But I saw in that another reason or maybe a different look at the danger that I see in trying to legislate modesty in a church setting. Because I know it is so among people I grew up with. Just like she testified that some of her neighbors say that they are not really sure. They just know what the rules are. And they're not motivated to search out the Word to know how does God want us to live. I think that is exceedingly important for us to remember and not to lose sight of that. That we must dig into God's Word and seek Him to find out where His heart is. What it is that He wants. A few verses that were kind of rolling around in my mind as Brother Dean finished up, I thought applied. And he said, he did say that when we come before the Lord, if we put one thread of this on the altar as part of our righteousness. I'm not sure that's the word he used or not. We're missing it. And I agree. But there's a verse that tells us, he that is righteous does righteousness. Amen. And I thought of another one. One of the things Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount was, he that hungers and thirsts after righteousness shall be filled. And I expect that probably speaking more to being righteous in terms of our standing before the Lord. But to me, how can that not translate into a righteous life, a righteous walk, a doing of righteousness? And another one that gets a little more practical to me, and I look for these verses, because I grew up in a setting where we were just taught the rules of how to do things. And I had a tendency to measure people that way. I wanted to learn what the Word has to say so that I don't measure people just by what I was taught growing up. And that verse is the one that says, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed. And I would just challenge us, when we look in the mirror, what does it look back at us telling us? Are we transformed people? Or are we conformed to the changing styles of the world around us? Are we dressing, doing our hair different than we did two years ago? Has it changed? And is it changing because of what the world is doing different? It gets very real. I just bless God for this. Brother Jeff, I've been sitting here, I know it's late, but I cannot get this scripture out of my head, so I thought I'd just share it with you. Yesterday at Soul Group Leaders' Meeting, Brother Aaron read in 2 Corinthians 8, and he read in verse, we read 1-7, but in verse 5, he was talking about another practical area, which is giving. And he says, And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God. And it kept ringing in my head. They gave their own selves to the Lord first. First and foremost, that is where it was at. And I thought, well, whether it be in giving, or whether it be in what we wear, you know, I was thinking of the word hypocrisy. You know, hypocrisy is pretending to be someone you're not. Give yourselves to the Lord first, and all these things will fall into place. I just wanted to share that. Thank you. And in the back. I appreciate the message very much too, and I want to say amen also. I appreciate that the eyes were lifted to look at the Bible, to the word and to Christ. I can agree with you, Michelle, on the crucifixion of the flesh, when you put the head covering on. My children locked me out of the car. They thought some strange woman was coming. As far, I've got a couple of thoughts. One is a testimony to share with a woman who was once asking me, well, why do you wear that? We think that the hair is the covering, so why do you wear that extra cloth? And I explained to them that if nature teaches us that the woman should have long hair, well, how much more is the kingdom of God over nature? So shouldn't we have something extra on our head because the kingdom of God is more than nature? And just a closing thought. I've tried to think of this in the way that I live my life. As Jesus walked through this world, and that is how we are called to walk, what kind of a wardrobe did he have? Did he have a bunch of changes, or did he just go with what he had? And thank you.