In this sermon, the speaker addresses the topic of godly dress and emphasizes the importance of dressing in a way that pleases God. He acknowledges that discussing this topic may be controversial but believes it is necessary. The speaker uses examples from the Bible, such as John Wesley, to illustrate the importance of being directed towards souls and having a purpose in our appearance. He encourages the audience, particularly young people, to not be swayed by the world's standards but to live and proclaim the gospel without compromise.

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 freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Amen. God bless every one of you again this morning. It's a blessing to be here again with everyone. We're going to try a few things today. I'm going to try to give some slides, and I'm not all that experienced with the audio-visual, so you'll have to bear with me. I hope it doesn't distract. I pray that it adds to it. For those listening on tape, I'll just pray that I'll try to say what we're looking at, in particular, some of these things we're going to look at. But like I said, we're going to be looking at some things during this week that sometimes are a bit controversial, and this is probably one of those. And we're going to be looking at godly attire, godly dress, the way we dress. And so, some of those things, there's going to be two kind of portions to this. This one portion is a lot of teaching. I'm going to look at some practical things, some just specifics of what the Bible says, maybe break down a few words, and look at some of the Greek words behind it. And then I'd kind of like at the end, maybe a little bit more, I don't know, a little more less formal, and look at some of just the way we think about it. So, the biblical principles of godly dress, the beauty of holiness. We're going to turn off the middle light there, Jason has it. So, let's find your seats here. The biblical principles of godly dress, the beauty of holiness. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I come to You today, Lord. Lord, what we truly desire is to be clothed in Your righteousness. Clothed in Your righteousness, Father. But You would put on us robes that are made of Your flesh. Righteousness, Lord. But Father, just like the message that we just heard, dear God, Brother Ross just challenged us with, we want a faith, dear God, that changes every bit of our life. Yes, God, it's my prayer that we don't lay one thread of what I spoke about today, Lord, upon the altar for our own righteousness. But we pray, Lord, that as You impute Your righteousness, You also impart Your holiness to us, Lord. That You change us. Take us away from the world, Father. And make us that holy people that You are jealous for. Dear God, we thank You so much to be able to come here this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The biblical principles of godly dress, the beauty of holiness. 1 Corinthians 6.19 says, What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not of your own. I was talking about the very beginning, and talking about the different influences that I believe all of us are taking. And I asked you yesterday, one of the things I'd like you to look at is, what makes you choose this way or that way? We tend to think that we're all just kind of a blank slate. I'm an individual. I do these things because this is who I am. I think we are a lot less individual than we realize. Let me ask a quick question. How many here have ever preached in an inner city section, like a big city? Who's done some street preaching in the city? Okay, name out of town that you were street preaching at. Omaha? Okay, another one. Chicago. Harrisburg. New York. Okay. Now, have you noticed that when you're there, and let's say you go to the city square, and you're there, and all these different cities represented it. But is it a coincidence that all these guys that are sitting around the city square with their mohawks and their big symbol of anarchy and all this, that they're all dressed just alike? That they're all listening to the same music? That they're all quoting the same rock stars? They all have the same philosophy, but you talk to each and every one of them, and they'll say, well, this is just who I am. I'm an individual. We don't realize how common that very thing is. How common it is. Something is making you decide. And when you decide that you're going to be a rebel, and you decide that you're going to walk around in the city square with a mohawk and an anarchy sign on you, and walk around, it's embarrassing how common you are. It's embarrassing. And so what I'm going to look at today is, we as the church of Jesus Christ, in the broad spectrum, the people, the Christians of this world, have some things that the Bible has shown us that's a beautiful way to look unto God, to be unto God. He's given us some actual things to look at. Now, it's sad when you talk about clothes, the very idea of bringing up clothes. When you talk about it, it brings up all kinds of images. You think of Pharisees with the long phylacteries, and you think of the tassels on the robe. You think of a lot of hypocrisy. Some of you come from backgrounds that you've seen abuses of those things and hypocrisy, and I understand that. So in all this, if there's one thing I would want to stress is consecration. I said this yesterday. I'm going to repeat it today. I want you to be consecrated and not constrained. I don't want you to look at anything I say today. I don't want anyone to get embarrassed. I don't want anybody to come under condemnation unless God's convicting you. I don't want something to be looking around and then start comparing one another. I want us to look at the Bible, but I want you to get these things from the Bible. Instead of sitting under the law of it, I want you to be like a new bride wanting to please her husband on the wedding day. What pleases you, Lord? And that's the attitude here. Not to come under some law. Not to lay against some law. But consecrated. Not constrained. That's my heart. And that's the heart of the message today. To give that idea, do you remember David when he was there and the Philistines in war there around and he saw Bethlehem? And David said, this is in 2 Samuel 23, he said, Oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is at the gate. Then you know the story. The three men rushed through, risked their life, went to the well and said, Okay, we've got some water for David. They came to it and offered it to him. And he looked at all that. I can't drink this. And he poured it out. The Bible tells us in many principles and things that all things are lawful, but not all things edify. Can we remove, when we discuss these things, this thing as being the law or not? Like Brother Ross said, all those things mentioned weren't the law, but they were coming out of a heart that wants to bless the Lord. And if we're going to consecrate something, let's just pour it out. But not look at it in the wrong way. Amen? Amen. Or like I said, when we look at these things, these biblical standards or biblical teachings we have in these things, they bring up a lot of bad memories for a lot of us. Or nowadays in this age, if you talk about anything like this, you're called quickly a legalist. You're called something, these sorts of ideas that you can't have faith if you're going to be talking about issues like that. And we know that as the Scriptures plainly do say, that for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. And the sin of hypocrisy is real. And it's serious. And so we don't want to lose that in this thing. We have to understand that the sin of hypocrisy is a serious sin. And God does look on our heart. And we can look and cover ourselves up with all kinds of things, but inside still be very wicked. But on the other hand, dressing immodestly does not make us righteous either. While it is possible, it is possible, very possible to dress righteously and be wicked on the inside, I'm going to go far to say that it is impossible if you have the light, it is impossible looking at the Word of God to dress immodestly, to dress worldly, and still be righteous on the inside. Let me back that up with a different analogy. We know it's very likely, it's very easy to talk spiritual and still be a hypocrite. Is this right? You can say all kind of amen, praise the Lord, talk the right language, and each of our different groups here represented would have some kind of language or something that's common among you. It's the right vocabulary. And we know that you can do that and still be wicked on the inside. But can you blaspheme God? Can you talk foolish and filthy things, pour out of your mouth, and still be right on the inside? No, there is something there. That yes, the danger is there that when you're looking holy, sounding holy, that there's no change on the inside. But if it's just plain obvious, it's just plain obvious, and you've got to admit it to yourself. It's time to admit it. Okay? Speaking of that, Jesus said, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. God desires holiness inside and out. Inside and out. Peter said, in 1 Peter 1.14, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to this former lust in your ignorance. But as He which hath called you as holy, so be ye holy, in all manner and of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. As we've looked through the church, in the history of the church, it goes through a lot has been done in the name of, well, I'm going to be the Jews to the Jews and the Greeks to the Greeks. We take Paul's understanding of trying to take the Greek culture and conform as much as he could to that. And I think a lot has been done in that to our harm. Because in that, we've tried to kid ourselves and pretend to ourselves that you're trying to reach the lost and you're doing these things. And in this has developed this huge, now Christian culture that is no different than the world. As a matter of fact, there's many things that have now led people of the church off into the world. Music and the way we dress and these things. And the fact is that even Paul, though, just trying to be able to eat with the Gentiles or to sit with the Gentiles, and that was against his custom, to take that in now to immodesty and immorality and to foolishness and things like that, is missing all the rest of what Paul was talking about. So we've hurt ourselves by trying to lean as a cushion on this verse. And I think it's inappropriate that we have. In 1 Corinthians 10.31, Paul gives us this teaching. Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Everything. Yes, the way you eat. Yes, the way you drink. Yes, the way you dress. Yes, the way you talk. The music you listen to. Your conversation. Everything about you must be for the glory of God. You're not yourselves. You're not yourselves. And unfortunately, just as Israel, time and time again, when it started to mingle with the world, we see it over and over in the Scriptures, it fell away by copying those things of Babylon, those things that were surrounding it. There's great deception in the church today concerning almost every area of life. The way we dress, I believe today, is certainly no exception. Traditions of men, culture, and even church standards should all be examined by the light of God's Word. What matters today, young people, is what God wants from me and how He desires me to be. The question I'd like to start off with is how would God dress me? Uh-oh. My first problem here. Alright. If we look at the book of Revelation, we're permitted there to get a glimpse of Heaven. And in these precious glimpses of Heaven, I think they're given to us to give us just a hope. That's what it's going to be like. I can't wait to get there when Stephen got to see Heaven or when Isaiah was opened up to see Heaven, when Ezekiel got to see Heaven. And in Revelation, we get John seeing Heaven. But interesting thing about Heaven. Remember that Heaven was made for one purpose. To give glory to God. That's it. Every day, all day, all the time, to give glory to God. And it's at this place that we have been taught to pray every day, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. We've been taught to pray that. Do we mean it? Thy will just like it is in Heaven. That's what I want on earth. In Heaven, we get a glimpse of a place that Satan, that all the world and all its influences, all its political agendas and men and the flesh and the strivings and everything has no place. It's gone. It's wiped away. And there we get a pure glimpse of what it's all about. How they worship. How they praise God. How they dress. How they eat. How they sing. We get some of those practical things. It's here in Heaven that Jesus says in this place, receiving His expected bride, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that should be holy and without blemish. When He receives us there, the Bible tells us that He will feed us, He will house us, and that He will clothe us. And I appreciate what Ross said yesterday. You know, to our full American society, feeding us seems so... Oh, but when you're poor and you're begging for bread, what will it be like to actually have bread? You know, I believe we're really going to eat in Heaven. I think there's a lot of spiritual meanings there. Yes, but Jesus ate the honey and He ate that fish and there's something there in the resurrected body He did. And so, we get a glimpse of how He does that. To the martyrs, it says in Revelation 6, and white robes were given unto every one of them. Of the great multitude of believers that John witnessed, it said that after this I beheld, and lo! A great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindred, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hand. Jesus Himself is described wearing a very modest garment all the way to His feet, one like the Son of Man clothed with a garment down to His foot. Revelation 1.13 I'm grieved at sometimes at the pictures we see of Jesus. This word robe in Revelation and many other places in Scriptures is for the Greek word stole. It's a loose outer garment usually extending to the feet worn by many people, kings, and of all ranks of people. It's the same article of clothing that we see the prodigal calling for. Bring us the best robe! That's the stole they're mentioned of. It's the beautiful picture when you think of in Heaven, our Heavenly Father running to us and not only clothing us with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, but clothing us, giving us these things just to be before God with. Aggrievedly, I will agree that all of Revelation has a lot of allegorical meanings. And so I don't want to take too much of it and base too much on just these glimpses of Revelation. But I don't want to miss it either. There's something precious there. I don't know for sure what it is, but there's something there just to constantly keep our eyes off of our world and on Heaven. And so I didn't want to lose Revelation. But I do think we need to look at some other things too. Other Scriptures. So the question I have to ask you is what does God call immodesty and nakedness? Sometimes these talks about clothing, sometimes when we get together and we mention clothing and we talk about this and that, we miss a very important point. The point actually is not the clothes. The point is the nakedness which the clothes cover up. That's the point. We can focus on the clothes. We can focus on having this, this color, and this and all this, and all along being very exposed to all kinds of nakedness in catalogs or the Internet or with books or as our eyes wonder here and there. And yet having ourselves saying that we're modestly clothed. So we miss the point, I think, if we don't understand what exactly is God calling nakedness which is what He wants covered up. And it's shocking to see. We see a shocking example here in Genesis chapter 9, verse 22. You remember the story. This is after the flood. Noah is planting some vineyards. And there he's planting some vineyards. He ends up making some wine and he gets drunk. He falls asleep and he falls asleep with no clothes on. And the way the Bible speaks about what happens in this situation frankly scares me to death. Think about what you've been exposed to. What you've seen in your eyes. What's full of your head. And listen to the way it's spoken of here in Genesis chapter 9, verse 22. Speaking of there, it says, And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers without, went outside. Hey, guess what I saw? Talking about his father there. Talking about the shame of his father there. And Sham and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon their shoulders and went backwards and covered the nakedness of their father and their faces were backwards and they saw not their father's nakedness. That's how seriously they took it. You know, the world thinks nakedness is funny. Hey, guess what I saw? Laugh about it. Movies and the magazines and everything. God did not think it was funny. He did not. And he ends up cursing Ham's children, the Canaan. The Canaanites. And he blessed the others for their shunning. Guys, can I especially speak to the guys, can everybody do this right now? Every man, every young man, do this. Right now. You've got to learn to do that. Shunning what is wrong. Oh, we don't want to do that. You've got to do this. Ladies, there's awful things in your life. All the fashion and things that want to come to you. Do this. Learn to shun what is evil. Shun what is evil. And that's the spirit that we see from Ham's other brothers. I'm not even going to look at this thing. I'm going to be strange with how I go out of my way not to look at this. Another example here that we see is the way that God speaks of the Babylonish women here. It says here, and it's speaking of a prophecy, He says, This is in Isaiah 47. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered. Yea, thy shame shall be seen. I will take vengeance and I will not meet thee as a man. This is a notable prophecy about what God is calling nakedness. He goes on and states, Uncover thy locks. Make bare thy legs. The leg. Uncover the thigh. Pass over the rivers. The woman described here is described as being shamed by having her head uncovered and her legs showing all the way up to the thighs. What the modern world, the modern age would consider acceptable attire. God calls nakedness. Nakedness. Again, see how we can focus on the clothe. We're missing the point. God's calling it nakedness. The other obvious example there that comes. Sorry. The other obvious example comes from here, the story there in Genesis. The story in Genesis, we have Adam and Eve. You know the story clearly. Adam and Eve took upon that sin and when they took upon that sin, the Bible says that their eyes were opened and they realized that they were naked. They realized that they were naked. So, just like the world, what did Adam and Eve do in their fallen state? I know what we'll do. We'll make for ourselves a little fig leaf apron. A little fig leaf. And what that thing did is covered some of the essential things that this American society, world society thinks are essential. But it's interesting, when God looked upon them, He said to them, and He said that He clothed them and He made them, in the same word in Hebrew, robes. He made them out of the skins. He made the entire tunic to cover them. And then He said He clothed them. Again, what they considered appropriate clothing in their fallen nature, in their benighted state, God called nakedness. And that's a very... There's something there. Oh, we think it's okay. I've got my shorts on. I've got my top on. I'm covered. It's nakedness. You see? It's not just about the clothes. It's serious here. It's serious. What does the Bible specifically say about the clothing? And Deuteronomy 22, verse 5, God puts some very practical things. He says this, 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. If you notice when you read through the law, when you're reading through the law, God calls lots of things sin. But to reserve some things as heinous crimes against God, like bestiality, homosexuality, He reserves the word abomination. And it's this very thing that God is reserving to call a woman dressing like a man and a man dressing like a woman abomination. Abomination. That's the heart of God. That's what He's saying about this thing. Abomination. The practice of unisex clothing, styles and cross-dressing that are specifically mentioned here in our life, in our age, according to the Bible, is one of these abominations. The feminine styles of the modern man and the very increasing masculinity of the contemporary woman find no place in the word of God. And although the subtleties of unisex corruption can be seen creeping into all areas of our attire, nowhere is it more obvious than the woman's dress. For 6,000 years of human history, the woman has been wearing dresses. They have been. And it's not only until the last hundred years that this has even ever been challenged. But still today, as far as Satan, as far as this world wants to take away this timeless, timeless icon of what a woman is and a man is, you can't take it away. Go anywhere. It's there. Go anywhere. It is the whole world sees it as appropriate and knows that this is what a woman looks like and this is what a man looks like. It's common sense. While we try to change it, we do try to change it, but it's common sense. As we look at this, some has reasoned that in biblical times, I'm sorry for those listening to a tape, what I showed here was a picture of a restroom. A man on the one side and a woman on the other. And the universal icon of the man and the woman is the man and woman wearing the dress and the man wearing pants. And it's just timeless. It's absolutely timeless. Some have reasoned that in biblical times there was not such distinction between men and women's dress. It's basically the same. And I think though that the commandment itself should prove otherwise. But nonetheless, if we read that, we'll see that there are actually differences in the way that the men's attire was made, even in the Hebrew times, and then there in the women's. It's actually mentioned that under those robes or the tunics that the men wore, they were instructed to wear what's called the breeches in the King James. You can find this in Exodus 28 and 39, Leviticus 6, 16, and Judges 5. They're speaking of as wearing this breeches. And these were pants, little short pants, that went from here down to here and they wore them under their robes, a second or third layer, under their robe, so that when they were doing work, they could take their robes, put it up through here, and put it on there, and gird up the loins, as they would say there in the scriptures, and then be able to do their work with the sort of trousers that this thing would make. There's nowhere in scripture that women are ever instructed to wear those pants. There's nowhere. Interesting, even when you go all through history, and looking at medieval times, even further into medieval times, there's no mention of a woman wearing those things, but those men where those briars and things like that, that they were called later on, have always wore these types of little trouser things underneath these in a very modest apparel. And that's the distinction there. That's the distinction that we do see in the scriptures. Again, we see the idea of their girding up of the loins that we see there in scriptures, and that idea of going to work and the men going to work in that. Those distinctions of men and women can also be seen as far as what's spoken of here in Corinthians chapter 11. In Corinthians chapter 11, we get a glimpse also of something of how the women were to dress themselves. It's interesting how Paul talks about it in Corinthians chapter 11. He talks about hair. He talks about a head covering. And he mentions these things as being different between man and different from woman. And he talks about these things. Obviously, you could speak a whole week on some of these subjects, and I'm just giving you these practical, these biblical things, and then you can take them, pray about them, and look at them in your life. I'm going to read to you these from Corinthians chapter 11. It says there, in Corinthians chapter 11, verse 4, Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesied with her head uncovered, dishonoreth her head. For that is even all one as she has been shaving. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For man is indeed ought not to cover his head, for as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Either was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have... don't miss this one... power on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so the man also by the woman, but all things of God. Judging yourselves, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering. But if a man seem to be contentious, if he disagree with these things, there's no such custom of taking off your head covering. Now, a lot of interpretation these days are said about these passages. A lot of interpretation. I don't have time to go into every one of them, but just leaving you with the very plain and simple words that the Bible says that it is a shame for a woman to pray without her head covered and for a man to have his head covered. Some people have argued that the hair is the covering. He says there, and he gives the analogy of nature. He's saying, don't you see how nature even covers women? That it's how they have this natural covering. Some people have taken Paul's analogy and said that that hair was the covering. Some people have gone as far as to say that the husband is that covering. I don't really see how either one of those fit in Scripture, and I'm just going to show you real quick and then we're going to go on. It says here in verse 5, the first the principle, and then later on the analogy, the example. In verse 5 he says, or verse 6, for if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for her woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. Well, let's then take that principle. Okay, the whole thing he's talking about is the hair. All right, let's plug that in here. For if the woman be having short hair, let her also have short hair. But if it be a shame for her woman to have short hair, then let her have long hair. It doesn't make sense. If the same plying, if he tries to say this is the husband and try to apply it back there, it's nonsense. So, a lot of times I realize that this doctrine is very difficult. It's hard in this age. Ladies, but let me tell you, that Scripture talks about a power. There's a power there. In the testimonies that I've heard, and I don't want you to do this under constraint, I don't want you to do this under some kind of law, but I'm telling you, you're missing a blessing. You're missing a blessing. There's a power there. And in this world, with all its reasons it does this and that, have a young lady that goes against this world and says, I'm not going that way, is a blessing in this age. Is a blessing in this age. So, amen. I wanted to just touch on that. We also touched then on, here's a catacomb picture from the early church. Interestingly, some people try to get a lot of Greek understanding. Well, this meant here and this meant there. In the Zodiac Study Bible, it mentions some way to try to explain around it. In the early church, they spoke ancient Greek and they lived in ancient Greece and they talk about it. Tertullian mentions that he wanted to understand what was called a woman. So, he actually goes back to Corinth and talks to the church there at Corinth to understand what the head covering is. Here's some pictures from Letter Be Veiled. Also, some catacomb pictures if you see the ladies praying there with the covering over their head. It's just the way the early church did it. As a matter of fact, it's the way the churches have done, again, for thousands of years up until this recent time. And now, this recent time, the liberations and all the humanism and all these things that people are making you feel that you're somehow less of a woman for having this gift and now it's falling by the wayside. It's no surprise. What I showed here on a picture was catacomb pictures of ladies with head coverings on and also some very godly dress that I might mention as well. Well, there's even more light in the New Testament. Like many of the New Testament teachings of modest dress is built upon Old Testament principles with further explanations and guidelines in the New Testament. Speaking in 1 Peter 3, Peter says this, while speaking of the husband and wife relationship, and again, he is getting to the heart of the woman here, but if you ring it out, you can get a little bit of his heart to the woman. He says this, whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plating the hair and of wearing of gold and of 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 in the sight of God is a great price. For after this manner in the old times, the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection with their own husband. The focus there on that one is focusing on the heart and just that reverent, meek, and quiet young lady who wants to worship God and not just get caught up in all these things of the world. That's the spirit. That's the emphasis that Peter is getting there. I don't know how more clearly it could be said, let it not be the outward adorning. You know what the new American standard added to that? Some of you may have that. They added the word merely. It says your adornment must not be merely external. If you have that, you'll see that merely is italicized, which means somebody added that. It's too bad. Okay. But perhaps the clearest teaching on modest dress comes from the letter of Timothy. In that passage, some very specific words are used which give us a reliable guideline to know how God wants us to dress. Rightly dividing this passage and looking at each word in the Greek meaning is going to be some enlightening for us. Let's turn to that Scripture. 1 Timothy 2.9 We're going to break that down. 1 Timothy 2.9 He's giving advice for different things. Different warnings for people in the church. And now he's coming down to this dress. About dress. Yes, the Bible, Paul, who understands more than anyone what a faith without being constrained by the law is, Paul understands that, still has teachings led by the Holy Ghost on the way we dress. He says, "...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." Let's look at each of those words. First of all, adorn. In modest apparel. Adorn and modest, from the Greek word cosmo, cosimo and cosmos. Cosmios. These words both portray the idea of putting things in order. It's how we get a, the cosmos, the idea of the universe and the order of the universe is there. This word is the same origin of that word. And you know, oftentimes, we in our Christian life, especially you, maybe you come from different backgrounds and everything, is when you come to the faith, you sometimes are very turned off by the stuffiness and hypocrisy that you've seen in the church. And somehow it makes you feel sort of spiritual to be as sloppy as you possibly can. I was there. I was there. You feel kind of more spiritual if you have holes in your jeans and everything, and you think that's being holy. You feel that you have your shirt untucked, you want to look kind of scruffy, and you're all scruffy and everything, and it kind of makes you feel a little more spiritual. And there's reasons for that because you're turning away from something that just disgusted you. A bunch of hypocrisy, a bunch of fakers, a bunch of those things. You want to say, I love Jesus and I don't care about all that. But there's a snare there. And this principle here gives us something. That God desires us to be orderly. He desires us to be in harmony. And this word helps us with that. To adorn modestly. Cosmos. Modestly. In order. In order. The next word is a very interesting word. The word is katastole. The katastole comes from a Greek word translated here for the word apparel. And it's a very specific word, something. And the word is katastole. The word literally broken down into two words. Kata, meaning down, and stelo, meaning to sin. Kata, meaning to sin. Used together in this context, the word was used for the garment knowing that time to be flowing down. In other words, it was a flowing, loose garment. The katastole. And in this, it provided over the stole, this was the katastole, it was an extra layer that was there over that to conceal the body in that way. An interesting commentator, Adam Clark, speaks on this specifically. And he has some interesting words to say about it. He was a 19th century holiness commentator. I recommend him looking at some of the things. He gives a nice perspective to many things. And Adam Clark says this about it. He says that during that time, that during the time of ancient Greeks, some of the women wore clothes in such a way the dress would open up from the bottom as to reveal their legs. And it was a Greek word that meant discoverers of the thigh. The katastole style of dress mentioned here would have reprimanded this style of dress. Clark further went on to say about the katastole, he said a more modest and becoming dress in the Grecian was never invented. It was and is in good, in a great measure revived in England about the year 1805. And in it, simplicity, sorry, simplicity, decency, and elegance were united. But it soon gave place to another mode in which frippery and nonsense once more prevail. You get that out of Clark sometimes. So we look at this as a modest dress. And I, I bless, I'm not saying it has to be this, but I am very blessed by the, what I've seen is I've grown to appreciate here is very modest, double layered clothes like the Cape dress. I see some modest jumpers and things like this, but it gives that style of that covering that layer, that loose things, and it's a blessing. Again, I'm not trying to send you home with some patterns to make everybody look exactly the same. That's not my heart. But I don't want you to miss this beautiful principle of something that we have here in the Word of God. Another word about your dress. Men, keep this, hold this too. Shamefacedness. That word alone, that word alone rebukes about every single thing coming out of modern America, this modern world. Is your dress shamefaced? Shamefacedness comes from this Greek word, aidos. This lost word portrays a sense of shame and honor, modesty, bashfulness, reverence, regard for others, and respect. In Paul's day, and our day too, the katastole sometimes could have been taken. Yes, you had a baggy, you had your baggy thing, you had your double layer, you had this whatever. But sometimes even those things can get pretty automated. And we can see also, especially here in our county, I don't know where you're from, but even the plain dress sometimes can get pretty fancy. You know what I mean? And so this is another check to us. Is your apparel shamefaced? Men, when you put on something, is it to attract attention, or does it have the subdued appearance of being shamefaced? Shamefaced. Another word... Oh, I see, that's why he moved that up here. Another word, sobriety, he tells us. Sobriety is another challenging word. I didn't make this stuff up. This is the Word of God. This is not biblical standards from Lancaster County. This is not some radical Christian thing here. This is the Word of God. He's the one saying these things. Sobriety. Shamefacedness. Sobriety is another challenging word coming from the Greek word, sophrosyme. It means soundness of mind, self-control, sobriety. Vine's Bible dictionary states this about it. It is that habitual inner self-government with its constraint, constant reign on all the passions and desires which would hinder the temptations to these from arising. Sober. Sober. Not a popular word in the church today. Sober. It's that very word that the older ladies are to instruct the younger ladies to be sober. Can we do that today? Sober. It's something. It's part of the Word of God. Sober. The next one, gold, pearls, and costly array. You know, it seems, guess what gold, pearls, and costly array mean in Greek? Gold, pearls, and costly array. Which one of these words do you not understand? Gold is gold. Pearls is pearls. Fancy stuff is fancy stuff. You don't need a lexicon to figure it out. It's right there. It's very easy to see. Again, this isn't some made-up biblical standard. It's the Word of God. Gold, pearls, and costly array. It would seem that these words would need no further explanation. Nevertheless, today, there's all kinds of things that go on and just an absolute ignoring of this, and I don't understand it. And you know, what tends to happen here, especially if you're new to some of these teachings, you start to get, okay, but he had this and he had that. What about this? I see inconsistencies here, and I see this, and we judge ourselves among ourselves, and we become fools. Let me remind you, we're not making this stuff up. If we fall behind on some of these standards, it's our fault. You're still judged by the Word of God. So if you think that my copper belt buckle, you say, I see an inconsistency, I'm sorry, but ask yourself, okay, go deeper. How can I apply this to my life? And free yourself from the judging yourselves among yourselves. Now, this very idea of these things, the wearing of gold, pearls, and costly jewelry, and wearing expensive looking clothing is simply against the Word of God. Menel Simons has an interesting quote on this. Guys, listen to this. Menel Simons says this. They say they believe, and yet, there are no bounds to their foolish pomp, show of silk, 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 then should men abstain from it who are leaders and heads of their women? Yes, what about the men? Although most of these prohibitions speaking here explicitly are missing of the woman's dress, it would be pretentious for us men to think that these things don't apply to us also. You know, the very idea of having just a one garment on and one kind of thing, in the biblical days, the way I read it, is nakedness. Do you remember Peter when he was in the boat and he was out there fishing and working? And I'm sure you know when we're out on the workforce sometimes you do kind of have to get tore up a little bit and that's okay. But when it came time to come back in public and Peter saw Jesus and he was there in the boat jumping in the water, today everybody would strip down to nothing. What did Peter do? He put on his coat. And it says here in John 21, verse 7, Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he gird his fisher's coat unto him, for he was naked, he had apparently not appropriate clothing to which he thought appropriate, and did cast himself into the sea, praise God, with a coat on, making sure he was modest there. And same thing in Exodus 28, that one about the breaches, the one in Exodus 28 says, And they shall make them linen breaches to cover their nakedness. From the loins even into the thighs they shall reach. That's under the stole. And he wanted that because when they went up the stairs, if they went up the big stairs, if there happened to be somebody down there, remember, the real issue is the nakedness, that God wanted to make sure there was no way that somebody could look up these men's robes while they're there worshiping God. Oh, what carefulness. What carefulness they took. What carefulness. You know, it's embarrassing. When you see men, and here in this county, I'm afraid it's common, you're at Walmart, and you see this guy, this tight t-shirt on, and tight jeans, and his tennis shoes, and he's bebopping around there at Walmart, and his wife is next to him with this full black cape and robe and all this type of thing she's covered from head to toe. And the world looks at that and says, hmm, inconsistent. Inconsistent. We're meant to be leaders, men. Leaders. Are we going to let our ladies lead us in modesty? Lead. Lead the home. Lead the way. Don't put your wives and everything looking all decked up. What do they say about the Islam? They all talk about how they're all scattered behind and here's the men all walking around while the women can't even see hardly. We need to lead in this as well as everything else. Now, those are some of the principles of this biblical dress, but there's something I want to show you now, a different section of this little talk. The point that I want to get to here is that I am very concerned in this age that this world in all its lies and hypocrisy that the church of Jesus Christ is in a horrible state. I am burdened by it. And I look across here over 600 young people and I'm excited. Godly people that want to serve the Lord and want to praise Him and to give glory to God. Pure young ladies and pure young men. But the world is going to try to trap at you and make you think that these things are going too far and you try to get balanced with this and you're going to be friendship with the world and all these types of things and you don't say anything. You've got no message for the world and all you're saying is that the world is okay. I want to show you some examples of what I mean. In the old days, when John Wesley began to preach, he preached with an attitude. He went out there and he preached the Word of God. He had no problems condemning their sin and people's lives were changed. They were changed. And sometimes they were trying to throw things at them. Here's someone trying to stop them from saying that. Quit that! Grabbing their children, doing all these types of things. They went out with a determined direction in their life. And it was every part of their life. Every part of their life. But somehow, they lost their vision. Sometimes, somehow they thought we're a little too excessive and so we're going to begin to die down our way a little bit. And so, they started to be inclusive. Here's a modern church sign. A loving, inclusive church home. I don't know if you're aware of what that's really meaning. That meaning is inclusive there. To put it on your church sign means we're not going to change you. We're going to have you. You just come in just like you are. You come in here and it will be okay. That which started here somehow got here. And then, gets here. Here's a woman preaching. A bishop of the Methodist church preaching for the rights of homosexuals. Somehow, that to here, to here. Oh, we think we can get things so balanced. We think we can... Oh, I'm going to not be too excessive here. It's time to be directed. It's time to say we believe what we believe. We're not ashamed of what we believe. And we're going to go forward and proclaim it without compromise. Let me give you another one. Look at his face, please. Look at it. Look what he's wearing. It's a bit silly, isn't it? For an old man. A big uniform that's probably red. Who is he? William Booth. Will you please look at his face? He's not laughing. He doesn't think it's funny. He's serious. And he wants souls. He's serious with a mission. He's serious with his determination. And yes, I will admit right now there's many things I would disagree with him. But I want you to miss this point. He's directed over souls. Directed. Here he is with his wife. You see? This is how he decided his pictures are going to be taken. These are the ones that we have memories of. He's not thinking, just getting in with all the laughing and all the foolishness of this world. And there he again is wearing these foolish... The world would see, you know. William, you're an old man. You're wearing a uniform. This uniform. Why? Because I've got a purpose. I've got a purpose. His wife. Same way. Showing an example there out on the streets of what she was. Here they are as one of their early campaigns and showing how the women, different way the women would be. I would say that would meet Paul's standards pretty nice. Wouldn't you? Wouldn't you? As a well-covered woman. And even covering over those that she's helping there. Defiance. I just noticed this this morning. Down here. It says, On the War Path. Sorry. And those listening to tapes, I'm sorry. What I have showed here. First I showed a picture of John Wesley. Then I showed how it deteriorated into a picture of a woman bishop preaching for homosexuality. I then showed pictures of William Booth. And then showing how they had just a determination to go forward and the way the look on their face and their dress. Here we're showing a picture of a man beating a bass drum going into town preaching the gospel. Down there it says, On the War Path. On the War Path. Now, I don't really agree with going downtown beating a bass drum. But hey, I don't want to miss something here. That's ridiculous. Come on. It's ridiculous going downtown beating a bass drum. But he didn't care. He didn't care. He's on the War Path and he's there and he's proclaiming the gospel and he doesn't care how he looks. He's there. He's there. And somewhere, these people, that directed, lost something. That's where they are today. You think of the Salvation Army? You think of people standing in front of Walmart ringing a bell. Ringing a bell. Somewhere we lost something. Somewhere. And this one's going to break your heart. That's a giveaway of a sports car, a red sports car. And this is a, I'm showing a picture of a stuffed bell or one of those, I don't know what you call it, character, somebody's in there waving at people and they're going to give away, I guess, a sports car and walk around in a stuffed bell. But it came a long way. What went wrong? What went wrong? Does that not send chills down your back? Look at it. That's the Salvation Army? You know, let me let you on a little secret, young people. When we go out into the world, there's a temptation for us to be more concerned about the world liking you than you getting them converted. Many times we get talking in the bus afterwards and say, you know, I think he really appreciated us. I think he accepted us. We have the same tendency wherever we go. Like, I think they understand me a little bit and we seem happy that people understand us or they're not offended by us. It's time to offend. And you need to be so directed that you don't apologize for what you're doing. In our circles, we're so tempted to apologize what we're doing. Well, I dress this way but it doesn't mean anything. Oh, this head thing, it's just a little thing we do. Don't worry about that. Anyway, can we talk about something else? It's time if you believe what you believe to believe it without compromise and do it. And let me let you into a little secret. Let me let you on a little secret. And I don't use this kind of language. I don't use this common type of language for a purpose and for the same reason of things I've been telling you. But if I could speak in the vernacular a little bit in a common language, let me tell you, let you on a little secret, young people. Young people, there is nothing more square than a conservative Christian trying to be hip. I'm sorry. There is nothing more square. And you think you're going to go in there and untuck your shirt when you're downtown and you're going to learn all the handshakes and all this and oh, they're going to open up to the Gospel. They're going to look at you and say, yeah. And you think you're being hip. You think you're being cool because you're strutting this way and wearing this thing. You put on a Hawaiian shirt because you think all this. Don't you realize that's not what they need? That's not what they need. They want to see something different. This world is going further and further and further. And what they need out there is this. They need to see someone that can look at them. Sorry. That picture of William Booth. They need to see someone who's serious. Who when they go through all their foolish things and rant and raving about all this, you look at them right in the eye and you ask them about their soul. There's nothing more square than you trying to act cool in this. You're not going to do it unless you're a drug addict, unless you go their way until they finally got you into them. Then they've got you. I remember I went down with the Lancaster Street thing once and I was there. It took me by surprise. I went in there and all of a sudden somebody started shaking my hand and going to all these things. Well, because of my old life, you know, I went into all this and did all this foolish stuff and I went, what have I done? What have I done? You know what I mean? They need to see I don't care about your soul and the life that you're living, the foolishness, the way of this world is wrong. So we have something. You have something to offer this world. You have something of determination, of commitment and something that's there. Don't be ashamed of it today. I remember just some of the basic principles of what the Bible says about dress. Don't be ashamed of it. Proclaim it. Don't come under the law. Get your bass drum out and start banging it and go in downtown to preach the Gospel. I'll leave you with one more analogy. Brother Andrew, in his book called The Calling, I think it is, mentions a time there. He's in England and he saw one of these guys with a sandwich sign. And he said he was kind of questioning his methods, but he was out there and he had this big sandwich sign that said, I'm a fool for God. And he said in his book, he said, yes, people all agreed with him, you certainly are a fool for God. He said, but then when you went to the back, when you went to the back, it said on the back, who's fool are you? Who's fool are you? You're either a fool for God, you're a fool for yourself, you're a fool for the world. Just sell out for God. Sell out today. Don't be ashamed of these things. Just proclaim it and live the Gospel and preach the Gospel to this world without compromise. Amen. God receive the glory.