chapter 20 here of Isaiah, just a very short little chapter, it's a very different chapter,
it's really an interesting chapter. Let me just give you the synopsis of the chapter real quick
before I get to the sermon and I can just explain what's going on. It says verse number one of
Isaiah 20, in the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him
and fought against Ashdod and took him. At the same time spake the Lord by Isaiah the son of
Amos and I'll get into what he told him but to let you know who Tartan is, Tartan and Sargon is
the general or I'm sorry the king who's sending him. These are the Assyrians, these are mortal
enemies of Judah, these are enemies of Israel, they've already taken the northern kingdom of the
10 tribes of Israel captive okay and they're basically taking over much of that part of the
world. They're invading all these different places and the Bible says in verse one in the year that
Tartan came unto Ashdod so now they've invaded Ashdod. Well Ashdod is right on the coast of the
Mediterranean Sea in the land of the Philistines. Remember the five lords of the Philistines? One
of them is Ashdod. So this is right near the children of Israel, this is right in the same area
as the southern kingdom of Judah which has not yet been invaded, which has not yet been violated. Now
Tartan the captain of the host who was sent by Sargon has invaded Ashdod right near them.
And basically Ashdod the land of the Philistines is also getting him closer to Egypt and Ethiopia
which are going to be mentioned a little bit later. Now the children of Judah they're afraid
of the king of Assyria, they're afraid that they're going to be next to getting invaded and
attacked. And it says in verse two at the same time, so just to give you the context of what's
going on, at the same time spake the Lord by Isaiah the son of Amoz saying go and loose the
sackcloth from off thy loins and put off thy shoe from thy foot and he did so walking naked
and barefoot and the Lord said like is my sword Isaiah had walked naked and barefoot three years
for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian
prisoners and the Ethiopian captives young and old naked and barefoot even with their buttocks
uncovered in the shame of Egypt. So Isaiah here is told by God to basically remove his clothing
to remove the sackcloth that he was wearing take off his shoes to be naked and barefoot and this
was to be a sign or to signify the fact that Egypt and Ethiopia were going to be defeated by the king
of Assyria and that they would be led away as captives they would be led through the land naked
and barefoot. And then it says in verse five they shall be afraid and ashamed of
Ethiopia their expectation and of Egypt their glory. What does he mean their expectation?
Because at this time the tomb of Judah instead of relying upon God to deliver them instead of
calling out to the Lord and saying God we see the king of Assyria he's taken over the wicked
northern kingdom that had turned away from you and served other gods he's taken over Ashtad which has
always been serving other gods and been wicked we see that he's heading toward Egypt oh God would
you please deliver us because we're called by your name because we believe the bible because we're
trusting in you our faith is in you God can protect him here God can deliver him he always had
when they did what was right he protected them. But instead they were going down and if you you
know you read the whole book of Isaiah and study that they were basically leaning upon the king of
Egypt to save them instead of trusting in God they were trying to make alliances with Egypt
and give money to Egypt to somehow protect them and they were relying on and God kept on don't
rely on Egypt don't put your faith in Egypt to protect you trust me to deliver you call upon me
you don't need to be yoked up with Egypt I can take care of you just fine. So God's explaining
to them that Egypt the one that you think is going to save you because Egypt was a very powerful
nation the one that you think is going to come to your aid and deliver you and the one that you
have this treaty with that's going to protect you he said you're going to be pretty ashamed of that
alliance you're going to realize how weak of a protector Egypt is when you see the Egyptians
and the Ethiopians another mighty nation just right near Egypt there he said when you see them
marching naked and barefoot in captivity now look what could be more humiliating think about it
than being marched around in a group naked I mean that's humiliating right if you're a taken
prisoner taken captive and you're just shamefully led away naked and he said when they look at that
it says verse six the inhabitant of this aisle shall say in that day behold such is our expectation
whether we plead for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria he said in that day you're
going to look upon those captives and say this is who we're relying on this is who's going to
protect us this is who's going to save us and he says uh you know our help we flee for help to be
delivered from the king of Assyria and how shall we escape we're doomed that's what they're going
to say and so God is trying to send a real strong message in this chapter that they need to not rely
upon man's help not yoke up with the king of Egypt but rather trusted him to protect them now
but let's just talk about this chapter it's an interesting chapter because
uh you wonder sometimes why are chapters like this in the bible you know what in the world is
God telling Isaiah to basically remove his clothes and to preach naked now that's a very strange
thing and who thinks that that's a little bit odd you know the whole obviously your hands not up you
know I don't know what to say it's a very strange chapter but wait a minute the bible says that all
scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction
for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect really furnished into all good
works and so I'm going to bring out some important doctrine and some important truth from this
chapter that we can apply to our lives today that we need today in our churches and so forth but
first of all let me show you this in verse number four look at Isaiah 24 it says so shall the king
of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners and the Ethiopian's captives young and old naked and
barefoot even with their buttocks uncovered to the what shame of Egypt so the first thing I want you
to see is that the nakedness in this chapter is not a positive thing this is not a fun thing or a
glorified thing it's a very shameful negative humiliating thing is what we see in this chapter
and that's the whole point of why God had Isaiah stripped down naked why he's explaining how
foolish it is to trust in this army who's going to be humiliated in such an extreme way
now all throughout the bible nakedness and shame those two things are associated together
go if you would in your bible to uh let's have you turn to first timothy chapter two and while
you're turning to first timothy chapter two let me read you some other scriptures just to show you
this correlation now the first time nakedness is ever mentioned in the bible is actually in
the garden of eden with adam and the bible says in genesis 225 and they were both naked the man
and his wife and were not ashamed so the one time in the bible that we see where nakedness is not
ashamed is when it's a man and his wife and it says that the man and his wife they were both
named and they were not ashamed because of course that is completely appropriate that is completely
right in the sight of god the bible says marriage is honorable and all and the bed undefiled but
foremongers and adulterers god will judge so there are things that go on in the context of marriage
that should not go on outside the context of marriage and nakedness is one of those things
and so we see that the bed is undefiled but foremongers and adulterers god will judge
but but from there on out we see over and over again nakedness being associated with shame let
me just read some of those people exodus 32 25 says this and when moses saw that the people
were naked for aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies so so far we've
seen it in isaiah 20 we've seen it in exodus 32 we've seen in genesis 2 that they were not ashamed
because they were married isaiah 4 to 7 3 says this thy nakedness shall be uncovered
yea thy shame shall be seen i will take vengeance and i will not meet you as a man mica 1 11 says
this pass ye away thou inhabitant of safer having thy shame naked the inhabitant of zenan shall not
come forth in the morning of beth easel he shall receive with you his standing nay hum three five
behold i am against thee saith the lord of hosts and i will discover thy skirts upon my face listen
and i will show the nations by nakedness and the kingdoms by shame so do you see the association
here between nakedness and shame look if you would at first timothy chapter 2 verse 9 the bible says
and like men are also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shame-facedness and sobriety
not with broided hair or golden pearls or costly array but which become of women professing
godliness with good work so notice that word shame-facedness he says women should be adored
in modest apparel with shame-facedness and sobriety what does that mean well because of
the fact that when you're naked you're supposed to be ashamed of that not just openly displaying
your nakedness and so he's saying that uh shame-facedness there would be a woman who is
ashamed of showing off her nakedness in public so she's properly clothed she's not drawing attention
to her her nude body she's clothed she's wearing modest apparel she's wearing modest clothing
not ashamed but you see if someone were to actually go down the street nude you'd say that
is a shameless person if they if they were not ashamed to do that god is saying we should not
be shameless we should have shame-facedness and sobriety the bible talks about in the book of
ezekiel he says were they ashamed at all when they had committed abomination
he says no they were not ashamed neither could they blush and he says that over and over again
in the bible you see there ought to be a certain decency about us to where and especially among
ladies where they would be ashamed to talk about certain things or do certain things publicly and
that when a subject were brought up that were indecent they would blush and the bible says that
people get to a point where they commit abomination and they don't even blush about it
they don't even black that hot and god is saying here that ladies need to have shame-facedness and
sobriety and not just be shameless in their in their speech and their clothing and just talk
about whatever you know we need to have some decency and modesty and chastity as the bible said
uh discretion being discreet chased and so forth look at revelation chapter three revelation
number three while you're turning to revelation three i'll read for you revelation 1650
behold i come as a thief blessed is he that watches and keepeth his garments garments or
clothing of course lest he walk naked and they see his shame so we see in revelation 16 that
you know nakedness is again associated with shame i think i've got about seven eight verses here
that make that correlation between nakedness and shame so it's a shameful thing look at revelation
three i counsel thee verse 18 sorry revelation 318 i counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the
fire that thou mayest be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame
of thy nakedness do not appear you see the shame of thy nakedness and anoint thine eyes with eye
cell that thou mayest see so we see very clearly over and over again in the bible that nakedness
is associated with shame and that's what god was trying to make a point of in isaiah chapter 20
not a glorifying of nakedness in isaiah 20 but rather a humiliating shameful thing that god asked
isaiah to do prophesying about something shameful and humiliating that was coming upon the egyptians
and the eugeneity now let me say this if you back up just a little bit in the verse look at
revelation 315 it says i know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot i would thou
work cold or hot so then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot i will spew thee out of
my mouth because thou sayest i am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing
and watch this and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and
naked and then he says hey i counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest
be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness
did not appear let me ask you this had they yet bought that clothing to cover their nakedness
according to this chapter he's saying no you need to go buy gold so that you can really be
rich and it's the gold tried to fire he's not talking about physical gold obviously
he's talking about you know spiritual laying up your treasures in heaven and he says to them you
know you need to buy white raiment and be clothed with white raiment that the shame of thy nakedness
do not appear now in the previous verse he said that thou knowest not that thou aren't wretched
and miserable and poor and binding so what he's saying is you don't know that you're naked you
don't realize that you're naked and i'm telling you you need to put some clothes on now i think
that there are a lot of people today who are naked without even knowing it yeah did you hear
me they are naked today and they don't even realize that they're naked and it makes god
angry in fact he said he wants to grow up when he sees people who think i'm enriched i'm increased
with guns i need nothing and they know not that they're wretched and miserable and poor and blind
and naked he says put some clothes on get some real money in your account not this paper federal
reserve knows stuff but he says actually uh treasures in heaven not gold that's going to
be painting the streets in heaven but rather the real the true riches as jesus christ called it
and so we see here that there are people that think that they're clothed but they're not
now here's why uh go to uh isaiah chapter 47 if you would i'll read for you from exodus
chapter 28 now in exodus 28 this is the law of moses where he's explaining to the priest what
they're supposed to wear and he lays out just all the different garments that they're supposed to
put on and in exodus 28 42 it says and thou shalt make them linen britches to cover their nakedness
from the loins even under the thighs they shall reach so god's telling the priest that they need
to wear linen britches britches is just another word for pants my dear people say they're too
big for their britches so he tells him he needs to wear linen britches to cover his nakedness and
then he says here's how long they need to be in order to cover their nakedness he says from the
loins even onto the thighs they shall reach okay now obviously the loins is in the area around the
lap you know that's all i'm gonna say and then the thighs we know what our thighs are okay and he
says from the loins to the thighs now he doesn't mean right up to the thighs okay because he
doesn't mean right up to the loins because then there'd be nothing on because guess what your
loins and your thighs adjoin one another so he means inclusively he's saying if your nakedness
is going to be covered you need to have your loins covered and your thighs covered he says
that's how long those pants need to reach in order to cover your nakedness exodus 28 42 they need to
reach from the loins to the thighs if they're going to cover your nakedness now look down
in your bible in isaiah uh chapter number 47 verse 3 actually i'm sorry look at verse 2 it
says take the millstones and grind meal uncover thy locks make bear the leg uncover the thigh
pass over the rivers thy nakedness shall be uncovered yea thy shame shall be seen i will
take vengeance that i will not meet thee so here we see in verse 2 it talks about her uncovering
the thigh and then the next verse it says thy nakedness shall be seen now let me say this when
you're interpreting the bible and you're reading the bible there are verses in the bible that
represent just clear commandments where god is just clearly making a statement about something
and then there are other uh things in the bible that are more of a story or an illustration or a
parable right does everybody know what i mean there's a big difference right you know there
are just stories and parables and we look at things and we see what people do and sometimes
we look at what some of the people in israel did and we're trying to wonder was he doing the
right thing or was he doing the wrong thing and we have to use the clear statements of the bible
to interpret the story to interpret the parable we don't just take a story and make it mean well
if david had multiple lives i'm gonna have a boy that's where you get into false doctrine when you
take a story and you let that tell you what you speak you got to take clear commands and clear
statements and let them interpret the story if you take the clear commands of god on marriage
then you can interpret the stories about david and solomon and see hey these guys were doing
wrong these guys were sitting okay well in isaiah 47 here this is not a clear commandment this is
not a clear statement this is not something i'll say this if isaiah 47 was the only place that said
anything about the thigh in regard to nakedness i wouldn't walk away and say hey this says that
you're here if your thighs have covered your neck because it's not strong enough for that but
because we have the clear command are you listening in exodus 28 42 a point blank command
saying look you must wear pants that go from your loins to your thigh that's a clear statement
that's a clear command he says in order that your nakedness might be covered you need to wear pants
he's talking to a man that's a priest and he says to co from the loins under the thigh so when we
take that and then combine with this this supports what god has already said in exodus 28 so there
are things in the bible that are just clear proof and then there are other supporting proof we never
want to base our doctrine on supporting scriptures does everybody understand what i'm saying because
you can take stuff out of context and make it support and prop up just about anything
but the clear commandment is in exodus 28 42 this supports that which just makes it even stronger
and even clearer in the bible that your loins or your thighs being uncovered is nakedness in the
eyes of god now is it nakedness in the eyes of man no way i mean if a girl walks down the street
in short shorts if a girl wears a short skirt if a man wears short shorts you know from the 1970s
with a little stripe down the side you know it's considered normal it's considered fine but there
have been many other societies that have commit that have condoned a lot of other wicked things
that doesn't make it right just because society says it's okay and you can walk down the street
with it and everybody will think it's fine and everybody i mean i used to go to a Baptist church
and the youth leader's wife wore short shorts every time to youth group sunny morning short
shorts sunday morning i mean that was what she wore and so that right there shows you how just
because man accepts something and you know what if you would have asked her are you naked she
would have said no but god would have looked at that and said you're naked your nakedness is
being exposed right now now you say well wait a minute pastor naked means that you have zero
clothing god so that's not naked well what does god say is nakedness he defines a part of your
body as your nakedness your loins and your thighs okay that's what he defines as nakedness so in
the bible it's not just a condition of no clothing necessarily here it's actually a part of the body
that is your nakedness that you're supposed to have covered up and not exposed and so uh you
know the short shorts the short skirts whether on male or female shorts that are above the thigh
that expose the thigh are not right now a lot of people will try to blow this up and uh because
this is another great scripture in exodus 28 42 about pants because i've actually and you know
people are so ignorant today and they're so uneducated today it's ridiculous we have been
so dumbed down yes that you can get people to believe just about anything and you want you
want us you know you go soul winning and people are so dumbed down and you try to talk to people
about about the bible and they're totally biblically ignorant i mean they don't know who
adam and eve are they don't know who sampson is they've never heard of jonah and the whale they've
heard of pinocchio being swallowed by a well but they've never heard of jonah being swallowed by a
whale literally never even heard of it and so people are so dumbed down in this game and they
call us fundamentalists uneducated you know they're always just and it doesn't matter how
smart you are you could be a nuclear physicist and they'll tell you like you're not educated
because you're a fundamental baptist that's what that's what they think and literally i have had
scores of people in my life tell me this that pants were invented in like i think they said
like the 1600s or 1700s now i don't know how dumb you'd have to be to believe that
i mean are you are you getting this 16 or 1700s
pants really so the men who built the pyramids the men who built stonehenge the men who built
the aqueducts and the coliseum they just hadn't figured out pants yet
i mean it's nonsense now here's why people are you say where does that come from because the
english word pants is from the 16 1700s okay that doesn't mean pants are invented that means the
english word because guess what they used to be called britches and then they came up with the
word pants men have been wearing pants for thousands of years this is proof in exodus 2842
because you got a man wearing pants now i've had people say you know you're a fool because
in the bible days no one wore pants because pants hadn't been invented yet now some people are not
so dumb that they actually think it was invented in the 1600s or 70s but but literally some people
think that at the time of christ pants had not yet been invented this is nonsense this is garbage
because you know the greeks and the romans you know they did a lot of weird stuff especially
the really rich people because rich people with a bunch of money and a bunch of time on their hands
and i don't mind the devil's workshop they do a lot of weird stuff and they're wearing weird
togas and and they're they're wearing you know strange dresses and so forth the common man has
always worn pants are you listening to me the common man has always worn pants throughout
history and you know yeah there could be a few exceptions a few weird places but throughout
history men are forking for example there's a famous battle of thermopoly which was a battle
that took place hundreds and hundreds of years before christ when the the persians were invading
ancient greeks and the greeks most notably the spartans were the ones that fought against the
persians at the mob the spartans were one of the most wicked and perverted societies on the planet
total sodomites total queers total wickedness all the men wore long hair all the women had short
hair everything was a death worship i mean they would literally kill the babies that were not
strong and fit they would put them through tests to make sure they were strong enough otherwise
they'd cast them out they had no they weren't brave and people will try to oh they were such
brave words no they weren't brave they just had no respect for human life and there's a big difference
they're sacrificing their life on a battlefield because they just don't have any respect for human
life not because of the fact that you know they were just brave individuals and you know it's
amazing i've seen christian schools have a team called the spartans unbelievable they were they
were total sodomites total pedophiles total weird everyone else in greece hated them and said they
were disgusting now when the greek spartans faced off with the persians okay the persians were
wearing pants down to their ankles and the greeks made fun of them for being so modest in their
apparel and then the persians looked at the greeks and said you guys look like bunch of queers
there's long hair half naked okay and so we see that pants have all i mean that's even the
historical record made a big deal about the fact that there was a difference between men wearing
pants and men not wearing pants and so uh yes pants existed in the time of moses pants go way
back my friend okay and you know even the french revolution those who were the poor were called
the san culottes which means without culottes which the culottes are those fancy short puffy
pants that only go to your knees and the poor people wore pants down their ankles now all that
to say this pants are are in the bible as men's clothing and they need to reach down to the knee
now a lot of people will take this this passage in exodus and say well you know that's not men
wearing pants that was just their undergarment well that's not true because if that was just
an undergarment it wouldn't be to cover their nakedness because their outer garment would be
covering their naked obviously they're they said you couldn't even see those pants you know they're
just underneath well you must have been able to see them or else they wouldn't be covering
covering their nakedness because otherwise you wouldn't even know whether they were on or not
so that's nonsense that makes no sense that's another sermon in and of itself but go back to
isaiah 20 if you would and i'll get off this point i don't want to spend too much time on this point
but i'm just basically showing you the bible that nakedness is a shameful thing and what god defines
as nakedness is not the same as what we define he looks at the loins of the thighs and he says
you're naked if your thighs are exposed or if your loins are exposed and he also says this in isaiah
20 verse 4 so shall the king of isyria lead away the egyptians prisoners and the ethiopians captives
young and old naked and barefoot even with their buttocks uncovered to the shame of egypt and that
tells me that your buttocks is also your nakedness which makes perfect sense if it's naked in the
front just naked in the back your loins and your thighs and today this is the trend now who would
have ever imagined who would have ever thought now i'm a young man i'm 30 years old but when i
was growing up this was not cool this was never considered this was something i never had seen
unless the plumber is over at your house okay i mean and you know what it was it was a shameful
thing it wasn't cool okay and today this is the trend i mean it gets to the point where sometimes
you'll see this almost every day i mean does anybody agree with that don't you see this
everywhere you go i mean you see this that you never thought you'd see
what this is the style but you know what young people today are such sheep and they're such
followers and such conformists that it just whatever trend hollywood and and the rock and
roll industry and madison avenue puts out they'll just go with it and so young people have been
convinced now that it's cool to show off their backside just just just the top of their backside
in public and that's really cool and that's the style no it's nakedness and no christian young
person ought to get into this style where they're out there with their buttocks uncovered god says
it's a shameful thing it's nakedness it's wrong don't do it now you say well wait a minute pastor
anderson why did god why is god telling isaiah to do this you know because we've seen all these
tons of scriptures we got a ton of bible saying it's shameful and i didn't even turn to a lot of
scriptures that just talk about the fact that we shouldn't be naked but i i believe that there's
a difference and here's what i believe that i don't believe that he was going naked in front
of ladies okay because you see the society was different back then than it is today okay today
everywhere we go women are there we go to any business we go to any workforce we go to any job
any factory any warehouse any government building and basically there are about just as many women
as there are men right but you see it wasn't so in our country not too long ago and it wasn't so in
these days you know everywhere you went women weren't there you know if you went to a place
where men congregate you know if you went to a government institution it's going to be all men
because the women in those days stayed home with the children and took the care of the house and
did those things and obviously they left the house they'd go to the store they'd go to social
gatherings they go but but there were a lot of places where only men went you know if you're in
a government building if you're at the congress if you're at the senate if you're at these important
institutions women just weren't going to be there those were the good old days okay when men were
in charge and that was when you know what there's nothing bad about staying home ladies because you
know what that's what god made you to do and you know that's a glorious job for you right and you
know i take pride in your children and taking care of your children and take pride in actually
cooking a decent meal instead of feeding your family mcdonald's and picked up on the way home
from your job you know and oh kentucky fried chicken's running a special this week you know
and we're going to bring that home the feet of it look take pride in feeding your family
a nutritious diet take pride in cooking and taking care of the house take pride in raising
children in the nurture and admonition of the lord they can grow up and serve god with their life
that's a great calling don't be ashamed of that if that's if you're a housewife stay at home mom
hey that's what you ought to take pride in being because that's what god uh created you be now
that's not everyone's situation but in a perfect world that would be everyone's situation because
ladies would be at home and doing their job and men would be out in the field doing their job
i mean that's biblical but you see there were places in those days where only men are there
and i believe that you know isaiah is preaching to the men you know he's preaching to men who've
congregated he's preaching at the government institutions he's preaching at the places where
important leaders and the elders of the people assembled and we see throughout the bible those
type of assemblies take place he's preaching to men i don't believe that he's exposing himself
to women and children now you say well how do you know that well because the bible doesn't i
don't believe that the bible is going to contradict itself and god teaches that you know men should
not be naked in front of the opposite gender so i think we can infer from that that he's basically
just having preached to them which makes sense because those are the decision makers those are
the leaders that's what he's preaching to now there's a difference in the bible between being
nude in front of the same gender and being nude in front of the opposite gender let me give you
some scriptures on this go to uh first angel chapter 19 while you're turning there i'll read
you some other scriptures now in leviticus 18 i'm not going to turn to leviticus 18 but it says in
leviticus 18 pretty much in every verse it says you know nakedness nakedness it's kind of it's
kind of the nakedness chapter you know people will call hebrews 11 the faith chapter and they'll
call first corinthians 13 the love chapter even though they've never used the word love
the charity chapter okay and they'll call different chapters in the bible you know
romans 8 is kind of the holy spirit chapter and different chapters in the bible are famous for
dealing with certain subjects you know leviticus 18 is the nakedness chapter i mean pretty much
every verse is naked but but when he uses the word nakedness in leviticus 18
he's not just referring to nakedness he's actually using nakedness as a euphemism
okay as a euphemism for basically committing fornication or committing more than just thinking
for example when the bible says adam knew his wife it doesn't just mean that they were acquainted
it's a euphemism god doesn't give us every detail thank god when he says adam knew his
wife he means that basically him and his wife have done what married people do okay and that's
what he threw out the bible the term to know them is used in that way another term that's used in
the same way as to uncover their nakedness and that's basically referring to going to bed with
someone okay as it were i'm using a modern day euphemism because obviously we don't want to go
into detail and god is very discreet about these subjects as we should be and so what we see here
is that uncovering of the nakedness is associated in the bible and especially in leviticus 18 but
really in a ton of other scriptures we could turn to because just in preparation for the sermon i
went back through and looked at every verse that dealt with nakedness and over and over again the
word nakedness is associated with people fornicating or you know it's associated with
other actions that are taking place now that doesn't really take a rocket scientist to figure
out does it that nudity has to do with with that whole world i mean why do people look upon nudity
today and let's face it it's in the magazine rack and remember remember god's definition of nudity
not man's let's go with god's definition of nakedness it's in the magazine rack is it not
yeah and i'm not talking about some special double triple x bookstore i mean it's at the
grocery store yeah it's on the billboards it's in every movie it's on every tv show i mean it's
everywhere you look why is it there it's not just there per chance it's not just there because they
like to glory in their shame although they do it's there because that basically excites the passions
of men when they look upon that nakedness of women rather that's why it's there let's face it
there is an association there that's what comes to mind it's not uh and that's why the bible says in
first john chapter 2 he says love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any
man loved the world the love of the father's not in him for all that is in the world the lust of
the flesh that's actually gratifying the flesh in a wicked way the lust of the eyes so there is a
sinful thing of looking upon something that is that is wrong and the pride of life that's why
joe said i made a covenant with my eyes joe great man in the bible i made a covenant with my eyes
how then should i think upon a maid so you see here the eyes have to do with thinking about
something else that takes place isn't that right now that's why jesus said if i write i offend you
pluck it out and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members
should perish and not the final body so he cast hell now why did he say if thy right eye offend
me pluck it out go to the verse right before and he says who so looketh on a woman to lust after
her had committed adultery with her already in his heart so why is it that god told women that
they need to wear modest apparel with shame faces right why should we cover our nakedness because
of the fact that impure thoughts will take place in the opposite gender are you getting this if
we're not clothed if our nakedness is exposed if the nakedness of women or men is exposed it'll
cause impure thoughts in the eyes of the opposite now is nakedness itself a sin well when it comes
to just if i'm in the shower i'm just by myself okay it's fine being naked right so in nakedness
intrinsically is not a bad thing because between a married couple it's fine by myself it's fine okay
what's wrong is exposing that nakedness to someone of the opposite gender because that's going to
cause impure thoughts and you can't say well i just keep my mind clean with it no you don't
okay he says don't even look at it it's the lust in the eyes because even just looking at it is a
sin okay but those impure thoughts okay a man seeing another man naked okay is not going to
cause impure thoughts in a normal way you know what i mean he's not going to lust after that
that's only what weirdos and queers and sick people would think about yeah any normal guy
he's not going to think any kind of a lustful thought about another man because men are not
attracted to men and i remember i had a science book when i was a kid and it was explaining
magnetism it was explaining the positive and negative poles of the magnet and it had a picture
of two male dogs and they were walking away from each other mad and then there's a picture of two
female dogs they were walking away from each other mad and they one of them was labeled positive one
was labeled negative negative positive and then it showed a female dog and a male dog they're
walking each other up to each other smiling you know they're showing like opposites attract
just like with the magnet you know the positive and negative come again negative positive okay
obviously there's no attraction there between men unless you're reprobating you know unless
you're perverted you know as the bible talks about in romans one that's an unnatural desire
that's a vile affection that's not something normal men yeah they're men are attracted to
women and women are attracted to men that's normalcy right there that's the way god created
us you know they weren't born that way they became that way because they became a pervert
through the process described in romans chapter one but now does that mean that you know nakedness
among men is yeah let's just you know uh have nakedness no because nakedness is still you're
still ashamed it's still a shame right and you know i've been in a situation before like you
know you'd be a camp or something and you know they'll put you know they put you in the situation
where it's like oh here's the shout the shower singular cabin so and so hit the shower you know
and it's like one big shower there's like 10 different heads or whatever you know nobody oh joy
you know you look at that you're like you know you say oh something else you're not happy about
that when you get there and you're like oh man this is gonna stick you know like i don't have
to strip down and i remember when i was in college they had uh they had uh you know i did
p.e and i would always take my shower at home because it's like you know there's just this
community shower and it was just weird and it was just you know like you don't want to strip down
you know i want to keep my clothes on okay not that it is a sin not that it would have been a sin
or or you know wicked in the eyes of god or something like that but just because of just
you know just embarrassment just a normal tendency to want to be clothed and not to
so we're not saying here that you know hey maybe this between you know
you know being in front of a man just yeah just why not you know
what i am saying though is that it's not sinful because it's not causing lust it's not
something that god prohibits and you say we'll prove that well because you can see in the bible
first of all isaiah is told to preach hate but then we see in that first samuel 19 verse 23
this is where samuel the spirit of lord comes upon him and he prophesied it says in verse 23
he went there to nyoth in rama and the spirit of god was upon him also and he went on and prophesied
until he came to nyoth in rama and he stripped off his clothes also and prophesied before samuel in
like manner and laid down naked all that day and all that night wherefore they say is saul also
among the prophets now this is where the spirit of the lord comes upon saul saul he preaches he
prophesized and he strips off his clothes you say why did he do that because in the bible rending
your garment or tearing your clothes was a sign of great mourning and they would tear their clothes
and they would put sackcloth on their head other place i don't have time i'm running out of time
and i haven't got to my best points yet i'm stuck on this nakedness point but basically they would
rend their clothes as a sign of mourning and and notice he also lied on the earth all night that's
another thing they would do out of sorrow and mourning they would lay in the dust and the dirt
just as a sign of just humility and humiliation before god because they were upset and saul was
living in sin at this time and when the spirit of lord came upon saul he realized his own wicked
condition he realized the sin he was living in and it caused him to be so upset and sorrowful
that he rent off his clothes and lied on the ground naked now that's obviously that he was
not in sin there he was doing that as a result of the spirit of lord coming upon him so that's why
and obviously you know you see peter peter is fishing and basically the bible says you know
i don't know why but in john chapter 21 verse 7 it says that they were they were on the boat
and they're fishing and of course peter is naked fishing and then basically jesus is there and he
throws his clothes on and jumps from the water and so forth so and obviously that doesn't prove
necessarily that he was doing right there but we do see the example in isaiah 20 and we do see the
example in first samuel 19 where basically god's not upset about nakedness in front of the same
gender because of the fact that you'll never find a verse the bible just says nakedness is it's the
fact that it's to the opposite gender that it's a sin because it's causing impurity and lust and
it's it's violating the the the sacredness of your body that's supposed to be kept for your spouse
and so forth and not for other ladies so it's definitely a sin for a man to be naked in front
of one and it's definitely a sin for a woman to be naked in front of a man but when it comes to
the same gender not so much and that's or it's not a sin but doesn't mean that it's fun doesn't
mean that you want to do it but it's it's not a sin now let's get let's get into the meat of this
chapter the isaiah chapter 20 now with that in mind we've seen okay nakedness it's a shameful
thing it's something that is embarrassing right so my first point is this number one nakedness
is a shame we learned that from this chapter but number two we see that isaiah obeyed god
even though he was asked to do something that was very embarrassing and very shameful think
about that for a minute what if you're isaiah you know and god comes to you and tells you this
you know hey here's what you're going to do you're going to strip off your clothes and preach this
sermon naked and by the way it's not just one sermon it's three years did you get that i mean
look down at your bible uh this isn't something that he just had to do one time it said let me
let me turn there i lost my place but in isaiah 20 it says the lord uh verse two at the same time
spake the lord by isaiah the son of amos saying go and loose the sack of off from off five points
and put off thy shoe from my foot and he did so walking naked and barefoot and by the way people
will try to say well he wasn't really naked you know whenever people don't understand something
in the bible instead of trying to understand it they just change it yeah or they just change the
main words well he wasn't really naked well the bible says he was naked and there shouldn't be
any doubt about it since in verse four it says his buttocks are uncovered i mean can i be any
more clear here that he was naked i mean but people will still try to twist this and just say
well he just wasn't wearing a coat you know he was just wearing less clothes no that's not what
it says and if you look this up in the hebrew it just means partially naked you know don't get it
you don't speak hebrew get out of that stupid strong-skinned ordinance throw that thing away
and read your bible he was naked his buttocks were uncovered that's what the bible says
but we see here in verse three and the lord said life as my servant isaiah has walked naked and
barefoot how long three years three years now this is i mean we ought to have great respect
for isaiah after reading this chapter i mean god asked people in the bible to do some pretty
difficult things you know he asked uh he asked abraham to leave his country and just to go out
into the land they'd never seen that took a lot of faith right i think this took more faith
stop thinking about that i mean he's supposed to preach naked and not only that but don't you
think that there were plenty of people who were offended by this and and probably told him you're
crazy you're nuts i mean think about how much he got bad enough for this i mean can you imagine
how people would go around and say you go to that church are you nuts are you serious
this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that isaiah did not care at all what man thought
of his ministry at all at all he only cared what god thought i mean if he cared at all what man
thought he would not have obeyed this commandment there he would have said no no sorry whatever you
want me to do i'll do it but i'm not going to do that because that is humiliating that is shameful
that's going to cause everybody to think i'm insane but he just you know basically he was
the type of guy where god told him to do something and he just said yes sir amen we don't even see
him arguing you know because there are times in the bible where god tells people to do stuff and
they kind of argue with him a little bit and then sometimes they still do it anyway but they argue
a little bit you know i would argue with this you would argue with this i mean it's pretty amazing
that isaiah just did it you know and i mean he obeyed god he did not care what man thought and
that's how creatures ought to be and that's how christians ought to be we ought to care more about
what god thinks than what man thinks don't we want to be cool though we want to be accepted we want
everybody to love us isaiah not at all he said you know what as long as god's pleased with me
that's all that matters galatians one says that you don't have to turn there galatians 1 10 says
for do i now persuade man or god or do i seek to please men for if i yet pleased men i should not
be the servant of christ the bible says that a preacher who wants to please man should not be the
servant of christ he said no you must choose whether to please god or man and if you belong
in the pulpit it's only because you want to please god and not man we've got enough man-pleasing
churches and up compromising pastors and uh you say well why in the world would god you know put
this chapter in the bible you know to show us a man who would do anything that god told him to do
even if it meant humiliating himself even if it meant being ashamed and people mocking him now
think about what the bible tells us in romans 1 16 so go ahead and turn there if you would
we're always 116 because look you're going to tell me well i give the gospel to my co-worker
but i'm just ashamed to do it okay think about that in light of isaiah 20.
now all of a sudden it doesn't seem so shameful does it see how i'm embarrassed about bringing
my bible to work in the lunchbox you're embarrassed about putting a bible in your lunchbox
look what isaiah did when he was told by god and you know god has commanded us to preach the gospel
and to every preacher god has commanded us to take god's word with us everywhere we go
god has commanded us to open our mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel and in
romans 1 16 he says for i am not ashamed of the gospel of christ for it is the power of god
that's a salvation to everyone that believe it to the jew person also the greek you see isaiah he
had something to be ashamed about i mean you think isaiah would have been wrong to feel a little bit
ashamed or humiliated no he ought to be ashamed he's naked it's embarrassing
and he did it anyway because god told him to do it and yet you can't give the gospel to your friend
you can't give the gospel to your relatives you can't give the gospel to your co-worker because
you're ashamed hey the gospel is nothing to be ashamed of now even if it were something to be
ashamed of isaiah would have done it anyway just because god said to do it he would have suffered
he would have suffered the humiliation he would have suffered the reproach he did it for three
years but god's asking us to do something that's not shameful at all he said the gospel is nothing
to be ashamed of it's the power of god unto salvation and it's amazing how isaiah a great
man of god can do what god asked him to do that was very shameful and then we're too embarrassed
to do the simple thing that god has asked us just to give the good news of the gospel
it puts it in a different light doesn't it i think this chapter is a great chapter to remind us
hey wait a minute maybe i just care a little bit too much about what people think
hey wait a minute maybe i'm just trying to fit in a little too much here you know if i can't even
bring my body and god's not asking he doesn't want us to go man he doesn't want us to be naked he
doesn't want us to do that he's not asking us to do that he's asking us to do something that's a
lot easier and can we at least do what he asked us to do he said in second timothy one eight you
don't have to turn there be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our lord he's saying
don't be ashamed of the word of god nor of being his prisoner but be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of god jesus said not to be ashamed of him or his words
in this wicked and adulterous generation first peter 416 says you have a big man to suffer as
a christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorify god on this theater it's not a shame to
be persecuted for the cause of christ it's not a shame to stand by the king james version it's not
a shame to preach the word of god it's not a shame to give someone the good news the gospel of jesus
christ it's not a shame to bring your bible to work and carry a new testament in your pocket
and to memorize the bible there's nothing shameful about that even if it were shameful do it anyway
even if you feel ashamed it's in your head but do it anyway because god expects us to bear
the reproach of christ and if the world wants to mock christ you need to take that mockery
you need to take that reproach jesus took it isaiah took a lot and yet he stayed faithful
to god's word i gotta hurry but not only that go to second timothy chapter four
so number one we we learned from this chapter that hey nakedness is a shame because god said hey the
whole reason why i'm having isaiah do this is to represent the shame of the ethiopians
and the shame of the egyptians when they are naked it will be a shameful thing so we saw very clearly
that in the bible nakedness is a shame that's why women are commanded to wear modest apparel
with shame face of this not showing their nakedness what god's trying to show there
and also just not wearing a flashy clothing that draws attention to themselves
gold silver costly array pearls and so forth he says you know they don't need to wear flashy
stuff that's going to draw attention to them they need to be adorned with the ornament of
the meek and quiet spirit which is to god a great price and so we saw that number two we saw that
we need to obey god even when we're embarrassed you know and stand up for what the bible says
even if it's embarrassing to us because i guarantee you whatever embarrassment you
have a feel in your life for the cause of christ is probably gonna be one one-thousandth of what
isaiah felt right i mean what do you want to do what god told you to do or what god told isaiah
to do let me think i think i'm gonna do what god told me to do and go preach the gospel
but number three what we can learn from this chapter is that isaiah refused to compromise
he refused to compromise and if there were ever a time to compromise this would have been the time
to compromise right this would have been the time to take a little bit looser interpretation of
god's word and say wait a minute when god said for me to strip off my sackcloth and to go naked
and barefoot maybe he just meant i'm supposed to wear a little bit less right i mean that you know
if you're going to start if you wanted to twist god's word here man if there was ever a time when
i could maybe forgive somebody for maybe taking a little bit looser interpretation on things
this would have been the time but isaiah said no he said naked you know and after three years
when it was all done god said he did this for three years and that's what the egyptians and
the ethiopians are going to do and he spelled it out that isaiah fulfilled the mission for three
years isaiah refused to compromise maybe that's why maybe that's why god used him to pen down
66 chapters in the bible maybe that's why god used him to pen down uh one of the longest books in the
bible and by the way the book of isaiah is one of the most quoted books in the new testament the two
books that you'll see quoted the most are psalms and isaiah and i mean isaiah if you read the book
of isaiah almost every chapter you're hitting quotes from the new testament i mean this is i
mean if you're reading the book of matthew it seems like every chapter has just written isaiah
the prophet has just written isaiah the prophet just like isaiah the prophet said i mean isaiah
the prophet is mentioned in the new testament over and over and over and over you know like i said
psalms and isaiah are the two big ones that are quoted in the new testament over and probably the
reason why psalms is quoted more is just getting along the book there's more to quote and it was
also written by multiple authors whereas the book of isaiah is the book of isaiah this is a very
key man of god in the bible this is a man who's honored greatly in the old testament and in the
new testament this is a man that received great rewards when he went to heaven this is a man who
we will meet one day and have great respect for for all eternity this is isaiah the prophet
and you know why because he was a man who refused to compromise god's word and twist god's word
and if there were ever a time in isaiah's life to compromise this this would have been the time now
i hope that that's i hope that that's how i'm going to be you know that's how i that's my goal
my goal is to not compromise god's word and you know i think a lot of people would look at me
and say pastor anderson's not going to compromise and you know what i hope to god that i never do
compromise i pray to god that i will be able to withstand in the evil day and not to compromise
god's word and not to backslide not to back down but i guarantee you that those who were following
isaiah they had no doubt in their mind after this i mean i mean if they i mean if you saw this
this pretty much tells you isaiah is never going to compromise because he would have compromised
here look at second timothy chapter four verse one i charge thee therefore before god and the
lord jesus christ you shall judge the quick and the dead of his appearing in his kingdom
preach the word be instant in season out of season that's when it's popular and when it's
not popular when it's convenient and when it's not convenient you know when you think of being
in season a lot of people think of fashion don't they you know don't wear white after labor day
right i mean if you live in phoenix you probably wear white year round but you know don't wear
white after labor day it's not right season oh you know that dress is so last fall you know
you know things that are popular they're seasonal okay god's saying preach it when it's popular
preach it when it's not popular in season out of season reprove that's never popular
rebuke that's not what people want to hear exhort with all long suffering and doctrine and the reason
he's telling them this verse three for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine
and boy are we living in that day they'll not endure a sound doctrine they can't handle it
they can't handle i mean even things that i've said tonight just i mean i'm just trying to be
just as biblical and methodical we're turning to a lot of scriptures and i'm just showing
us people they can't handle this preaching they can't endure sound doctrine that just and i mean
how much more sound can you get than the fact that your loins and your thighs are nakedness
you know what do you think god expects you to wear
i mean he's asking you to cover your loins and your thighs and you think that that's unreasonable
what do you what do you think he wants you to wear just almost nothing
and you know we have a double standard day if a lady walked in here in a bikini you'd you'd
freak out and you ought to freak out but then you'll go down to the beach and it's fine
you know and so we see here that sound doctrine being preached across this pulpit that says that
women should wear modest apparel that covers their nakedness at all times in front of the
opposite gender people can't endure that and they'll go find a preacher that'll have them
over to his house to all basically put on the bikinis and go swimming with his family you know
mixed nothing wrong if it's all ladies nothing wrong if it's all men but a mixed company
swimming in the wrong clothing they can't endure it they can't take the right doctrine he says
but after their own lusts shall they eat to themselves teachers having engineers notice
they don't want a preacher they want a teacher now paul told jimothy preach the word and he said
they're out looking for a teacher now look obviously every good preacher is a teacher
because preaching is teaching get this all preaching is teaching but not all teaching
is preaching you got that it'd be like this all dogs are mammals
but all mammals are not dogs right i can show you a mammal up here that's not a dog
right i can show you a duck go plat dogs i can show you a whale no no i mean let me show you
a cat a cat's a mammal but it's not a dog so all preaching is teaching because if you're
preaching the bible you're teaching the bible and he told them preach doctrine doctrine means
teaching but not all t look if you go to math class is that a teacher the guy who's teaching
your math class yeah he's a teacher right but is he a preacher no he's a teacher now if you hear
preaching yeah he's teaching you the bible but he's a preacher and the difference between
preaching and teaching is that preaching involves reproving and rebuking and exhorting
you know have you ever heard people say oh don't preach at me you know he's getting a little
preachy okay now the math teacher got up and said you know i'm sick of this stuff where people you
know don't they don't carry the the digit when they when they add things and you know i'm sick
of people rounding things off the wrong way look if it's above five you round up
if it's point five or above you round up if it's below point five you round down you know that
would be preaching if he says you know if you don't like the fact that two plus two is four
then get out of my class okay but teaching is not necessarily preaching but see people don't like
preaching because rebuke means to tell someone that they're wrong and he says preach the word
rebuke people don't like to be told that anything's wrong they want to preach and if a
preacher stands up and says that everything's okay anything goes he's not a preacher now screaming
and yelling doesn't make you a preacher you can get up and scream and yell your best life now
that's not preaching preaching is when you basically say this is a sin this is wrong
you need to change this you need to do this this is what we ought to be doing this is what
god's commanding us to do let's say it's the lord people today want teachers but they don't want
preachers that's why all these modern versions they take out the word preaching over and over
here did you know that they take out where it says the preaching of the cross they change it
to the message of the cross you know they're constantly taking out the word preaching from
the nib from the new american standard they want to get away from that and it says they shall turn
away their ears from the truth that shall be turned out of fables verse five but watch thou in
all things look at this endure afflictions he's saying you're gonna have to endure some afflictions
you're gonna have to endure some persecution if you preach the truth and he says do the work of
evangelists make full proof of thy ministry so isaiah was the ultimate listen to me isaiah was
the ultimate example of the preacher who will not compromise i mean can you think of a better example
because i can't isaiah was the ultimate preacher who said i will preach god's word i'll do it the
way he told me to do it i'll do exactly what he told me to do even if it's totally humiliating
even if it's completely shameful and i bet you there are a lot of good christians who probably
even question what he's doing right i don't think everybody was a bad person who questioned what he
was doing i think a lot of reasonable people looked at him and said you know what he's lost
his mind he's crazy isaiah's a phony and he probably even lost a lot of good followers and
a lot of good people and a lot of good friends who weren't even bad people but they just couldn't
understand what is he doing he's completely crazy but you know what a little bit of time went by
and what happened all those ethiopians and all those egyptians marched through the land
taken captive by the king of isaiah and guess what they were naked and barefoot and guess what
it was exactly what isaiah preached and you know they're thinking you know what man when
he preached that that was weird that was really weird that i thought he was insane i couldn't
believe it in fact i stopped listening to his preaching you know i i just couldn't even believe
that god would be with this guy but wait a minute when they saw everything he said take place
exactly as he said it would take place then you know what they knew isaiah was right they said
wow it was weird but he was right it said it didn't it wasn't what i wanted to hear it didn't
seem right it didn't make sense to me at the time but it was sure enough it was god's word because
look how it came to pass look at how all of other isaiah's prophecies came to pass with the lord
jesus christ look at all the other things that isaiah preached that were all right on preaching
god's word you see we can't always go by what we think you know we got to go by the word of god
we can't and and and isaiah refused to compromise why is this chapter in the bible
i mean have you read this chapter before tonight and maybe at that time and just thought what in
the world i mean who's ever been like that read this dude what in the world and i remember uh
i won this guy the lord uh at work i got this guy saved he's my co-worker and we got in the car
we're listening to bible and i was trying to really uh help this guy grow in his faith because
he's a new believer and i rode with him an hour to the job and an hour home every day so we spent
two hours in the car every day so i would bring preaching tapes and we'd listen to preaching and
then we would also listen to the bible on tape because i was trying to get this guy to get some
bible in him he's a new newly saved guy and so we listened to about i believe before i i ended up
leaving that job and going to a different job we listened to i believe 125 chapters of the bible
together just driving down the road you know basically a little over a tenth of the bible
we listened to together and then i got him reading it on his own and i gave him some cds of the bible
that he could listen to after i left and uh i remember we were listening to the bible we got
to that part of first samuel where saul strips down prophesized me and he looked at me and said
what in the world is going on in this chapter and i just looked at i just said it's me
i'm like i don't know i'm like you know what i don't know everything okay let's just go to the
next chapter now later on i understood why i saw that you know once i understood what the bible
thought about you know how people would be mourning and they would strip off their clothes
you know but i at the time i just didn't know the answer so i just told him hey it beats me
and i've met people throughout history and got to that chapter and got to isaiah 20 and was
scratching their heads saying what in the world is this chapter doing in the bible
but i'll be honest with you i understand perfectly why this chapter is the bible because we got a
bunch of spineless wimps of preachers today who will not preach what god has told them to preach
because they're ashamed to do it and they're embarrassed to do it and they're chopping up
the bible into the parts of what they're going to preach and what they're afraid to preach and this
is the ultimate chapter to show you hey you will never preach anything more embarrassing than what
isaiah you know i mean i mean this is such an extreme example it makes preaching on sins seem
pretty easy you know a lot of people are scared they're scared to get up and preach on certain
sins because it's going to fan people they're afraid to hit on that tv show but we can put it
next to uh three years no clothes on versus getting up and preaching against uh the popular
tv shows that are on today which one's gonna be hard and that's why god put this chapter in the
bible to show us what a preacher is supposed to not compromise that a preacher is supposed to not
be ashamed of god's word and i'll tell you this you you may not be a preacher this sermons for
man woman boy and girl even if you're not a preacher you can apply this sermon and say you
know what i'm not going to be ashamed to give the gospel i'm not going to be ashamed to say
that i go to faith for a baptist church oh i go to a baptist church i'm not going to be ashamed
of uh i mean look don't be ashamed of pastor anderson at least i'm not isaiah right at least
you don't have to go around saying isaiah's my pastor what no hey don't be ashamed pastor don't
be ashamed of the bible don't be ashamed of the gospel don't be saved with jesus and don't be
ashamed of your fellow church members you know you know you get you get in public and when
somebody from our church you know is there you know oh you know i don't know this guy
hey if isaiah could do what he did it really puts things in perspective let's