Isaiah 47, Isaiah 47 is about the city of Babylon and God basically judging the city of Babylon.
We'll have a look at some of those passages soon, but I'm preaching through the Rightly Dividing Series.
We'll be going through this series and the title for the sermon this afternoon is Nakedness, Modesty and Shame.
Nakedness, Modesty and Shame. And I'll tell you right from the beginning, some of you guys are not going to like what I'm preaching tonight,
to that this afternoon. But this chapter is about Babylon and I don't want this church to become Babylon Baptist Church.
I don't want God's judgment to fall upon his people here for the same reasons or the same illustrations that we see happen to the city of Babylon.
And so a lot of people have questions about nakedness, about modesty, shame. This will touch upon clothing standards as well.
And it's important for us to see what the Bible has to say about this.
But one thing I want to make very clear about a few couple of things here. When it comes to the Bible, there are some things that we have just the clear commandments about.
There are some things that are just obvious, you just read it from the Bible and that's what God says, that's what we need to do.
There are other commands or principles or applications that we find in the Bible that are not necessarily strict commands.
It's not like thou shalt do this or thou shalt do that. But there's an expectation.
And I mean this seriously, there is an expectation from God that you already know what is right and wrong.
That the Lord has already written his law in our hearts. The Lord has already given us his Holy Ghost.
The Lord has given us a born again new man that will help us and a conscience and direct access to God.
The seeking of wisdom and knowledge that will teach you other things as well so long as those things are consistent with the word of God.
You know when you're seeking something and you think well I believe this is true, what you should strive to do is look at the Bible.
Does this line up with the Bible? If it does, praise God, it's probably true. It may be a revelation that God has shown you just by the natural world, just by understanding things.
But if it's not in accordance with the Bible, if it's contradicting the Bible, that is not wisdom, that is not instruction that has come from God.
Alright? So look at Isaiah 47 verse 3. The title once again is nakedness, modesty and shame.
And when we understand these things, this will help you know how you ought to dress in a pleasing way that pleases God.
Isaiah 47 verse 3. Look at this. Speaking of this city, Babylon, it says,
Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen. I will take vengeance. I will not meet thee as a man.
You know God is saying here that your nakedness will be uncovered and your shame shall be seen.
What will God do? He says, I will take vengeance. God will take vengeance when he sees these cities that are naked.
And this is an illustration of a greater truth of what is nakedness.
You know, if we are people that uncover ourselves, that show our nakedness, expect God's vengeance on your life.
Expect God's judgment on your life. Okay?
Now, when I said to you, there are some things that are crystal clear.
Okay, we know, we can see clearly, God does not want you to be naked. That's quite clear as you read that.
But what is nakedness? You know, how do you define nakedness?
And as I said, there are some things that God just expects you to know.
And I'll take the principle from 1 Corinthians 11 14. It says,
Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man having 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.
You know what God is saying here? You should know already. Nature should tell you.
This should be common sense that men need to have short hair and women ought to have long hair.
Okay? And the contentious person will say, well, how long is long? How short is short?
Is that how you want to live your life? Is that how you want to live your Christian life?
Just, okay God, tell me exactly how long my hair needs to be to be considered long.
Or how short it has to be exactly to be considered short.
You know, there are some things that are just obvious, right?
Doth not even nature itself teach you? Do I even need to tell you this?
And yes, God spends half a chapter explaining how important it is for men to have short hair and women to have long hair,
but the expectation was that you should know that already.
There are some things that are just common knowledge to man.
And when it comes to hair length, brethren, no matter where you are in this world,
it is universally accepted that long hair is for a woman and short hair is for a man.
I'm sure there are exceptions out there. Of course there are exceptions.
But when you look at nations as a whole, the majority of women will have long hair.
The majority of men will have short hair. Okay?
And these aren't Bible-believing Christians. They didn't turn to 1 Corinthians 15 and read it.
Okay? It just comes naturally. It's what they already know.
You guys are in Isaiah 47. Look at verse number 2.
Let's take the definition that we can from the Bible here.
Isaiah 47 verse 2. It says here,
Take the millstones and grind mill, and notice the next word, uncover thy locks.
Now the word locks is your hair.
Okay? It's referring to Babylon here as a woman and it's uncovering her, like taking her hair from being tied to uncovering it.
And then it says this, Make bare the leg, uncover the thigh.
Notice that we have two uncoverings here. We have uncovering of the hair, the locks, and we have the uncovering of the thigh.
Pass over the rivers. Look at verse number 3 again.
Thy nakedness shall be uncovered.
Let's stop there. As Bible readers, we read this, as people are saying in the Bible, we see in verse number 3 it says,
Thy nakedness shall be uncovered.
Say, well, what's uncovered?
Well, we go back to verse number 2 and it says there are two things specifically that are being uncovered.
Your hair and your thigh.
Okay? Now I'm just going to ask for just your natural common sense understanding here.
Do you think the uncovering of the nakedness here is referring to the hair or to the thigh?
Yeah, to the thigh.
You could make an argument with the hair, but come on.
Are you using common sense there? Are you using logic?
Does nature tell you that it's hair? That's nakedness? Of course not.
This is definitely a reference to the thigh.
When you uncover the thigh, when your thigh is on show, guess what you're doing?
You're uncovering your nakedness. Your nakedness.
Your thigh is part of what the Bible classifies as nakedness.
Now go to Isaiah chapter 20, just a few chapters back.
Isaiah chapter 20 verse 3.
We have another definition of nakedness here, another classification,
this time talking about the northern kingdom of Israel.
And it says here, because you know if you're in the northern kingdom of Israel,
it was taken captive by the Assyrians.
It says here in verse number 3,
And the Lord said, Like as my servant Isaiah have walked naked and barefoot,
for three years as a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia,
so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians' prisoners
and the Ethiopians' captives, young and old, naked and barefoot,
look at this, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia, their expectation, and of Egypt, their glory.
What is the shame here? What is the nakedness that's being referred to?
We don't need to know the passage or the sort of context right now, guys.
Just what is being referred to as nakedness here, guys?
The buttocks.
Now the Bible says every word of God is pure,
so I'm going to try to use as many biblical words as I can here.
Of course we've got children here. I'm keeping that in mind,
but I'm going to try to use God's word as much as possible.
Now this makes perfect sense.
If the thigh is nakedness, well just a little bit above the thigh,
on the reverse is your buttocks.
And the Bible says if you uncover your behind, that is uncovering your nakedness.
And so, you know when the plumber comes to your house,
and he's got his plumber look, he's got his pants down,
and you can see his crack, that's nakedness.
That's nakedness. It's not a good look.
Buy him a belt. Give him a tip, buy him a belt or something
when he's at your house fixing your things.
What about the, I don't know, is this in fashion anymore?
I remember maybe a decade ago, the low rider jeans on girls.
Low rider jeans. I found it disgusting.
You could see the beginning of their buttocks.
The Bible says that's nakedness.
That's nakedness. They weren't covering anything.
They were low, and you could see the start of it.
You could start seeing the shape of it.
That's nakedness.
I never wanted to marry one of those girls that were dressed like that.
That's nakedness.
And guess what? Bikinis, Speedos, all of these things, guys,
you might as well just not have them on.
You're already naked. You're already naked when you're in that area.
And so be careful about how you dress.
Be careful also where you go, because people could be dressed a certain way.
That's not good for your eyes.
And I don't care how righteous and how I've been saved for this long,
I'm such a mature, I don't care.
God has put in the DNA of a man to be attracted to the appearance of a woman,
the shape of a woman.
And women are naturally attracted to men.
I don't care what you say.
And you have to make a conscious effort to not give in to that temptation.
Look away from that temptation.
And girls say, oh, well, that's his problem if he's looking at me.
No, it's your problem as well.
And especially if you're a Christian,
especially if you're in the house of God,
and the way you dress could cause your brother in Christ
to have impure thoughts.
You've got to be careful.
We spoke about this morning about serving, ministering to one another.
Well, guess what? You can minister to one another with the way you dress.
Or you can cause people to stumble,
people to be tempted by the way you dress.
How do you want to be?
Now, listen, this is nakedness.
This is what the Bible classifies as nakedness.
It looks and we see pretty much from the hip down all the way to your thigh.
That's what the Bible describes as nakedness.
Now, just as much as long hair differentiates a woman from a man
that's got short hair.
I mean, when someone's far away and you see someone with long hair,
you're pretty confident that's a woman over there.
Pretty confident that's a man over there.
Every now and again, though, you're driving a car
and your media thought that's a man.
Then you're driving.
It's like, honey, was that a man or a woman?
No, because of their hair.
Or vice versa.
I'm sure you've seen men with long hair.
I remember when I flew down to Sydney once for church.
I was going through the airport.
I went through the food court thing,
and I saw what I thought was a woman with long hair.
Not only did I think it was a woman with long hair,
but he had a dress.
I'm going past and I'm like, what in the?
And I'm thinking, what am I looking at?
I have no idea what I'm looking at.
It boggled my mind.
I couldn't tell if it was a man.
It was a man with long hair and a dress.
But look, just as much as hair should differentiate,
a man and woman,
you know what's a greater differentiation
between men and women?
What's the greatest distinction?
We have a lot of differences.
We have a lot of physical differences.
We have even emotional differences
between men and women.
There's a lot of differences.
But the main difference,
and I'll be careful with the way I use this.
Remember, every word of God is pure.
The main difference between men and women
is what the Bible calls privy members.
The privy members.
And guess where that is?
Well, if the buttocks and the thighs
are considered nakedness,
guess what else is part of that area?
The privy member.
The private parts.
The Bible uses this word, the privy member,
so that's what I'm going to use as I speak about this.
That is the most significant difference
between a man and woman, okay?
I mean, anybody can tell you
that is the biggest difference
between the man and woman, okay?
And so the Bible is in Deuteronomy 22 verse 5 says,
the woman,
now I'm going to talk about dress here.
It says 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.
Do you want to be an abomination to the Lord your God?
The Bible tells us
there is clothing that belongs to a man,
there is clothing that belongs to a woman, okay?
Now, you know, we might have different thoughts
as to what that could be, okay?
And I don't think it's that complicated.
Just as much as hair can distinguish a man and woman,
and just as much the privy members
distinguish the differences between a man and woman,
so shall the clothing,
so should the clothing that covers those privy members,
so should be the clothing
that covers the nakedness of men and women,
should be just as distinctive
as the privy members that are behind those garments, okay?
That's another clear way
that we as a society,
as nature itself teaching us,
that is the difference between a man and woman
by what they wear from their hips to their thighs,
okay?
And it's no surprise to many of you
that I believe men should wear pants
and women should wear dresses or skirts, okay?
And not vice versa.
That is cross-dressing, okay?
And the argument is, well,
where does the Bible say that women shouldn't wear pants?
Where does the Bible say that men can't wear skirts?
Well, maybe there are some passages
that appear to say that men are wearing skirts.
Well, you know what? I'm wearing a skirt right now, okay?
You know what the Bible refers to skirts
many times when it comes to men?
Or all the time when it comes to men?
The hem of your garment, okay?
Around this coat right now,
the bottom bit, that's a skirt, okay?
But am I wearing a skirt?
Now, I'm going to present the case to you
that pants are for men
and skirts and dresses are for women,
and I'm going to address this in three different ways.
Number one, I'm going to talk about the cultural reasons, okay?
Number two, I'm going to talk about a logical reason.
And number three,
I'm going to give you the biblical reason, okay?
I'm going to hit it from those three different areas,
cultural, logical, and biblical.
Let's start with cultural.
Let's start with cultural, okay?
When you think about our society today,
think about our society today,
would you say our society today has a greater fear of God,
has a greater respect and love for the Bible today
than they did 100 years ago?
Would you say that people today
are striving to live after the commandments of God?
People are striving to know the way of salvation.
Do people have a fear of God today?
A lot of people don't even believe He exists, all right?
Or they just have a God of their own imagination.
Think about this, brethren.
If 100 years ago,
let's say maybe even more than 100 years ago,
where people at least had a fear of God,
I'm not saying they were necessarily saved,
they just had a fear of God in society,
they had a respect for what the Bible said,
whether they did it or not,
they still had a respect for what the Bible says.
Think about the dress standards 100 years ago,
just 100 years ago,
when they had the Bible as their somewhat authority, okay?
When our politicians somewhat built laws and commands,
instruction on the word of God,
how did people dress?
What about today?
We're further away, aren't we?
We're further away from the laws of God.
We're further away as a society
with a love and respect for the Bible.
We're further away from a fear of God.
There is no fear of God today, out there.
Man, we've got to bring the fear,
that's why we've got a door knock in.
So we've got to tell them,
hey, you're going to hell,
because we're trying to bring back the fear, okay?
It's not there anymore.
We have to bring it there, door to door.
And look, how has dress standards changed?
Has it changed?
Absolutely.
What's changed?
Well, like I told you,
men wearing dresses, men wearing skirts,
but something that's more common,
women wearing pants.
Women wearing pants.
Look, I'm not basing my beliefs on culture here, okay?
I'm just saying, look at it.
Open your eyes, okay?
I'm not going to base my doctrine on culture,
but it tells us something about society.
It does give us some level of instruction
as to what's changing, okay?
When I was a child,
people made fun of the cross-dresses.
People made fun of the trans,
what do you call them?
Trannies.
The trans, whatever.
The men that wore dresses and lipstick
and stuff like that.
You know, when I was a child,
people hated that.
They mocked that, okay?
It's not just now.
Look, in 2019, that's accepted now, right?
It's accepted for men to dress like that.
But it's more than that.
We've gotten past that.
Now we have a society,
we have generations saying to their children,
well, you can decide
if you want to be a boy or girl.
Who cares what your preview members are?
Who cares?
Don't worry about that.
Don't worry about your DNA.
Don't worry about your X and Y chromosome.
If you want to be a boy,
you can be a boy.
If you want to be a girl,
you can be a girl.
Can you imagine that?
I can't imagine that when I was a child.
We were mocking the cross-dresses.
Now that's gone.
Forget it.
That's not the issue anymore.
The issue is,
do you want to be a boy or girl?
Children making these decisions,
having life-changing surgery,
hormones put into their bodies.
The boy would never be a girl,
and the girl would never be a boy.
Okay?
But what's led up to that, brethren?
I'll tell you what's led up to all that.
Feminism,
cross-dressing between men and women,
the culture has changed.
And unfortunately,
Christians are changing with the culture.
Instead of going back,
well, what were things like
when people had a fear of God?
It's like, well, who cares?
All right?
If it's acceptable in our society,
it should be acceptable in our church.
No, brethren.
That's not how it ought to be.
Okay?
That's not how things ought to be.
And so, you know,
culture is not my primary reason.
I'm just putting it out there
as an argument.
Okay?
Again, I think nature itself
is teaching us some things.
Okay?
But the opposition to this,
and you know,
some people take the opposition,
well, you shouldn't build
biblical doctrine on culture.
You know,
such as, you know,
some people teach on this topic
and they say, well,
what is the universal sign
on the toilet door?
You know,
on the men's toilet door,
there's a man with pants.
That's a universal sign.
And the universal sign for a woman
is a woman in a skirt.
Okay?
That's a good argument.
I'm not, you know,
I'm saying that's pretty good.
Yeah.
That's a cultural understanding as well.
You know,
internationally understood.
Okay?
But I'm not going to build my doctrine
on signs on a door.
Okay?
But here's the thing.
Here's the thing.
Those that are in opposition
to taking a cultural view
will say, well, yeah,
you know,
you shouldn't build doctrine on culture,
which I agree,
which I largely agree,
but then you turn around
to those same people and say,
well, then how do you decide?
How should we decide then
what is men's and women's clothing?
You know what the answer has been
for people that have asked that?
Well,
whatever is in the women's section,
that's for women,
and whatever's in the men's section
at the shops,
that's for men.
Okay,
men's culture,
but you can use culture.
You know,
the argument,
the opposition against using culture
is using culture.
You just cancel each other out then.
In fact,
you're not in opposition to anything
because you're bringing your own cultural
beliefs into the equation.
Now,
I would love it if that was,
I would love it,
you know,
if I could go to the men's section
and just find men's clothes.
I would love it if I could just go
to the women's section
and find women's clothes.
You know,
I say,
men's pants and women's pants.
Well,
generally,
if you look at the differences,
women's pants are a lot more tighter.
They're a lot more fitting, right?
They're a lot more,
they're just,
it's kind of like,
when you look at it,
you can obviously see that's women's pants
because they're not so baggy.
They're not so loose as men's pants.
Well,
guess what's happened?
Men's pants have become skinny jeans, right?
Men's pants have become tighter.
Men's pants,
I've tried on pants.
I'm like,
whoa,
I can't put this on.
I haven't got my width here.
What's going on?
You know?
And then,
oh,
slim fit.
Where's the,
what's the opposite of slim?
Loose.
Where's the loose fit jeans?
You know,
can you find me that?
Shouldn't this belong in the women's section
if that's what differentiated?
No.
Brevin,
society's changing,
culture is changing.
You can't decide what is men's and women's clothing
based on what these designers have done.
In fact,
many of these designers are homosexuals.
Many of these designers
want men to look like women
and women to look like men.
Many of these designers
have dressed you a certain way
so you can be more sexually appealing
to the opposite sex
and commit fornication.
That's why they design what they design.
Okay?
Why would you take what they say
is women's and men's clothing
and run with that?
Why don't you go back to society
when we feared God
and saw the differences there?
Okay?
That's the argument from the cultural viewpoint.
And then the other opposition to this is,
well, what about those places in the world
where men wear skirts?
You know, that's culturally accepted in China.
Oh yeah,
because, you know,
China's such a great Christian nation.
Is that why?
I mean, think about it.
What's China known for?
Buddhism?
Taoism?
All right?
Praying to dead relatives?
Is that where you're gonna get your inspiration
for how you should dress?
Because Chinese men wear skirts sometimes?
Where?
What about India?
India?
Oh man,
have you seen those Indian gurus?
All right,
with their skirts?
Oh man,
that's culturally acceptable in India.
Hey,
they edify men as gods.
They're polytheistic in their view.
Is that the cultural view you wanna take
and bring to the argument
as how you should dress godly?
How you should please the Lord
with your style of dress?
You know,
Samoa,
the Polynesian nations where they wear,
I forget what they call it.
Sarong, yeah.
They've got different names for it.
Sarong.
They wear that.
Well,
there's a lot of Christians out there.
Yeah,
there's a lot of false teaching out there as well.
There's a lot of Mormons.
There's a lot of JWs.
I mean,
the cults love to go into the Polynesian areas
because they almost believe anything.
You tell them.
I mean,
it's a great place for soul winning.
You know,
they're more likely to believe the gospel.
They're more likely to be receptive,
but these places in the world
that are more receptive
are also more receptive to the cults.
Okay,
is that where you're gonna build your culture from?
I mean,
is Samoa the nation that's sending out
missionaries across the world?
You know,
is that where God is bringing the new leaders
and gospel preachers from?
You know,
what about the ancient Egyptians
and the Romans?
You know,
ancient Egyptians,
yeah,
well,
with their polytheistic gods,
with their half gods,
half animal religion.
Is that,
again,
is that where you're gonna be based
in the Roman Empire?
Again,
they're Jupiters
and they're false gods.
I mean,
think about it.
Of course,
religion has an effect on the culture,
has an effect on the way people dress.
You know,
and look,
I wouldn't be surprised,
in fact,
I'm confident
that in these ancient civilizations,
men wore pants.
It's just that they probably weren't drawn
on the walls
wearing pants.
Okay,
it's usually these people
that elevate themselves as gods
or something important
that put on,
you know,
that cross dress,
basically.
And,
you know,
if you look up,
some people have,
I've heard it said that,
pants are a new invention.
You know,
it's something that's just come into,
you know,
in the last couple of hundred years
or something.
You know,
if you just go to Google,
type in the world's oldest pants,
you know what they found?
They found pants that go back
3,000 years ago
before Jesus Christ.
In China,
out of all places.
Okay,
in China,
you know,
3,000 years ago,
men wore pants.
Hey,
that's the oldest found.
It's a rare find
because nothing's meant
to be found.
Okay?
After a few thousand years,
I mean,
material just deteriorates, right?
The bacteria eats it away
or whatever.
It rots away.
This is a rare find.
It's not like this is
when the pants started.
The fact that they found it
3,000 years ago
just confirms to us
that they've been using it
for thousands of years.
I would say they've been using it
from the very beginning.
Okay?
Once God clothed Adam and Eve.
So,
look,
I'm not going to build
my understanding of clothing
on cultures that are ungodly.
Say,
what about the Scottish kilt?
Oh man,
the Scottish kilt.
You know,
that's just a recent thing.
You know,
it's only been around
since the 16th,
like what we know
as the modern day Scottish kilt.
It's only been around
since the 16th century
from like 1700s.
All right?
You know,
before that,
you know,
actually there's that movie
Braveheart.
I've never seen it.
Okay?
So,
I'm not promoting Hollywood.
I've never seen it.
But apparently,
there's this Scottish hero
William Wallace,
you know,
had some great victories
for Scotland
and the kilt was not invented
for several hundred of years
until after William Wallace.
He never wore a kilt.
You know,
if you look him up,
he wore pants
like a man.
Okay?
That's what he wore.
And you know,
where the kilt comes from,
it wasn't even a skirt.
It was a coat.
You know,
it was used by Scottish soldiers
that would have a coat,
quite a long coat,
and they would sleep in that coat
at night when they'd get cold.
It was just a coat,
like from top to bottom,
all the way down.
Okay?
And then over time,
they eventually put like,
instead of putting a belt,
like I've got a belt
underneath my coat,
they put the belt around the coat.
So,
then it was kind of like that
with a belt.
Okay?
So, keep it still.
Now,
what I read was King George II
because he was the king of England
and Scotland at the time
and they did not like the idea
of people wearing kilts,
you know,
from top to bottom
where they banned it
because,
again,
it was something that soldiers
mostly wore
and they wanted a united kingdom,
so they banned the kilts.
And guess where the modern day
kilt comes from?
Well,
after he banned them,
people started protesting
and they started to put on
modern day kilts
as skirts,
basically.
There was no practical reason
why men ever wore skirts,
even in Scotland.
Okay?
It was a sign of protest.
I didn't know this.
I went to look it up
because I wanted to see
why the Scottish men,
why were they wearing kilts?
What could they do
in kilts that they
couldn't do in pants?
And I realised
there was no practical reason.
It was just someone,
they were protesting
against the king.
That's all.
Okay?
And that's become,
you know,
something that now,
today in Scotland,
they use.
Again, guys,
are we going to use
these examples
to build our understanding
of how we need to dress?
Okay,
so I presented to you
a cultural view
that when you look
at the nations,
the nations,
the peoples
that God has used
where the Bible
has been published,
where missionaries
have come from,
where the word of God
has been proclaimed,
those nations,
guess what?
Women wore skirts
and pants,
skirts and dresses,
men wore pants.
Okay?
When you look at
where God used his word,
where churches
were established,
where missionaries
were sent from,
guess how they dressed?
Men pants.
Women skirts and dresses.
So that's my argument
from a cultural perspective
and I don't think
we should ignore that.
I think it's important
but we shouldn't
build our doctrine
just on something like that, okay?
We shouldn't build
our doctrine on,
of course,
on the word of God.
The next point
that I wanted to bring
is logical.
I never really kind of
brought this up
very, very early on, okay?
But if the preview members
which fall under
the scope of nakedness
and are the most
important differences
between men and women,
if that's the most
important difference
between the two,
then doesn't logic
just tell you
when you cover up
those preview members
we ought to have a distinction
in that area
between men and women.
If that's the most
important difference
that God has put in place,
okay,
reproduction,
okay,
then if we're going
to have clothing
that differs,
there's some difference
between men
and women's clothing,
where would that fall?
Logically.
Well,
it would fall logically
where the biggest
difference are
between men and women.
I'm just appealing
to your logic here, okay?
I think this is common sense.
I don't think
I need to really
bring this out.
I think most people,
yeah,
that makes perfect sense,
okay?
Now,
if that doesn't make sense
to you,
I don't know what to say.
Okay,
there are some things
that doth not even nature
itself teach you,
okay?
That's what I have
in logical.
That's what I have
in logical,
but now I want to go
to biblical.
Take your Bibles
and go to Exodus 28.
Exodus 28 verse 40.
Oh, man,
you're going to turn
to the commandment,
you know,
watch out,
wear pants.
You're going to turn
to that commandment,
aren't you?
There's no commandment
like that,
okay?
But there is a difference.
There is a difference
between men's
and women's clothing
and we're going to look
at that in the Bible.
Look at Exodus 28 verse 40.
Exodus 28 verse 40.
We want to take
a biblical perspective here,
a biblical view.
It says here,
Exodus 28 verse 40,
talking about,
now the Bible
doesn't always tell us
about how people are
dressed in the Bible,
okay?
Now,
we know that John the Baptist
was dressed exactly around
his waist.
Guess what he was
holding up?
Pants.
All right?
Let's have a look at this.
Biblical,
this is looking at the way
the priests were dressed.
Exodus 28 verse 40.
And for Aaron's sons,
thou shall make coats.
Now,
this is important
for you to remember.
Thou shall make coats
and thou shall make
for them girdles,
that's a belt,
and bonnets.
If you remember the thing,
oh, I don't know
if you've seen the pictures
that had quite a tall hat
thing going on,
the priest back then.
And thou shall put them
for glory and for beauty.
And thou shall put upon,
and thou shall put them
upon Aaron thy brother,
and his sons with him,
and shall anoint them
and consecrate them
and sanctify them,
that they may minister unto me
in the priest's office.
Look at this.
And thou shall make them
linen breeches
to cover their nakedness
from the loins,
that's basically like
your hips area,
even unto the thighs
they shall reach.
Thou shall reach.
Hey, this is consistent.
What do they wear?
Breeches.
This is just an old term
of saying pants.
Okay.
They wore pants
and guess what else
was made for them?
Coats.
Okay, now they had
longer coats than this
but they had coats
and guess what's on the coat?
A skirt.
Okay.
This becomes important.
Okay.
Because there are those that say,
well, the priest had skirts.
Well, hold on.
Did we read
they were wearing skirts?
No, they had pants.
Okay.
And they had a coat
around them.
Okay.
So, what we see,
now we don't have
much more to go by.
Okay.
Again, we don't have
thou shall wear pants
in the Bible.
But what do we see?
When we see
how God has instructed
a man to dress.
Yes, a priest
but it's a man.
What does it say?
Pants.
Pants on the man.
Pants to cover his nakedness
from his loins
to his thighs.
Okay.
Now, let's look at the women.
Go to Jeremiah 13.
Jeremiah 13.
And we're going to read
some passages
that are a little bit,
I don't know.
Every word of God is pure.
Let's just say that, okay.
Jeremiah 13 verse 26.
Okay.
Jeremiah 13 verse 26.
And the context here,
kind of like what we started
to preach about Babylon
and started to see
some troops there.
The context here
is about the city of Jerusalem.
Okay.
And God is talking
and they're soon going
to be taken into captivity
by the Babylonians
and God is telling them
about how unfaithful they are.
Okay.
And look at Jeremiah 13 verse 26.
Therefore,
it says this about Jerusalem.
Therefore will I discover
thy skirts upon thy face
and thy shame may appear.
Verse 27.
I have seen thine adulteries
and thy names
and lewdness of thy whoredom
and thine abominations
on the hills of the fields.
Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem,
wilt thou not be made clean
when shall it once be?
Now you can look at this chapter
as much as you want
but you'll notice that God
refers to the city of Jerusalem
in the feminine form
as a female.
Okay.
As a female.
And God's telling them,
look, I'm going to embarrass you.
I'm going to shame you, city.
Okay.
And how does,
what illustration does it use?
Look at verse number 26 again.
And I'm sorry but,
again, it's the word of God here.
Therefore will I discover
thy skirts.
Let's stop there for a minute.
This woman,
the city of Jerusalem,
allegorically or illustratively,
what is it wearing?
A skirt.
Okay.
A skirt.
Now, what kind of skirt?
Therefore will I discover
thy skirts upon thy face
that thy shame may appear.
What is that in reference of?
Look at verse 27.
Verse 27,
I have seen thy adulteries.
Okay.
This is using,
you know,
the illustration of the preview members,
basically.
Okay.
Now, a woman would typically
wear a skirt,
okay,
from the hips,
right,
and if you're doing it biblically,
to covering the thighs,
right.
But here's the thing.
If you took a skirt
that long from your hips to your,
say to your knee,
to your knee area,
and you flipped it,
you reversed it,
it's not gonna cover your face exactly.
The length from your hips
to your face
is actually longer
than from your hips
to your knees.
Okay.
That's just pretty much universal
with anybody.
But if this case,
if the skirt's able
to cover the face,
okay,
it's been lifted up
to show the nakedness,
right,
it's been lifted up,
guess what?
That means the skirt
that God is referring to here,
I know it's illustrative,
okay,
would be longer
than going past your knees.
Now, I'm not saying,
this is saying,
thou shall wear a skirt
that's past your knees.
That's not what it's saying.
I'm just trying to show you
how God is using the illustration
of a skirt here
that if you flipped it over
and you uncovered
the woman's nakedness,
it would cover her face.
That's a pretty long skirt.
It's a pretty decently long skirt,
okay,
being used there.
Okay.
Why didn't he just refer
to the breeches
on the woman there?
Oh, you know,
I'm gonna pull down
your breeches.
Because women,
in that day,
all right,
logically and culturally,
it should be universally understood
they were wearing skirts.
That's why.
And God just expects you
to know that
as you read it.
Go to Lamentations,
the next book in the Bible.
Lamentations.
So, Jeremiah is about
how Israel,
sorry,
how Jerusalem is gonna be
taken captive
by the Babylonians.
And then Lamentations
is about
when the Babylonians
have already
taken Jerusalem, okay.
They've already conquered
Jerusalem in Lamentations
chapter one, verse eight.
Lamentations,
chapter one,
verse eight.
It says here,
Jerusalem have
grievously sinned.
Therefore,
she is removed.
All that honored her
despise her,
because they have
seen her
nakedness.
Yea,
she sigheth
and turneth backward.
Look at this.
Her filthiness
is in her skirts.
She remembereth
not her last end.
Therefore,
she came down wonderfully
She had no comforter,
O Lord.
Behold my affliction,
for the enemy
hath magnified himself.
What happened to Jerusalem?
They saw her nakedness, right?
Verse number nine.
Her filthiness
is in her
skirts.
Okay.
She's been
a whore.
She's been
an adulterous woman
to God.
And your filthiness
is seen, as it were,
illustrated again
on her skirts.
Okay.
Why?
Because, again,
everybody knows
that women
wear skirts.
Okay.
This is a description
of a woman
in the reference
of a city here.
Now, I'm going to read you
one more passage.
You don't need to turn there.
I'm going to turn to
Nahum chapter three,
verse four.
Nahum chapter three,
verse four.
Nahum is preaching
against Nineveh.
So, we're not talking
about Jerusalem now.
We're talking about
a Gentile city,
Nineveh,
of the Babylonians.
And it says,
he uses the same language,
Nahum chapter three,
verse four,
because of the multitude
of the whoredoms
of the well-favored harlot,
the mischief of witchcraft
that selleth nation
through her whoredoms
and families
through her witchcrafts.
Behold, I am against thee,
saith the Lord of hosts,
and I will discover
thy skirts upon thy face,
and I will show the nations
thy nakedness
and the kingdoms
thy shame.
What does God
say about Nineveh?
Again,
your skirts
are going to be flipped up.
It's going to cover your face.
It's going to cover the nations,
your nakedness,
your shame.
Again,
using a feminine way
of describing the city
and how a woman is dressed.
Okay?
And of course,
this would be super embarrassing
if this was a real woman,
her dress being lifted up
to her face
and her nakedness being
shown to everybody.
Okay?
So,
look,
where's the verse?
Women, thou shalt wear skirts.
This is all we get, guys.
What do we see with men?
Pants?
Skirts?
I mean,
are you going to fight
against that?
What are you going to do?
Okay?
That's how the Bible has it.
And it's written in a way
expecting you to know this.
Right?
Expecting you to understand this.
Expecting you to know this.
And you might say,
well,
maybe these women and men
that had multiple clothing
in their closets
like we did.
Multiple shoes,
multiple pants,
multiple shoes.
Back in those days,
clothing was super expensive.
Okay?
It's not like today
where machines basically
make clothing
where everything comes from
China with cheap labor.
You know,
I just had to look this up.
If you wanted to get
a properly made tailored suit,
you know,
where you'd got someone,
they'd measure you up.
You know,
this suit and the pants,
it didn't cost me like
a hundred bucks.
Something like that, right?
Cheap.
But if you wanted something
made for you,
and that's what they did back then.
They made clothing
for the person that wore it.
Right?
Measured it up,
put it all together,
and they made it from
$1,000 to $5,000.
Okay?
And you'd get to the
$1,000 mark
if you're importing
the material from China
or something.
If you're getting it
from Australia,
yeah, it's going to get up there
like $4,000, $5,000.
Okay?
Clothing was expensive
back then.
They didn't have
a variety of clothes.
They wore pretty much
the same things all the time.
Okay?
As they needed it,
they bought clothing.
Okay?
And a great illustration
of this is when
Jesus Christ is crucified.
I'll just show you
very quickly.
Mark 15, 24.
And when they had
crucified him,
they parted his garments,
casting lots upon them
what every man should take.
They knew Christ was
going to die.
They said,
man, there's good
clothing here.
It's expensive.
Thousands of dollars
worth, right?
In our eyes.
Well, let's divot it up.
Let's see who can take what.
Because it's valuable.
Clothing back then
was valuable.
It's not like
you had a skirt
in your closet
and then some pants there.
Bible uses this term.
That's pretty much
all they had.
Pretty much all they had.
I think back
just a few generations
where I hear stories
of my parents are like
basically we just,
we slept in what we wore
at work.
We bathed in the river
with the clothes that we wear
kind of thing, right?
I mean,
it was obviously expensive
back in the days
before machinery
to have clothing
and that's the time
they lived in, right?
It's expensive
to have clothing.
Now, if you guys can go
to Psalm 133, please.
Go to Psalm 133 for me.
And I just want to address
some opposition
to teaching.
Psalm 133,
and again,
I'm not going to necessarily
address every opposition.
You may have some verses
you want to bring up
that I don't really,
you know,
I can't spend a whole sermon
going through every verse
that people use, okay?
But I just want to show you
some things that people use
to teach against this
and say,
well, men wore skirts
or whatever.
Psalm 133 verse 2.
Psalm 133 verse 2 says,
It is like the precious ointment
upon the head
that ran down upon the beard,
even Aaron's beard,
and went down to the skirts
of his garments.
Aha!
There it is.
Aaron was wearing a skirt
for a garment.
There you go.
Man, I just wasted,
how long have we been
preaching this?
No, look,
what did Aaron wear?
We already read it, right?
Now, I'm going to turn
to Exodus 29
where this is coming from.
Exodus 29 verse 21.
It just says,
And thou shalt take the blood
that is upon the altar,
and the anointing oil,
and sprinkle it upon Aaron,
upon his garments,
just says garments,
and upon his sons,
and upon the garments
of his sons with him,
and he shall be hallowed,
and his garments,
and his sons,
and his sons' garments
with him.
So, what was sprinkled
with this oil of anointing?
His garments.
This is Exodus 29.
What did we already read
in Exodus 28 verse 42?
And thou shalt make them
linen breeches
to cover their nakedness,
from the loins even
unto the thighs
they shall reach.
Just the chapter before,
talk about the garments
of these priests
that these priests wore.
They were wearing pants,
not skirts.
When the oil was put
on these guys,
they were wearing pants.
The skirts I've been referring to
are the skirts of their coats,
okay, the skirts or the hem
of their coats, all right?
That's one opposition
that I've heard.
And just to sort of bring
this further into light,
just a very quick one.
I'll read it to you.
You guys go to Exodus 20.
Go to Exodus 20 for me.
I will turn to
1 Samuel 24 verse 4.
And the men of David
said unto him,
behold the day of which
the Lord said unto thee,
behold I will deliver thine enemy
into thine hand,
that thou mayest do to him,
as it shall seem good unto thee.
Then David arose,
look at this,
and cut off the skirt
of Saul's robe, privately.
So, was Saul,
King Saul, wearing a skirt?
I was wearing a robe, all right?
And King David cut the skirt
off his robe, okay?
The bottom parts of the robe.
And it came to pass afterward
that David's heart smote him
because he had cut off
Saul's skirt, okay?
So, it was his robe, okay?
David did not cut a skirt,
like a women's skirt,
off King David, King Saul, okay?
Now you guys are in Exodus 20.
Look at verse number 26.
Exodus 20 verse 26.
And this is the one,
aha, here we go, here we go.
See, men wore skirts
in the Bible.
It can't be the skirts
and the pants
that differentiate
between men and women.
So he said,
Exodus 20 verse 26.
Neither, this is talking
about the priests,
neither shall thou go up
by steps unto mine altar,
that thy nakedness
be not discovered thereon.
All right, so one of the instructions
when you built an altar
was not to have steps in place.
And the argument is there,
well, hold on,
if the men were wearing pants, okay,
how could you see their nakedness
if they're climbing up the steps,
if they created steps
and that would reveal
their nakedness,
how can that be
unless they were wearing skirts?
Well, let's just take for a minute
that they were wearing skirts.
Let's just take that for a minute.
How far upstairs
do you need to get
to be able to look up
someone's skirt?
Pretty high.
I mean, it's got to be
above my eyesight.
And not only just above my eyesight,
you pretty much have to be
right there, like,
if they're wearing skirts.
Is that what it's about?
We already saw
that they were in pants,
you know, up to the thighs, okay.
And we already saw
that the thighs
are considered nakedness
in the Bible, okay.
So, what's the principle here?
Well, if you're climbing up steps,
guess what's happened?
You know, when you put on pants,
when you buy clothing,
you don't just stand still
and walk like this.
You know, when you move,
you bend down, you run,
you climb upstairs,
guess what's going to happen?
The garment's going to roll up
a little bit, okay.
You've got pants or skirts, right,
and you start walking up the stairs,
it's going to start
revealing your thighs.
It's going to uncover
your nakedness.
Hey, there's a great principle here.
Make sure when you buy pants,
not only does it cover your thighs,
but as you're going about
doing some type of activity,
bending down, walking,
sitting down on a chair,
that it's still covering
your nakedness.
It's still covering your thighs.
That's the principle
to take out of that.
Not that men wear skirts
and people would look up
their skirt and see the nakedness.
No, it's just walking up,
doing activity.
You know this.
Everyone knows this, right?
You stretch, you sit,
you get up, you bend down,
you walk upstairs,
it's going to pull up
the garments on your thighs.
And so that's all it is, guys.
It's not some complicated,
look, I mean,
does that verse say
they're wearing skirts?
No, but that's what
they want you to believe, okay.
That's what they want you to believe
because they're contentious.
They don't like what
the word of God teaches.
I've spoken about, sorry,
nakedness, let me get on
to modesty, modesty.
If you guys can go to
1 Timothy chapter 2.
1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 9.
Because, and look,
I'm not having to go
to the ladies in this church
because I've seen it everywhere,
all right, every church.
Ladies eventually get convinced,
okay, yep, I've got to wear a skirt.
Okay, good.
But then they come to church
and they're wearing a skirt,
but it's skin tight, all right.
Skin tight.
1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 9.
In like manner also,
the women adorn themselves
in modest apparel,
with shamefacedness and sobriety,
not with broided hair or gold
or pearls or costly array.
You know, I looked up
Cambridge dictionary
just on Google quickly.
What is the definition of modest, okay?
When it comes to,
we know what modest means.
It means like not bringing
attention to yourself.
But when it comes to clothing,
what's the definition there
in Cambridge dictionary?
It says the quality in women
of dressing or behaving in a way
that is intended to avoid
attracting sexual interest.
That's modesty.
When the Bible says
in modest apparel,
that's what it's saying.
Dressing away that is intended
to avoid attracting sexual interest.
Oh man, I've covered my nakedness.
I've covered the...
The idea there is basically,
see, I've covered the skin.
You can't see anything.
The skin of my thighs
or my loins or my buttocks.
Skin is not the issue, Reverend.
It's the shape.
It's the figure.
It's the shape.
That's what the issue is, Reverend.
Come on, don't tell me
you don't get this.
Don't tell me you don't know this.
Of course you know this.
Again, men are naturally attracted
to the figure of a woman.
Naturally.
It's not like you just start
with these impure thoughts.
It's just that's how God
made you to be, right?
And that's why you go
and find a woman, a wife,
and settle down.
And you make a commitment
like Job did, right?
I covered it with the eyes
that I would not look
upon a mate.
It's settled.
That's it.
I've chosen this woman.
You know?
And women are attracted
to the figure of a man.
We're different.
We put on weight differently.
We put on fat differently.
Women put fat around their
hips and their thighs
and men put it around their
bellies and stuff like that, right?
Everything's different about us.
You know?
And believe it or not,
men find the hips,
child-bearing hips,
the shape of the thighs
and the hips,
they find that attractive.
Oh man, just you, Pastor Kevin.
All men find that attractive.
Okay?
So is covering your
nakedness with a skirt
but it's skin tight
so you can see every figure
and everything.
You know, it almost matters
where I just wear pants.
I mean, it's probably
less sexually attractive
if a woman wore pants, right?
Baggy pants,
than some tight-fitting skirt.
You know, that rolls up
when they sit down,
you can see the thighs
and all that.
Think about what you're doing, all right?
Are we just trying to get by
and do the minimum
of God's commands?
Are we trying to live properly
and according to his laws
and his ways?
Understanding, like,
come on, man.
We've got the same flesh and blood.
The things that I find attractive,
I know other men find attractive.
The things my wife finds attractive,
I know other women
are going to find attractive.
Okay?
There's a right place
to put all that, though.
That's in the marriage bed.
That's between husband and wife.
Okay?
Not in church.
Not at the beach.
Not in these other places.
Not in public places.
Okay?
There's a proper place
to uncover the nakedness.
We'll go into that later on.
Like I said, Job says in Job 31,
one,
I made a covenant with mine eyes.
Why, then,
should I think upon a maid?
You know what Job is saying here?
I just naturally will think upon a maid.
Job is one of the most righteous men
that we read about in the Bible.
Perfect in his generations.
And even he had to make a decision.
I need to stop my eyes.
I need to make a covenant agreement.
Eyes,
you're in obedience to the new man here.
You don't look upon these other women like that.
Job, a righteous man.
I don't think any of us
are righteous in Job.
Okay?
I mean,
he was a great man
and he even struggled in this area.
And I'm just saying,
ladies in this church,
think about how you dress.
You know,
do you want your brother in the Lord
to stumble?
To have impure thoughts?
To have wrong thoughts?
We're here to serve one another.
And when it comes to modesty,
not only should you not wear
skin-tight clothing
that just shows every shape of your body.
Okay?
But,
I'm going to talk about the breasts.
Okay?
And I've heard it said,
you know,
breasts are not nakedness.
And I agree.
Well,
you cannot build a biblical definition
for breasts being naked.
But you know one thing you can do?
This is not just about nakedness.
This is nakedness,
modesty,
and shame.
Okay?
Uncovering the breast
is immodest.
Is immodest.
Okay?
And the thought that,
look,
men, again,
naturally find the figure
of a woman attractive.
That includes the breasts.
I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable.
Okay?
But this is,
I've got to teach this stuff.
I've got to teach it.
Including the breasts.
And it's like,
well,
you know,
the thought there is,
well,
you know,
breasts have only been sexualized
in the Western cultures.
You know,
it's only a recent thing
in the Western world.
No, it's not.
It's all over your Bible.
I'll just read to you.
You need to turn all there, guys.
Song of Solomon,
chapter eight,
verse 10.
The wife says to her husband,
I am a wall,
and my breasts like towers.
Then was I in his eyes
as one that found favor.
Song of Solomon,
Proverbs 5, 18.
Let thy fountain be blessed,
and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
Let her be as a loving hind
and pleasant roe.
Let her breasts satisfy thee
at all times,
and be thou ravished always
with her love.
So,
where's the right place
to appreciate one another?
The marriage bed,
husbands and wives.
Verse 20 then says,
why and why wilt thou, my son,
be ravished with a strange woman
and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
You know what it's saying there?
The word bosom is just another
saying breasts.
Why would you look at another woman?
In what reference?
The breasts.
Go and find a wife.
That's the right place.
That's the right place
in the marriage bed.
Union between husbands and wives
to share that.
Okay?
So,
don't tell me that this is,
you know,
you know, breast.
Yeah, I know it's not nakedness.
I get it.
I get that.
It's obvious.
Alright?
But it's still something
that attracts men.
Okay?
It's why our society
doesn't walk around topless.
Oh, it gets new to speech
and stuff like that,
but you know,
forget them, right?
I'm talking about
normal human beings, right?
There's a reason why
we get dressed.
It's because there's something
in you called shame.
There's a conscience in you.
There's something that nature
itself teaches you.
Okay?
And you cover your breasts,
ladies.
And again,
just like pants or skirts,
you're probably gonna be
moving your top.
You're gonna be bending down.
You're gonna be doing things.
Well, dressed in a way
where it's safe.
Even if you're doing something.
Now look,
if something accidentally
gets exposed,
it's obviously not on purpose.
Okay?
You know,
everyone knows whether
you're trying or you're not trying.
Let's put it that way.
Okay?
Everyone knows
if you're trying
or you're not trying.
Okay?
And be thoughtful.
You know,
if you've got a low cut top,
I'm not gonna say,
okay,
it's gotta be two centimeters
from the neckline or something.
That's not for me.
I'm trying to preach
to the new man in you.
I'm trying to preach
to your conscience.
Okay?
I'm trying to preach
to that person
that's in tune
with the spirit of God
so you know what is right
and wrong.
You know what is right
and wrong.
Okay?
Exactly.
He gives us
a general idea
and it's,
let's just go with that.
It makes sense.
Okay?
You know,
if you've got a top ladies,
bend down.
Look in the mirror.
What's exposed?
How much?
Okay?
Be mindful.
Be thoughtful.
Okay?
Husbands,
play a role
in how your wives get dressed,
how your daughters get dressed.
For church.
Yeah,
but not just church.
Every aspect of life.
Okay?
The reason
I've not preached
on this early on,
is I don't want a church
full of Pharisees.
I don't want a church
full of people dressed properly
but inwardly,
you're living like the world.
You know,
I just dress for church
and I'll go home now
and I can dress however I want.
Put the pants back on.
Men,
put your skirts back on at home.
I don't want that.
You know,
I want you to know
that you've got to walk
in the new man.
Okay?
You know.
Sorry.
Yeah.
Walk in the spirit.
You know what's right.
You change what's
on the inside first.
Then the outward
will naturally come.
A lot of these things,
I shouldn't have to tell you.
It should be common sense.
And um,
let me touch on breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding.
A new baby.
Okay?
Again,
breasts are not nudity.
It's not nakedness.
If you've got to breastfeed,
you've got to breastfeed.
You've got to feed the baby.
Okay?
Again,
we know this.
I'm not talking about our society.
I'm not talking about,
I'm talking about God's people.
I'm talking about you guys.
Okay?
If a woman needs to breastfeed,
breastfeed.
But what did we read in
1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 9?
It said,
in a like manner also,
that women adorn themselves
in modest apparel
with shame-facedness
and sobriety.
Shame-facedness.
Ladies,
you need to blush a little bit.
Have a bit of shame.
A little bit.
It's healthy for you.
Okay?
To know.
Sobriety.
That means a serious mind.
Alright?
If you're,
you know,
if you've got to breastfeed your baby,
and you've got a bunch of men
gathered around you,
you know,
it's not the right time
to flop it out
to feed your baby
in front of all the men.
In front of everybody.
That's not modesty.
It's not nudity.
I know it's not nudity.
But it's not modesty.
Okay?
Do you want your brethren
to stumble,
to fall?
You know,
have some shame-facedness
about you.
You know,
the Bible says in,
I've got a reference here.
Let me just see if I can,
well,
I've got to go shame-facedness
later.
I'm sort of skipping over
my notes a little bit.
Sorry.
But you know,
the Bible says in 1 Peter 3, 3.
You guys go there.
Go to 1 Peter 3, 3.
1 Peter 3, 3.
Now let me just say,
if someone has a little baby
and you need a breastfeed,
you breastfeed.
I'm never going to criticize you.
I'm never going to attack you.
Okay?
Some ladies want to have
a sleeve to cover themselves.
So be it.
It's their choice.
It's their child.
Some women would rather not
have a sleeve or a covering.
Okay.
Fair.
It's their choice.
Don't go around criticizing
other women
because they do things
slightly differently to you.
Where's the command?
You know,
but be mindful.
You know,
before you do that,
be mindful.
You know,
before you go and breastfeed
a child,
you know,
don't announce it.
All right,
men,
I'm going to breastfeed my child.
All right,
everyone gather around
because it's not nakedness.
Let me just pop it out here
and I'm going to breastfeed
my child.
Is that how you should be?
Come on.
Common sense.
Yeah.
Common sense is what I'm asking for.
All right.
Now,
if somebody,
if a lady has a breastfeed
and she finds a corner,
no one's,
everyone's going to be like,
okay, you know,
there's nothing wrong about it.
Good.
That's how you should be
as ladies.
Look at 1 Peter,
chapter 3,
verse 3.
1 Peter,
chapter 3,
verse 3.
And,
I want,
men,
you're the heads of your homes.
You're in charge.
God has given you
your role.
You've got to own it.
Okay.
I've got to own it.
Okay.
I'm in charge of my wife.
I'm in charge of how my daughters dress
and look,
you know,
we try to dress Isabelle
as modest as we can
with a long skirt,
as much as we can,
but kids grow.
You know,
before you know it,
all of a sudden,
she's putting on a skirt
and I'm like,
Isabelle,
that's a short for you.
That's not intentional.
It's just you don't realize
kids grow, right?
So when you go
and you buy your daughters
a dress or even your son
some shorts,
keep in mind,
they're going to grow.
You know,
you're not just going to put it on.
Okay,
does it cover your thighs?
Is it up to you?
Kids keep growing, right?
What's the point of having
a piece of clothing
that's going to last,
last you just a few weeks
and then it's like,
well,
we spent all that money.
You know,
I'm not going to,
what am I going to do now?
Well,
maybe you should have been
a little smarter
and bought a longer,
you know,
piece of clothing,
you know,
and make sure that it lasts
a decent length of time.
I understand the difficulties.
I fully understand it.
Christina spends hours
and hours and hours
looking for,
not so much the boys.
The boys are easier,
but girls,
looking for clothing for girls.
Little girls,
like Amelia's age,
sexualized clothing.
Okay,
it's disgusting,
disgusting.
That's not just homosexuals.
It's pedophiles
that create these clothing.
Okay,
that's what they like to look at.
I don't want you to like
to look at that.
You're God's people.
You're the children of God.
And,
you know,
I hope I've shown you
why women,
you should dress appropriately,
dress in a skirt,
in a dress,
whatever.
But here's the thing.
I'm not your husband,
you know,
or girls.
I'm not your father.
You know,
your father's at home.
The head of the house
is at home.
You've got to talk to them.
You've got to sort it out
with them,
see what they say.
And,
you know,
I've spoken to a lot of men,
and look,
I'm not the kind of guy
that walks into someone's house.
Honestly,
I don't want anything
to do with your family,
all right,
except to preach to them
at church.
I don't want to sort out
your own family issues,
okay?
I don't want to do it.
But I have men
come up to me
and say,
well,
I would love my wife
to wear a skirt.
I would love my wife
to wear a dress.
And,
you know,
I talked to godly men
when I was younger.
You know what
the godly men say?
People that love the Lord,
love the Bible,
men that will actually
look after a woman,
say,
you know,
I find women that wear skirts
and dresses more attractive,
they say.
They're showing less
than the world,
okay?
I've seen churches
where there's a lot of people
and you have unsaved,
worldly men coming to churches
looking for a wife.
Why?
There's a difference normally,
okay?
Because in the world,
yeah,
they see the lust of the flesh.
They see the promiscuous woman.
There's plenty of that.
That's easy.
There's so many of them.
But at a point
when they get to realize
I need to find a wife.
I need a mother for my children.
You know what
they start thinking?
Maybe the church.
Unbelievers.
Unsaved men.
Maybe the church
because the women seem
to dress well.
They seem to look
after themselves.
They're not going around
you know,
hauling themselves hopefully.
You know,
that's the thought
of ungodly,
unsaved men.
And girls,
you know,
I want you to find
a good husband.
Boys,
I want you to find
a godly wife,
okay?
It all starts here.
You know,
when you start
to neglect your clothing,
when you start
to dress like the world,
you're not going
to look anything different
to the world.
You're not going
to be able to attract
the godly man.
The one that's going
to look after you.
The one that's going
to stay with you
till death do us part.
You're not going
to find that man.
You'll find plenty
of men.
And boys,
there's plenty
of women out there.
You'll find plenty
of them, okay?
But when you're looking
for a wife,
and that's what
you should be looking
for, okay?
That's where these things,
nakedness needs
to be shared
is in the marriage bed.
And so I hear things
like men say,
you know,
I'd love to,
you know,
my wife wears a skirt
and she just doesn't
want to.
And look,
let's just give it
to these wives
that don't want
to wear skirts.
Let's just give it
to them.
Let's just say,
yeah, all right,
the Bible never says
that you need
to wear a skirt.
The Bible never says
you can't wear pants.
Let's just give that
to them for a minute,
okay?
Let's go to 1 Peter
chapter 3 verse 3.
1 Peter chapter 3 verse 3.
The Bible says,
And that's the person
I want to talk to,
by the way.
That's the person
I want to preach
this afternoon,
okay,
to the hidden man
of the heart
in that which
is not corruptible,
even the ornament
of a meek
and quiet spirit
which is in the sight
of God of great price.
For after this manner
in the old time,
the holy women also
who trusted
the Lord
and the Lord
also who trusted
in God
adorn themselves,
being in subjection
unto their own husbands.
You say,
I don't believe
it's a sin to wear pants.
Okay,
but does your husband
want you to wear
a skirt?
Yes.
Well then you're in sin
because you're not
being subject
to your husband's request.
You're not
under his subjection.
Okay,
you may feel
it's not a sin
but you disobey
your husband
He wants you to dress you are committing sin against him you are committing sin against the Lord
Okay, and if you want your husband's to be strong men strong leaders a husband that loves me a husband
I look after me a husband that will give me attention
well
You need to learn to be submissive and vice versa men you want women to be submissive
You need to learn how to be a leader you need to show them love you need to love them as Christ loved the church
Okay, you need to be a leader man, but ladies you need to understand even if it's not
You know in the Bible you you still required to obey your husband's
Okay, just like children are to obey the parents in everything, but that's why I had to tell us what everything is no
Okay, if your husband wants you in a dress in a skirt
Do it for him do it because you love him do it because you love the Lord
he's the one that put that authority over your head and
Then I know once you do that these passages are going to be crystal clear to you
It's gonna be more obvious than you realize all right, so
Last thing I want to talk about your shame-facedness. I'm sorry. We've gone over time shame-facedness, but
This is a quick one if you guys can go to you guys go to Genesis 24
Sorry, Genesis chapter 2 go to Genesis chapter 2 will end on this Genesis chapter 2 and while your turn there
I'll read to you from Jeremiah chapter 6 verse 15
Okay, Jeremiah chapter 6 verse 15 remember the modest woman should have shame-facedness about her okay?
And let me just show you what this means in Jeremiah 6 15 it says
Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?
Nay, they were not at all ashamed
Neither could they blush
Neither could a blush when you're not ashamed and you dress him modestly you dress naked
You're not ashamed, and you can't even blush about it
What I'm saying to you is you need to bring some of that blushing back you need to bring some of that shame-facedness
Back in the way you dress okay?
This is not a positive thing when they can't blush. This is a negative attribute, okay?
You guys are in Genesis 2 chapter 24 Genesis chapter 2 verse 24
You see shame is part of your emotional whatever system
God has put into us your conscience the things that help us in life that direct our paths, okay?
You will know when you put on a piece of clothing if you feel a bit ashamed about it. Don't wear it
Okay that that start there put on clothing. I'm going to get dressed they
Bring me a bit of shame this brings me a lot of unnecessary attention here. You know well
Don't wear it then get rid of it. Oh clothing is so expensive. It's so cheap these days guys. It's cheap
Yes, it requires work to find the right piece of clothing, but it's there okay, and you say well
I can't afford it. Well. I'm sure if you just bring up the statement your bank statement for the last month
I'm sure you'll find tons of nonsense that you spent on
Absolutely rubbish things you spent on well if you just didn't spend it on that guess what you probably could have bought yourself in your closet
Of clothes okay, and if you still can't afford it well
Don't you think if you go to God and say God you know what I need to fix my like you know my dress
I need to fix the way I dress I need to go and buy clothing
You're not think that God will bless you and God will provide you the finances
You don't think if you're trying to do things in accordance to God's Word. He's going to help you in that step
Listen it's worth it. It's worth it to please the Lord look at Genesis chapter 2 verse 24. We'll end on this
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh
And they were both naked for man and his wife and were not ashamed
Okay
Quick summary if you're showing your nakedness in public you ought to be ashamed of that and if you're not ashamed
There's something wrong with you. There's something wrong. Okay. You you there's something missing. Okay. I'm not saying you're not saying
I'm just saying there's something wrong with your mind. Okay
you could be
So into the flesh a lot more than you realize and you don't even realize when you're showing nakedness, or you're being immodest
But nakedness in of itself
Is a good thing in of itself in its right place, okay?
Okay either
Privately when you go have a shower you have a bath privately you got to do it naked right nothing's sinful about that
Or as husband and wife here, okay?
God put this man and woman in their home in the Garden of Eden though both naked the man his wife and were not ashamed
Okay
There's a time and place to enjoy what God has created
Okay, but once again. It's in the family. Okay. It's in the marriage husband and wives
alone
Privately behind closed doors the marriage bed. That's the right place for nakedness
Outside of that guys. It's wrong outside of that is unbiblical outside of that is immodest, okay?
So I hope that gives you some things to think about
If you come to ladies if you come to church wearing the pants, I'm not gonna
Tell you to turn around that's up to your husband. You know your husband. I don't know if men come wearing a skirt
Oh, I don't know. I think I think I'm here to leave
I'm the pastor I get to make these judgment calls, okay?
But but look here's the thing I don't want to tell you you need to figure it out man
I'm asking you do it in your home. Okay work it out all right
But if I do find someone dressed really inappropriately
You know I will address it with you, okay, and I'm not gonna dress it with you in front of everybody, okay?
I'll dress it with you privately. I'll just say look. This is a situation
Can you cover up okay?
And if it's a man I'll say to the man if it's a woman I'll say it to her head
Okay, if it's if it's a girl. I'll say to her father. It's a wife. I'll say it to her husband
Okay, because again. I don't want to
What's the word I
Don't want to supersede
You know the father father's authority the husband's authority in his home
You guys are in charge you can do whatever you want
You know if you really want and you get your wife's to wear skirts at church, but then she gets home. She wears pants
It's not gonna bother me. It's you're not doing it for me. Okay. It's not about me
it's about how well can we live our lives in accordance to God's Word and
Make sure you do things not to be a Pharisee just to look good on the outside
Make sure you're right on the inside and I'll tell you immediately you you do what's right on the inside you cleanse the inside you
Confess your sins before the Lord the outward will automatically come with it. It's going to happen
I personally seen a lot of change even in this church as
The years have gone by and as we've learned more about the Bible and we learn more about walking in the spirit
I've already seen changes. I already see good things happening in this church, okay?
But maybe sometimes we need a sermon like this from time to time all right. Let's leave it there. Let's pray