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Men. So the title of my sermon tonight is religious cosplay. Religious cosplay. So I looked up cosplay in the dictionary. It is the art or practice of wearing costumes to portray characters from fiction, especially from manga, animation, and science fiction. So basically this is like people go to a Star Trek convention and they dress up like characters from Star Trek or they'll dress up like anime characters, cartoon characters, and we're talking about grown adults. I mean, we're talking about people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s that are dressing up in costumes because it's fun to play dress up, right? But the Bible says, you know, when I became a man, I put away childish things. So little kids, they dress up like cowboys and Indians. They put on a space suit. They put on these different outfits and they put on a cape and they run around as a superhero. But today there are adults who do this and this activity is called cosplay, okay? Now the reason the title of the sermon is religious cosplay is because we have a lot of adults in various religions who like to put on costumes and somehow they think that this makes them more spiritual or maybe they just think it's fun or cool or that they could look cool or get attention by dressing up in funny outfits instead of just wearing normal clothing like a normal person, okay? Now this has been going on for a very long time. There's nothing new under the sun. If you would turn to Mark Chapter 12, we're going to look at a whole bunch of scripture tonight and we're going to talk about these different religious dress up activities that people do in various religions whether it's so-called Christianity, whether it's Judaism, whether it's Islam, the different outfits that they put on and the costume. And look, it might seem a little radical to call this like a religious equivalent of cosplay but have you seen some of the outfits? You know, when we were over in Palestine in our film Beyond Jordan, there are even some clips there where I mean some of those outfits are pretty wild that they're putting on at that Orthodox church service. They get in some pretty wild wizard outfits and costumes, okay. Now look what the Bible says in Mark Chapter 12 and I don't understand how people can not understand or disregard such a clear scripture is what I'm about to show you. And it's not alone. I'm going to show you in both Mark and Luke, Jesus addresses this subject of the long robes, the wizard capes. Look what the Bible says in Mark Chapter 12 verse 38. And he said unto them in his doctrine, beware of the scribes which love to go in long clothing and love salutations in the marketplace. What could be clearer than what Jesus said right there? Hey, watch out for these guys, these religious leaders who they love to go in long clothing and they love the salutations in the marketplaces. Folks, these two things go hand in hand. How do you get the salutation in the marketplace? By wearing the long clothing. Hey everybody, look at me. Look how religious I am. I'm a priest. I'm a scribe. Everybody look at my long flowing garment. And Jesus rebukes this very clearly. Now here's the part that just boggles my mind. Why are there so many Sunday school pictures depicting Jesus wearing long robes when he specifically rebuked the teachers and the scribes that wear the long robes? Can somebody explain that to me? That makes no sense. What kind of a hypocrite would Jesus be if he was going around in long clothes and getting those kind of greetings for wearing a long robe and then he gets mad and rebukes the scribes for doing the same thing? That would make him a hypocrite. I promise you, I guarantee you that Jesus did not wear long robes. I promise you, I guarantee you that Jesus did not wear long clothing because if he did, he would be a hypocrite and we know Jesus without sin. He said here, beware of the ones who go in the long clothing. Now let's go to Luke chapter 20 to get a second witness here. We're not just basing this on one Bible verse. Let's get a second witness from the Gospel of Luke. In Mark chapter 12, he said, beware of the scribes which love to go in long clothing. And then in Luke, he's going to mention long robes. So this is very specific. Long clothing, in case you don't know what that meant, it's long robes that we're talking about. Look at Luke chapter 20 verse 46. Beware of the scribes which desire to walk in long robes and love greetings in the markets and the highest seats in the synagogues and the chief rooms at feasts. You will never convince me that Jesus wore long robes or long clothing. Never going to convince me of that because the Bible teaches to the contrary in these two clear scriptures. And look, if Jesus is telling them, quote, in his doctrine, so this isn't just some preference. In his doctrine, he said, here's a little doctrine for you. Watch out for the guy in the long robes. Watch out for the guy in the long clothing. You don't hear this preached. It's certainly not being preached in the Catholic and Protestant churches where they wear these long flowing robes and garments. Now what some people will object to is they'll say, well, what about in Revelation chapter 1 where Jesus clothed to a garment down to the foot? Here's the thing. When Jesus Christ is glorified and when we are glorified in Revelation chapter 7, then we're all issued these robes because at that point we're ruling and reigning and putting on this fancy pearl. But when Jesus was on this earth, he walked the earth as a humble man. He did not go around with a crown on his head, dressed in a gorgeous robe and purple and gold and soft clothing. He said, what went you out in the wilderness to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? John the Baptist wore a rough garment. He wore rough clothing. And you know what? Jesus rebuked the scribes that are trying to be so fancy and regal and look at me in my long robes and my long apparel. The only time you'll ever see Jesus wear a robe, pay attention to this, study the four gospels, read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You want to know when Jesus wears a robe? When they put a robe on him to make fun of him. That's the only time. The only time you see Jesus wearing a robe, they beat him up, spit in his face, and then they put him in what the Bible calls a gorgeous robe or a purple robe and he puts on the scarlet robe, they force him to wear it with a crown of thorns. And then that's when they make fun of him. They bow down to him and say, hail king of the Jews. So to say Jesus walked around wearing a robe is inaccurate. He only wore it when he was being made fun of. Now obviously when he comes back as a king, he's going to be dressed in royal kingly garments. And if you study the Old Testament, you'll see kings wearing royal garments. You'll see the high priest wearing royal garments. But God has not called us to walk around into the grocery store with a scepter and one of those robes that has the kind of white fur with the black dots on it right around here and coming in and, everyone look at me, I'm the pastor. I am clergy. I am the bishop. That's not the way religious ministers are supposed to be. They're supposed to be a minister, which is a servant and we're supposed to be humble. Jesus and his disciples walked on this earth in a humble way and we're to watch out for these dress up religions. Watch out for it. When you see the Catholics with all their pomp and all their fancy outfits, those aren't mandated by scripture. Scripture does not teach a garment in the New Testament for clergy and say, hey, put on these gorgeous apparel and robes and gold and scarlet and pearl. Don't put that stuff on. That is not commanded by God and in fact, it's rebuked by Jesus in the verses that we just saw, the long garment, the long clothing. That's why you see me up here wearing pants, right? No long garment here. And when I do put on a coat, because all throughout the Bible, obviously men wear coats or mantels or outer garments. My coat typically stops like right about here, right? My coat typically stops about six inches below my waist or eight inch below my waist or however long suit coats are. I don't wear some long garment down to my ankles so that I can look like a manga character. Is that how you pronounce that? Manga? Yeah. I'm not up here trying to look like a manga character with some coat that goes down to my ankles and I'm not into dress up. I'm dressed like a normal person. If I walk down the street wearing a shirt and tie like this, I just look like a guy who's going to work at any white collar job. I don't stand out like a sore thumb. Hey everybody, look how religious I am. Look how spiritual I am. I just look like a guy who's dressed up for something important, right? When do people put on a shirt and tie like this typically or suit and tie? Oh, let's see. When they're going to a job interview, when they're going to a funeral, when they're going to a wedding, when they're going to a graduation, when they're going to a formal dinner, things that are considered important. If they were going to go meet the President of the United States, what are they going to put on? They're going to put on a suit. They're going to put on a tie. They're going to want to look their best. We take church seriously so we're dressing nice for church but we're not doing dress up for church, are we? We're not doing like a costume for church. I'm not saying you have to wear a tie to church, of course. I'm just saying that the reason that I'm wearing a tie is just because I'm dressing nice for church. You'll see a lot of ties and everything. People are just dressing nice for church. They just want to look nice. That's all. There's no weird costume in the auditorium tonight. I'm looking around the auditorium. I don't see any dress up. I don't see any comic book style outfits out there. Let's move on. Why do they dress up like this? Because they want to be seen of men. Did you notice how in both scriptures it said they love to go in long clothing and then the other one said they desire to go in long robes. So you can see this isn't just something that they do. This is something that they really enjoy doing. They really like it. It's fun for them. They love it. It's wicked. All right. So why? Because they want to be seen of men. The Bible says that they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. They love to pray publicly to be seen of men. Matthew 23 verse 5, but all their works they do bore to be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments. And look, this isn't just the long robes and the long clothing. What about other people who have these religious dress ups or things that they do just to make sure that everybody can see them and know what their religion is. Like for example, the Jews, what do they wear so we can all see them and know that they're one of the chosen ones. You know, they have the yarmulke on the back of their head, right? That's their little dress up. Can you show me that in the Bible? Can somebody show me the yarmulke in scripture? Can somebody show me that in Genesis or Deuteronomy or anywhere? That's not biblical. That's not from those. That's some doctrine of men. Okay. And then also you remember how when you'd see pictures from the middle ages, they would have this thing where they would like shave a bald spot in the back of their head. Who knows what I'm talking about? What is up with that? Isn't that, the Catholics would do that? Does anybody still do that? I don't know if it's out there or not. That's not cool. You know? Now look, if you're going bald in the back, hey, you know, what can you do, right? But who would simulate such a thing? You know what I mean? If you're bald, you're bald, but you don't have to go out and make a little bald spot. It's like a yarmulke in reverse. It's like, hey, I want to be the opposite of yarmulke. I'm going to get this thing as bare as I can, you know, on the back there. And then also you see obviously the Catholic priests. You see the nuns with their penguin outfit, and then you see the friars and the monks. But also what about the Amish? I mean, they love to be seen of men. Why do they wear these outfits? And you say, oh, they're just being modest. Really? Because if you actually look into it, the Amish don't just have a rule that says be modest. They actually mandate a certain type of fabric. It has to be this certain floral print on those dresses. It just has to be a print that no one's going to wear normally because otherwise they could wear a modest dress that looks nice, that looks stylish, that looks 21st century. But instead they specifically are stuck in a certain time period. Just they're stuck in the 1800s, not the 1600s, not the 1900s. And it's like a certain time period that they're frozen in, whatever that period is, probably the 19th century or 1800s where they have this certain floral print and they literally mandate to them the size that those flowers can be. They can't have too big of a flower. It's got to be this certain size. That is teaching for commandments, the doctrines of men. And what are they doing it for? To be seen of men. You know, they want to walk out and you say, oh, it's so modest. It's immodest. Because you know what modesty means? Modesty is humility, not bragging and not drawing attention to yourself. That's what the word modesty means. Look up modest in the dictionary. It has to do with being humble and not drawing attention to yourself. And you know what? When an Amish lady walks into a store, all eyes are on her. Look at me, everybody. Because they're dressed in a way that is abnormal, that is not a normal outfit. To wear a prairie dress like that, there's no prairie here in Arizona. Is this considered prairie? This is the desert. Isn't that a different biome? I'm joking. But the point is that it's not normal clothing. It's to be seen. And then the Amish men, what do they do so everybody can see them? What do they do? Got to make sure everybody sees us now just to know that we're different. What is it? Yeah, no mustache, right? Beard with no mustache. Look, if you're going to have a beard, have a mustache to go with that beard. If you don't want to have a mustache, get rid of your beard. Abe Lincoln, you know, what are you trying to do? But it's to get attention, okay, that they have a special beard, special outfit, special dress up. So point number one is long robes. Point number two, or long clothing, long robes, and we see plenty of that. Point number two is the hijab, the hijab. So let's get on the Muslims for a while, okay? Go if you would to Genesis chapter 38. What is the hijab? The hijab is a traditional scarf worn by Muslim women to cover their hair and neck and sometimes the face. So I want to specifically talk about the hijab that covers the face, that specifically covers their face, okay? I've even seen Sunday school materials that will depict women of the Bible having this head covering that covers even their face so they kind of look like a ninja warrior where they have it, you know, coming across their face and just the slit of the eyes showing. It's like Ninja Gaiden or something, you know? So basically they will have this covering of the face because they're a Bible character, like trying to make it seem like, oh, that's what they wore back then. And see, a lot of times what people do is they look at the way Muslims dress today and they say, oh, that's how people in the Middle East dress. So that must be how they dress in the Bible. So they'll see the Muslim men in their skirts and dresses that go down to their ankles, right? That's one of the trippiest things about going to a Muslim country is when all the men are in dresses down to their ankles. It's weird. Now some countries aren't as bad about it. Like when we were in Jordan, most of the guys in Jordan just wore a normal outfit. But I remember when I was at the airport in Ethiopia, man, it freaked me out. I experienced culture shock in the airport because just every man is wearing a skirt down to his ankles. It just seemed so weird. It was just like, get me out of here. Like I felt like I was just so out of place in such a weird place, you know? I'm just saying it's weird. Okay. That's Islam where they have this, you know, dress down to their ankles on a man. That's Islamic. And then when this, this hijab with the head covering, especially the face covering I want to deal with, that's a Muslim thing. That's not a biblical thing. Let's see what the Bible says about the hijab covering your face because, oh, they're, they're being so modest. Well, let's see what the Bible says about the hijab covering the face. Look at Genesis chapter 38 verse 13 and it was told Tamar saying, behold thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep. And she put her widow's garments off from her and covered her with a veil and wrapped herself and sat in an open place, which is by the will to the way to Timnath for she saw that Sheila was grown and she was not given unto him to wipe. Look at verse 15 when Judah saw her, he thought her to be in harlot. Why? Well, because she'd covered her face. So she puts on a veil over her face and she's immediately assumed to be a prostitute. Now does that look like from reading the Bible, you're going to walk away saying, oh, women back then they were always veiled. I've heard people try to say that, oh, back then, you know, modest women would be veiled and they would have their face covered. And so is that what it looks like that that was just the normal practice? No, because when he saw that, he assumed, well, this is a prostitute. She's covering her face cause she's up to no good covering her identity. It's like a guy walks into a bank with a ski mask. It's not that it's cold outside. He's got the ski mask on to hide his identity because he's up to something that's bad. Okay, so now I'm not saying everybody who puts a veil over their face is up to no good. Obviously there are times when, when we would do this, like say when you're getting married, you have the veil and you lift the veil and all that. There's nothing wrong with that, but I'm saying scripture is far from mandating a hijab here when it's telling you, Hey, this woman covered her face with a veil and that's how I knew she was a prostitute. Okay. That shows that this isn't the culture back then to have a veiled face. Okay. So there's nothing in scripture telling you to do that. And one of the things we can see here is that modesty could be taken too far. Modesty can get too radical as in the case of the Muslims, as in the case of the Amish. And then their modesty get, they get so modest, it becomes immodest because now it's drawing attention to themselves. Hey, everybody look at me. You know, when we were in Turkey, they, uh, they, they don't allow this. That's what our tour guide told us. Anyway, our tour guide said it's illegal to have the face covered. You know, you can wear the hijab, but in Turkey, our tour guide told us you're not allowed to have your face covered, but then we just kept seeing it everywhere. And I kept pointing out the tour guide and say, Hey, there's a violation. Two o'clock. And she started, you know, she was like, why do you keep saying that? You know? Cause I'm like, Oh, violation four o'clock because we just, everywhere we looked, we'd see the ninjas with the, the, just the little slit in the eyes. So, uh, he jobs, long garments, the, the flowing robes, the wizard costumes of the, of the Catholics, the Jews, the Muslims, you know, you'll see them wearing this stuff. Okay. But go to first Corinthians chapter 11. I want to talk about the head coverings. Okay. The head coverings. Now there's a group of Baptists that are called head covering Baptists and there are, uh, various subgroups within Baptist churches, whether it's independent Baptist or reform Baptist or a lot of the holiness Pentecostals are into this. There are various denominations that do this practice of head covering. And what it is is a misunderstanding of this passage in first Corinthians 11. And I'm going to prove to you right now, beyond any shadow of a doubt that they're wrong. I'm going to prove it to you. Okay. And it always blows my mind how somebody could hear what I'm going to explain and then still walk away and say, I still believe in head coverings. It's just, they're too attached to their dress up is what's going on. It's fine to dress up. And then I've even heard people talk about, Oh, it makes me feel so spiritual. When I put that head covering on, like some lady was talking about how, you know, she was just trying to pray and she just couldn't get in the spirit and she didn't have her head covering and she was out in public and she literally took a baby's diaper, a cloth diaper, and put it on her head. And then all of a sudden the prayer was so sweet with a literal diaper on her head. It's like Dumbo's magic feather or something. You know what I mean? Like they just, it's like, Oh, if I put this on my head and look, what about John Hagee with that? Yeah. It puts that weird prayer shawl. The Jews put on these weird prayer shawls and everything. This is like a spiritual version of cosplay is what it is. You know, we're going to get dressed up. We're going to have all these frills and all these props and gimmicks folks. We don't need a gimmick. If you want to pray, just open it, open your mouth and start talking to God. Get on your knees and speak to God. Just look up to the heavens and speak to God. Lift up your hands and pray to God. You don't have to put on a special outfit. You don't have to roll out a little rug and figure out which direction is Mecca or Jerusalem or Salt Lake City or Vatican or, you know, we don't need that stuff. Okay. Look, what we have in the new testaments enough, we don't need all these other bells and whistles. This is a misunderstanding of this passage. In fact, in my Bible software above each scripture, it gives you like a synopsis of what that chapter is about. You know how, when you're looking in your Bible, above this part, it says head coverings. Come on, it's not what this is about. Let me read you the scripture and look, if you're not convinced by the time I prove this to you from the Bible, I'm going to go back to the old Testament and prove why the head covering crowd is totally twisting the scripture. If you're not convinced, then I give up. You know, you have a problem. Either you, either you're addicted to cosplay or maybe you're not saved so you can't understand scripture or what, I don't know what your problem is, or you're just so steeped in tradition and you don't want to let it go. This is not a hard passage to understand. And when you interpret it in light of the old Testament's teaching, it is impossible to walk away with this head covering doctrine and you know what, Hey, if I don't deliver by the time I'm done right now, then come up and tell me afterward if I don't deliver, because I'm going to deliver, I'm going to prove this beyond any shadow of a doubt. Okay. Look what the Bible says in verse one of chapter 11, be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God. Now the key to understanding this passage is first of all, you have to understand verse three, right? We have to get verse three down before we go forward, we need to know what is the head of every man. The head of the man is what Christ, what's the head of the woman, the man, and what's the head of Christ, God, right? Sorry oneness crowd, but the head of Christ is God. Anyway, uh, verse four, every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered dishonor his head. So if the man prays or prophesies having his head covering, who is he dishonoring? A man who prays or prophesies having his head covered dishonors Jesus Christ. Okay. And then it says every woman that pray or prophesy with her head uncovered dishonor with her head for that is even all one as if she were shaven. Okay. So what's the Bible saying here? If the woman prays or prophesies having her head uncovered, whom is she dishonoring? The man. So she'd be dishonoring her husband and the man would be dishonoring Jesus Christ. Now what is this covering that we speak of? Well, later in the chapter he explains it. It says in verse 13, judging yourselves, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him. But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory for her for her hair is given her for a covering. The covering is long hair. Okay. The woman who prays or prophesies having short hair dishonors her head dishonors her husband is a shame and humiliation to her husband. Or unto the man, right? Because that's her head. That's her authority figure. And then the man who gets up and prays or prophesies having his head covered, meaning having long hair, is dishonoring Jesus Christ. So you have these preachers with long hair, they're dishonoring Christ. Getting up and praying publicly, long hair, dishonoring Christ. The Bible says it is a shame for a man to have long hair. A woman's hair is her glory. It's given her for a covering. You pray or prophesy as a man having your head covered, you're dishonoring your head. What's that guy's name? Todd White? Yeah. That is the ugliest man on the planet, seriously. I mean, short of being a transvestite, he is as ugly as a man could possibly make himself. You can't get any uglier than Todd White. Who's ever seen him? Who agrees with me that he's one of the ugliest men on the planet? He's a white dude with dreadlocks. He's a white guy with blonde dreadlocks and he looks like a freak. And then he gets up and you say, how dare you say that? Well, he dishonors Christ every time he opens his stupid mouth. That's what the scripture says. Every time he opens his mouth and prays or preaches or whatever clown thing he does, and talk about a cosplayer, I don't know what manga character he's dressed up as, but he looks like a freak. Okay. And you know what? God is not pleased with us getting up and looking like a freak and then, oh, praise the Lord. Hey, that's dishonoring. That's what the Bible says. He said, no, it's good to pray. Not with your head covered. Oh, it's good to prophesy. Not with your head covered in a bunch of dreadlocks and long hair. Now, look what the Bible says if we back up here to verse five. But every woman that prayeth or prophesied with her head uncovered dishonored her head, for that is even all one is if she were shaven. So here's what the Bible says. Look, if you're going to have short hair, why don't you just go all the way and just shave it all off? Is that what you want to look at? And he's basically using an extreme example of, hey, it's not comely. Now what does it mean to be comely? Comely means it doesn't look right. If it's not comely or not seemly, it means it doesn't feel right, it doesn't look right, it doesn't seem right. It doesn't fit. It does not fit is what that means. Okay. And so he says here, you know, that's all one is if she were shaven. Verse six, for if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. Look, if, you know, why don't we just give you a flat top, ladies, if you want to have short hair, let's give you a buzz cut or completely bald. These are two different things. They use shorn and shaven, right? Shaven would be down to just the bare skin. Shorn would be like what you do to a sheep, you shear a sheep and it's just like a short haircut. You know, you want to have, you know, like a one or a two all over or a flat top or be bald Sinead O'Connor, well then, you know, if it's, if that's shameful, if that's unseemly, if that seems weird on a woman, then you know what? Why do you have a short hair, Joyce Meyer? Grow it out, okay? The Bible is saying women are supposed to have long hair and men are supposed to have short hair. Now, some people will be like, oh yeah, well, you know, what is long hair though? You know what this reminds me of? Like when Jesus is saying, love your neighbor and they're like, well, who is my neighbor though? What does is mean? What's the definition of the word is? Folks, everybody knows what long hair is and what short hair is and you say, well, there's a gray area. Okay, well, if there's a gray area, why don't we both stay out of that? Why don't we have like a little DMZ, right? A little demilitarized zone, a little UN buffer area between men and women, right? So let's have an area of what we know to be men's hair and I'm not saying that men's hair has to be as short as mine. You could have quite a bit more hair on your head than myself and look at brother Hester's hair. You know, he has clearly a short haircut, but he has more hair than I do, right? But his hair, nobody's going to look at that and say, or brother Hester's son, nobody's going to look at him and say, this is a long haired man. It's clearly short hair, right? So you say, well, but I don't know if this is borderline or whatever. I'm not trying to get as close to the border as I can. I'm not trying to just get right there on the razor's edge. No pun intended. Okay. I want to have hair where people can know that I'm a man by my haircut because let me tell you something, we're living in a gender bending, queer, confused society and it's so irritating. It's trying to figure out what gender people are. It's irritating. It should be easy. If we followed the Bible, it would be easy because you would have beings that are wearing pants and having short hair and looking and you just instantly see the pants and the short hair and know this is a man and then you'd have these other beings with long hair and a skirt and you would instantly know this is a woman. That's God's plan. That's why he said the woman shall not wear that which pertain to a man. Neither shall a man put on a woman's garment for all that do so are an abomination unto the Lord thy God. They are an abomination, the Bible says. Okay. I didn't say that. The Bible says if you wear the clothing of the opposite gender, you are an abomination. Okay. If our hair and our clothing doesn't match our gender, the Bible says we're an abomination. Okay. And it's dishonoring to Christ for people to get up and claim to preach Christianity and then they have this gender bending hairdo. Women with short hair, men with long hair. It's not right. Okay. And, and, and you say, well, this is old fashioned, but hold on a second. We need this more in 2019 than we've ever needed it. This is more important to preach in 2019 than it was in 1999, 20 years ago. This needed to be preached, but it needs to be preached more now, not less more. And this is precisely when our independent fundamental Baptist brethren are backing off on these issues, shying away from these issues. Okay. So let's continue in the passage here. He says here, if it's a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, verse six, let her also be covered for a man indeed ought not to cover his head and for as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. So the Bible tells us here that a man should not cover his head because he's the image of God. So let me ask you this. How could Jesus have had long hair? And then God's going to specifically tell us, Oh, don't have long hair because you're in the image of God. If anybody was in the image of God, it was Jesus, because you know, we're all, all of, all of men are in the image of God, but Jesus, the express image of his person. So if Jesus cries, the express image of his person, and he had long hair, then why would the Bible say, Hey, don't have long hair because you're in the image of God folks. I mean, why would he say have long hair? I don't know what I just said there. I got a little, I always, whenever I preach this passage, I always end up at some point in the passage, putting long hair on men and short hair on women and gay, this all makes up. But anyway, okay. The point is why would Jesus have long hair and then turn around and tell you, Oh, don't have long hair so you can be in my image. Did I say it right that time? Okay. Sorry about that. I get a little discombobulated up here. Somebody, you know, how can you say, Hey, look, you know, you're in my image. You look like me. So don't have long hair. Only I can have long hair. I wouldn't. That would make absolutely no sense. And by the way, when they were in the garden of Gethsemane to arrest Jesus, why did he have to give him a kiss? Why did he have to give him the betrayal kiss, right? Judas Iscariot gave him that kiss. Why didn't he just say, it's the guy with the long hair, go get the guy with the long hair. Wouldn't that have been simpler? See the guy with the dreadlocks. He had to, uh, and people will say, well, wasn't Jesus, uh, uh, uh, a Nazarite? Nope. Jesus was not a Nazarite. Jesus was a Nazarene. Okay. Nazarene means person from Nazareth. Nazarite was a vow that people would take for a temporary period where they would let their hair grow temporarily and then shave it all off. And the only person who was the lifelong Nazarite was whom? Samson. Samson was lifelong. And so he had long hair, but Jesus was not a Nazarite because the Nazarite's not allowed to touch grapes. The Nazarite's not allowed to drink wine. The Nazarite's not allowed to come near a dead body. Jesus did all those things. We see Jesus drinking wine. We see Jesus touching dead bodies. We see Jesus doing these things because he was not a Nazarite. That's just a mix up of, of two vocabulary words there, Nazarene and Nazarite. Okay. Now, I, I, I promised you earlier that I'm going to prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that this is talking about long hair and it's not talking about a cloth head covering because what the, what the head covering crowd will say is, well, her hair is given her for a covering, but they need to go beyond that, you know, and do, and, and have their head covered with like a cloth head covering. And they'll try to make that argument or they'll go back to the Greek and say, well, you know, there's two different words for covering their folks. That is a joke. Okay. The Bible's filled with synonyms that mean the exact same thing, eternal and everlasting. And you know, especially when you don't even speak Greek, but then you're going to go tell us what the Greek new Testament says when you don't speak the language. Look how different these two words look. They must be totally different, you know, cause the word for uncovered and covered are so different here. Folks, let me tell you something. There are a lot of words in the Bible that are closely related that look totally different or opposites. Like, for example, the Greek word for circumcision and uncircumcision, they don't look the same at all. They look completely different. The word for uncircumcision is acrovistia and the word for circumcision is peritomi. You know, in English, it's just like circumcision, uncircumcision. In another language, it might not pan out that way. You see what I'm saying? And sometimes the verb for something is totally different than the noun for something, right? We eat food. Look how different eat and food are. Does everybody see that? But what about in Spanish, it's like comer comida. And they're both, see how the noun and the verb are connected, right? So the noun is like a spinoff of the verb. So you know, you could cover something with a covering. There's a noun and a verb that sound the same, right? But when you eat food, those are two totally different words from totally different sources. And so you can't sit there and you don't even know Greek, but you're just all of a sudden going to tell us what the Greek says, okay? Come back when you actually speak the language and then demonstrate to me that you are better at Greek than the 54 men who translated the King James Bible, because I've got their credentials on file. And then we can match your credentials, your one semester of Bible college or whatever, we can match that up against the men who translate the King James Bible and translate this as covered, covering, cover, cover, covered, just all covered. So don't go back to the Greek and listen, any doctrine that relies on going back to the Greek is a wrong doctrine. If I can't see it in English, it's because it isn't there. You know, people have to tell you doctrines that aren't there in English. Folks, it should be there in English in translate. If it doesn't make it through translation, well, guess what? It wasn't even there. People love to go back to the Greek and go back to the Hebrew because they can't find a verse in their English Bible to teach it. There's 31,000 verses. We need to be able to teach it from an English Bible or we don't need to be teaching it. Amen. So I'm going to prove this to you beyond any shadow of a doubt. Go back if you would to Exodus 28, Exodus chapter 28. Now, what is first Corinthians 11 saying? I'm going to put the two theories out there. Okay. I'm going to put out there what I'm preaching today and I'm going to put it out there. What the head covering Baptist and head covering Pentecostals and so forth, what are they teaching and let's see which one passes the test of scripture of getting the whole counsel of God, not just one chapter, but actually comparing scripture with scripture. Okay. What I'm teaching is that the Bible is commanding in first Corinthians 11 that a man, not prayer prophesy having his head uncovered, having his head covered, which means to have long hair and that the woman being uncovered is to have short hair and that's what the Bible explicitly stated there at the end when it said, doesn't nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it's a shame unto him, but if the woman have short, but if the woman have long hair, it's a glory unto her for her hair is given her for a covering. So the Bible is defining the long hair on the woman as her covering. So I'm saying covering equals long hair and, and look, the death, not at set nature itself teach you goes with what he said earlier in the chapter when he said, well, judging yourselves, you know, is it, is it, is it comely for a woman to pray uncovered? Now here's the thing. Is there something just inherently naturally inside you when you see a woman praying without cloth on her head where you're just like, man, something's not right about this. No. Is there just some natural thing inside you where if you saw a woman praying and she, you know, Hey, Oh, Oh, Hey, would you pray for the food? And she doesn't have a covering. Would you just be kind of, Ooh, there's something, something isn't setting well. Now, if you see women with short hair, it can be unsettling when you see man with long hair, it can be unsettling. Nature itself teaches us that if a man have long hair, it's a shame unto him. And that if a woman has long hair, it's a glory to her, right? It's feminine to have long, pretty hair. If you're a dude with long, pretty hair, it's also feminine. All right. And that's called effeminate. Now the head covering crowd is saying, well, he's just using the example about hair to tell us why it's so important to have that, that covering on women. So women have to have a head covering when they pray or prophesy, but here's what they're missing. What they're missing is that if they're going to teach that women have to pray with a head covering on, then the same teaching would have to be turned over that a man cannot cover his head while praying or prophesying. Am I right? Cause didn't it say both ways? So they would have to also, and remember, Paul appeals to nature in first Corinthians 11 saying, well, I mean, just judging yourselves. Is it comely for a woman to pray to God uncovered? Okay, so we have to turn this over though. See the head covering crowd just wants to talk about head coverings on women all day long, but what they forget is that you would have to say no hats on men. Everybody following me? No hats on men, right? You couldn't pray or preach wearing a hat according to their doctrine because then you'd be having your head covered, right? Okay. Let's see if that jives with scripture. Look at Exodus 28. These are the garments for the priest. When the priests are being outfitted for the job of doing what praying and prophesying, right? What are the Levites and the priests doing in the old Testament? They are teaching the word of God to the people. They are praying for the people. They are offering sacrifice, making an atonement for the people. And what does the Bible say? They're wearing Exodus 28 40 and for Aaron's sons, that's the priests thou shall make coats and thou shalt make for them girdles and bonnets shout thou make for them for glory and for beauty. So what does the Bible say that the priests in the old Testament are supposed to be wearing in their uniform as a priest bonnets? What is it? Bonnet, a head covering, isn't it? So they had their head covered with a bonnet. Now I'm not, obviously when we think of a bonnet, we only think of a feminine version of this, but this is some kind of a hat or head gear on a man over and over again. This isn't just one scripture. Look at verse number nine of chapter 29 go to 29 nine and thou shalt gird them with girdles, Aaron and his sons and put the bonnets on them and the priest's office shall be theirs for a perpetual statute and thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons. We don't have time to turn to all these, but Exodus 39 28 Leviticus chapter eight verse 13. They put the bonnets on the sons of Aaron, uh, Ezekiel chapter 44 verse 18. They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, linen britches upon their loins. They should not gird themselves with anything that causes sweat, linen clothing, a linen bonnet. Not only do we have all these scriptures about the bonnet, how the men who ministered to God in the Old Testament were required to wear hats, okay, then we get into what's known as the mitre, which a mitre is like an ornate hat or head dress worn by the high priest. So the high priest specifically, so all the priests wear bonnets, but then the high priest wears the bonnet and he wears the mitre on top of that. So he's definitely got his head covered. All the priests have their head covered. Does everybody understand all the priests have their head covered and then not only that, we have this word tire. Okay, now this one's archaic, but go to Ezekiel 24. It's an archaic word. The mitre is mentioned in Exodus 28, Exodus 29, Exodus 39, Leviticus eight, Leviticus 16, and Zechariah chapter three. So this isn't just one verse or two verses. This is a multitude of verses about bonnets, multitude of verses about mitres, which is what the high priest wears. And then you have this term, their tire. Okay. Now this is something, this is an archaic word that we wouldn't use. The closest thing that we have to this in English is we have the word attire, like, like just to mean clothing in general. But look what the Bible says in Ezekiel 24, 15. Also the word of the Lord came unto me saying, son of man, behold, I will take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke, yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall our tears run down for bear to cry, make no mourning for the dead bind the tire of thine head upon thee. So do you see that bind the tire of thine head upon thee and put on my shoes upon thy feet and cover not thy lips and eat not the bread of men. So I spake unto the people in the morning and at the even my wife died and I did in the morning as I was commanded. So he's preaching and then his wife dies and then he gets up to preach again after his wife dies. God tells him, don't mourn and get up and preach even after your wife dies. And of course this is symbolizing something. And Ezekiel was put through a lot of really rough things. And this is just one of the rough things that he goes through, but that's a whole nother sermon on the book of Ezekiel. But notice he's told, keep, put on your shoes and tire your head. Okay. Talking about putting on some kind of a hat or some kind of a head dressing or you do rag or whatever you want to call it. Okay. Whatever he's putting on his head, he's covering his head with something. Okay. And then later when Ezekiel is preaching about what this symbolized in verse 23, he said, your tires shall be upon your heads and your shoes upon your feet. You shall not mourn or weep, but you shall pine away for your iniquities and on and on. So the point is we see repeatedly men of God being commanded 100% of the priests, the high priest, prophets like Ezekiel, wearing hats while they preach. So think about how ridiculous this would be. Just, just think, think about how ridiculous this would be. We got the whole Old Testament here. We got the law of Moses telling us in Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, talking about, okay guys, you're going to have this bonnet on your head. You got the miter, you can have a tire of all this teaching in the Old Testament. Then we have people literally doing this in the time of Christ. I mean, at the time of Christ, the temple was in full swing and you got all these guys in the temple and what do you think they're wearing on their head? Nothing. Do you think they're going around with nothing? No, they all have hats on. They're all, I mean, that's what the Bible commanded them. The Sadducees are going to have their heads covered. This is what's commanded. Everybody follow? Now Paul is going to come along and say, well, come on guys. I mean, doesn't even nature itself. I mean, is it even comely? Don't, isn't it obvious that women should have their head covered when preaching and prophesying and praying, but that when men pray or prophesy, they should, of course they shouldn't have their heads covered. Doesn't even nature itself teach you that? It makes no sense. Why would he tell them that something that God had literally tens of thousands of priests doing is all of a sudden just unnatural and doesn't make any sense. And it's the way we got. Yeah, I guess God had it backwards in the old Testament. It was the women that were supposed to have the hats on. The women were supposed to have their head wrapped in a shawl or wrapped in a head covering or something. It makes no sense folks. Now look, the reason that I'm not wearing a hat right now is because of the fact that I'm not a Levitical priest. I'm also not wearing a linen garment. I'm also not going to put on any of the other priestly garments because I'm not a Levitical priest. Okay. I'm a priest at the order of Melchizedek, but here's the thing about that. So are you. The Bible clearly teaches in the new Testament that every believer is a priest. This is a fundamental Baptist doctrine known as the priesthood of the believer. This is a key doctrine, meaning that every man, woman, boy and girl is a priest under the new covenant. That's why we don't go confess to a priest. That's why we don't have Levitical priests in these garments. We're all priests according to the new Testament, so that's why we don't need to wear a special outfit or a special uniform. We're supposed to just dress in our normal clothes and we're a spiritual priesthood, not a physical priesthood, physically offering sacrifices, putting on a uniform and stuff like that. We are a spiritual priesthood. So look, if I didn't deliver, I give up friend because I just showed you, you know, 20 some scriptures in the old Testament telling men to pray and prophesy with a hat on. So why would first Corinthians 11 teach the opposite? And it's not like he's saying, okay, look guys, there's a change for the new Testament. He's like, well, you guys should already know this nature itself should teach you this. This should be obvious. Isn't that the vibe you get from first Corinthians 11 like, oh, this should be obvious. Yeah, because it should be obvious for men to look like men and women to look like women, for men to have short hair and women to have long hair should be obvious. That makes sense. The other interpretation makes no sense because he's acting like, oh, it's so obvious even though it contradicts Exodus, contradicts Leviticus, contradicts Deuteronomy, contradicts Ezekiel, contradicts Zechariah, on and on and on. So this head covering, uh, doctrine is not of God. I'll tell you what it appeals to. I'll tell you why it's popular. It's popular because people like to dress up. That's why it's popular. It's that simple. People like to dress up. People like to walk into a building with stained glass and incense burning and an organ playing and they want to walk in and they want to look at their clergy all dressed up like sorcerers and wizards and witches and warlocks up there sprinkling poofoo dust everywhere and sprinkling magical water and potions and we're all going to dress up and we put on our head covering and look, nowadays the men want to get in on it too. So they get the prayer shawl, the John Hagee, you know, signature prayer shawl. Maybe you can get him to autograph it for you or something, or maybe he can have some Christ rejecting rabbi bless it for you, you know, or something like that. Right? It's all a bunch of dress up is what it is. You know, the yarmulkes, the hijab, the long flowing garments. Folks, don't get sucked into gimmicks is what I'm saying tonight. Don't get sucked into gimmicks. A fancy building doesn't make you spiritual. A fancy outfit doesn't make you spiritual. You can walk around wearing your big flowing dress and a big flavor, flave cross. You know what? You're going straight to hell, buddy. You're going to split hell wide open and you know what? Your stupid outfit might be fooling the people around you, but you know what? It's not going to fool God. God sees right through to your rotten heart. That's deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and you're not trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ as your savior. You're going to hell. Care what kind of degrees you have? I don't care what kind of titles or ordination or orders or vowels or oaths you've taken or what you wear, what you dress up as and folks, I don't need to put on a funny outfit or put on a hat or take off a hat to pray to God. I can pray to God anytime or anywhere, and the Bible says, pray without ceasing. I mean, the Bible says, pray everywhere. I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. So, you know, and it's like, Oh, you know, take off my hat and pray. You know how many times I've prophesied with a hat on a lot because you know what? You have to wear a hat. So winning in, in, in Phoenix in the summer, man, if you are soul winning in summer and Phoenix, you better have a hat on male or female and it's like, Oh, let me preach the gospel and take this off. I'm keeping my hat on to preach the gospel, right? I mean, why would I take it off? Because you know what? My head's not covered with long hair. That's what that's referring to. That's the plain reading of the text. That's what's right there on the surface, but why, why to be seen of men, to put on a show, to feel spiritual, you know, what's funny. I don't need an outfit to make me feel spiritual. I'm not trying to prove anything. Look, if you look, if you actually have the goods, you don't have anything to prove. Am I right? You know, when you see people going around trying to just every day, they're trying to prove how manly they are, you know what, you know, that's called overcompensating. You know, they just want to pick as many fights as they can and just talk real big and grandstand and everything like that. And they just constantly are just, you know, posting pictures of them, flexing their muscles. And you know, they're on Facebook just kind of, you know, showing all their pictures of it's because they're, they're trying to persuade there. They're trying to compensate there because they're a little bit insecure on the inside. So they feel like they have to like project all this manliness, but you know, guys who are just secure in their manhood, you know, they just, they dress normal, they act normal, they look normal. They're not just always having something to prove all the time. Do you understand what I'm saying? So, so now let's, let's put that over to spiritually. Should we have something to prove spiritually? And when you run into these people who every word out of their mouth is, well, hallelujah, praise the Lord. Amen. And just like just laying it on real thick with this kind of facade of a hyper-spiritual language, hyper-spiritual demeanor. Oh, look at me with my outfit and everything. They're trying to compensate. They lack, they lack spiritually. That's why they need the gimmick. See someone who's the real deal doesn't need a gimmick. The gimmicks are needed by the people who aren't the real deal. Okay. And that's why, look, I don't need to turn my collar backwards up here to be taken seriously as a man of God. Do I have to turn my collar backward? And then it's like, Oh, well, okay, now I'm listening. So what's with the backward color? What's the point? What's the purpose of the backward call? Hey everybody, look at me. I'm different. I'm special. I'm different. I'm on a different level. Instead of just being a normal, humble servant like Jesus and the apostles, I guarantee you Jesus and the apostles were dressed just like everybody else. You know, I look, I don't know exactly what their outfits look like. No one does. There's no photography or videography back then to know exactly what their outfits were, but I will tell you a couple of things I can guarantee. Number one, they dress like a normal person. Number two, they certainly were not wearing long clothing or long robes because he appreciates that. Okay. Number three, I guarantee you that they had pants on. They weren't just going around just naked with something thrown over it. Okay. And look, there's even a bad example of a guy in the book of Mark who, who went out in his nightgown or whatever. Right. He's, and it talks about how he's naked and he's just, he's wrapped in a toga or whatever, and then he runs away naked. That's a bad example. That guy pictures the person who's not ready when Jesus comes, you know, in revelation chapter 16 he says, behold, I come quickly. Bless is he that watcheth and keepeth his garment lest they walk naked and they see his shame. That's a bad picture there. Okay. I guarantee you that a fishermen and a carpenter and a tax, you know, they're wearing normal clothing. They wore pants under their, whatever the coats or shirts, especially since they didn't wear long clothing. They had pants because if you don't wear long clothing and you don't wear pants, now you're really in trouble. You know what I'm saying? So basically they're obviously they're wearing pants. We don't know exactly what they wore, but what I believe that they wore was whatever was just the normal everyday clothing of that period in that culture. And I think that's what we should wear in the United States. We should just wear typical clothing and blend in and not try to stand out like a sore thumb. Now look, if we were living in another country where the culture is different than we would dress like that culture, unless that culture wants to put us in something super weird. I'm not saying like, okay, you know, we're going to Papua New Guinea and then, you know, so we got like a bunch of skulls around our neck, like dulcim or something. You know, that's how I'm saying, you know, I mean with the, you know, Paul said I became all things to all men that by all means I might save some, but he said, you know, to those without law, I became as one without the law, but he said I was not without law to Christ. You know, we're always responsible to Christ. So look, if I go to the Philippines or something, right, if I go to the Philippines, you know, in the Philippines, they're formal wear or they're nice clothing. Is it a shirt and tie? They don't wear a shirt and tie. They wear this other fancy shirt that's untucked. Who knows what I'm talking about? The Filipinos wear that fancy shirt that's untucked. Look, if I were preaching in the Philippines, you know, I put on that garb. That's what I would wear to preach. And, and whatever the locals are wearing, you know, within the confines of what scripture, I'm not going to get half naked. I'm not going to sit there and put on a woman's garment to reach the Muslims or something. You know, like, here, let me put on the nightgown. I'm not going to, I'm not going to be like, you know, uh, uh, uh, Ebenezer Scrooge in the middle of the night. Isn't that what the Muslims wear? You know, Ebenezer, all they're missing is the little cap, you know, I'm not going to dress up like Ebenezer Scrooge in the middle of the night. I'm not going to put on a dress. I'm not going to strip down to something that's, that's, that's partially naked or something. If I'm going to some tribe or something to fit in, but within the realm of what's permissible in scripture, I want to fit in with the culture and become all things to all men and when in Rome do as the Romans do. So quit trying to be different. Quit trying to stand out, just serve God and let your adorning as the Bible says, ladies, be the hidden man of the heart, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. And also those of us that are men, how much more so should we not be decorating our outside to look whatever it makes no sense, right? Be spiritual on the inside. Follow the Bible, be humble, win souls, quit using gimmicks and let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you so much for your word. Thank you for this clear chapter, Lord. And I, and I pray that if there's anybody who's confused about first Corinthians 11 or under this delusion, I just pray that you just open the eyes of their understanding. Lord, just please help the penny to drop and help them to realize, well, if God commanded all this headwear on men that were priests in the old Testament, this cannot be referring to a cloth head covering, help them realize it's a discussion about the length of the hair Lord and open their eyes. And, and I pray that the Holy spirit would teach anyone who's confused, Lord. And I just pray that you would just bless our church, help us to continue to win souls and preach the gospel and bless us as we go our separate ways, give us safety throughout the week and good health and bless our families. And in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.