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1 Timothy chapter number 2, the part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is beginning in verse number 9 where the Bible reads, And like men are also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works. And what I want to preach about this morning is the subject of women's clothing choices, women's clothing. Now you say, well why would you preach on that, especially why would you direct it at women? Well, there are certain sins that men struggle with more than women and there are other sins that women tend to struggle with more than men, simply because men and women are different. And that's why this scripture specifically addresses women's clothing without mention of men's clothing. As I preach this morning, the points that I make also apply unto men's clothing because the same principles are there, but God seems to direct this more at women simply because this is something that more women are in sin in this subject. You know, and again, men have other things that they struggle with. This is something that women struggle to get right. That's why if we were to walk outside these doors and after you've heard what the Bible says about our clothing, if we were to walk out these doors, you'll see that there are way more women dressed inappropriately than there are men dressed inappropriately. That's just the fact of the matter. And so that's the reason for the emphasis this morning. Now if you would, flip over to, keep your finger there in 1 Timothy, but flip over to Matthew 23 because there are some that would say that we shouldn't preach on clothing, we shouldn't put any emphasis upon the outward appearance, it's only the heart that matters. But the problem with that is that the Bible teaches that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. The Bible instructs us in righteousness. I heard a preacher one time say that there are four points in that verse that says that all scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Doctrine, what is right? Reproof, what is not right? instruction, how to get it right, instruction in righteousness, how to keep it right. And so the Bible says that we have everything that we need to instruct our lives to live a godly and Christian life that we will be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And there is nothing in the Bible that doesn't matter. And there is nothing in the Bible that doesn't need to be preached and taught. And this subject is no exception. But with regard to the outward appearance being important, the Bible says in Matthew 23 verse 25, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, and the outside doesn't matter. Is that what it says? No. It says cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. So it's not that God just wants us to be clean on the inside and dirty on the outside. He wants us to be clean inside and out. Now what's more important, the inside or the outside? The inside is more important, but they're both important. They both have significance, which is why God said, I will therefore that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting in like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel. That is God's will that women adorn themselves in modest apparel. Now let's glance over there at 1 Timothy chapter 2 at this famous scripture and see a few of the elements here because I believe that there are three key elements involved in dressing appropriately and for ladies especially, there are three subjects that we need to cover if we're going to talk about dressing in a way that is godly. Number one would be nakedness, covering your nakedness. That's the purpose of clothing in the first place. Number two would be modesty, which is different than simply covering your nakedness, and then number three would be identity or you could say gender identity. These are the three issues that biblically concern our clothing and it goes for men too. Men should also cover their nakedness, men should also dress modestly, and men should also have gender specific clothing. They should have their gender identity preserved in their clothing. So the Bible says in 1 Timothy 2, 9, in like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shame-facedness and sobriety. Now the shame-facedness there is a reference to nakedness because all throughout the Bible, nakedness is referred to as something shameful. That's a common theme in the Bible and so the shame-facedness there is that someone should be ashamed of themselves to just publicly reveal their nakedness. That should be a shameful thing to them. And then the Bible says also sobriety, which means seriousness. What does that mean? Men should take the way we dress seriously and not have an attitude that says it doesn't matter. No, take it seriously. It does matter what you wear or else God would not have brought it up. Now let's start out with nakedness. If you would, flip back in your Bible to Exodus chapter 32 in the Bible, Exodus 32. While you're turning to that passage, I'll read for you from Genesis 2.25. The Bible says in Genesis 2.25 of Adam and Eve, and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Okay, so this is a man and his wife naked in each other's presence, not ashamed. So obviously within marriage, nakedness is appropriate between husband and wife. But throughout the Bible, public nakedness in front of the opposite gender is called shameful over and over again. Look if you would at Exodus 32.25, the Bible reads, and when Moses saw that the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies. Flip over to Isaiah chapter 20. And while you're turning to Isaiah, I'm going to read for you from Micah 1.11 where the Bible reads, pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Safer, having thy shame naked, Nahum 3.5. Gold 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. So notice that the nakedness being publicly exposed is equated to shame. The Bible says in Revelation 3.18, I counsel thee, to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. Revelation 16.15, behold I come as a thief, blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame. So we see over and over and over again the Bible associating nakedness in public with shame. Look if you would at Isaiah 20 where you are there, verse 4. So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. Flip over to chapter 47 verse 3, Isaiah 47.3, where the Bible reads, thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea thy shame shall be seen, I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man. There's no way that this is a coincidence that over and over again shame and nakedness are put side by side, and that's why God says that a woman should adorn herself in modest apparel with shame-facedness and sobriety. In other places in scripture, God talks about people who'd become very wicked, and it said that even when they committed abomination, they had no shame, neither could they blush. Usually a normal person blushes at or is ashamed at exposing their nakedness. And the Bible says that his desire is that women adorn themselves with modest apparel with shame-facedness and sobriety, meaning that they still have that natural inclination to cover up their nakedness. This is what the Bible commands. Now you're there in Isaiah 47, don't lose your place, but flip over to Exodus 28-42. Exodus 28-42, let's define nakedness according to the Bible because a lot of people could have different ideas about what nakedness is. Somebody might say, well if you're wearing any clothing you're not naked. Well what if I'm just wearing a wristwatch or a hat? You know, I'm still naked. The University of Berkeley kicked the kid out because he came to school wearing nothing but a backpack. Now you can make the argument, well he's not naked, but that'd be foolishness. No one would agree. Even the most liberal university out there condemned that and said, that's nakedness. But then there are others who would put some kind of an extreme definition and go overboard in the other direction like the Muslims would do, where they literally have women with a bag over their head because, you know, they have to cover their nakedness. I mean they just cover them completely, where literally you can't even see their eyes. You know, they'll put a hood over their heads and then something that they can see out of but you can't even see in. I mean you don't even know who's under there. I mean it's just, it's ridiculous. But obviously that's going too far in the other direction of covering up too much to the point of ridiculousness. So the question is, where does God draw the line? You know, what should we define biblically as covering our nakedness or exposing our nakedness? Well the Bible tells us in Exodus 28 42, and thou shalt make them linen britches. Now this is referring to the priests. These are men and britches are pants. That's an old word for pants like you might hear the expression being too big for your britches. Okay? It says that Moses is instructed to make linen britches to cover their nakedness from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach. So the two things that are being covered here are the loins and the thighs in order to cover the nakedness of the priests. Now some people would say, well it says from the loins to the thighs. So you know, we stop and start before these things exist. Well here's the problem with that. The thighs and the loins are connected. There's nothing between the loins and the thighs. So if you're going to take that grammatical interpretation, this would just be a string, a literal string between your thighs and your loins. And that doesn't make any sense. Obviously God is saying to cover the loins and the thighs. It goes from the loins to the thighs including, not excluding, the loins and the thighs. Because if you have your loins uncovered, you're naked. Well guess what? If you have your thighs uncovered, you're also naked. The Bible did not say to give them underwear that would just cover their loins and buttocks. That's not what it says. He said to give them britches that would go from the loins to the thighs to cover the nakedness. Therefore, walking around in your underwear, you're naked according to a biblical definition. Your thighs need to be covered in order to cover your nakedness. Okay? Now these men in the Old Testament priesthood did not wear pants down to their ankles in this particular case. Probably because they're living in a warm climate similar to where we live. And we often as men go out and we wear what would be called today shorts. But our shorts ought to cover our thighs. Not these ones from the 70s with the three stripes on the side. That wasn't cool. We should wear shorts, and I'm not against shorts. Some people would say, oh don't wear shorts. But you can wear shorts, and I know this is an oxymoron, as long as they're long shorts. Right? Because they need to go to your knee. Okay? If you have knee-length shorts, then your nakedness is covered and you're dressed similar to what Aaron and the other priests were commanded by God to wear. Pants that went from the waist down to the knee and covered their nakedness, covered their thighs. More evidence of this is found in Isaiah 47 where you are. Look at verse number one. Come down and sit in the dust, oh virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground. There is no throne, oh daughter of the Chaldeans. For thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. Take the millstones and grindmeal. Uncover thy locks. Make bare the leg. Uncover the thigh. Pass over the rivers. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea thy shame shall be seen. I will take vengeance and I will not meet thee as a man. Notice here that in this scripture it says your nakedness shall be uncovered in verse three, and in verse two it said uncover the thigh. Now if this were only, the only verse in the Bible about this subject, that wouldn't be strong enough evidence. But when we put this next to Exodus 28 42, which specifically talks about covering the loins and the thighs, it becomes crystal clear that God wants us to have our thighs covered. That's part of covering the nakedness. This would basically X out your short shorts, this would X out your mini skirts, there goes the bikini, or there goes the so called modest one piece bathing suit that basically exposes your thighs and in most cases your buttocks as well. Now in Isaiah where you are if you just flip back to chapter 20, the Bible also specifically defined the buttocks as nakedness. He says in verse four of chapter 20, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt. So the loins in the front, the buttocks in the back, the thighs, this is what God defines as our nakedness and it needs to be covered. Go to Nahum chapter three, just a few pages to the right in your Bible, Nahum chapter number three. So whether we are men or women, we need to have our thighs covered in order to have our nakedness covered and the way that we would do that is a garment that at least goes down to the knee to cover that. Now today in our society it's the norm to wear a skirt that goes halfway up your thigh or you know when I was in school, even Christian school, the rule was fingertip length, you know, which is silly because of the fact that different people, that would be different for them. Now obviously for most people their body proportions are similar so it gives a rule of thumb but fingertip length isn't found anywhere in scripture and unless you are built like an orangutan or something where your arms are super long, then that's not going to go down to your knee, not even close. If my knee is down here and this is my fingertip length, I mean, you know, that's almost eight inches difference just off the cuff just looking at it, I mean, it's a pretty big difference. And you know, I remember you'd see the girls in school kind of trying to just, you know, shear their spine in such a way, you know, or what was it, they'd stand up like this and you know, try to contort their body in order to, you know, meet these requirements where they'd have to, sometimes at school they had to kneel on the floor for the knee length and had to touch the floor and then on the outdoor activities it was fingertip length which kind of taught children a double standard by the way because on one hand they're trying to make it reach the floor, another time they're trying to make it go to their fingers and it's not a consistent standard. See anytime you reject the Bible's standard you're going to end up with inconsistent standards because if you're going to say, well, I don't think it has to be knee length, then you'd have to be okay with the shortest shorts because you've thrown out God's standard and you have no authority to say mid-thigh or fingertip length. I mean it might as well be just all the way short. I mean where are you going to draw the line if you're not going to draw the line where God draws the line? And the reasonable biblical place to draw the line is where God drew the line which is to wear knee length, knee length shorts, knee length skirts, knee length on both men and women. And of course there's nothing wrong with wearing something longer than that. You could, you know, ankle length pants on men, you know, long skirts that go to the mid-calf or go to the ankles, that's fine, that's up to you. But it should be at least as a minimum standard to the knee. Now some people would condemn those who wear it to the knee, but no, the Bible is okay with that. Now go if you would to Nahum 3, is that where I had you turn? Look at verse number 4, because of the multitude of the hoardums of the well-favored harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts that selleth nations through her hoardum and families through her witchcraft. 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. So of course the skirt being lifted up is an exposing of the nakedness in this passage. Now the Bible talks about women being adorned in modest apparel. You know what the opposite of that is? Flip over to Proverbs chapter number 7. Proverbs chapter 7, let me show you the opposite of modest apparel, shame-facedness, sobriety, covering your nakedness. Let's see what the Bible gives as an antithesis to this. Proverbs chapter 7 verse 10, the Bible says, and behold there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot and subtle of heart. Notice the Bible does not say that she was a harlot. A harlot, by the way, is a prostitute or a whore. The Bible does not say that she was a harlot. It says that she's wearing the attire of a harlot. How would you like to be part of a story where God looks down and he's telling the story of your life and he says, and then she went out in the attire of a harlot. What a shame, right? So what are you wearing? Are you wearing modest apparel with shame-facedness and sobriety or are you dressed in the attire of a harlot? Now you say, well Pastor Anderson, we shouldn't judge according to the outward appearance. We should judge righteous judgment. But wait a minute, why would you dress like something that you're not? I mean, should I come into church this morning dressed like a Catholic priest? Should I come in dressed like a Muslim cleric? Should I come in dressed like a clown? No, because I'm none of those things. And if you're not a prostitute, you shouldn't dress like a prostitute. If you're not a hooker, don't dress like a hooker. And if it's not for sale, take down the for sale sign. I mean, it's common sense. And the Bible says that there is such a thing as the attire of a harlot. It's clear and it was around back then and it's around now. Now who's ever been driving down the street and seen a literal harlot by the side of the road? Yeah, okay. What were they dressed like? Not that different. Not that different from the way all other women dress sadly today. I mean, if you think about how they're dressed and then you went to ASU's campus, you'd see a lot of women dress the exact same way. Or if you went to Mill Avenue on a Friday night, Saturday night, you'd see plenty of women dress identical to that harlot. They might have more teeth in their mouth and look a little cleaner and classier, but I'm going to tell you something. They would look the same from a clothing standpoint. It's true. Now back in 1 Timothy 2, if you would, let's look at this verse again because it's not enough just to cover your nakedness. We don't want to get the idea that, well, as long as my nakedness is covered, I'm done. You know, I'm done getting dressed. No, there are three aspects that I want to talk about. And there could even be more than three if we wanted to look at this in a different way. But I think that simplifying it down to these three issues really gives us an understanding of what the Bible teaches on this subject. So issue number one is nakedness. So if our bodies are covered from the loins to the thighs, if our bodies are covered in something that goes from the waist and covers our thighs down to the knees, we've got the nakedness covered. But what about the other issues? Number two, modesty, and number three, identity. Well, let's look at this verse again in 1 Timothy 2 verse 9. In like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works. So when we look at modest apparel, it's clear here that it doesn't just deal with covering our bodies. It doesn't just deal with the shamefacedness aspect of at least getting your nakedness covered. Basically what he brings up is expensive, flashy type clothing. And you see, the word modest in its primary definition is actually referring to something that is humble or moderate or not drawing attention to yourself. That is actually what modest means. For example, if I said to you, you know, I would tell you about my skill and such and such the area, but modesty forbids. You know, that's kind of an ironic statement since I'm bragging by saying that. Okay. But you get the idea where people say, well, modesty forbids. What? A person who brags is immodest. If I got up and started telling you about all my great basketball skills and all my three pointer skills, and I'm using that example because I'm not very good at basketball. If I start bragging about all the slam dunks and all the games, you know, that is an immodest behavior to brag. And the opposite of that would be to not draw attention to myself, not glorify self. Now here's just a dictionary definition of modest. If we just look up the word modest in a dictionary, and my favorite dictionary is dictionary.com. I find that to be a really good dictionary and it has a lot of great information on a lot of things. But anyway, that's where I got this, I believe. That's where I usually get things. Dictionary definition number one, having or showing a moderate or humble estimate of one's merits, which is what I was just explaining. Or having a, or showing a moderate or humble estimate of one's importance. Free from vanity, egotism, boastfulness, or great pretensions. Listen to definition number two, free from ostentation or showy extravagance, for example a modest house. Now a lot of people unfortunately in independent Baptist circles have completely lost sight of what the word modest even means, and they just equate it with covering your nakedness. Because of the fact that that is part of modesty, that has just become the definition of modesty to many people, when in reality that's not what the word means. And in fact, if you take this dictionary definition and then interpose it into 1 Timothy 2, 9 and 10, then it actually makes sense. Whereas if you take the common definition that people think it means, where they think it just means, oh, it's when you're exposing your nakedness that you're immodest, you actually see that it doesn't make sense. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 2, 9, not with broided hair or gold or pearls are costly array. What do gold, pearls, and expensive clothes have to do with covering your nakedness? Absolutely nothing. But can you see how they would have to do with being humble? Have to do with not being flashy, boastful, or egotistical? But we live in a day of great egotism and narcissism. And therefore, we have a problem in this area with immodest apparel. And what that means is that people are obsessed with themselves and drawing attention to themselves and making everything about them to the point where you will literally go to a funeral where you are honoring the life of someone who has passed away. And it's all about that person. I mean, you're not there to glorify yourself. When you go to a funeral, I mean, you ought not. That's kind of a weird thing to do. It's kind of egotistical or self-centered or narcissistic to go to a funeral dressed like a hooker because you just want to just draw the attention to yourself. Oh, well, I'm going to be seeing people I haven't seen in a while and I want to look smoking hot so that they can all look at me. I mean, that is so sick and immodest and ungodly to the point where everything has to be about you, even a funeral. I mean, how over the top? You know, we live in generation selfie, you know, where I'm not saying it's wrong to take a selfie, but, you know, take it of you and someone else at least. Then it's only like a half selfie. I mean, everywhere you go, it seems like people are just posing and taking pictures of themselves, just these extended photo shoots of themselves, just extended. You know, and look, I understand getting your portrait taken, getting pictures taken. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but don't you think it can go over the top where you're taking like a hundred pictures of yourself and just posting all these pictures of yourself and just posing and just, it's weird. It's kind of the indicative of the society we live in where you go to a wedding and who is the center of attention at a wedding? I mean, the center of attention ought to be, obviously, in all things, Jesus is our primary focus. We keep our eyes on him. But at a wedding, humanly speaking, the emphasis is on the bride and the groom. It's their big day. And who is supposed to shine at a wedding? Who are we supposed to look at and admire their beauty at a wedding? The bride. It's her big day. It's her special once in a lifetime. And then you see the bridesmaids dressed up like hookers. It's almost impossible to even find a modest bridesmaid dress. Which is why we often recommend to people, don't go shopping for a bridesmaid's dress. It's better to just go shopping for a dress and then just get a bunch of dresses that match and just call it a bridesmaid's dress. Because if you go to the wedding store and buy a bridesmaid's dress, usually it is a completely sleazy, promiscuous looking get up. And it really, even just from a human standpoint, even if we were to just close the Bible, it's so selfish and egotistical and narcissistic to dress in an immodest way when you're going to a wedding or a funeral. Okay, how about a church service? What's church supposed to be about? I mean, is church a place where you come and just steal the show? You know, tell them what they're going to get, Vanna. You know, and we're all supposed to look at you in your sequin covered flashing, hey everybody look at me, short skirt, sleazy attire of a harlot. You know, how godless when you're supposed to be here to worship the Lord, to study his word, to hear the preaching of God's word. You know, to show up and say, hey everybody, look at me. Now that is what the Bible means when it says modest apparel. It's clothing that does not scream, look at me. And even if you are wearing something that would be fundamental Baptist approved and your grandparents church would approve it, that doesn't mean you're in modest apparel. If you're shiny and flashy and super expensive, what does he say? No costly array. Say, well that's your opinion, that's a preference. No, that's a conviction against expensive clothing. The Bible says no. Now if you would, look at 1 Peter chapter 3. First Peter chapter 3, what does the Bible say about this subject? Because we looked at one scripture in 1 Timothy 2, it's often good to look at a second scripture just to back up what the Bible's saying, get the mouth of two witnesses here. Look at 1 Peter chapter number 3, verse number 3. The Bible, speaking of women, says in verse 3 of chapter 3, who's adorning? Let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel, but let it be 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. So in this scripture, he talks about the putting on apparel, the costly array, the fancy clothing, the gold, etc. And he says instead of that ornament, you ought to have the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. Now in Proverbs, back where we were, you don't have to turn back there, but in Proverbs 7, when it talked about the attire of a harlot, it has parentheses in the next verse. It says there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot and subtle of heart, parentheses, she is loud and stubborn, her feet abide, not in her house, now is she without, now in the streets and lying in wait at every corner, end of parentheses. God is equating loudness and stubbornness with, you know, this attire of a harlot and then he contrasts that with a woman in modest apparel who has a meek and quiet spirit. What do these two people have in common? They're not drawing attention to themself, those who are meek and those who are dressed in modest apparel. Neither one is saying, hey everybody, look at the way I'm dressed, look at me, everybody look over here, whereas the one who dresses in the attire of a harlot and the one who is loud and stubborn as a woman, which is not a feminine attribute, are trying to draw attention to themselves. And the Bible says no, we should not be immodest in that way. Now men can obviously be guilty of this, I've seen preachers that even were dressed like a game show host or something and wearing, you know, super flashy, super fancy clothes. We ought to not get caught up in the world's mentality of the name brands, you know. Now look, if you buy a name brand because of the quality of the item, amen. I mean, you know, I'm not saying to waste money on junk that you're going to have to frequently replace. Nothing wrong with buying something durable, something quality, something useful, but if you're buying the name brand just so that you can show off, and listen to me kids, because kids need to hear this, I was a kid once and I remember what it was like when all the other kids had the Reebok and the Nikes and the Air Jordans and they had the Converse and my mom took me to Payless Shoe Source and bought me the Pro Wings. Alright, now I don't really know what the difference in performance was, maybe that explains my lackluster basketball career, the fact that I was in a pair of Pro Wings, you know, I'm going to use that excuse, but the point is that I don't know that, but all I know is this, is that I wanted to be cool and I wanted to have the name brand shoes because I wanted to be cool and I wanted to impress my friends and you know what, if I would have had the Reeboks, I'm just being honest with you, if I would have had the Nikes and the Converse, I would have been making fun of the kid with the Pro Wings, because that's just the wicked human nature that we all have, the sinful nature. And the Bible says foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him. And children are very foolish in this area where they feel like they have to show off with the cool clothes and the name brands, but when you grow up and become a man, you're supposed to put away childish things and we should get past that as men. Let me get on the men for a little bit. And we should get past that and just wear durable, sensible, practical clothing, not with regard to showing off how expensive or how fancy it is. You know, and this goes with suits, you know, you say, well you're wearing fancy clothes, all my suits are from the thrift store, they're all second hand. I mean, when I really want to go out and buy something real nice for myself in the suit department, I go to a place called Turnstyle in Tempe. Who's ever been to Turnstyle, huh, yeah, the high rollers among us. Turnstyle is sort of an upscale thrift store where they only have nice stuff, really quality, I mean the stuff looks brand new and it's all stylish and really nice stuff. So it's a cool store to go to and I go there twice a year when they have like the red tag clearance. You know, I go to Turnstyle and then I get the real nice stuff, okay. But typically it's savers, it's Goodwill, it's Salvation Army. You say, aren't you embarrassed to say that from the pulpit, I mean, you know, that you're just this total popper or slob, but no, I'm not because you know what, the clothing that you get, and look, I don't believe in buying junk. The Bible talks about durable clothing, it even uses that term, durable clothing. You know, God wants us to have quality things, but they don't have to be costly and expensive and flashy. And here's the thing, you can actually get a higher quality at a second hand store. You can get real high quality stuff that's just used or lightly used or came out of a dead person's closet or whatever, whereas, you know, I'm not saying to go to Walmart and buy the cheapest clothes at Walmart because they're going to fall apart often. And then you're kind of wasting money and it's junk. But you know what, it ought to be with a concern for let me buy appropriate clothing, let me buy clothing that doesn't draw attention to myself and stick out like a sore thumb, let me just wear clothing that's durable, that's practical, that is normal, not just, hey everybody, look at me, I'm wearing an Armani suit. You know, I'm wearing the fancy clothes and women, same thing, the fancy expensive jewelry, the fancy name brand purses. And you know, if you drove to Mexico and got a rip off version, okay, fine. But I'm saying, you know, people who spend these insane amounts, you know, Dooney and Burke is spelled wrong or whatever, you know, Ray-Bans spelled wrong or whatever, you know, on the sunglasses. But you know, I bought a pair of Ray-Bans out of Mexico for five bucks, but I have a feeling they weren't really Ray-Bans, you know. But you know, the Rolex watches, all the fancy clothing that's meant to say, hey, look at me, I've got money. Look at me, I'm glorifying myself, I'm glorifying the flesh, I'm glorifying the love of money. Look at me everybody, I'm dressed in fancy clothes. The Bible says no, modest apparel, humble, moderate, not drawing attention to yourself. Now because people have a misunderstanding of the word modest, they'll point at things that are not modest and say it's modest. For example, what the Muslim women wear? That's not modest. Why? Because it draws attention to yourself. It screams out, hey everybody, look at me. Now maybe not if you're in the deepest, darkest, wicked Muslim country, you might fit right in in your hijab and whatever they call those things. But honestly, when you walk down the street in the United States of America wearing that, you stand out like a sore thumb. So that's not a, oh, look how modest they are. No, they're not being modest in that kind of apparel. They're just following a perverted false prophet named Muhammad. It's not a biblical based clothing scheme. They got that from the Quran. They got that from their wicked false religion. The Holy Bible does not teach head covering, okay, and I've done whole sermons debunking that in 1 Corinthians 11 and everywhere else. The Bible does not teach this over the top, just cover yourself in clothing from fingertip to toe to head to every part of your body, even your eyes covered. It's nonsense. But another group that will say, oh, they're dressed so modestly are the Amish. No, they're not. No, they're not. Now the Amish are a false cult that claims to be Christian. They're not Christian at all. They are a wicked false religion that teaches people that it's dangerous to read the Bible. They do. Yeah, and people just look at the Amish and say, oh, it's so wonderful, these godly Christians who dress so modestly. No, they dress in a way that makes them stand out on purpose because even the dresses that they wear, if they would just get a normal pattern or just a normal solid color on it, it wouldn't look that odd. It might just look like a nightgown or something. But honestly, they wear these strange floral prints. And I'm not against floral prints, but I'm talking about strange floral prints that are just unique to them, that just look like they're 150 years old. And there's no basis in reality there. There's no biblical basis for just dressing in purposely ugly clothes to show how righteous and how holy and how godly we are. Look at me, everybody. I am wearing hideous clothes because I'm so spiritual. That is not modesty. And you can defend it all you want, say, hey, don't get on the Amish. I will get on the Amish because they're Calvinist. I will get on the Amish because they say it's dangerous to read the Bible and interpret it on your own. And they warn their people, don't read the Bible too much, it'll make you go crazy. No, it won't. It'll give you a spirit of a sound mind. And if you talk to people who are ex-Amish, who've been saved out of the Amish lifestyle, they'll turn around and expose it and say it's wicked. All kinds of false teaching. The Amish are Calvinist, the Amish teach their people not to read the Bible, the Amish do not believe in salvation by grace through faith, they do not believe in eternal security of the believer, they'll just declare people unsaved if they leave the Amish. And they are the most prideful, arrogant people I've ever met in my life because they just walk around thinking that they're better than everyone else. And if their child grows up and is not Amish, then they pretend that they're dead and act as if they don't even exist. They do it, it's real. The Amish, they go around in their nightgowns that are purposely ugly, scowling and glaring at everyone. Hey, I thought the Bible says if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the publicans the same? You know the Bible teaches that you're supposed to say hi to people. Salute every saint in Christ Jesus and don't even salute your brethren only. You're supposed to salute and greet everyone, you're supposed to say hi. But no, they walk around scowling and glaring at everyone because they just have to go out in the real world for a little while and they just want to go back to their Amish paradise, you know, and nudge to all of us. Where's the soul winning in the Amish? Where's the go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature? Oh, they don't even believe the gospel. And then they have this weird teaching where when their kids hit a certain age, they do this thing called room springing. Who's heard of this? Their kids get a certain age and they send them out to try everything the world has to offer to try the sinful life and decide whether they want to live for God or not, decide whether they want to be Amish or not. So they can go out and drink and party and take drugs and fornicate and do whatever they want and then decide whether they want to come back and be Amish for the rest of their life or whether they want to stay out in the big city and the world and everything. Where is that in the Bible? You know, I thank God I didn't do some room springing when I was a teenager. You know, I left father and mother and cleaved unto my wife and I was a fundamental Baptist the whole time. And I didn't go to bars and I didn't fornicate and I didn't drink and I didn't do drugs. I just grew up in a Christian home and I became a Christian adult. Now was I perfect? No. Was I an idiot as a teenager? In many ways, yes. But this teaching of room springing is garbage, it's nonsense, okay? But on and on we could go. So it's not a sign of godliness to dress ugly. And Pastor Anderson's not up here saying, hey ladies, don't wear anything nice. Be sure to look like the bag lady. You know, be sure to look like a homeless person. Be sure to look like you're in a nightgown. Is that what I said? No. What I'm saying is you wear clothing that is modest in the sense that it's moderate. That it doesn't draw attention to yourself. It covers your nakedness and it isn't just narcissistic, egotistical, screaming, hey everybody, look at me, showing up and flaunting your body. Why don't you flaunt your godliness? The Bible says adorn yourself with good works. Your adorning should be good works. That ornament should be a meek and quiet spirit. Not all of this excessive fancying of your clothing, jewelry, over the top look. It's not biblical. And don't go over the top in the hijab or the Amish nightgown either. That's not, look, why don't you just be modest in the sense that why don't you just wear normal American clothing for the year that we actually live in that is in conformity to God's word? Did you know that everything that the world wears is not sinful? Did you know that there are unsaved, even atheistic people in Tempe who wear the right clothing? I mean, just because an unsaved person wears something, well, can't wear that. Well, no. We should only reject that which is condemned by God's word. And what does God's word condemn? God's word condemns clothing that exposes our nakedness. And God's word condemns clothing that flaunts our body, draws attention to ourself, that is showing off and egotistical. That's what we're talking about. And whether it's a man or a woman wearing that kind of clothing, their heart is not right there. And they need to get on board with this scripture. I have to hurry up though because there's another issue to cover which is identity. So we said number one, nakedness. Cover your nakedness. It's pretty simple, you know. Don't go around naked or uncovering any part of your nakedness. And I don't care what you say, well, but we're swimming. But you know, you can actually swim in clothing that covers your nakedness. What do you get swimming? I'm not against swimming. But when you are with the opposite gender or in public, you need to dress in a way that covers your nakedness even when you go swimming. It's not just, oh well magically, because there's a hole in the ground with water in it, we can just strip down naked publicly. Now look, if you're in your own backyard, I don't care what you wear because if you're in private, you're in private. Wear whatever you want. I mean look, I'm naked every time I, you know, go in the shower or something. But the point is though, you don't go publicly naked. And it doesn't matter if there's water involved. That just suddenly makes it okay because there's a pool there. There's a hot tub there. No. It's not just all bets are off now. No. If you are in mixed company, meaning you are around the opposite gender, you ought to dress in a way that covers your nakedness even if swimming's involved. Now if ladies are going swimming in a private pool, just ladies, dress however you want. If dudes are swimming by themselves, dress how you want. But when you have a mixture there, it becomes shameful to see the other gender's nakedness. Okay? And it's, and there is a way. And you say, oh but it's so cumbersome to swim in these, what, are you trying to set an Olympic speed record or what are you doing? Who here is a professional swimmer? You get paid to go swimming. Okay. That, then that's not relevant to anyone in this room. I mean are you trying to shave a few tenths of a second off your butterfly stroke 200 meters? What are you doing? I mean look, hey, I'm not trying to shave time off. I'm not going to shave my legs either. You know what I mean? Hello? You're not a professional swimmer. Oh it's just so cumbersome wearing all these clothes in the pool. First of all, it's not all these clothes to just cover, you know, the basic, I mean look, my wife for years, my wife has, you know, for over a decade or something, worn these type of modest swimsuits that are like a, they're like a skirt attached to a swimsuit. Everything made out of swimsuit type material. And she goes swimming in that thing and swims, my daughters wear it. And you know what? When they go to the pool wearing that, nobody looks at them and says, oh look at these Amish freaks. No one thinks that. Actually, they constantly have people coming up to them and complimenting them and saying, whoa, that is such a beautiful swim dress. And they're constantly asking about it and talking to them about it because it looks so good. It doesn't look bad. I'm not saying look bad, I'm saying cover your nakedness. Not saying look bad, I'm saying don't just stand out like a sword up. And you know what I've noticed too? Is that even in today's day and age, there are even unsaved unbelievers who aren't comfortable with the way people dress when they go to the pool and go to the beach and everything. And even they will have skirts and things, trying to cover up and kind of take it off right as they're getting in the water, you know, to try, why? Because it's just natural, it's just normal. Not everybody just wants to put their body on that kind of display. And it's even weirder when a dude wears a Speedo, it's sick. You know, and if you go to Germany, just don't go to Germany. I'll just leave it at that. Okay, just God bless the USA, you know, that at least dudes in America actually wear normal shorts. Okay. Yeah, over there, it's a jungle out there. So anyway, let me just get on the last subject because not only do we want to have our nakedness covered in all situations that involve being in mixed company. Number two, we want to be modest. We don't want to just go around showing off. So you could cover your nakedness, but be wearing something really tight and form fitting and you could see how that would still be immodest. Or just flashy, expensive, extravagant, whatever. But just drawing attention to yourself, it's a problem in your heart there. But thirdly, go to Deuteronomy 22 verse 5, Deuteronomy chapter 22 verse 5. Because there's another issue besides Deuteronomy 22 verse 5. There's another issue besides just nakedness and modesty. Because even if you're covering your nakedness and even if you're totally modest, you still may not be dressed properly. Because there's a gender identity that matters when it comes to our clothing. And this is another thing that's going out the window today which shouldn't really surprise us because we live in a gender bending day. I mean, think, you know, and a lot of people are going to get offended at what I say over the next few minutes. But before you get offended at what I teach over the next few minutes, just ask yourself this question. that at Arizona State University last week or the week before, they're installing a men's urinal in every lady's room? In ASU, this came from a plumber that was working at ASU. A plumber was out there and he was installing one urinal into each women's restroom at ASU. And he was like, the guy wasn't even a Christian. And he's just, what in the world? He's like, what is it? He's just like, crazy stuff, right? So here's the thing. You think I'm crazy, right? But no, it's the world that's crazy. Now I know that nobody here is crazy enough to think that that's normal to put the urinal there. And if you are, then please just get up and leave right now and don't ever come back. But I know that I'm talking to a group of people, I'm talking to 200 people this morning here that all know that that's crazy, right? But I submit to you that you have been influenced by the world somewhat on this issue. Even though you haven't gone that crazy, the Hegelian dialectic is at work and you have begun to accept things that were never acceptable in time past and that God does not accept. Because of the fact that we've all been somewhat brainwashed and influenced by the society that we live in to call evil good and good evil, put sweet for bitter, bitter for sweet, light for dark, dark for light, et cetera. And so we need to not get this attitude of, well, I, you know, no, that just can't be right. No, no. I just don't agree with that. Well, what does the Bible say? Okay, because a lot of us could have just been heavily influenced by the world on this subject of gender specific clothing. Okay, now to start this out, let's just read the scripture first of all. It says in Deuteronomy 22 five, 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. So the Bible's real clear here that a man should not put on a woman's garment and that a woman should not dress as a man. Now don't even come at me with, well, that's the Old Testament. So Jesus died on the cross in order to bring in a new era of cross dressing? No, he didn't. And that is foolish, nonsensical doctrine to say that this is somehow repealed under the New Testament. What verse of the New Testament is that? I mean, there are plenty of things in the Old Testament that still apply. That's why I've got the whole Bible here, not just the New Testament. We believe the whole Bible. All scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction of righteousness. Some things have been specifically changed in the New Testament. This isn't one of them, okay? Plus we have the same principle taught in 1 Corinthians 11 when it says that it's a shame for the man to have long hair, but a woman's hair is her glory. We have the same principle in gender specific hair. Women with long hair, men with short hair, okay? Now obviously long and short are relative terms. You say, well why didn't God tell us exactly what the, you know, because then people would just have it at that exact length and that's not the point, okay? Obviously we have all different hairstyles on men around this room or lack of hairstyles and basically we have all different hairstyles and, you know, you'll see many appropriate hairstyles here. It's not that everybody has to have my same haircut as a man. You know, unless your hair is down to your shoulders, most people would agree like, okay, you basically have short hair. You know, different levels of shortness or whatever. You know, I like to keep my hair this way because I don't have to ever comb it. It's just easier and I'm not really that vain about my appearance so it's just like, three on top, one on the bottom, amen? So but anyway, I don't care, you know, but other hairstyles are fine on men. Now if you have a mohawk, well, now you're drawing attention to yourself, aren't you? You're writing words in it and everything and, you know, that's, but what I'm saying is the New Testament reinforces and reiterates the gender differences by saying that a man should not have long hair and that a woman should have long hair. So that's reinforced. So the same principle is in both Old and New Testament. It goes for our hair and it goes for our clothing. Now let's play a little game. I'm going to start. Everybody read the scripture one more time. 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 of the Lord thy God. So I'm going to step over to the board here. I know some of you aren't going to be able to see so you're going to have to just use your imagination, okay? For those who can see, you can take a look at the board here and we're going to play a little interactive game here this morning, okay? I'm going to make three columns on the whiteboard, okay? I'm going to make one column that says men, all right? And then I'm going to make another column that says women and I'm going to make another column that says both, okay? I'm going to draw a line right here and I'm going to draw a line right here, okay? And we're going to talk about articles of clothing and where they go in this paradigm right here and we're going to try to agree. Let's all try to agree. Let's have unity. Shall we? Okay, so let's start out. How about a dress? Well, that was weak. Are we really, you know, let's, let's, let's have a little more strength and unity than that. Okay. How about a dress? All right. So does everybody, anybody descent and say, no, I think dude should be in dresses. Wow, we have unanimous consent. All right. So basically we'd say, oh, everybody agrees that a dress is something that women should wear. How about a skirt? Yep. All right. Any, any dissenters and say, no, dude's in skirts. It's great. All right. So everybody agrees, dress, skirt. Okay. How about a t-shirt? Both, right? I mean, a tee, I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong with a, with a man wearing a t-shirt or a woman wearing a t-shirt. I think that's pretty obvious. How about a button up shirt? Both. I mean, men and women both wear button up shirts. All right. Button up shirt. Right. Pretty basic. How about socks? Both. All right. Great. Okay. How about, how about pantyhose? Okay. All right. Yeah. How about a bra? Okay. All right. Good. Just trying to get you back with me here. All right. How about shoes? Both. All right. Shoes are good on both? All right. Good. Why did I write the word both? I'm losing my mind. Is it, was that what it was supposed to be? Who's got a napkin or a tissue or something? You didn't already blow your nose on it, did you? All right. Good. Oh, well, it is wet erase. No, I'm just kidding. All right. All right. So, it wasn't button up. What was it? Oh, socks. Socks. Okay. Yeah. Socks. Okay. Shoes. All right. Everything making sense this morning? Everybody still with me? Am I losing anybody? Everybody good? How about gloves? Both. Both. All right. How about a hat? How about like a ski hat? Yeah. Ski hats. Good. Right. Really just all, pretty much all hats. I mean, all types of hats we could say, right? In the sense of a straw hat, a sun hat, a cowboy hat, cowgirl hat, you know, or else, you know, all types of hats I think we'd all be pretty comfortable with. We could talk about, I mean, anybody else got any just real, and we're keeping it basic here. We're not saying like pink, blue. I mean, you know, that changes from culture to culture. You know, that stuff is all subjective in our mind. We're just talking about the basic clothing that a person wears, you know, whether that's a t-shirt, a button-up shirt, a dress, a skirt, pantyhose, you know, gloves, a ski hat, other types of hats, socks, shoes, okay. So a jacket. Okay. A jacket. Jacket. How about a long coat? A long wool coat. Both, right? So jacket, coat. Okay. So here's the thing about this, okay. Do you notice something wrong on this chart? Something's missing. Like nothing's in this column. Nothing. Okay. There's nothing in that column. Does anybody notice that? Okay. So let's read the verse again. The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth to a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment for all that do so abominates the Lord thy God. So here's the thing. That verse doesn't make any sense. Because there's no such thing as clothing that pertains to men because everything that men wear is in the both column, right? I mean everything that men wear is in the both column. Oh, we forgot one article of clothing. Pants. Oh, pants. Okay. So pants. Now, let's say we put pants in the both column where modern America puts it, then you have nothing in this column and the Bible makes absolutely no sense. A tie? I've seen women wear ties. You think it's a sin for a woman to wear a tie? So is Deuteronomy 22 5 a prohibition on ties on women? I mean, you know, I mean that's, you know, somebody might have that viewpoint. Somebody might say, hey, Deuteronomy 22 5 is in the Bible for one reason and it's for the people who work at Olive Garden, you know, with those ties, you know, or whatever, where the women wear a tie. But here's the thing about it. A tie is not even really a basic essential, some of these aren't essential either. But when we think of the basic building blocks of an ensemble, people, we're talking about a shirt, pants, shirt, skirt, a dress, you know, these are the basic building blocks. If we were to put pants in the both column, we would have nothing in the men's column or nothing of significance in the men's column and then Deuteronomy 25 would make zero sense because it would be telling you not to commit a sin that doesn't exist. But if we were to say, okay, pants, right? And we would include with that shorts because shorts are just a form of pants. It's just a longer pants is all that is. So pants, we could say, you know, both short and long, okay? Now here's the thing. If we were to eliminate some things from this women's column, like for example, a bra or pantyhose, first of all, a lot of women don't wear these things, number one. They don't wear those things, especially pantyhose. My wife never wears pantyhose. I don't like pantyhose, you know, some women do, whatever. But the point is, if we eliminate this, we end up with the colossal difference between men and women's clothing being just a simple case of women wear dresses and skirts and men wear pants. Everything else kind of goes both ways. Which makes sense because aren't pants and skirt kind of the opposite of one another? Because they both go on the bottom. They're both the basic element of clothing on the bottoms of our bodies. So therefore, you know, it doesn't make any logical sense whatsoever to say that pants can be worn both men and women. Well then why can't men and women both wear a dress? Why can't men and women both wear skirts? Now virtually every single person, excuse me, not virtually, every single person in this room said that skirts and dresses are for women only. Well then it makes sense that the opposite of a skirt or a dress, which is pants, is for men only, otherwise the verse makes no sense. Now you say, well is there evidence of this in the Bible? Well first of all, Deuteronomy 22.5 is evidence in and of itself. Otherwise it would be talking about clothing that doesn't exist. But let's look at some evidence that men wore pants because I've heard this doctrine. Well nobody wore pants back then. Pants hadn't been invented yet. That's so foolish I'm not even going to talk about it in this sermon. I've already dealt with it in other sermons, I don't want to waste time on that. But anyway, let's go to some scriptures on pants. First of all, let's go to 1 Samuel 24. First Samuel chapter 24. And while you're turning there, let me point out to you that the word britches is used five times in the Bible and it means pants. And every single time the word britches is used, it's referring to a man's clothing. One hundred percent of the time. Another word for pants is used in Daniel chapter 3. And the Bible says, then were these men bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats and their other garments. Hosen is the old English word for pants. In fact, in German, the modern German word is hosen. If I want to say pants in German, I'd say hose. Same word. Hasn't even changed. So there's a little bit of a remnant of that in our King James Bible because the King James was written in 1611. The word pants didn't come out until about a hundred years or so after the King James was printed. So they didn't call it pants. They called it britches or hosen. So these guys in the Bible, we've got one, two, three, four, five, six scriptures where men are wearing pants, whether it be called britches or hosen, either way. Not only that, here's some biblical proof that men wore pants in the Bible. Because this thing of, oh, men didn't wear pants, they're all wearing a toga. That is a fraud. And all the, I don't care what your flannel graph shows, I don't care what your Sunday school literature shows, there is no evidence for that in the Bible. And people will often create a straw man argument saying, well Jesus didn't wear pants, he wore a robe. Well, I've got news for you. Robe is an upper body garment. It's not a full body garment. It's something that you wear in addition to other things. No one wears just a robe unless they just got out of the bath or something. You don't leave the house in just a robe. A robe is like what we would consider either a bathrobe or a trench coat. Or think about a king and his kingly robes. What is it? It's all the same shape. It's like a long coat that opens in the front. That's a robe. It's not designed to cover your nakedness, it's an over garment. It goes over it, you know, like you put on your kingly robes or you put on, you know, whatever the robe. So to say, well Jesus wore a robe, therefore he didn't wear pants is stupid because robes are not the opposite of pants. Robes are an outer garment. The question is what did he wear under the robe? So they look, see, when the devil wants to confuse you, he'll create sometimes a straw man argument where he'll say like, oh, and he'll get you to argue about the wrong thing, whether or not he wore a robe. What does that have to do with anything? The real question is what did he wear under the robe? Now, I believe that under the robe, he's wearing a pair of pants, okay? Sort of like the priests in the Old Testament were commanded to do, sort of like Daniel wore. Okay, what they say that he wore under the robe is a tunic. Now a tunic, so it's not about robes versus pants, it's about tunics versus pants. Now the king, you say, well the King James doesn't say tunic. Exactly. Okay, but in the NIV and some of these other versions, they'll change it to a tunic that they're wearing. Now a tunic is like a little summer dress, a little tight-fitting summer dress that they wore under it. You say, well who wore that? The Greeks. All these upper class, super wealthy Romans and Greeks went around in tunics and togas. Now who learned in school that the Greeks and Romans wore tunics and togas, a tunic with a toga over it? Those were the two articles of clothing, yeah. Well the reason that they're going around in a bunch of tunics is because they're a bunch of sodomites, a bunch of homos. Study the Greek culture. Study these Roman Caesars and everything, they're a bunch of sodomites, a bunch of perverts. So of course they're going to be going around in a dress. Okay, that's what it is. The tunic is a dress. Jesus didn't wear a tunic. And in fact, throughout history, working men didn't wear tunics, they wore pants because it's practical. I mean, think about how job sites, they don't even want you wearing, you know, they'll tell you steel-toed shoes, pants, you know. They want you to wear some kind of protective gear. Show up in a tunic and see how long you last on the construction site. Show up in a toga. It's going to get caught on everything. I mean think about going out and working a farm in a toga. It's ridiculous because it would get caught up on everything. It's not a practical garment. It's a garment for a bunch of lazy, rich, wicked people sitting around and doing nothing. That's who wears tunics and togas. Okay. Women haven't even worn togas throughout history. Now here's more proof that the men in the Bible wore pants contrary to what your flannelgraph and your Sunday school teacher showed you. Look at 1 Samuel 24 verse 3. This is King Saul. And he came to the sheep cuts, by the way, where was a cave and Saul went in to cover his feet and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave and the men of David said unto him, Behold, the day of which the Lord said unto thee, Behold, I'll deliver thine enemy into thy hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe, privily. So is Saul wearing a robe? Is there any doubt that Saul's wearing a robe? No, he's wearing a robe, isn't he? Just like a lot of people in the Bible. The skirt of the robe is that which hangs down below the waist. The skirts of the garments, all right? Let's keep reading. The skirt of his robe is what it says. So he is definitely wearing a long robe that goes down below his waist. Everybody got that? And it came to pass afterward that David's heart smote him because he had cut off Saul's skirt and he said unto his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. Now, look back at verse number 3. And he came to the sheepcoats, by the way, where was the cave, and Saul went in to cover his feet. Now, what does the term covering your feet mean in the Bible? Well, it's used also in Judges chapter 3 of a man covering his feet, King Eglon, covered his feet. Well, that is a euphemism for going to the bathroom. Like when we say I have to go to the bathroom, we're not just saying I'm just going to go in that room for a while. We don't talk about what we're actually doing in that room because it would be rude, right? It would be impolite to go into graphic detail about matters of the bedroom or matters of the bathroom and things like that. So the Bible often used euphemisms to describe these things where you just say, for example, you know, instead of going to graphic detail, you might say that someone just used the restroom, visited the ladies room. It's not like they just visited it, signed the guest book, and walked out. So it's euphemistic. Well, a euphemism in the Bible for using the bathroom is covering your feet. Now why in the world would using the bathroom be called covering your feet? Well, it's real obvious, folks, because when you use the bathroom as a man, you have to drop your britches and when you do that, guess what's covered? Your feet, okay? So he's wearing pants, he drops his pants, feet are covered. Now if you're just wearing a tunic or a robe, then you would actually just lift it up to use the bathroom. No foot covering necessary. I mean, it's not like he's like, I got to use the bathroom. I mean, that's just real silly, isn't it? And my microphone's falling everywhere here. So the bottom line is that, you know, when the Bible says he covers his feet, that's more evidence that he's wearing pants, which shouldn't really surprise us since God told the men in the Bible to wear pants. So it shouldn't really come as a shock that, contrary to popular belief, King Saul didn't just wear a robe only or a tunic under it, some Sodomite, Greco-Roman pervert costume. He actually wore a pair of pants. And that's why when he dropped his britches, he covered his feet to use the bathroom. And same thing with King Egon, he did the same thing. You know, and I don't want to get graphic here, I'm not trying to get graphic. But the Bible talks about, and I'm not going to get graphic, if you're not smart enough to figure that out, I don't know, I'm just going to leave it there, okay? That covering your feet means your pants are around your ankles to use the bathroom. It's that simple. Also you'll find in the scripture, and I'm out of time, but also you'll find in the scripture the reference to, gird up thy loins like a man. Because the man would take his garment and basically, you know, gird it up, tuck it in to the belt basically, the part of his garment that flowed down the skirts of the garment. Why would it say gird up thy loins like a man? Because a man is wearing pants underneath. So he can do that. If a woman girded up her loins, well, then that would be exposing of her nakedness. Because if her skirt is discovered, the Bible says her nakedness is seen. Whereas a man girds up the loins of his garment, etc. So the conclusion is this. The Bible says, whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Even things as simple as eating and drinking should be done to the glory of God. And our clothing matters. We should think about the way that we dress. And when you get up in the morning to go to church, God's house, or when you get up in the morning and think about going to work or going out in public, you ought to think about the fact that you need to dress in a way that would be honoring to the Lord. Is your nakedness covered? Are you modest? And have you preserved gender identity? You say, well, you know, you're just a radical, you're a Taliban or whatever. You watch too much TV because here's the truth of the matter. Did you know that a hundred years ago it was illegal for a woman to wear pants in this country? Illegal. And not just some law on the books somewhere, they had crazy laws. No, women were arrested and put in jail for cross-dressing. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for wearing pants. It's true. So, you know, my dad was telling me about these, it was like some biker chicks back in the early 20th century that were riding Harleys across America and they ended up being put in jail repeatedly for wearing pants and everything like that. You know, even when my dad went to school in the 60s, in high school in the 60s in Los Angeles, California, no pants allowed on girls at school. Girls must wear skirts and dresses down to the knee. I mean, it's just that times have changed, it's part of an agenda to blur the difference between the genders. Let me ask you this, Christian one, in 2016, do you believe that we lead less distinction between the genders or more? I mean, do we really want to just, yeah, let's just blur the lines. No, that's what the devil's agenda is for our country, to bring the sodomites out of the closet and to just have this weird gender-bending women's room with a men's urinal in it and all this just everybody's wearing pants, everybody's wearing the same clothes, we're all dressed the same, we have our hair the same. Let's preserve a gender distinction between men and women as God's people. Then you say, well, you know, I can't do anything in a skirt. What are you trying to do? I mean, what is it that you're trying to, and here's what's funny, the same people who tell you, oh, you can't do anything in a skirt. They're the same people that tell you, well, everybody wore a skirt in Jesus' day. So what, did they just not do anything? They're like, you can't ride a horse in a skirt, but supposedly Jesus is riding on a donkey in a skirt. I guess they think he was side saddle. I mean, think about it. I guess all the troops, I guess one million Ethiopians fighting up against hundreds of thousands of troops of the Jews in the Old Testament, I guess they were all riding side saddle because it's impossible to ride a horse in a skirt. But you can't have it both ways. Which one is it? I say they were riding the horses in pants like any normal person would do, right? But you say, well, but then you're saying ladies can't ride horses. But here's the thing, which one, you can't have it both ways, friend. You can't use that as an argument. Well everybody wore it back then, well, oh, oh, but back then the men wore pants and the women wore skirts, but we're supposed to all switch now because we're in the sexual revolution in the United States. Yeah, that's real godly, real Christian mentality. And the truth of the matter is it is possible to wear a skirt and ride a horse normally if you have a very long and flowing skirt, my wife's done it. But it's not a practical garment for going into battle, you know, or other things, but you know, women don't need to be going into battle. You know, here's the thing, if you can't do it in a skirt, maybe you just shouldn't be doing it as a lady. Maybe it's not ladylike. And you know, there are women who wear leggings under their skirt and everything like that or whatever to try to be modest and yet preserve gender identity and still be practical and so on and so forth. Women belong in a skirt or in a dress and men belong in pants and you say, are you still on that? Yes. And I'm taking it to the grave. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for your word, Lord, and thank you so much for our church, Lord, and for all the wonderful people who come here and thank you that we can come to your house where we don't bring emphasis to ourselves and our bodily appearance and show off our muscles as men and show off and flaunt the bodies of ladies, Lord, but rather we come here with a spiritual purpose to bring honor and glory to you and to learn sound doctrine from your word, Lord. Help us to always keep that emphasis and never to seek to glorify self at church, Lord, or anywhere else. To preserve modesty, cover our nakedness, and preserve gender identity in our clothing. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.