(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Anyway, so 1 Corinthians 11, I actually already preached on the second half of this when we were talking about the Lord's Supper. Well, we're going to deal with the first half, and actually the sermon title is hair length and dress standards. My sermon title is really original, but it's basically just a point is that I'm going to be talking about basically those type of standards. Dress standards, hair length, those are the two major things that we deal with when it comes to our outward appearance, and so I want to cover this subject. This is a subject that is widely scoffed at as far as what the Bible teaches on this, and I want to say this, I think a lot of people, you come out of Bible colleges and all this stuff and they preach these standards, but they don't really ever tell you, they don't ever really show you from the Bible why it is this way, and so I think when children are brought up and their parents are teaching them the standards, and it's just because I said so kind of idea, once they get out, it's going to be like what's the authority, and so I think it's good to understand and to grasp the logic and understanding of why men have short hair and women have long hair, why men wear pants and women wear dresses. I think we need to really just kind of talk about this and really understand where it's coming from in the Bible. This chapter is really just mostly dealing with hair length, but it's also just giving you the idea that there's a difference between men and women. If there's anything that I can get across about dress standards and hair length is that there needs to be a stark difference between men and women, and especially in the gender-bending, gender-fluid garbage that we live in today, and all these terminologies like genderizing and all this stuff, I mean it's just so dumb. I almost feel stupid saying stuff like that, you know, it's like they're making up new definitions or something. Anyway, in this chapter, in verse one there, notice what it says here because people scoff at this passage and they'll just want to completely negate half a chapter of the Bible. Notice verse one though, how this starts off, it says, be followers of me even as I also am of Christ. Where people normally go with this is they say, well Jesus had long hair. Now you've been looking at too many of the queer artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael the Sculptor, and no offense to the Ninja Turtles, but these guys that were the Renaissance painters and all this stuff, first of all, this is, you know, over a thousand years past when Christ was even on the earth, so they didn't know what he looked like, and of course they're going to put long hair on him because they're a bunch of queers themselves, so they were all trying to make him effeminate. I mean, Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting of the Last Supper, the Apostle John looks like a woman, literally looks like a woman, and you wouldn't even think that was the Apostle John, you'd just think it was like Mary Magdalene or something like that, but that's who they say is the Apostle John, and so anyway, you've got to get your mind out of what the world is shoving down your throat. The world wants you to think that Jesus had long hair and wore a dress. Isn't that every depiction of Jesus out there? Long hair, wearing a dress, and so we're going to see what the Bible says about this, and then I'm going to give you my standards, because when it comes to dress standards and hair length and stuff like that, there comes a point where the Bible's not going to explicitly say this is the length, this is the exact thing that you're supposed to be wearing. What you have to come to is the fact that, hey, you don't want to be towing the line. You don't want to be just like, okay, I found the line, let me see how close I can get to it before I cross it, and that's where people are trying to find, they're like, well, what about this, what about this? Well, if you have to wonder about it, then you probably shouldn't wear it. If you have to wonder about it, then you probably shouldn't do it that way. So you want to be extreme. Think of heaven and hell, those are extremes. And when you look at long hair, short hair, those are two extremes. And so anyway, as we go through this, this is talking about covering your head. And once you get down to the end of the discussion there, there's no question that this is talking about hair length. And so you have these churches that are like hair, you know, covering churches where women are covering their heads with like garments and stuff like that. You know, when you look at this passage, it's clear that it's not talking about a garment, it's talking about the hair. And I'm going to kind of prove that, you know, that it has to be talking about a garment, or it has to be talking about hair and not a garment, okay? Because notice what, and we'll read verse two, it says, now I praise you brethren that they 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. So notice that order, God, Christ, man, woman. You probably saw that umbrella, have you ever seen those little memes with the umbrella where it's like God, Christ, man, woman, you know, and these umbrellas of authority, right? So that's the first thing you see there is that authority structure, you see the roles of men and women that are not the same, so therefore they're supposed to look different. And notice in verse four it says, every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesy, having her head uncovered dishonoreth her head, for that is even all one as if she were shaven. That should give you a clue that we're talking about hair and not just a garment. But one thing I want to, go to Exodus chapter 20, or 28, I'm sorry, Exodus chapter 28. Because people will say here, well see, it's like you shouldn't wear a hat, or you shouldn't wear, you know, something on your head as a man when you're praying or prophesying. This will blow that out of the water. You know, people, you probably heard the old like take your hat off before you pray thing. And I'm not against you doing that, but that's probably where they're getting it from. And I don't think that it really applies. And you know, we went out soloing in Arizona and people were wearing hats because it's hot and the sun's like on your face. And when we go out soloing, like when it's like 20 below out here, and you have a toboggan on, and I call it a toboggan, I don't know what you call it, but I call it a toboggan that covers your ears and your head, ski cap, whatever people call them, right? It's not just a sled. Now anyway, so, but when you have that on, do you think I'd take that off before I go and pray with this person or I'm preaching them the gospel? And this is where they would try to get this from. But I'm going to prove to you, go to Exodus chapter 28, verse 40, that the priests wore hats, but bonnets particularly is what they call them, which is kind of funny because bonnets, when you think of a bonnet, you think of like the old time, like women wearing bonnets on their head, but it's just the type of hat. I don't know what it looked like to be honest. You know, maybe it did look like a bonnet, like the women wore or something. But anyway, in verse 40, it says, and for Aaron's sons, thou shalt make coats and thou shalt make for them girdles and bonnets, shalt thou make for them for glory and for beauty. You notice verse 41, and thou shalt put them upon Aaron and thy brother and his sons with him and shall anoint them and consecrate them and sanctify them that they may minister unto me in the priest's office. They were aware of those when they were doing the priest's office. And if you know what the Levites, Levites in general, what was their, their position to do? To teach the people of the Bible. And obviously they were doing the ministry of, you know, they were the high priest, they were the priests. They were like in Christ's stead. And at the beginning of this chapter, you see that you're, that he's saying, be followers of me, even also as I'm of Christ. And Paul's talking about how men should have short hair. Would that make sense if Jesus had long hair? If we're supposed to follow Christ in all the things that he did, if he had long hair and he's saying, be followers of me, even as I am of Christ, let me tell you about how why short hair, why long hair is wrong, you know? And so that shows you that first of all, Jesus didn't have long hair and it's a confusion obviously from the Nazarite vow, which I'm not going into that tonight, but the Nazarite vow that they would make, it wasn't like always a lifetime thing. Samson was like the exception to the rule where it was one of those things where he was to not shave his head. But you know one thing, it says he wasn't supposed to shave his head. Didn't say he couldn't pull his head. I'm not going into that tonight. But what I'm saying is that most time with the Nazarite vow, it'd be like a couple months, a year. And by the way, your hair grows about a half inch a month, which means that it would be about six inches a year. If my hair was six inches long, it'd be like this long. I mean, yeah, that's shaggy, but it's not like down to my ankles long. You know what I mean? I'm not putting dreadlocks into that. And so all that to say is the Nazarite vow is different than being a Nazarene. A Nazarene is a place. The Nazarite vow is a certain vow that they took. But even that, they would do that for a certain period of time, then they'd shave their heads. So it wasn't like a lifelong, just a bunch of long-haired hippies, Nazarites, okay? It just meant that they kind of let themselves go for a certain amount of time, and then they would vow a certain amount of time. And it was only Samson that was like this lifelong thing, really, besides John the Baptist. Now, back to 1 Corinthians 11, because it's basically saying if you pray as a man, having your head covered, you're dishonoring your head, and you're dishonoring Christ. Because who's the head of man? Christ. And so that's clearly talking about hair length, because it couldn't be talking about a hat. It can't be talking about a hat or something you would wear on your head. So it's clearly talking about your hair. And when it's talking about the woman praying uncovered, it's clearly talking about hair, because it says it is as if she were shaven. But anyway, as we go on there in verse 6, it says, for if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, for as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. So notice the big difference there. People would say, well, you know, God is gender neutral because he made male and female in his image. No. He made man in his image, and the woman is the glory of the man. And so it's kind of like we're the glory of God as the image of God, and the woman is the glory of us. So it's different. A woman doesn't look just like God. A man looks just like God, but obviously the woman looks similar to a man. We look similar. We both have ears, eyes, nose, like all this stuff. Anyway, I know I shouldn't have to get this deep with you guys. I know you understand men and women, but what I'm saying here is that this chapter is really good about showing those different roles and also the fact that there is a difference. Verse 8, for the man is not of the woman, but the woman by the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. Yes, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman, but all things of God. You'll be like, good night, what in the world? It's just basically saying that the woman was made of man, meaning that man was there first and the woman was made from his ribs, but men are born of women, right? So that's what it's saying is that the men that are coming into this world, they didn't come here without the women bringing them into the world because Eve was the mother of all living. And so that's what that's talking about is that yes, woman was made for man, but woman also brings man into the world. So that's the whole operation it's talked about there. Verse 13, it says, judge in yourselves, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered now? Notice what it says. Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto man. But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering. See how it defines what we were talking about with the covering and uncovering? The man having his head covered is what? Him having long hair. And the woman having her hair covered or her head covered is talking about her long hair. So what's that mean? If you have long hair, you're covering your head. If you have short hair, your head's uncovered. That's all that means. It's strictly showing here that a man is not to have his head covered and a woman is to have her head covered. So women should have long hair and men should have short hair. That's clearly seen in here. And people will go and they'll read all that and then they'll go down to verse 16, it says, but if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom to either the churches of God. And people will take that verse and literally say, everything that was said before there, nah, you know, we don't have any such customs. Now what he's saying is that if anyone's contentious about this, we don't have customs where men have long hair and women have short hair. No, not in the church of God. That's what he's saying. He's rebuking them. And later on he's going through the passage about the Lord's Supper, he's rebuking them again. So this whole idea of taking this verse and then, you know, if anyone's contentious about this though, we don't have any customs about the fact of what hair length you have to have. Why in the world would he spend a whole half chapter talking about this and then just say, well, you know what? I was just talking about that. We don't care about that. If anyone's contentious about that, you know, don't worry about that. I mean, that's a strong thing that if you have your head covered as a man, you're dishonoring your head. You're dishonoring Christ. That's a, that's a pretty big thing to see there. Now what's interesting, go to Revelation chapter 9. Nature itself tells us this, okay? Nature itself tells us, you know, because they're like, well, all these cultures back in the day, they had long hair and all this stuff. Yeah, they weren't right with God. You're talking about the Greeks? You're talking about these people that were a bunch of, you know, like polytheists and pagans? Yeah, they had a lot of other things that were wrong too. So, but the thing is, is that they, this has been from the beginning that a man should have short hair and a woman should have long hair. And it's going throughout time and obviously there's going to be, you know, countries that, that could go completely opposite of this. And so, but in Revelation 9, what's interesting about this is that this, this verse in verse 8 assumes that you know what it means for, what it means when you say women's hair. Because it says in verse 7, talking about the locust coming up out of hell, and that, I'm not saying that has anything to do with women or anything like that, but what it says here in verse 7, it says, and the shapes of the locust were like unto horses prepared unto battle, and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men, and they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. Now what's that mean? If men and women could have the same length of hair, what does that mean to have hair of women? Is it curly? I mean, men have curly hair. You know what I mean? So obviously when it says the hair of women, what does that mean? They have long hair, because it's giving a likeness of all this different stuff that's about this thing. They have the teeth, the teeth of lions. It's not literally a lion's teeth, but it's like as that. And the hair is, the hair of women, what is it saying? It has long hair. That's what that means. And so, that's real deep, I know, with the hair length. Go to Romans chapter 14, because here's the thing, when it comes to these standards, God doesn't come out and say, there's a spider, got it. So he doesn't come out and say, okay, six inches. If you're past six inches, that's long. If you're below six inches, that's short. Now think about this, because if that were the case, if I had a hair length that was five and three quarters inch, and my wife had hair that was six and a quarter inch, technically we were past that line, but would anyone even tell a difference? No one, unless if you're taking a tape measure out to figure out who has longer hair. So that's why there's no line. It's not like he's going to tell you this is the line. And so, what you have to do with this, when it comes to dress standards, when it comes to hair length, is I want to be as far, you know, like over on the one end of short to where there's no question. No one's going to look at me and say, you have long hair. No one's looking at me from behind and be like, man, I thought you were a woman because of your hair, your long flowing hair, right? And I'm not saying everybody has to have a buzzed head. I'm not saying that. Obviously I don't, okay? That's not written there either, that we all have to buzz our heads, okay? But obviously if you want a buzzed head, I'm all for that, I don't care, you know? You could pick your head, you know, and just go the whole shaved route and be a boss. But what I'm saying is that there's no line there, so you want to basically be careful. You want to be to the point where there's no question. No one would question my hair length and say, ah, you're getting a little close. I personally can't stand when my hair starts touching my ears. But does that mean that when it starts touching my ears, it's long, okay? That's the standards that you have at Bible college, you know, is that you can't touch your ears. That's not written anywhere, okay? So if someone had hair that was a little longer and shaggy and it was over his ears, I wouldn't say that was long. But again, yeah, they'd be fully persuaded in your own mind, go to Romans chapter 14. Where's your heart at in this matter? Okay, you know that women should have long hair, that's what the Bible teaches, and men should have short hair. Are you going to tread the line or are you going to make it no doubt that you have long hair? That no one's going to doubt that your hair's long. And I'm not saying that it has to be down to your ankles, okay? But that's an extreme, right, to go that far. But you need to be fully persuaded in your own mind that, hey, there's no doubt my hair's long, I'm good, you know, this is a safe place to be, I'm not treading the line as far as short or whatever. But Romans chapter 14 verse 5, it says, one man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Now notice verse 14, because this whole chapter is about the fact of you have liberty to do certain things, but it's talking about doubtful disputations, meaning that if your brother, if you know, like, hey, I can eat bacon, right, we talked about this when we went through this chapter, I know I can eat bacon, but my brother's not sure about that if that ordinance has been done away with, right, he's doubtful about that. If he eats it, even though it's right for him to eat it, even though like there's nothing wrong with him eating bacon, right, we know that to be true, it would be sin for him to eat that bacon because he's doubting. Because it says that in that very last verse there in verse 23, it says, and he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith, but whatsoever is not of faith is sin. If your hair length is, let's say it's past your shoulders, and it's flowing down, and you're like, I still think it might be short, okay, I know, I obviously think that's long, okay, but let's say in your mind you're saying, I think it needs to be longer if I keep it. Now if I were to say no, that's long, but you're doubting that, and you keep it that way, or you cut it, or whatever, then you're in sin, does that make sense? So you need to be fully persuaded in your mind, basically, hey, this is long, no one's questioning that this is long, this is something that's very clear that it's long, men, same thing with your hair, no one's questioning that it's short, you know, and everybody in here, I mean, we have pretty short, I mean, short hair, I don't think anybody in here with men, you know, and women as well as far as the length of hair, none of you in my life looking at me like, man, they're toting the line here as far as where they're at with their hair length, but all I'm saying with that is that you want to be as far over to where you're not worried about it. You're not worried like, you know, I'm probably good, but I'm not sure, kind of thing. With hair length, I think that one's pretty easy, you know, you just grow out your hair and just keep it long, and that's easy for us guys to say, because we don't have to deal with the hair, right? Yeah, we're not the ones washing it and drying it and doing all this other stuff, it's so much easier, I just take a towel and just do this, I'm done, you know? You guys know what I'm talking about, and so, praise God we're men, but that's not the point that I'm getting across, what I'm saying is that it just needs to be something that's very, there's no doubt, there's no doubt. No one's going to look at you, even the world wouldn't look at you and say you have short hair, women, or men, you have long hair, no one's going to say that. And that's where you've got to look at it and say, would anybody come up to me and say that I have long hair? Obviously there's going to be haters out there, like, you've got long hair, see, it's like a half inch or something like that, it should be buzzed, no, we're not starting a buzz cut cult here, you know, okay? What I'm saying with that is that Hyles Anderson had, I'm not against you guys that much, but what I'm saying is Hyles Anderson had this like comb-over thing where that was like the only haircut you could have, if you didn't do a comb-over, you got demerits, okay, it's weird, okay? I want you to have liberty to have your hair whatever you want it, okay, within reason obviously of being weird, okay, but you don't have to have your hair like mine, no one says that, you know, you don't have to have it like brother Joseph, you don't have to have it like brother Charles, you know, like you can have your hair the way you want it as long as it's short, that's where you should be, and so we don't want to get into this point where we're all like having the same, we all wear exactly the same, we all look exactly alike, we all have like uniforms that we wear, you know, we're not kidding, no, we have liberty, okay, but within the realm of, okay, here's short hair length, and then there's a length that no one should have, that's where you need to get to, okay, there's this length where none of us want to be there, and so when you have that threshold, there's not a line, there's a whole area of area where we shouldn't be, and that'll give you that big distinction, because the biggest thing that when it comes to standards as far as hair length and dress code is that you want to have a stark difference between each other, that's the whole point, that's the whole point of what our dress standards is about is that you look like a man, and then you look like a woman, that's like the whole point, like anybody that's standing there would be like, that's a man right there, there's no doubt, it's not like I had to turn around and see your face before they figured it out, and today the way we live, the stuff we live, I mean, there's people that I'm looking at their face and I'm like, I can't figure it out, I don't know, I don't know if they're a man or a woman, there's this guy, I mean, at the pharmacy, at CVS Pharmacy, and I'm just like, I think it's a guy, I'm pretty sure it's a guy, and then they have like a name that's like neutral, you know, it's like, you go either way, it's like Jamie or something like that, and you're like, oh, that doesn't help me, you know, you're waiting for that, like, you know, like real strong, like John, you know, or something like that, where you're like, well, it's a guy, you know, or whatever, but you never know these days with the perverted stuff that's out there. So anyway, that's the easy one, hair length I think is pretty easy to see in the Bible, right? I think where the real issue comes is with the dress code. Now go to Deuteronomy 22.5, this is the big heavy hitter when it comes to what men and women should wear, and what it comes down to is with the hair length, men should have short hair, women should have long hair. It's pretty clear, 1 Corinthians 11, and we're not talking about head covering as far as like a hat, okay, we're talking about hair length. Now when it comes down to, here's where you get into people, where you lose people, is women should wear dresses and men should wear pants. I'm going to talk about some different issues and the different situations and, you know, where I stand on these issues, and you may not be as strict or you may be stricter than me when it comes to some of this stuff, okay? But again, this is where you need to be fully persuaded in your own mind. Know that there is this verse here, okay? Once you understand that there is a verse, like this one in Deuteronomy 22.5, you can work off that, okay? But don't ignore this verse, okay? Deuteronomy 22.5, it says, the woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God. Let us sink in, that if you wear, if I wear a woman's garment, I'm an abomination. And ladies, if you wear a man's garment, you're an abomination. Let's take that in. That's serious, so we need to understand and make sure that we're trying, that we're trying to not do that, okay? Now the first thing is, this is where, it's like slanted, okay? The guys, it's very clear what garment we should not be wearing. This is where it's like no one argues with this, that a man should not wear a dress. Now in the, I mean, there's people out, there's guys that wear dresses out there and they're trying to push this out there, you know, in Scotland, Scotland, you know, they got their like kilts and they're wanting to wear all this stuff, but they're always putting Jesus in a dress and all this stuff, but we're gonna see that the Bible teaches about pants, okay? And what you have to realize that if there is, if there is a garment that a man is not supposed to wear that's a woman's garment, there has to be a man's garment that a woman shouldn't wear. Logic has to conclude, you can't just say, well, there's a garment that a man shouldn't wear, but women, they can wear anything. That's the conclusion that most people come to as far as women can wear anything and men have restrictions, okay? And so we have to understand that that can't be the case. Now first I want to show you that pants aren't mentioned in the Bible, it doesn't say pants. It uses different words for it, but go to Exodus chapter 28, Exodus chapter 28, and I believe personally that this is kind of like the hair length where by nature it is known. This is something that's universally known from the beginning of time that what men should wear and what women should wear as far as their garment. And I'll say this, I'm gonna get into a subject because some cases you're gonna look at and say, well, is that a man's garment even though it looks like pants? You're gonna get into the fact that it may not be a man's garment technically or a woman's garment technically, but it's not modest. That's what we're gonna get into because if you wore my pants, women, or if you wore like a pants that men wear, it's clearly a man's garment, right? That's what it's made for, right? But if you wear the skin tight things, and that's what most women are wearing, they're wearing like skin tight pants, skin tight jeans, you can argue whether that's a man's garment or not, but again, it's more so the fact that it's not modest. The whole point of what women are wearing usually, most of the time, they're not modest. If it is a man, it could be a man considered a man's garment in some cases, but sometimes it's just an undergarment, okay? They're wearing underwear outside and that's, you know, it's not really anything to do with the fact whether it's a man's garment, it's just the fact that they're showing their nakedness, okay? But Exodus chapter 28 and verse 42, so there's two words that are used in the Bible to talk about pants. One is breeches, and we would kind of think of the word breeches, and then there's another word called hosen. And notice in verse 42 it says, and thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach. So this is talking about the priest's office, you know, with Aaron and his sons. They were to wear linen breeches and they were to cover from the loins to the thigh. And so what this is showing us is that nakedness is from the loins to the knee pretty much, covering the thigh. This is your nakedness area, okay, on men and women, okay? Some people want, you know, and this isn't a day for like whether you should cover when you're breastfeeding or not, okay? I personally don't believe, you know, like that you have to cover when you're breastfeeding. That's just my personal belief. I believe the nakedness, particularly of where women should be covered, is from the loins to the thigh, just like men, because I can't find a place where, that women have to cover up here as well. Now obviously that goes into modesty, and same thing with a man, you know, we're covering, you know, I'm not coming in here shirtless, and like, you know, there's a modesty level on all those levels too. And but that's another sermon for another day when it comes to that. But when we're talking about this clothing that men and women aren't supposed to wear, I believe particularly it's talking about the loins to the thighs. So everything above there is kind of, you know, it can go in any way, you know, like a hat or a shirt or whatever. You know, if you wear your husband's hoodie, I'm not saying that's a man's garment, okay? That's, I'm just showing you my standards, but again, what we have to go off of is Deuteronomy 22.5. And so you see how there's a lot of like room to, where you have to make this choice, and that's where you've got to come in and say, okay, I'm going to be on the side where it's known, like no one's questioning that this is a woman's garment, and over here where no one's questioning this is a man's garment. But particularly when we're dealing with from the loins to the thighs, because that's where the nakedness, that's the clothing that covers the nakedness. Now I'm against, there are certain things that I will not want Holly to wear, and you know, those business suit jackets with shoulder pads, I hate those things, okay? I just don't like those things on women. I've never liked them, and it's like women will dress up and they'll have a dress and the skirt, and then they have like this on, and I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm not saying it's sinful, but I personally don't like it. It's too masculine, it's like, you know, men should have the big broad shoulders, not the women. That's a side note. But, so we, so Ezekiel 44 covers the same thing, because, you know, you'll say, well, you know, that was back then. Well, no, in Ezekiel, when they were building the second temple, they were going over the same exact, or they were talking about the second temple being built where Christ was going to actually come, in Ezekiel 44 and verse 18 it says the same thing. It also explains why they wore linen, you know, a little side note that has nothing to do with our sermon tonight, but in Ezekiel 44 and verse 18 it says, they shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins, they shall not gird themselves with anything that causeth sweat. So what you may ask yourself, why were they wearing all these linen garments? The whole point was that they weren't sweating, you know, it's supposed to be like a garment, it's not cotton, right? They're cotton, you're just going to sweat to death, right? But I looked up the word breeches. What does breeches mean? Well, just think of the word breech, something that's breeched, okay? And you know, when you look up the garment, it's basically bifurcated garment worn by men covering the body and waist to the knees. Sounds pretty accurate, right? That's exactly what the Bible says about it. So and it goes on, it talks about how, where that word like breech comes from and stuff like that, it means to break or forked or split. Well, that's what you're wearing, man, okay? It's something that's forked, right? And so it's breeched. And so that's the thing we're dealing with. Now go to Daniel chapter 3. So Daniel chapter 3, we're dealing with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men are being thrown into the fiery furnace. But before they're thrown in, it kind of tells us what they're wearing. So in Daniel chapter 3 and verse 20, when I go through the whole story for sake of time, but in verse 20, it says, and he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats and their other garments and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. So they were wearing hosen. Well, what are hosen? It's an old German word for trousers. So think about this, ladies, hose, pantyhose. What's pantyhose? It covers your legs, right? And it's not a dress, okay? But it's kind of comes from that same word. But hosen is particularly talking about a man's garment that they wear to cover their, you know, like what I'm wearing, trousers. That's what hosen would be. It's just an old word for it. And so it's like people that look up and they're like, pants aren't in the Bible. Dinosaurs aren't in the Bible either as far as that word, but that word wasn't invented until like the 1800s. So they, our language came from a Germanic type of language. We got a lot of German words. When you think of the word spirit, that comes from Latin and ghost comes from German, synonyms, but from different languages as far as what they are. And so anyway, the nakedness is what we're dealing with here when we're talking about these garments. So if you're like, well, what hat can I wear? I don't care. You know, like, obviously, I'm not going to wear some flowery hat, you know. I'm going to wear a manly type of hat if I'm going to wear a hat. So you got to understand, you know, you say, well, you know, what about colors? I don't care. You know, the Bible doesn't say like you can't wear pink, but do you think I'm going to wear pink up here when that's universally known as a feminine or a girl color? When you say we're having a girl, what do you have? Pink balloons, pink everything. My life's pink right now, so I'm not wearing pink. I need to stand out from everything that's in my house. But is it wrong? Is it simple for you to wear pink? I'll say this, if you're wearing it to stand out, it's wrong because it's not modest. And most of the time men that wear pink are doing it to stand out, to say, look at me, you know, I'm secure, you know, or whatever, you know. So most of the time they're doing it to stand out, which is wrong anyway. But no, a color's not bad. It's not like the, you know, pink's inherently bad color or, you know. But I'll say this, blue's my favorite color, so why would I wear pink, okay? But we see britches, very much that's the way we would say it, and you probably, you hear this term, you know, you're too big for your britches. Have you ever heard this phrase, that person wears the pants in the family? What do you think that means when you say that? It means that they're the boss. That's universally known that that's what that means, is that, you know, they'll say that in, you know, kind of a backhanded way, she's wearing the pants in the family, right? Why? Because she's the boss. She's the one that's calling the shots. And so it's universally known that he, the one that's wearing the pants is the man, is the boss, is the leader, is the head. And so that's the way it should be. The man should be that at home, so he should be the one wearing the pants. Now notice what it says in Job chapter 38, because you're going to see this phrase because we're talking about the loins, right? The loins are covered. You see this phrase dealing with men all the time about girding up your loins. Now if I was wearing a dress, that wouldn't make that much sense to gird up my loins because everything's exposed from underneath there for me to gird it up. And so when you think about girding up your loins, you're talking about basically taking your pants up, tightening them up, and getting ready to do some work, right? And you know, I think about this when you go out and do like work on a farm or you're doing something. You don't want to have loose clothing. You don't want stuff getting in your way. You're like tightening up. You're just like, it's getting real, you know? You're getting ready to do work. And so you want things to be girded up tight and ready to go. But in Job 38 verse 3, it says, gird up now thy loins like a man. Do you notice that there's a difference in the way that someone would gird up their loins compared to whether they're a man or a woman? For I will demand of thee and answer that me. So God's saying this to Job, saying gird up thy loins like a man. Job chapter 40, same book, Job chapter 40 and verse 7, he says it again. Gird up thy loins now like a man and I will, yeah, gird up thy loins like a man and I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me. Jeremiah 1 17, you don't have to turn there, but Jeremiah 1 17, obviously God's talking to Jeremiah and it says, thou therefore gird up thy loins and arise and speak unto them all that I command thee. Be not dismayed at their faces lest I confound thee before them. So we see all this girding up thy loins and I'm not showing you all the places for sake of time, but, you know, girding up your loins, women, it never talks about women girding up their loins. There's a couple of places where it talks about women girding something about their loins. Go to Isaiah 32, Isaiah 32, but you know what it never says is gird up the loins with women. So there is a difference on how women would gird their loins and how a man would gird their loins. Isaiah 32 and verse 11, it says, trouble you women that are at ease. Be troubled, ye careless ones, strip you and make you bare and gird sackcloth upon your loins. Notice it doesn't say gird up your loins or gird up sackcloth upon your loins. Notice in Proverbs 31, you know, obviously the famous virtuous woman, Proverbs 31 and verse 17, Proverbs 31 verse 17, it says, she girdeth her loins with strength and strengtheneth her arms. So obviously, you know, we're all supposed to be girding our loins with something, right? That's our nakedness. That's what we're supposed to be clothing. But with men, particularly, you're girding them up, okay? And women, if you have a dress on, then that wouldn't make sense to gird up your loins because obviously, you know, that wouldn't work out very well, right? If you're wearing a dress, you don't want to be pulling that thing up any higher, right? Because then you're going to be showing your nakedness. But if you're wearing pants, you can see how that would make sense. You're girding them up. Why? Because you need to be ready to do battle. You need to be ready to run, right? You need to be ready to do what you need to do. And you may ask yourself and say, well, you know, then there's going to be certain things that I can't do as a woman wearing a dress. Yeah, because there's certain things you probably shouldn't be doing as a woman. Yeah, you stepped into the Fundamental Baptist Church tonight where, you know, there are certain things that men should be doing that women shouldn't be doing, like going off in the battle, right? Fighting a war is not what women are meant to do. That's not what God designed. The women should not be going off to war, first of all. That should be known. And so, but, you know, it's funny because the same people that say, well, you know, women, you know, they should be able to wear pants because then they couldn't do certain things. But they're supposed to make me believe that everybody back in Jesus' day wore a dress as a man? Like, they didn't figure out, like, the fact that how to wear, how about the fact that the priests were already wearing them? How about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew to wear pants? But somehow in Jesus' day, they just didn't figure out how to make these garments that have a breach in them to where they can walk around freely without worrying about showing off their nakedness and wearing this long, flowing dress. And everybody, you know, they try to say this stuff, but show me where this is at. Because if you look at history, you'll find that there's been pants for a really long time. And I believe since Adam, since the beginning of time, there was pants. And so, it's just ignorance, and it's based off of looking at too many Renaissance pictures, too many Renaissance paintings, and they take that as fact. And you know what? As much as I try to drown it out, when I think about Jesus, I still have to shove this long-haired hippie out of my mind, wearing a dress, wearing this long robe. The only time that some, you know, like, well, they wore robes back then, it's like the only time that long robes were mentioned when they were rebuking the Pharisees were for wearing them. Do you think Jesus was wearing a long robe and then saying they like to wear long robes in the temples? Would that even make sense? What did he say? Ye hypocrites. So, this whole idea of them wearing these long flowing garments and all this stuff, and I'm not saying they couldn't wear a robe, or like kings couldn't wear a robe, but they were wearing pants underneath of it. And the priests would have a robe that they wore, but guess what? They were wearing britches underneath of it. And so, I could wear, you know, I have a coat, and I've had coats that were longer that came down a little further. But guess what? I was wearing pants. You would think I was a madman if I came in here with just that on. And you know, I had undergarments underneath there, but it was just buttoned up all the way down. I'm just walking around in this big robe, looked like an idiot. Looked like someone you're going to probably call the police on if I was found in the park somewhere. And so, it's just stupidity, but the thing is that there's nothing new under the sun. Do you really think that pants just came to be, like, recently? There's nothing new under the sun. This whole idea that, you know, pants weren't invented yet is just a stupid argument, and not to mention it's in the Bible. The britches were there. The hosen were there. Way before Christ. So that just falls out the window. But really when it comes down to this, women, for example, when you say, well, you know, what about this garment or whatever? That's not really a man's garment, because the argument is, well, if women are wearing these really tight pants, then it's not really a man wouldn't wear that. Again, I believe there's certain garments that no one should wear. That's what it comes down to. Just like the hair length, where you have, like, here's, let's say here's short, this realm of short, to shave to, like, you know, a certain length that's short. There's this whole realm of hair length that no one should be at. And then you have women's hair length that goes from here down to, like, infinity, right? You can have as long as you want. But the same thing would go with clothing. I think that there's certain types of clothing that no one should wear. I shouldn't wear rhinestone, you know, like, tight skinny jeans. Right? I don't think anyone's going to argue with that. I shouldn't wear that. But I don't think women should wear that either. Right? And so you can make the argument, well, which one is it? Is it a man's garment or a woman's garment? Doesn't matter. No one should wear that garment. And so that's where you get into this argument, well, you know, it's technically pants, and so therefore it would be an abomination. I don't care. It's either an immodest or an abomination. I don't want either one of those. Okay? And so go to 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 8. And I'm just trying to help you to understand my logic as far as why it's easy to understand this, as far as why my wife wears a dress and why I wear pants. Because the way that a man would wear pants is not immodest, right? A way that a normal guy would wear pants. It's hard to find pants these days, my friends, and I know you know this, that are made for men. You know? I can't find pants these days that are made for men that actually have thighs. I couldn't wear skinny jeans if I wanted to. Literally the regular size jeans, if you went to the JC Penney's and found me the Levi's that were just regular size jeans would be skinny jeans on me. That would be skinny jeans. I don't know how people wear those things. I have to wear like the relaxed fit, you know, like the, I don't go as far as to the home boy ghetto jeans, okay, where it's like I'm wearing parachute pants, you know, and like going around dancing and saying can't touch this. I mean that's, but those are the two extremes, right? You either have these jeans that are like form fitting or you have like the ghetto pants that are falling off. And so obviously I don't want either one of those. I want just regular fitting pants. Now, when it comes to that, you know, if you're wearing just normal size pants, you're not being ill modest as a man. But if a woman wore those same pants, then that's a man's garment. Does that make sense? And so that's where, but if she wore those pants and they were really tight, then they clearly wouldn't be something I would wear. Now modesty's out the window. So that's where I lie there when it comes to pants and all that stuff, is that you can have this philosophical game as far as, okay, is that really a garment? Because what you have to define, okay, is a garment that basically has, that covers your legs and comes up like this, whether tight, loose, or whatever, is a pant, therefore that pant is that garment that a woman should never wear. Well now you've got to throw out pantyhose. And now you've got to throw out them wearing some kind of, what's it, thermal underwear. Let's say it was really cold and you're wearing thermal underwear, is that wrong, if you're wearing that underneath? Because here's the thing, it shouldn't matter if it's underneath or not as far as whether it's an abomination. Okay, and I'm just throwing this out, I'm showing you what, I'm just telling you what I believe on this issue. What it comes down to is that there's certain undergarments that everybody could wear, and then there's modesty issues, okay, because when it comes down to it, when you go home and you're in your own bedroom, modesty goes out the window, right? Obviously that's out the window, but when you're out in public and you're around other people that's where you need to be making sure that you're wearing things that are not ill-modest. Now 1 Timothy chapter 2, I don't think we read this, right, 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 8, it says, 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, 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 we see here that women are supposed to adorn themselves with modest apparel. So that's where it comes into the fact, you could be wearing a dress and it not be modest, right? You could be wearing a dress that's skin tight, and that would be wrong. So you're not wearing a man's garment, but you're being ill-modest, and I think if you're going to try to get out those gray areas as far as, okay, is this a man's garment or is this, you know, because that's where people go, they're like, they're down this line, okay, well this isn't really a dress, but it's not really a man's garment, you're like, you had that argument within yourself, is this really a man's garment? Then you gotta go into modesty. Is this modest? Right, because I could say that pants, like we were talking about the pants being really tight, I could say, well that's a man's garment, it's not modest, so I shouldn't be wearing it. And so I believe that's where you get the pants in general, the ones that we have problems with, with women wearing, and men nowadays, right? How about this, no one should be wearing them. Why don't we just say that? No one should be wearing them, nuts to what we're trying to figure out whether that's a man's garment or not. But I would say this, most of the time, you know, the way it creeped in was the man's garment. Like they were wearing men's garments, but things are so gender bending and general neutral now to where everything's trying to be the same, right? You know, it's all the same, we all look alike, and that's the whole point of this sermon is the fact that we're supposed to be completely different from each other. And so I want nothing to do with this middle ground area. If you look at me, the pants that I wear, I want you to say, that's definitely a man's pants right there. That's a man's garment, there's no question about that. Same thing with women, that's why wearing dresses is the safest bet you can go about. And I'm just being honest with you, I believe most of these pants that women are wearing is a man's garment, I'm just going to be honest, that's just the way I look at it. But people can play these philosophy games as far as, well, it's not pants necessarily, it's the type of pants, it's the fact that that's what men wear. But then that's where you get into the fact of, okay, this is what society dictates, right? And so we can't get into the society realms as far as what they dictate. I'll say this, a man should wear pants, it should be not ill modest, women should wear dresses, those are the garments, those are the two garments. If not, what is the garment? What's the garment that a man should wear, or that shouldn't wear, and what a woman shouldn't wear? So but modesty is where you get into that, because here's the thing, women wear these things called, is it leggings, yoga pants, whatever it is, where they're just pretty much naked, walking around. Now would you call that pants? I mean, I guess you could. I wouldn't call it pants though, I don't know, you know, like I don't call it, I mean technically by the definition it's hosen, it's, you know, breeches I guess. But that's, to me it's just an undergarment. They literally came out of their house wearing their undergarments on. And so when it comes to this, you're talking about what's covering your loins, what you see on the outside. And so that's where I believe that this whole argument as far as what women should wear and what men should wear. And so if you're at home and you're, and ladies, you know, I personally don't mind if my wife's wearing, you know, why can't I think about what that is, you know, like thermal underwear, right? If she's wearing a dress and then she's got thermal underwear on, I don't think that she's wearing a man's garment. I think she's literally just wearing a garment. It's kind of like socks and all that stuff. What if she's wearing tube socks and stuff like that, well it's kind of like pants, you know. And so that's where you get into all those arguments. The key here is that you want to be as far to the one side as the other. No one would doubt that the most feminine article of clothing you can wear is a dress. When you get married, you know, where we got married, there's no doubt what is the man going to wear. He's going to wear a suit with pants and the woman's going to wear a dress. That's the universal symbol as far as what's feminine and what's manly. And once you base that off there, that's where you should be trying to stay as far as, okay, I'm wearing pants, she's wearing a dress. There's a lot of liberty when it comes to the fact of, okay, what colors am I wearing? What kind of tops am I wearing? And that's where your standards come in, especially as a family, because I'm the pastor but I'm not the head of your guys' homes. So if you have a standard that's stricter than mine, that's fine. If you have a standard that's less strict than mine, okay, I'm not coming to police your home, okay. But I'll know this, if there is a garment that you would be an abomination. So that's where the doubtful disputation is where you need to come in and say, okay, if you're doubting that, if you say to yourself, I believe that wearing thermal underwear, that a woman wearing thermal underwear is a sin, that's a doubtful disputation then. If you're doubting that, then err on the side of caution, okay. Now when it comes to, you know, with modesty, there's a lot of stuff about women, you know, as far as being the attire of a harlot. And the big thing that comes up with this is them exposing their legs. And it talks about, you know, the attire of a harlot in Proverbs chapter 7, and it talks about the nakedness being seen. Go to, go to Isaiah 47, Isaiah 47, because it's not enough, here's the thing, when it comes to our dress, obviously we need to get that fundamental down, you know, the fact that okay, men should wear pants, women should wear dresses, all right, we figured that out. And all I'm saying with that, with all that in the middle stuff, is the fact that we just need to just cut that out and not even worry about it. We need to like basically just say, okay, here's the standard, men's wearing pants, women's wear dresses, at that point you don't have to worry about the fact, am I wearing a man's garment? Just cut out all that middle stuff that you're worried about, because there could be a case in there where you're saying, well, maybe it was right. Why even like try to even be in that area where you're not sure, okay? But in Isaiah 47 verse 1, like I said, you know, women, you know, you could be wearing dresses, but you can still look like a harlot, okay? And there's plenty of women that wear, that'll wear dresses, but they look like a whore, they look like a harlot, and it's a sin. And so don't just take it to the fact, well, I'm wearing a dress, and there's women that do that, they'll be in church and they're wearing a dress, but it's like completely skin tight, scantily clad, not covering the thighs, that type of stuff, okay? And verse 1, it says, come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground, there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans, for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. Make the millstones and grind meal. 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. So notice, what is the nakedness? And remember, we saw this with men. What was the nakedness? The thighs. So he's saying, uncover the leg, uncover the thigh, right? So ladies, if you're wearing a dress and it comes up to where your thigh is showing, you're showing your nakedness. And that's where we need to, when you're wearing your dress, you need to make sure that it's modest, you need to make sure it's not skin tight, and I'm not saying that you need to be frumpy, okay? I don't even know what that word means, but I've heard it before. Meaning this, okay, when you're being modest, you know what that means is that you're not being showy and you're not, you're not calling attention to yourself, because you could also go the Amish route, where you're wearing the bonnets and wearing all this stuff, to where people are showing attention to yourself. You just want to look normal, right? You don't want to have this, like, all this attention coming towards you as far as what you're wearing. And you can look nice. Ladies, when you wear, when my wife wears a nice dress, I love it. I think she looks better than that than anything else. I mean, ladies, you can look very beautiful and very, you know, like, you don't have to be like this, I'm using words that I don't even know what they mean, but, like, frumpy, homely, you know, this is stuff that I've heard girls say about each other, you know? This is usually the catty stuff that they say about, I don't even know what that means, but basically, the fact is, is that you don't have to be ugly, you know, to be modest and to be dressed right, okay? So don't think that, you don't have liberty to look good and look nice and be presentable and stuff like that, but, simple rule, ladies wear a dress that covers the thighs and that's not skin tight, you know? A dress that when you sit down, you're not worried about. You ever see, you know, like, women that are sitting down, you're anxious for them, you know? Like, the whole time, you're just, like, holding that thing down and, like, every time they move their leg, they're, like, just worried, I'm like, I don't know how they deal with that. They're gonna be losing my mind just worrying about my clothing the whole time. So, anyway, you know, but ladies probably deal with this more than men, I'd say, with this issue. I don't think I'm ever usually worried about, like, you know, I'm usually wearing pants anymore, I'm wearing shorts, they're not, like, you know, when girls wear shorts, that's where you come in to where girls are wearing shorts, what are they? All the way up, you know? They're, like, really short shorts or they look really, you know, like men's clothing, you know? So, you either have that men's clothing look or you have the really short shorts that are just basically, like, you know, ill modest. Go to Nahum Chapter 3. I know we kind of, we didn't really talk about this particularly when I was in Nahum Chapter 3. This is interesting because, you know, this is where, I'm just gonna be honest, people are always trying to, like, come down on us for believing that women should wear dresses. Even though I think it's pretty just common knowledge, you know? You look at our, even though that fag didn't know that there was a woman on that, wearing a dress on that bathroom over there, you know, even the bathroom signs, right? That's universal, that men are wearing pants, women are wearing dresses, but, you know, people come at you and they're, like, well, it doesn't say that they're wearing dresses and all this stuff. Well, let me know how this verse makes sense if they're wearing pants in Nahum Chapter 3, and obviously this is showing us about a nation, but it's liking it unto a woman or a whore or a harlot, right? Nahum Chapter 3 and verse 4, it says, Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favored harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that seeth, that selleth nations through her whoredoms and families through her witchcrafts, behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts. I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will show the nations thy nakedness in the kingdoms thy shame. Let me ask you a question. How are they going to take your skirts upon your face and show the nations your nakedness if you're wearing pants? Don't you see how that's known, that they're wearing a dress? It's basically saying you're pulling up their skirt upon their face to where they can see their nakedness, right, and obviously it's talking about a woman because it's talking about her well-favored harlot, you know, and all that stuff. Harlot's always talking about a woman. And so, you know, again, the Bible is not like spelling out women wear dresses, men wear pants. I believe this is by nature, and just like the long hair, short hair argument, does not nature itself tell you that it's a shame for a man to have long hair? I say this, does not nature itself tell you that a man should wear pants and a woman should wear a dress? That's just, should be just common knowledge. And people get hung up, and here's the thing, a lot of the people that are always kind of trying to find these loopholes, it reminds me of the Pharisees. The Pharisees, if you read the Talmud, which I don't recommend, but when you read the Talmud, what they do is they take a law like Deuteronomy 22.5, which I haven't read what they say about that, but they'll take something like that and they'll say, okay, what kind of loophole can we find through this? And that's what I see with a lot of this, well, what about this? What about this? What about this? How about be on the safe side? There's no question, she's wearing a dress, I'm wearing pants. There's nothing you have to worry about then. And so that's where I stand on that. When it comes to these issues where it's like this gray area or areas you don't know that well, I always side on the side of caution. And I'm going to wear a more manly garment. It's kind of like, I don't believe this is wrong, but it's kind of like the color pink. I'm not wearing pink because I think it's kind of a feminine color. I think that people are going to look at that and think this guy's trying to be feminine or something like that, right? And so I'm taking a harsher stance on that where I'm going over to this side where I'm not going to wear that color, right? But there's no Bible telling me to do that. You know the Bible says to read the word of God every day, but does it tell you how much? Does it tell you how many chapters? No, it gives you liberty to choose how far you're going to take it and what does that mean as far as obviously we need to take it as far as we want to go. And so when he gives these dress standards that you're not supposed to wear a woman's garment, men, and women you're not supposed to wear a man's garment, you need to not just try to toe that line as far as, okay, I think this is not a man's garment over here. Now you should be like, there's no doubt this is a woman's garment I'm wearing. And men, there's no doubt this is a man's garment I'm wearing. I'm not going to come in here in a blouse top and be like, well, it doesn't say anything about this in the Bible, right? There's just things that you wear, I'm not going to do that even though it doesn't explicitly say it. And God knows the heart because if you're basically toting that line and you're saying, well, I'm going to try to get as close as I can to where I'm not wearing a woman's garment, you've got a problem in your heart right there. You should be saying, okay, God says I should be wearing a man's garment, I'm going to make sure that whatever I'm wearing, no one's doubting that this is a man's garment. And same thing with the women, you should be on that side too. Any woman that's usually trying to justify wearing pants, where's their heart at in that? Because usually they're trying to justify something as far as trying to get close to that line. They're trying to find that close line and trying to be like the world. We're supposed to be separate from the world. Now another thing that comes up as far as, we found out men should have long hair, men should wear pants, women should wear dresses, but what about what you're wearing? This comes up a lot, wearing a shirt and tie at church. There's two sides of the spectrum. You have the one side that says you're pretentious for wearing a shirt and tie at church, you're trying to be showy and trying to show off and all this other stuff. Then you have the other side that says you're not right with God if you're not wearing a shirt and tie. And I'm against both those sides, okay? Because nowhere in the Bible does it say that you need to wear a shirt and tie. I'm going to tell you why I personally wear a shirt and tie at church. Because I am, go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and this is the last point, I had some other verses to kind of show, you know, especially as a pastor, okay? As a pastor, Jesus Christ is the chief shepherd. But as a pastor, that's what pastor even means is shepherd. And so I am in Christ's stead. I am in his place. I'm an ambassador as part of the church here as far as leading this thing off. Obviously, he's the head. But what you got to, when you think about being an ambassador for something, think about being an ambassador for the United States. Well, nowadays, apparently you have to be a fag to do that. But when you think about being an ambassador for a country, you don't want to go up there and like with holes in your jeans and like wearing a shirt that has paint all over it, right? You want to be presentable and you want to represent your country well, okay? Why do I wear a shirt and tie? Because I mean business. Because this isn't a joke to me. And anybody that when you go out in public wearing a shirt and tie, they automatically take you more seriously. Why? Because obviously, everybody knows that wearing a shirt and tie is not the most comfortable thing in the world. It's not comfy clothes, right? You're not wearing your sweat pants and your sweatshirt, right? And so this is something when we're being an ambassador for Christ and when we go out soul winning, I'm not saying you have to wear a shirt and tie to go out soul winning, but you should also be wearing presentable clothes, right? Something that's decent. And so 2 Corinthians chapter 5, notice verse 17, and this is the last passage we'll look at tonight. I just kind of want to cover this as far as I don't believe you have to wear a tie, shirt and tie. I don't believe a pastor has to. But that's my standard, the standard that I have because I want people to know that I'm not taking this lightly. I'm not taking this as a joke. I mean business. I don't particularly like wearing a suit and tie, okay? But I want to be presentable to the Lord and notice what it says in verse 17, it says, therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new and all things are of God and who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God. So I'm just going to tell you personally why I wear a shirt and tie, why I dress up for church. I don't think that the Bible explicitly commands that. But more my heart is on that. I'm not trying to be showy, the suit that I wear and the shirt and tie that I wear is not like Armani or like these thousand dollar suits and all this stuff. The stuff that I wear is just, I mean, most stuff is like from JCPenney's or thrift stores or you know, stuff like that. So it's not like something where I'm just trying to flash what I'm wearing. It's because I want people to take me seriously. I want people to know, hey, this is a big deal. You know, I'm not just coming here to play church. I'm coming here because I care about what I have to say and I care enough to where I dressed up for it and I put on a tie and I took time to make sure that I was presentable. And so that's what we need to think about if we're going to be ambassadors for Christ, you know, you want to be presentable, you want to make yourself presentable. But again, this isn't something that's explicitly commanded. That's just the way I look at it. And so that's why I believe a lot of pastor friends that I have, why they wear a suit and tie. And they have certain standards, you know, where some would say, well, you can't preach unless you're wearing a shirt and tie. That's fine. That's their standard. You know, if you're in a church where the pastor says, hey, if you're going to preach for me, you're going to wear a tie, then that's what you need to do because he's bleeding that charge. But there may be another church where he says, you know what, that's fine. You think of brother Richard Simes out there, you know, he looked like a crazy man out there with a tie on when you're in the Philippines preaching in like some sweaty hut somewhere. Do you understand, though, like how that's not a universal thing? We're in air conditioning right now. It's easy for me to stand up here in a suit and tie and be presentable because we're in that comfort, right? But if I was out preaching somewhere, do you think I'm wearing this jacket? Right? Do you think I'm going to be wearing, you know, I'm probably going to have this thing so loose that it's pretty much off, you know, my tie. And so that's what, when it comes to dress standards and as far as how you're presentable, think about this, when you went to go get your job, did you go in there and like with flip flops on and board shorts? When I went into interview for my job, I went in, they didn't even know I was coming, but I heard there was a job opening, I was in a full blown suit. And Dave, my boss, was wearing flip flops and he was wearing a Hawaiian shirt. It was Friday, he's like, it's Hawaiian shirt day. And so, but you know what that, he still tells me to this day on how that spoke out to him that I came in a full blown suit and I took the initiative to go in and instead of just calling him and trying to send him my resume, I literally just walked in and said, hey, here's my resume, you guys are looking for a job, and he interviewed me on the spot. Why? Because he knew I wasn't joking around. Now if I came in there and flip flops and board shorts, he'd probably think this guy's not that serious about finding a job. And so, if you do that in the workforce, you know, why wouldn't you do that for God? And think about this, if you go out looking, if you go out to a dealership, if I went out there wearing this, compared to if I went out there with flip flops and board shorts, and I'm not against flip flops and board shorts, but what I'm saying is that, do you know that you're going to take this a lot more seriously than if I was wearing flip flops and board shorts and a tank top? Why? Because they know that that guy means business. And so, anyway, that's my standard, again, you know, if you came in here and said, you know what, I'm nuts to the tie, I'm not wearing a tie, nothing wrong with that, okay? And you're no less of a Christian than I am, you know, you can have just as many rewards in heaven, you can do just as many great things, not wearing a tie, okay? But that's my standard, that's the standard that I've set for myself, that I'm going to be wearing a tie, you know, a shirt and tie, and as you can see, when I preach on Wednesday night, do you notice I don't wear a jacket? I'm a little more casual, but I wear a tie still. And so, that's the standard that I have, and I'm going to keep that standard. So that's just something, remember, being fully persuaded in your own mind, it's something that you need to have in your mind as far as where your standards are for dress. Obviously, you need to make sure you're not wearing, you know, the other gender's garment, because you don't want to be an abomination. You obviously don't want to be unmodest, you want to be presentable to where you're not showing off your nakedness, right? Those are the two big things, but after that, then you need to look at, okay, am I just, like, I'm wearing stuff that's not an abomination, and I'm wearing stuff that's not showing my nakedness and I'm being modest, but I'm dressing like a slob, okay? And no one in here am I talking about when I'm talking about this, but what I'm saying is that that's another part of dress standard. When you're wearing things that are presentable, people are going to take you more seriously. And so, that's just something to think about. That last one's not as important, okay? Okay, if you came in here, you know, after work, and you got paint on your shirt and all that stuff, I don't take a second thought to that. I'm like, praise God, you're in church, I don't think of that and be like, man, I wish that guy would put on a tie. You know, none of that comes through my mind, so don't worry about that type of stuff, but, you know, if a man came in here in a dress, you better believe I'm going to have some words. And here's the thing, usually those people are perverts. It's so known today that women are wearing pants that it doesn't even look weird anymore. I see it as it looks weird, because the standards that I have in my mind and what the Bible teaches on this issue, but, you know, that's just something that they need to be taught, they need to see that from the Bible. So Deuteronomy 22 5, that's your big heavy hitter, how do they answer that? And if anybody comes at you and says, well, men should have, you know, men can't wear dresses, but women can wear anything, that negates the Bible. You're making void the law through your tradition by that. There has to be a garment. To me, it's the dress and the pants. Those are the two garments. Those are what are covering the loins. So I know this is a deep sermon, this is a sermon that's not super exciting, but it is a sermon that we need to hear, and I would say this, especially for the young people, because I'd say most people that are older have set their standards, you know, they've nailed it down, you've nailed down as far as what your standards are for this, but the younger crowd, you need to understand why we believe this. Because it's a big deal. It's a combination if you're wearing the other gender's garments. That's a big deal. That alone should tell you something, and then also you don't want to look like a harlot, and men, you don't want to look like an idiot, okay? That's the way I look at it, okay? Because men can wear clothes that make you look really stupid. But something to think about, if you have any questions on this, you know, don't hesitate to ask me about it. Again, a lot of this stuff is gray area stuff, and that's why I say take a stronger stance. If you doubt, take a stronger stance. Be more strict. It's always better to be more strict on that issue. Let's end with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for today, and thank you again for the souls that were saved, and Lord, just pray that you would be with us as we go home, and pray that you give us safe travels, be with us throughout the week as we go to work, and pray that you bless our jobs, bless our incomes, and Lord, we love you and pray all this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.