Hello, this is Brother Denny.
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Greetings in Jesus' name.
It's good to be here this morning.
I was blessed very much to be here
and hear the singing, the worship, and to
be reminded in the opening what a privilege
it is, what a joy it is to
be here in this land that we live,
that we can come.
And also that clear call that it is
God's will that all men be saved.
All men, even some of us here.
There may even be those sitting in this
very room who do not know the Lord
Jesus.
The all men isn't just all as we
look out, but it's all as we look
in too, isn't it?
So may God hear our prayers and may
our hearts be open to Him this morning
and to Jesus.
Shall we bow our heads for a word
of prayer as we begin?
Yes, Father.
We can say it is good to be
in the house of the Lord, Your house
of prayer, Your house of worship.
We are thankful that we can enter in.
And God, we ask You now to meet
with us.
To lead us, to guide us, to teach
us as we look into Your Word for
Your truths, Father.
May they go into our hearts and into
our lives.
That we may not lose our saltiness, but
we may be children of God.
We may be seen in this dark world
as a light that draws men, not to
us, but to Christ.
To Christ.
And may we preach Christ in all that
we do and say this morning.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Well, the burden that the Lord has laid
on my heart to share this morning is
a topic that has not been preached on
or taught, I think, in a number of
years from our pulpit here.
And that is on dress or clothing.
Purity in clothing is the topic for this
morning.
Purity in dress.
Can we have godly attire?
Is it possible?
Does God desire it?
That is what we want to look at
in God's Word this morning.
Purity in clothing.
As I begin, I have a little poem
here that is precious to our family.
We borrowed this poem years ago and at
times it has found its way on our
walls and different ones of the children's room.
And it is a blessing, but it is
also a challenge.
And there are some real truths here that
I would like to begin with as we
open up.
And it says, Look like the world to
win the world.
Oh, what a foolish notion.
Can worldly life and speech and dress draw
souls like plain devotion?
Look like the world to win the world.
Oh, sheerest words of folly.
When God himself hath called the saint to
live a life that is holy.
A holy life.
A separate life.
A life that is lived for Jesus.
A fully consecrated life is that which truly
frees us.
And this morning, that is the desire of
my heart and I hope it is yours
too.
To be free.
But what do we want to be free
from?
Well, we want to be free, as we
heard this morning earlier, from self, don't we?
And God can do that.
And that is His desire too, that we
be free from self.
And as we are free from self, we
will be free from the desires of this
world.
The desires to look like the world.
The desires to dress like the world.
To be like the world.
To follow after the fashions and the goings
on of this world.
But we can only do that by the
power of the Holy Spirit.
And that is what Jesus wants to do.
To free us.
That we can be free to live as
we ought.
And free to live according to the way
God wants us to live.
So this morning, as we look into God's
word concerning this very important subject, it is
my heart's desire to challenge you.
To challenge each one of you in your
hearts.
Not in your head, but in your heart.
Concerning this issue.
And to exercise ourselves spiritually.
To exercise ourselves spiritually with the applications that
we take from the principles in God's word.
And during the times today that I refer
to perhaps specific items of clothing, my desire
today is not to offend anyone.
God knows my heart.
But I want to be careful and I
want to say it in the right way.
So you pray for me.
You give me grace.
But instead of offending, my desire is to
lift up a godly standard.
And to lift up the principles in God's
word.
And not be ashamed of what God has
to say concerning this part of our life.
Because it also deals with our hearts.
And this subject of clothing, of dress, is
worthy of our time and attention this morning.
It is one that God speaks about in
virtually every book of the Bible from cover
to cover.
It is something that He pays attention to.
So we want to pay attention to.
But it is also a subject that for
some of us gets close to us in
a way.
And it causes us some fear and trembling
perhaps as we think about dress and clothing
and modesty and what's the application of these
things.
And I wonder when I announced the topic
this morning, what was your reaction?
What did you think?
Did you flinch a little, sister, perhaps?
Brother, did you wonder what this is about?
Young person, does it bother you when your
parents talk about the way you dress?
Or make suggestions?
And there's something about dress that does that
to us.
Because it is a personal thing.
Because we choose what we put on.
It doesn't accidentally get on us, does it?
We choose.
We purposely choose what we wear.
It's not an accident.
It's not like the color of our hair,
is it?
We choose it.
So I wonder what your reaction was this
morning.
And I would like to ask you a
question with regard to that reaction.
And that is simply, do you love Jesus
this morning?
Do you love Him?
Do you really love Jesus?
You know, the Bible says clearly in 1
John 5, 3, for this is the love
of God, that we keep His commandments.
And His commandments are not grievous.
They don't hurt our hearts.
They don't tear at us.
They don't tug.
We just say, yes, Jesus, we love You.
And we let go and we let God
work in our life.
And so as we look at God's commands,
precepts, and principles this morning concerning dress and
clothing, I want to speak to your heart.
I want to speak to your heart this
morning.
As I said earlier, I don't want to
make a list.
I don't want to make an intellectual plea
to your head.
I want to talk to your heart this
morning.
I want God to speak to your heart.
And I believe that what's in our hearts
not only comes out of our mouths, but
it's also expressed in our lives in the
clothes that we choose to wear.
What one wears is an outward manifestation or
indication of what is in their heart, isn't
it?
Do you believe that's true?
I do.
That what is in a person's heart comes
out and is expressed or manifested or is
an indication of what is really in their
heart.
I believe that's true this morning.
And that's why I want to speak to
your heart.
I also recognize today that we will be
coming.
We will be coming from different perspectives and
different backgrounds.
That's okay.
God accepts us all where we are.
But for those that come from perhaps a
traditional setting, traditional background and are blessed with
some right principles this morning to help them,
I would say caution, caution, warning.
Do not dishonor the memory of your righteous
ancestors by just coasting, by just thinking, well,
we've always done it this way.
Coasting doesn't work.
Shame on you if you have not looked
into God's Word and you don't have a
heartfelt, as we talked about earlier, conviction and
understanding and application of the principles in God's
Word concerning what He says about dress.
He has a lot to say about it.
Let's don't coast this morning.
Because, you know, if we just hold on
to tradition...
You know, it's a funny thing I've noticed.
Tradition slips away after we get out of
certain settings, doesn't it?
Have you noticed that too?
It seems like those that leave those settings
that were very traditional are the very ones
that seem to almost go the furthest once
they're out of the setting.
So was it the tradition that held them
or the setting?
I don't know the answer, but there seems
to be something wrong with that.
Something is wrong with that, isn't it?
And it's because it's not in their heart,
is it?
A setting is not enough.
God knows that.
And we don't want to preach a setting.
We want to preach the Word of God.
We want it to speak to our hearts.
Also, there are others from different backgrounds.
Perhaps your background is similar to mine.
I'm a remnant person.
That's what we call those around here that
are not from a traditional background.
I'm not sure what all that means either.
But I like that name, remnant.
It has a good ring to it.
But you know, there's a problem too sometimes
in our perspective.
There are some things about our perspective that
we need to get right.
Because sometimes, I know I struggled with this
early in my Christian walk.
I felt, well, I'm under grace.
I'm free.
I don't want to be encumbered with rules
or commandments or precepts or principles.
God knows my heart.
Of course, I didn't know my own heart.
I was deceived.
It will all work out.
It will all come out in the wash.
I would say to people like myself and
to you if that describes you, caution, caution,
warning.
It's not going to come out right.
And the reason I can say that is
God's commandments are beautiful.
They are.
They're loving.
Much as a loving Father sets rules and
guidelines and standards in the home, why does
He do that for His children?
Because He's mad at them?
He's angry with them?
No, He loves them.
He wants them to come out right.
He wants to set things in their life,
set order in their life, put them on
the way that they should go.
He sees things that they cannot see.
He sees dangers.
They have no idea that there's a danger
there.
But He can set up guidelines and precepts
and things in their life to steer them
in a safe and a good way.
God, how much more can He do that?
His commandments are beautiful.
You know, Jesus said in the Sermon on
the Mount, He came not to change one
jot or tittle of the law, but to
fulfill it.
So again, this is a heart issue.
But it's a heart issue that is based
on the Word of God.
And that's the right heart attitude we need
to have.
It's an attitude that comes out of the
perspective of the Bible, not necessarily from our
background, whichever direction we may have come from,
but from the perspective and the background of
what God would have us to think.
You know, the right thinking in every area
of life is this, isn't it?
You ever think about that?
The right thinking in every area of life
comes out of here.
So may God help us to have the
right thinking as we look at this subject
today.
Today I'm going to be giving eight principles
concerning purity in clothing that I have found
in the Word of God.
I'm not saying that that is an exhaustive
list.
There may be more.
You may be able to combine a couple
of them.
But I believe that these eight are in
here very clearly given by God.
Eight principles for purity in clothing.
And I know many of you this morning
and other mornings like to take notes in
church.
And I bless God for that.
That's good.
And this morning, I would urge everyone that
can to write down these eight principles.
Because when it gets up to eight, I
don't know about you, but it's hard for
me to remember all those.
But I would like to refer to different
ones of them at different times as we're
talking this morning, as the Word of God
is being preached.
So if it's possible at all, I would
make an appeal that you take some notes
this morning and you get these eight principles
down and you pray about them afterwards too
and you study them out for yourselves.
Because that's my desire is to confront you
with what the Word of God says.
And if necessary, once we're confronted with the
Word of God, things can happen.
Maybe corrective action.
Perhaps even repentance.
Isn't that how God works?
We're confronted with His Word.
The Holy Spirit works.
So whatever is the need in your life,
we pray that God would work in our
midst.
These eight principles are benchmarks or tidewater marks
that we have used in our family for
a number of years to help us make
applications, biblical applications, on what clothing we wear.
And I do want to say that by
clothing, what I mean, you would think we
all know what I mean by clothing, but
just to make sure, I want to describe
that.
And by clothing I mean garments, raiments, or
apparel of any kind, including shoes, hats, belts,
even glasses.
Do you know glasses are a fashion statement
with the world today?
We have to be careful.
So by apparel, I mean anything that we
would put onto our body.
By clothing.
When I say purity in clothing, we want
to include the whole picture, don't we?
We don't want to leave something out and
say, oh, that doesn't count.
Well, it's apparel.
Apparel.
And apparel is a Bible word.
We see it in the Old and the
New Testament.
Apparel.
Worn on the body.
I want us to remember this morning where
clothing came from as we begin.
Before I give the eight principles, I want
to remind ourselves where clothing came from.
First of all, it was invented or made
by God.
As we look in Genesis 3.21, God
says, the Lord God made, notice the word
made, made coats of skins, plural, and clothed
them.
He's talking about Adam and Eve.
And the reason He did that is the
fig leaves didn't meet His standard.
They didn't do what He wanted them to
do.
He was concerned enough that His first reaction
when He saw them was to what?
Make clothing.
Did you ever think about that?
Now, there's a lot of other reasons for
that having to do with sacrifices.
We won't talk about that this morning.
But it is interesting that one of the
first things He did was He made clothing.
Coats and skins.
Both.
Plural.
And that's what He did.
He clothed them.
God made the clothes.
God clothed them.
It was His design.
It was His idea.
And I'm sure they fit His standard.
So they came from God.
As we also look at the Bible in
the Old Testament, we see God is very
careful about clothing.
And so we want to be careful about
clothing.
Have you ever read the list that a
priest, what a priest had to wear to
enter in to the Holy of Holies?
Do you know who was in the Holy
of Holies?
God.
You know, today, we say we have access
to the throne, don't we?
We like that.
We like being called children of God.
We like calling God Father.
But God was so careful with those that
were allowed to approach Him with the way
they wore.
I don't know all the reasons for that,
but it's here.
Also, when the children of Israel were approaching
Mount Sinai before He gave them the Ten
Commandments, what did He ask them to do?
Do you remember?
Sanctify yourselves and what?
Your clothing.
Clean it.
Wash it.
Purify it.
God is very careful about this.
There is something about clothing, about apparel, that
gets the attention of God and it should
get our attention too.
So I want to remember this morning, where
did clothing come from?
Who's concerned about it?
It's God, and so should we as His
children.
Well, the first principle that I see in
God's Word, number one, is men, brothers, as
spiritual leaders in the home, you must be
involved in making clothing decisions.
Men, as spiritual leaders in the home, you
must, I want to emphasize must, you must
be involved in making clothing decisions.
Remember what I said, it affects the heart.
If you get nothing else, please hear me
on this.
Please get involved.
Do not delegate this.
Do not abdicate it.
Do not shove it off onto your wife.
You know, the tendency in men sometimes is
to think, well, my wife knows more about
clothing.
After all, she makes most of them.
It will all work out alright.
Well, praise God for godly wives.
But men, we're the spiritual leaders of the
home.
God speaks about clothing and apparel in the
Bible.
It is up to us to understand it
and to teach it and to guard over
the hearts of our family.
And you know, if we don't do that,
there will come a day when your daughter,
maybe your son, but probably your daughter will
come down the stairs when she's a teenager
or a young person perhaps, or down the
hall and she'll be wearing something and you'll
think, where did that come from?
And you don't approve of it.
And you'll send her back.
And if you've never taught, if you've never
been the spiritual leader in this area of
your home, you know what will grow in
her heart?
You know what will probably be there?
Resentment.
Because she doesn't understand.
Why did you send me back?
You know, we must teach these things.
That's what being a spiritual leader is, isn't
it?
We share from God's heart to our heart
to their hearts the Word of God.
You know, that's what a spiritual leader is.
It makes decisions based upon that.
From God's heart to our heart to their
heart.
And that's what we need to do.
God is concerned how we attire ourselves.
Study it out for yourselves, brother.
Pray about it.
Do you ever pray about clothing decisions?
That's interesting.
Pray about what we should wear.
Do it sometime.
Let your children know that you do it.
That you care.
That you care how they look, how they're
attired.
God cares and so do you.
Papa cares.
And as you do that, as you're the
spiritual leader in your home, in this area,
I believe your wife will honor you and
love you for it.
And I believe your children will too.
So men, as spiritual leaders in the home,
you must be involved in making clothing decisions.
The second principle this morning, the second principle
that I'd like to share is clothing must
be clearly male or female.
In other words, apparel is gender-driven.
Clothing must be clearly male or female.
Clothing is gender-driven.
Men's clothing is to be men's clothing.
Masculine.
Women's clothing is to be women's clothing.
Feminine.
Let's look in God's Word for a few
different verses.
Let's first go to Deuteronomy 22.
This is such a clear verse.
Deuteronomy 22, verse 5.
The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth
unto a man.
Neither shall a man put on a woman's
garment.
Now notice the word garment here.
It doesn't just mean a dress.
It means any type of apparel that pertaineth
to a woman.
Okay?
Neither shall a man put on a woman's
garment, for all that do so, notice the
word all, all that do so are abomination
unto the Lord thy God.
This is an arresting verse because of the
word abomination, isn't it?
There's a strength given to this verse.
There's some teeth put into it that is
arresting, that should get our attention.
An abomination.
Now abomination, as we know, means an extreme
hatred.
This is God's Word, by the way.
This is not my Word.
This is God's Word.
God is saying He has an extreme hatred
for this.
Another definition of that is He detests it.
It's a detesting.
Now I wonder, if you were to see
a man coming down the street, what the
world calls dressed in drag, meaning wearing women's
clothing, a dress, you would probably have a
reaction, wouldn't you?
And you would probably detest that and you
would think, that's not right.
But what happens when a woman comes down
the street dressed like a man?
God seems to be saying here that He
feels the same about either one.
Do we?
And I want to be careful with this.
I don't say this in judgment.
I say this because this is what God
says.
God is calling this an abomination.
And may God help us to understand God's
heart so that we can correctly apply the
principles in our family and in our lives.
But God would look at each one of
those in the same light.
I wonder if we haven't been broken down
by the society we live in and we
don't detest the things that we should.
And we don't see it from God's perspective.
May we open our eyes and our hearts
to the way God sees things.
Not in judgment, but in understanding of there
is something about this that gets the attention
of God in such a way that it's
an abomination to Him.
You know, much could be said about this
topic with regard to society in general today.
Pick up any catalog from a major department
store today.
I won't name the names, but you know
the ones.
And if you look at the clothing in
there that's supposed to be for the boys,
you kind of wonder who is it really
supposed to be for.
It looks like it would be better off
in the girls' section.
But then you go over to the girls'
section and doesn't it look like it would
just about be better off in the boys'
section?
There's a merging, a blending.
They call it unisex.
You ever heard that phrase or androgynous?
There's a spirit in our society, and it
is a spirit, that is pushing to diffuse
out this gender-driven dress, clearly male, clearly
female, and make it unisex.
I don't believe that's according to the heart
of God.
I believe it is clear here that that
is not what God desires in dress for
us, especially us, the children of God, who
see God's heart and see God's warnings in
Scripture.
But that's what's going on in our society
today.
And we may look at this this morning,
and some of you may have already said
in your own hearts, well, this doesn't apply
to me.
My wife doesn't wear pants, and I don't
wear any of my wife's clothing.
And that's true, and we can be thankful
that we don't have those problems.
And yet, as we look at some verses
in the New Testament, I believe God wants
us to have a New Testament understanding of
this, an application.
So on this idea of clearly male and
female, our second principle, I want to read
a couple of verses in the New Testament.
Turn with me first to 1 Corinthians 6.
1 Corinthians 6, verse 9.
And hold that place, and then turn back
over to Matthew.
I want to look at these two verses
side by side for just a minute.
You'll see why as we read them.
Matthew 11, and I'll read, I think, two
verses here.
Yes, 7 and 8.
First, let me read the Corinthians passage.
1 Corinthians 6, 9.
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God?
And then he's going to define some of
those people that God is calling unrighteous.
And remember, these people will not inherit the
kingdom of God.
Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor effeminate.
That's the word we want to look at
this morning.
Nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.
Effeminate.
What does effeminate mean?
Well, in the Greek, the Greek word is
malikos.
Malikos.
Effeminate.
Malikos.
And it clearly means those things that are
feminine or womanly, that a man takes on
those characteristics, either in clothing, dress, appearance, or
lifestyle.
Effeminate.
We've seen men that are that way.
We know what it is.
But we also now see what God says
about it.
But let's turn over to the passage in
Matthew.
Remember, our principle here is clearly male or
clearly female.
The passage here is going to be speaking
about John the Baptist.
And Jesus is going to give a testimony,
He's going to give a word, a teaching,
about who John the Baptist is and what
manner of man he is.
And he is a man's man, isn't he?
He lives in the wilderness, wears a camel
hair coat and leather, eats wild honey.
He is a man.
He is a man of God.
Jesus called him the greatest man ever born
of woman.
So what is Jesus going to say about
him here?
Let's start in verse 7.
And as they departed, Jesus began to say
unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye
out into the wilderness to see?
A reed shaken with the wind?
See, he's emphasizing.
This is not a wishy-washy fellow.
This is a man.
He stands for the Word of God.
He stands for right.
He preaches repentance.
He preaches sin.
He tells the truth.
This is not a reed shaken by the
wind.
But now, listen to how he describes this
man.
You would think there was a lot of
attributes he could have given him.
But listen to what he says in verse
8.
But what went ye out for to see?
A man clothed.
Notice he's going to talk about clothing here.
A man clothed in soft raiment.
You know what the word soft is?
Malicose.
It's the exact same word.
Flip back over to Corinthians.
Malicose.
A man clothed in malicose, effeminate raiment.
Behold, they that wear soft, effeminate, malicose clothing
are in the king's houses.
Now, the point I want to make here
is that we look at a verse like
that in Deuteronomy and we think, perhaps a
part of us thinks Old Testament.
I hope not, but a part of us
may.
But as we interpret this or look at
it through New Testament eyes, we see that
Jesus and Paul, both in the New Testament,
there's something about effeminate, something that pertains to
a woman that a man does that still
gets the attention of God and is still
not right with God's Spirit.
Those are the ones that are not going
to inherit the kingdom of God.
And so as we look at ourselves here,
as we look at John the Baptist, and
then when we think of ourselves, what could
be the application?
I don't know all the applications, but I
would be careful, brothers.
Please don't wear shirts made out of the
same material that your wife makes her dresses
out of.
Is that too simple of an application?
You know, I've seen that sometimes.
And I don't say that again to offend
anyone in particular, but to lift up a
godly standard, we don't want to be effeminate,
do we?
Clearly, we don't want to be malicous.
We don't want to be part of this.
But I would also say to you fathers
with your sons, you know, in a day
and age that we live, where the way
the hair is cut, the eyeglasses, the clothing
that we see in the world is so
becoming unisex, and to me that really means
effeminate for men, we need to be so
careful with what we buy or what we
purchase or what we allow our little boys
to wear, what haircuts we let them have,
what eyeglasses we let them have, what shoes,
even our shoes.
You know, shoes can be effeminate on men,
can't they, if they're the wrong style.
I hope I'm not too practical here.
Does this make sense?
You know, this is what we need, isn't
it?
We need to think about these things as
fathers.
If we can understand the principle, from God's
heart to our heart, may He give us
the grace to make the right application.
Alright, the third principle this morning is one
I think we can all, you probably would
have guessed that I have, and it's an
important one, and that is not following, not
following after the fashions of this world.
Not following after the fashions of this world.
Let me explain what I mean by fashion
or fashions of this world.
I looked in several different reference books, encyclopedias,
dictionaries on fashion and clothing and studied this
out a little bit, and it's very interesting.
The fashion industry really knows who they are.
They're right about themselves.
Listen to what they say about themselves.
They say fashion is a term commonly used
to describe a style or a form of
clothing worn by most of the people of
a country or a certain group type.
A fashion remains popular for a few months
or sometimes even a year or so before
it is then replaced by another, and it
is fashionable only as long as a segment
of society accepts it.
Now, get a picture of that in your
mind if you will.
What it basically means is that somebody in
Paris or New York or whoever decides these
things says, okay, this year we're all going
to wear bell-bottom trousers, and they're going
to be huge like this.
And everybody goes out and buys them.
Spends a lot of money, by the way,
replacing their wardrobe.
Then a few months, perhaps a year later,
they decide, well, we want trousers this year
to be really tight like this.
They leave those, run over here, and get
those.
That's the picture.
That's fashion.
That's following after the fashions of this world.
Whatever the world says, let's go do it.
Let's go over here, then over here, then
over here.
They know it about themselves.
Do we?
They also say that this is an interesting
thing they said about themselves.
I've been using the phrase this morning that
the clothes we wear reveal a little bit
about our heart.
The fashion industry understands that too.
Are you surprised by that?
I really wasn't surprised, but it was interesting.
These are some exact words taken from several
different references about the fashion industry.
It said, fashion and clothing show what people
believe and are really like.
That's what these books said.
Isn't that interesting?
It reveals their beliefs, feelings, their personality, and
their general approach to life.
That's their heart, isn't it?
We say the heart, but this is what
they say.
It reveals their beliefs, their feelings, their personality,
and their general approach to life.
That's what the clothing does.
Then it also gave some primary reasons that
people follow after fashion or that people choose
certain types of clothing.
And here's the reasons that they gave.
Number one, to identify with a select group
of people.
They want to identify with this group of
people over here.
Maybe it's movie stars, sports figures.
Notice everybody wears those jerseys, wear the hats
with the insignia.
That's fashion because they want to identify with
that select group of people.
Musicians.
Certain people listen to rock and roll music,
country-western music.
Have you ever noticed that if a young
person starts listening to country-western music, what
also changes?
You know, first it goes through their ear.
Then where does it go?
Their heart.
But then it's expressed and manifested where?
Have you ever noticed the boots start getting
pointy?
Wear a lot of jeans?
Western shirts?
You know, isn't that true?
Isn't that true?
And they know this.
And they play upon this because that's part
of their industry.
One of the other primary reasons they gave
why people follow after fashion is to raise
their status.
They want to be something they're not.
They want to make themselves look like they,
I guess, make more money or have more
prestige.
I don't know.
Another reason they gave, this one we could
have guessed, is decoration or outward adornment.
They just want to look special.
Four, to gain acceptance.
They want other people to think they're on
the in crowd or they're in the know
or they're doing the right thing at the
right time.
Remember earlier when I said we wanted to
be free?
Oh, may God help us to be free.
May God help us to be free.
You know?
A wholly consecrated life.
That is what frees us.
You know, they even have a phrase in
the fashion industry.
And some people will proudly say, well, you
know, I'm a slave to fashion.
You know, they are.
They are.
What are we a slave to?
Are we a bondservant to Christ?
Therefore, are we really free?
Are we really free?
Well, this principle is not following after the
fashions of this world.
Let's look at a few verses from God's
Word so we can be properly grounded in
this from God's perspective.
Turn with me to Ephesians 4.
Ephesians 4.
I think I'll start in verse 21.
Ephesians 4, verse 21.
If so be that ye have heard Him
and have been taught by Him as the
truth is in Jesus, that ye put off
concerning the former conversation...
Conversation here isn't words.
It's lifestyle, behavior, your general approach to life.
Okay?
Put off.
Put off concerning the former conversation in the
old man which is corrupt according to the
deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit
of your minds that ye put on the
new man clothed in righteousness, we could say,
which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness.
We're to put off the old and put
on the new.
Turn over with me to 1 Peter 1.
A similar verse.
One that's a real blessing.
1 Peter 1, starting in verse 14.
As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to
the former lusts of your ignorance, but as
He which hath called you is holy, so
be ye holy in all manner of conversation
because it is written, Be ye holy for
I am holy.
God is holy.
You know, if we lose our saltiness, I
don't know what that says to the world,
but it doesn't say much, does it?
And the world will toss us out.
So all manner of conversation, we need to
put on the things of God.
We know that without holiness, no man shall
see God.
And so our dress, and our attire, and
our apparel, it may be the only book
some people get to read sometimes.
I don't know.
Depends on who they are and where you
are.
But we need to put on the new
man in our minds and in our hearts,
and what's in our hearts will then come
out, won't it?
It will be a manifestation, an indication of
what's in the heart as what apparel we
choose, what attire we have.
And I believe that the life and the
conduct, or the conversation, to use the Bible
word here, of the child of God is
in direct opposition to the expressions, clothing, whatever,
approach to life, of those around Him who
follow after the God of this world.
You know, there is a God of this
world, the Bible tells us.
And the world is following after the God
of this world in fashions and in many
other areas of life, aren't they?
And they follow after the God of this
world.
But the child of God whose mind has
been renewed by the Word of God, His
life should be in opposition to that.
He should want to go a different way.
He wants to be holy.
Does the world want to be holy?
No.
Do we want to be holy?
Yes.
So our life, our conduct, in all manner
of conversation, is in opposition to the God
of this world and the fashions of this
world.
So in this principle, we do not want
to follow the fashions of this world.
The fourth principle is related to this third
principle a bit, but it still stands on
its own.
It still stands on its own as a
biblical principle relating to how we dress, to
purity in clothing.
And it is this.
Our apparel should be otherworldly or separate.
Separation is a doctrine we know, we preach,
we believe in.
And our apparel should be otherworldly or separate
or distinctive from this world.
Our apparel should be otherworldly or separate or
distinctive from this world.
Again, remember earlier that I said clothing reveals
a person's beliefs and feelings and their general
approach to life.
In other words, it shows their hearts.
If we treasure the clothing of this world,
what does it show?
It shows our hearts.
Jesus taught us that, didn't He?
What we treasure, our hearts will be there
also.
So if we treasure the clothing of this
world, it shows our hearts, doesn't it?
Let's turn to 1 John 2 and read
that verse.
Verse 15.
1 John 2 verse 15.
Remembering our principle here is our apparel should
be otherworldly or separate.
Love not the world, neither the things that
are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love
of the Father is not in him.
Romans 12.2, we won't turn there, says,
and be ye not conformed.
We don't want to fit the mold.
Go in and do the things this world
does.
Be ye not conformed to this world, but
be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind.
In other words, do we dress like we
belong to this world or do we dress
like we belong to God?
Give yourself a test sometime.
Go to a mall or a shopping center,
especially you men.
I'll challenge you even more so.
You know, it's easier for us, if we're
not careful, to dress just like the world,
isn't it?
You know, our wives are often wearing a
cape dress, a jumper and a veiling.
What are we wearing?
As we go to that mall or that
shopping center, sit down and watch for a
while and see, am I any different?
Am I separate?
Do I dress like I belong to these
people?
That's the world.
Do I dress like I belong to God?
You know, because our apparel needs to be
separate, needs to be distinctive.
The reason we can say that is God
says in His Word in 1 Corinthians, come
out from among them and be ye separate.
2 Corinthians, excuse me.
Come out from among them and be ye
separate.
And one way we can be separate and
identify with the cause of Christ is in
our clothing.
We know that it needs to start in
our hearts because we know we want to
be separated under Jesus.
It's not that we're separated physically from this
world.
We're not preaching monasticism here, are we?
We're preaching a spiritual truth, a spiritual doctrine.
We need to exercise ourselves spiritually to understand
it.
I remember a number of years ago in
my early Christian life, I went to visit
a brother in his home.
We spent the night there.
I think we were there a couple of
days.
And he told me this story that happened
to him.
And it had a big impact on me
and the way that I felt God would
have me to begin to try to dress
in a way that would be pleasing to
Him.
And this is his story.
He said one day they were going shopping.
They went in this large department store.
He and his wife.
His wife was dressed with a modest jumper,
full, loose, not form-fitting.
She had her veil on.
The dress was long.
He was wearing dark pants.
They were also loose, not concealing, not revealing.
He had on a plain shirt, long sleeve.
I believe he had a beard at that
time.
I'm pretty sure he did.
At least he did at the time he
told me the story.
And so they go into this store and
she goes on this side of the store
and he goes on that side of the
store and they're trying to get their list
done.
But they get turned around and he doesn't
know which direction to find her.
And evidently, a lady that was in the
same aisle as him observed his dilemma and
she came up to him and said, are
you looking for your wife?
And he said, well, yes.
As a matter of fact, I am.
I don't know where she is.
And she said, well, I do.
She's over on aisle three.
He said, thank you.
And he walked away and he thought, I
don't know her.
She doesn't know me.
But you know what?
She knew that he belonged to her and
she belonged to him and they didn't belong
and look like the rest of the world
in that store.
And you know when he told that story,
God smoked my heart.
I looked down at myself.
I was wearing a pair of jeans and
a polo knit shirt, a pair of top
siders.
I'm being specific here.
You give me the grace to do that.
My wife was sitting across the room.
She was dressed just like she is now.
And in my heart, I hung my head
and I thought, God, are you speaking to
me here?
And you know He was.
He was speaking to me.
I realized that I was dressing just like
I always had.
I was still wearing the fashions of this
world.
I was not dressing separate.
I was not dressing distinctive.
I was dressing like I still belonged to
this world.
I was not dressing like I belonged to
God, much less belonged to my wife, who
was clearly dressing, I believe, like she belonged
to God.
And you know, God convicted me of that.
And I began to change the way I
dressed.
And with God's help, and I give God
the glory here, I don't tell this story
about myself.
I tell this story because the principle works
because did you know that it wasn't very
long after that that I had similar experiences
to that?
I even had people approach me and ask
me if I was a Christian.
You know, I never had anybody walk up
and ask me if I was a Christian
before I changed the way I dressed.
Have you ever had anyone come up and
just ask you, are you a Christian?
You know, I never had that happen when
I was dressed the other way.
Since then, I have had it happen numerous
occasions.
It has happened.
And it can happen to you.
And we want to give God the glory
for that.
But that's what this principle is all about.
Our apparel should be otherworldly or separate or
distinctive from this world.
God says it in His Word.
God wants us to have the right application
of this.
The fifth principle that we have this morning
on purity in clothing, the fifth principle is
not excessive adornment or not with adornment, not
with outward adornment, but oh, that we be
led in a plain path as it says
in Psalms.
Not with excessive or outward adornment.
Not with adornment, but that we be led
in a plain path.
Turn with me to 1 Timothy 2.9
1 Timothy 2.9 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.
And then flip over with me to 1
Peter 3.3 and I believe we'll read
4 also.
1 Peter 3.3 Who's adorning?
Let it not be the outward adorning of
plaiting of the hair and of wearing of
gold or the putting on of apparel.
Notice that one there with the putting on
of apparel.
Adorning apparel.
Apparel that is for adornment if we understand
the flow here.
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.
You know, even in our desires to turn
away from the fashions of this world and
we may do that.
We may say, no, I'm not going to
follow after the fashions of this world and
we give that up.
Bless God.
You know, we can still overdo, can't we?
We can still have adornment.
It may not be the fashions of this
world, but we can still overdo.
We need to watch ourselves for frills and
extras.
Frills and extras on our apparels.
And if I could speak to the mamas
for just a minute carefully, I know you
love your babies.
You love your little children, don't you?
But you know, it's very easy to want
to put a lot of extras on them,
isn't it?
It's very easy to want to add a
lot of frills and a lot of extras.
And as we do that, what we're adding
is adornment.
And it's clear how God feels about that.
And are we setting a snare for them
perhaps that as they get older, they have
to give up that adornment and they don't
understand why.
Well, they'd always had it before.
What's wrong with it now?
You mean it's okay if I'm one, but
it's not okay if I'm eleven?
I don't think that's the right application here.
I think we need to be careful of
adornment.
And fathers, would you help your wives with
this?
Would you guard over their hearts?
You know, they do love those babies.
And they do want to show them attention
and love.
And sometimes it's easy to have a lot
of extras and a lot of frills, which
is adornment, isn't it?
And brothers, while I'm speaking to you, if
you will allow me this morning, we need
to be careful too, don't we?
You know, notice I'm not preaching to the
sisters today, man.
I hope you notice most of the comments
have come your way.
And that's the way it should be, isn't
it?
You accept that, don't you?
You want that.
Amen.
I know you do.
But brothers, you know, it's easy for us
to pick up adornment too.
No, we may not add lace to our
collars.
But are we wearing shirts with big, bright,
bold stripes a lot?
Do you catch yourself doing that sometimes?
Big, bright, bold checks.
Why do we do that?
Is that outward adornment?
Are we seeking things like that on purpose?
Do we choose that clothing?
Yes, we chose it.
Does that reveal something about our heart?
Perhaps.
So let's be careful.
We can get into outward adornment too, can't
we?
You know, we want to say adornment and
then we want to look over at the
ladies' side.
Let's don't do that.
Let's look at ourselves.
And I'll say that again carefully.
But I believe it needs to be said.
Let's look at Joshua for just a minute.
Let's look at chapter 7.
There's an interesting account here of Achan that
I want to just read one verse out
of that I hope will help us.
Joshua chapter 7.
We all know who Achan is.
The sad story of he and his family.
Do you remember the very first thing that
Achan did wrong?
We all remember the gold, don't we?
And the silver.
Notice what happens here.
And Achan answered Joshua and said, And indeed
I have sinned against the Lord God of
Israel, and thus I have done.
Listen to the first thing he's done.
When I saw among the spoils a goodly
Babylonish garment.
Now by goodly, I look this up, it
means heavily ornated, adorned.
There's something about garments or clothing that is
heavily adorned that gets our attention.
That's the first thing.
Notice he didn't see the gold first, did
he?
He saw the clothing.
And he was attracted to it.
He even said he coveted it.
He wanted it.
He liked it.
And he was a man.
Did you notice this again?
I'm talking to the men.
He liked that clothing.
It caught his eye.
It was a goodly Babylonish garment.
And he coveted it.
And he took it.
And he wanted it.
Remember earlier I asked you, Do you love
Jesus?
Do you really love Him?
Well, the Bible says the love of God
is that we obey His commandments, and His
commandments are not grievous.
And as we're looking at this area of
adornment this morning, please don't grieve.
Please don't long for adornment.
Achan did.
Let's don't be like that.
Let's be careful with this.
Let's don't grieve or long for outward adornment.
Let's long for a heart that is after
God.
A heart that is holy.
A heart that is free.
Oh, to be free.
To be free from longing after those things.
What a freedom.
What a joy there is.
I don't desire that for myself.
And may God help me also.
I'm no different than you.
I don't preach this as having all the
answers.
I don't want to look at those garments
and desire them either.
The sixth principle this morning is modest.
Modest as in not revealing or alluring, but
to conceal and maintain purity.
1 Timothy again 2.9 says in like
manner also that women adorn themselves in modest
apparel.
Modest.
We won't turn there, but in Isaiah chapter
3, verses 16 through 24, God
talks to the women there of Israel about
wearing clothing and adorning themselves in modest apparel.
And you see God's displeasure at this kind
of clothing that is not modest, but instead
is revealing and alluring and drawing attention and
does not maintain purity.
And He pronounced a judgment on those people
there in Isaiah 3.
And that was one of the reasons for
the judgment.
So we get a picture here of what
God told His people.
of what God thinks about this kind of
dress.
And we desire apparel.
We desire clothing that covers, that is full
and loose.
You know, it not only covers, but it's
full and it's loose.
It is not tight or form-footing.
The word apparel here in 1 Timothy is
in the Greek katastole or katastole.
And it basically means the application, the interpretation
as you study it out would be double
coverage.
Double coverage.
And that's the term we use today, isn't
it?
Double coverage.
To help us maintain this purity in this
area of modesty of revealing and not alluring
done to conceal.
But also, we need to be careful here
because just because a person is double covered
doesn't mean they're modest.
You know, it's not a definition.
It's an attitude of the heart that will
be expressed in the way that it is
used, in the way that it is actually
worn, in the way that it is actually
sewed or put together or bought off the
rack.
When I say full and loose, I mean
not form-fitting, not done to accentuate the
figure, the waist.
Have you seen a cape dress or a
jumper that was done to accentuate the figure?
I have.
I can take you to grocery stores or
stores here in this very county where the
dress is as immodest as if I took
you to the mall where the persons may
be wearing cape dresses and jumpers.
Have you seen that?
It's true, isn't it?
They fit a definition, double coverage.
But see, it's not just about definitions, is
it?
It's about our spirits.
And if that clothing is not full and
loose, instead it's form-fitting, done to accentuate
the figure, then is that modest?
No, I don't believe that is.
I don't believe that's in keeping with God's
heart here.
And so we need to be careful of
this ourselves.
We need to look at ourselves and we
need to make the right applications.
And that's why items such as skirts can
be a problem for you sisters because skirts
by definition are going to come in at
the waist, aren't they?
And accentuate the waist.
So we need to be careful in what
articles of clothing we pick and how we
use them.
The question I would like to ask you
is does our apparel conceal or reveal?
Does our apparel conceal or reveal?
And what is our purpose in wearing it?
To conceal?
To cover?
Or to reveal and to show?
What spirit are we about?
Brothers, again, I don't want to leave you
out.
I speak to you this morning by God's
grace.
How about your pants?
Your trousers?
Are they too tight?
Do they reveal?
Or do they conceal?
You know, men have physiques.
We have figures, don't we?
Your shirts, are they too tight?
Are they too form-fitting to show that
manly physique?
Are our shirt sleeves too short to show
off the muscles?
The manly physique?
What are we wearing?
Is it to reveal or to conceal?
You know, we can make the wrong applications
of biblical principles here just by wearing certain
types of clothing, but we can still wear
them in the wrong way.
Can't we?
So may God help us with this one.
Modest as in not revealing or alluring, but
to conceal and to maintain purity.
It is the heart of God that we
walk pure.
Be ye holy, even as I am holy.
And as you're wearing some of these clothing,
would you wear them if God were there?
You know, we can give ourselves tests.
Would you wear them with Jesus?
Would you do that?
Would that be pleasing?
Is that the right biblical application?
Number seven.
Modest as in not drawing attention to self.
We talked about self already this morning.
I want to talk about it again a
minute here with regard to dress.
Modest as in not drawing attention to self.
Often it has been preached and taught from
this very pulpit that we must die to
our self.
We agree with that doctrine, don't we?
That's true.
It's biblical truth.
We know it's true.
Our spirit says, yes, Lord, I need to
die to self.
I do not want the self-life.
I'm tired of the self-life.
I don't want it.
And we know that the self-life wants
to lift itself up.
It wants to lift itself up in what?
In pride and in vanity.
That's one of the end results of the
self-life, isn't it?
Pride and vanity.
And how is vanity expressed?
It can be expressed in our clothing, can
it?
Vanity.
The self-life leads to vanity.
But by faith, we reckon ourselves dead to
the flesh as we take up the cross
of Jesus.
You know, I came across an excerpt that
I want to share with you from John
Wesley.
From John Wesley, back in the 1700's, this
godly man who wasn't afraid to tell the
truth and preach the gospel.
This is what he said.
He said, the wearing of gay or costly
apparel naturally tends to breed and increase vanity.
By vanity here, I mean the love and
desire of being admired and praised.
Every one of you that is fond of
dress has a witness of this in your
own bosom.
It means in your own heart.
You know that it's there.
This is John Wesley's words.
Whether you will confess it before a man
or no, you are convinced of this before
God.
You know it in your hearts.
It is with a view to be admired
that you thus adorn yourselves, and that you
would not be at the pains of the
world, if there were none to see you
but God and His holy angels.
Now, the more you indulge in this foolish
desire, the more it grows upon you.
You have vanity enough by nature, but by
thus indulging it, you increase it a hundredfold.
Oh, please stop.
Aim at pleasing God alone, and all these
ornaments will quickly drop off.
John Wesley.
He understood that men wanted to draw attention
to themselves.
You know, it's no different now than it
was 200 years later, is it?
You know, God says in His Word, He
fashioneth our hearts alike.
And that doesn't just mean today.
That means the hearts of men.
And so we can look at truths like
this from godly men of another era and
still see the truth in them, and they
still bear witness in our hearts.
So what do we want to have?
We do not want to have clothing that
draws attention to itself or to ourself.
I remember we had a young lady staying
with us once in our home, and we
were talking one night about clothing and modesty
and dress, different topics.
And she said something that I found very
interesting.
I was blessed by it.
She said, you know, as I choose my
clothing, as I choose the material before I
make it or if I have to buy
something, as I look in my closet, I
always ask myself, will this clothing put me
in the foreground or in the background?
Will it cause me to stand out or
will it help me to stand up for
Jesus?
And you know, that was such a simple
application, but I really appreciated that idea of
modesty.
And this was a young girl.
She was only about 20, but she already
had the heartbeat of this, I think, a
little bit, didn't she?
She understood.
As I look at this clothing, is it
going to put me in the foreground or
keep me in the background?
Is it going to cause me to stand
out or will it help me to stand
up for the cause of Christ?
So I was blessed when I heard her
say that because it went in line here
with the rest of this verse and the
rest of the verse over in 1 Peter
3 because instead of drawing attention to ourselves,
we should have, the Bible says, the ornament
of what?
The ornament of a meek, a meek and
quiet spirit, as it says in 1 Peter
3.4. Am I meek?
Can I ask myself that question?
Am I meek?
You know, Jesus only described Himself that one
way.
As the meek and lowly Jesus.
The meek and lowly Jesus.
Do you know when they wanted to mock
Jesus, do you know what they did to
Him?
They took away His meek clothes.
They put on Him what?
A rich piece of scarlet, royal, expensive, costly
array, drawing attention to Himself clothing.
And the Bible says it mocked Him to
put that clothing on Him because it mocked
who He really was.
He wouldn't have worn that clothing.
That wasn't for Him.
But to mock Him, they put that kind
of clothing on Him because He was the
meek and lowly Jesus.
May we be meek and lowly as our
Jesus is.
Now there's another definition of modesty that comes
under this principle that I do want to
bring out.
Modest as in not drawing attention to self.
And as we look up the word modesty
in the Greek, and it gives several different
definitions, one of them that we do need
to give here is modesty, we can almost
think of it as the opposite of something.
Modesty is orderly, calm, and peaceable.
We heard about peaceable this morning.
Quiet, I guess, and peaceable.
We heard about from Brother Aaron.
Well, modesty, there is a quiet, calm, peaceableness
to it.
And the opposite of that, one of the
definitions, the opposite of that of immodesty is
disorder set in disarray, disconcordant, chaotic.
Have you ever looked at the clothing of
this world?
Even if it covers someone's body, it could
be immodest because it could be discordant, out
of order.
The colors mixed, matched, swirled around, stirred around,
and just off, and not in an order.
God is an orderly God, isn't He?
He set an orderly universe in place.
We even teach that in our homeschool to
our children.
We say, you know, two plus two is
four.
Do you know why?
Because God is an orderly God, and it's
always that way.
God has set certain things in order.
He is an orderly God, and He wants
things done orderly.
He wants our appearance to be neat and
orderly, doesn't He?
That is part of modesty, isn't it?
We're not preaching anything today to be...
We're not preaching a poverty gospel to be
dirty.
That's not what I'm saying.
Please don't misinterpret anything I've said today.
It is orderly.
It's not disorderly.
It's not chaotic.
You know, and this can be expressed even
in coats.
If you notice coats today, you get these
big coats, and one of them will have
a quadrant or a quarter that will be
fuchsia.
And this one will be black, and this
one green, and this one gray.
There's something about that that doesn't line up
with modesty the way God defines it and
the application that we need to have.
So may we be careful here, and we
may be humble and orderly and not draw
attention.
Remember, our principle here is to not draw
attention to ourselves, whether it's our clothing or
even our coat, because we're talking about apparel
here, aren't we?
All of our apparel.
We're not going to leave anything out, are
we?
God doesn't want us to, so we don't
want to either.
The eighth principle is not costly or expensive.
Not costly or expensive.
Of course, we see that clearly here again
in 1 Timothy 2.9, the end of
the verse, where it says, not with voided
hair or gold, which is expensive, or pearls,
which is expensive, or He says it plainly
here, costly array.
The word array here again is apparel.
Not just a shirt, not just a pair
of pants, but array.
The whole package.
Choose whatever.
Costly array.
Let's also turn over to Acts 20 for
a little insight here from Paul on apparel.
Acts 20.33 Paul says, I have coveted...
Notice the word covet.
I have coveted no man's silver or gold.
We can understand that.
But look what he puts.
He doesn't put houses or livestock, which was
usually in that day used to measure wealth,
wasn't it?
But instead he says, or what?
Apparel.
Apparel can be very expensive, very costly.
Achan coveted a goodly Babylonian garment.
You think that was an inexpensive garment or
a costly garment?
It was costly.
I'm sure it was.
And it brought God's displeasure.
It brought God's displeasure.
You know, the clothing industry, as I was
looking at this, I mentioned earlier, I looked
in some reference books.
One other thing I learned that was interesting
is the clothing or the fashion industry in
this country alone, forget worldwide, but in this
country alone is a multi, multi-billion dollar
industry.
Huge.
Staggering.
In this state alone, in Pennsylvania State alone,
it is a two billion dollar industry.
In Pennsylvania alone.
In our neighbor to the north, New York
State, it is a four billion dollar industry.
In just these two states, six billion dollars
is spent a year on fashion and clothing.
Six billion dollars a year.
That staggers my eyes.
It's beyond belief almost, isn't it?
But it's done.
Every year.
Year in and year out.
And do we as the children of God
want to line the pockets of the fashion
industry, the clothing industry?
Or spend large sums of money on the
finest apparel which money can buy when it
can be useful in God's kingdom?
We're a missionary church, aren't we?
Praise God, we're a missionary church.
Oh, let's don't line our closets with clothes
either.
With costly array and expensive clothing.
There's much work to be done out there.
May God help us to be as conservative
as possible.
And again, I'm not preaching a poverty gospel.
I don't want to be misunderstood.
But you know, there's a balance here that
God wants us to walk in.
There's a truth here, isn't there?
Not costly array.
There's another caution I'd like to give here
on this principle and that is we don't
want to violate one principle for the sake
of another, do we?
We can be tempted to do that.
You can go to a garage sale and
see a dress there that would fit one
of your little girls.
It's just her size and it's only 50
cents or a dollar.
And you buy it.
But you get it home.
It's way too short.
And you think, well, but it was only
50 cents.
I'll go ahead and put it on her.
But it's immodest.
We don't want to violate one principle for
the sake of another.
We don't want to hold one up necessarily
higher than the other.
We need the Spirit of God to help
us make these applications.
And that's the way it is with principles,
isn't it?
We have to look at this thing and
pick it up.
Men, remember, as spiritual leaders of the home,
you must be involved.
You must help.
You must make the proper teaching from God's
heart to our heart to the hearts of
our family.
In conclusion, turn with me over for another
verse here in Zephaniah.
Zephaniah 1.
Very interesting verse here.
I'll read verses 7 and 8.
Hold thy peace at the presence of the
Lord God for the day of the Lord...
Now, the day of the Lord we know
is a day of judgment, right?
And that's what is being pronounced here, a
day of judgment, okay?
For the day of the Lord is at
hand, for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice.
He hath bid His guest.
And it shall come to pass in the
day of the Lord's sacrifice that I will
punish...
Look who he's going to punish.
I will punish the princes and the king's
children and all...
not just the princes and the king's children,
and all such are clothed with strange apparel.
Now, if we look at what's going on
here in Israel, we realize that the day
of judgment is coming.
And we know that God's promises are not
slack.
He will do as He says.
He will come.
He did come, didn't He?
And the children of Israel bring punishment.
And we know as we look at this
with New Testament eyes, we have an application
here.
We have a principle here.
There is something here as God.
He gives here in Zephaniah and other places
in Joel, lists of certain types of people
and certain types of sin that grieved the
heart of God, that God was not happy
about.
He was displeased.
And He knew judgment needed to come for
the good of the people.
He needed to get their attention.
He was not happy.
God was going to punish them.
Would you think that in that list He
would include something about all who wear strange
apparel?
That doesn't sound right at first to our
ears.
I know when I read this at first,
I thought, what is God saying?
All those that wear strange apparel.
Well, first of all, strange means alien, outlandish,
foreign, different, very wonderful.
That's what strange here means.
It means alien, outlandish, foreign, different, very wonderful.
And see, what God really sees, it's not
just the piece of cloth that they had
on.
He knew that they had given up.
They had turned away from their normal dress,
the dress of Israel, the dress that was
pleasing unto God, the dress that He had
given them under the covenant.
And they had gone and they had turned
their hearts to other things.
And see, it's their hearts that He's after,
isn't it?
It's always our hearts that God is after.
And here it's no different.
He knows that those that have on strange
apparel, they're wearing out their beliefs, their feelings,
and their approach to life.
In other words, their heart is on their
sleeve, so to speak.
And God sees their heart, but He sees
what they have on, and He sees this
strange apparel.
He says, those that I'm going to punish
are all that have on strange apparel.
This should wake us up.
Are we sitting in church?
Are there Christians sitting in churches today wearing
strange apparel?
Wearing strange apparel.
God knows that the apparel that we wear
reveals our hearts.
So, I think the thing I want to
say here is that our heart is also
part of our attitude.
And I know that God wants us to
have the right attitude.
An attitude toward the Word of God.
An attitude toward Him.
That is a heart that is bowed.
A heart that is ready to receive what
God has to say.
And one of the principles I gave at
the beginning, again, was to exhort the men
to get involved in this.
And as I said earlier, if you get
nothing out of it, men, other than this
and the other principle, be the spiritual leader
of your home.
You must get involved in the clothing decisions.
Because it's really a heart issue.
And you see this in God's Word.
God knows our hearts.
He knows what strange apparel really means, doesn't
He?
He knows what's behind that strange apparel.
He sees.
So, guard over the hearts of your family.
Set these principles or others that you may
get from the Word of God in order,
in order, in your home.
Make the specific applications you need to do
in your home.
And may God help us.
May we as a church make the specific
applications that we need to make.
No, we do not want to make a
list of rules.
We do not want to have a list
posted on a board.
You can wear this.
You can't wear that.
That is not our heart's desire.
Our heart's desire is to have a heart
after God and to be free from the
fashions of this world and be free to
look at God's Word and make the applications
so that we can encourage one another.
Yes, we can admonish one another.
And yes, even in love, rebuke one another
in all areas of the Christian walk including
dress.
Because don't forget, the rebuke of a friend
is better than the kiss of an enemy,
isn't it?
And so may we be mature in this
area.
May we be mature in a godly church
willing to hear from God and the principles
that He has in His Word.
And may He direct us in a path
that is godly and holy that we may
be holy even as He is holy.
May God add His blessing to this Word.
Thank you.