Hello, this is Brother Denny.
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Praise the Lord.
It's been a blessing to be here this
morning already.
After hearing the children's lesson, I wondered if
I should change the name of my sermon
to a truly good cake.
A truly good cake.
We just heard about a cake that looked
like a good cake but wasn't a good
cake.
I thought maybe I'll change my message to
a truly good cake this morning.
I feel led by the Lord to bring
this message this morning, the spirit and practice
of modest apparel, and I'll give it a
second title, a truly good cake.
One that's right on the outside and right
on the inside is truly a good cake.
And that is what we long for.
When we talk about Bible modesty, we are
longing for one that is right on the
inside and right on the outside.
Truly a good cake.
Amen.
It has been a burden on my heart
for some time to bring this message.
I realize that for some people that might
hear this message, it might be a little
touchy.
Not necessarily in this room, but I've had
the burden for some time.
And it is often that way when I
get a special burden from the Lord to
give a message, I also must wait very
patiently and give it exactly on time.
And I trust that's what I'm doing this
morning.
Many have come to me from time to
time over the last probably two or three
years and asked, when are you going to
speak on modest apparel?
And I've told them, I have a message
and I'm waiting to preach it.
Brethren, oh, I guess it's probably six, eight
months ago, we discussed a little bit about
modest apparel in a brother's meeting and I
received encouragement from the brothers to go ahead
and bring this message, but I still had
to wait until I got a clearing from
heaven to give it.
So I'm going to ask all to hear
me out this morning and allow me just
to be a faithful shepherd and speak to
you like a father, maybe some of you.
Clothing can be a means of self-expression.
One book says it this way, and maybe
you've read the book before, it's a book
on Christian apparel.
I don't agree with a lot of what
is in the book, but the name of
the book is Your Clothes Say It For
You.
And I'm sure that we'll all agree that
our clothes say a whole lot about us,
what we wear, our appearance.
It has a message in it, and may
I say it this way, clothes have a
silent message that goes out all the time
from our lives.
We've spoken a lot about a life message
and I believe that each and every one
of us, we have a life message.
That has to do with the message that
comes out of our lives, the way we
live, what we do when we go somewhere,
the way we talk, the way we carry
ourselves, the way we clothe ourselves, the way
we conduct our families, the kind of business
we have.
Every little part of our life is our
life message.
And I trust that each and every one
of our hearts is about the business of
bringing our lives in accordance with the Word
of God, so that our message and this
message will line up.
And thus then people will be able to
read the Bible in our lives.
Well, in this matter of clothing, I think
it's very important that people be able to
read the Bible in our lives, and I'm
specifically speaking to the sisters this morning, although
I think every brother ought to listen to
this message for the sake of choosing a
wife, for the sake of guiding your wife,
for the sake of directing your children, for
the sake of being the head in your
home.
I think each one of you should also
listen with an intent heart.
The message of our clothing, it has both
an inward and an outward message.
It says something about the way we live.
It says something about what is inside of
our heart.
It can be a very self-expressive thing.
We don't have to go very far out
into the world to realize that people are
using the clothes they wear to express the
very heart that is inside of them.
We don't have to go far for that.
We can go to New York City or
even to the streets of Lancaster and we
can see there a young man with long
hair hanging down to his shoulders, a dirty
t-shirt on, a pair of cut-off
blue jeans and bare feet.
And the message of his clothing is saying
something.
And we can look at his clothing and
say, I know what's going on inside that
young man's heart most of the time.
Well, the message of our clothing has an
inward and an outward message and it speaks
a thousand words to everyone who meets us,
who walks with us, who comes into our
acquaintance.
So I feel it's a very important message
and I'd like for us to just turn
to 1 Timothy.
We all know the scriptures, but I'd like
to read them and then show you a
picture that I have up here on the
board.
I trust that the picture I have on
the board will be an expression of these
verses that we're going to read.
First of all, 1 Timothy 2, verses 7
-10.
Paul speaking.
He says these words, Whereunto I am ordained
a preacher and an apostle, I speak the
truth in Christ and lie not, a teacher
of the Gentiles in faith and in verity.
Now, I read that verse so that we
could show by the reading of that verse
how important the other things are that we're
going to read here in these scriptures.
Paul saying, if we could skip the parentheses.
Whereunto I am ordained a preacher and an
apostle, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith
and verity.
And that word verity means there the depth
of truth.
He's saying in that word verity, I don't
just go around and tell you what is
right and what is wrong, but I teach
a depth of truth.
I teach the principle of the truth.
I teach the deepness and the deep meaning
of the truth when I go unto the
Gentiles.
And if we could just look at the
context again of what Paul was about there,
we know that the Gentiles, they had no
kinds of standards of dress at all in
their lives.
Now, we know that the Jews did, but
the Gentiles had none.
So here comes Paul the apostle, a teacher
of faith and the depth of truth, and
he has been called to be the apostle
and the preacher and the teacher to the
Gentiles to express to them God's way to
live.
I will therefore, verse 8, because I am
that preacher and apostle and teacher, 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
with that which becometh women professing godliness with
good works.
And then turn also to 1 Peter 3.
I thought if we could divide the two
texts, we could say that 1 Timothy 2
deals more with the outward and 1 Peter
3 deals more with the inward and thus
you have a truly good cake when you're
done.
Not one that's rotten on the inside, but
right on the outside.
Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your
own husbands that if any obey not the
word, they also may without the word be
won by the conversation or the life of
the life.
While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with
fear, whose adorning, let it not be that
outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of
wearing of gold or of putting on of
apparel, but let it be the hidden man
of the heart in that which is not
corruptible even the ornament of a meek and
quiet spirit which is in the sight of
God of great price.
For after this manner in the old times
the holy women also who trusted in God
adorned themselves being in subjection unto their own
husbands even as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him
Lord, whose daughters ye are as long as
ye do well and are not afraid with
any amazement.
So here we've read these scriptures and in
this one here in Peter that we just
read it even speaks about the holy women
of old.
So this picture has been on my heart
for a long time.
Some of you know the picture.
It's a picture that is on the little
booklet about the covering.
The booklet called Letter Be Veiled.
I don't plan to speak about the covering
this morning although I believe in it that
I believe that every holy woman who has
light about the covering will receive it and
obey it.
But we're not going to talk about the
covering this morning.
We're just going to talk about these virtuous
women up here, these women, holy women of
old, these women who are adorned in modest
apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety.
I think it's very clear as we look
at the picture that their modesty goes a
lot deeper than the surface of the little
cake that we learned about in the children's
lesson.
My heart and prayer to God this morning
is that you'll be able to see further
in this message than just the clothes that
are worn, but you'll see deep down inside
the heart of the face of those sisters
and you sisters will come out of this
sermon with a longing cry in your heart
that that inner character which is expressed on
the face of those two and three women
will be wrought by the Spirit of God
inside of your heart.
That is the only way you can truly
be that modest woman that was read about
in the Scriptures.
I think the Scripture is true when it
says that holiness is beautiful.
And I'm not sure what your response is
to this picture up here, but when I
look at it, it says that's beautiful.
There's not anything more beautiful than that picture
this morning.
Holiness is beautiful.
And to the sanctified heart and the sanctified
eyes, it's got to make the twangs of
your heart and the joy bells go off
when you look at a picture like that.
However, I'm not saying that we have to
go out of this place today and put
on the garbs that they put on 2
,000 years ago.
I'm not saying that.
I'm not making a new standard by putting
a picture like this up here, but I'm
simply putting the picture there that we might
grasp the Spirit and the principle of Bible
modesty this morning.
That is my heart.
Someone once said that imitation is the greatest
form of admiration.
I believe that's so.
And I would encourage you sisters to do
a little imitating, to do a little meditating
this morning, to just take your heart and
open it up.
I don't know how much God uses pictures,
but I prayed that God would use this
picture this morning, that He would take His
finger and He would write upon our hearts
and He would put a beautiful picture within
each one of our spirits this morning of
what Bible modesty is all about by the
example that I have in back of me
here.
Now let's turn back to the text in
1 Timothy.
We want to read a few verses and
look at a few words.
And then we want to look at some
of the basic principles that lie within modest
apparel or Bible modesty.
And then we also want to take a
look at some practical ways that we can
help you to fulfill this picture of these
Bible women that is behind me.
In 1 Timothy 2, verse 9, Paul says
in like manner also, I will therefore, I
desire, I will therefore, I want it to
be so that the women adorn themselves in
modest apparel.
Now the first word we want to look
at very briefly is the word adorn.
That word means to order, to arrange, to
deck, to trim, and to garnish.
It's the same word that is used out
in the world when they adorn a Christmas
tree with ornaments.
It's the same word that is used when
somebody adorns a room.
And Paul is saying here, and God is
saying here, it is my desire that the
women adorn themselves.
Trim yourselves, ornament yourselves, order yourselves, arrange yourselves,
and garnish yourselves with modest apparel.
The word adorn is not a bad word.
It's a good word.
It means just what it says.
Make yourself beautiful.
I will that the women would make themselves
beautiful that they would hang the ornaments of
modest apparel upon themselves so they'll be beautiful.
That's what the word adorn means.
The second word we want to look at
is the word modest.
Modest apparel, it says.
The word modest means orderly, decent, harmonious, discreet,
humble.
These are some of the words for modest.
Let me read it again that way.
I will, therefore, that the women adorn themselves
in orderly apparel, in decent apparel, in harmonious
apparel, in humble apparel, in modest apparel.
Here are some synonyms of the word modest.
I thought it would be helpful for us
this morning.
Other words that mean modest.
Other words that are used to express the
word modest.
Reserved, discreet, quiet, unassuming, humble, meek, bashful,
not boastful.
Isn't that interesting?
When you move away from the word modest
apparel and just look at the word modest,
you get away from the clothes and you
get right into the heart.
Notice those words again.
Reserved, discreet, quiet, unassuming, humble, meek, bashful, and
not boastful.
Modest.
Here are a few words which are antonyms
of the word modest, which are words that
mean the opposite of modest.
Of course, immodest, vain, boastful, ambitious, showy,
shameless, brazen, unseemly, improper, and loud.
Those are words that mean the opposite of
modest.
In like manner also that women adorn themselves
in modest apparel with shamefacedness.
Now, I looked up that word shamefacedness and
I copied it word for word out of
Vine's expository dictionary of New Testament words because
I thought it was beautiful.
It says, that modesty that is fast or
rooted in the character.
Shamefacedness or shamefastness is that modesty that is
rooted or made fast in the character of
the person.
That's shamefacedness or shamefastness.
Now, some of the expressions of shamefacedness, if
you want to look at this girl right
here in the picture, there's an expression of
shamefacedness.
She's looking somewhere, but she's not boldly looking
there.
She's looking up, but she's not looking directly
up.
There's a shamefacedness in her.
Her head is a little down.
She's looking where she's supposed to look, but
she's not boldly looking there.
That is an expression of shamefacedness.
It's beautiful.
Another word for shamefacedness is humility.
Humility.
Shamefacedness is not a bad word.
It's a good word.
It has the connotation of a reverence.
It has the connotation of you're better than
I am.
You have something more to say than I
do.
What you have to say is more important
than what I have to say.
You are important, and I'm less important.
Those are expressions of shamefacedness.
And every one of us need that for
sure, not just the sisters this morning.
Alright, a little further down.
Well, maybe we should look at the word
apparel also.
The word apparel here is the word katastola.
Katastola in the Greek.
Kata means down, and stola means wrapped around.
A katastola.
Kata means down, and stola means wrapped around.
We get our word stole from stola.
You know what a stole is?
It's something that a woman wraps around her.
A katastola is something that is down, and
something that is wrapped around, and I believe
that these women in this picture have something
somewhat like the katastola on their bodies in
this picture.
Now, the katastola was the Greek garment.
The word apparel didn't just mean apparel.
The word apparel meant a katastola, or the
specific garment that the Greek women wore in
the days that the New Testament was written.
And I believe that these sisters have a
katastola on them.
A katastola was a double-layered garment.
It wasn't single.
It was double.
It was a double-layered garment that was
laid around the body in folds in such
a way that it would break up the
contours of the body so that a woman
would not be revealing parts of her body
that should not be seen.
And I think we can all agree that
these sisters up here are modest without question.
They are not dressing to draw any attention
to their bodies, but they are dressing to
cover and conceal, which I believe is God's
will, for clothing.
So, the word apparel means katastola.
Now, one man once said to me, how
can you use the word apparel and say
that we must wear a double-layered garment?
Well, I say this to that man, if
we can't do that, then neither can we
use the word apparel to tell a sister
that she must wear a dress.
Because if apparel is used in a general
sense like it is here in America, then
it means anything.
Apparel in America means hat, it means coat,
it means shoes, it means undergarments, apparel means
all of those things in a general sense
here in America.
But that is not what it meant in
the Greek sense back in the days when
the Bible was written.
The word apparel was a specific word which
described the type of garment that the Greek
women wear.
Now, I have not this morning telling any
of us that we need to wear a
katastola, but the principle of modesty and the
principle of covering, I'm saying that we need
to hold on to.
We don't want to throw that away.
Okay, and one other thing in these verses,
with shamefacedness and sobriety not with broided hair
or gold or pearls or costly array.
Now, I'm not going to say a lot
about that.
I don't think we need to deal with
the congregation about braiding their hair and wearing
gold and wearing pearls and putting on costly
array.
But those are the things that Paul was
telling them that they shouldn't be adorning themselves
with.
And I do think that those are worthy
words.
Verse 10 goes on to say, but rather,
adorn yourself with that which becometh women professing
godliness.
And I believe in this verse what Paul
the Apostle is saying is dress so that
you look like a godly woman.
That's what he's saying.
Dress in such a way that will line
up with a godly life.
And I say amen to that.
That's the way it ought to be.
We ought to so desire to clothe ourselves
that our clothes will line up with the
godly life that we're endeavoring to live.
Now, let's move on from there over to
Peter.
We want to look at those verses also.
First Peter.
Here we get more into the heart matter
of modesty, which is a great blessing to
me.
As I studied these verses fresh and new
in light of this subject, they came alive
to me.
Likewise, ye wise, be in subjection to your
own husbands, that if any obey not the
word, they also may without the word be
won by the life that the wife lives.
Notice verse 2.
While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with
fear.
That word chaste, I studied, it means pure,
holy, no mixture, and clear.
It means all of those.
So here we're looking at a woman who
needs to so live before a wayward husband
that he will notice the way she lives
a pure, a holy life.
A life with no mixture.
A life that is clear.
A life that is without question both on
the inside and the outside.
When he sees that kind of life being
lived, it will begin to influence him.
It will begin to win him over to
the ways of God.
And earlier this morning, as I was meditating
upon this text, I was sort of walking
around here in the auditorium and I was
praying and I was looking at this picture
and I thought to myself, I began to
imagine one of these women winning their lost
husband by their chaste conversation coupled with fear.
And I thought, they got a pretty good
chance.
If their inward life, if what we see
here in the picture is any expression at
all of their inward life, they have a
very good chance of winning a wayward husband.
Alright, going on to verse 3.
Who's adorning?
Let it not be that outward adorning of
plaiting a hair and of wearing of gold
or of putting on of apparel.
There we have those same words, missed it
again.
But we'll move on to verse 4 and
look at the heart of the matter.
But let it be, rather let the adorning
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.
Now here is what God lays out to
every sister that she should covet after.
A meek and a quiet spirit.
If you're going to adorn, let your adorning
start inside your heart with the ornament of
a meek and quiet spirit.
There is nothing more beautifying than a meek
and a quiet spirit.
Nothing more beautifying than that.
Do you sisters believe that this morning?
Let me see your hands.
Nothing more beautiful.
When you have that, you've got everything you
need.
When you have that, you've got the thing
that will bring the most glory to God
in your life.
A meek and a quiet spirit.
And the Bible calls it an ornament.
And the Bible says that in the sight
of God it's of great price.
Now I had to think as I was
looking at these pictures here.
Surely, that is pleasing to God.
Surely, the way those women are dressed and
the spirit by which they are manifesting in
that picture is pleasing to God.
And if I were you sisters, I would
just long and long and long and long
for that.
Right there.
If I were you, I would long after
it.
I would covet it.
I would pray for it.
I would seek God about it.
I would fill my heart full of His
Word that would rot within me.
That hidden man of the heart that expresses
itself with a meek and a quiet spirit.
For it is of great price.
And brothers, it is of great price.
I thought also I'd just go and see
what Daniel Webster has to say about modesty.
I'll read it to you out of the
Webster's Dictionary.
I don't know if this would be in
the new Webster's Dictionary, but mine is dated
1919.
Listen to the definition of modesty.
A natural delicacy or shame regarding personal charm
or relationships.
Modesty is a natural delicacy or shame, carefulness
regarding personal charm or relationship.
You have pretty eyes?
Modesty is a natural delicacy concerning that personal
charm of those pretty eyes.
You have a big bright smile?
Modesty is a careful delicacy over that personal
charm that you have in your life or
relationships.
Either one.
A careful delicacy over relationships.
A little further.
Modesty is purity of thought and action.
Modesty is due regard for propriety in thought
and action.
Modesty is being free from familiarity in relationships.
Modesty is a lowly temper.
The absence of self-assertion, arrogance and presumption.
A lot on the heart.
I believe that that is where God wants
us to start is on the heart.
But I do not believe this morning that
God wants us to wait for our heart
if we know what Bible modesty is supposed
to be.
I don't believe this morning that God is
saying, wait on your heart and then change
the outside.
The outside is a Bible principle and the
inside is a Bible principle and both of
them must be obeyed.
Alright, let's move along here and look at
some of the purposes of modest apparel.
The first verse that came to my mind
as I thought about modest apparel was this
verse.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart and love thy neighbor as
thyself.
Now you may wonder now, what are you
reading that verse for?
That's a Sunday night verse right there.
That's a revival verse.
That's a let's get our hearts right verse.
That's a oh the Jesus I surrender verse.
Well, that happens to be the verse on
which every Bible principle in the Bible hangs
on.
That one right there.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart and thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself.
If we cannot hang this sermon this morning
on that verse, then we better not even
talk about what we're talking about this morning.
We better be able to hang it on
that verse first.
And truly we can.
The Bible speaks about loving God with all
of our heart.
Who made this body of ours?
And what was God's design for clothes?
Without turning to the Scriptures, we can go
into the Old Testament and back into the
book of Genesis when God made clothes for
Adam and Eve.
And if we look there and look down
and meditate a little bit on the principle
there, God made clothes for Adam and Eve
to cover and conceal their bodies.
Before they fell, they could not see each
other.
They did not know that they were naked.
Personally, I feel they were clothed with a
body of light.
But I don't know that I can prove
that someday.
I'm going to find out in heaven if
I was right or not.
But I feel like they were clothed with
a body of light.
And that body of light covered them.
And when they sinned and disobeyed God, they
lost that body of light.
And all of a sudden, they could see
each other and they knew that they were
naked.
And the Bible says that they tried to
cover themselves with fig leaves.
Their first instinct was, cover up, cover up,
something's not right here.
We don't know what's wrong, but something's wrong
and let's get something to cover ourselves up.
And when God came walking in the cool
of the day there in the garden looking
for Adam and looking for Eve, they ran
and hid themselves.
And what did God do?
He made coats, He took coats of skin
and He made clothing for them and He
covered their bodies.
From there, we can see God's design, right
there.
God made us.
We need to glorify God in this body.
And I believe with all my heart, if
we truly love God and want to please
Him, one of the ways that we can
express that love is to clothe ourselves in
a way that is consistent with His design
and purpose for clothing.
And God gave the clothes to cover and
conceal.
The devil makes clothes to uncover and reveal.
We need to stay on the other side
in this matter of clothing.
A couple other verses that I wanted to
read in light of clothing and they can
be applied to many things, but I think
they need to be applied here.
1 Corinthians chapter 10.
Let's turn there first.
1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 31.
Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever
ye do, do all to the glory of
God.
Reading on.
Give none offense, neither to the Jews nor
to the Gentiles, nor to the church of
God, even as I please all men in
all things, not seeking mine own profit, but
the profit of many, that they may be
saved.
So the scripture we're looking at here is
that whatever you do, whether therefore you eat
or drink or whatsoever you do, do it
to bring glory to God.
Back to chapter 6 of the same book.
1 Corinthians 6 and verse 20.
Verse 19.
We'll read chapter 6, verse 19 and 20.
What?
Know ye that your body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost which is in you,
which ye have of God, and ye are
not your own.
For ye are bought with a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body and in
your spirit, which are God's.
I believe that when we're looking at this
matter of the spirit and practice of modest
apparel, that we need to acknowledge the principle
that this body of ours has been bought
with a price.
It doesn't even belong to us.
It belongs to God.
He shed His blood to redeem us.
And He did not just redeem our spirit,
but He redeemed this body.
Hallelujah!
And someday it's going to be resurrected.
And it belongs to Him.
It's His property.
Therefore glorify God in your body because your
body belongs to Him.
And I know that can be applied in
many ways, but this morning we'll apply it
to this matter of modest apparel.
Alright.
Let's turn also to Romans 12.
I want to read a verse there.
Romans 12, verse 2.
The Scripture says, Be not conformed to this
world, but be ye transformed by the renewing
of your mind, that ye may prove what
is that good and acceptable and perfect will
of God.
Now what this verse is saying is simply
this, that we need to have a desire
in our heart that we're not conformed to
the world around us, but rather seek to
be transformed into a new person by the
renewing of our mind.
And this is what we renew our minds
with.
And then it tells us why.
That you or so that you may prove
or show what is the good, acceptable, perfect
will of God.
I can say this morning as I point
to this picture on the board, this is
the good and acceptable and perfect will of
God.
The sisters that looked this way and dressed
this way 2,000 years ago in the
days when Jesus was upon this earth, they
were living out the good and acceptable and
perfect will of God in their lives concerning
their apparel.
And I think that we need to desire
to do the same thing.
There are two people that we can glorify
in the choices we make.
We can seek to glorify God or we
can seek to glorify me.
And I think in this matter of our
apparel, we need to be very careful that
we are glorifying God and not me.
It's very easy to slip over on the
other side and begin to want the glory
yourself, sisters.
It's very easy to slip over on the
other side and get in front of that
mirror and start thinking, this would look nicer,
this would be prettier, I'd like a little
of this, I'd like a little of that,
and the whole thing is drawing attention away
from God and it's drawing it down to
you.
We don't want to do that.
We want to glorify God in our bodies,
not bring glory to ourselves.
You get enough attention.
Alright?
Another principle and purpose of modest apparel is
the principle of love.
We quoted the verse, part of it, we'll
quote the other half again, love your neighbor
as yourself.
I believe that having a love for your
brothers ought to motivate each one of you
to be careful what kind of clothes you
wear.
I believe there ought to be a love
for your brothers when you sit down at
that sewing machine and start creating a new
dress with a new idea or a new
material or whatever it might be.
I believe that one of the motivations that
should be in your heart is a motivation
of love for your brother.
Because that's the second in great commandment is
to love your neighbor as yourself.
Paul said these words, sisters, If meat maketh
my brother to offend, I will eat no
meat as long as the world standing.
That's pretty strong words, isn't it?
And all he was talking about is eating
a piece of meat that was offered unto
an idol.
And Paul was saying, I know that an
idol is nothing.
I know that there's nothing to an idol.
And I know that there's nothing wrong with
me eating that meat.
But if it's going to offend my brother,
then I'm not going to eat any of
that meat as long as the world stands.
And I would just encourage you, sisters, to
think these kind of thoughts in your heart.
If my clothing offends my brother, I will
not wear those kind of clothes as long
as this world stands.
Is that a right application?
I think it is.
In fact, I say more so.
More so.
We know that clothes and how they are
worn can be a constant temptation to the
brothers.
If you know that your clothes are drawing
the eyes of the brothers your way, then
you need to go home and get in
front of the sewing machine and change what
you wear.
And some of you sisters, you know.
Because there's something inside of every sister that
likes the eyes and the attention of a
man.
And if you're drawing that with the clothes
that you wear, you know it.
You know it and you like it.
And if you know it and you like
it, you need to go home and do
something about it.
Every one of you sisters know.
You know when you're drawing the eyes of
the men.
When even moving around through the fellowship, when
you see their eyes your way, again, again.
Oh, they look away when you look.
But you know that their eyes are going
your way, and your way, and your way.
And then you see them look away when
you look.
Maybe it's not all his fault.
It might be your fault.
It might be what you're wearing and what
you're making is drawing the eyes your way.
You wouldn't want to do that.
That's not good.
That's not loving your brother.
Well, you may say, is it right to
change what I wear for my brother's sake?
I say, yes.
Here's what your heart cry ought to be.
Oh God, I don't want my brother to
stumble.
Oh God, I want my brother to walk
with God.
Oh God, I want the church to be
strong.
I don't want to be a stumbling block
to my brother.
You could say that.
Or, I thought of the opposite response, and
I thought we'd look at a couple of
those so we can see how selfish they
really are.
The opposite response could be, well, they just
need to learn how to look away.
Well, they have an impure heart.
They need to purify their heart.
Well, they need to learn how to control
their mind.
Well, that's true, but I think we need
to tell them that.
We need to tell each other that.
You sisters, you shouldn't think, yeah, well, they
just need to learn to look away.
Yeah, well, they've got an impure heart.
Yeah, well, they need to learn how to
control their mind.
No.
You need to say, I don't want my
brother to stumble.
I want my brother to walk with God.
I want my brother to have a pure
heart.
And I'm going to do what I can
do to help him to have a pure
heart.
Amen?
Let love prevail.
Let's turn to 1 Thessalonians.
Very interesting verse.
In 1 Thessalonians 4, we want to key
in on verse 6, but I'd like to
read from verse 3 through 8.
I'd like you just to be pondering this
word and this definition of this word as
we read the context here.
The word defraud.
In the margin of my Bible, it says
to oppress or overreach.
Defraud means to oppress or overreach.
One man said it this way.
The definition of defraud is stirring up desires
in others that you cannot lawfully fulfill.
That's a good definition for defraud.
So let's keep that in mind.
To defraud someone is to oppress them.
It's to cause pressure on their spiritual life.
To defraud someone is to stir up desires
that we cannot lawfully fulfill.
That's what defrauding is.
Now let's read the context.
For this is the will of God, even
your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication,
that every one of you should know how
to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor.
What a beautiful verse.
Not in the lust of concupiscence, which is
the impure heart desires.
Not in the lust of impure heart desires,
even as the Gentiles, which know not God,
that no man go beyond and defraud his
brother in any matter, because that the Lord
is the avenger of all such, as we
also have forewarned you and testified.
For God hath not called us unto uncleanness,
but unto holiness.
He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but
God, who hath also given unto us his
Holy Spirit.
Now in this context, Paul is telling the
Thessalonian church, this is big stuff.
You need to possess your vessel, your body,
in sanctification and honor.
And don't go beyond and cause a pressing
down of the spirit of a brother or
a sister.
We can apply it either way.
We should not cause a pressing down of
spirit upon a brother or a spirit.
We should not overreach ourselves and reach into
areas with a brother or a sister that
is going to hurt them and cause them
to stumble.
It's called defrauding.
Many sisters do not realize how much they
defraud the very brothers that are in the
church.
They do not realize it.
That they are defrauding them.
That they are stirring up desires in them
that cannot lawfully be fulfilled.
And what happens instead is this.
Most of the time in church, the fornication
doesn't come.
The holiness is preached and men are kept
in line that way.
But what happens is evil concupiscence instead.
And evil concupiscence is all of those things
taking place inside the mind.
Where the men are struggling with lustful thoughts
and things, imaginations in their mind, and sisters,
you don't want to be a part of
that.
You don't want to be a part of
that which stirs up those kind of thoughts
in the very brothers that you're going to
spend eternity with.
You don't want to be a part of
that.
Love prevails in this matter of modesty.
One of the little articles that I was
studying a couple days ago said, let the
men tell the ladies how their clothes affect
them.
I thought that was a very good statement.
Let me just speak for the men to
you ladies.
Your clothes affect us.
They make us struggle.
They draw our eyes away when they shouldn't.
Let the men tell the ladies how it
affects them.
I think there's real wisdom in that.
Be ye careful when you sit down at
the sewing machine or go to the material
store.
Another principle and purpose of modesty is the
principle of simplicity.
In Matthew chapter 6, I believe the scriptures
do teach that we are to live in
an attitude of simplicity about our clothing.
Simplicity?
Simple.
Simplicity?
Not a lot to do.
Not a lot of care about it.
Take no thought.
What ye shall eat, what ye shall drink,
what ye shall wear.
Don't worry about those things.
Don't spend a lot of time being concerned
about what you're going to wear.
For all those things, that's what the Gentiles
do.
And don't they?
Don't they sisters?
We can go out to the stores every
spring, every fall, every spring, every fall, and
they're all laying aside the clothes they bought
last fall, and they're buying new ones, and
then they're laying aside the clothes that they
bought last spring, and buying new ones, and
they go on shopping trips to do it,
and they spend lots of time, they watch
the television to learn what the fashions are,
they look at all the magazines, and they
spend lots and lots of time being concerned
about the clothes they're going to wear.
Now Jesus said, don't be that way.
Don't be so worried about your clothes.
Don't take thought about them.
Just have some, put them on, and wear
them.
I believe that's what Jesus was saying there,
as applied to what we're talking about here.
Have some, put them on, and wear them.
But I'm afraid that many times it's not
that way.
But every wedding, and every spring, and every
fall, and every family reunion, a new dress
comes, and when you get grown, you don't
outgrow them once you get grown, they just
sit there in your closet, one, two, three,
four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, maybe ten,
maybe twenty.
Then when it's time to put a dress
on, here you stand in front of your
closet trying to figure out, which one do
I wear?
Right?
Which one do I wear today?
Not good.
Just have two or three dresses that you
wear, put them on, and forget it.
Don't worry about it.
Clothes are to cover and conceal the body.
That's all.
Just wear them.
I believe that's the spirit of simplicity that
Jesus is laying out to us.
But it's not so many times, is it?
And then it gets a little worse than
that, then we start seeing, well, somebody else
made theirs a little bit more this way,
the next one I make, I'm going to
add a little of this to it, then
the next one I'll add a little of
this to it, then pretty soon you have
five or six styles hanging there along with
five or six colors, and then it's even
more difficult to decide which one do I
want to wear.
Just make a couple dresses and wear them
and forget it.
Amen?
Just forget it, sisters.
It's not that big of a deal.
No.
It really isn't.
It shouldn't be.
The principle of simplicity.
You know, I lived that way a few
years back.
I had several suits in my closet and
several shirts in my closet and several ties
in my closet and all the suits and
shirts and ties, they all matched each other
or contrasted each other and that's what I
did when it was time to get dressed
in the morning.
I stood in front of my closet the
same way and I said, what do I
wear today?
Shall I wear red?
Shall I wear blue?
Shall I wear a sport coat?
Shall I wear silver and blue?
Black and white?
What shall I wear this morning?
You know, when this matter of simplicity came
to my heart, I gladly threw all that
away and I'm glad now when I go
there it's the same old pair of pants
and same old kind of shirt and put
them on and forget it.
That's a blessing.
Amen?
It is a blessing.
Sisters, you need to find some of that.
If you find yourself standing in front of
that closet and you've got all kinds of
clothes in there and you don't know what
to do with all of it and you're
already thinking how you can find another reason
to make another one, oh, Lord deliver you
from it.
There's a better way to live than that.
Alright, we're going to move right along here
and look at a few of the practical
ways I think that you can be helped
this morning if you'll open your heart and
listen to me and I just want to
assure you that this is what I have
in mind.
This is what I want for every one
of you sisters.
Inside and the outside.
And I realize this morning that we face
the traditional swing here in this room that
many of you have come out of a
traditional setting where everything was done just because
that's the way mom did it, just because
that's the way the church said it.
And I realize that and I realize that
some of you are swinging away from that,
but I just want to give you this
yellow light this morning while you're swinging away
from a traditional approach to clothing, don't swing
away from this.
Don't swing away from the spirit and practical
application of what we see on the board
this morning.
Don't do that.
God wants that for each and every one
of you.
A question.
Let me ask you this morning.
Concerning your clothing, what are the extras for?
What are the extras for?
You know, the puff sleeves and the high
collar and the lace that goes around it
or I'm not sure what you call it,
but where you make a big collar and
you make it kind of ruffled around the
edges.
What are the extras for?
Is God laying on your heart to add
puff sleeves so you can glorify God with
your clothes?
What are the extras for?
What are the buckles for?
If the next time you go to make
a dress, you're thinking it'd look real nice
with a buckle right here, what is the
buckle for?
And the buttons?
And the ties?
You know, you get the sleeve down about
right here and you need something to gather
it, so rather than just put a little
elastic in here, you come up with a
new idea of putting some material through here
and tying a nice bow so that whenever
you reach for something, you got a little
bow hanging down here and a little bow
hanging down there.
What is it for?
That's the question we need to ask ourselves
this morning.
Why am I hanging a bow on my
elbow?
Why do I have one hanging back here?
What are they for?
That's the question.
Do you know that the latest style in
the world, or one of the latest styles
in the world, is to make a garment
that puffs at the shoulders so that it
looks smaller at the waist?
It's really not smaller at the waist, but
they puff the garment at the shoulders so
that when they wear the whole thing, it
looks like the waist is smaller and it
makes you look like you're thinner than you
really are.
That's what the world does.
Why do we puff the garments?
Why are the sleeves getting puffy?
What's the purpose?
These questions I think you need to ask
yourself.
Someone said, Well, I don't want to wear
that.
It'll make me look fat.
Who cares if you look fat?
Who's looking to see if you're fat?
What does it matter?
Right?
I mean, let that one man in all
your life find out someday that you weren't
as fat as you look like.
Let one man find out.
Not every one of them in the congregation.
I don't want to look fat.
I wear my dress because I don't want
to look fat.
Well, if he picks you for that, you
got the wrong one anyway.
Right?
Let's just come to grips with some of
these things.
These are thoughts that go through the minds
of women, of sisters.
Isn't it?
All the extras move away from the principle
of simplicity.
All the extras move in the direction that
the world is going.
That's what they are.
You see, sisters, we can do the same
thing the world is doing.
We can just do it with a different
style dress.
We can do exactly the same.
We can do all that they do out
there, just a different style dress.
Oh, we wear a cape dress around here.
But we puff it, and tuck it, and
roll it, and extra lines, and tie it,
and bow it, and hang it, and we
do all those things.
We wear a cape dress.
That's a joke.
Just simple Bible modesty.
That's what God wants.
Let's stay away from what the world is
doing, what the fashion designers are doing, and
let's not enter into the fashion design, sisters.
I realize some of you are learning how
to sew, and you like that, and your
creativity wants to make something a little bit
different.
But, when you're making something a little bit
different, aim this way, not this way.
And, you know, the tucks, and the buckles,
and the ties, and the puffs, and all
that stuff, aim this way.
I think you'll be better off, and I
know that all these brothers over here will
be better off for it.
Alright, let me say something also about the
types of material.
That's something that you face every time you
go to the material store.
I've heard the cry of many a sister
say, what do we do when we go
to the material store?
They keep changing the material on us.
We find a material that works, we find
a material that's serviceable, we find a material
that lasts, we find a material that doesn't
cling, and we make our dress out of
it, we go back six months later, and
it's not there anymore.
Discontinued.
This is the new material.
And all they're doing is moving the fashion
world right into the material store.
And slowly, and in just in eight years
that I've been going to material stores, I've
seen that thing move a long ways.
Just in eight years.
So what do you do about it?
Well, one thing you don't do, you don't
compromise because the material store is.
That, we know we don't do that.
Right?
We don't move along with the material store
if the material store is moving along with
the world.
We don't do that.
We know that.
We all got that one down.
We know that principle.
So what types of material do we get?
Well, I think the scripture would teach that
we get moderate materials.
Moderate is in the middle.
Moderate is not too bright and not too
dull.
Moderate is not real elegant and not a
burlap bag.
It's in the middle.
You see?
That's what moderate is.
One of you sisters show up here next
Sunday morning with some old hard gunny sack
on for a dress, I'll tell you, you're
not modest.
Because that's not modest.
That's extreme.
But I think it'd be good for us
to take a look at the other side
of that too.
And when we go to that material store,
don't go looking for the brightest material that
we can find.
Because that bright material, here's what it will
do.
That bright material will draw the eyes of
every man your way.
Because you look bright.
You look pretty.
He likes that.
The color is pleasing.
It'll draw his eyes your way.
You know the saying, pink makes boys wink.
How many ever heard that one before?
Boy, look at all them hands.
We all wear a lot of pink around
here for all knowing that.
Is it true or not?
What kind of materials do we get at
the material store?
Moderate.
Something in the middle.
Not too far this way.
Not too far that way.
Not always the brightest.
Not always the lightest.
Moderate.
And by the way, not the gaudiest either.
You know some of the colors in the
material store can be, they're not even, they're
not even attractive.
They're offensive.
Bright, gaudy colors.
You don't want those.
That's not modest.
Modest is down the middle.
What else?
Not the elegant.
Not the silks.
You say, well, I wouldn't buy silk.
That's costly apparel.
No, I know you wouldn't buy silk.
But now they're making material that looks like
silk.
Do we buy that?
It's not silk, but it looks like silk.
Looks like silk.
Feels like silk.
Clings like silk.
But it's not silk.
I tell you, it's silk.
They just figured out a way to make
it out of synthetic stuff.
It's silk, sisters.
It's expensive.
It's costly.
It draws attention.
It's shiny.
You see what I'm saying?
Little by little, we're just moving, moving, moving,
and it always happens little by little.
It always happens little by little.
Well, let's make some big leaps backwards.
Let's do what the Christian way is and
make some big leaps backwards.
Another thought.
Types of material, not too thin.
Not too thin.
But the materials are getting thinner all the
time.
But not too thin.
But it's hot outside.
You reckon they were hot when they wore
that?
I don't see anything wrong with being careful
about the materials you buy when it's hot
outside.
But sisters, I mean, some of the material
they sell now, that's the summer material, you
put your hand up behind it, you can
see right through it.
I mean, some of the materials are so
bad, you have to buy, if you buy
a dark blue material, you have to buy
a dark blue slip to put under it.
If you put a white one on, you'd
see the white through it.
And they buy the material and get the
dark blue slip and go on.
Not right.
That's transparent material.
Not too thin.
Not too clingy.
There are materials that hang.
And there are materials that hold close to
the body.
Don't get the ones that hold close to
the body.
Get the ones that hang.
They hang nice.
Just a word of encouragement to you sisters.
When the wind blows a little bit, the
men shouldn't have to turn their head.
When you reach to get something, when you
reach down to pick up a little baby,
the men shouldn't have to turn their head.
Your material shouldn't be so thin that a
man has to turn his head when you
reach for your baby.
That's too thin.
When the undergarment, the lines of the undergarment
show by the material, the material is too
thin.
Amen?
It's too thin.
I realize it's getting harder and harder to
go to the material store and buy material.
But sisters, we can't just follow the material
store.
We cannot do that.
We are following God.
We cannot follow the material store.
It's taking us further and further and further
away from what God wants.
A little bit about legs.
In a brother's meeting, I guess it's probably
a couple of years ago now, all the
brothers that are sitting over here, and there's
probably more of them over here now than
there was then, but all of them that
were here agreed.
All of us agreed that a woman's leg
attracts attention.
Everyone agreed.
Every one of us agreed that a woman's
leg has appeal to the man.
Wrong kinds of appeal.
And we agreed that they ought to be
covered.
We agreed that they ought to be toned
down, not enhanced up, but toned down.
We all agreed that the type of shoe
a woman puts on her foot in combination
with the type of stocking a woman puts
on her legs, if you put the right
two together, you have got an attention getter
just like that for a man.
We all agreed.
So, I'm just telling you this morning how
the men see it.
That is how we see it.
And I would just plead with some of
you sisters that you take a look at
your legs in the eyes and in the
light of the brothers who walk with you
and are among you day by day.
Take a look at the way your foot
and your leg looks by the shoes you're
wearing, by the way you're covering your legs.
And we agreed this.
The Bible teaches that the legs should be
covered.
We all agreed.
We're not telling you how to cover them.
If you want to cover your legs with
a longer dress, Amen.
If you want to cover your legs with
thicker stockings, Amen.
You can do that.
But we all agreed that they should be
covered.
And if I could just give some of
you a little encouragement there.
When we had in mind that you, if
you want to wear the thinner nylons that
you wear a longer dress, we had in
mind that your ankles showing not, you know,
this much of the leg.
So if you want to wear that, no
problem.
But make the dress longer.
And if you prefer to wear a little
shorter dress, no problem either.
But make the stockings thicker so that when
somebody looks at your legs, it doesn't draw
attention to how beautiful they are.
That's for one man, not all the men
in the room.
Okay.
I'd like to give you a few helpful
alternatives.
I don't want to just leave you here
stuck, not knowing what to do in despair.
I'd like to give you some helpful alternatives.
One is this.
If you find yourself and your dresses fitting
your body, and you're looking for a way
to eliminate that, I realize some of the
materials, they do that more.
Here is a way that you can eliminate
that without even changing the materials.
All you simply do is make the skirt
of your dress fuller.
I'm not sure how many yards it takes
to make a dress or the skirt of
a dress.
Maybe if you take three yards to make
it, maybe you ought to take four and
a half yards.
And then gather it.
If you gather the skirt of the dress,
then it won't cling so tight and reveal
the form of your body which you do
not want to reveal.
Putting pleats in the skirt of your dress
will do the same thing.
Buying a heavier material will do the same
thing.
Buying a thicker slip will do the same
thing.
Lining your dress will do the same thing,
although I think that one's pretty impractical.
That if the material that I buy is
so thin that I have to put a
special lining in it to wear it, that
doesn't make sense.
It seems to me right just to get
a little bit thicker material.
But there are ways that you can deal
with the material store today.
If your heart is for modesty, there are
ways that you can do it.
You don't have to just sit back in
despair and say, what do we do?
The material store is giving us this kind
of material.
We can't buy the other kind anymore.
There's still something you can do.
Make that dress fuller.
Make that dress looser.
It is not God's design that a dress
reveal your body.
It is designed that the dress conceal and
cover your body.
Okay.
Here's my plea to everyone of us.
My plea is for an earnest meditation on
this subject.
I speak to the young ladies.
I speak to the mothers.
I speak to the fathers.
I'm pleading for an earnest meditation on this
subject.
It was very interesting to me as I
was studying for this subject.
I went to the Mennonite Information Center and
there they have a library and they have
some archives there where they're storing old books
and things like that and they're way down
into the basement and under the ground in
a fireproof room where they cannot catch fire.
And in there, there's an old man and
he's still alive now.
His name is Christy Charles and he gathered
articles for, I don't know, forty or fifty
years on every Christian subject imagined.
And I just went there and told him
I'd like the file from Christy Charles' library
on modesty.
And they went out and brought me a
whole box like this.
And I sat there and I went through
all these articles and basically, it was the
writings of the Lancaster Conference over the last
forty years.
And I'll tell you what, the writings were
right.
I mean, they had it.
It was right.
It was good writings.
Good principles.
And I had to think, well, what happened
then?
Those writings were the teachings of the preachers
to the Lancaster Conference churches over the last
forty years.
And now look at the Lancaster Conference in
the area of modesty.
Have they lost anything?
Brothers and sisters, they lost just about everything.
Another thing that I noticed as I read
each one of the articles that the preachers,
they kind of tiptoed through the subject.
You know what tiptoeing is?
They didn't want to offend anybody.
They were real careful what they said.
They went out of their way to give
it in a nice gentle way.
I noticed that in most of the articles
and I thought, there's something not right there
when the preacher can't be the preacher and
just say, brothers and sisters, this is the
way it is.
Let's take a look at it.
Let's make some changes and go on from
there.
But I didn't sense any of that.
I sensed in those articles, I sensed those
preachers, I sensed those preachers being a little
like Baptist preachers often are, trying to convince
the people, why don't you go this way?
This will be okay.
Yeah, you'll like it.
Go this way.
It's a good way.
And all the people seemingly, they listened to
what they had to say and they probably
shook his hand on Sunday morning and said,
thank you preacher, we needed that.
And they went on their way and continued
to make the clothes and the dresses the
way they wanted and now we have what
we have.
I don't think we need to go that
way.
And another thing that I noticed in there,
as I read the articles, was that most
of the time the parents were having a
real hard time giving any direction to the
children about their clothing.
It came out in the articles, one after
another.
In fact, there were even articles there instructing
the parents on how to gingerly go through
the subject with their teenagers so they won't
be offended.
And I just said, yuck!
Whatever happened to authority?
They lost their authority.
And brothers, I'll just encourage you on this
side of the room, don't be afraid of
your daughter.
You sit your daughter down and if you
don't like the way she's dressing, you sit
her down and you say, my daughter, you
are not dressing that way.
It's wrong.
It doesn't line up to Bible modesty.
It draws my own attention your way.
You have to change the dresses that you
wear.
And brothers, if you don't have enough courage
to do that, you need some help.
You need some help.
Those fathers, in that Lancaster conference, they were
just kind of tippy-toeing their way through
the modesty issue.
And their daughters were going like this, yes
daddy, I understand what you're saying and they
just kept right on going their own way.
Nobody said, that's enough.
Nobody.
The preachers didn't even say, that's enough.
We're not going to have it.
That's not right.
We're not going that way.
They didn't do it.
And today, we all know the result of
it.
So my plea is, that we won't just
shake our head this morning and say, boy
that was, we needed that.
God bless you brother Denny.
God bless you for being courageous and all
those things and then just go home, go
your way.
My plea is, let's take a real good
look at some of the clothes that are
coming off the sewing machines in the congregation
here.
I agree.
Modesty stops and immodesty begins in the heart.
There's no question about it.
And I think a discerning father and a
discerning mother will spot it before that dress
ever comes off the press.
That there's something wrong in the heart that's
making the dress.
I'll say this in closing.
And this is a quote that I got
out of one of the articles and I
thought it was beautiful.
A holy life and a holy face and
holy garments remind men of godliness and command
respect and honorable recognition.
May I say it again?
A holy life and a holy face with
holy garments remind men of godliness and command
their respect and recognition.
That is my heart's desire.
For you sisters, that you'll have a holy
life that comes from a holy heart and
it'll express a holy face and be clothed
with holy garments that God might truly be
glorified in every area of your life.
Let's kneel together for prayer.
Father, we come to You in the name
of Jesus at the end of this service,
at the end of this message.
And God, we're just resting in You.
I'm praying, Lord, that You'll bless each and
every heart.
I'm praying, Lord, that You'll write upon our
hearts.
I'm praying, Lord, that You'll put holy desires
in our hearts, O God.
Let us admire these women on this picture
here, God.
Let us admire them, Lord.
And let us deal with our heart if
we don't like the picture on the board.
For it's beautiful, Father.
And I pray, Lord, that after that admiration
You'll bring some imitation, not of a Greek
Catastrola, but of holy garments that cover and
conceal and are a blessing to all the
men in the congregation.
Father, I just commit the further service into
Your hands.
And Lord, we just give You praise.
We thank You for all that You do
for us.
Thank You for the Word You've given us
this morning.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.