Before church, I said, well, no one can accuse me of trying to dodge issues, especially if they're coming faithfully on Wednesday nights, especially after I told them the two topics that I have to discuss tonight. One has to do with gluttony and the other has to do with dress. I decided I'd put off the earrings till next week. and things of that nature. So as you know, what I've been trying to do is be faithful in handling the topics that you have submitted to me. I don't know that I'm going to dodge a single one of them. So those of you who are wondering when I'm ever going to get to your particular topic, it's coming. I know we still have to deal with the Christian politics. We still have to deal with Christian involvement and other outside organizations and so on and so forth. And so we're going to try to do those from the word of God. So I've just entitled this one tonight on various controversies answered scripturally. Amen. And I'm glad this pulpit is so big. You know, my intent through this series is not to stir up controversy. My intent through this series is to try to make some sense of some of the areas that maybe you get questioned about. Maybe they trouble you. Maybe those outside the church may give you a hard time in regards to these issues. And I don't believe that these issues are the end all of your Christian life and experience. I believe it's important, though, the Bible says that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it is profitable. And it goes on to say that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And so the Lord is interested in the total individual. He's not interested in just, you know, maybe you've seen some guys who try to be bodybuilders, and so what they do is they work out a lot on their upper body, but they neglect their lower body. And they're out of proportion. You have some guys that really work on the curls, but they don't do anything anywhere else, and so their body is out of proportion. And so we want, as Christians, to be balanced. Someone has said the key to the Christian life is balance. And so we're touching on these areas because we're trying to be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, so that we can be pleasing in the sight of the Lord in every area of life. I believe that these issues also will either enhance our Christian effectiveness, Or it will actually detract from our effectiveness as far as reaching our community and our nation and our world for Christ. We are salt and we are light. Not just for ourselves, not just in the church house, but in the community as well. So we want to have as much savor as we can. Amen? Are you with me? Boy, I wasn't just saying that just to be saying it, you know? So I need to know that you're with me, especially at night like tonight, amen? Friends, countrymen, lend me your ears. Amen. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19 says, What? Know ye not 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." Alright, so right away we see, right from the get-go, that we are to glorify God. That means that we are to lift Him up. That means we're to magnify Him. That means we're to make Him big. That means we're supposed to honor Him. And it says we're supposed to honor Him not only in our spirit, which people cannot see, but also in our body, which those Outside can see amen and so once again I just emphasize as this verse of scripture as well as others Let us know that we are not to neglect the outer man We're to take care of the outer man And I'm just going to read to you the thing that was submitted to me. There was basically one card submitted like this. Overeating and obesity. Should overeating and obesity not be stressed as much as smoking and drinking? overeating, and they put this definition of it, lack of self-control, overweight, bad example, hazardous to health, and so on. My answer, I'm going to make it a little bit lengthy, as you can well believe. Take your Bibles and turn with me to Proverbs chapter 23. Gluttony is sin. So the Bible does point out the fact, and there's other passages of Scripture that we won't turn to tonight, but let me encourage you, if you have a Cruden's Concordance, or you have a Bible on computer that you can look up glutton, gluttony, and riotous eating and so on and so forth, you would be able to get a good overall view of what the Bible has to say in regards to that. But Proverbs chapter 23, let's read verse 1, When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee, and put a knife to thy throat, that thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties, for they are deceitful meat. Labor not to be rich. Seize from thine own wisdom." Now, that is not necessarily just talking about overeating, but it is letting you know that we ought to be people of self-control, that we ought to know when to slide away from the table. And we have to watch that. Okay, let's drop down to verse 20 and 21. Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh." Now that doesn't mean that they're cannibals. What that means is those guys who just can't slide away from the table, they're always eating, they live to eat. And the Bible here says that we ought not be among those types of people. And yet at the same time, Jesus Christ was blamed and called a winebibber and also a glutton because he ate with sinners. Now, he didn't participate in their sin by any stretch of the imagination, but yet he went where they were so that he could reach them for Christ. And I'm not saying you go to the bar to get on a bar stool and sit next to somebody and order yourself a Coke so that you can reach that one. No, you don't make provision for the flesh. There are some principles you have to keep in mind. And just because we're talking about one area, it doesn't mean that if you enact this principle that you can discount other principles. You have to compare Scripture with Scripture and make sure that you're not using your liberty as an occasion to the flesh. Verse 21 says, "...for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags." Alright, so glutton means, here's what the word glutton means. It means to make light of, to squander, be lavish with. It also makes reference to a voracious man, one who is greedy of appetite. I would venture to say in my life, I have only met a couple of people in the short life that I have led that I would say they would be a glutton. Most folks are not gluttons, and yet some folks, what happens, and this is what gets me, is when someone asks a question like this, I know in my ministry experience, normally what has happened is they're either drinking alcohol, or they're smoking cigarettes, And to seek justification for their position, they try to point their finger at someone else and say, hey, you know, they may not smoke and they may not drink in the church, but oh, you know, they eat a lot. And the Bible condemns that as well. We have to be careful when we deal with these types of issues to make sure that we never try to justify our sin by pointing out someone else's sin. You see, because we have to deal with our own sins, so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Amen? Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 21. Deuteronomy chapter 21. It talks here about a rebellious son or daughter. I'm going to pick up reading in verse 18. If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that when they have chastened him will not hearken unto them. Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place. And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice, he is a glutton and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die. So shalt thou put evil away from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear." respect as far as this question is concerned, gluttony is sin. Alright? Here's the things you have to keep in mind though. Number one, be careful of judging. Be careful of judging. I'm not soft peddling the issue, but I think when I list the other four things to keep in mind, it may make sense to you. Number two, social eating is less offensive than smoking and drinking. Wouldn't you agree with me in regards to that? Social eating is less offensive than smoking and drinking. Then if you say, well, I think it's all right, then you have to allow the principles mentioned in Romans 14, 1 Corinthians 8, that if eating meat makes my brother to offend, I won't eat meat. And far more people are stumbled by those who smoke and drink than those who eat. Because the fact of the matter is, we usually don't spend enough time with someone to know whether they're a glutton or not. Right? You also have to be careful, number three, of body types. And that's not mentioned in Scripture at all. You know, it doesn't tell us whether someone has a small frame, medium frame, or a large frame. Would you not agree that there are certain body types? Well, sure, everyone knows that. Nowhere in the scriptures does it say, hey, if you have a small body type, your perfect weight ought to be da-da-da-da-da-da-da. I mean, how many of you have ever looked at those things and said, yeah, that makes sense? I've always looked at those things and said, Well, I've got to have a large body type. Amen. Amen. Body types. You have to be careful of what type frame you carry and how you also look at someone because number four, I have listed here, health issues. You know, not too long ago, someone, I say not too long ago, it's been a while actually, but someone said, you know, I would like to just hold off doing something here in the church until I lose about 50 pounds. You say, Pastor, 50 pounds? Yes, you know they've started taking a medication that has started to affect them and they've gained a large amount of weight and so they were now in the midst of going through the process of trying to find what medication was best suited for them and the weight was starting to come off. You have to be careful when you start looking at someone and say, oh, just because of maybe their body frame, or their size, that they're a glutton, or that they don't have things, or it could be some physical problem, some physical situation that they're dealing with. So you and I have to be very, very careful. You know, pregnancy issues, that's going to cause you to gain weight. I mean, every lady here knows that that is an issue that you must wrestle with. Thyroid problems will cause someone, metabolism problems will cause someone to gain weight. Just the type job you have sometimes, it won't be a matter of weight gain, it'd be a matter of weight distribution. Amen? Amen. Preacher boys, I hope you understand that these topics you don't get into the first month you're at a church. I don't know if you ought to get into these topics when you've been here almost 14 years. Amen. But watch the, you have to be careful of health issues. I would hate to know that I'd have to broadcast all my health issues just to help, just to get people to understand why maybe something is not quite right in my life. You know what I mean? I don't have to walk around and say, hey, look, I've got this problem. Hey, you don't understand what I went through when I was at such and such an age and so on and so forth. People ought not have to give an answer like that. That's being nosy. That's invading someone's personal space. So you have to be very, very careful about that. But at the same time, let's go to 1 Timothy chapter 4. 1 Timothy chapter 4. 1 Timothy 4, verse 8, it says, For bodily exercise profiteth little. And I know that's what everybody says, that's my last verse, Pastor. You know, I hate exercise. That's not what that verse of Scripture is trying to say. But when you put the spiritual side by side with the physical, the spiritual is far more important than the physical. And it says here, for bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things. In other words, you may exercise, you may be healthy in body, but yet that's about as far as it goes with your physical exercise. But when you give yourself to being godly, that will also affect the physical. Amen? So when I lift weights, for example, or maybe I go take a run, or I walk a mile, or whatever, and I'm not saying I do those things, but when I do those things, I may be helping myself physically in body, but when I give myself to know God, and know His Word, and implement the truth of His Word, I will not only affect myself Spiritually, it will also affect me physically. I will want to take care of my body physically if I'm trying to be godly with Him. Amen? You follow what I'm saying? But bodily exercise profiteth little. So you don't just emphasize the physical, you emphasize the spiritual, and then it will go into every area of life. So, a Christian should always be conscious of health and body issues. It's always right to be clean. It's always right to be neat. Now you say, well, Pastor, I have a physical job, and I just get downright dirty sometimes. Well, if it's with your job, get dirty. Get your work done. There's nothing wrong with that. Then when you get a chance, get cleaned up, you know. Be appropriate there. Be clean, be neat, but don't be a glutton. I mean, don't be one that you just gotta have it. You just gotta have it. There are a lot of folks who struggle with overeating and obesity, and we live in a generation that is really an overweight generation. And I think many of us, though, are conscious of that and are seeking to do something about that. And I'm just, you know, my wife says with me there's no secrets anyway. And that's like, I'm trying to lose some weight. Why am I trying to lose some weight? Because I've got a blood pressure problem. I've got to take care of that. But folks, I've had a blood pressure problem since I was 7 or 8 years of age. When I had my gallbladder appendix taken out and I got that kidney disease. And so if I have to trump around and say, look folks, be patient with me and I worked through this and that and the other. I don't want to have to do that. You ought not be subjected to that. I ought not be subjected to that either. Amen? But I would venture to say that if that's happened in my life, there are probably others in this room that have gone through, going through similar circumstances. And let's pray for one another. Let's encourage one another. Let's be patient with one another. Amen? But let's not prejudge one another as to why someone is the way they are. Don't call someone a glutton and a winebibber unless you know it to be true. And you can't go just by what It seems to be. Amen? So, in one respect, yes, gluttony is wrong. It's sin. And you ought not be a glutton. Let me ask you, are you a glutton? You answer that in light of the Scriptures. Okay? Now, let's go on to the next one. Let's go to 1 Samuel chapter 16. 1 Samuel 16. I trust I handled that. I'm not going to open it up to questions. Or illustrations. One's enough. Someone wrote on a 3x5 cart, Dress Code. Someone else said Pants vs. Dresses. Next one was Pants on Women, How Women Ought to Dress. I wonder who wrote that. I'm sure it was a lady. 1 Samuel chapter 16 verse 7. As you know, they were trying to determine who was going to be the king. Saul had been rejected, and so we know that David was in the back 40, so to speak. Samuel was on the scene, and he was going to go to Jesse's house, and he was going to try to determine, because God said, hey, the king, the new king is right there in that place right there in Jesse's house. And so we find here in verse 7, But, well, let me just pick up here in verse 3, And call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show thee what thou shalt do. And thou shalt anoint unto me him whom I name unto thee. And Samuel did that which the Lord spake, and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, Comest thou peaceably? I mean, isn't that something? The prophet of God comes to town and people say, Hey, are you here to clean up sin, or are you coming peaceably? You know what I mean? I mean, they feared the man of God. And it says here, and he said peaceably. Can you imagine the relief? You know, he's our friend. I have come to sacrifice unto the Lord. Sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and called them to the sacrifice. It came to pass when they were come that he looked on Eliab and said, Surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." And that's a verse of Scripture you've heard me reference in several messages, and there's a great principle there. A lot of times when we discount the importance of Christians living properly in society today, that verse of Scripture is run to and says, well, God sees my heart, And He knows me, and I have to answer to Him. And so I can dress any way I please. I can do anything I want to do. I can go anywhere I want to go. You quit being so legalistic and trying to tell me what to do. I'm free in Christ. The only problem, that verse says God looks on the heart, but man looks on the outward appearance. We can't discount that, can we? I mean, let's be reasonable as believers. Amen? And let's be biblical. And let's be balanced. And let's look at it in its total picture. Alright? So God does see the heart. Man does see the outward appearance. But I also make mention of the fact that God is also concerned about the outward appearance. Remember that passage of Scripture in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 I had you turn to? What? Know ye not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit of God? And you see, in the Old Testament, the temple was to be designed a certain way. I mean, that was the dwelling place of God. Amen? And so now we find that the Holy Spirit, upon salvation, He comes to indwell each and every one of us. I think it's important that we dress right, that we dress becoming as the house of the Holy Spirit of God. Amen? Very serious matter here before us. So, man does see the outward appearance. And once again, Jesus said to His disciples, I am the light of the world. And then He said to His disciples again, ye are the light of the world. And we are to set our lights on a hill because a light set on a hill cannot be hid, right? Just as a city set on a hill cannot be hid. You know, it's something sometimes driving into the city. You can see the glow. You know, I live seven miles north of Morden. And I can look straight south and I can see some of the glow coming from Morden. And then I can look over a little bit to the east there, the southeast, and I can see where Winkler is in the dark sky just by the glow. You can't hide them. And Christians are to be that way. We live in a dark world and the world ought to see the light of the believer. They ought to see the light of Christ. Now, if you look around today, you'll find that what do they see? What does the world see? Because, you see, they only go by their senses. The natural man doesn't receive the things of the Lord because they're spiritually discerned. And so they must rely on their senses. What they see, touch, so on, hear. And that's why it behooves us as believers to be very, very concerned on how we appear to the unsaved, since that's their first indication of what Jesus is like. Amen? So, dress serves essentially four functions. Okay? Dress serves essentially four functions. Number one is identification. Identification. Turn, if you're still in 1 Samuel, over to chapter 18. I'm just illustrating the fact about the apparel. If you're taking notes, write down John chapter 19, and you'll also have the apparel of the Lord Jesus Christ mentioned, and how that He had a scarlet robe put on, and so on and so forth, and how that that was denoted royalty and so on. Identification in your dress is important. For example, the other night, we had some children playing upstairs. Evidently, this happened upstairs. And we think we know who they were, but we're not quite sure. And someone had picked up the phone and dialed 911. So in come two police officers, and right away I knew they were police officers. You know why? Because they looked like us. No, because they had the uniform on. There came this guy, and he had his gun on, he had his coat, and he had the patch on his shoulder. I mean, he had his badge there. He was a policeman. I knew right away who he was. That was identification. You notice here in 1 Samuel 18, verse 1, It says, and it came to pass when he had made the end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day and would not let him go no more home to his father's house. Then Jonathan and David made of a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle." All of his outward garments, that which people could see, because he wanted that association. He wanted everyone in the kingdom, all of his servants, all those working in the court, to know that David and Jonathan were like that. And David was to be treated with respect. And so he could know that by the apparel. When the prodigal son ran away in Luke, we notice that when he came back, the father said, put on him the robe, get shoes on his feet, give him the ring. It was a symbol outwardly for all to know that that was the master's son. Amen? And so it serves as identification. You look at a fireman. How do you know that a fireman's a fireman? I know this is deep, isn't it? He dresses like a fireman, right? We know that a guy's a football player when we see the helmet and shoulder pads and he's carrying that pigskin under his arm. And we say, hey, there goes a football player. We see a guy with a baseball cap on and a glove and he's throwing a hardball like this. We say, hey, there's a baseball player. Duh! We don't say, hey, look, there's a hockey player. You know? Hey, look, there's a cowboy. No, we don't do that. Okay? So it's identification. You don't see a fireman and say, oh, look at that policeman over there. If I did that, my Jeremy, he'd say, Dad, what's wrong with you? Are you blind? Do you not see? I mean, what's happening? That's obviously a police... You know what I'm saying? Amen? So, you see, it's identification. Number two, protection. Protection. Dress serves essentially four functions. Number one, identification. Number two, protection. Ephesians chapter 6, I guess, gives us the whole armor of God. It says that we're to have on the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness. The girdle of truth, the shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Now that is spiritual armor, but back in Paul's day in the book of Ephesians, that was giving them a word picture that they could relate to. talking about the physical battle and how a soldier would prepare himself to go into physical battle. We are involved in a spiritual battle and we needed to put our armor on and we needed to be ready because we are at spiritual war. Amen? Amen. So it serves as protection. And I mentioned cowboys. A lot of times cowboys, they wear chaps, don't they? I'm not talking about chapped lips. I'm talking about that leather that covers their legs so that when they're riding on the horses and they go cutting down into the ravines and try to get those old mangy and rangy cows to come up out of that draw and they're scratching up through the briars and the brush and so on, it doesn't rip their pants and their legs to shreds. They put those chaps on. Why do they wear cowboy boots? I mean, they need something that's going to hold up. Amen? So it's protection. So you need to protect. A carpenter, many times, he'll wear, depending on the work site and the kind of work he's in, maybe he'll have special shoes with steel toes on there. Why? Just drop something on there sometime. Have you ever been just working somewhere and dropped something on your toe? You need a protection, amen? Ooh, why didn't I do... I mean, you know, it makes a difference when you get up in the middle of the night and you stub your toe on something. Ow! You know, if you had shoes on, it wouldn't have done that, right? So, you're dressed, also you dress for protection. Amen? You with me? You wear gloves for protection. Many of you nowadays, it's getting a little chilly out there, so you're putting on jackets, you're putting on coats, you've got your toucan, you've got your scarves on, you're wearing gloves. Why? Protection. Protection from what? Not mosquitoes. From cold. Huh, we go out on the men's retreat? We want protection there, don't we? There comes the off. There comes the nets, right? We need protection, right? So clothing provides protection. Number three, here we come with distinction. Distinction. In other words, you can tell the difference between a man and a woman. That's deep, isn't it? Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 22. Now folks, what I'm going to ask you to do is a couple weeks ago, I brought a lesson on abomination. And that goes hand in hand with this particular point. And so I'm not going to lay that foundation all again. Suffice it to say that there is ceremonial law, there is civil law, and there is moral law. If you need to get the tape, if you didn't hear that message, I encourage you to do that, and I'm not saying that just so we can sell tapes. I'm saying that so that you can get a good foundation of what this point is all about. But also, if you'll take notes, ceremonial law was done away with according to Colossians 2, verses 14 to 17. And then we have civil law, that's governmental law. We find that just about with every government change, then there are laws that are changed. We find that when a new government comes in, they start making this adjustment and that adjustment, and so on and so forth. And so, that's civil law. That's governmental law. And according to Romans 13, we're to obey them that have the rule over us. We're to be law-abiding citizens unless it goes against some clear-cut command of Scripture. Amen? I mean, that's pretty much right there with it. We ought to obey God rather than man. Anytime man tries to say, hey, you can't do this, but God says, yes, do it, we're to do it. And then if man says, well, I'm going to throw you in jail if you do this, then we say, well, I've got to obey God rather than man. And with a good spirit, we go ahead and do it anyway. And then we're willing to suffer the consequences of breaking that law. Amen? So there's that ceremonial law. There's civil law. And there's also moral law. Anytime you read the word abomination, it's talking about God's moral law, and God's moral law does not change. It doesn't change with culture, it doesn't change with time. And so when it was written way back in Deuteronomy, it still is applicable today because Jesus Christ never changed it. And so we find in Deuteronomy chapter 22 and verse 5, it says, The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God. In other words, he says, I hate it, It's detestable in my sight. When you and I are willing to live and act as the way God created us, we are saying to God, in essence, God, I don't like the job you did. And hey, men today, Brenda was just commenting just yesterday, I believe, or the day before yesterday when we were in the city, she said, you know, it seems like the men are becoming more and more effeminate. You know what that means? They're starting to act more like girls. I don't know about you, but I want my boys acting like boys. Acting like men. Amen? And I want my girls to operate like ladies. I want them to act like ladies. Amen? My wife is a lady. She's not a shem. She's not half and half. You want a half and half? Not me. I mean, that's repulsive, isn't it? Sure is. But you see here, the word abomination is mentioned, and God says, look, I want there to be a distinction in the sexes. And I brought this out when we touched on this, on the aspect of abomination. Nature points out a difference in the sexes. Amen? And we have gone since about the late 60s, early 70s, in what is referred to as the unisex movement, the unisex craze. They've named it other things through the years. But by and large, it started around the industrialization of North America. That's when the women went into the workplace and started taking a lot of the men's jobs when World War I started, when World War II was in full force. A lot of the ladies left the homes and went into the factories, donned on men's apparel so they can do the man's work so the men could be sent overseas to protect and give us the freedoms that we now enjoy. And so what happened is the men came back and the ladies stayed in the workforce and on and on it goes. Now the feminists don't like that, but that's a matter of history. You see? And so, there is to be a distinction. And let me ask you a question. When you look at it, in our North American culture, what distinctive apparel is there for men and women? Okay? I mean, tell me. What's the distinctive apparel for a man? Pants. What is the distinctive Apparel for a lady. Wow. Why is that so hard? Why is that so hard? That blows my mind. You know, when we went to Thailand, when we landed in the States there, I think it was Chicago, and then we flew from there to, where did we fly to? Tokyo? And then to Bangkok, then to Chiang Mai, and then when we shopped, I knew exactly what washroom to go into, and I didn't know Thai, I didn't know Japanese, you know, by the symbols. Oh, you go back there and you'll see a gold tag back there in the back of the auditorium, and one has a dress on there, And, you know, some ladies say, I don't wear men's dresses. I mean, men's pants. Stole my thunder. See, that's why I don't tell a lot of jokes in the pulpit. Because I'll either tell the punchline first or I'll forget it altogether. Somebody says, well, you know, I don't wear men's pants. I don't wear jeans and stuff like that. I just wear plazos or I wear loose. I wear with the zippers down the side. Well, guys, let's go get us some men's dresses, okay? Wouldn't that be nice? But you know, when you study the issue out, you'll find that a lot of times nowadays, because this is so foreign to our thinking, because society has swallowed this and set the example for us, and we're just like sheep being led to the slaughter, and we just swallow it because we want to be accepted. We want to be like everybody else. We've got the same syndrome as the nation of Israel when they wanted to say, Samuel, get us a king. We look at all these other nations around us and we want to be like them. Get us a king. And Samuel was heartbroken and the Lord said, give them what they want. They're not rejecting you, Samuel. They're rejecting me. You see, and all they wanted was a king. They wanted to be like everyone else. And that's our basic problem as believers. We want to be like everyone else. We want to do what they do. We want to just sort of fit in. We don't want to stand out. And you know, folks, if you stand for Christ, you're going to stand out. And we are to be distinctive in our dress. Amen? Folks, is that not what the Bible says? Why do we have to debate it? Why is the preacher made out to be some pervert because he says, I want ladies to dress like ladies and we want men to dress like men? Every parent in here ought to say, praise the Lord leadership that you're seeking to set a high standard in the way we portray ourselves. And instead it's like, well, I just think that's a bit legalistic. The reason it becomes legalistic is because you want to do it. And so you're saying, hey, I want the license to do... I agree with you everywhere else, Pastor, but not there. Where's your verse? How else are you going to show your distinctiveness? Whether the blouse buttons to the right or to the left? There is a difference there too. Amen? You know what I'm saying? The ladies probably do that do any kind of sewing. And so, we've got to look at this properly. Number four, we look at the distinction. Men, be men. Ladies, be ladies. And let me just say, I don't know, as I lead into the fourth one, I don't know of a single activity, though, that the ladies say that they need to be dressed like a man to do that. I mean, they used to work the farm, right? They rode horses. And now I'm hearing all these people say, well, you know, to work around the house and in the garden, I've got to dress like a man. To ride a horse, I've got to dress like a man. I mean, I've got to do everything like a man. Well, how did our forefathers handle it? They were able to keep that distinction. You know why? Because there was a respect. in society that undergirded society, that moral fiber of a nation, that when a lady came into the room, hey, guys, there's a proper way to talk when a lady's present, right? I mean, you and I, we might burp around the house and all that kind of stuff, but I tell you what, when a lady's present, we keep it sucked in, amen? Brother Gary said, you're going to Madeline. And I just did. Oh boy. Preacher boys take note. 14 years. I still don't know. Amen. But you know what I'm saying? A lady's present. And you know what? I guarantee you a lady dresses like a lady. She probably feels more like a lady than when she's in her jeans or in some other man's apparel. And I guarantee you studies have brought out the fact I've got Malloy's dress for success for men and Malloy's dress for success for women. And women are respected in the business place more when they dress in a ladies suit, meaning dress, down past the knee, than if they try to dress like a man. There's a difference in respect. And it's not always a conscious thing. Guys don't sit there and say, hmm, she's dressed like a man. I'm going to treat her like one of the boys. It just happens. It just happens. Why do they know that in the business community, but we can't see it here in church? Now, what's happening, though, is it's becoming more and more popular, more and more accepted. But let me ask you this. Does that make it right? Just because something is accepted, does it make it right? Hey, gambling is accepted in most places today. Does it make it right? Drinking is accepted in most places. Does that make it right? Oh, we're taking great comfort in the Church of Jesus Christ today because the divorce rate seems to be coming down. But look how skyrocketing it is for couples living together in common law relationships. It's a false sense of, you know, hey, we're doing a good job. Maybe we're really making a difference here. No, people are deciding, hey, we'll just shack up together. Folks, does that make it right? No. So when can we ever switch that and say, well, look, in fact, I noticed it because I was teaching on this. It showed the president's wife in the States getting off of a plane and she was in a pantsuit. I said, oh, great. You know, here I am teaching on this. And by the same token, doesn't make it right. If everybody does it, does that make it right? No. Right is right. God has said what he said. Amen? Boy, I know that I'm way out left field with some folks. But by the same token, what does it say? And that's where I have my difficulty. I have some folks say, well, you know, I had a preacher friend tell me, he said, you know, I got tired of losing folks over the appearance standards of the church and music. He said, I've been battling with it my whole life. I lose good people out of the church because they want me to lower the music standard, and I haven't. They want me to lower the dress standards, and I haven't. So they go to this church, they go to that church, they go to this church, and they're accepted, and they seem to be happy, and we're having a tough time of it. But at the same time, what does the Bible say? And when I come back to that, I say, you know, I would love to give in some of these areas, but when I go back to the Scriptures, they say, well, pastor, that's your conviction, that's your stance. How do I separate that from a personal conviction that I believe the Bible teaches and one that we ought to hold to as a church? How do you do that? I don't know how to do that. I scratch my head at that. Some people say, oh, this is not a church issue, this is this issue. Folks, I'm a pastor. What I do in private also affects me publicly. Now, there are some things that you're not going to catch me doing. We talk about burping. I may belch at the house, but I'm not going to belch behind here where you all can hear it, hopefully. Oh, I've got indigestion. You follow what I'm saying? So be reasonable when we say, oh, he's one thing here and another thing somewhere else. There are some things you do as a family that you wouldn't necessarily do in public, right? Okay? But it doesn't mean that you're doing wrong. It doesn't mean you're a hypocrite. It doesn't mean that you're living a dual life. Okay? You're not portraying yourself in one venue to be something that you're not. That's hypocrisy. Okay? So, we talk about the distinction. We talk about protection. We talk about identification. And then, number four, modesty. Modesty. That means to be well-arranged. That means to be of good behavior. And let's go to 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy chapter 2. Verses 9 and 10, "...in like manner also." In other words, what you see being admonished for the men in the verses preceding verse 9, you're to add these things for the ladies. He said, well, that's just not fair. I tell you what, God did us a favor by adding this. He says this, "...in like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works." Alright? So, modesty, it means to be well arranged. When we start talking about this goes hand in hand with the distinctiveness as well. We've got to understand that it's a real perversion upon mankind for most women to be sexually attracted to men simply by sight. It's not the natural. Okay? It's natural for a man to lust after a woman or to desire a woman, and it's attractive through his eye gate. That's why it's so critical and why there's so much emphasis placed in many of our Christian circles more about how the women dress than the men dress. It doesn't mean that it's less important for the man, but it means that for the most part, because of the way men and women are geared, that we, you know, it's more important for the ladies to be very, very careful on how they dress, how they appear, whether they're modest or not. Okay, because that's why it says it's good for a man not to touch a woman. Not just, Paul's not writing that just for the man, he's writing that for the woman as well. Because you see, woman, for the most part, is excited by touch. men by sight. That's why Jesus said in the Old Testament, it said, thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto thee, if you look on a woman to lust after her, you've committed adultery with her already in your heart. And so God was trying to get you to say, guys, be careful with your eye gate. Be careful with what you look upon. Now ladies, that's why it's so critical for you to dress modestly. And that's the admonition given here in verse 9. Because men are attracted by the sight, by the eye gate. If you read any kind of literature at all that deals with the styles and so on, you'll see that the greatest deciding factor of new styles coming out is the sex appeal. That's the greatest deciding factor, whether they can grab your attention in a sexual fashion. And so women have to be especially careful of this. Amen? Now this is something that we, it's hard talking about in a mixed crowd, and we get more in detail than this in men's retreats. But by the same token, I think it's something that we need to address as far as our appearance is concerned, even in church. In Proverbs chapter 7, it speaks about the attire of a harlot. So in other words, there are ways that a fallen woman dresses. And I'm not wanting you to do this, but if you were to go to the places of ill repute, if you were to see the apparel, you'd see a lot of what is generally accepted in society today out on the street corner advertising for business. And it ought not be part of the Christian lady's wardrobe. We ought to shy away from that. We ought to avoid it at all costs. But by the same token, modest talks about being well-arranged. It's not talking about being dowdy. Sometimes I'm afraid Christian ladies feel like that it's some mark of godliness not to take care of your hair, not to do something with your face, not to arrange your apparel properly. I think you need to be balanced in that area. You need to look well to your appearance. You ought to dress nicely, tastefully, feminine, amen? Modestly, be well arranged that way. In other words, and I'm not just talking about, you know, too short of skirts, even though that fits and applies. I'm not talking about just the low-cut tops. I'm talking about the skin-tight stuff. Sometimes we have ladies who are, as far as the length of their apparel is right, but yet they're so form-fitting that they don't leave anything to the imagination, and guys struggle with that. Now, we can try to discount that. We can try to say that, hey, guys have a dirty mind and so on and so forth. And you know what? We do. So help us out. Help the men out. Dress modestly. And you say, well, some guys have just got a dirty mind anyway. But when they stand before God, they'll have to answer solely. God won't have to look at you and say, why did you dress that way? Why did you cause that one? Why were you a temptation to that one? Now, Bible nakedness, you look it up, Bible nakedness talks about the exposing of the thigh and the uncovering of the shoulders. There are some of the standards that we have around here that are solely in force, not because maybe it's biblically wrong. For example, I think in weddings, we ask that the bride not have a sleeveless gown. Well, technically speaking, right here starts your shoulder, right? And so someone could dress sleeveless if they wanted to, and be biblical. So guys, when you're thinking you preachers are looking at stuff being biblical or not, it's not wrong if they have a sleeveless dress on. But it's very hard for a lot of folks to dress and wear something sleeveless in a modest fashion. To where you don't have gaps in things where guys can see. And so as a safety measure in the church, so that we can have people come to church and get their mind on spiritual things, We ask for certain standards to be upheld, and so we ask for there to be more of a sleeve on the dress than not. See what I'm saying? So what am I saying? It's not wrong to have a sleeveless dress, okay, as long as the shoulders are covered, biblically speaking. But yet for safety's sake, we ask for a little more. Amen? So that you know we're just trying to be safe. I'm trying to get you to see the mindset on this. The exposure of the thigh goes down to about the middle of the knee. The thigh joins right here at about the middle of the knee, okay? So, we want to make sure that we don't expose any nakedness, so we ask the ladies, the ladies' dresses ought to be right to there. We ask the ladies' dresses to be a little lower than that. Why? Look at this platform. Follow me? If it's a little lower, then when a lady sits, her knees are covered. You don't have to worry about seeing something you ought not see. Amen? That's why we have the standard that we have. Because we want to be safe. It's embarrassing to anyone and everyone. And ladies would be embarrassed as well. Why did we have robes put on the ladies? Is it because we wanted to have them all look the same? No, we did it because it's safe. It's not that we're trying to make the ladies have an indoor sauna every Sunday morning. That's not it. We're not looking to make life difficult. But you see, we had a modesty rail at first, but our choir's too big for that. So with the ladies sitting up here, we ask there to be the robes. Why? Safety's sake. Amen? That's one reason. That's not the only reason. But that's one reason. It's a pretty good reason, wouldn't you say? The modesty issue. So you've got to be careful of the too tight fitting of clothing. You have to be careful of the too little of clothing. And I think the best place to start would be when they're young. Amen? You get them used to dressing like men when they're babies, and then they're going to want to dress like men later, if they're a girl, and vice versa. I mean, you know, like, aren't you turned off when you see a Dennis Rodman with his makeup and his dress and his earrings and stuff like that? Doesn't that kind of stuff make you sick? Wow! You know? And if we're willing to accept one part of the package, why not the whole thing? Well, because I can only go with that so far. It just doesn't hold water though. Where's your consistency in that? And ladies, let me encourage you to be careful of slits. See, because your eyes are automatically, they follow sight. You know, like if I'm standing up here and all of a sudden I just throw something. Chances are a lot of you just went, You follow the movement. That's why technique is when you're preaching is you move around a little bit to help keep people's attention. Because if a guy just stands right here all the time, what happens? You start seeing two of them. Three of them. I'm gone, you know? And so you move around a little bit to vary so that people can stay with you. You follow movement. Ladies, when you walk like that, You've got a skirt on. What happens with that slit? Little light each time, right? Guys, am I wrong? There's a little bit of a flash. And so, if someone's looking your way, you know where they go? Their eyes follow that movement. Boom. They go right for the slit. Why? Because the designer wants you to look at the leg. Wants every guy to look at a leg. Now, ladies, isn't it very demeaning if you're riding in the car and your man is sitting there going... at the women? Hello, ladies? We are geared for sight. Christian ladies, help us out. Set the example. Amen? And you know what? I think, by and large, our ladies here are very sensitive about that. And I appreciate it. And I know others do as well. But ladies, I don't say this to scold you. I don't say this to knock you over the head and just see my point of view. But the Bible says, be modest. Be very, very careful about accentuating certain aspects of the body. Make sure, a good rule of thumb would be that your apparel is distinctive. Men, dress like men. Okay? Ladies, be feminine. It's always right for a lady to be a lady. Isn't it? Don't you like it, ladies, when men treat you like ladies? When they open doors for you? Slide your chair out at the right time and put you back in? I mean, don't you appreciate that? Amen? I mean, Don't you like when they treat you like a lady? You dress like a lady and they'll treat you more like one. Number two, loose fitting. Number three, tasteful. Ladies, if you have trouble matching your clothes and so on and so forth, talk to some of the other ladies around here. Don't come see me. I can't hardly even match my ties, much less anything else, and I don't want to go there. And then number four, make sure your dress is appropriate. Amen? I mean, you're not going to dress up in your Sunday best to go work in the garden. You can be feminine and work in the garden. You can be feminine and be at church. You can be feminine and you can wash the car. You can be feminine and take out the garbage. You can be feminine and do all the yard work. You can be feminine... You know what's happening now? Some of those ladies are sitting there saying, I knew it. I knew he was a male chauvinist pig the whole time. That's not what I'm trying to portray. But I'm saying, God made you who He made you. If He made you a woman, thank God. If He made you a man, thank God. So men, be men. Ladies, be ladies. That's how you bring glory to Him. Therefore, glorify God in your spirit and in your body, which is the Lord's. Let's all stand with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, please. Well, our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed now. Legalism is adding to salvation. So because you have standards, does it make you a legalist? You may have no standards at all and be saved. But by the same token, if you are saved, you ought to want to give the clearest testimony possible. And it could be that somewhere along the line either when I spoke on gluttony, when I spoke on the apparel issue now, that God touched your heart in a certain way. And there may be some decisions that you need to make in some of those areas. And I want to encourage you to do that. Please do that. Because you see, we're all without excuse tonight from this point on, because we've heard. And so search the scriptures whether these things are so, if you doubt it. But by the same token, you've heard it, you've seen it, and now we need to do it. So I encourage you tonight.