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If you would please turn with
me in your Bibles this evening to 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy chapter 2. We have looked at the book of
Genesis, the beginning of the human experience of wearing
clothes, where it began, why it began, why we still are in
that practice. We've seen the necessity of it.
Now with all of that as a foundational endeavor, we're going to come
to the most specific passage in scripture that regards this
subject. It's quite interesting that it
is within the context of worship. So, we're going to read chapter
2, beginning in verse 1. We're going to read through verse
10. Let's stand together, give our
hearts attention, to the inspired and infallible and preserved
word of God. First Timothy, chapter two. Let
us hear God's wonderful word. I exhort thee, therefore, that,
first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, giving
of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are
in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in
all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable
in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved
and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one
God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. 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 verity. I will, therefore, that
men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and
doubting, in like manner also. that women adorn themselves in
modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broided
hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh women
professing godliness with good works. Amen. May the Lord add
his blessing to the reading of his word. Let's unite our hearts
in prayer. We have read thy word, O God.
That's the best part of what I will say this evening. Thy
word, thy holy, inspired, thy God-breathed, infallible word.
I thank thee for it. I thank you that it is the sword
of the spirit and I pray that thou would come by thy mighty
spirit this evening and fill our hearts. Lord, I know there
are some weary bodies here this evening. Minds perhaps tired. I pray with all of my heart that
would come with a refreshing spirit. Enliven us. Lord, surprise
us. Fill our hearts with holy energy
that we might hear thy word and be transformed. Now, O Christ,
help me as I speak to thy people from thy precious word. This
is a faulty vessel here, Lord. You've given all preachers throughout
the ages an impossible task. Fallible men trying to handle
the infallible word That Lord our hope is not in our studies
or in our delivery It is in thee and that mighty power of the
world to come the blessed spirit for which we pray Now O Christ
Come in power We pray it in thy name. Amen Please be seated Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ,
wrote a letter to his son in the faith, Timothy. That letter
tells us that Paul left Ephesus for Macedonia and left Timothy
to continuing ministry in Ephesus, one of the four most powerful
cities in the Roman Empire. The citizens of that city were
enslaved to sensuality, materialism, magic, and the occult. Not unlike what we see in our
own darkening culture today. Furthermore, Ephesus was the
center of Roman emperor cult worship. and the demonic worship of the
goddess Diana. Nevertheless, in that stronghold
of spiritual wickedness in high places, Christ, the crucified
and resurrected Lord of glory, established a church. Paul left
Timothy there to defend the gospel and sound doctrine because false
teachers were deceiving the Ephesian congregation. They penetrated
and were overturning entire families. So Paul exhorted Timothy to defend
the apostolic faith He ridiculed the false doctrine as fables
and vain jangling and corrected their erroneous use of God's
law. Paul proclaimed that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. And that Christ's goal in converting
him was to display a pattern, to show down through the ages
God's mercy and patience with great sinners. He then exhorted
Timothy to war a good warfare against the false teachers. Because
false doctrine dishonors God, robs Christ of His glory, quenches
the Holy Spirit and cannot produce a holy life. That is precisely
what the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the wonderful gospel
of the grace of God, does under the power of God's Spirit. It transforms sinners. It gives them to the miracle
of grace that we call the new birth. It gives them a new heart,
new desires, new goals, a new life. They are new creations
in Christ. False doctrine cannot produce
that. In fact, the false teachers had infected and affected the
Ephesian church. Its order, its prayer life, its
interpersonal relationships, even its leadership, and worst
of all, its mission as the pillar and ground of the truth. The
churches of Jesus Christ are to be bastions of God's truth. Jesus prayed, Father, sanctify
them by thy truth. Thy word is truth. And that is what every pastor
appointed by God is to do. He is to preach the sanctifying
word. And false doctrine cannot accomplish
what that word does accomplish. So Paul began the damage control by instructing Timothy that earnest
prayers were to be made for all kinds of people. which included kings and all
that were in authority. God, our Savior, wanted the Ephesians
to pray for all kinds of people because He desires to save all
kinds of people and has provided a Savior for all kinds of people. Almighty God wants them to come
into the knowledge of the truth. What is that truth? There is
one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ
Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due
time. That gracious salvation was proclaimed
then. It has been proclaimed down through
the centuries. It is being proclaimed now. And it will be proclaimed until
the Lord Jesus Christ returns. And what is the effect of all
that preaching? Changed lives. That's what the gospel, which
is the power of God unto salvation, does. It doesn't just fill people's
mouths with religious words. Oh, I'm a Christian, now I'm
going to heaven. That's an important thought. But we've got lots of
folks who profess that today whose lives expose the lie of
their profession. God's people are a transformed
people. That gracious salvation accomplished
by the eternal Son of God made flesh results in changed lives. Not perfect people, but changed
lives. Really changed lives. And they
keep changing. They keep changing. God does
not save a sinner for him to remain inert. What does that have to do with
the subject at hand? Everything. That is the context
that prepares us for our passage. The notion of modesty cannot
be separated from the transforming power of the gospel of God. It is a manifestation of new
creaturehood in Christ. In our context, the first thing
Paul mentions is praying men. And secondly, modestly dressed
women. What an interesting combination. We could spend a message just
on that, but we won't. But why does he go to those things
after all that he said? Because it is clear that the
false doctrine of the false teachers has infected the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's affecting the order of the
church. When you look around today, if
you know anything about biblical ecclesiology, If we see anything,
it's disorder. It is disorder. The God of Scripture
is a God of order. When He saves us, He takes these
broken and shattered, sin-stained lives and begins to order them. And a church should be a collection
of people that are moving from rising up out of disorder into
order. We're all at different levels.
We all move at different speeds. We can put all the caveats in
there, but that's the fact of the matter. Christianity is not
an inert, a static thing. It is living because the very
power of God fills the hearts of His people. They are real
members of the Kingdom of God. And we saw, and we see, the power
of the Kingdom in Christ. Read Matthew, read Mark, read
Luke, read John, and what do you see but the glorious power
of God sweeping into the world through His Holy Son, the King
of the Kingdom. And we see Him in His power,
in His glory, when He speaks, when He works His miracles. We
see that the Kingdom is real. And we ought to be seeing that,
we understand, in a slightly different way, but the reality
of it. Now, we're in that kingdom, if
we're God's children. We are inhabited by the Spirit
that fell on Christ at His baptism. So there ought to be something
about our lives that's always going forward. That's why backsliding
is such a terrible thing. That's why letting our Christian
lives decay is such a terrible thing. We should be moving forward. So, praying men and modestly dressed
women are both results of God's work in the lives of people. These two issues are directly
connected to gospel transformation. The gospel is indeed the power
of God unto salvation, and that salvation manifests itself from
the inside out. And the out is godly living. So our subject in this message
will be modestly dressed women. And the title is Women and Modest
Apparel. Women and Modest Apparel. May our gracious Heavenly Father
fill our hearts with his word and spirit. And may Christ, the head of the
church, bless us with his presence. Well, let's consider Paul's vocabulary
of modesty in this inspired text. The Spirit breathed upon the
Apostle Paul and he wrote to Timothy in like manner also. That's directly connected to
verse 9, verse 8 where he says, I will therefore that men pray
everywhere. It's the I will that is in like
manner. What we mean by that is this
is an apostolic command. It is an authoritative word from
God then for the lives of any of his churches anywhere at any
age. This is apostolic authority speaking
both to men and their responsibilities in this context and to women. In like manner, I will that women
adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefastness and sobriety,
not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array."
Well, the first thing we want to do in considering this is to take up a little history
of the English word modest. The Oxford English Dictionary,
considered by many to be authoritative regarding our language, tells
us that the English word modest apparently arose from the Latin
modestus, which means keeping due measure, or keeping within
measure. Moderate. In the 1560s, from the Middle
French, with apologies to Brother Vincent, Modeste, it meant having
moderate self-regard. Moderate self-regard restrained
by a sense of propriety or humility. By the 1590s, that word was applied
to women as not improper or lewd, pure in thought and conduct. Interesting that it morphed into
a term primarily applied to women. Certainly, modesty applies both
to men and women. But it would seem, as John Calvin
says in his sermons on this subject, that it is a sin that women easily
fall into. It is quite obvious the Lord
speaks to the men about prayer and to the women about the way
they're dressing as they're coming to the congregation of worship. By the 1610s, it was applied to female attire. Had to do, first of all, with
an attitude and the way it was manifest. But then that focus
came to be the clothing manifesting the attitude. And so it came to mean not gaudy,
not showy. So the Word has been with us
for 500 years, meaning primarily, and this is important, moderate. Restrained by a sense of propriety,
what is suitable for occasion. And not extreme or extravagant. It was eventually used to describe
female dress that was not offensive in a sexual way. Now, when we
turn to modern dictionaries, we read definitions such as these.
One, having or showing moderate estimation of one's own talents,
abilities, and value. Two, having or proceeding from
a disinclination to call attention to oneself. In other words, something
built in that does not want to call attention to itself. Three,
reserve or propriety in speech, dress, or behavior. Four, free
from showiness or ostentation. Now children, not a word you're
probably using at this point, but ostentation is a good word
to know. It means an exaggerated display. An exaggerated display of sexuality,
wealth, or luxury, intended to attract attention. So to be modest is to be free
from that. Number five, moderate or limited
in size, quantity or range. We might say he had a limited
budget. He had a modest budget. But again, the idea is not extreme. These are all various notions,
ideas, applications of nuances of the word. It's obviously a
word that's applied across the board in a number of ways. Noah
Webster's 1828 dictionary defines modesty as, quote, that lowly
temper which accompanies a moderate estimate of one's own worth and
importance. He then added, females, modesty
has the like character as in males, but the word is used also
as synonymous with chastity or purity of manners. That's going
back to some of the early definitions. In this sense, modesty results
from purity of mind. Now Webster, by the way, the
original Noah Webster was a believer. If you have not ever read through
the 1828 dictionary, it is filled with scripture. And if you want
to be encouraged, read his introduction and little biography where he
tells you, he said, man, I hated the doctrines of grace. And then
the Lord saved me. I'm not saying everybody that
rejects the doctrines of grace is lost, but he understood that
in his heart and in his mind that the resistance and rejecting
against God's sovereignty was something that he lived in. And
a lot of people do. They don't want God to be God. Quite interesting. But anyway,
that's why we get from time to time these mini lectures in his
definitions. Quite a contrast to modern dictionaries. So notice, in this sense, modesty
results from purity of mind or from the fear of disgrace, an
ignominy fortified by education and principle. Unaffected modesty
In other words, real, not phony. Real modesty, genuine modesty. Something that's not put on is
the sweetest charm of female excellence. The richest gem in
the diadem of their honor. Close quote. I don't think many today regard
women in this way. And of course, many men don't
want women to be modest and pure. Now, according to these definitions,
modesty is a broad concept, not limited to sexual connotation.
We must understand that it is a state of mind that expresses
a humble estimate of oneself before God. God sees you all day, every day,
every day. You are never out of His presence. So we must have a view of ourselves
that's in harmony with what God is seeing. And that's not usually
the estimate of ourselves that we carry. We live, quorum deo, live in
God's presence. Modesty, like humility, is the
opposite of boldness. It's the opposite of arrogance. It is the opposite of showiness. Look at me! A modest person does not seek
to draw attention to himself or herself or to show off in
an unseemly way. Now, I want to be careful. In
another message, we'll probably only have one more as far as
modesty goes, but we want to point to the fact that there
are occasions when, of course, we're supposed to stand out.
But not because we're trying to show ourselves off to everybody. We want to be representatives
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we as members of the kingdom
are to be like a city set on a hill, then quite obviously
the Lord intends for the world to see us. But this is talking
about Purposefully drawing attention to yourself because of your pride. Not because we are representatives
of the living God. Living in a modesty that is foreign
to the world. Webster apparently links chastity
with modesty because chastity means moral purity in thought
and conduct. And by the way, another word,
we can hear it but we don't always know what it means. Chastity
means abstaining from sexual activity that is outside of marriage. It originally was connected to
the idea of virginity. A woman who is not laying with
a man, as the scriptures say. Moral purity, like humility,
will not exhibit inappropriate sexuality any more than ostentation. Showing off oneself for everybody
to admire you. So with that, let us consider
a little study of Paul's Greek vocabulary of modesty. We're going to look at five words
that Paul uses in this verse. And they're important to our
understanding of what a biblical, what a Christian modesty is. The first word is adorn. In like
manner also that women adorn themselves. The basic idea of
the Greek word cosmeo means to put in order. We get the word
cosmos from it. The cosmetics. In fact, I remember
as a youngster, I don't know that I hear women say it anymore. But I hear women say, I've got
to go get myself in order. That's exactly what the word
means. Getting yourself in order. Hence, the idea here is to cause something
to be beautiful by decorating. Put it in order. Paul says to
the women, put yourselves in order. The Greeks thought that order
was an essential part of beauty. And so that is certainly underlying
such terminology. It is appropriate for women to
decorate themselves in an orderly, tasteful way. Sloppiness is not
modesty. And sometimes people can wear
outlandishly things covering themselves to be singular. And at that point, even though
their bodies are completely covered in their pup tent, they're not
modest. Because modest is not extreme. It's moderate. It's moderate. That's the very heart of the
word. Great problem, of course, in
our day is that the fashion industry believes that beautiful means
sexy, sensual. Now, this is not some fevered
fundamentalist pastor who's foaming out something that's coming from
a fevered mind. I spent years looking at books
from the fashion industry. They say this with clarity. The modern idea of beauty is
sexiness. So that's the idea behind what
they're going to design. They want to package your body
to look a particular way. And from year to year, they expose
a different part of the body. One year it's the legs, one year
it's the shoulders, another year it's the breasts. They'll do
everything they can to package, repackage, package, repackage.
But the idea is that you want to be beautiful means you need
to be sexually attractive. Now, we're not saying the opposite
is to be, well, let's be ugly. That's not the idea. The idea
is to be moderate. The idea is to cover yourself
biblically for the right reason. A Christian woman should adorn
herself to display purity, not sensuality. Virginity, not availability. Holiness, not promiscuity. So, women are to adorn. They are, indeed, to cover themselves. And to do it properly, we need
to understand some of the other words that Paul uses. The next word is modest, or it's
translated into English as modest. In modest apparel. It's an adjective
here. In this context, modest does
mean well-ordered. Adorn yourself in a well-ordered,
appropriate way. And when applied to women, here
it means modest. Through the mouth of Paul, Christ
calls women to dress appropriately to the occasion. And here he's
talking about, apparently, worship of all places. We should look
like godly men, identifiably men, and godly and virtuous women. Identifiably women. In an appropriate way. Well-ordered. Beautiful. Now, he's calling them to dress
appropriately to the occasion and appropriately to their profession. Women professing godliness. So we have all of us that are
Christians have a profession of faith. I believe. in the living God, the one true
and living God. I believe in the Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the incarnate, incarnate Son of God who came into this world
to save his people from their sins by keeping the law in their
place, dying upon Calvary's cross, rising again, ascending into
glory, being seated at the Father's right hand and coming again.
I believe that. Paul says, if you believe that,
There's a life and an expression of life that goes with it. In fact, it arises from it. Beauty and order in a woman's
clothing adorns her profession of faith in Jesus. Thomas Oden, commentator. comments, quote, The apparel
of the worshipper, says Paul, is to be in good taste, well
arranged, modest, respectful, for the adornment of the body
is like God's adornment of the cosmos. Orderly and beautiful. To understand the very words
that Paul chooses puts the lie to the idea that women have to
all show up looking like they're about to go to the nunnery. It's the fact. But many, in the
eyes of many, the idea of even being, quote, attractively, modestly
dressed is somehow the manifestation of harlotry. That is not true
biblically. Thirdly is the word apparel. The Greek word that Paul uses
for apparel is very important. It can mean clothing as a symbol
of behavior. Adorn with modest apparel. Clothing as a symbol of behavior. Now, many of us don't think that
way. We just go, oh, let's see, blue, wore that yesterday. Okay,
blue jeans and green t-shirt today. But we often don't remember
the very origins of this. First, this was to cover our
shame. And secondly, it's expressing something. I have books on the
language of clothing, which we had time to spend on this. But your clothes are talking.
Every single day, your clothes are talking. They are saying,
this is an expression of my heart. By his choice of words, Paul
is linking the internal behavior with the external clothing. He has chosen a word specifically
that moves from the inside to the outside. It expresses something
that is real. internally and then manifests
itself externally. Paul very skillfully moves from
external garments to internal modesty and self-control. In
other words, when your clothing is in view, so is your heart. The Apostle Peter describes exactly
the same thing. He says that a Christian woman's
apparel should not be that outward adorning of planting the hair
and of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel. But let it be. We're going to
spend at least one evening on that passage. But let me say
this in the event that we don't get there. when it says putting on of apparel
that ought to make us all sit up. Wait a minute, aren't we
supposed to be clothing ourselves? And it's because we think that
he's giving a list of do's and don'ts here. And he's not. He's giving an example of what
true modesty and what true dressing before God is and isn't. In other words, he's saying,
if your beauty is just what you put on, you're not beautiful. If it's just the putting on of
apparel, well, you've put clothes, you've become a clothes hanger.
The idea with these things is not a complete ban on gold or
that type of thing. You have to throw away your wedding
band. You could never wear a necklace. And yet throughout the scriptures,
God's saying, yes, I'm putting a necklace on a man. So I mean,
these are the kind of things we have to back up and say, what?
What's he talking about? What he's talking about is your
beauty is not what you put on in and of itself. Your beauty begins in what you
are. And then you manifest what you
are by what you put on. He says, 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." Commentator William Mounts says
that the words adorn and apparel have a dual meaning. Clothing
and a person's general deportment. Paul says that they are to dress
in a way that is in keeping with their
Christian character. In keeping with their Christian
character and to concentrate on what is most important. While their dress is an issue,
their attitude is Paul's true concern. And we're gonna talk about this
a little bit more in just a few minutes when we talk about interior
and exterior. But for the moment, we will close
that quote and say that this brings us to an extremely important
point. Modesty is first and foremost
a matter of the heart. The problem is that when, at
least to my experience, most modern American Christians get
the idea that it's about the heart, they think it's just about
the heart. And what I'm trying to point
out to you is that the very words that Paul is using includes both. The attitude of the heart and
how it expresses itself in what it puts on. So, to focus on clothing first
is to miss the issue. That brings us to the word shamefacedness. This word means reverence. All. Respect. For the feeling or opinion
of others or for one's own conscience. All. And when was the last time
you stood in all? because of your responsibility
to others' conscience. When was the last time you reverenced
someone else's conscience? The Spirit of God has moved Paul
to use words that dig down past just the exterior translation.
reverence, awe, or respect for the feeling or opinion of others
or for one's own conscience. Now this word means that a person
knows where the boundaries are and desires to stay within them.
That's the idea that we mentioned earlier of a sense of propriety. Propriety is that which is acceptable,
appropriate to the occasion. I mean, there's some things I
would work on in my yard, I would wear when I'm working in my yard
that I wouldn't wear when I come to worship. That doesn't mean
that worship is to be a fashion show either. But it means there's
an appropriateness about coming into God's, coming into the congregation
of God's people, the temple of the Holy Spirit. And I should
be realizing I'm coming into God's presence. What's appropriate
for that? So the idea of someone being
shame-faced doesn't mean in some way that they're embarrassed
or ashamed. It's an older word that carries
the idea that someone knows where the boundaries are and they stay
within them. They want to stay within those
boundaries. That's the idea. I, Howard Marshall, another commentator
says, quote, here it refers to the decency with which women
should behave. This includes the avoidance of
clothing and adornment, which might be showy and extravagant,
as well as sexually enticing. J. N. D. Kelly writes, quote,
what is probably foremost in his mind, Paul, is the impropriety
of women exploiting their physical charms on such occasions, and
also the emotional disturbance they are liable to cause their
male fellow worshipers. This is brought out by the words
that are translated shamefacedness and sobriety. The latter stands
for perfect self-mastery in the physical appetites, someone who's
got self-control. As applied to women, it too had
a definitely sexual nuance, close quote. In other words, a woman who is
shame-faced. Again, the word doesn't really
give you much insight into its meaning, because we don't use
it anymore. But that idea is here's a woman
who understands the occasion, and she understands the impact
that her presence will have in that occasion. She knows where
the boundaries are, and her purpose is to honor God, to worship and
adore God, and to edify her brothers and her sisters in the Lord.
So what would be an appropriate way to dress for that? Not the
showiest, gaudiest thing that you have. It could either be extravagant.
Check it out. Do you know how much this dress
cost me? Or, I look red hot, right? Don't I look desirable? Attractive? Wrong attitude. That's not a shame-faced person.
So, our fifth word is sobriety. You know, I'm going to stop after
this because I don't want to go too late this evening. And we'll have a part two and
that's fine. So what does sobriety here mean? It means good judgment. Self control, as we have seen,
sobriety or self control is one of the most important words that
Paul uses to express the visible Christian life. I don't if you're
drifting, come back and hear that in the pastoral epistles. Paul, we could we could say it
this way. And I don't mean this to be irreverent,
but Paul is like self control crazy. He used the words over
and over, 1st Timothy, 2nd Timothy, Titus. In fact, when he describes
the young men, he says one thing. All right, Titus, I want you
to preach to the older women, the older men, the younger women.
And for the young men, tell them to be self-controlled. Which
is what most young men are not. This became, at the end of his
life, one of the things that Paul hits over and again. Why? Because we're vessels of
the Holy Spirit. God dwells within us, and our
lives should show it. Our lives should show that we're
beginning to mortify and overcome the things we were once enslaved
to. We're not like the world, just
coming apart at the seams, but we're people who actually understand. We know who God is. We know his
great and glorious sovereign power. We know that he works
wonderfully in every providence of life. We know who he is. And we know that Christ loved
us before the foundation of the world, that he died in our place,
that his blood washes us clean, that his resurrection is for
our everlasting life and justification. He's interceding for us now. Do you really think that God
can intercede for you daily, and you can't control your mouth? Do you really believe that? We might not say we would, but
very often our lives do it. Yeah, well, I'm just that way. I mean, it's just the way I came.
Yeah, that's the way you came, but Christ saved you to transform
it. sobriety, self-control. It's all of grace. It's all by
faith in the Lord Jesus. See, we've got a Christianity
out there that doesn't love Jesus. We've got a Christianity out
there that doesn't change. It looks like, watches, listens
to everything that the world does. And it's usually three
or four years behind the world and doesn't do it nearly as well
as the world. It's a weak, omnipotent, I would
say joke, but there's nothing funny about it. It is irrelevant. It's not dangerous. True Christianity
is dangerous, not in a guns and bombs way. True Christianity
is dangerous because it's changed people telling other people how
to change in Christ. Now, all of this means we have
to know who we are. We have to know who Christ is.
We have to know what he's done in us as well as what he's done
for us. And then we need, by faith, to
begin to walk according to who and what we are. Are we new creatures
or not? If we are, all the seeds of sobriety
and self-control have not been shortchanged. You have them.
You've got to believe God. I've got such a bad temper. Yeah,
I can appreciate that. I know what a bad temper's like.
But I also know that God helps us to mortify them. Or something
we haven't preached enough, and I know I have not preached it
enough, is the mortification of sin. It is one of the most
important parts of the Christian life. And that's all part of
self-control. I see and I know. I mean, when
someone comes to me and says, I sinned again, I always do this
to them. What were the circumstances?
What were you doing? How did it happen? Very often,
it's the same thing I heard last time. And it's like, what do
you need to do to stop that? What do you need to do to stick
the broomstick in the spokes of the wheel? What are you doing
to mortify it? Sobriety. Paul is here declaring,
he is describing and he is declaring the habitual inner self-government. Remember those words, the inner
self-government with its constant reign on all the passions and
desires which would hinder the temptation to immodesty from
arising. In other words, you can control
it. I'm not saying it's gonna be easy. I'm not saying it will
not be without sometimes an exceptionally fierce battle. But we've got the armor of God,
the sword of the Spirit. We've got everything infinitely
necessary to walk this life. It's all in Christ. It's all
of grace. But it's a reality that we must
lay hold of by faith. Women exercising sobriety has
a woman exercising sobriety has understanding about practical
matters and is therefore able to act sensibly. Where does that
come from? Well. If you've got good, faithful
Christian parents, or even parents that just had common sense, you
can learn some of those things from them. But ultimately, this
rises up from the Holy Spirit and God's glorious truth from
the Word. By the power of God's Spirit
and grace, a Christian woman has command over her bodily passions. And so do men. Self-control is
a gift of grace, the product of faith, and an evidence of
conversion. Because the Spirit of God is
all part of God's plan to make us like Christ. So we have to
learn how to mortify the deeds of the body. We have to learn
how to walk using the will that God has given us. Well, we will
end with this tonight. I had a number of applications,
but we're not gonna get there this evening. So, as we conclude
part one, it will be with this. What then does Paul mean by encouraging
the women to modest apparel? What does he mean by that? Taking all these words, taking
these five words and putting them together and thinking about
the context that we see them in, Christian modesty is the inner
self government rooted in a proper understanding of oneself before
God. Which is outwardly displayed
in humility and purity from a genuine love of Jesus Christ. The inner self-government rooted
in a proper understanding of oneself before God, which is
outwardly displayed in humility and purity from a genuine love
for Jesus Christ. And where do you get that love?
You can't buy it at the store. You can't order a gallon of it. Where do you get it? You get
it from coming to the Holy Word. and bathing in Christ's love
for you. Learning who he is, how glorious,
how holy, how pure, how selfless, how sacrificial he was for fools
like me, sinners like you. We come and we see him, whether
it be hanging on the cross or seated at the father's right
hand. It's all for his people, all because he loves his people.
That's our resting place. When that love grips our hearts,
it kindles a love that we show back with our lives for his glory
now and forever. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for your
kindness. Help us now. Help us as we go. Take these truths. Take these
words in these thoughts and help us to think them through. And,
oh, God, I pray that that would help us to be a people that are
not, quote, modest out of some legalistic pride, out of some desire just to be different,
but that every aspect of our lives is to be to thy glory out
of love for thee. We prayed in Jesus's name. Amen. Let's stand. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do his will. working
in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Let's go in the name
of the Lord.
Women and Modest Apparel
Series Encouragement for Women
| Sermon ID | 418191333303 |
| Duration | 1:02:47 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | 1 Timothy 2:9-11 |
| Language | English |
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