The Biblical Teaching on Modest Dress — Dean Taylor

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold.

You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www .charityministries .org. If you would like a catalogue of other sermons, please call 1 -800 -227 -7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, AFP, 17522.

These messages are offered to all without charge by the free will offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry.

Amen. Did you believe that this morning? Hallelujah. The cross of His salvation shall never, never fail. That's all. Since we're all standing right now, I'll just offer up a prayer unto the Lord. Dear Heavenly Father, here we are today, Lord, looking unto You.

Dear God, we trust that very thing. That You have commissioned us. You have given us a purpose. You have given us something to do in this life, dear God. And You have promised us that the gates of hell shall not prevail against us, Lord.

So, Father, we praise Your name today. We ask You, Lord, to teach us today, Father, I pray, Lord. As I touch on this somewhat controversial subject this morning, dear God, that You would let Dean Taylor stay way away from it, oh God.

And just speak through this, Lord, I pray. Father, visit with us, talk to us, speak to us, teach to us today, Lord. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Oh, one small thing, yeah. Stephen, could you bring that sermon up here real quick?

Amen. Praise the Lord. Thank you, son.

Well, it looks like we have a little extra time, so that's good. Amen. The sermon I'm going to preach today is a little bit different than what we usually, some usual topics that we've had around here.

I was asked to share some messages that had a more of a teaching style. And it's bring up a particular doctrine, a particular something that we can open up the word of God and look at. And so, my prayer is that while the mode in this topic may not be as spiritual as some would, that God could still use some dry teaching and maybe even allow a bit of dry teaching to prophesy.

The Biblical Teaching on Modest Dress and Salvation by Faith

The teaching this morning, simply put, is the biblical teaching on modest dress. The biblical teaching on modest dress. Now, in teaching this, I feel compelled by the Lord that there are a few things, a few number of things that I want to establish before I ever get started in a topic like this.

First and most importantly is this. I conclude with Paul's conclusion in Romans chapter 3 that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Period. I conclude that. I'm a grace preacher. I am.

Just like the song that we sang there, there is a fountain filled with blood. That verse gets me. The one that says, Is that your testimony today? When you see it, when you see what His blood has done and what His blood changes us and saves us from our sins, it's my theme.

It's my theme and I want it to be my theme. And it's only because I feel that in times past, devotions that I might have shared or a sermon or an article in the remnant, I felt that before I could ever even write something or speak on something that had to deal with a particular doctrine or a particular teaching, that in my own heart, that needed to be established.

It's by faith in Christ and His redemptive love that we're saved. And so because I feel that you know my heart there, only because of that do I feel we can go on here into a topic like this. I believe that a doctrine that mixes our works and our faith together is a doctrine of devils that has prevented untold millions of souls from ever reaching salvation.

And more than this, it has caused more to fall under condemnation and to lose their way under this condemnation of not being clear of this, of mixing these things. So as I go through this biblical teaching on godly dress, I do it with trembling that you will not lay one single thread upon the altar to share a place with Jesus Christ.

I'm not trying to present some kind of rule or law or a hidden standard of charity Christian fellowship. My desire is to look on to God and His word on an unfortunately a controversial subject. Our fundamentals must be set to look at something like this.

Salvation in Christ Must Govern Christian Standards

Our fundamentals must be strong. You know, my second point is that I believe if a church or even an individual is not clear on that first point, if you're not clear on salvation and where your righteousness comes from, these things get quickly put way out of place.

They get muddy. You fall under condemnation. You fall under guilt. It just doesn't feel right. If a church or individual is not clear on salvation, you see, there's a tendency to prove yourself in an unhealthy way.

The flesh works this way. Someone who is motivated out of a vague zeal for a cause often finds it difficult to act by love and instead finds it easier to show their zeal and to show their support for that cause by acting in hate of what they're not.

Let me give you an example. Let's say you want to be a patriot. You want to love the country. You want to love democracy. Sometimes that's a little bit vague. How do you do that? Well, a lot of times what these guys will do, you'll hear them talking about how much they hate Russia and hate communism.

And so, this vague affection for an ideal, if we don't have a mature understanding of that, is expressed in the wrong way. And it comes out in the wrong way. This happens in religious circles too often.

And it happens, it certainly has happened on this issue particularly. A church or individual that is not clear on salvation, and then let's say that this person has come from a legalistic or traditional background.

You were saved. You were worshipping God in just forms or, you know, you just joined the church. You wanted to just follow the ways and you came from a legalistic background. You see, if we're not clear on where your fundamentals are, that your teachings are coming from the Word of God.

That your standards are coming from the Word of God. That your salvation is in Christ. There may even be a tendency for that person who is liberated to deliberately dress oftentimes more worldly than he actually may even feel that he should.

To sort of prove to himself. Or to say, you know, I'm going to prove that I have my liberality in Christ. There's a danger there. And I want to just bring that danger up. Likewise, someone raised from my background that comes from a materialistic and ungodly fashion.

Is tempted to look at their new life and their new, you know, you find out about God's standards. You find out about His ways. And there's a tendency to lose your balance on that. And become censorious or harsh with yourselves or with others on it.

You know, it becomes their it. And it replaces Christ, it can. People from our background. So, we must be clear that our righteousness today is in Christ. I believe that if we preach our righteousness in Christ, salvation, clear enough.

Then you follow the line along that Paul established there in Romans. And you lead right up to his rhetorical questions. The ones like these. After he gives the explanation, I conclude that a man is justified by faith.

He goes on to say things like, do we then make void the law through faith? At the end of Romans chapter 6, he says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? You see, the teaching is so clear.

God is doing this. God is changing us. God is going to take care of all of your needs. He's going to do this for you. It's so clearly taught that it should lead the audience to say, what are you saying?

You're saying it doesn't matter how we live our life? Are you saying then we can go on living in sin? Is that what you're saying? Paul answers that question. The answer to this rhetorical question in Paul's anguishing cry at the end of Romans chapter 7.

Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Death is answered in chapter 8. We know it all well. He goes on to say, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.

Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Listen to this verse. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

For what the law could not do. In other words, his anguish there in Romans chapter 7. He could not become holy. So his crying out to God. I know your standards. I know what you want. But I can't do it.

What the law could not do. And then it was weak through the flesh. God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for our sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Listen to this point. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.

Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. He does it. He asked those two rhetorical questions. He answers those two rhetorical questions there in 3 and 6. Do we make void the law through faith?

He says, God forbid. Yea, we establish the law. He goes on there in 6. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? You see, when we are clear on this point. And God has changed us and quickened us.

See, Paul sees it as an impossibility. What he's trying to express is, you see, you understand. If you understand faith right. It's impossible for this not to change your life. It's impossible for this word not to come alive to you.

That you would see these things and God's heart in them. It's impossible. So that's what I'm explaining. It's not something that we just get an influence of or agree to a bunch of standards. It's a changed life.

Do you remember the prophecy in Ezekiel 36? God prophesied that he would take out our heart of stone. Remember that? And he would put in a heart of flesh. He goes on to say, listen to this. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.

And you shall keep my judgments and do them. When God gives us his heart. When he takes a sinner and takes out that heart of stone. He writes his law upon your heart. These things then are beautiful. They're not grievous to us.

And then we can walk in them out of love. Suddenly, the law of God is no longer bondage. But it's a love note straight from the heart of God. This is what my Lord likes. This is his heart. This is where he's at.

Now, Paul exhorts Timothy. And he says this in 2 Timothy 3 .16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

Now, obviously, the New Testament is included in that. But if you think about it, what was Paul telling Timothy? What Scriptures was he talking about? Was 2 Timothy written yet? No, he was writing it right there.

He was talking about the entire word of God. He said that when we look through this, that these things can instruct us in righteousness. They can give us correction. It can give us reproof. If you're clear that none of that is your righteousness, well, then you have liberty to walk in it, to see the heart of God.

Galatians puts it beautifully. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works like lest any man should boast. We know that verse. Well, it's good.

We do. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. This is where all of this types of things should be placed. When we come to the Lord and he saves us, he changes us.

He puts a new heart. He takes that law, not by constraint, but these things that we see in his heart. And he writes them in our heart. And then he comes right along and causes us to walk in them. So the point of this is that if we're clear there, we can talk about a subject like this with liberty, with excitement in our heart.

That's a teaching on clothes doesn't have to be a battle or a contentious subject, but it's something that we can look at and say, Lord, how can we praise you today? So it's not my desire. I hope I have distressed enough to place a burden or condemnation on anyone.

It is my desire to set you free to who God has made you to be. Just like up there in Galatians. What has he before ordained that you should walk in? What works, what things, what glorious things. Like I said the other day, a fish only has liberty in the water.

A bird only has liberty in the air. You, a child of God, only has liberty in holiness. You were created for it. It's the environment in which you will grow, which you have liberty, which you will find the grace of God.

And it's there for you for the taking and to dwell in and to enjoy the fruits of God in. So as we look at this, let's keep that premise completely in mind. I don't want to in any way stray from that premise.

John Wesley, who was kicked out of just about every church in England, says right in his diary, I preached faith at such and such chapel and I was kicked out. I preached faith that so and so here and they booted me out.

He had a very clear understanding that we were saved by faith alone. And the Church of England, especially in that time, said, well, we can't hear that. And so he was kicked out of church after church.

But interestingly enough, he went on to say that when we that us who are saved by faith should go on studying the law and continue to study, he said even more diligently than we did before we were saved, because now it's all out of love.

Holiness, Modest Dress, and the Heart of God

The compassion is love. You want to know God's heart. You want to know these things. And so we look on to them in this way. So let's get to the meat of the discussion here. Second Corinthians 7 .1 is a very good verse that I'd like to kind of start with this verse.

Second Corinthians 7 .1. I'm just going to quote it. I'm not going to go that far in it. Having, therefore, these promises. Remember what we just talked about? Isn't it beautiful what God has done for us?

How he saved us. How he promised that we can walk in his way and eat from his hand and put our head on his chest. Having, therefore, these promises, dearly beloved. Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.

The flesh and the spirit. Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. That's the heart of God. And that's what we'd like to do a little bit looking at this topic. The biblical teaching on modest dress. You know, there are a few areas in the Christian walk that cause more debate and conflict than the biblical teaching concerning Christian dress.

It's been the source of splitting churches. It's been the source of many contentious arguments. It seems as long as the issue, as soon as the issue is even hinted at. You know, you get images of Pharisees with their long phylacteries and their tasseled robes and furrowed brows looking at you.

You know, you get these ideas come down. And this is while this is very unfortunate, it's not without reason. It's not. And we have to admit that it's not. The sin of hypocrisy, of being a hypocrite is exemplified.

It's personified. It's shown by the very act of looking godly on the outside while inside there's wickedness and uncleanliness. And we who are a church that believe in having to walk in the ways of God and looking at some of these things must keep that in mind.

That that's personified in that way of looking good on the outside, but not being any change on the inside. The scriptures plainly state, for a man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

That's in 1 Samuel 16, verse 7. It's an interesting passage too at the end of Malachi. There it refers to a little family situation where husbands are mistreating their wives and they're dealing treacherously with them.

They're divorcing their wives and things. There's an interesting little passage that comes up there and it says, You know, we can have a home that's all a mess. We cover it up with plain clothes. We go about living our life.

The Lord sees that. That's a real risk. And we need to remember that. We cannot fool God with outer appearance while the inside remains wicked. On the other hand, dressing in modestly and worldly doesn't make us spiritual either.

Listen to this point. While it is possible to be looking good on the outside, but inside is all wickedness, I'll far say it's almost impossible to purposely dress foolishly on the outside and the inside to be unchanged.

Let me repeat that. While it's certainly, obviously possible to have a clean outside and the inside is nothing but wickedness, on the other hand, if what you're doing is purposely dressing rebelliously, then it is impossible for that not to have coming from the inside.

The same could be said with our speech. We can have a lofty spiritual language. We can have a spiritual vocabulary full of spiritual lingo with no real change in our heart. We can have all the amens and hallelujahs and all this, but inside there's no real change.

Such religious boasting is also called hypocrisy in the scripture. We may feel and even think we're righteous, but inside, if it's full of wrath and hate and slandering and blasphemies, it becomes obvious what's really in our heart.

We may feel even impure rights, but if our lips are full of... Okay, if we're feeling now righteous on the inside, I'm trying to make my point with the clothing, on the other hand, if we're feeling we're righteous on the inside, but out of your mouth is coming wrath and anger and blasphemies, that's coming out of your heart.

It's impossible to say, well, I know I'm blaspheming, I know I'm angry, I know I'm saying all these horrible things, but my heart is clean. It's the same way I'm trying to make the analogy to our clothes.

If we're saying, well, I'm dressing foolishly and I'm doing all these things, I can do it. It represents something that's in our heart. Jesus puts it this way, for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.

God desires holiness inside and out. Not the outside only, but not the inside only either. As Peter exhorted us, listen to this one, 1 Peter 1 .14, As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust in your ignorance, but he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy.

We were fashioned in a way, some way when we were raised up. Somehow, some things we're putting into our minds that makes a decision on what you do when you wake up in the morning, what you say to your wife at the breakfast table, what you do when you drive down the car, how you drive that car.

Some of those things, a lot of those things were fashioned in our old lust. Peter here is exhorting us to look at every bit of our life and to purify it. To take every bit of it to the Lord and let God clean that.

Unfortunately, just as Israel slipped time and time again, as it started to mingle with the world, the same could be said with the church. By allowing the world's values, the world's fashions and moral standards to replace the Word of God, we have in essence gone into a spiritual adultery.

We have allowed the world to change the church instead of the church changing the world. There's a quote by Leonard Ravenhill that I like. He says that the church is called not to be a thermometer. The church is called to be a thermostat.

Let me catch you what that means. A thermometer measures the temperature around it. The thermostat sets the temperature. And so what the church is supposed to be to the world today is an expression of what God's heart is.

It's not supposed to say, okay, well this is where the world is now. So this is where we are. And this is where the world is 50 years later. And this is where the world 50 years later is. And so we just keep reflecting what the world has.

That's not it. We're called to set that standard. That's what He wants of us. Leonard Ravenhill said again, the world out there is not looking for a new definition of Christianity. The world out there is looking for a new demonstration of Christianity.

We've had definitions and definitions and here and there over and over again. They're tired of it. They don't want to hear it. They don't want to hear our debates. They don't want to hear our words. They're waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity.

That's what they want to see. So that affects us. That affects us. If you take that deeply in a lot of ways. I need to make a little explanation with what George was saying. In that book, that book had some ideas that what we need to do is change the way we present the gospel to meet the world.

In other words, it was saying what used to be an eight-track tape later became a record. Then the record became a cassette. Then the cassette became a CD and the CD finally became an MP3. So we need to be as a church, be MP3s to reach the world and not eight-track tapes.

They gave many analogies how different foolish things that a church underwent to try to reach the lost. I knew that that church wasn't there where that book was saying. So George and I talked and we did go to the ministry, their ministry about that to let us know what our heart was in that.

But it's subtle. It's subtle in different ways. When you allow your mind to start to think, okay, I'm going to be like them to win them. And we want to relate to them and we're called to do that as Paul's example was that.

But we must be careful here because it's subtle and it gets into us and we see what ends up happening is the church is changing. Generation after generation after generation after generation. It's changing.

The world is not getting any better. God, let God be true in every man a liar. The ways of God, His teachings, His understandings, what He has in His heart to tell us is endless. It does not end. And how we present that, how we place that, here it is.

Is it complete? You know, Jesus told them in Matthew 28 to go ye therefore into all the world, teaching them all that you observe. And then baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And then lo, I'll be with you. We're called to give the entirety of the gospel, the entirety of what God is teaching. It's part of that. Again, let's not get this out of balance. Let's not look at this in a wrong way.

Biblical Principles for Christian Dress

As I made all those statements at the beginning. So let's get into some practical teaching. How would God dress me? What I'm going to do. This is where the I'm going to go through some teachings here and I'm going to bring up some different Bible passages.

I'm going to focus in on towards the end on the passage there in Timothy and also in Peter that deals specifically with the way we should dress. I'm going to first show us a glimpse of heaven, of how we're going to be dressing in heaven.

And then I'm going to show us some ways that God has looked at the way we dress through the Bible. And I'm going to give out some key words in the Hebrew and in the Greek. And I'll write them up here so that you can study them and take them home and look at them.

And you'll have to bear with my Greek pronunciation. Brother Victor's back there. Try not to laugh too loud there, brother. He's from Greece and you can take that home and look at some of these. It'll be edifying, I think, for us to take these and look at them and break down the word of God.

All right. So let's look at it. First of all, let's take a glimpse of heaven, shall we? Let's take a glimpse of heaven by reading the book of Revelation. There's a neat thing about Revelation that I don't want you to miss.

We're permitted to snatch a few glimpses of a place. Watch this now. Where the world and the devil have no influence. You look at them. Look at the way they worship. Look at the way they adore the Lord.

Look at the way they dress. Look at the way they fellowship. It's a place where the world and the devil have no effect. We're instructed to ask that thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. How many people have prayed that?

We all have prayed that. Do you mean it? As it is in heaven, I'm praying that that way will be established here on earth. It's an important point. The worship, the adoration, the prayers, the entire purpose in this holy place are without question existing for no other reason than to give glory to God.

It is in this heavenly atmosphere that we see Jesus receiving his expectant holy bride. It says, not having spot nor wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. When he receives us in this place, the Bible tells us that he will house us.

It's going to give us a house, a room. He will feed us. And yes, he will clothe us there as well. In the reference to the martyrs, we're going to look at some of these. Revelation 6 .11 says, and white robes were given unto every one of them.

We're going to touch on that word robe here a little later. It's the word stola in the scriptures. Of the great multitude of believers that John witnessed, it is said, After this, I beheld and lo, a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindred and people.

Tongues stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothes with white robes and palms in their hands. Revelation 7 .9 Jesus himself is described here as having a modest garment that went all the way to the ground.

It says here, one likened to the Son of Man clothed with a garment down to the foot. This word, robe, that appears in Revelation can be found in many places in scripture. Like I said, it's the Greek word stola.

I'm going to write this one up. Here we go. It's Greek. And you look in your Strong's Concordance at 4749, stola. The word, this word is a loose outer garment, usually extending to the feet worn by kings, priests, and persons of rank.

It is the same article of clothing that Jesus describes there in the prodigal son, where the father says, Get me the best robe and put it on him. It's that same word. It's a beautiful prospect of thinking of coming into heaven.

And having our heavenly father running to us, clothing us, not only with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, but also providing us food, clothes, and a dwelling place to live in as we live there in our glorified bodies.

Now, agreeably, a lot of the book of Revelation is metaphors and allegories. However, I believe that there's when we get a snapshot of heaven, like the martyrdom of Stephen or the or these glimpses of heaven, the revelation of John.

We see Isaiah and these different things when we get glimpses of heaven. It's there to give you expectation in your heart of what it's going to be like. It's so that you can when you pray by will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

You can have some idea of what that's like. So, but since it is filled with much allegory and metaphors and things, I do think that we need to look at some other scriptures to before we draw some more conclusions on this subject.

God has shown us more than just an expectation of what it's going to be like in heaven. He's given us his heart on the way it is here while we're on earth. Now, here's a big point. And I think a lot of church divisions and breaking ups and fights over hooks and eyes or whatever may be over this next point.

Often discussions about modest dress miss a very important point. When discussing modest dress, the object of concern is not necessarily the clothes. It's not. The object that we see in the Bible when he's talking about it is the nakedness which the clothes is covering up.

You see, if our focus is on what's supposed to be the right kind of clothes. Is it supposed to be a white shirt? Is it supposed to be a plaid shirt? Is it supposed to be a collar or not collar? All these kind of things.

Is it supposed to be a hook or is it supposed to be a button? Let's go back to the main point. The main point when the scripture brings about these things is the nakedness which these clothes that God gives us is supposed to be covering up.

If we focus on our clothes only, we can make the mistake of walking around very conservatively dress. But still exposing ourselves to a flood of nakedness in our homes through magazines and newspapers and catalogs or worse.

Until we understand what God calls nakedness and that he considers it a sin to look on it, we are somewhat missing the point. You catch that? It's an important thing because we don't want to debate about these different little things, but we do want to see what's God's heart in it.

What is he calling this nakedness? Well, where does the teaching of God's nakedness start with? Where do you think it is? What's that? Yeah, more and then emming in the Bible. Yes, that's right. God's teaching on modesty and nakedness starts right back in the Garden of Eden.

Nakedness, Clothing, and the Garden of Eden

When Adam and Eve first became conscious of their nakedness, they created garments that they thought would be sufficient to cover themselves. It says here, this is Genesis chapter 3 verse 7. And the eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.

That word in Hebrew, aprons, I looked it up. It's a thing like they would have had in battle. It just kind of covers over. It's an apron. It's not a full apron. It's something that would have been a sash that they would have used to be covering like an apron.

And just like today, and I say this as a point that it grieves me, what we see has grown up in the last hundred years is the same type of thing. When we in the fallen state try to find the holiness of God, you see the world out there has their own righteousness.

They have their own standards. Adam had made up his own thing. Okay, now I'm going to get myself right. And unfortunately, the world today does this. If you go to, I know you wouldn't, but if coming from like swimming pools and things like this, the idea that if just as your reproductive organs are covered, that this is considered covered to God.

It's not. It's not. And it's a serious point. But it's interesting to see how the lost continue to fall into the same trap that Adam did of, okay, well, here's how we're going to fix this problem. What did God do?

In verse 21, it says that unto Adam, also in his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. He made coats of skins. All right. Here's another word we're going to write up. This is Hebrew word 3801.

I'm going to butcher it and say Katoneth is the I got this little talking strong at home. And so I tried my best to get the pronunciation from my talking strongest concordance. Okay. He made coats here to cover them.

And this is Katoneth. You can write this in your margin. The word coats here use the Hebrew word Katoneth, which can be translated a tunic or a coat. And even though they had made them their own aprons, it's interesting to see that only when God had covered them with this tunic, did God say that he quote clothed them.

You know, you've got to be careful with these children, Adam and Eve books. One thing I don't like, I don't think a post fallen man, it's okay to just write, put paintings of Adam and Eve in a pre fallen state.

I tell you, every one of these little books that I've ever had, we've gone through with a marker and change that, you know. But nevertheless, where they usually show that God, after he changed them of how they made this, this tunic here out of out of flesh, that it's sometimes it's a little thing like this.

It's a tunic. It's something that that completely covered them. So that's the first place there that we see. Adam and Eve had sin. They felt guilty about their nakedness. And because of their nakedness, they thought we had this thing figured out.

We're going to clothe ourselves like this. We're going to cover these particular spots and then we're going to go on. And God said, no, I'm going to clothe you like this. And he completely covered them.