What does feminine holiness look like? Christian women should be adorned in such glorious beauty that their life declares the holiness of God in a myriad of ways, beginning from within her heart and working its way out in how she carries herself in godliness and modesty. This beautiful holiness is not summed up in a list of rules to obey but rather in a beautiful Savior who is to be adored and followed. It is our prayer that both Christian men and women would again desire to be like the holy men and women in time past, and that they would be adorned with Christ’s beautiful holiness.
The following message is a presentation of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where we're proclaiming the sufficiency of scripture for church and family life. More information about the NCFIC is available at www.ncfic.org. Well good morning. I'm delighted to be here this morning and thankful that you're here. It always makes it more exciting when there are people to teach to.
And without getting myself into trouble, I never preach from a computer. So in this teaching session, I do have my computer, as there's always a desire to be working things over in preparation, and you don't have things available if you're bringing on the plane, bringing a printer, and all those things really doesn't work very well. So would you join me in prayer this morning? Father I pray that you bless this morning Lord I I feel unworthy to speak not only on the topic of holiness, for Lord we are all in the struggle to walk in godliness and honor and Then specifically on this topic of our lives being adorned with beautiful holiness and really focusing on the the holiness of Womanhood and this tasking that has been given to me I pray that I could faithfully Execute this morning. I pray that you would encourage our hearts our minds our lives to walk in a sweet a Sweet holiness with you I thank you for this conference and how my heart has been ministered to thus far and I pray, Lord, that you would use this time and bless us, I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Would you take your Bibles and turn to 1 Peter, chapter 3. 1 Peter, chapter 3, my session this morning is titled Adorned with Beautiful Holiness. And I want to read our text, and then I'm going to give a little bit of a lengthy introduction and then focus on a few key areas of how we can be adorned with beautiful holiness and in particular with regards to what does feminine holiness look like. First Peter chapter three, familiar passages and we're going to look at several parts of this passage. It says, Likewise you wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they may also without the word be won by the conversation or the conduct of the wives, while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear, whose adorning, let it not be the outward adorning, the plating of hair, the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
For after this manner in the old time, the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves, being in subjection under their own husbands, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord, whose daughters ye are as long as you do well and are not afraid with any amazement." And then if you turn over to 1 Timothy chapter 2, and I'll read just two verses that are related with regards to the subject of women adorned with holiness. It says, in like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shame-facedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works. Father, I pray again after we've read the scriptures that you would enliven us, that you would give me the clarity of thought mind and speech to communicate this morning and I pray God that you would be pleased in Jesus name Amen. This morning it's my desire to add one more voice to the chorus encouraging men and women on the highway of holiness with a desire to see and savor and specifically this morning to reflect the beauty of God in the life of the believer.
There has been a tremendous amount of preaching and teaching that has really encouraged my soul this this week. I pray it has yours as well. And I think that this morning we have this opportunity to have many different sessions that are showing how this holiness of God is made manifest in the life of the believer. But it has begun as the conference in the general sessions literally has brought us to the throne room of God and allowed us to see the holiness of God, literally tasting of the heavenlies even in the first night. And to see the holiness of Christ yesterday, and the holiness of the Holy Spirit, and the holiness of the life of the believer, and in the Holy Church, all purchased as we were so encouraged last night by the holy sacrifice of Christ our Savior on Calvary.
With the highway of gospel holiness powerfully laid, the table set, this morning my session is with the heart of how this holiness is practically manifest. We can put it under the title of Practical Holiness. My session specifically is on being adorned with beautiful holiness. To answer the question, at least to give it a shot what does feminine holiness look like? Now as I was asked to teach on this subject I thought to myself why me?
And then I thought you know is any man qualified for these things? And if I have any credentials at all, it is one that I'm a preacher of the Word of God and the Word of God has the answers for all of us and these are things that need to be taught on. I am a husband of over 21 years. I am a father of seven daughters, five sons, but particularly this morning with application of the the message, having seven daughters at least gives me some experience and working with a woman kind and and how the intricacies and the delicacies and the needs that are there that are peculiar to raising up daughters and being married to a wife as was introduced my high school sweetheart. So this is really the heart and the desire behind this session this morning and the credentials if there were any to teach on this subject.
I believe that Christian manhood and womanhood should be adorned in such glorious beauty that their life declares the holiness of God. And this is done in a myriad of ways. We're going to focus on but a few. I want to ask you this question. This is something I've been pondering.
I was raised in a Christian home. I had that blessing. I had Christian grandparents. I was a fourth generation Christian. And I remember growing up around my grandparents and specifically I think of the influence of my grandma Houston and what a godly woman she was.
And I think about in our day, I would ask you this question, how frequently do you hear people today described by the word godly? I don't know if it's just something that's fallen out of vogue or it's something that's fallen out of practice. I think about my grandmother and she was a picture of godly, beautiful, feminine holiness. Always seeking to reach others with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ into her late 80s hosting a weekly ladies Bible study in her home always being willing whatever time we arrived in our home to have the table spread and to be ready to feed an army, always there to share the love and the goodness of God and always with such a gracious, warm, and godly feminine beauty. And I would submit to you this morning that if there was something you should desire to be, it is godly.
That people, not in a false kind of way, but that people would really know you and see you and the thing they would take away is that was a blessing to be with that godly man or with that godly woman. Now With a subject like we have this morning, our flesh as human beings immediately, talking about being adorned with beautiful holiness, immediately we usually go to external things, don't we? We think about what are they gonna talk about? What's the standard going to be? How should we dress?
How should we communicate? What are the outward things that really should be focused on? And Though there are importances in the things that we do, in the modesty of dress and in the glory and the beauty of femininity for women and for masculinity for men, though these things are important, If they're addressed first from an external perspective and not first from the heart, I believe we will always end up with a bad result. Going to the external first creates a spirit of Pride, not a spirit of holiness. I want you to hear that again.
If we focus on the things that are external, the length of someone's hair, the modesty of their dress, the behaviors that they do and the things that they don't do, if we go to that first, we will create a spirit of pride rather than a spirit of holiness. Our flesh does not need any more help. So I pray that as we ask this question, what does feminine holiness look like this morning, that we will be helped from scripture and see what true adornment of beautiful holiness is. To do that I'm gonna do something a little bit different. I'm a Bible expositor, I'm not a lecturer, I usually focus on preaching through books of the Bible, and we're going to focus on the text that I read this morning, but I want to give you some definitions first because I think they will get your mind thinking.
There are three words, adorned, beautiful, and holiness. The first word is the word adorned. It's found here in the New Testament in 1 Timothy as well as in the book of Peter and other places. The word adorned is the Greek word cosmos. We know that word, don't we?
The word cosmos means the world. It has to do with order, it has to do with ornamentation, it has to do with orderly arrangement and as we have an orderly universe, right? Everything in God's cosmos is orderly. The sun, the moon, the stars, the solar systems, everything in our creation, winter, fall, spring, and summer, Everything in the cosmos is arranged and set forth in a beautiful fashion, in an orderly fashion, in a right kind of fashion. This is this word that we get adorned from.
It's the it's a beautiful word. Some of the references that I looked up, BDAG, the reference tool, says, is that which serves to beautify through decoration, adornment, or adorning, inward and outward adornment. Secondly, a condition of orderliness, orderly arrangement, the sum total of everything here and now in the world, an orderly universe, the heavens, the earth, the seasons, all in an orderly fashion. As a little side note, you ladies, have you you've heard of cosmetologists, right? It comes from the same root.
They are people that do hair and makeup and things of that nature. They're arranging things in an orderly fashion. They're utilizing their skills to adorn people as far as an outward adornment. I might add, and this is just maybe the way that we would use the term, in the modern terms we might say someone's life is well put together. That literally means they're arranged well.
Their finances are in order, their house is in order, it's the same kind of terminology that we have here for adornment. You could easily also say that the scripture does refer to a put togetherness of men or women even in an outward sense. Adornment of both the inward man and the outward man are good if rightly governed by the word of God. So when you hear adorned, think cosmos, think orderly, think well put together. The word beautiful or beautifulness is found in many places throughout the scriptures.
Both Hebrew and Greek my pronunciations I'll spare you but in excuse me in the Hebrew the word beautiful it means beautiful it means right or fair like fair beauty good Excellent the King James translates the word from the Hebrew into these English words beautiful beauty well favored fairest fair one goodly Comely in beauty pleasant in beauty a beautiful countenance all of these terms come from the same your word Yaffe is Why a PEH is the transliteration It has the idea also in the Old Testament and New Testament for majesty. When referring to God and the beauty of his holiness, majesty, splendor, adornment. Another word, ornament, kindness, good, pleasant, desirable, and glory. The Greek word, horeia, it means attractive or comely or fair. The word is filled with references to beauty.
Can I just encourage us that God is not against beauty? He's made everything beautiful. His time. God has given to us a world that is filled with beauty. So the end of this message is not going to be, if you're a Christian woman, it means that you're to be very plain and never have any kind of beauty in your life.
You're not to be ordained with beauty. That is not what the scripture teaches. It has to do with not living in an ostentatious fashion or not having an outward adornment that is ostentatious. And we'll look at that from 1 Peter. Jesus is for beauty.
God the Father is for beauty and the Holy Spirit is who makes us beautiful. From the inside out The psalmist declares, oh worship the Lord in the beauty of his holiness. So when I say beauty is not bad, beauty is glorious. But if you're only thinking about external beauty, then you have it all wrong. Proverbs teaches us about two kinds of women, lady wisdom and lady folly.
Both of them are called beautiful, But their beauty is different. One comes from within and radiates outward beauty in wisdom and kindness, love and grace. The other's beauty is like that of the whited sepulchres. They've got painted faces, and they talk with really sweet, beautiful words to draw in the unsuspecting man, but the end is a deep pit their words are filled with all kinds of evil but on the outside they're attractive there's a draw there's an external beauty but it is a vain kind of beauty. You can put lipstick on a pig, but at the end of the day, it's still a pig.
That was not in the Greek. The third word is the word holiness. We've heard much about this, so I will refrain from giving a long definition. But holiness has to do with our piety, our devoutness, our sanctification to literally be set apart. We heard a great illustration of being to cut.
It's to be separated from worldliness, to be separated from ungodliness, and to be separated unto things that are pure and things that are holy to be consecrated in our lives in The way that pleases the Lord holiness is that which only God Can give us our holiness our righteousness is alien to us It's foreign to us Means it comes from another source. This is vitally important when we understand the practical outworkings of any area of holiness. It comes from the power of the gospel at work in our lives and then as we as believers pursue holiness it is about putting on the righteousness of Christ day by day by day in our life because we've been called to this holy calling. I want to give you just a few key areas this morning to focus on. The first one is this, after my long introduction and word studies.
God desires that you would be adorned with the beautiful spirit within. The true adornment of beautiful holiness begins not on the outside it begins in the inward man or as first Peter puts it in the hidden man of the heart if you turn back there to first Peter first Peter chapter 1 chapter 3 rather says likewise ye wives be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they may also without the word be won by the conversation of the wives. Now this focus this morning is not on wives. We're going to be using a different portion of this scripture, but I will say if somebody is married to a non-believer, God says that they could be one without the word by the godly conversation. In the King James this word means the lifestyle the life conduct of the believer meaning the things that people can see the way in which we live and then it says who's adorning so while they behold your chase conversation coupled with fear who's adorning let it not be the outward adorning, the plating of the hair, the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel.
But let it be the hidden man of the heart and that which is not corruptible even the ornament the adornment the beauty Even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price. Now think about this for just a minute. In verse number three it says whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning. The plating of the hair, the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel. This is often the focus, and it is a right focus, but What it doesn't mean is that you shouldn't, as a woman, comb your hair.
It doesn't mean you should never wear any jewelry. In the scriptures, God gives jewelry to his people in the Old Testament. And it certainly doesn't mean that you shouldn't put on any clothing. So we have to understand, it doesn't mean you can't take care of yourself. It doesn't mean that you can't have any outward beauty.
It means that the outward beauty is not where you start. And that the plating of the hair, in 1 Timothy it talks about the broided hair. It doesn't mean it's wrong for a girl to have pigtails or for a woman to have a braid in her hair. This is literally talking about an ostentatiousness where they would weave like strands of gold and silver and shiny jewels throughout their hair to make it very ostentatious and proud And that there would be a real showiness in the jewelry that they wore and even in the apparel that it would be above everyone else and it wouldn't be in a way that would be of Modest not just in the sense of covering oneself, but modest in the sense that it wasn't ostentation. It wasn't flamboyant it wasn't always trying to draw extreme attention to yourself.
But it begins, the outside begins on the inside, it says, but the focus should be on the hidden man of the heart, and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit Which is in the sight of God of great price and it gives an example. It says for this man after this manner In the old time the holy women again godly women the holy women of old Adorned themselves and then it gives a manifestation that being in subjection unto their own husbands even as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord whose daughters you are as Long as you do well and are not afraid with any amazement. There is an inward adornment of the spirit of a woman that needs to be her primary focus. Women don't have to be told typically about caring for the outside. They want to be well prepared.
They want to be put together. They want to be ready to to meet the world, to be presentable. They want to be adorned. Those things are not wrong. But what about the hidden man of the heart?
This is important in the life of a believing woman. There needs to be a hunger and a thirst for righteousness in your own life. Those ordinary means of grace that we've been admonished about, of spending time in the word and spending time in prayer, That is not just for the men in the family. That is for you as a woman to pursue God, to pursue righteousness in your own life. And the fruit of that life, the fruit of that walk with God is going to manifest itself in beautiful ways in the life of a believer, both men and women.
So what's some evidence of that? I want to draw your attention to Galatians. Galatians chapter 5. You want a definition of what does the holy life look like? What is the manifestation of a holy life?
And again, it doesn't start with the external. It starts with the internal. And the scriptures are very clear of what that life should manifest. It's found in Galatians chapter 5. We know this passage to be the fruit of the Spirit.
But this fruit of the spirit, the fruit of the hidden man of the heart are things that are made manifest on the outside of a life. Not in what you wear, but in how you live. Your life, you should desire men and women to be adorned with the beautiful Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. In Galatians 5, it speaks of the fruits of unrighteousness. It says, Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these, adultery, fornication and cleanness, lasciviousness, which is moral perversion, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envings, murderers, drunkenness, revelings and such the like of the witch I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Those are outward manifestations of a life that does not belong to Christ. That's the fruit of unrighteousness. But if you're admonished, as am I, but particularly this morning, for the women that are here, if you're admonished to first seek to develop the hidden man of the heart, to pursue righteousness, these are the things that are following next that should be made manifest in your life. It says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such, there is no law.
What does beautiful holiness look like when it's adorning a life? It looks like love. Love being given to people around you. Love sharing the gospel with those who are lost. Love caring for your children.
Love loving your husband as Titus 2 teaches that the older women are to teach the younger women to love their husbands and to love their children. That love being made manifest is the work of the fruit of the Spirit in the life of the believer. And this is important in the life of a woman. What does beautiful holiness look like? It looks like love.
It looks like joy. God has called men and women of faith, men and women who are followers of him, to be filled with joy. You think about the home. If you're a wife and a mother, ask yourself, is your home filled with joy? Does it radiate an essence of the joy of the Lord which is your strength?
If it does, I want to say that is beautiful. Your life personally should be filled with the joy of the Lord. It is your strength. That's God's heart for your life. Those are the things that first should adorn you.
Before the beautiful hair, before the delicately arrayed clothing, before you take care of the outward man, take care of the inward man, that it would be made manifest in your life through the fruit of the Spirit, that you'd be filled with peace, you'd have a spirit of long suffering, that you would be filled with gentleness and goodness and faith. Even in 1 Peter, it talks about being meek and of a quiet spirit. The meekness that's found here in the fruit of the Spirit is not weakness. It's strength under control. It's strength that's governed by God.
And as a woman, even placing yourself in submission to your husband and submission to a Father, it has to do with strength under control. It has to do ultimately with submission to Christ. We need to have lives that are filled with beautiful holiness that's manifest in the work of the fruit of the Spirit in our life. This is true for men, it's true for women. It speaks of, in 1 Peter it speaks of these women being adorned with a holy adornment.
The holy adornment is further made manifest in particular with women in their submission to Christ, as with men, in all things. And how that is made manifest is largely in relation to their submission to their husband and to their father. Look back in 1 Peter this morning. What does the inward adorning look like? It says, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, that which is coming from within, that relationship with Christ that's being strengthened, that work of the spirit that's being made manifest in the life.
In that which is not corruptible, it's something that will remain beautiful and healthy and strong. It's not like the outward man. The outward man perishes, Doesn't it? The outward man one day won't be as beautiful, but the inward man that's renewed day by day is something that is beautiful and glorious and will go on even into eternity. That which is not corruptible, even the ornament, even the decoration of a meek and quiet spirit.
So here's an adornment of holy beauty is the adornment of a meek and quiet spirit. There's a meekness, again that's not weakness, that's strength under control in the relationship and there's a quiet spirit, there's a willingness to follow in submission to your husband or to your father. And God says it is in his sight of what? Great price. It's something beautiful in their life.
In Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5, verse 21 says, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Speaking of the marriage relationship, it begins with a mutual submission in Christ to God. Wives, submit yourselves under your own husbands as under the Lord. For as the husband is the head of the wife, Even as Christ is the head of the church that he is the Savior of the body Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything This is really important understanding the necessity of having your your life adorned with a beautiful submission, first to Christ, then to your husband or to your father for the young women that are present. And then for all of us, men and women, there is a need to continually seek to submit to Christ on a day-by-day basis.
That we would desire a kind of beautiful submission in our life. How many of you know that the mercies of God are new every morning and great is the faithfulness of God? That's God's wonderful love and mercy towards us. That grace and mercy is needed every day. It's also needful every day to realize that we still live in the old man of the flesh and that every day we need to put off the old man and to put on Christ.
It's not about being saved new every day, it's about living as you are made already. Living in a righteous way as God has made you. In Ephesians chapter 4, it says, therefore, I say therefore and testify in the Lord that she henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, in the emptiness of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness unto moral perversion unrestrained to work all uncleanness with greediness but ye have not so learned Christ I mean this is not what we've learned from Christ if so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus." Now listen to these words, that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man. The former life conduct of the old man. The unholy ways of the old life need to be daily put off.
It literally has the idea of removing the old garments and putting on new ones each and every day. That you put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful Lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that she put on the new man What is the new man? Which after God is created in righteousness and true, what? Holiness. The thing that you take off is the old man of the flesh, the works of the flesh, the deeds of the flesh, the way of life of the old man.
And the thing that you put on day by day seeking God's help is the new man who is created in Christ Jesus, the new man who is to be adorned with beautiful holiness. And it gives several different manifestations of that. It says they put on the new man which is created in righteousness and true holiness. What are the kind of things that we should put off? Put away lying.
Speak every man truth with his neighbor. For we are members one of another. Be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more.
This is the old man's ways. Working with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication or words proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying or building up that it may minister grace into the hearers and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God which whereby you are sealed into the day of redemption." Where is the Holy Spirit of God? He indwells us. We're to live according to the hidden man of the heart, putting away the old things that make our life ugly.
Remember we're talking about adorning, we're talking about orderly lives of beautiful holiness. The old ways are not beautiful. The old man was ugly, I mean externally. The old man may have been handsome, the old woman may have been beautiful, but that old man was filled with a life conduct coming from within that was very ugly. That was very ugly says let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and Be kind one to another tenderhearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven You We are to remember that the true beauty of the Christian is not what he or she puts on on the outward man.
It first is what you put on in the inward man. If you get nothing else this morning, I pray that you would get that. That the hidden man of the heart is the preeminent way in which we are called to seek beauty. And it guides, it is what directs how we adorn the outward man. But it always must begin from within Listen in all of our lives we can testify maybe of our own selves or others that we've known that have been very good at Adorning the outward man making it look pious making our behaviors seem to be godly, and yet it was corrupt.
It was corrupt. There's an old saying, you don't clean a fish before you've caught it. And in the Christian life you don't try to make people conform to an outward godliness, to an outward holiness, to an outward adornment before they really truly know the goodness of Christ, till they've embraced the gospel and that that work comes from the inside out. Now, what about the adornment of the beauty of the outward man? I believe this morning that godly women and godly men are to be adorned with a beautiful modesty on the outside.
We go back to the scriptures in 1 Timothy and 1 Peter. What is this outward beauty all about? I'll read while you're turning to 1 Peter. I want to read from the Psalms. Psalm 144 has this beautiful little nugget of a passage in Psalm 144 Verse 12 it says that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth and that our daughters may be as cornerstones polished after the similitude of a palace.
Here's a picture of our daughters, the picture of godly womanhood, the daughters of God being both strong and beautiful. They're likened unto the polished pillars of a palace. Pillars are something that's strong. Pillars are things that give, cornerstones are things that give strength to a house. They give strength to a society.
And yet they're polished. There's an idea here that they are made beautiful. I think that that is something that really guides the desire of my heart for my daughters that they would be both strong and beautiful. Strong in a biblical sense and beautiful in the way in which they are presented before the world, that they would be distinct. First Timothy and First Peter says, who's adorning?
Let it not be the outward adorning of the plating of hair, the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel. But let it be the hidden man of the heart. So we've looked at the hidden man of the heart. Well, what about this outward adorning? Is it wrong to have beauty on the outward man?
I want to say that modesty in no way precludes beauty. God is not against beauty. He made beauty. He didn't make things drab. He made them glorious.
You look out here in these fall colors in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, and you don't look outside and say, hmm, that's kind of boring. You look outside and you say, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. You go out and look at the stars at night and you don't look and say, oh that's okay. You look and say, this is beyond amazement and what is it? It is the cosmos.
It is adorned with beauty, Orderly, rightly put together. All of God's creation is that way. And I think that the same is true with how God intended it to be for mankind. He gave men a desire and a calling to be specifically, clearly masculine and beautiful as God would have them to be. It refers to men in the scriptures as beautiful.
David in his ruddy youth. It speaks about Saul and his stature and his handsomeness. And obviously all those things are not as important as the hidden man of the heart, but they are addressed. And they're not always addressed as a negative. Right?
It talks about the daughters of Job being the fairest in all the land. It's referencing their beauty. A beauty that, if it's rightly and biblically understood, is a beauty that comes from an inward man. If Job was a man who eschewed evil and walked with God, the most righteous man in all of the East, we could assume that his beautiful daughters first and foremost had a heart of love and grace filled with the goodness of God. But it made manifest on the outside of the person.
God has made women beautiful and the adorning of that beauty is to enhance that beauty and not make it garish or ostentatious or flamboyant, but to have it be in a way that is accentuating the true beauty of the woman. In In 1st Timothy, a very similar passage to 1 Peter. This is Paul speaking to Timothy. He says about men, he says, I will that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting and in like manner also that women would adorn themselves in what? In modest apparel, with shame-facedness and sobriety, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array but which become of women professing godliness and good works this is very clearly it says in like manner the women that women adorn themselves first Peter says don't adorn yourself in certain way And here it says adorn yourself in modest apparel.
Modesty in the scriptures always has to do with covering one's nakedness. And I believe we live in a day and age where masculinity and femininity are continuing to be blurred and by the way ladies it's not just with the women. Men can wear very effeminate kind of clothing and it's not they don't have to be wearing a dress to do that. They can adorn themselves in a way that is not masculine, that is not pleasing to the Lord. Because it's hip and trendy doesn't mean it's right.
And I would say the same is true with women. And I'm not going to try to give you the standard for your family. You have to follow in submission to your husband, to your fathers, and they're going to set the standard. But I would just amplify this, it needs to be that which is godly, that which is feminine, that which is covering one's nakedness. That is what modesty is about.
And it also has to do with not being showy, not being ostentatious. This is particularly true in in a way and I think in the culture of the New Testament, if you were a woman of means, you could make every other woman who didn't have means feel very small because of the way you dress. Happens in our culture too, doesn't it? And women can look at a woman with means and the fact that she has everything just perfect. She has the right Couch bag, she has the right, if you have a couch bag, don't be afraid, alright?
She has the right bag, the right handbag, she has the right clothing from the right stores, and it may even be covering her, but her spirit is not modest. It may be perfectly, I hope you understand, It may be perfectly modest in the fact that it covers and it's feminine, but her spirit may be, I'm trying to show that I am the most beautiful woman in this room by how I behave myself, by how I dress, that everything is just perfect and everybody's going to want to be just like me. That is not modesty in outward adornment. The text before us, and I want to read a couple more from the Old Testament. I love the book of Ruth.
It's probably one of my favorite books, one of the favorite books I've ever preached through was the book of Ruth. And there's some really interesting passages in the book of Ruth. And some of them address the outward beauty. In Ruth chapter number three, it says, Then Naomi her mother-in-law said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee? Means, should I not find you a husband?
And now is not Boaz our kindred with whose maidens thou wast, behold he winnoweth barley to walk tonight in the threshing floor." She gives her some instructions. This is about adorning the outside of Ruth. We know that the inside of Ruth, the heart of Ruth, found in Ruth chapter 1, says, whether you go I will go, whether you lodge I will lodge your God shall be my God your people my people Right that the inward man is right her heart is to serve and now her mother says wash thyself Anoint thee put thy raiment upon thee and get thee down under the floor. But make not thyself known unto the man until he shall have done eating and drinking." Now, I'm not going to focus on the second half, but the first half is some real practical advice. He says, take a bath.
Anoint thee, it literally means to put on perfume. Make yourself smell nice. And then it says, and put thy raiment upon thee. She's telling her, take off your farm clothes and put on something beautiful as you go to see Boaz. We're all smiling and chuckling but we we we shouldn't think that this is bad.
It should go without saying but amongst Christians and non-christians alike hygiene should be something that's important right? Taking baths, cleansing oneself, putting on perfumes, and ladies, To say it's wrong to care for the outward adornment is, I believe, unbiblical. But to care for it first is. Okay, so here's Ruth. She has this heart to adorn herself.
Her mother, Naomi, teaches her to adorn herself in beautiful raiment and in caring for her cleanliness and putting on perfume. It's the outward man, but it first begins with the inward man. How about the Proverbs 31 woman? Does it say anything here about her external beauty? It says a lot about the things that she does that are beautiful, adorning her life, but it also talks about her, uh, Her coverings and the coverings for her household it says in verse 21 says she is not afraid of snow for her household For all her household are clothed with scarlet.
She maketh herself coverings of tapestry her clothing is silk and purple She's She's taking care of the outward beauty. I have a feeling the Proverbs 31 woman is not a woman who was dressed in a burlap sack. She was one who cared for the outward adornment of her physical beauty. And it was modest. It wasn't ostentatious.
But it was indeed beautiful. Continuing on in Proverbs 31, it says, Her husband is known in the gates when he sitteth among the elders and land. She maketh fine linen and selleth it and delivereth girdles into the merchant. Strength and honor are her clothing, and she rejoiceth in time to come. Women who are godly, holy women, should be adorned with the beautiful spirit within.
They should be adorned with beautiful modesty without. We shouldn't be gauging by the hottest cultural trends and fashions. At the same time, it doesn't mean it's wrong to be in style, as it were, in our culture. But to be modest is to be beautiful. But her adorning is not just about her clothing.
It's not about her hair alone, the hair that's given to her for her glory. It's also about the adornment of her speech. Nothing can take away the beauty of a woman faster than the way she talks. I live in the Pacific Northwest. It is not the Bible Belt.
And it is not uncommon, and I know I don't have this perception that in the South everybody's walking around in holiness and godliness, but it is a really ugly thing when you may see a beautiful woman and you hear her cussing like a sailor. It's something that is really distasteful. But you don't have to just cuss like a sailor for your speech not to be beautiful. Proverbs, again, since we're here, says in verse number 26, she openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness. Ladies, what is beautiful and what is an outward manifestation of an inward holiness comes from your mouth, comes from the words that you speak.
You realize that scripture says that life and death are in the power of the tongue? And as a godly woman, it's not just not saying cuss words that makes your speech beautiful. It's about the fact that you use your words to lift one another up. You use your words to encourage. I mentioned my grandma Houston and the times we would go to visit her and it didn't matter when we arrived.
She always had words of kindness. She never gave us the feeling that it's like, Errolite, why are you here? It's so late, you could have come tomorrow. It was like she was chipper when we walked through the door at midnight and said, dinner's ready, and the cinnamon rolls are in the oven. And her words were filled with grace and love and care.
In the book of Ruth, it speaks also of this. In Ruth chapter 2 and verse number 10, It says, Then she fell on her face and bowed herself to the ground and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger? And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been showed me all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine husband and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother and laid in the land of thy nativity and art come unto a people which thou knowest not hereto before." I think I just read the wrong verse. And verse 13 says, Then she said, Let me find favor in thy sight, my lord, for thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid, though I be not like one of thine handmaids." Here's Boaz. His language is filled with holiness, with a beauty, with a graciousness.
One of the verses that my wife likes to quote, having been in the ministry now for almost 18 years, There's a lot of times difficult circumstances and sometimes there's the flesh that wants to rise up and to really tell people what they need to hear. And when you're at that point you need to hold your tongue. In Proverbs 11 16 it says, a gracious woman retaineth honor. When you return an evil with good, even with your words, you retain honor. Your life should be adorned with beautiful speech, with a graciousness about you, and it makes a difference.
In her mouth is the law of kindness. You all know godly women whose words are so uplifting and so encouraging. You could probably also say you know women who though they may be beautiful on the outside their words are harsh sharp and bitter and it really takes away from her beauty. The hidden man of the heart brings forth a beauty that is both in the external, in the way in which they dress in modest apparel. It comes forth in the words in which they use.
It comes forth in the strength in which they exhibit. I know that we frequently don't, we think of men and their strength, but there are, there is a, I think a misconception about what true strength is. And I think that women are called to be women of great strength. They're to be adorned with strength. I think about my wife, she's brought forth 12 children expecting number 13.
I think about not only the bringing them forth, the strength that that required and the physical strength, but I think about the strength of seeking to be faithful, to raise and to nourish and to strengthen 12 children from the ages of 20 down to the age of almost two. There's a strength there. She keeps going and going and going. And it's to me beautiful because I know she's tired and I know she's worn And yet she strengthens her hands to help those who are in need. She not only cares for our children, she cares for others.
In verse 20 of the Proverbs 31, says, she stretches out her hand to the poor, yea she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. That's a woman of strength, a woman of dignity, and it is beautiful. When you care for people in need, when you reach your hand out to the poor and needy, it is something that adorns the beauty and the holiness of God. And I'm supposed to be done, So let me give you just quickly, women need to desire to be adorned lastly with the beautiful grace of God. I began this session by using an analogy of how infrequently today we hear the term used, he is a godly man or she is a godly woman and how maybe It's just a change of terminology and how people use language.
But in the scripture, it speaks of this woman in 1 Peter as the holy woman of old. To be like the holy woman of old, to be a godly woman, if you had a desire, it should be that you would be adorned with such beauty, with such godly beauty from the inward man manifesting itself in the outward man in the life of a beautiful holiness and modest apparel, and not an ostentatiousness, not in a worldly sense, but in a beautiful sense, magnifying the goodness of God. And that you would be adorned with strength that reaches out your hand to help those in need, and that you ultimately would desire to have your life adorned with the beautiful grace of God. Verse 29 of Proverbs 31 says, Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excelest them all. Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised.
Notice what the last verse says, give her of the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates. Her children rise up and call her blessed. The poor and the needy that she's helped are thankful. Pursue godliness. Pursue holiness in your life and your life will be adorned with the kind of beauty that God loves.
The kind of beauty that honors Him. Father, I pray that you take this lesson this morning, that you would encourage the women that are here in particular. I pray, Father, that you would help us as we go about our day, that we would have open hearts, we would have open ears, ready to hear, and ready to receive the messages that will be brought, and that we would be strengthened and encouraged in the inward man, and that that would be made manifest in the outward man. I pray, Father, that everyone that is here this morning, men and women, would recognize that just trying to make moral improvements, to have external trappings of what looks like a holy life, is empty and meaningless apart from the righteousness of Christ being in us and that we would develop and nurture day by day the inward man and that from the inward man would be made manifest a beautiful life adorned with holiness in every area I pray in Jesus name amen Thank you for your attention this morning. God bless you all.
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