The sermon explores the meaning of clothing in the Bible, emphasizing God's zeal to cover shame and the significance of the robe of righteousness. It discusses the role of clothing as a symbol of salvation and God's desire to cover the shame of sinners. The sermon also addresses the devil's attempt to slander the righteousness of God through clothing. The speaker highlights the importance of understanding the meaning of clothing in Genesis 3, where God provided tunics for Adam and Eve as a type of substitutionary atonement. Overall, the sermon emphasizes the biblical theology of clothing and its connection to the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

We're going to be reading from Isaiah 61. We're going to read Isaiah 61, starting in verse 10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God. For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation.

He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. Righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations." Then we're going to turn to Revelation 3. We're going gonna read Revelation 3 verse 5.

He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels." Let's pray. Oh Heavenly Father, Lord I pray that you would give us ears to hear what is spoken. Lord I pray that we would be attentive. Lord, I pray that we would set aside the things of the week, the things that are pressing on us. Lord, I pray that we would focus now.

Lord, that we would apply what we hear to our hearts. Amen. This message is the first of four, one this morning and then another tonight, another next Sunday morning, and then another on Sunday night. And this is the first of four messages on the doctrine of clothing that exists in the Bible. Most of the preaching that happens on this subject focuses on the word modesty, but I hope that we see that God has far, far more to say about this whole subject than what is just contained in the word modesty.

In fact, I think the word modesty actually underrates much of what the Bible speaks about regarding the doctrine of clothing. And I hope you have an outline in front of you that gives you a sense of this, but I want to give you seven areas that we'll be covering over these next four sessions. And the first is God's zeal to cover shame. And we have read this morning three representative passages that speak of that. Genesis 3 verse 7 and verse 13 and verse 21, Isaiah 61 verses 1 through 11, and Revelation 3 verse 5.

These are just representative passages of Scripture that speak of God's zeal to cover shame and what was from the very beginning the meaning of clothing. And if we're going to understand how we ought to think about our own clothing, it's pivotal that we begin at the beginning and we'll be focusing on that this morning. Then we'll also speak number two of God's zeal for beauty. We'll begin speaking of that I hope this evening. We'll be speaking from Exodus 28 verses 2 through 8, Psalm 45 verses 13 and 14, Isaiah 52, 1 and 2, and Isaiah 59, 17.

There are many passages of Scripture, way too many to list, and these speak of God's zeal for beauty. And thirdly, God's blessing of humility in clothing, and we learn from the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 9 and 10, and also an Old Testament passage that I believe is connected to it is Isaiah 3 verses 16 through 26, God's blessing of humility. Number four, God's care for unfading adornment. That's first Peter 3 verses 3 through 6 and then the fifth area is God's passion for purity and We find this in Proverbs 7 verses 4 through 27 Matthew chapter 5 verses 29 and 30 and many other places in the Bible as well. That's God's passion for purity in clothing.

And then number six, God's design for gender distinction in Deuteronomy chapter 22, verse five. There is such thing as male and female in this area of clothing. And then number seven, finally, God's favor for nonconformity because we're called not to be conformed to this world as we learn from Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2, from 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 through 7, 1 Corinthians 6, 13 through 20, Jeremiah 10 through 24, verse 2 through 4, and many other places. So we're going to be dealing with the whole doctrine of clothing in the Bible, and I think that we should recognize that the devil is the great distorter, he's the great accuser of the brethren, and what does the devil attack the most? He is the greatest accuser of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

He hates the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He hates the idea that sinners would stand clean and pure before God. He hates the idea that God would love sinners whom He has defiled. And so, He has taken clothing and He has used it to slander the righteousness of God. This is why there's such an attack not just on women and their clothing, but men also.

We'll speak at length about men's modesty as well, but let's be very clear. The reason that we struggle with clothing is that is that the the devil is the slander of the righteousness of God and so he will use every article of your clothing to slander the righteousness of God And so this is why we begin in Genesis. Now the doctrine of clothing in the Old and the New Testaments is easily traceable. The passages of Scripture in the Old Testament that speak to clothing, they all point to Jesus Christ and His righteousness. And they all point to the blood-bought children of God who are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

In the Old Testament, we find the original purpose of clothing which we'll focus on this morning. The clothing of the priests which is a figure and a type of what the New Testament priests should be thinking when they put on their clothing. It speaks of the allurement of clothing. It speaks of the beauty of clothing and how God desires beauty. And what we've been singing about and reading about all morning long, the robes of righteousness are foretold in the Old Testament.

When we enter into the New Testament, the instruction comes from both didactic and narrative texts, and there are specific commands that women in the church must abide by, and you find the Apostles Peter and the Apostle Paul speaking to this issue. I think it's very interesting that God appointed a fisherman to speak about women's clothing in 1 Peter 3, And he did do such a thing. And these passages of Scripture in the New Testament speak of the matter of modesty. There's a word in the New Testament that is translated modesty, and that's where we get that idea and the use of that term. We'll get to that next Sunday morning.

But in the New Testament, the apostles teach the church about how to dress. And so we learn that there is a biblical responsibility of elders to instruct the church on how she dresses. And 1 Timothy 2 particularly makes it clear that elders are required to teach on this subject because in that letter the Apostle Paul is instructing Timothy, who's a pastor in the church of Ephesus, to teach women how they ought to dress. He's concerned, yes, God is actually concerned not just about your heart, but He is actually concerned about what you put on your body as a result of what is in your heart. So we find really apostolic instruction for the clothing of both men and women.

You know, there's much in the New Testament that we see that's very remarkable. We learn that the garments of Jesus Christ Himself in the New Testament are used for healing. In Mark chapter 5 verses 27 to 30, you have the woman with the issue of blood. She's healed by the touching of Jesus' garments. In Luke chapter 8, you learn about the Gadarene demoniac, and We learn there that his renewed soul is pictured by being clothed and in his right mind.

Because this is what Jesus does. He clothes you and He puts you in your right mind. And The devil is the slanderer of that act of the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ alone. There's one single reason why clothing has always been a battleground and it's because the devil wants to slander the righteousness of Jesus Christ and He wants to use every stitch of your clothing, every thought of your mind, everything you say in order to slander the righteousness of God that is in Jesus Christ. That's why it's such a hot issue.

And you know, when I think about this whole subject, it makes me...about what the Bible says about clothing, it makes me realize that I grew up in some really weird times in evangelicalism. I don't think I ever heard anybody preach on this subject or even speak of it in a church until I was 45 years old. How about that? Now maybe That's because I grew up in Southern California. I'm not sure why that happened.

I know that's not true for all of you, but it certainly was true for me. So I'm sort of new to the game in a lot of ways in that sense as a Christian. I went a long way. I went many, many years being insensible as a Christian to this whole matter and So as I continued to read the Bible I began to bump into the truth of God So so I'm I'm grateful for that. I mean we're witnessing today what Jeff Pollard calls the public undressing of America and there's a reason that's happening and it's because the devil is the slanderer of the righteous robes of Jesus Christ and you're because your clothes your clothing has meaning and You know we're experiencing the effects of this gender blender culture where there's no male or no female, and you have this whole, you know, metrosexual mentality that people are embracing and that men don't need to dress like men and women don't need to dress like women.

This is totally contrary to the Word of God. And the reason is the devil is the slanderer of the robes of Jesus Christ. And actually, the meaning of clothing, that was communicated at the very beginning, and then you can draw a thread all through the Bible, all the way to Revelation, and the thread remains consistent, that clothing is a pointer to the righteous robes of Jesus Christ. Our approach is going to be biblical in the sense that we're going to focus on the biblical texts and what they say. When you hear most people speak of the matter of clothing or if they use the word modesty, They typically go straight to applications.

That's not what we'll be doing here in this. There will be plenty of applications. I'll give you my thoughts about some of these things, and because this doctrine is meant to be applied. But my first objective is that you understand what the Bible actually says. Don't cut to the applications until you really understand what the words say and what they mean, lest you find yourself just a Pharisee doing what somebody else told you to do.

And so it's very important that our focus on this subject are on...will be on the texts of Scripture. And I just pray that all of us would be able to do what James appeals to us to do, receive with meekness the implanted word. That's what we need to do in this whole matter. Because what you find about the text of Scripture is that they really don't speak very much to the details of women's clothing, although the apostles do speak to very particular areas, you find that the instruction really is designed to guide your heart and your life toward the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's really the foundation of it all.

So you won't be hearing me tell you how close your skirt needs to be to your knee. It's not going to happen, but you are going to hear the words of God spoken that will, should inform you about however many inches whatever is from whatever because this stuff is actually meant to be applied. I pray that our time in these texts, you'll find to be a manifestation of pastoral care, of love. Every word of God is a word of love, and I pray that you sense that and that we will grow in love as a result. Here's what we learned a few months ago from the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13.

Without love, you ain't nothing. And so If this would cause us to grow in our love for God, our adoration for Him, our sense of gratitude and joy in the righteous robes of Jesus Christ, then we will have found ourselves going in the right direction. And so what we learn here from Genesis to Revelation is God actually does care how you dress and He has issued commands and He's given us very clear instruction about the meaning of clothing. So I want us to really focus in on the texts of Scripture and hang there and then seek the Lord about how each individual might apply these things to their lives. So this first section here that we're going to cover it focuses on God's zeal to cover shame and how clothing is a symbol of salvation and God's delight to actually cover the shame of sinners I I hope you understand that very personally, that God has delighted to cover your shame.

He has done that. Did you ever think of His mercy like that? He delights to cover your shame. And in these passages that we've read in Genesis chapter 3 and in Isaiah 61 and in Revelation 3 through 5 We see these these things that are here now these three passages of Scripture are just data points along the trail of what could be called the biblical theology of clothing. They're just representative passages of Scripture, but they're consistent with the rest of Scripture.

So what is this whole issue of clothing really about? And what we learn is that the salvation of a sinner's soul is pictured in the exchange of garments. It's pictured in the exchange of garments, and He gives you His robes for yours, like the song we just sang declares. And so the great designer, God Himself, has designed clothing as part of this typological fabric of Scripture that all points to the righteous robes of Jesus Christ. Now, this is very consistent with so many other things we see in the Bible where Scripture gives us many things to illustrate the power of the gospel.

We've sang about many of these things already. We're going to celebrate the Lord's Supper which...in which we deal with the bread and the wine and, you know, the bread means something greater than bread. The wine means something greater than wine. A door means something greater than a door. A tree means something greater than a tree.

The sky means something greater than the sky. Okay, why? Because God has placed in His creation pointers and they all point to the righteousness of God that is in Jesus Christ. So the doctrine of clothing is really no different than any other doctrine. And it's amazing that God has done this, that He's given deeper meanings to everything.

God is very deep. He wants to take you into regions of thinking and feeling that you could not know on your own. So He places these things to take you somewhere. When you see a door, it's meant to take you somewhere. And when you see your clothing, it's meant to take you somewhere.

And it's very clear where it is that He desires to take us. And, of course, this matter of clothing, it really does summarize the entire message of Scripture in demonstrating God's zeal to save sinners and to wrap them in His holy and in His beautiful garments. And God is a merciful God. And so what we see here in Genesis is symbolic of the robes of righteousness. You know, even we see this, you know, in the New Testament, even in the church of Laodicea, the Apostle John in Revelation 3, he says, don't you know that you are naked and poor and wretched and then he says he says buy from me garments refined by fire and The Lord the Lord is replacing our ashes with His beauty.

He is replacing our garments with His garments. And that's why Isaiah says that the Lord Jesus came to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." The garment of praise. A garment that declares the praises of God. How about that? This is why the devil is slandering the righteousness of God through really everything, and he desires to do that through our clothing as well.

You know, in this passage Isaiah is just overcome with the joy of this transformation that the gospel accomplishes. It's very personal to him. And so in chapter 61 he says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." Isn't that amazing?

Isaiah's overcome with this whole understanding of the meaning of the fabric that God has laid upon him, but it's a spiritual fabric that has connection and meaning to physical fabric. And this is why we read in the book of Revelation, he who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments. And so this is the power of the gospel. The naked will be clothed, the exposed will be protected, the ugly will be beautified. This is what God does for sinners, And this is why God created clothing.

It's amazing, isn't it? And these longings of the human soul to be clothed and to be beautified, to be protected, they really are somewhat satisfied by clothing. God gave us clothing to help us to understand what He does for us. He protects us. He makes us beautiful and He covers our shame.

And it's such a marvelous meditation. We need to recognize that God is the great clothing designer. And He has designed that your outer garments would come from A design that arises in your heart, it arises from the heart, a heart that has been cleansed, a heart that loves purity and modesty. And so It really speaks to what the Apostle Paul referred to in 2 Corinthians 5 verses 4 and 5, where we're earnestly grown and we want to be clothed. But what's the solution?

That we become the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This is how the Apostle Paul speaks of it. He says, now, all things are of God who reconciles us to Himself through Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation." That is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. And then he says, For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Well, this righteousness of God is such a...it's the true blessing and this is why the devil is attempting to slander the righteousness of God through clothing.

And So we must understand what this is all about. Now, having this as sort of an interpretive grid, we go back to Genesis and understand why the prophets and the Apostles speak this way about clothing. Why is it that Jesus Christ is the robe of righteousness? Why are we clothed with Christ? Genesis chapter 3 tells us so let's go there.

I hope your Bibles are open there in Genesis chapter 3 You know Genesis is the book of beginnings. It's the beginning of sin, it's the beginning of manhood and womanhood, and by the way, it's the beginning of clothing. If you want to teach your children the primary thrust of the book of Genesis, it is the war...it's summarized in the word beginnings. And in Genesis we find this foundational beginning understanding of the doctrine of clothing. And if you don't understand these two chapters in the Bible, you really won't be able to understand why clothing.

And you won't understand what the word modesty even means, And you won't understand why it's inappropriate just to cut to the applications first because you've got to understand the foundation the heart matter that exists here and What we find here is that before the fall, Adam and Eve were not ashamed. Not ashamed. That terminology is very critical. In Genesis 2, 25, they were living in the perfections of the Garden of Eden. And we read, And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

So before the fall there was no sin, and therefore there was no shame. There was no lust, there was no uncomfortability for lack of clothing. Scripture tells us that sin is the reason that clothing was needed for the body. So Adam and Eve's hearts depart from true worship and they experience shame for the first time. And we find this in verse 7, then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings." This is in Genesis 3 verse 7.

So they recognized that they had shame, and they made clothes for themselves. They were pierced to the heart about their nakedness and they took steps to deal with their shame. They took steps that seemingly, immediately Adam and Eve jumped into action to deal with their shame. You know, it seems strange that they were ashamed. First of all, they were in a perfect place.

Second, they were married. Third, there was no one else present. Fourth, there was no cultural presence to make them feel really out of place socially. It was something deep. It had to do with something that had happened in the heart.

It wasn't their external circumstances or pressures or temptations. It was something from the heart. And the reason that they were ashamed is stated in verse 10 we learned the reason they were ashamed and The reason they were ashamed is that God was looking upon them And I think it's implied that God was looking into their hearts, and they were ashamed at what God was witnessing in their hearts and in their behavior. And they heard the voice of God in the garden. He was walking with them in the garden, and He's speaking to them, and their hearts are pierced and they are ashamed.

And so what did they do? Well they began to design their own clothing in their own way and they exercise their expertise by choosing materials that they thought were appropriate and putting them together in order to cover their private parts. And that's why we read, they knew that they were naked and they sowed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. That's what they did. Now, I want you to notice something in this.

It was Adam who addressed his nakedness first, not God. Adam jumped on the problem. And they went to a fig tree and they made what the King James Version of the Bible calls a loin cloth. And, you know, if you've seen too many movies, you have all these thoughts about what a loin cloth is I don't know exactly what it is but the language makes it clear that they only covered part of their nakedness and they selected particular parts in order to cover so when when they sewed fig leaves for themselves they were they were in their own minds partially naked. And so they created these aprons, if you will.

Some have said that fig leaves would have been very uncomfortable to wear, not like silk or cotton, but they were scratchy and uncomfortable like sandpaper. I think it was Nancy Lee DeMoss said that in her book on modesty, which I highly recommend. And so Adam and Eve conceived of a way to feel better about themselves through clothing of their own invention. Well, all that was well and good, except for one thing. God was not pleased with the way that they conceived of clothing themselves.

He did not believe their invention was appropriate, And so God was not pleased with their fashion. And I think we should recognize that that often is the case in our society, that the fashions of the day may not be fashionable to God, and God is the one that we are designed to please. And so they, God was displeased, they were continuing in their independence. What they did with their clothing was just an extension of what they did with the tree of good and evil. They wanted to live life their own way.

They wanted their autonomy. They wanted to do their own thing. Their clothing was a representation of doing their own thing. They wanted to be who they wanted to be. They wanted a look that they were pleased with.

And in doing such a thing, they really exposed how the devil really works in all of us regarding our clothing. We want to create a look. We want it to be about us. We want to invent something that really looks just fantastic." And that was their impulse. Their new autonomy revealed their own self-righteousness.

Nick Batzig, who wrote a short biblical theology of clothing, speaks of it this way. By nature, man now seeks to self-righteously cover himself instead of turning to God for pardon and covering. Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. This futile attempt became the symbol of all self-righteousness and attempts of human effort to bring oneself into a right standing before God, there are a thousand different ways in which man seeks to cover himself. And so we find first of all the inadequacy of their own clothing.

And we, they did something that would always be the tendency of the human heart, and that is to try to create our own moral code for our own glory and to have a sense of self-righteousness in everything that we do. And it happens, you know, whenever you stand in the mirror and you look at what you might wear, and there are questions that come to your mind. And it's very difficult for us to think rightly about it, and what are we trying to accomplish? Are we seeking our own glory? What is it that we're doing when we put clothing on our bodies?

And so Adam acted, he acted on his outward appearance. I think that's critical to understand. He acted on his outward appearance instead of his heart. Adam was dealing with his shame through his outward appearance. You know, man knows that he falls short and he deals with it in his own ways and he invents his own solutions.

And so, on the contrary, God approached the whole matter completely differently. He did not begin with the outward appearance at all. God began with Adam's heart. And so, he didn't deal with Adam's clothing first. He went first of all and addressed Adam in terms of his spiritual condition.

And God had a different issue than the one that Adam was concerned with, and he addressed the inward matter of the heart before he addressed the outward matter. He did address the outward matter, but not first. And their hearts desired something different than what God had provided. They were not satisfied with what God had provided, and they wanted something beyond that. And so in Genesis 3, verses 11 through 13, you see how God first and foremost was interested in penetrating Adam's heart before he provided him new clothes.

And so that's why we read in verse 11. And God said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?" So he goes to the heart of the matter. Man's heart did not want the commandments of God. And then the man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate.

And the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you have done?" So God is addressing their rebellious hearts before He addresses their inventions and their clothing. And so while Adam started with his outward appearance, God started with his heart because as we learn in Samuel, man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. You know, Jesus said in Matthew, in John 15, 19, out of the heart of man comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. And so God begins with what Adam's heart treasures. That's the key issue there.

And God takes Adam to the heart of the matter, because if the matters of the heart are not central, then we create a Christless, really hopeless culture about clothing in our homes and in our churches. It'll be a culture where obedience from the heart is a foreign concept because you can put on clothing, you know that. You can put on any kind of clothing to look any way you want, to please any way you want to please. Your heart doesn't have to be engaged at all. All you have to do is go and put on that clothing, and the heart doesn't have to be engaged.

Some of the most immodest people on the outside are the most immodest on the inside, and Sometimes it's the other way around as well. The most modest people on the outside can be the most immodest on the outside because you can fix your clothes. God does deal with Adam's clothes, but He first of all deals with his heart, and He provided him new clothes. So that's why we read, also for Adam and his wife, the Lord made tunics and clothed them so God declares the inadequacy of their outward clothing and He provides clothing for them. Now the word tunic is translated in other places as coats or garments and they usually refer to clothing that covers pretty much the whole body and so they made tunic or God made tunics for them.

Jonathan Edwards makes a very interesting comment. This clothing was not clothing of their own obtaining, but it was God that gave it to them. So it was God that gave them a tunic, something different than a loincloth. So this brings us to the whole matter of making distinctions. It's right to make distinctions between various kinds of clothing.

Some clothing God is pleased with, some clothing God is not pleased with. I think you can draw that as a conclusion for sure. Here you find in this tunic that God made was the first animal sacrifice. An animal died in order to clothe a sinner to cover that sinner's shame. And so the clothing, this tunic is a type of substitutionary atonement.

It's a type of the death of one for the life of another. And it's a type of one taking on shame for someone else. It's a type of the gospel. So this initiative that God takes where an innocent animal dies for a guilty sinner is called by theologians proto evangelium. You got that?

Proto evangelium. There's a technical theological term that describes what God did in giving Adam new clothing, proto evangelium. You got that? Maybe you can learn how to say that in your house. This is nothing but proto evangelium.

Well, what does that mean? Well proto means first and evangelia means gospel or first gospel. This is the first glimpse of the gospel as God meets man and his sinfulness. The first glimpse of the gospel of Jesus Christ is a substitute that dies an animal that is killed so that the shame of another would be covered. This is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And anybody who talks about...uses this word modesty, they really ought to think about this issue here because this really is the beginning and the heart of the whole matter. It speaks of redemption. It's about God's zeal to cover shame, and He moves in order to express his mercy toward sinners. Again let me quote Jonathan Edwards when he comments on how God covered the nakedness of Adam and Eve. "'Our first parents who were naked were clothed at the expense of life.

Beasts were slain and resigned up their lives, a sacrifice to God, to afford clothing for Him to cover their nakedness. So doth Christ, to afford clothing for our naked souls, the skin signifies the life." So Job says, skin for skin, life for life. Thus our first parents were covered with skins of the sacrifice, as the tabernacle in the wilderness, which signified the church, was when it was covered with ram's skins, died red, as though they were dipped in blood, to signify that Christ's righteousness was wrought out through the pains of death under which he shed his precious blood. So this is the first gospel, the first representation of the gospel. And so it speaks of this great exchange where the exchange of Adam's clothing signifies the exchange that salvation requires.

One must change their clothes to become a child of God. One must be born again. You must be born again. You must have new clothes. You know, Jesus tells a parable of people who show up to the wedding party and they don't have the right clothes on.

They're not dressed in wedding garments because garments are a type of salvation. And this is why The devil desires to slander the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ through clothing. The devil would use your clothing to distract and to cause impure thoughts. The devil would use your clothing as a means to glorify yourself and make a name for yourself. This is how the devil desires to slander the righteousness of God that is in Jesus Christ.

He takes a back door, doesn't he? Because he's crafty. He's a roaring lion that sneaks around, and he comes around through the back door, and he does something with clothing that seems to be a separate issue. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with anything. It's just physical, but God says, no, it's not just physical.

It points to the righteous robes of Jesus Christ. You know, what kind of garment was this tunic? You know, you can picture it like this. There's a large animal skin that has been skinned, and if you cut a hole in the middle of that skin and then sew the sides down. That is a tunic.

That was the kind of clothing that God provided. And we don't know how many inches from the knee or the ankle the tunic went. We don't know. It may have depended on the size of the animal. It might have depended on the size of the person.

I don't know. We're not told what this tunic looked like. I don't see anybody in tunics today actually now, you know Many modern dresses are sort of like tunics, you know, there's a hole in the top and it's sewn down the side That's kind of like a tunic, right? But the clothing proclaims a threefold testimony. First of all, it tells of the glory we lost in the fall.

Second, it tells of God's zeal to cover our shame. And by the way, let me read these words by John Piper on the second point. "'Our clothes are a witness both to our past and our present failure and to our future glory. They testify to the chasm between what we are and what we should be, and they testify to God's merciful intention to that bridge, that chasm through which Jesus Christ and his death for our sins. So your clothing reminds you of the struggle, doesn't it?

Who am I? What should I wear? It always challenges that question. What should I wear? And it makes you, it ought to remind us of that problem that we have today.

To glorify ourselves or to glorify sexuality or to try to use it as a lure. It should remind us of that tension. And every time a man or a woman looks in the mirror, if men even look in the mirror, They ought to ask that question, what is this designed for? Now when we get to the whole matter of male modesty, I think we'll see that all these things apply directly to males as well. So first of all, it tells the glory we lost in the fall.

Second, it tells of God's zeal to cover shame. And third, it's a picture of justification by faith and final glorification in heaven. That is the meaning of clothing. Okay, now I'm gonna just give you a few conclusions here. First of all, we need clothing because of sin.

Our sin must be, our shame must be covered, and our clothing is a picture of the atonement that is in Jesus Christ. The beginning of clothing is the beginning of the communication of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So God does desire to cover our nakedness, and we have to recognize There is a doctrine of nakedness in the Bible, and there are many places that we could go. It's a long study and it's an important study, but nakedness matters in the Bible, and revealing nakedness matters to God, and this is one of the critical matters. And that's why in Leviticus chapter 18 verses 6 and 7, it's sin to look upon the nakedness of family members, not your wife or your husband.

There's the sin of uncovering the nakedness of Noah in Genesis chapter 9. There are many places we can go to understand the covering of nakedness. But even the priests had to be aware of this, And in Exodus 28, 42 we learn that they were commanded to make linen breeches to cover their nakedness from the loins even unto the thighs. So there's this matter of covering nakedness that's critical. You know, we still believe that for sure.

I mean, it's a crime to run around completely naked. You will be prosecuted for doing that today. We're still left with some level of shame in this, our culture, but it's diminishing for sure. And in pagan cultures, it does diminish until finally it ends in almost complete nakedness. Now most tribal cultures that end up in nakedness, they end up pretty much like Adam and Eve were in the garden with their loincloths.

But there's a trajectory that goes on. So, God gave clothing to conceal, not reveal. That's just a principle that all men and women should recognize. And it's shameful to reveal the naked body, but in our culture, it's a virtue to reveal it because if you've got it, you should flaunt it, right? That's sort of what our culture says.

The whole fashion industry is built on that principle, but Christian culture is not built on that principle at all. God gave clothing to conceal rather than to reveal. You go to the shopping malls and you look at the clothing and you walk the streets and the beaches and you see what folks are wearing and you would think that the purpose of clothing is to reveal actually, not to conceal. But that's not the way God designed it in Christian culture. In other words, Christians are actually going to look different.

They are. And we'll get to some other passages of Scripture that really speak to that very clearly. The second thing I think we should know is that there is an acceptable and unacceptable clothing before God. There are people that say, only your heart matters. That is not true.

Your clothing does matter. God is pleased and unpleased with clothing. And we'll talk about matters of the heart, you know, as we pursue this study, but there is acceptable and unacceptable clothing and because outward appearance is a parable. It either tells the story of the grace of God or it tells a story of a desperate attempt of man to glorify himself and to clothe himself his own way. It's either self-righteousness or it's the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

A question we should ask is, you know, who's my fashion designer? God corrected His fashion-designing children, and so we should always ask, Who's my fashion designer? And we should remember what John says to the church in Laodicea, he says, buy from me white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed. Because you say, I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing. And do you not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked?

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eye-sab that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and He with me.

He who overcomes, I grant to sit with me on my throne." So the heart of Christianity is not self-exaltation. The heart of Christianity is the exaltation of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And this is why God gave us garments. So in Genesis 3 we learn about the meaning of clothing, don't we? There it is.

And it's necessary that we understand what it means. And you know, the hymn writers have picked this up. I'm sure you've noticed it. Augustus Toplety captured the same message in his hymn that we sang this morning, Rock of Ages. "'Nothing in My hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.

Naked, come to Thee for dress, helpless, look to Thee for grace, foul eye to the fountain fly, wash me Savior, or I die." Or the song we sang earlier, His robe's for mine, His robe's for mine, a wonderful exchange clothed in my sin, Christ suffered neath God's rage. Draped in His righteousness, I'm justified. In Christ I live, for in my place He died. His robes for mine." That's the meaning of clothing. It's the heart of the matter It's the beginning of it all and that's why on a morning like today to celebrate the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ We can say what Isaiah said my soul shall be joyful in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation.

He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.î What a blessing. Now I realize that this morning I haven't answered every question you have about this word modesty, and I didn't intend to. We must understand what this matter of clothing is all about and why it is such a struggle today for everyone. It's a struggle because the devil is a slanderer of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And there's a tension that we all feel when we deal with the matter of clothing, but that is a tension because of the diabolical, slanderous attack against Jesus Christ and His righteousness.

Because God, because the devil doesn't want people who humbly follow what God would say. The devil wants inventors who will invent their own life for their own glory any way they want to go find their own look rather than to find all of their identity in Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ alone Would you pray with me? Lord Lord your your your ways are deep. They're beautiful Lord that you would clothe unrighteous sinners with the robes of righteousness is incomprehensible that we would become the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, it doesn't make sense to us because your love is so great.

I pray that you would Make us a people here today who sow joy in the righteous robes of Jesus. Lord, make this a day of rejoicing and happiness like we've never had before. Take us further into the heights of the joy that we have in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Lord, let Your righteousness flow. Let Your robes, Your beautiful robes, cover Your people.

Lord, if anyone is unclothed here, please, oh Lord, Lord, I pray that You would, You would give them a heart to be clothed, that they would long for your clothing, that they would begin to see how unprofitable it is to create their own life, but how sweet it is to find all of their righteousness in you, in you alone. And Lord, I pray in that way, you would make this church a modest church. Amen.