The sermon explores the concept of modesty in clothing and its implications for Christians. It emphasizes that clothing should be a means to glorify God, rather than exalt oneself. The passages highlight the importance of inner beauty, humility, and a gentle and quiet spirit. Immodesty is seen as a manifestation of self-exaltation and a distraction from the glory of God. Modesty, on the other hand, is expressed through appropriate, reserved, and sensible clothing that reflects a heart transformed by the gospel.

Praise be to the Lord that we are bough by such as love. We are covered by his righteousness. Now we are his people. Okay, let's read 1 Timothy 2, 9, and 10. Is the first text.

In like manner also, that the woman adorn themselves in modest appearance, with propriety and moderation, not with brighter hair or gold or pearls or costly cotton clothing, by which is proper for women professing godliness with good works." Let's go to 1 Peter 3, 3 to 6. 1 Peter 3, 3 to 6. Do not let your adornment be merely outward, arranging the hair, wearing gold or putting on fine apparel. Rather, let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the uncorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. For in this manner, in former times, the holy woman who trusts in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husband.

As Sarah obey Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror. Let's go to 1st Corinthians 6 20. For you were bowed at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Father, we thank you Lord, that you're so merciful. We thank you that many of us, we are bowed by your love, by your grace.

Oh Father, I pray for you to do this same thing today, Lord, for those who are not your own. For those who are far from you, Lord, I do pray that you cover them with your righteousness and call them to be yours. Oh, Father, I pray that you open our ears to hear your word. We need the instruction of your word, Father. I pray that you help us to listen and to hear carefully for what you have for us.

In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. The Lord is so kind to rescue His people from their own glory and to to replace their glory with with his glory. You know, where did living for our own glory ever really get us anyway? Where did it get us?

It always got us into more and more trouble. And the passages of scripture that we're dealing with this morning really have to do with the glory of God and either diminishing it or displaying it. And it's very interesting, you know, to be preaching these two texts today, you know, as tomorrow America's experiencing a solar eclipse here in Raleigh about 93 percent, maybe 94 percent of the sun will be eclipsed by the moon. It begins at 1.16 tomorrow and goes on for about two hours and 49 minutes. But what is a solar eclipse?

It's where a smaller object, in this case, the moon gets in the way of a larger object. And how is it that a smaller object can obliterate a larger object? After all, the Sun is 400 times larger than the Moon. How could something 400 times smaller obliterate the light of something that's 400 times larger? Well, the sun is 400 times farther away than the moon is from us.

And so, its distance and it creates its ability to get in the way, the distance between the moon and the sun. And you know, as I work through these passages of Scripture today, I think it'll become clear that a solar eclipse can really be a good illustration of the same kind of thing that can happen with our clothing, that the way we dress can really hide the rays of the sun of God's glory. While they were meant by God to be an outward display of God's zeal to cover shame and to reflect the beauty and the humility of a quiet spirit and the purity of manhood and womanhood and purity between man and woman. These things so easily obliterate the glory of God and they become tools of self exaltation and temptations to lust. They hide the glory of God rather than exalt it.

Clothing was designed by God to declare the beauty of holiness as we're clothed in the righteousness of God, to declare the beauty of manhood and womanhood and the beauty of purity and all these things. But what these two passages teach, among many other things, is that clothing can get in the way of the glory of God. And that's one of the great points that we find here, that in the same way that a smaller object, the moon, hides the larger object, the sun, in a solar eclipse, so can our clothing be used to distract from the glory of God and even obliterate the rays of the beauty of God and his righteousness And so what the Lord is communicating in these two texts, I think is summed up in Paul's teaching to the Corinthian Church in 1st Corinthians 6 verse 20 where he says you are not your own For you were bought with a price so glorify God with your body." In that verse is a direct command to take action, to do something, to glorify God in your body, to take an active role in using your body for the glory of God.

And the reasons are given for this command. And there are two. First, you were bought with a price. And second, you are not your own. These are the reasons that it's right for us to glorify God in our bodies.

And so the message here this morning on 1 Timothy 2, 9 and 10 and 1 Peter 3, 3 through 6, speak about the purpose and the doctrine of clothing and the implications for how people ought to clothe themselves, how Christians ought to clothe themselves. Now it's a difficult subject and it's difficult to find yourself in any good place when you preach on this. In Jeff Pollard's book, The Public Undressing of America, he says that whoever approaches the subject of modesty will be either, he'll either be judged a legalist or a libertarian by his audience. That's what's going to happen, he predicts. And he says it's costly for a man of God to broach the subject, and he might end up like Ishmael, where every man's hand is lifted up against him.

So I realize the danger, but I think we have the words of Scripture to really hold us in line, and that really is a blessing. So we've been speaking about this subject, and so far we've wanted to lay a foundation to make sure that our understanding of modesty is clearly grounded in Scripture and not our own ideas about it and that we spoke of the fact that you know when it comes to clothing and everything else Satan is the great distortion machine he always wants to distort what God has created for good. And he does it with marriage, he does it with sexuality, he does it with everything. He wants to distort it, use it for a wrong purpose, so that man's glory is exalted and his glory is affirmed rather than God's. And so we really are trying to focus on the words of Scripture, you know, in this study.

And what I've encouraged you to do is first of all, bathe your minds in the words of Scripture. Understand what the Bible actually says about this. Understand the context of the Scripture, and then move to the applications. It's critical that we move to the applications, but the applications must arise directly out of the words of scripture. Our prayer is that our thoughts would be cleansed and washed by the water of the Word, and that we would take time to really soak our minds on the words of Scripture so that we would think even more biblically than we did before.

Most of the people here have heard sermons on modesty, really good ones, but as it turns out, we're never really done in considering how the glory of God is meant to be displayed in our lives. And so, in the first two messages, we've covered two really critical foundational areas and and that is first of all that The original reason God provided Clothing in the first place was to cover shame. So clothing has a meaning and It's explained in Genesis 3 Clothing was an act of the mercy of God to cover shame. Isn't God so kind to cover your shame? And that is the meaning of clothing, not to expose shame or expose nakedness.

And that's why God clothed his sinning saints in robes of righteousness. And then he created clothing for beauty, that God does desire beauty, not ugliness of his people, and their outer beauty should reflect their inner beauty, and their inner beauty should create their outer beauty. So we talked about beauty. And now we turn to these two passages of scripture that speak of two different things and they use many of the same words and so let's you know engage these two texts and today I'd like to show us from these passages how clothing is designed by God for even more than just to declare His holiness and His robes of righteousness, even more than beauty, although these passages speak of it. But they are designed to point to the humility that the gospel creates and the trust that the gospel creates.

And then tonight we'll speak of the matter of gender distinction that God creates through clothing and the purity that God promotes through clothing and then finally the distinction from the world that God establishes in his children. So that's tonight and we'll get down to more specific applications tonight. Now when you get to 1st Timothy 2 and 1st Peter 3, what you find here is an apostolic dress code. It is true that the apostles have come and they have prescribed particular things about clothing that ought to be true. These are two New Testament didactic texts.

In other words, they are teaching texts. They are not narratives as we find and we've covered in other places. But these two passages are very clear and they are some of the deepest and broadest and most definitive sections on the matter of modesty in the Bible. So let's begin with this first text, 1 Timothy 2, 9 and 10. I hope you have your Bibles open for this.

And this first text really speaks about a public profession of godliness that God has given clothing for a particular purpose, for a public profession of faith. That's why God gave you clothing. It's part of a public profession. Everybody can see it. You do it every day.

There's hardly anything more common than putting on clothing And in the life of any person and it's interesting that God gives these pictures everywhere things that are just normal They happen every day you drink water It should remind you of the water of life When you see a light bulb it should remind you that Jesus is the light of the world and when you put on clothing it should remind you of many things because there's a parable and so many things that God has put in the world and the commonest thing of putting on clothing actually should remind you of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the purpose of clothing. Now if you have 1st Timothy 2 open I'd like you to look at verse 1 because there is a context here that we need to pay attention to And there he uses the word therefore in verse 1 at the very beginning of this instruction about modesty and why does he say therefore and he uses this word because he's continuing a previous thought and the previous thought centers around Paul's exhortations for the behavior of the church in relation to their public life, particularly their public life before unbelievers.

And what Paul is doing is he's calling the church to humility for the sake of the gospel in front of a watching world. And it has to do with how you dress, actually. And then In verse 1 he says, therefore, so he's been speaking of this matter, therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority. So Paul states the reason for this instruction and it is that we would be praying for kings who are in authority. Why?

He states the reason why we ought to pray that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior." And then he says, even more clearly why these instructions are coming, he identifies the most important reason for his writing these things, and he's writing so that all men would be saved through receiving the knowledge of the truth, the knowledge of the mediator, Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a sacrifice for sins. Verse 4, for who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Jesus Christ. So this instruction about clothing has its wider context in the appeal that Paul's making to make sure that the gospel is communicated in everything so that all men might be saved and that they might come to this one mediator, Jesus Christ, who is the only mediator between God and man. And so, Paul is saying that men should pray and women are to dress in a particular way that displays the humility of those who follow Christ.

And this is the spirit of modesty. And so the Apostle Paul gives this broad instruction about why he's saying what he's saying. He's saying what he's saying because the gospel is at stake. Did you ever think that there is some way in which the gospel actually is at stake by what you wear? It matters that much.

And so verse 8 then sets the stage for his teaching on women's clothing. But in verse 8 we find him talking about men first. It's often that we skip verse 8 and go straight to verse 9. We go to the passage on women, but we don't and we miss the context. Verse 8 he says, I desire therefore that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands without wrath and without doubting.

So the first matter of the protection of the communication of the gospel is the way men pray in the church. And what he is saying is that men can lift up their hands in prayer and not be praying in humility, and it damages the progress of the gospel. And he says that they should be lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. In other translations it's translated wrath and dissension. But the focus of 1 Timothy 2, 8 is the pride of men.

He speaks first of all how pride in men expresses itself in the way that they pray. And then he turns to women And he speaks about how pride and self-exaltation expresses itself in the clothing of women. So he speaks to both men and women about this matter of modesty. Modesty is not just a woman thing. It's a man and a woman thing.

And Modesty is expressed in different ways in men compared to women. And so he's speaking of men who are praying, but they're harboring anger in their hearts, and their behaviors are disrupting the church and it harms the gospel. They have wrath and doubting. And they have two things going on. Perhaps, or it may actually be one thing that he's speaking of, but he's speaking of men who are harboring anger while they are praying.

And they are prone to wrath. They are prone to pray, but They are not praying in humility. They have ought against a brother. They have pride against a brother. And they're praying at the same time as they're harboring dissension in their hearts.

And it's a way that a man is immodest. In other words, the humility of his heart is not expressed in the way that he is praying. And these holy hands refer to pure hands. There are two biblical words for holy, and the first word is the word that indicates separation, that's not this word. This is the word that indicates purity.

In other words, this is a man whose hands are clean. He's praying and his hands are clean. He's a repentant man. He's a humble man. He's not standing like the publican in the open square and beating his chest trying to be such a big shot in praying in public.

And he's not exalting himself. He rather has a heart of humility. He's come before the Lord and he sees his own sin. And in the midst of that, he's praying with a sense of his own unrighteousness. He's not praying self-righteously.

Self-righteous men who are angry toward their brothers are hindrances to the gospel of Jesus Christ." I think that's one thing that he's saying here among many others. And you know, how can anyone pray with purity? How can anyone pray in purity? I mean, there are probably two answers to that. Well, no one can pray in purity except for one thing, except for the purity that is given through Jesus Christ.

And that's why it's only through a genuine confession of our sins. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's the only way a man can pray with holy hands. It's only by repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ that anyone can pray With purity in this sense. So God is not saying that a man must be perfect to pray But he must be a man who's humbled himself under the mighty hand of God.

And he's praying without wrath or dissension or doubting. He's real. And what he's doing is coming out of a humble heart because he recognizes his own sin, and he's praying. He's not a self-righteous man, and he's not a proud man. Pride in the church, self-righteousness, is so damaging to the gospel of Jesus Christ, isn't it?

I mean, we know that. How many people do you know who say, well, I'm not going near that church, it's just full of a bunch of hypocrites? Well, this is one kind of hypocrite. It's the man who stands and prays, but his heart is full of dissension, and he has a critical spirit, and he's angry at people, but he still opens his mouth and prays, and he has no sense of his own unrighteousness. And so, so Paul, he begins with this self-exalting immodesty that causes a man to pray in that condition instead of, you know, being tender-hearted and forgiving one another as Jesus Christ has forgiven us.

You know, the devil is always pleased to have us pray like that. And then he writes, in like manner, in the same way, in like manner, he's making a comparison between men and women and how they conduct themselves in the church. And he's addressing the inward attitudes and the outward behavior of men and women and how that behavior, particularly in the way that a woman dresses and how a man might pray, that disturbs the peace and the unity and the joy and the integrity of the gospel of Jesus Christ in a church. And what he's saying is that when women are immodest they want to make a statement, when men are immodest they too want to make a statement and draw attention to themselves even though their hearts are far from God. So Paul is making this connection with public worship.

It's the way that the people of God gather together. I don't believe that This means that these things apply only when people are in church. They're broad. They have to do with the way that we think about life and clothing and prayer and everything. One commentator that I read says this, he does not want the men to mouth off and he does not want the women to show off.

That's part of what he's saying here. And so as the apostle turns the discussion for men to women, he instructs them that clothing is a profession of godliness in women. And so the focus here is in ostentation and making a statement and following the styles that are self-exalting, But he's not primarily speaking of sexualization in these passages, but I do believe that these things do imply that clothing should consider the matter of sexual allurement in them. And Paul, I think, is identifying a weakness in women In a different way than most men do, and I don't pretend to say this is true of all men, in a different way they want to emphasize their outward appearance. And this is why we have such a massive fashion industry, because it appeals to the weakness of women.

And we have other industries that appeal to the weaknesses of men and their desires to exalt themselves. And so clothing is something that can either be used to exalt oneself or it can be used to exalt the glory of God. And that's the point that the apostle is making here in this passage of scripture. And so A woman here must maintain her sensitivity to her inward desire for attention and its effect on her outward appearance. Now I think just in terms of stepping back for a moment and thinking about what's happening here.

Paul's writing to Timothy. Timothy is the pastor of the church in Ephesus. Ephesus was an immoral, highly sexualized city. I visited that city a couple years ago, and you can see why the Apostle Paul would be writing these things. The styles of the day, the sexualization of the society was really astonishing, even perhaps far more than our society, if you can imagine that.

But Paul wants the women in Ephesus to reexamine their dress, and he's commanding Timothy to teach the women how to dress in a highly sexualized, highly fashion-driven kind of a city. Because the Greek fashion designers were trying to expose the human form as much as they could. That was their deal, And it was a form of self-expression. Now, in this passage, I want to make eight stops in this short passage. I want to stop on eight words, just to help you understand what exactly these words mean and what they should mean for us and how we ought to apply them.

So the first is the word adorn. Do you see that on your outline? If you have the New King James Bible in your hand, you'll see these words in this text. So follow along in your Bible, and I'm going to stop at these eight words, and then we're going to turn to 1 Peter chapter 3, and we're going to stop on eight words in 1 Peter 3 as well. Why are we doing this?

Well, we want to begin to think what the Apostle Paul was thinking and what Peter was thinking when these two apostles instructed the women about their dress. So the first word is adorn and I'm going to try to resist the temptation to use the Greek terms that are here because each one of these words is tied to a specific Greek term and the meanings that I'm going to explain, they come out of a New Testament Greek dictionary. So I'm trying to stay as close as I can to the Greek definitions of these words to help us understand what these things mean. And the first word is adorn. And it's a word that refers to beautiful and ordered clothing, that the women might adorn themselves.

And it points to an ordered beauty. And it also points to an action. It means that women should take action to do something. They should adorn themselves to cause something. I'm just quoting.

To cause something to be beautiful by decorating, to beautify, to adorn, to decorate, adornment, adorning. Let your adornment be so. And then the next word, the second word, is the word modest. And here the force of the term refers to appropriate clothing. And it indicates there is an appropriateness, quote, pertaining to being proper or suitable in terms of being attractive.

And so the idea here is about appropriate clothing. There are particular occasions that are different. Like when a woman is at a wedding, it's different than when she is at church. At a wedding, it's appropriate for a woman to dress herself in the finest array. But if she stood out like that at every moment in life, it would be odd.

So he's saying that there is appropriate clothing, and he's implying that the clothing should communicate beauty that's both functional and appropriate for the moment, and it must be appropriate. And everyone who grows up in any culture needs to recognize what's appropriate and what is not appropriate in their culture, but particularly according to what the Word of God teaches. Every Christian has to try to figure out what's appropriate in their culture. Every culture is different. And you have different challenges in different cultures.

If you go to the Middle East, men are wearing robes. Is that appropriate in America? Can you be modest and not exalting yourselves without wearing a robe here? Should you wear a robe here? Well, it might draw undue attention to yourself.

So men have to figure out how are they going to dress in this culture that fulfills these biblical injunctions. And so we have to recognize what is appropriate. And then The next word is apparel. This is the third word. This has to do with the idea of sensible clothing, good sense.

In other words, here, a woman must demonstrate sober and clear thinking. She's not clueless about the implications of her dress. She's not clueless about the implications of her dress. She's not clueless about the implications of her dress. By the way, I think, you know, it's possible that women can be clueless about the implications of their dress.

They don't have the eyes of a man, and so they need men to explain to them. If men don't explain, they're clueless often. And so she must not be ignorant, but aware of how her clothing affects people. In other words, a woman needs to be street smart. She needs to be aware of how her clothing affects men, and that they understand that men are different than women.

Men are very visual in their orientation, which means that a woman can wear clothing with a clear conscience and be completely insensitive about what it's doing to a man and actually be immodest and not even know it. And it does happen. And women need to be very careful to love their brothers enough not to cause them to stumble but this this word has to do with sensible clothing clothing where you're not clue you're wearing it and you're not clueless about what it says And then the fourth word is the word propriety. And this has to do with reserve in clothing. We get our word modesty from this word typically And it implies a shame-facedness as it is translated in the King James version.

What is shame-facedness? Why did the King James translators translate it shame-facedness and not propriety like like the new King James. Well, shame-facedness is an appropriate translation of this word. It carries the idea of a sense of shame and modesty in regard to the wearing of clothing. I'm quoting a lexicon in saying that.

And so it communicates a feminine reserve in matters of their gender. And it's the idea of shrinking back from the line rather than if you've got it flaunted it's the it's the opposite of that it's it's reserved it's coming way off the line it's not pushing the limit It's coming way back from the limit as far as you understand it. And it means reverence and bashfulness and even downcast eyes in that sense. It is a consciousness of shame and it backs off from exposure. It covers rather than reveals.

It understates instead of promotes and the the thrust of it is is reserve, the reserve of humility And you know this is I think this is communicated in Psalm 115 verses 1 & 2 not to us not to us but to your name give glory because your because of your mercy because of your truth why should the Gentiles say where is their God not to us be the glory you were, therefore glorify God with your body, for you were bought with a price. Your body is not your own. And the glory that you communicate is designed to be the glory of God. And then the fifth word is the word moderation. And this word is similar to one of the previous words that we covered, to behave in a sensible manner with the implication of thoughtful awareness of what is best, moderation, sensibility, quote unquote.

And The word calls for soundness of mind and self-control of passions and desires. It holds a reign over oneself so that there is a sense of propriety and sobriety in the clothing. This word is used in other places. It's used in the book of Acts, in Acts 26, verse 25, where Paul says to Festus, I speak the words of truth and sanity, being of right mind. In other words, Paul is not being outlandish, he's not crazy, there's a soundness of mind that this word communicates.

It's the same word that is used in the Gospels where the Gadarene demoniac is finally clothed and he's in his right mind. He's in his right mind. And so the word communicates that a woman is supposed to dress sensibly. She should think sensibly about the statement that she's making with her dress. And again, you can see how the apostle Paul is using different words to say some of the same things in order to emphasize them.

And then the sixth word, now let me just back up here. This means that Not just a woman, but particularly in this context a woman. A woman should be careful not to dress in ridiculous clothing, in clothing that just makes people think, What has gotten into her? Is she sober-minded? Is she sober-minded?

What's driving all this fashion? That's really the question. And then the sixth word is the word proper. And this implies moral judgment that is fitting and is right. So there's moral judgment that needs to be taken in a woman's clothing.

A woman should ask what is the moral judgment upon this clothing? And then seventh, professing godliness. Now this is a very interesting term here, but it's a word that speaks of an action, and It's a word that speaks of movement toward an objective. And Paul is calling women to voluntarily announce by taking action to profess godliness through their clothes and their hair, or whatever kind of apparel that they have. Clothing is designed to proclaim godliness.

This is very consistent with what we've already covered, particularly in Genesis and in Isaiah 61, that there's this clothing is designed to proclaim that God has a zeal to cover the shame of sinners. And so John Angel James says this, study your profession and thoroughly understand what it implies. Study your profession. Your clothing is a profession. It's professing something.

And a woman, and I would just say again, a man should consider what this clothing is professing. And is it professing godliness? It's like a profession of faith, and it is a profession of godliness. And then the eighth word is good works, verse 10. And here he's speaking that women's clothing, whether at home or at church or in the grocery store, should not call out fashion or sex or pride, quoting Jeff Pollard, but rather godliness and humility.

It's good works and this could include causing others to stumble and in various matters of that nature. Women, you know, are much less sensitive than men to this, and they need their fathers or their husbands to explain to them what kind of clothing is a bad work and what kind of clothing is a good work. And so there's often instruction that's necessary about how things really are. Now what we learn from these eight words is that God is interested in both your appearance and in your heart. It's completely inaccurate to say, it only matters what's in your heart.

I think these words explode, that whole idea. It's not just what's in your heart, it's what effect it has on others. And at the same time, it is definitely tied to the heart. And so this idea of modesty really speaks of a deeper level. It speaks of the depths of a woman's heart regarding her glory and whose glory does she want to proclaim?

Is it God's glory? Is she saying, not to me, not to me be the glory, but to him? Is she saying, I've been bought with a price, therefore I must, I want to glorify God with my body and so her profession of the gospel Is enhanced when she's no longer concerned about making an impression for her own glory But rather her heart has changed her whole life has changed and she wants to display the glory of God. She wants to be a symbol and a picture of the beauty of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and she wants even her clothing to reflect that. But that's just sort of what it means to be a Christian, right?

Where everything, everything comes under the authority of God. Every part of your life, your thought life, your activities, how you spend your time, the words that you use, how you develop your conscience and how you shape your internal voices that are speaking to you all the time. You know, when a person becomes a Christian, they want to become like Jesus. They want to do what Jesus did. They want to follow Jesus.

That's really the heart of modesty. And here, this is just one slice, one small area of clothing that the apostle Paul is speaking of. And he's saying, let everything have breath. Praise the Lord. Everything that you do, whether you eat, whether you drink, whether you work, whatever you do, whether you dress, Whether you talk to someone whatever you do do it to glorify God that really is the essence of salvation in Jesus Christ You don't want to You don't want to live your way anymore.

You are so tired of that. You've got beat up so bad by the devil in his ways and trying to glorify you. And now you want God's glory. That's the essence of what it means to be a Christian. Not my will, but thine be done.

Because his will is better. It's more beautiful. And it's always sweeter along the way. So that's 1st Timothy 2. Now let's shift to 1st Peter chapter 3 verses 3 through 6.

And I'm going to do, you know, much of the same thing. First of all, I want to speak about the context of this. And the context is similar to 1 Timothy in this sense, a little bit different. He's speaking about how God's people are to behave themselves before watching world in order to glorify God and to represent the kingdom of heaven. But you have to go back to the previous chapter, to 1 Peter 2, to pick up the flow of thought that the Apostle is bringing.

And he first of all speaks of how citizens should submit to their authorities. He speaks of that in 1 Peter 2 verse 13. And then he turns to those who are in a slave-master relationship, or you could apply it to the way that workers, modern workers today, must submit to their employers. And so he speaks of, first of all, citizens and then workers or slaves, and then he turns in chapter three to husbands and wives. What does it look like?

What does submission look like? What does a humble heart of submission look like in a marriage? And so, he gives an example in marriage. Now there are actually two examples of submission in this passage. One is an unnamed example and one is a named example, Sarah.

So we have two examples that are put before us here of what this looks like, but in verse 3, the apostle gives commands of what to wear, And then in verse 4, he commands what not to wear. So dispense with the idea that God doesn't care how you dress. He is commanding you what to wear and what not to wear. And God is kind in all of His commands. These are all very helpful to women and a blessing.

A woman needs to know what to wear and what not to wear. And he's in this passage, he's speaking really about the shallowness of outward adornment, And he's instructing women to recognize that there is an inward submission that bears witness to an inward submission to God that works itself out in a relationship of marriage. So in chapter 3, the context is marriage, but I don't know if you've noticed, it's a pretty difficult situation. A woman is married to a man, and guess what? He's not obedient to the Word.

He's a disobedient husband. Has that ever happened to any woman? Ended up being married to a disobedient husband a husband who's ignoring some important element of God's law and She happens to be he happens to be married to a woman who does care about those things. So, what is she supposed to do? And how is she supposed to walk through this season?

How is she going to move her husband? How is she going to get his attention?" And the answer is not through outward manipulation using her appearance. There's something deeper there. And he's saying that our outward appearance will fade away, external beauty fails. And so what Peter is saying is that there is an unfading adornment that a woman ought to cultivate in her soul.

And He uses this as an example for marriage and the disappointments in this marriage, particular where a woman is tempted, she's tempted to exert her powers through her external appearance and he's teaching wives that it's unprofitable to use their appearance as a lever to move a man and other things as well. And I think he's identifying what happens to women. They dress, they might dress immodestly in order to be drawing the attention of that man to move him in this context. And so we have an example of a woman who seems like she's attempting to draw attention to herself through her powers that she has. And so what we learn from this passage is that the influence of a Christian is not skin deep.

It's that Christianity helps a woman escape from the shallowness of her own inclinations and he provides her with something real, something deep, something that actually will be effective because what he's saying is that it's not effectual for a woman to try to move a man through her outward appearance. And so this is why true Christian beauty is connected to something real. It's connected to God. It's connected to God's kingdom. It's connected to true modesty is is connected to the kingdom of God at work in a woman's heart.

That's the foundation of it. And and so you know in this passage he calls women to be strong in this sense though, that they win their husbands without a word. They have a strength that's not like worldly strength. They win their husbands without a word. Now I don't have the ability to unpack all of what that means.

But I think in the context, you get the idea of what it means. In other words, she doesn't need external levers except her gentle and quiet spirit. Her strength is an internal strength that is located in the hidden person of her heart and that's what a woman should focus on it's easy for a Woman to focus on the outside to move men and he's saying no focus on the hidden person of the heart And so this is what he speaks of. So we're going to speak of these words. The first word is adornment and this is the same word in first used in First Timothy for adornment.

It speaks of beauty and and apparel. Then secondly the word outward and he's saying not not an outward, don't do it with outward appearance and not on the outside. Now this is the same word that Jesus uses when he's talking to the Pharisees and he says you're just nothing but whitewashed tombs Yeah, you look really pretty on the outside But what's on the inside? You're like dead men's bones on the inside He said a woman he's saying a woman can be like that. She can be really pretty on the outside but there's dead men's bones on the inside.

She's conniving, she's manipulative, she's using her words, she's going to move men with her clothing or lack thereof. That's what he's talking about. And so not outward, and then there's the word hidden the hidden person of the heart now The secret person of the heart that's what he's speaking up It's interesting the word the word that the Greek word that he uses is the word that we have derived our word cryptic from. Cryptic. She's cryptic.

Now I know that brings probably some wrong connotations to our minds. But you get the idea. It's hidden. It's something on the inside. There is a strength and a power of womanhood that is on the inside that is effectual and it's way more effectual than all the outward things in words or in outward appearance.

This is the mystery of the kingdom of God. In the kingdom of God things are turned upside down, they're different. You think they're one way but they're not. And then the next word is the word incorruptible. And this is a word that speaks to something that's not subject to decay or death.

It's imperishable. It is immortal. In other words, it lasts. And it's the same word the apostle Paul uses when he's teaching the Corinthians about the body and about the final state after death in 1 Corinthians 15, 52, where he says, the perishable shall put on imperishable. So he's saying this incorruptible, this incorruptible quality in a woman's heart, it's imperishable, it lasts forever.

And then fifthly, gentle and quiet spirit. So she, how does she move a man? Through a gentle and quiet spirit, not through her outward appearance. It's always a temptation for a woman to try to move men with their outward appearance, but there's something more beautiful, something more enduring, and this is a gentle and quiet spirit. Jesus uses these exact words when he says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, For I am gentle and humble in heart." This is the quality of Jesus Christ himself.

You know, I think, you know, the apostle is saying, learn from Jesus with his gentleness and his lowliness of heart, and you'll find rest for your souls. Now you find that in Jesus, but a woman I think finds this very same thing. It's the, a gentle and a quiet spirit is really the heart of one of the hearts of modesty. And then number six, the sixth word is the word precious. Precious, that's in verse four.

And he's speaking of what is of exceeding value. And it's a word that really has to do with money and precious in terms of lots of money. And then The seventh word is the word trusted. These are women who trusted God. This is in verse 5 and They look forward with confidence in God their confidence is in God.

It's not in their husbands They don't have to manipulate their husbands with their outward appearance and a modest woman doesn't believe she needs to manipulate a man, even a single man, to come and marry her with her outward appearance. She should focus on the inward person of the heart. You know, the temptation goes both ways. A married woman can do it just as much as an unmarried woman. An unmarried woman, out of fear, you know, can try to dress to kill, to try to draw the eye.

She knows it works. It works. But what does she get? She doesn't get anything very good. And then the eighth word is the word submissive, verse 5.

For in this manner in former times the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves being submissive to their own husbands as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror." So what Peter is saying is that there's a beauty that never goes out of style, and it always works. The beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit will always be appreciated. It will always be effectual in the way that God has designed it. But the outward means to move a man are not. He's trying to help men and women understand how the world really is wired.

You might be able to move a man to something, but it won't be to something good. But with the gentle and quiet spirit, it moves a man to something good. And so this is a woman whose beauty is enduring, and it's deep, and it never fades away. It's not shallow. Her beauty is a beauty that's protected within because it's inside of her no one can take it from her it's not a veneer it's deep God makes women who are deep deeply beautiful not just skin deep The world wants to make women skin deep, to put on the veneer, to whitewash the wall, to make everything look right and it's not right on the inside.

And so this really is a call to women to examine their hearts before God and have they humbled themselves before God. That's the heart of this matter. And any discussion of modesty should include that admonition, what's happening in your heart. Who are you trying to move? And, are you clueless about it?

So, let me just summarize these things. I'm going to give you two statements, immodesty is and modesty is. Okay, and I'm just going to draw from these two passages of Scripture. Modesty is, I'm sorry, immodesty is an expression of self. It's drawing attention to yourself.

It's drawing attention to areas of your body that distract a man from purity It's a manifestation of pride. It's an identification and association With sinful cultures. It's an obsession with legitimizing oneself through hair or jewelry or apparel. Immodesty is insecurity, arrogance, and worldliness externalized. Immodesty is insensitivity to the temptations of men.

Immodesty is lack of love for your brother. Immodesty makes you less of a person, more of an object. Immodesty destroys love and inflames lust. And then what is modesty? That was immodesty.

Modesty is an external expression of affections. Modesty is a public profession of faith. Modesty is a reflection of inner holiness expressed in appearance. Modesty is a proclamation of the gospel. It's a demonstration of humility.

It's a display of self-control. It is an acknowledgement of the sin of Adam and our need to cover our nakedness. Modesty is a means to declare that God single-handedly covers nakedness of fallen sinners. Modesty is testifying to that zeal. Modesty is testifying to a woman's refusal to cause her brother to stumble.

Modesty is adorning the gospel with beauty. Modesty is humility expressed in dress." So I think from that list you've probably figured this out, modesty is not just a woman thing. It actually, there's crossover here. And you know there is immodesty and men have to ask questions about why they're doing what they're doing and every man should ask why is he dressing the way that he is? You know, why is he wearing those pants?

Why is he wearing that cologne? You know, why does he not have a shirt on? Why is he talking to that woman the way he's talking to her? Because a man can talk to a woman immodestly to glorify himself, to draw her. In the same way that a woman can do it, a man does it, he just uses different means and it might be his tools and his toys.

He might want to draw women by his generosity and boast about it. He might want to express his immodesty through his cars or his hair or whatever else. You can just make a list of a hundred things on both sides because immodesty is expressed in different ways in different people particularly. And that's why the apostle gives us these general guidelines about how to think. The apostles are calling us to think about what's in the heart and how the expressions of our heart are affecting those around us.

Those two things are very critical. Both of them matter. And so, you know, the question is, what statement are we making with our clothing? You know, are we eclipsing the glory of God? Is the smaller object eclipsing the rays of the larger object?

And are we wanting to be the chief object of attention? Because clothing is body language and it is a statement. You know, why is it that whenever you catch a fish, That fish wants to look a lot bigger in the camera than the object behind it. Why is that? Why is it that the, you know, most fish, they want to get really close to that camera so they look a lot bigger than the object behind it.

And often clothing works like that. We want to shine our own glory and so we want to be put forward. And that really is the heart of the opposite of modesty. It's immodesty that wants to be to put oneself forward, and it's modesty that wants to put the glory of God forward. And so in these two texts, we learn that God has provided clothing, first of all, to represent the humility that Jesus creates in a person and that a woman ought to dress with a spirit of understatement in order to display the humility that God has created in her heart.

And a man should not be fake and pray with a mixed heart and shoot his mouth off. And then secondly, that God has provided clothing to point to the inward beauty that God creates in the heart. That's 1st Peter 3. And so, so far, you know, we've walked through these various passages of Scripture, seeing that in the Garden of Eden, we learn that God provides robes of righteousness for our robes of self-righteousness. And He gives us clean clothes in replacement of our filthy clothes.

And then in the rest of the Bible you learn that He gives beautiful clothing for ugly clothing. And in 1 Timothy 3, we learn that He gives you clothing that reflects the humility, that draws attention to the beauty of the kingdom of God. And in 1 Peter 3, you learn that He gives clothing which points to the hidden person of the heart of a gentle and a quiet spirit. Why? Because you are not your own.

You are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body." And so in the same way that a solar eclipse, you find a smaller object trying to obliterate the larger object so our clothing can be used to distract from the glory of God and even obliterate the rays that it sends forth. The heart of the matter is that you're not your own. We're bought with the price. But isn't that a blessing?

Isn't that the greatest blessing in the world? We're not our own. That is the best news you could ever receive, that by grace alone you have the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. And that righteousness is worthless unless it expresses itself in the imperishable beauty of a gentle and a quiet spirit. Would you pray with me?

Lord we pray that you would help us to understand ways that we glorify ourselves. Oh how many there are. How many different ways we've sought to glorify ourselves when you've created us for your glory, to declare and demonstrate your glory. Lord, we pray that you would help us as a church to, within each of our hearts, to identify our glory, our desire for glory, and that you would help us to to turn from it and repent of it, and that we would find the sweetness of your salvation as you clothe us with your robes of righteousness. And as we progress along this way of living for your glory.

Amen.