From Genesis to Revelation, God’s Word has much to say about clothing, but surprisingly most of it does not focus on women’s clothing or “modesty.” In this overview of a biblical theology of clothing, Scott will explain the divine meaning and purpose of clothing.

Please open your Bibles to Zechariah chapter 14. Zechariah chapter 14. Zechariah 14 speaks of something that God does with his people. You know, this conference that we have, we've called it Holiness to the Lord every time we've done it because we want to bring what is the most practically, universally applicable doctrine of the Bible to you. From this day forward, this doctrine is really designed to help you through absolutely everything to everything that you face, everything that you think, everything that you encounter in the world.

It really is an inestimably practical doctrine. So that's why we're calling this conference Holiness to the Lord. Our plan is to continue to do that. Zechariah 14 verse 20. In that day, holiness to the Lord shall be engraved on the bells of the horses.

The pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judea and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter-than-honey Word of God. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for giving us your word to direct our hearts and every step of our feet through this great doctrine of holiness and so I pray that you would give us grace to understand that you would change our lives that you would move us forward according to your holiness amen So this is the greatest theme in the Bible. It's related to, it's really an, a category under the doctrine of justification by faith. The doctrine of justification by faith states that God by a judicial act pardons sinners and He clothes them in Robes of Righteousness. You've noticed the title of this message is Beyond Modesty. What we want to say is everything is holiness to the Lord, and the greatest blessing in the world is that God is holy, and he makes holy those who walk with him, who love him.

It was Leonard Ravenhill who said, the greatest miracle God can do today is to take an unholy man out of an unholy world and make him holy and put him back into an unholy world and keep him holy in it. This really is the greatest gift to be forensically declared righteous and then have for the rest of your life the assistance of God through everything that you do. It really is scandalous that God would forgive sinners. It's scandalous that God would take people like us and clothe us in his robes of righteousness, those who believe on his name who've been justified. And when we gather in the church every Sunday, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We celebrate justification by faith alone. That Jesus Christ sacrificed himself, took the penalty of our sins, and forgives us of all of our sins, all of the sins in the past, all of the sins in the present, and all of our sins in the future. This is God's righteousness that he gives to mankind. Now back home in our church, we've been walking through expositional studies in the book of Romans. And of course, I'm delighted, so is Jason Dome in their church as well.

And this doctrine is mentioned over 60 times in the first 11 chapters in the book of Romans. I'm gonna read just one of them, Romans 4, 6 through 8. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man whom God imputes righteousness apart from works, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.

And what I'm here to try to accomplish today is to speak of a physical metaphor that God has given every believer in the world. It's a physical metaphor that's designed to declare what God has done. And we see it spoken of all over the Bible, and we're going to walk through the Bible on this doctrine. Isaiah 61, 10 states it so succinctly, 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." So, this has to do with God's clothing of his children. And clothing is actually a physical metaphor of a spiritual reality that has already taken place in the human heart. It's a bit like baptism. Baptism is just an external symbol of something that has already happened in the heart. And if The first thing that comes to mind though when people think about modesty is they immediately think about a woman's clothing.

They think about 1 Timothy 2 particularly, and 1 Peter 3. But if this is the only thing that you think about clothing, you really have missed the point of the meaning of clothing in the Bible. It's this matter of women's modesty is actually the smallest part of the biblical teaching of the doctrine of clothing. So the biblical teaching goes far beyond modesty. And so what I want to do tonight is to give you a flyover biblical theology of clothing And to try to explain the broad teaching of scripture about clothing and what it means.

Because what it means actually is who you are as a believer. And it's helpful to be able to think the way that God thinks about everything. But the doctrine of clothing does not simply focus on women. In fact, it primarily doesn't focus on women. It focuses on men and women who have been clothed in the robes of righteousness.

And, you know, we know, you know, men have some different issues with clothing. We're all aware of increasingly feminized men's clothing. We're aware of men's tight clothing, unisex, gender blending clothing. We're familiar with men who buy clothing so that they can show off their muscles. But the truth is the Bible speaks of clothing far broadly than these matters.

And the question is, does God care about what you wear? And what does it mean when you wear what you wear? And of course he does. We know that there's such a thing as proper clothing. That's what 1 Timothy 2.9 says.

And what I want to drive home this evening is that everything in the Christian's life is holiness to the Lord. There's nothing untouched by holiness to the Lord, and the true believer should seek to find everything that they think they do, they see. Everything about their lives is holiness to the Lord. It was Abraham Kuyper who said, there's not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine. Everything is holiness to the Lord." And if you go back to Genesis, you quickly realize that the internal work of justification is pictured in something that we do outwardly every day.

Every day we put on clothes, and putting on clothing is something that has tremendous meaning in the Bible. Now, we already know that everyone who puts on clothes is making a statement. That statement might not be as self-conscious as with some as others, but everybody's making a statement by their clothing, let's just dismiss that fact. And I want to take us through a methodology here. It's called biblical theology.

Biblical theology is distinguished from systematic theology. It's distinguished from historical theology. It's distinguished from exegetical theology and practical theology. What biblical theology does is It traces the history of a doctrine from the beginning of the mention of that doctrine to the end in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. Biblical theology is like time travel through the Bible.

It's like a journey through time. Biblical theology is like following the adventure of God's unfolding revelation on a particular matter. So that's the methodology that I want to use here tonight. And what you find is that from Genesis to Revelation, there's a unified yet unfolding thread that that teaches us about what clothing means, and we'll get to that. And it really does expose misuse of clothing and worldliness in clothing, expressions of pride in clothing, intentionality for sexual allurement and things like that.

These things are implied. But God, God in the world that he has put us in, uses hundreds of images, hundreds of metaphors to teach us about the greatness of his kingdom. And I'm sure spinning through your mind are many. The most obvious is light. God did not put light in the world just to give you light.

He gave you light so that he would remind you that Jesus Christ is the light of the world. He gave you doors so that you would be reminded every day when you walk through a door that Jesus Christ is the door. He's the bread of life. We celebrate that in the Lord's Supper. We celebrate it in our church every week in order to really bring our services to a crescendo of the gospel and this beautiful metaphor of this feast where God gives sinners instead of a poison cup, he gives them the fruit of the vine instead of a rock, he gives them bread.

This is the love of Jesus Christ. Why bread? Why anything in the world? God has given us hundreds of ways to see his glory. He doesn't want you to forget for one second how good he is.

You can't turn your eyes anywhere without seeing some metaphor to console your heart, to teach you that God is good, to teach you that He's sovereign and that His holiness is beautiful. So there is a gospel portrait through physical things in the world, these everyday objects. And of course, in Christianity, if you read your Bible, you know that the naked are clothed, and the hungry are fed. The captives are set free. Martin Luther said, my chains fell off and my heart was free.

I rose went forth and followed thee. These metaphors help us to understand. Okay, let's get to the Bible. I'm going to give you five purposes of clothing in the Old Testament. Now, when you stand before a mirror every day, ask yourself, what am I doing?

You need to know what you're doing. Now, I am aware that probably many men here do not stand in front of a mirror, hence the gender distinctions and the affections thereof. But when you stand in front of the mirror, here's what I want you to ask. Why am I doing this? What am I saying?

Because the Bible makes it very clear that with your clothing you're saying something. You're making a statement. And I'm here just to encourage you to, with everything in your life, from the top of your head to the tip of your toes, to everything that goes in your ears, everything that is seen by your eyes, every place your feet walk, everything that your hands do, It's holiness to the Lord, including what you wear. So there you have it. I'm going to give you purposes of clothing.

I'm going to give you five purposes of clothing from the Old Testament. The first purpose of clothing is for covering nakedness and shame. Genesis 3 chapter 6 verse 21 verse 11 Isaiah 61 1 through 11 Revelation 3 verse 5. What you find here in the the account of the fall is that Adam and Eve, of course, they sinned and they realized that they were naked and they were ashamed. Verse 7 in Genesis 3, 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.

And so they made themselves coverings of fig leaves, and this clothing with which they clothed themselves was actually judged by God as inadequate. And God does something different. He clothes them with a tunic. He closed them with clothing that covered more of their nakedness, and therefore more of their shame. And if you're going to understand the doctrine of clothing, it's pivotal that you begin at the beginning of this whole matter.

Why clothes? Clothing was given to replace Adam and Eve's self-righteous fashion designing with his right his robes of righteousness. His robes that covered. The word that is used is the word tunic. And the word all over scripture that's used, it's repeated from beginning to end.

It really has to do with covering from the neck to the knees or the thighs. That's the standard kind of clothing. That's the clothing from the beginning, and that's the same kind of language that's used throughout the Bible generally. And what many authors say is that Adam and Eve's first attempt at clothing themselves was an expression of autonomy and self-righteousness. They knew they were naked and they sewed fig leaves and made themselves coverings.

The theologian Greg Nichols suggests that they assumed roles of their own fashion designers. They wanted to dress themselves in their own way. And so Adam and Eve picked fig leaves from a fig tree and they crafted them into what the King James Bible terms an apron or a loin cloth. And God wants to overturn their own design. And here what you find with Adam and Eve is that God is zealous to cover shame.

God wants to cover shame. And This is why he has given so many ways for us to see his glory so that we could recognize our shame and then cry out to him for the covering of our shame. And that's that's what Isaiah is talking about when 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." This language of clothing and covered, This is consistent language that's used by the Lord to talk about forgiveness of sins. This matter of clothing and covering is consistent language throughout the Bible.

And so clothing is a symbol of God's zeal to cover your shame and to cover your nakedness. And God designed clothing in order to cover your nakedness in order to to be a demonstration that he has covered your shame The beginning of clothing in the Bible is the beginning of the gospel in the Bible And therefore not a square inch of your clothing is given to you except to demonstrate the righteousness of God. Not for self-expression, not for pride. The second purpose of clothing is for beauty and glory. This comes from in various places in scripture.

I'm going to just quote one verse in Exodus chapter 28, which speaks of the clothing of the priests, and you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty." There's no shortage of God's recommendation for beauty in clothing. And as we read passages like this in the Old Testament, particularly when we find ourselves in the whole doctrine of the priests, God uses all of these elements to point us to Jesus Christ. And the clothing of the priests actually symbolizes the Christian in the New Covenant era. And the garments of the old covenant priests foreshadow what Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2,9, that you are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. This clothing of the priests is fulfilled in the clothing of the priests in the New Testament, this holy nation of priests, all believers, men and women are priests before the Lord.

They do many of the same things that the priest did. They make intercession. They make sacrifices. And all believers share in Christ's priestly status by virtue of their union with Jesus Christ. You know this doctrine by the name the priesthood of all believers.

And even in Exodus chapter 19, the Lord tells all the people of Israel that they also are all priests. He says, Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above the people, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." That's Exodus 19 verse 6. Even in the Old Testament the people of God were serving figuratively as priests, not formally as the priests who served in the temple. But like the Old Testament priests, the believer is set aside for service toward God. Like the Old Testament priests, a true believer is consecrated to God.

And that's the big question that anyone should ask, am I consecrated to God? Have I given everything to God? Have I set my life aside to be consumed by the glory of God, by the truth of God. Have I consecrated myself to God? This is what a Christian does when he becomes a Christian.

The Old Testament priests were intercessors, so are the new. The Old Testament priests offered sacrifices of praise, so do the New Testament priests. And the Apostle Paul speaks, he uses the same kind of language in Colossians chapter 3 verse 10, he says, since you have put off the old man With his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge According to the image of him who created him What it means to become a Christian is that you put off the old man and you put on the new man. You put off the old robes of unrighteousness of your own creation, salvation by works, and you put on the new robes of righteousness, which is a depiction of salvation by grace and by grace alone. And so, clothing is for beauty and glory.

I believe that the scriptures teach that there should be some manifestation of beauty in your clothing. You know, Does it glorify God to go around in tattered clothing? Does it glorify God to be sloppy or have clothing that would be considered ugly, to uglify you in the culture? But clothing was given for beauty and glory, covering shame, covering nakedness, and for beauty and glory. When you stand in front of the mirror, you need to know that God has given you a gift to display the beauty and the glory of his kingdom in whatever you wear.

You should be very thoughtful about it and bring it before the Lord. The third purpose of clothing is for manhood and womanhood. For manhood and womanhood. Deuteronomy 22.5 is the text that I'll appeal to. A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman's garment.

For all who do so are an abomination to the Lord your God. Today's fashion industry is trying to make it very hard for you to tell whether that's a woman or whether that's a man through clothing, through makeup, through all kinds of things. And a Christian should dress in such a way that their clothing is distinctively gender-specific. Men should dress like men. When you look at a man, it should be very clear, this is a man.

He dresses like a man. And it should be very clear, this is a woman. She dresses like a woman, and she's covering shame and it's for beauty and glory and she is a woman or he is a man. You know when when our girls were growing up we thought that our girls should dress in a way that was distinctively feminine. And it was quite shocking to them when we decided to do that.

And it was shocking to other people too. I remember my girls would be walking down the mall, you know, and it was very, people were snickering. Here comes the dress brigade. And so, you know, they received a lot of censure just because, hey, guess what? I'm just a dad.

I'm just trying to hack it out. I'm just trying to figure out how to help my boy dress like a boy and my girls dress like girls. You do whatever you want. I'm just trying to apply the scriptures. But men do not dress like women, and women do not dress like men.

That's the idea. So that is the third purpose of clothing for manhood and for womanhood. The fourth purpose of clothing in the Old Testament is to display God's passion for purity. Proverbs 7 verses 10 through 12 speaks of this. There's a particular category of clothing.

There's a classification of clothing that Solomon speaks of there in Proverbs chapter 7, and I'll read the verse. And there a woman met him with the attire of a harlot. That's the code, code word, the attire of the harlot. That's a category of clothing. It's a category of alluring clothing.

It's a category of suggestive clothing. And in this passage you have the mixture of these two things. You have this classification of clothing, the attire of the harlot, and a crafty heart. So these two both go together. You have the heart and the outward manifestation of that heart.

And everybody, every man is particularly aware that women can wear clothing that kind of act like eye magnets and they draw attention to you. And you know, there are, women should be very careful about what they wear so that they aren't like eye magnets. They don't have the attire of an alluring woman. And, of course, we know, you know, the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, he spoke of this in in Matthew chapter 5. He said, I say to you whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

That means that men have to govern their eyes. They have to make a covenant with their eyes. They have to look the other direction. But, you know, today, like if you go in an airport, I end up in airports every once in a while, And all the women are in yoga pants. And there's nothing left to be seen, almost.

And it's not helpful, you know, to men. And, but why is it that in the last five years, everybody's wearing yoga pants? And the truth, you know, many skinny jeans are just thick yoga pants. But there's an attire that is alluring. And that's the fourth purpose of clothing, and that is to demonstrate God's passion for purity.

So when you stand in front of the mirror, you should be asking yourself, does this demonstrate God's passion for purity? The fifth purpose of clothing is to distinguish the worldliness of foreign apparel, Zephaniah 1.8. I will punish the princes and the king's children and all such as are clothed with foreign apparel." And most likely, this terminology, foreign apparel, is code for clothing that reflects popular fashions that come out of idolatrous nations or idolatrous philosophies. Albert Barnes explains Zephaniah 1-8 with these words, The choice of the strange apparel involved the choice to be as the nations of the world. We will be as the pagan, as the families of the countries.

So he's, I believe he's speaking about a clothing that is clearly clothing that arises out of paganism. You can see this in runway models, you can see this in the gyrations of the fashion industry that change all the time. The fashion industry is always pushing, pushing, pushing the envelope. This is a result of idolatry. And when you stand before the mirror, it's very important that you say, what am I saying?

Am I identifying with the idolatrous foreign philosophies and nations? You know, why preach on such a thing like this? Well here's one reason. From my perspective, there are many in the Christian community, particularly conservatives, they grew up really thinking clothing only in terms of dress lengths, but they didn't really understand what God was saying about clothing. And it's very helpful to understand why God says what he says.

And I particularly want to see the younger generation to go beyond their parents in understanding. I want them to go beyond their parents in their grasp of the doctrine. I want them to see the depth of understanding in this whole matter of clothing and what it actually means. I would like to see a holier, more thoughtful, more biblically connected generation. And I do think that It was an error just to isolate the doctrine of clothing to skirt lengths and tightness.

I think it does touch on that. Absolutely it does. But it's helpful to think more clearly about it. You will serve someone in whatever you wear. And the fashion industry is always pressing.

You know, I read just recently someone, he said that when a person turns away from Jesus Christ, they don't turn to the devil, they turn to themselves. I thought that was insightful. And of course, the devil is always leading you to exalt yourself. And This is why when people turn away from God, they don't just turn to the devil, they turn to themselves to serve themselves. But you will serve somebody with what you wear.

This is why Peter exhorts us to live for the will of God. No longer should we live the rest of the time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God, for we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles." So the Old Testament teaching on clothing covers these various matters. Now the New Testament teaching on clothing really begins with the Gospels, and in the Gospels what you find is really a thrilling picture. In places in the Gospels, garments are symbolic of salvation. In Matthew chapter 22, verses 11 through 13, you have a man without wedding garments.

The king comes in, he sees the guests. There's a man who doesn't have wedding garments on, and his wedding garments are symbolic that he has been clothed in robes of righteousness, that he's a believer. Wedding garments are equivalent to being a believer, and he didn't have his wedding garments on. The wedding garments in that passage are symbolic of being clothed with Christ and his goodness. He, this one did not bear the fruit of salvation and He did not have on his wedding garments.

Wedding garments are symbolic of justification by faith. In Matthew chapter eight, you have this story of the Gadarean demoniac. He's cutting himself. He's terrorizing everyone. They chain him up.

He breaks the chains and he goes back out into the streets. And Jesus meets him. When Jesus Christ meets him and he's delivered from his demons, he's clothed and in his right mind. His clothing is an outward picture of what happened to his soul. He was a changed man with changed garments.

Now in Matthew 23, the garments are symbols of pride. You have men using their garments for pride. These are the Pharisees. Jesus condemns them by the way that they dress. He says, but all their works they do to be seen by men, they make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments.

They love the best places in the feast, the best seats in the synagogues, and they dress for pride. They wanted to be thought of as more zealous than everyone. In Ephesians chapter six, verse 10 through 18, you have clothing, You have the whole armor of God. Put on the whole armor of God. And one element of the clothing is the breastplate of righteousness.

Why a breastplate of righteousness? Why a protective covering that is symbolic of righteousness? And what we're told in that passage is to put on the full armor of God. And that armor is expressed in various matters of clothing. But the most intriguing one to me, you know, beyond the feet that are shod with the gospel of peace and all of these other garments.

The breastplate of righteousness. He says, stand therefore having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness. You know, believers often struggle with assurance of salvation, and they think, I don't know how I could be a Christian because I don't have the passion for God. I don't have enough desire for the Word of God. I'm not holy enough to be a Christian.

And so their doubts rush in. The true Christian is never satisfied with his righteousness. But God says put on the breastplate of righteousness to protect you from the attacks of the devil, the condemning attacks of the devil, the accuser of the brethren that says you're not righteous enough for God, you're not passionate enough for God, you don't love the Bible enough for God, you're not faithful enough in the church to be a Christian, and you have a breastplate of righteousness to protect you from the fiery darts of the devil. When you get to 1 Timothy chapter two, you have this very elaborate definition of modesty. The pastoral letters, they focus on modesty versus pride.

And Greg Nichols, again, he calls this the apostolic dress code. But the Bible tells us what this dress code ought to look like. The apostle is instructing women how to dress in the church when they come before God among the people of God. There's a particular way that you dress in the Church of Jesus Christ. You just don't dress like everyone.

And it's very interesting, And I can't go into too much detail in this passage, but the way that the passage is structured is that the apostle is first going after men. They're praying in pride. They're praying in a way, a condemning way, a self-righteous way. And then he turns to the women, and well to the men he says, men should lift up holy hands to pray. But you're not praying that way.

You're praying out of pride. And then he turns to the women and I think he's saying you know men men are tempted by pride and it expresses it in a particular way by being boastful and being unrighteous in prayer even in prayer and women they express their pride through their clothing. And one theologian said, the Apostle is speaking this way so that the men won't mouth off and the women won't show off. But when you're choosing your clothes at the beginning of the day and you're standing in front of the mirror, does your clothing as a woman reflect the shame-facedness and the humility? Or does it trumpet the pride and the sexuality?

Does it scream, look at me? What does it say? In First Timothy two, eight through 10, there's a definition of modesty. And the apostle Paul gives seven words to help us to understand what he means. It's kind of a lexicon of women's fashion in First Timothy chapter 2.

And you have these words, in like manner that the women adorn themselves. That word has, it's the word cosmos. It has to do with well-ordered clothing, beautiful as the universe is well-ordered. And then he says, modest apparel, propriety, moderation, clothing that is proper for women, professing godliness with good works. That's a lexicon of fashion.

That's tremendous guidance for women, particularly. And you have these words, you know, that are just very, they're easy to define and it's clear what they mean in the Bible. Years ago I wrote a book called Feminine by Design, and it's 12 Pillars of Biblical Femininity. And I have a chapter in there about modesty, but in that book I quoted John Angel James, and he's talking about that your clothing is a profession. It's a profession of righteousness.

And he says this, study your profession and thoroughly understand what it implies and enjoins consider well what sanctity and conduct what spirituality of mind what separation from the world in spirit and taste, what devotional feelings, what faith, what hope, what love, what humility. He's saying your clothing is a profession of all those things. And Really everything that we do is a profession of something and and Clothing is the same Clothing is meant to be an expression of godliness and when when you're making your choices of floating both men and women, you know, you're making a profession of faith. And God calls the Christian to be very thoughtful and intentional about everything in his life. And this isn't, this isn't legalism.

This is just biblical Christianity that you take every thought captive, that everything is holiness to the Lord. In 1st Timothy 2 and 1st Peter 3, modesty is an external expression of inward affections. It's a public profession of faith. It's a reflection of inner holiness expressed in outer appearance. It's a proclamation of the gospel.

It's a demonstration of humility. It's a display of self-control. That's what these New Testament passages teach. And they make it very clear that immodesty, on the contrary, is an expression of self. It is drawing attention to self.

It is drawing attention to areas of one's body that might distract men from purity. It's a manifestation of pride. It's an association with sinful cultures. It's an obsession with legitimizing oneself through hair and jewelry and apparel. All of these things that God created to cover shame, to cover nakedness, for beauty and glory, for manhood and womanhood, for a demonstration of purity.

God created clothing to say all these things. And that's why it's very important that you understand that what the Bible says about clothing is not just a woman thing. When you get to the last book of the Bible, you see many of the same words that we encountered in Genesis and forward through the Bible. We just had a preaching conference and Steve Lawson said when you pull on a word at the beginning of the Bible the fabric will crinkle at the end of the Bible, because the Bible is connected. It is spiritually connected, and it all has meaning.

In Revelation chapter 3 verses 4 and five, garments are a metaphor for purity. We read these words, "'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. Here garments are a metaphor. They're white garments.

They're a metaphor for purity, that God makes pure His children. In Revelation chapter 3 verses 15 through 17, garments are a metaphor for salvation and the covering of shame he says to the Laodicean Church he says and do you not know that you are wretched miserable poor blind and naked these are metaphors for spiritual condition he says 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. Garments are a metaphor for salvation. In Revelation 19, 8, garments are symbols of the righteous acts of the saints. They are arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Well, I could go on. Well, I could go on, but there is a unified unfolding revelation in the Bible on the doctrine of clothing. Clothing is not inconsequential. And the Bible defines what is acceptable and unacceptable. Now the truth is is that what you find in the Bible doesn't focus on skirt lengths or things like that.

In the Bible you get principles that should apply in every culture because every culture has different manifestations of worldliness that need to be corrected. You know, you who are here, you're dressed appropriately according to the culture. And you're dressed in the clothing of the culture. There's nothing wrong with clothing of the culture. Because God gives you principles with which to operate in every culture.

And as cultures change, you have the solid principles. I heard some men talking about the differences in people, different kinds of professing Christians. You have the doctrinalists on one hand, and you have the culturalists on the other. The doctrinalists have a fixed testimony and they operate according to that fixed testimony and they do not change. They do not change.

The culturalists want to change with the culture. You here are being encouraged to be doctrinalists, not culturalists, to have a fixed revelation from which to understand everything that you are and everything that you do. And why is it that the devil hates modesty so much? The devil hates modesty because he hates you. He hates the idea that Jesus Christ would clothe sinners in robes of righteousness.

He hates the idea that you would be covered in your shame, that your nakedness would be covered. He hates the idea that you would be loved with an everlasting love. He hates the idea that you would be justified. He hates the idea that Jesus Christ would declare you righteous no matter how you feel. This is why the devil hates modesty.

He hates humility. He hates the distinctiveness of manhood and womanhood. He hates the gentle and quiet spirit. He hates humility. He hates purity.

So, I'm here to encourage you with all my heart that everything be holiness to the Lord, including this thing called clothing. And that you would remember when you stand in front of the mirror, that God gave you clothing to demonstrate that He and He alone can cover your shame. He and He alone can cover your nakedness. He and He alone has designed you as a man or a woman. He and he alone would have you a demonstration of purity in the world.

And he and he alone is the one who justifies by faith. And I would just encourage you to measure all of your clothing choices according to the broad principles of the Word of God. I can sum it up the way that Isaiah did. Put on your beautiful garments, he said. Understand whether you have been clothed in the righteous robes of Jesus Christ.

Understand whether you have been justified by faith. Understand that Jesus Christ saved sinners. Understand that if you're not wearing robes of righteousness, you will be cast out into outer darkness. Understand that God wants to save your soul. God wants to cover your shame.

He wants you to understand how good He is. He wants to demonstrate His mercy towards sinners by covering them with robes of righteousness. St. Corinthians 521, I'll close with this text. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

And that, brothers and sisters, is why God gave you clothing so that every day you would be reminded of the greatness of the mercy of Jesus Christ towards sinners and the danger those who are not clothed with those robes. Would you pray with me? Father, I pray that you would, with all of us here, that you would galvanize us to be consecrated unto you for holiness to the Lord, to give all of what we have and all of who we are because you are good. All your ways are good. All your ways are pleasant ways.

All your paths are peace. And you are the only one who can break chains, set the captives free, and clothe sinners with robes of righteousness. Amen.