In this sermon, Steve Hopkins discusses the biblical concepts of modesty, nakedness, and covering. He explains how each generation of the church in America and the West uncovers themselves more than the generation before them, and questions whether our clothing choices are closer to the aprons made by Adam and Eve or the coats provided by God. Hopkins emphasizes that when choosing clothing, Christians should think about Christ and his crucifixion, and whether their clothing points to the righteousness of Christ that covers all shame. He concludes by stating that the issue of nakedness and covering is primarily a husband's issue, as Christ is the one who clothes his bride in his perfect robe of righteousness.

I wanted to talk for a moment about modesty. I pray God might be pleased to use this short talk for his glory. I prefer to talk on the issue of modesty, So much controversy about just the word and scripture. But I prefer to talk about the subject using the biblical terms nakedness and covering. Nakedness and covering, which we see throughout scripture. Each generation of the church in America and the West, if you just, I've been around long enough to see it, but if you just trust me, if you haven't seen it in your lifetime, each generation of the church in America and the West uncover themselves more than the generation before them. That's just what happens. That's what's been going on since about the 1930s. Before that, 30s and 40s, before that it wasn't so. But we're just continuing to do that. And with every step in the direction towards total nakedness, the generation that grows older, and we wonder why. Why is the generation after us uncovering more than we did? And then they grow up and they think everything's fine and they look at the generation after them and they go, why are they uncovering more than us? Everyone just does it. It's just one generation after another. But I'd like to talk to you about this just for a moment about this in relationship to nakedness and covering. Genesis chapter 3 is a good place to start. It's a good place to look at the issues of nakedness and covering. Adam and Eve, after their plunge into rebellion against God, we read, knew that they were naked but they thought that their nakedness was sufficiently covered with aprons that they made to cover their shame. But God comes along and he makes them coats of skins. The same word coats there is used in many other passages as robes. Aprons cover the most private areas of the body. The coats, as it's rendered in other places, robes, cover everything. And when we read these things, people ask, do I think that means we're all supposed to start adopting the you know wearing robes and wearing coats that go all the way down to our ankles or what have you. And I respond, I say, we're not talking about fashion here. This isn't talking about fashion. We're not talking about fashion. We're talking about covering. You see the difference between the covering that was sufficient in the mind of man, I cover my most private parts, our most private parts, Adam and Eve by the way, just Eve, Adam and Eve, cover our most private parts. God says no, here's covering. And he covers their bodies. Adam and Eve really, you could say, made the first clothes, but they weren't really clothes. They made the first clothes, aprons, and they covered the most private parts. But God makes the true clothes, the first real clothing, and he covers all their nakedness. And God's purpose for clothing Adam and Eve was to be a picture of the righteousness of Christ. This is a picture of the righteousness of Christ by which the nakedness and shame of Adam and Eve alone could be covered. When we choose our clothing each day, men and women, sons and daughters, as Christians we should be thinking of Christ and him crucified. We should be thinking, does my clothing, there's the clothing that I'm going out that I'm going to put on my body today and wear out there in the world today, does it point people to the righteousness of Christ which covers all shame or does it affirm the nakedness of our first parents in their shame? Is my covering closer to the covering of Adam and Eve's aprons or is it closer to the coats provided by God which points to Christ and crucified. I'll close this out just telling a quick story. A woman told me that she was out shopping one day and another woman came up to her and she stood there right in front of her and she looked her up and down with just this disgusted look on her face and then indignantly said, are those your Jesus clothes? She didn't know how to respond. I thought about that and I said a good response would have been this. I am so honored that you identified me with Jesus by the things that I'm wearing. Can I tell you about him? Can I tell you about what Jesus did to cover my sin and shame? He was stripped naked and beaten and nailed to a cruel Roman cross where he took my sins on himself and suffered and died to pay my sin debt and clothe me a vile sinner in his perfect robe of righteousness. I'll just end with this. Ultimately the issue of nakedness and covering, husbands need to understand, Fathers, it's our issue. People look at it and say well it's a woman's issue. No, it's a man's issue. It's a husband's issue because Christ is the one who clothes his bride in his perfect robe of righteousness. Christ is the one who clothes his bride in his righteous robe. You