Male and Female Appearance

In this part of the sermon: Pastor Martin begins by explaining his unusual attire (a barong) for two reasons: to welcome Pastor Dixon back from the Philippines and to illustrate a principle about male and…

Martin explains wearing a barong, custom-made in the Philippines, as a way to ease Pastor Dixon's reverse culture shock upon returning from eight weeks in the Philippines, where such attire is common for preachers. This also serves as an illustration for the sermon's theme.

This adult Sunday school class was held on July 17, 1988, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. I'm sure many of you have already noticed that for the first time in 25 years of ministry in North Jersey and the previous 10 years of ministry in other places, I've appeared in a place of public ministry other than in the Philippines, dressed in something other than a standard shirt and tie or shirt, tie, and jacket. And I'm appearing in my barong this morning, custom-made for me in the Philippines several years ago, for two reasons. As our brother Pete led us in prayer, we all ha...

0:03 - 1:17 Read in full sermon

Driving home: In other words, God is always more interested in the state of your heart than in the condition of your clothes.

Jesus likened the Pharisees to dishes polished on the outside but never washed inside, illustrating their outward piety contrasting with inward corruption, emphasizing God's concern for internal attitudes.

But your Heavenly Father sees in secret. Matthew 15, this people draws near with their lips, outwardly, but inwardly, of course, the classic statement, Matthew 23, 25 to 28, where Jesus likened the Pharisees to two very unflattering metaphors or similes. He said they are like dishes, that someone polishes them until they glisten on the outside, but they never wash the inside. You've got months of the accumulated scum of coffee grounds, and everything else.

14:10 - 14:50 Read in full sermon

Driving home: In other words, God is always more interested in the state of your heart than in the condition of your clothes.

Jesus likened the Pharisees to whitewashed sepulchers, clean on the outside but full of decay within, further illustrating their hypocrisy and the primacy of internal spiritual condition.

He said that's the way you Pharisees are. All the inside, never with the inside. And then he said you're like whitewashed sepulchers. Someone goes out every month and puts a fresh coat of whitewash on the outside of the sepulcher, but inside the bones and the flesh get more and more rotten, and the stench is greater.

14:50 - 15:10 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The legitimacy of connecting external appearances with internal aspects in the Bible.

The description of the harlot in Proverbs 7, with her attire and demeanor, is used to show how external appearance can legitimately indicate internal intentions and a heart open to seduction.

But the Bible is legitimate to read from the condition of the heart. And that emphasis in the Bible is clearly given, as is the first one. For example, in Proverbs chapter 7, you will notice that when the father is warning his son about the wild, seeking to seduce a naive man, no new thing under the sun. For Proverbs 7 is not warning about what we would call a professional hooker plying her on any given occasion. She's a married woman on a journey, and he'll not be back until the noon, seeking to seduce a younger, naive man. And notice, verse 9 of Proverbs 7, in the twilight, in the evening, o...

15:54 - 17:16 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin then argues for the second principle: the Bible legitimately connects external appearance with internal attitudes, using examples from Proverbs 7 (the harlot), Isaiah 3…

The haughty walk, stretched necks, and mincing steps of the daughters of Zion in Isaiah 3 are used to illustrate how their external movements and adornments revealed their apostate hearts and desire to attract attention for immoral purposes.

Outward to the inward. Look at Isaiah 3.16. More authors of Zion haughty and walk stretched necks and will tell you the first hookup for an immoral relationship is with the eyes.

20:04 - 20:35 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You tell me I'm more concerned with my big poofy hairdo than my heart. And furthermore, I want people to be paying more attention to my head than to God and to their own hearts when they come to the assembly.

A woman with hair piled up like '16 beehives' and loaded with glistening ornaments is used as an analogy to illustrate how excessive external adornment can signal a preoccupation with self rather than God, and a desire for human attention in worship.

And if you see a woman coming into the assembly with her hair piled up like 16 beehives and she's saying, she's got it all loaded with golds of ornaments that glisten and dazzle. You tell me I'm more concerned with my big poofy hairdo than my heart. And furthermore, I want people to be paying more attention to my head than to God and to their own hearts when they come to the assembly. So you see, the Bible that clearly teaches principle number one, the primest concern as opposed to external appearance teaches the legitimacy of connecting the external appearance with internal attitudes. Establi...

24:39 - 25:53 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But you see what we have a change principle in betting.

Jesus washing the disciples' feet in John 13 is used to illustrate an unchanging moral principle (humble service) embedded in a changing cultural manifestation (literal foot washing), distinguishing it from a third ordinance.

you had cultural activity of in the first century for all I'm in certain places of the world today, but it was clearly, as a guest to the home, the first thing your host would do would he have his house servant or would himself personally have you sit upon a bench, kneel down with water and wash your feet because they would be hot and they would be dusty from the travel. You would have had nothing but sandals upon your feet and this was a part of the cultural milieu of the first century there in Palestine. So in John chapter 13, our Lord to show makes the place of a servant girds himself with ...

26:16 - 27:25 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But you see what we have a change principle in betting.

Martin recounts seeing weeds around the church building and his internal struggle about pulling them, only to find them pulled by someone else. This illustrates the principle of humble service (from the foot washing example) being applied in a contemporary context.

Now somebody must have caught that principle between between the last Lord's day and this Lord's day with regard to this external condition of this building. For several weeks as I've seen the weeds growing I said Lord that's a reproach to you. Those weeds need to go. Should I go over and pull them myself?

29:51 - 30:13 Read in full sermon

The point: If you can get hold of those three principles understand them stand upon them biblically you'll be kept from errors on the left hand and on the right.

The biblical command to greet with a 'holy kiss' is used to illustrate an unchanging principle (open-hearted greeting among believers) manifested in a culturally appropriate way (a hearty handshake in modern Western culture), acknowledging cultural differences in physical greetings.

I don't know who you are but you caught the principle. You see there is an abiding moral principle do as I've done in a changing cultural found in the New Testament with a holy kiss four times kiss of love in Peter. Five that say we are to greet a related handshake.

31:08 - 31:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Christians to know that if the special presence of God in the midst of his people is a reality and it is it is unseemly to appear in the special presence of God as though we were appearing to do a job of overhauling the …

Appearing in church dressed as if one were 'overhauling the engine of our car in our jeans in our greasy shirt' is used as an analogy to illustrate what would be 'unseemly' in the special presence of God, emphasizing the need for appropriate attire in worship.

Christians to know that if the special presence of God in the midst of his people is a reality and it is it is unseemly to appear in the special presence of God as though we were appearing to do a job of overhauling the engine of our car in our jeans in our greasy shirt and with a bag full of tools and in our particular culture the seemliness specialness of the special presence of God here to lead the worship a shirt that be the specialness of that gathering of the people of God now that's of the changeless principle in the Philippines the station I preached to some six hundred people three ni...

34:58 - 36:23 Read in full sermon

The point: We must be careful even in our homes where constant input with our children that they do not gain masculinity and femininity and of male and female modesty because he speaks of certain things that are shameful and that's…

Martin humorously notes glancing at 'poor brethren who are losing it quickly' when discussing hair, acknowledging the personal nature of the topic while maintaining the theological point about hair as an external symbol.

you see these people had come to the place and we can't track down with any definiteness what the movement was and you read the commentators and each one has his own opinion and so eventually we have to say God has only revealed as much as we need to know and this much we see in the passage the Corinthian women under the guise of while women's ordination that relationship and now I'm not he doesn't start with the externals he starts with the theology that's why we spent all our time with verse 3 he says we've got a planted in theology in other words he says your wardrobe has its tap roots in y...

48:40 - 50:08 Read in full sermon

The point: I wouldn't be caught dead getting a haircut in a unisex hair shop just to walk by one makes me want to spit on the sign because I see it as a clenched fist against almighty God and I hear these words it is an abomination

He shares that his wife has to spend hours putting her hair in curlers due to its fine texture, so it appears 'distinctively feminine,' illustrating the effort some women make to maintain a feminine appearance despite natural challenges.

I was in the biblical framework with all the qualifications that we've already considered and I've got to watch the clock but having set the qualifications we must be certain that under God seeking to live with this principle that male and female subordination manifested in the visible symbols of that relationship are to be common and the people of God in particular at all times and in all places now very quickly I want to deal with just two aberrations number one and hairstyle that's not an innocent fact it is an attempt to obliterate what God has established I wouldn't be caught dead getting...

53:44 - 55:14 Read in full sermon

The point: I wouldn't be caught dead getting a haircut in a unisex hair shop just to walk by one makes me want to spit on the sign because I see it as a clenched fist against almighty God and I hear these words it is an abomination

The 'bra burnings' of the late 60s and early 70s are cited as a historical example of radical feminists symbolically throwing off subordination to men and modesty, linking it to the broader theme of obliterating sexual distinctions.

like to but so that it appears distinctively feminine and you don't have to look twice to know that she's a she unsympathetically guards away womanhood femininity anyone's got to look inside your children the second thing I'll again may not be very popular but we're a bunch of adults and I'm going to address it you know what the 20th century counterpart was throwing off the veil in public for a woman at carnival what became the symbol of women

55:14 - 56:36 Read in full sermon

The point: It is not enough that in the domestic sphere we embrace the divine hierarchy in the sphere of the church but in our general appearance and bearing everything about us we speak that we love God's ways and we're determined…

The analogy of a modest woman clothing herself and tidying her appearance before greeting guests after a legitimate sexual encounter with her husband is used to illustrate that certain appearances, while acceptable in private, are not fitting for public display, emphasizing the principle of modesty.

throwing off subordination to men in their modesty in the late 60s early 70s someone want to tell me what became the symbol that's right bra burnings that's right when these radical feminists gallantly took off that under men our culture for any woman to appear brawless or to have an it makes you have to wonder whether or not she does is violated some of you younger women you know what lies behind the wild you know what lies behind it is an attempt as though someone just came out of a wild that is not an innocence the orderliness that nature teaches is befitting for a woman in public does any ...

56:36 - 58:06 Read in full sermon