Adornment of Women in the House of God

Introduction to 1 Timothy 2:8-15 and Hermeneutical Principles

0:07 This sermon was preached on Sunday evening, March 22, 1981, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Come with me, please, in your Bibles to Paul's first letter to Timothy, Timothy chapter 2. Follow, please, as I read the portion of the Word of God that has received the concentrated attention of our minds, and I trust our hearts, over the past few Lord's Day evenings. In 1 Timothy chapter 2, beginning with verse 8, the Apostle, writing under the inspiration of the Spirit and in the authority of a God-appointed Apostle, says, I desire, therefore, that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands without wrath and disputing. In like manner, that women adorn themselves in modest appearance. Carol, with decency and sobriety, or not with braided hair and ghostly raiment, but with women professing godliness through good works.

1:27 Let a woman learn in quietness, with all that I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness. For Adam was first formed, then he. And Adam was not beguiled. But the woman was not beguiled.

1:46 The woman being utterly beguiled hath fallen into transgression, but she shall be saved through her childbearing, if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety.

2:04 When we come to any portion of God's written word, concerns with respect to that portion should break into at least three broad channels. The first concern should be to ascertain. What does the passage say? And that, of course, is a matter of correct translation, that is, a translation into verbal symbols that we call words that convey an accuracy of meaning in the context in which we find ourselves.

2:42 Having asked the question, what does the passage say, which is in the area of translation, we must then be concerned with the question, what does it mean? And that, of course, is the task's position, or nation, the opening up, the unpacking of the meaning of the word. For the disciplines of those first sanctified listener of the word of God, we must not to

4:24 issue what is in our concern to arrive at a primity. That meaning, I have suggested, will be conditioned by issues. And I implore you in the intended analogy of a target passage being, we must approach it in the understanding of petulant. Petually binding authority, that we must understand the passage in the large context of the biblical teaching of the essential equality that exists between men and women in creation, fall, and redemption. And then we must understand the immediate burden of the apostle in this passage, which is outlined for us in chapter 3, verses 14 and 15, behavior in the house of God. And then we must understand the word of God. And then we must understand the word of God.

5:35 And then we must understand the word of God. And then we must understand the word of God. And then we must understand the word of God.

5:38 And then we must understand the word of God. The first seven verses of the chapter directives concerning the public prayers of the church. And then the subsequent section, chapter 3, verses 1 through 13, dealing with the recognized office bearers within the church, the official teachers, rulers, and servants of the church. Well then, last Lord, with those submissioning our understanding.

Grammatical Analysis of 'Likewise' and Proper Translation

6:10 standing, we looked at this specific word of directive, men are to take the leadership in prayer in every house of godliness, third is the verb definitive in the original, to

7:18 women, in category verses 11 through 50, pertains to their conduct, verse 11, that they are to learn, to teach, and then their conduct, in the word he suggested, if we are properly

8:34 to grasp the passage, we must begin with the question, this is one of the most difficult passages in this epistle, and in many sections of the new testament, you will see in terms of 1981 American east, or I should say 1981 northeast American east, even within the framework of our own country, words that say something accurately in the northeast will say very little in the south or the southwest, the sense of relation is different from the work of exposition, one of the great weaknesses of the modern translation, the modern translation is that they try to do a mini job of exposition and explanation, and in doing that, they are not strict translations of the word of god, they are mini commentaries upon the word

9:50 of god, and the work of the translator and the commentator are two distinct categories of labor, now the first word that strikes us, and you have it in your english bibles, likewise or in like manner, the verse begins with an adverb. now there is a problem, there is no verb there that is modifying, the women adorn themselves, and we must search somewhere for a verb to which this adverb attaches itself, or which it is describing or modifying. we don't have to search long or far for the verb that needs to be supplied. in verse 8, paul says that the men pray in every place, and here in verse 9, we are to pray in like manner, by a will that the women adorn themselves. in other words, the verb i desire is to be supplied from the previous context, and the lexicographers, arndt and gingrich, actually cite this passage as an example of how this

11:12 particular adverb translated likewise or in like manner borrows a verb from the preceding context. it is very similar to the verse in verse 9. it is very similar to the verse in verse 9. it is very similar to the verse in verse 9.

11:23 it is very similar to the verse in verse 9. it is very similar to the verse in verse 10. this is the construction of the passage that all of us is familiar with, 1 corinthians 11. a passage often read, or at least quoted, when we come to the lord's table.

11:38 in this passage, 1 corinthians 11, 25 you have in verse 25 the words, in like manner also the cup. in like manner also the cup. now that doesn't make any sense. in like manner what?

11:52 the cup. well you see, we have to borrow the verb from verse 6. verse 23, I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he break it and said, this is my body, which is for you, this do in remembrance of me. In like manner, the verb understood, he took the cup. We have a very similar construction, and again, this is cited in the Arndt and Gingrich lexicon of the Greek language. So to insert into this part of the verse, in like manner, I will that the women pray adorning themselves, importing not only the verb I will, but the verb to pray is utterly unwarranted from a grammatical standpoint. And for any of you who have some aptitude in tracking down the word I will,

12:54 I commend to you Lenski's convincing expose of the fallacy of importing the entire verbal structure from verse 8. Now I know that's a bit technical, but we must spare no pains to arrive at a proper understanding of what the passage says. And Paul did not say, by any of the known rules of Greek grammar, like ways I will that the women pray and then emphasize the verb. And so I commend to you Lenski's convincing expose of the fallacy of importing the entire verbal structure from verse 8. Now I know that's a bit technical, but we must spare no pains to arrive at a proper understanding of what the verse says. And Paul did not say, by any of the known rules of Greek grammar, like ways I will that the women pray and then emphasize the adorning with which they were to pray in the house of God. That is not translation. It is not proper interpretation. That is interpolation. That is not an accurate

13:40 rendering of the mind of the spirit in the passage. Well then, with that technical matter behind us, let me suggest what I hope will be a helpful translation of this, these two verses, the following. Like wise, I will, adorn themselves in becoming dressed with modesty and good sense in elaborate braids or fitting for women professing godliness the thing we must ascertain in seeking to unpack

Target Audience and General Directive: Becoming Dress, Modesty, and Good Sense

14:42 are these words direct to the New Testament

16:17 to the conclusion that reality but a visible profession of faith in Jesus Christ in other words he's speaking to women who are church members in good standing he's addressing himself to the women who would be present in any ordinary gathering of the house of God you see how important the context is in understanding any one of the parts he tells us in chapter three that his pressing burden is behavior in the house of God what kind of women by and large are present in the house of God why it's women who make a bold profession of godliness they have been baptized they have been brought into the visible community of the people of God they acknowledge themselves to be the handmaidens of the Lord now this is important because often when churches begin to get concerned about the directives of this passage when those who do not profess godliness

17:43 come amongst the visible community of the people of God and their dress and external demeanor and their dress and external demeanor and their dress and external demeanor is something a few degrees left or right of center with regard to these principles people pounce upon them and begin to make them feel uncomfortable about their externals and we must never fall into that snare if God is going to bring harlots into this place to save them no doubt when they come they will come with the attire of a harlot and we do not come up to them and start quoting this passage and lay upon them that which God directs to a woman professing godliness now if a woman came dressed so immodestly that her presence would be a distraction to the public worship it might be an administrative responsibility of the elders to take her aside and to deal with her that's another matter but we must understand that this passage is directed to women who profess godliness well having cleared that matter away now then what is the directive and if you look at the passage again it breaks down to the fact that it breaks down very naturally into a general directive and then an expanded directive the general directive verse 9 in like manner that women themselves in the translation I have suggested is women

19:12 are themselves in becoming that's the outward in becoming and the general directive touches the inward along with modesty and good sense well let me try to unpack this well let me try to unpack this well let me try to unpack this the meaning of those words the out demeanor in this general directive is called becoming that is an arrangement of the existence that is suitable to her profession she is not to dress in a gaudy showy manner which would bespeak a contradiction of the values which she professes as one who professes godliness nor is she to appear in the house of god in a shoddy slovenly way that would also contradict her profession of godliness rather one who is a part which is the pillar and ground of the truth is to be an amen to the truth

20:36 and the truth is pleasing and orderly and beautiful and harmonious and so gaudiness and shabbiness are both as to the alongside of and in a sense be the regulators of the outward become so difficult to checking all of my commentators and the lexicographers and the rest i could hardly get two of them to agree checking about seven or eight different translations

21:46 but i finally settled on the words modesty and good sense and women with enough sense to know that though we may not be able to give a precise analytical definition of modesty we certainly know what is described as becoming

23:07 outward adornment that is conditioned by inward grace then adorn themselves

Expanded Directive: Negatives (Braided Hair, Gold, Pearls, Costly Raiment)

24:10 modesty and often in the word of god the writers are never content with generalities they descend in the concrete beginning in verse ten like manner that the women adorn themselves with modesty and good sense not he's going to descend to this expanded directive and he begins with the negative and four things follow not simply braided hair as though there were something evil in that day or this day with braided head strands of the hair but it speaks of an elaborate ornament

25:34 in life

27:33 certainly not a dominant emphasis in the passage that she's attempting to draw attention to herself so as to solicit impure thoughts from others but in this gaudy in the house she is either doing so to parade her living life to others envious which is to to cause them to stomp in the very house of God.

28:54 More than $3.95 at the thrift shop.

The Fallacy of Wooden, Legalistic Interpretation

29:01 Apply these things in a wooden way. And I must confess, when I thought of this analogy, I laughed out loud in my study.

29:09 So if you do, I'll not be upset with you.

29:14 We were about to begin our worship tonight, and all the chairs at the back were filled, and we just had these front row chairs empty. Maybe we're going to have a whole game of late visitors coming. The whole front row is empty tonight. And Mr. Davies, or one of the deacons or ushers, was brought down, walked down, and behind him came a woman. She didn't have a braid in her hair, but her hair was teased up, beehive style, about two feet high on top of her head.

29:45 It was dyed fire engine red. She is ushered by, you do your best not to look, but you wonder, what in the world is coming in here? Then you happen to notice that she's got earrings hanging down from her ears, big as teacups. But they're obviously made of chrome.

30:25 As she walks behind Mr. Davies, you see that on every wrist, she's got at least ten bracelets, and they seem to be made of silver, something that looks like silver. And then, when you get over the initial shock and look at the dress she has on, it's bright polka dots, pink and purple, against an off-white backdrop, and on it is a tag, purchased at the thrift shop for $5.95.

30:55 Well, you wonder, what in the world has marched into Trinity Church? Well, after this sermon, is over and the service is dismissed, you get talking with the woman, and come to find out, she's a woman who professes godliness. She's a member of the church, and she professes to be Christian. And you've just been listening to this passage, and you speak to her, and you say, but ma'am, don't you have some sense that perhaps your dress is not becoming dress?

31:23 It is not being dictated by modesty and good sense? And she says, oh, but wait a minute. Look what the passage says. Not with braided hair.

31:33 Can you find one braid in my hair? And you get up and march around all two feet of it. As they marched around the walls of Jericho, sure enough, you can't find a braid. Not a braid.

31:48 And she says, the passage says, nor with gold. Look me over from stem to stern, you won't find one gram of gold on my person. Sure enough, no gold.

32:00 And it says, not with pearls. And so we look her over, and sure enough, she ain't got a pearl on her. And then we look at her price tag, and we say, is that for real? And she pulls out of her pocketbook the actual receipt from the thrift shop.

32:12 She paid $5.95. She said, look, I'm keeping what it says. I'm obeying the word of God.

32:18 Well, you see how ridiculous that is? You say, Pastor, nobody's that stupid. Don't you believe the human heart?

32:25 I have been in circles where men would not appear in the pulpit with a gold ring on their fingers to be speak. I think that they are identified in the intimate and blessed bonds of marriage with a woman, where women would not wear a gold band because the Scripture says a woman who professes godliness is not to adorn herself in gold. Yet you could smell them three blocks away. ...that just fell out of every pole together with powder and makeup base and everything else under the sun. But they really thought that they were adorning themselves with a gold ring on their fingers. In becoming a parent, they had that wicked, legalistic mentality. What Paul is doing should be obvious even to not all the youngest, but even most of the youngest.

33:24 When he commands in his general directive becoming dressed, dictated by the inward graces of modesty and good sense, he says, now that will never lead you to that which is gaudy, ostentatious, that which is extreme, and bizarre, that which immediately attracts attention to yourself. This is the emphasis of the passage. This expanded directive simpics out those aspects of that kind of excess which in that particular situation would not be becoming to a woman professing godliness. A woman like that appears in the house of God with her mind so full of herself that she has nothing left for God or for others. And that's a contradiction of the very purpose of being found amongst God's people. So in the expanded directive you have the negative, but now look at the positive.

Expanded Directive: Positives (Good Works and a Godly Life)

34:30 You have a parenthesis. You see the contrast. She is not to come gaudily dressed with these things, but which becomes or befits a woman professing godliness through or by means of goodness and good works. In other words, her true adornment is the adornment of her life of godliness.

34:57 When you look at her, her clothing, her jewelry if she has any, her hairstyle, which must be something of one kind or another, these things neither stun you with their godliness, skew you with their immodesty, or disgust you with their shabbiness, but they are not to be seen as godliness. But they so blend in to the inner spirit of modesty and good sense that you see that woman clothed, as it were, with the fabric of the pattern of a godly life. Her good works become her true adornment. And the only thing that is gaudy about her is the garment of her good works. That's what the apostle is saying. And you have then a wonderful parallel in the direction of the narrative of Peter in 1 Peter 3. Given to Christian wives, verse 3.

36:03 Perhaps we should back up. He is urging these wives who do not have Christian husbands still to obey them, that they may be won by the holy manner of living of the wives. Verse 2. Beholding your chaste behavior coupled with fear, whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning of braiding the hair, wearing jewels, gold or putting on of apparel but let it be the hidden man of the heart in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of god of great price for after this manner of wartime the holy women also who hoped in god adorned themselves being in subjection to their own husband you see when a woman is preparing herself to come to the house of god longing that she as one who professes godliness will appear in a manner consistent with that profession the preoccupation of her heart and mind is not her external force and thing and phase of preoccupation is with the internal fitness of her home

Application 1: External Attire is Not Amoral

37:25 heart to have dealings with god and to be found amongst the people of god dressed to the hilt in the garment of her good works well i submit that as at least an honest and i hope somewhat accurate attempt to open up the meaning of the words having addressed ourselves to what does the text say translation what does the text mean exposition or explanation now what does it say to us in terms of concrete application to where we are at well as time permits i want to draw out more lines of application first of all we must understand that our external attire is not an a moral issue an amoral issue is an issue concerning which there is no morality it is an amoral issue with respect to many things i'm sorry many things are amoral that is if you do one thing it is neither virtuous if you do another it is not vicious there is no impingement of the law of god upon that specific issue now many have the opinion whether thought out and articulated

38:52 by conviction or simply absorbed and assumed in practical experience that our external attire is an a moral issue in other words they operate on the basis that it is perfectly proper to dress only in terms of the pressures of custom fashion taste and personal preference so you see what this passage says that ain't so god has laid the law of the new covenant right over the top of where you hang your clothes

39:38 and god in gracious authority invades your clothes cloth he says i have a right to you what or what you do not take off the hook and wear particularly when appearing in public among the people that the women adorn themselves in modesty and in order to have a modest apparel dolic authority so a concept of modest apparel is not a hangover from the puritanic age it is a present impeachment of the law and will of god upon every christian and in particular according to this passage upon the women in the congregation i will that the women attire themselves in becoming dress by modesty and good sense. Let me ask you women sitting here tonight, has this principle ever really gripped you and become a matter of deep and burning conviction that your external

41:02 attire ought accurately to reflect the state of your heart? Now, if your heart is full of pride and ostentation and desire to be envied and to provoke lust, your dress be speak a lie. If your heart by the grace of God is full of humility and preoccupation with Christ and with holiness and with godliness, let your dress become that profession as it is determined by the dictates of modesty. One of the points I failed to make because I got too far away from my notes was that under that word good sense, have you ever noticed when people are mentally deranged one of the usual manifestations is their bizarre external appearance? You may be in a public place and the first thing that is an indication that someone, and I don't say this with any degree of laughter, that someone is lacking something mentally, is you notice that this person is dressed in an odd manner that shows the absence of the ability to think rationally.

42:29 You may see an older woman dressed in a dress that is befitting to a younger woman and she may have on a very sort of formal dress but sneakers. And you look at the sneakers and dress and say something, you say she's not right. Why? Because there's something wrong mentally. You see, we instinctively connect those two things and I'm convinced it's bound up in the word Paul used. And so this whole matter of our dress is not an amoral issue. We must seek to demonstrate

43:04 that we have true biblical sanity, that our judgment about life and its values is under

43:13 the impress of the truth of God. The matter of our external appearance is not amoral. And listen, that doesn't get suspended simply because heart is a good thing. It's not a matter of whether or not weather comes and you happen to be at the beach. I have been shocked simply because it's hot. And you girls, one of the areas you'll bear the reproach of Christ, if you do go indulge in any kind of public bathing, your willingness to appear in something that people will laugh at because it'll look like it's out of the 40s, you'd better rather be laughed at than provoked by your s**tty modesty. When the Bible says,

44:13 there appeared a woman in the dress of a harlot, it expects us to understand that a harlot dresses the way she does because she's out to sell her wares and she's putting them in the front window. It pains me to see Christian girls, whom I have every reason to believe, have deep inward purity of heart, succumbing to the pressure of fashion, particularly in the summer. Now you girls, you want to be godly? Pay the price right here. You girls, you want to be godly? Pay the price right here.

Application 2: No Detailed Legislation in the Church

44:45 God doesn't suspend this and say except in the months of June, July, and August. Your dress in any situation is not an amoral thing, but of course particularly your dress in the house of God. But then secondly, we learn from this passage that our external attire is never to be made a matter of detailed legislation in the church. Our external attire is never to be made a matter of detailed legislation in the church. Our external attire is never to be made a matter of detailed legislation in the church. Our external attire is never matter of detailed legislation in the church. Now, if ever detailed legislation was in order, it was in order when living apostles could have given it. But Paul did not say, I will that the women likewise dress themselves and then give a great detailed dress code. When

45:41 he said, in becoming dress, dictated by modesty and good sense, he had some confidence in the good sense of the people and in the Holy Ghost that women would know what modesty and good sense would dictate. And whenever there is any tendency whatsoever to start legislating, resist it, resist it, because when we get wiser than God, we end up straining at mass and swallowing camels. That's the inbred tendency of Phariseeism that makes its own laws seeking to improve upon God. Rather, every Christian woman must take this passage and either go alone with God, and if you're one of these mothers with little ones, so that times alone with God are as rare as hen's teeth, then as you walk about the house, pray it in, say, Lord, keep what it means to dress in becoming dress. Give me the inward graces of modesty and good sense that will dictate. What is becoming in any given situation. For you see, what is becoming is varied by

47:02 a person's age. What is perfectly becoming for some of you teenage girls would look ludicrous on my wife. And when you see a woman who's in her middle age years trying to look like a teenager, she lacks good sense. It's not becoming. Well, you see, the thing is not in the dress, and it's cocked, and it's, it's just the fact that it doesn't suit that. The dress is nothing. It's a matter of your station in life. If we had the wife of a high government official appear here tonight, it's obvious that she would dress in a manner befitting the dignity of her husband's position. And she would dress differently from some of you who are wives of young men barely able to make ends meet, just beginning to settle into your home and the rest. You see, you can't make a dress code. What is befitting for one person at one age would not be for the same person at another. person of another age. What is befitting for a certain person in a certain station is unbefitting

48:04 to a person in a differing station. And furthermore, just your physical stature and proportions. What is perfectly modest and shows good sense for someone who's built like, what's her name, Popeye's companion olive oil, that would be utterly unfitting for someone who was a little more endowed. And I don't mean to be coarse, but I want to put this in the concrete so that you get to thinking in terms of these broad categories. And as we were reminded this morning, elders have no right to legislate beyond the word of God. And I know there have been people who've come to the church with this mentality. They've been very disturbed that we have nothing of a church covenant that takes in a lot of these details of externals. Why don't we? But we do have the warrant.

Application 3: The Church's Testimony Through Women's Dress

49:01 I say to every woman, it is the will of God to dress in a becoming manner along with modesty and with good sense. Our external attire is not a matter, never to be made a matter of detailed legislation. And thirdly, the church's pillar and ground of the truth must manifest the power of truth in the dress of its women. The church as the pillar and ground of the truth.

49:34 Let me state it in a way that I hope will make it stick. Do you know that most of you

49:48 women have the privilege of preaching to visitors long before I ever stand in this pulpit and open my mouth? Do you know that? When strangers or visitors come amongst us and have opportunity to look as it were over the complexion of the congregation, and if they notice that the women amongst us have the privilege of speaking to them, and we have a chance to are not sitting there in dark brown burlap gummy sacks with their hair all greasy and hanging down and faces chalky with a death-like illness. And on the other hand, when they look across the basic culture of the congregation and don't have to look up over big beehives and look up over gaudy dresses and gauze and tin and iron and gold and all of the rest, but they see women who are what? Becomingly dressed, who be speediness of God in whose image they've been recreated and who show a sense of peace and heart color without the gaudiness of our friend with her beehive, fire engine red hair and the rest. What happens? Before any one of us...

51:10 stands to preach, women are preaching on the calls and the other ladies' magazines where page after page after page have nothing but a wonderful privilege you women have. And Paul, he said, Timothy, I hope to come shortly, but if I carry, I want you to know how to regulate behavior in the house of God which is the pillar and ground of the truth. Now when the preacher's going to stand up and preach, what truth is he going to preach? He's going to preach the truth of the supernatural. He's going to preach the supreme importance of the soul.

52:18 He's going to preach the truth of the great importance of the internal as opposed to the external. He's going to preach that the great concern of God is the heart. And he's saying, oh you women, preach before the preacher and bearing an attire. The preacher stands up and says those things in verbal forms.

52:48 There's already an amen in the conscience of that minister in the attire of the woman. And I want to commend you women, by saying that by and large, I've had the privilege of preaching in that context for these many years. And so I'm not scolding tonight. I'm helping some of you to see what it is you've been doing and you didn't know it.

53:16 And sitting there tonight, you've said, well Lord, I've never, but I understand, that's right Lord, that's, I see now what I've been, and this will help you to articulate it, listen, so that understanding it better, you may not only have your obedience more intelligently regulated, but now you can sit down with your daughters and tell them what you do and what they like to do. So that they will not only absorb a climate from your example, but they will also receive the articulation of the principle that lies behind that. The younger, the older women are to train the younger women. See it? You would be able to sit down with your daughters and explain these principles. The church is the pillar and ground of the truth. It must manifest the power of truth in the dress of its women.

Application 4: The Great Concern is the Heart and Godly Life

54:16 And then finally, we learn from this passage that the great concern in every aspect of our life in the house of God should be the state of our hearts and the consistency of a godly life. It says with regard to that behavior in the house of God, I will that the women adorn themselves with modest appearance, not with the gaudy and the showy, but that which befits a woman professing godliness. Let her come adorned in her good works. Let her come making it evident that she, in the language of Peter, accounts as great price those hidden graces that cannot help but exude from her life the meek and the quiet. You see, it is a wonderful thing, a wonderful thing, when people begin to understand these principles and instead of turning away from all that is harmonious and attractive and beautiful and giving the impression that God must hate beauty, they have this sense of beauty and the appreciation of color and variety so under the discipline of the pursuit of godliness that instead of those things

55:44 taking the attention away from Christ, they enhance the desirability of true and biblical Christianity. Oh, dear people, when we come together, the grave concern should be the concern. One preacher overstated it and for a while I used to quote him but then I saw that was not too wise. But his overstatement at least brought the truth home with power to my heart.

56:11 He asked a group of professing gods and Christians this question. How much care would you have spent on preparing your externals for worship if the whole congregation were blind? Well, the congregation is. So you do have to be concerned with whether or not your tie matches your shirt.

56:31 Imagine what pain it would be for any of you who are not color blind and who at least notice obliquely the color of a man's tie. What an agony it would be to have to listen to someone preach for an hour where every color in the tie clashed with the color of the shirt. Well, who made you so that you feel uncomfortable when colors clash? God did, not the devil.

56:53 God did, not the devil. And how would you feel if while I was preaching there was a shocker hair that was right down the middle of my forehead and over here to the left? You'd be wishing all the while he was preaching, will he please put that thing over there? Sure you would.

57:07 There's not a one of you so spiritual that you wouldn't be thinking that. Not a one of you. Not a one of you. Why?

57:15 Now who made you that way? Not the devil. The devil drives everything he gets his hands on to organization and to confusion and disarray and everything God puts his hands on results in order. We don't take that position that the more dowdy we become the more holy we are.

57:39 No, no. And this in the providence of God and under the blessing, I should say under the blessing of God as we do this in conscious submission to the word of God can be a wonderful means of enhancing our testimony and eloquently proclaiming to all who come amongst us that our great concern in this place is the concern of our hearts. Now there may be some amongst us tonight. I see visitors.

Concluding Exhortation: To Unbelievers and Believers

58:10 I don't know where you're coming from in terms of your background, your understanding of the word of God. Perhaps you thought it a bit strange that a preacher should take a whole hour and talk about women's dress. But I hope if you've been listening at all, you realize there's a direct line between this and the most vital concerns of eternity. And my friend, I hope something of that concern has come home to your heart if you're a stranger to the grace of God.

58:40 God looks upon the heart and you may appear here tonight properly dressed and externally very acceptable, but what does God see your heart in? Does he see a deceiving cauldron of pride and lust and ambition and avarice and greed? But does he see a heart that has been cleansed in the blood of his own dear Son? Oh, my friend, if you're a stranger to Christ and to his grace and to the sanctifying work of the Spirit, then seek the Lord while he may be found.

59:16 Call upon him while he is near. And for some of you dear women for whom perhaps some of this has come home and been a little hard to swallow because it seems by degrees as you grow in the knowledge of the word of God there are just fewer and fewer areas that you can call a no man's land. Well, you see, if you're a true Christian after you get over the initial shock of that, that doesn't irritate you because when you believed in the Lord Jesus you believed on him with a disposition to becoming his handmaid, his bondservant. And when the Master says, my child, I didn't make this all known to you at the beginning, it would have been too much for you.

59:58 But now I want to take you aside. Here's another area that I've got something to say about. You say, well, Lord, I didn't know that, but thank you for telling me. By your grace, I'll mind you in that area.

60:08 Now the Lord's pointed out another area. He's intruded into your closed closet tonight. But remember, the hand that has intruded was pierced. Never forget it.

60:21 The voice that says, I will that women dress modestly, becomingly, is the voice that cried, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And surely, if you have found in him your life and salvation, you will not resent his intrusion into your wardrobe, but you will welcome it and you will pray for grace to live in the light of it. Let us pray. Our Father, we are so thankful that we have the word of God as a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. We thank you for this portion in Paul's letter to me, in Paul's letter to Timothy, giving this very clear word directed to women as to their outward appearance and to the inward graces which should discipline that appearance. We pray for every Christian woman in this place tonight that you will write these, your own words, upon each heart. We pray that you will help the husbands of Christian wives to be wise counselors in guiding and instructing the consciences of their wives, helping them to know from the perspective of a man's psyche

61:48 and a man's peculiar weaknesses and vulnerabilities what is truly modest, what reflects good sense. We pray for the young ladies amongst us, for the girls, for the little children. Holy Father, it seems that everything we study in your word brings us into this confrontation with the whole climate of our society. Grant that our precious children may know the impress of the word of God upon their minds, regulating their thinking even with respect to their dress.

62:27 We pray that none will be unwilling to bear the reproach of Christ. Grant, Lord, that modesty and good sense, that which befits the profession of godliness may mark every woman in this assembly. And we pray for us as men as well, where immodesty has become a way of life in our whole society, where there is the preoccupation with the sensuous and with that which attracts in a way that is not godly. Help us as men to be reflections also of these great principles of your word.

63:08 And then, Lord, give us above all else those inward graces of the heart. Have mercy upon us. Hear and answer our prayers and dismiss us with the blessings of your grace and your spirit resting upon us and abiding with us. We ask through our Lord Jesus Christ.

63:28 Amen.