for the sake of all those who
could not make it this morning, and kind of like Miranda writes,
so that whatever I say or do here may be used, not against
me, but in favor of me. Because some of the things I
want to deal with this morning are controversial. I have experienced
a little bit of anxiety over some of the things I'm going
to deal with here, and I hope, I hope, I pray, I believe that
what I say will not be taken, that it will be taken in the
spirit in which it's given. That is, out of love for you,
out of concern for the glory of God. concern for the good
of this church and our witness and testimony to the gospel.
I don't believe anybody in here has any cause to suspect my mother. Indeed, I would be glad to help
you, O God, I need you. O God, I need you, O God, I need
you. Alright, I want you to open your
Bibles now to Acts 19. I read this last Wednesday night, and I never did get back to it
and explain it and deal with it. But that's just as well. Maybe we'll get a blessing tonight.
I had a little liberty. The Lord gave me a little liberty
to deal with a person in the work of the Holy Spirit last
week. This probably should have taken the form of a three-part
message in the person, the work, and the receiving of the Holy
Spirit, and I was going to deal with all of that last week, but
didn't get to the last point, receiving the Holy Spirit. Read this with me, Acts 19, verse
2. Paul said unto them, Have you
received the Holy Ghost since you believed? And they said unto
him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. Now, we're going to talk about
tonight, about receiving the Holy Spirit. what it means to
receive the Holy Spirit, how one receives the Holy Spirit.
But let me do a little review here. Before we can understand
what it is and how one receives the Holy Spirit, it's necessary
that we understand a little bit of the work of the Holy Spirit.
Now, I said last Sunday night, you may remember, I talked about
receiving something. I used a very simple illustration
of to receive something. That if I come and give you something,
bestow upon you a gift, I say I want you to have this, and
you didn't do anything to earn it, and you need it, and I give
it to you, I bestow it upon you, and you receive it. Now that's to be the object of
my grace. You've received, I've given it
to you, all you have done. You've done nothing. Nothing
worthy of notice. nothing worthy of congratulations,
nothing worth, there's no merit in receiving. A beggar receives. A beggar. You've been a recipient
of a gift. There's no merit in that. Now,
the Holy Spirit. We receive the Holy Spirit. The
Holy Spirit, let me talk a little bit about the work of the Holy
Spirit. Have any of you been in on the reading of someone's
will? Have you ever been the recipient of a will that's been executed,
that has been read, and you have been an heir of something in
that way? Have you? Anybody? All right. The Holy Spirit, in very simple
terms, the Holy Spirit is like the executor of the will of God. Do you know how you appoint someone
to be the executor of the will, to carry it out to make sure
that everything is done according to that will? Let me use an example. A man wills an estate to his
heir, and the executor is the one he has appointed, the one
who is in charge of getting all the interested parties together.
And calling upon everyone involved and making them well acquainted
with the will, he reads that will to the heirs, and he ensures
that everything is carried out just like was written in the
will. All right? Now, here's the gospel
very briefly. God the Father, in a last will
and covenant. or will, testament, covenant,
covenant, agreement, will, purposed and willed the salvation of a
number of people. He only knows them. He chose
them, people from Adam's fallen race. Scripture says there is
the sands of the sea and there's the stars of the sky, a large
number of people. Yet in relation to what we see
today, there are very few. There are many called, but few
chosen. Nevertheless, God has and abundant people. God the
Father planned that covenant. It was in His will. And then
the Son was also in on this will. And the Son agreed to do a part
in that will, His part in the will. And that part was to come
to earth as a man, to live as a man perfectly, and establish
a righteousness as a man, a righteousness or a right life, a holy life
that God would accept. Are you with me? I want to see
every head nod if you understand what I'm saying. Christ came,
the second person of this Godhead came to establish a righteousness
as a man, a perfect life as a man that God would accept. He did
this by perfectly fulfilling God's holy law. Alright? You with me? Hannah, you can
even hear this. Back up. Then, since Christ did that,
Christ lived that perfect life, God took that life that he lived,
that Christ lived, and made it appeared, or charged it to, the
word in the Scriptures is impute, imputed, to all of those people
God chose and elected. He charged it to them, that perfect
life, so it looks like Henry Soar lived a holy life. He didn't,
but in Christ he did. You see, he has this righteousness. Now, like a robe, the Scriptures
use that illustration, a robe. And he imputed this righteousness
to all of his chosen loved ones. And then Christ, as part of that
will and that testament, that covenant, Jesus Christ, there
had to be something else done. God couldn't just up and say,
I forgive your sins. That's okay. I forgive you. You're
covered. I don't want to remember any
more. They have to be paid for. God is just, right? God is holy. He said he will by no means clear
the guilt. He says that a couple of times
in his scripture. Every sin must receive a just recompense. God must be just. You see? God's
holy. If he doesn't punish sin, he's
thrown his justice and his holiness out the window. He can't do that.
He's got to pay for those sins. Every one of your sins has to
be paid for, right? Well, Christ agreed to take all
of that guilt, all of the sins, of all of those chosen people
on his big, broad shelter and go to the cross, a cross where
he poured out his soul unto death. In other words, God saw Christ
as a sinner, the greatest sinner who ever lived, even though he
did no sin. Yet whose sin did he have? He
had ours. God saw Henry, God saw whoever
his elect are, in Christ, hanging on that cross that day. And God
said, You sinned, and you've got to die. And he killed his
son. The soul that sins must surely
die. Without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness
of sin, no remission. So God Almighty poured out His
judgment and His wrath, and because of who Christ was, He could suffer
the equivalency of hell and six ivory, because He was God. You
see, we can't pay for our sins in hell. That's the reason it's
eternal. Christ could, and he did. And he satisfied God's justice. Now, if I asked you to relate
all that back to me, could you? You must understand why Christ
came and died. Could you do that? I believe
if I asked Stephen to stand up and do that, I believe he could.
I believe I asked one of these children to do that. Did I explain
that simply enough? That is the covenant. that God
has made, okay? And did Christ do it? Yes. It says He, when He had by Himself
purged our sins, He suffered under God's judgment, went to
the grave, but He didn't stay there. It says the Holy Spirit
raised Him from the dead, and He went back and sat at the right
hand of the Majesty on high, and sat there until everything,
the kingdom is brought in to Him. All His children whom He
died for, whom the Father chose, till they're all brought in to
sit at His feet and worship Him. Now, in the course of time, every
one of these children have to hear about this. Every one of
these children have to be dealt with their sins, every one of
them. So there's a third person involved
in this thing. A third person. That's God the
Holy Spirit. And God sends the Holy Spirit.
Now, the Holy Spirit has been with men since the beginning.
I'm going to dispel all of these doubts and rumors and blasphemous
things that are going on today about the Holy Spirit not having
come here until later on. But all the while, he's working
in the midst of his people, the Holy Spirit, working in their
midst, from first to last, convicting of sin, giving repentance, granting
repentance, making man see what he is. conviction of sin, granting
repentance, remorse, sorrow, change of life, giving faith
in Christ, revealing the truth, revealing this gospel to them,
making it precious to them, telling the truth of who God is, who
Christ is, molding, shaping, molding, conforming, pairing,
the rough edges, teaching, leading, guiding into all things, all
truths. It's called the spirit of truth. All things necessary,
necessary for life. And it keeps them. The Holy Spirit
keeps these chosen ones safe. They wouldn't make it if it wasn't
for the Holy Spirit. They wouldn't make it. He prepares them. He
makes them meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints. And he's like that executor of
the will, okay? The majority of this work, the
majority of the work that God, the Holy Spirit does in his people,
is done through the reading of the will. The reading of the will. Do you
understand the will? I just explained it to you from
Genesis to Revelation in a very brief account of this will and
testament of God Almighty. It's called the gospel is what
it's called. That's what we call it for short. God calls it for
short the gospel. And it's that covenant, that
will. And the Holy Spirit does the majority of this work through
the reading of the will. what we're doing right now. I'm
reading to you the will. All right? And in the words of
Peter, he said, This is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. Gospel. Gospel. All right? Now look back at Romans 8 with
me, real fast, up to Romans 8. There's some other works of the
Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's work is to
is to lead and to guide into all truth concerning this gospel,
this will, this covenant of God, how a man can come to God, how
a human being is brought to God, how God can be just and yet justify
an ungodly sinner. The Holy Spirit, that's what
He does. Nobody is saved apart from this
work. Nobody is saved apart from this
work. All right, look at verse 9 now,
Romans 8, verse 9. You are not in the flesh, but
in the Holy Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now, here's another thing, another
work of the Holy Spirit. He indwells, he sets up residence
in his people. He indwells them. Verse 10, verse
9, let's go on. If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ in him, He's none of his. He's not God's. That's significant there, spirit
of Christ, isn't it? He's Christ's spirit. All right,
verse 10. So here's another word. He indwells,
and in verse 10, if Christ be in you, the body is dead because
of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 2 Corinthians
5 talks about if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature,
a new life. New life. The Holy Spirit creates a new
life. A spiritual person. A new spiritual
person. We're born of the Spirit, Christ
said in John 3. A new person creates a new life within a human
being. Verse 14. Now, here's another
word. As many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. He leads us. He actually
takes people by the hand. Not in a physical sense, he's
spirit. But he does lead us. Lead us. Protect us. Prevent us from going here, from
going there. And whatever God wills for us
to do, whether or not God wills for the Holy Spirit to let us
go and fall in a ditch, he's still under our, under his, we're
still under his divine care. Leadership, right? He just never
takes his eye off his people. He leads them. He's a leader. Verse 15, we have not yet received
the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the
spirit of adoption. It's another work of the Holy
Spirit to give you a spirit of adoption, to make you realize
that God is now your father and you can go to him and call upon
him as your father. Spirit of adoption and all that
that implies. My, my, there's a whole message
there isn't there? And what a comfort that is. Father, you can go to
a father about anything. Anything. And this is the sweet
influence of the Holy Spirit to tell you that you can call
upon your Heavenly Father for anything. Talk to him about anything. And not fear being turned away.
Verse 16, assurance. Spirit of assurance. The Spirit
itself beareth witness with our spirit. We're children of God.
Now, I'll get into that a little more
about how we feel. His influences, assurance. Verse 26, the Spirit also helps
our infirmities. We don't know what we should
pray for as we ought, but the Holy Spirit itself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. He teaches us how
to pray, and He prays for us. He's the intercessory Spirit.
And Galatians 5, turn over there real fast. Galatians 5, the Holy
Spirit produces something within the the heart and in the life
of every one of these chosen ones. Galatians 5, you could
probably all quote these verses from heart, but the Holy Spirit
produces fruit within every one of God's chosen people. Verse
22, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy. You notice it says
fruit, it doesn't say fruits. In other words, all of this has
got to be there. It's all there. It's all one
work of the holy produce of the Holy Spirit. And it's all there
in principle, in degree. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Against such there is no law. And they that are at Christ have
crucified the flesh with affections and lusts. If we live in the
Holy Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. So the Holy Spirit
produces fruit in us. And he begins this like I began
it. Seed of the Word. Seed is sown. Gospel preaching. Seed is sown in the heart. And
then it's plowed up by more preaching. Keep plowing, keep plowing. Here
a little, there a little, you know. Make a little progress
here and there. Plowing into our hearts. Into our minds. Instilling these things in us.
In us. And the watering influence of
prayer and the Holy Spirit waters begins to bring up influences,
sweet feelings, the work of the Holy Spirit. Fruit, fruit. Now
fruit, any of you have any fruit trees? Now you know that you
don't just plant it and then let her go, do you? If you do,
what's it going to look like in a few years? It's going to
be a mess, isn't it? If you have any fruit at all,
it will be very very scrawny and very scraggly, and eventually
it will stop bearing all together. You know that? You leave a tree
unpruned, unworked with, you know it's something. And it will
not bear any fruit eventually. It may appear to have some good
fruit at first, but it will eventually quit bearing fruit. Fruit is
produced by means, and the Holy Spirit uses these means. He's
the one that does it. Means of grace, the scriptures
call it. means of grace. What I'm doing
right now, what you're doing right now, you're looking, you're
searching the Spirit, you're looking at it, you're studying
it, you're thinking about it, singing, lifting up our hearts in praise,
fellowship. This right here, all of us together,
you don't know what this is accomplishing. We're all, our hearts and minds
unified together trying to, we're beseeching God, this Holy Spirit
to be among us and we're all learning together. He said, where
two or three are gathered, it takes two or three. Two or three
are gathered, I'll be right in their midst. Prayer. Prayer. You've been in on the means of
prayer before, where God has blessed a man to pray, and you
felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in that prayer, or maybe
in you yourself. Now, this morning I should have
dealt with that little boy there in our text, 1 Thessalonians
5, when he said, Quench not the Spirit. I didn't have time. I ran out of time. But let me
just say this along these lines. I wasn't prepared to deal with
it tonight, either. You can quench the Holy Spirit, though. The
Holy Spirit uses means. The means I was just talking
about, He uses these. OK? They can be quenched. Quenched. What do you do when you quench
something? Do you ever quench the fire? Do you have to fire
up in the field and you quench it? Or that is you put it out?
You put out the fire. You put out the warmth. You put
out the influence you feel from that fire, the light you put
it out, right? We can quench the Holy Spirit.
Scripture plainly says we can. Paul besought us, exhorted us
not to do so. How do we quench the Holy Spirit?
How? Well, by rejecting what He plainly
says and what plainly pierces our hearts and our conscience.
If anything pierces our heart and our conscience from God's
Word, that's the Holy Spirit right then and there. And when
we get offended or when we say, oh, I don't like that, or if
we say, that man was aiming at me, or I don't think it means
that, we have just started to quench the Holy Spirit. If it's ignored. Ignore the means
of grace if you never pick up a Bible. Don't be. Surprised if you have no feelings. Of the Holy Spirit's influence.
You have no assurance if you have no feeling of the spirit
of adoption if you have no none of these works that we were talking
about the Holy Spirit does if we don't use the means does that
make sense if we don't use the means that he has ordained We're
rejecting, we're ignoring it, and we're quenching the Holy
Spirit. This is what He uses. If we never show up, you know,
we just show up on Sunday morning and don't show up the rest of
the time, it's no wonder that we have not this influence, gracious
influence of the Holy Spirit. I started to sing a song, that
there shall be showers of blessings. Oh, that on me they might fall.
Well, where are they falling? How are they falling? When are
they falling? I've been in on them on Sunday morning, Sunday
night, and Wednesday night. I've been in on those showers.
Been in on them. And you quench the Spirit by
rejecting, ignoring, and doing away with these things. All right?
And let me use this illustration. This is such a clear illustration. Do you remember... I forget whether or not it was
a message I preached before on marriage, uh... something to do with mercy
but you remember the question i asked uh... asked the men i asked the men
of this congregation i said why don't you go home you know the scripture says god
will be merciful to the merciful unto the merciful he will show
himself merciful unto the forward he will show himself forward
and do you remember when i said to you men, I said, why don't
you go home tonight and ask your wife, honey, am I merciful? Do you remember that? Remember me asking that? I overheard
a man say this. I overheard him say, oh, I don't
even want to ask my wife that. That's quenching the Holy Spirit. If you have some doubt, you need
to be the first one to ask her. You need to ask her before you
get home. That's quenching the Holy Spirit,
right? If there's some conviction there. Does that make sense of
what I'm saying? Huh? That's a clear example of
quenching the Holy Spirit, and we do it in so many ways. So
many ways. God's Word is designed to break. Break. Humble. Bring down into the dust. to conform, to make us submissive,
under subjection to the Word of God. And then once that is
accomplished, then the comforting and assuring process begins,
the spirit of adoption and all that. There's no comfort without
this breaking. All right, now, how does one
receive the Holy Spirit? How do you receive the Holy Spirit?
How do you receive the Holy Spirit? Well, before I answer that, let
me clear up this blasphemous false doctrine or teaching that's
going on today. Most people today say that the
Holy Spirit was not with men until New Testament times. That's
just a lie out of hell. That's what that is. That's the
doctrine of devils. That's what that is. It's making
men think that people back in the Old Testament were saved
some different way, a dispensational way. They were saved by doing
the best they could, you know. And now God's changed, you see. That's a lie. Romans 8, I read
it to you a while ago. Romans 8, 8 and 9 says, They
that are in the flesh cannot please God. But you're not in
the flesh. But in the Spirit, if so be that
the Holy Spirit of God dwelleth in you now. Listen to verse 9.
Now, if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none
of his. Now what do you say? If any man
hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. That means
Old Testament saints too, doesn't it? Any man, any woman. Was Abraham saved by the law?
Huh? Then how was he saved? He was
saved by faith. Abraham had faith. He was imputed
unto him for righteousness. Faith in who? Faith in who? Well, you say, well, God. Yeah, but Christ said Abraham
rejoiced to see my dad. Didn't he? He saw it. and was
glad. I bet you Abraham had a more,
a clearer vision of the Lord Jesus
Christ perhaps than any of us have ever had. That gospel from
Mount Moriah up there when Abraham took his son up there to sacrifice
him and he turned around and saw that ram in the thicket caught
by his horn and put in the place of his son. Buddy, he was singing
of the coming Lamb of God when he was coming down that mountain.
He was, now, he knew Christ. He saw Christ. He said, I believe
that's what Christ was alluding to, was referring to, when he
said, Abraham, rejoice to see my day. He rejoiced to see that
lamb in the thicket. He saw it, and boy, he was glad. And Isaac saw it too, and he
was glad. He said, Moses, what about Moses?
Moses wrote the law. No, Christ said, Moses wrote
of me. Didn't he? Moses wrote of me. What about
Abel? What about Enoch? What about
Noah? What about Abraham? Moses? He's all died in faith. Faith in who? Faith in Christ.
Abel knew it. Abel knew he had to have a lamb,
didn't he? His brother Cain, didn't he?
Abel did. Moses wrote of me, and all of
these were instructed. How were these different people
instructed as to who Christ was and how they came to Christ?
How were they instructed? Who does the teaching? Who does the
teaching? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
is the one. And he's spoken of many times
in the Old Testament. Somebody go out there, Rick,
go out there and see what that is. The Holy Spirit is spoken of
many times in the Old Testament. Many times. You look it up. I started looking it up, the
Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, and it was too many times to
count. Many times. Didn't David say in Psalm 51,
take not thy Holy Spirit from me? Didn't he? Now, Christ said no man comes
to the Father but by me. But by me, that means Old Testament
and New. Are you with me now? Christ said
nobody comes to the Father but by me. If any man hath not the
Spirit of Christ, he's not a head. That means Old Testament and
New, right? Old Testament and New. And no
man comes to Christ but by the drawing power of the Holy Spirit.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit. All right, look over
at John 3 with me. How does the Holy Spirit come?
How does the Holy Spirit come to me? I sent Rick out to do the dirty
work. They're a bouncer. John three
out of the Holy Spirit. What goes in your mouth and defiles
man is what comes out of the heart. And Paul said, I'm persuaded
by the Lord Jesus Christ, because he said that, that there's nothing
unclean of itself. Right? Nothing wrong with alcoholic
beverages. They're good. They're medicinal. As I've said before, soldiers
in the Civil War who were having their legs cut off with an old
rusty saw, they were sure glad for a slug of whiskey, weren't
they? You're glad it's only medicine they had. Even the scriptures
even recommend it at times for your stomach sacks. Take a little
wine for your stomach sacks. I've got to say this. Bernard recommended it for self-righteousness
sake. He said, I hear people say, liquor's
never touched my lips. Bernard used to say, they ought
to take a bath in it. Liquor for the self-righteousness
sake. No, I'm not condoning drunkenness
in any way. You know that. That's evil. It's
wicked. But I have liberty, the believer
has liberty to drink whatsoever in moderation, in moderation,
within the confines of my home. There is the qualification. Within
the confines of my home. Now we've been reading about
not offending anybody anyway, OK? Out in public, there is a possibility
that a brother may see you, or others may know you, and bring
reproach upon the gospel and this church. And it's just not
wise. Avoid it. Okay? Isn't that good
advice? If you don't have to drink out
in public, do it. Now, if you're in Kalamazoo somewhere,
leave it up to your own discretion, but I'm telling you, be careful.
Take heed. That's your liberty. It doesn't
become a stumbling block to them that are weak. Smoking. Smoking. Smoking is still very much unacceptable. Or chewing. Let's get on that. This is Franklin County, by the
way. Chewing or sniffing is still unacceptable by some today. You women ought to quit it. Chewing. But I'm not so sure that there's
anything good about it anyway. I mean, really, I don't, I'm
not so sure there's anything good about it unless, now God
created tobacco, didn't he? Unless it would be for its occasional
relaxing qualities. See a man smoking his pipe, he
just looks like He could just die right there. He may. But
he just looks so peaceful. Somebody said a man who smokes
a pipe is usually a good man because he's too busy loading
and unloading that pipe to get into anything. But they look
so peaceful. But it sure is bad for your health's
sake when done intemperately. It sure is bad. It causes cancer. The Surgeon General has determined
They're putting everything they can on a pack of cigarettes now.
Look out, warning, danger, skull and crossbones. Don't do this,
as well as they should. But I know people, and I'm going
to have to go beyond my time this morning. I've got something
else to deal with, boy. I know men who smoke, even preachers. make this an issue. I know a
pastor who went to hold a meeting somewhere, and the man found
out he smoked a pipe, and the pastor made an issue out of it,
whether or not he could or could not smoke his pipe, and it became
a problem. He ended up staying in a motel.
He got bitter at the pastor. That just should not be. My, so I'll tell you, just to
be perfectly honest with you, this thing's on tape. We dread having something in
our homes to smoke in order to save our health. We dread having
our homes where they burn, explode, and contract carcasses. We don't
smoke because it's violent. It's instinctive. Well, look at verse ten now.
He says, If any man see thee, which thou hast knowledge, sit
at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him
which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered
unto idols? I'll give you another illustration. I'll turn it off
for this. I went to New England one time,
years ago, just before I had done it, I was telling a young
lady, I said, I was writing in Max Ingers, a young Christian,
just now, and they told her, they started preaching, and they
told her to start smoking pot, because there are no priests
who smoke pot. And they smoked pot, and they
wrote a poem about it. Well, smoking is the same thing,
you know. Both Trump and Reagan, well, people were really entertained
with the footage, with the so-called narrative of young believers,
unknowing believers, they must say, at that time. And they were
talking about their, you know, narratives and what have you,
and this, and that. And I still go to the end of
it. If they just want to offend somebody, I don't think he's
so funny. If he thinks in any way, in a way, he's very funny.
He's funny. He's conversant. A young Elihu finally spoke up. Years should speak. Gray hair
should speak wisdom, but not always. All right, now, here
we go. Dress. Dress. I'm speaking this morning on,
I'm preaching this morning on drinking, smoking, and women
wearing pants. You think I'm kidding you, don't you? This
is an area of controversy that needs our attention. The scriptures
are not silent here like they are on smoking. There's no mention
of smoking in here. There is mention of how we dress
in the scriptures. Is it important the way I look
before other people? Yes, it is. It is especially
in the house of God. I want you to turn with me to
1 Corinthians chapter two. I mean, I'm sorry, 1 Timothy
chapter two. Is it important? Now, ladies,
I love you. You know that? You believe that?
I've never given you any doubt to suspect my love for you. All
right? Now it's understood, it should
be understood that out in public we shouldn't look dirty or unkempt
unless we're a diesel mechanic or a service station owner. It
cannot be helped, right? But I'm dealing more with than
anything, I'm dealing more with this thing of public worship,
all right? Now there's very little said
in the scriptures about the way a man dresses in the scriptures.
It's easy for a man to dress modestly and acceptably, right? I mean, just about anything he
wears within reason is conservative and modest and so forth. But
there's much said in the Scriptures about the dress of a Levite and
a priest, about their garments and the folks that came to worship,
the Israelites. God said in Exodus 19.10, he
said, you have the people. He told Moses, he said, you have
the people, wash their clothes. before they come to meet me this
morning, sanctify themselves, and wash their clothes, and present
themselves decent and presentable. And are not we all kings and
priests unto our God? Yes, we are. Shouldn't we look
like we're serious about what we're doing here this morning?
Certainly. Shouldn't we have respect for
the things of God? By all means, the utmost respect. the preacher or the pastor should
conduct himself and dress himself in a manner that is befitting
the dignity and the respect which this office deserves. Right? I, for myself, I want to always
act and dress in such a way that will adorn the doctrine of God
my Savior. I want to make this church proud
to call me its pastor at all times. to introduce me in the
public place as your pastor. I don't want anybody to be ashamed
of me. Okay? And my pastor taught me,
taught us young preachers this. Nobody is offended by proper,
decent, conservative dress. Nobody. Nobody is going to be
offended by that. But many people are offended
by sloppiness, worldliness, or liberal attire. All right? And
like I said, just a moment ago, I try to dress, I try to even
dress myself conservatively, respectfully. I've got a bright
green jacket, sport coat, that I used to wear with Mindy out
on the tank. Thought I was something here.
I stuck out. But I'm just not going to wear
it in the pulpit. I'm just not going to give anybody any cause
to go away from here remembering what I wore. not thinking about
what I say, all right? If you'll notice, I'm not calling
attention to myself here at all, but if you'll notice, I wear
mostly conservative clothing, men's suits, whatever, old-fashioned. At all times, especially in here,
though, especially in here. Now, there are times when I'm
working in my yard or on my car, And I need a part to fix my car.
And I'm not going to go take a shower and put a tie on and
go to the advance auto parts. Sometimes I get in my car, put
a ball cap down over my eyes and nobody can recognize me.
And go in there, get a part, go to the hardware store, get
a bag of grass seeds, I'm working out in the yard. It's a good
sense, you know. This thing is law and regulation.
But I don't go to the bank, I don't go to the post office looking
like a slob. And I certainly don't come to
the church house looking that way, too. Working men and women,
working men and women many times have to come to the church house
wearing their work clothing, okay? There's nothing to see.
My soul, if you have to wear sackcloth, come. Come. But there are other times when
we have plenty of time. that preparation should be made
to look as decent, to dress in a manner that is respectful of
what we are doing here, and that distinguishes us from what the
rest of the world is doing today. Right? The rest of the world
is either sitting in the bar or on the creek bank or going
hunting. And what's wrong with looking like I've gone to church?
I have. Now, like I said, it's easy for
men to dress fairly neatly and conservatively. Now, women are
dealt with more specifically here. Look at 1 Timothy, chapter
2, verse 9. Now, he's talking about praying
and worship, and he says, now, in like manner, verse 9. Women
adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety."
And he goes on to mention that you cannot be overly adorned
with this and that and the other. Modest apparel. Shamefacedness. Modest apparel. What is that? What is that? Well, I strongly
believe, based upon this scripture and other scriptures, which I'll
mention in a minute, that a woman and that young ladies should
wear modest feminine attire when they're in the church house,
namely dresses. All right? Now, I've dealt with
this before, and I did not come right out and say pants. I dealt
with it very specifically before, a year or two ago, and evidently
I didn't say pants, and evidently nobody understood what I was
saying or else everybody chose to ignore me. But now nobody
will misconstrue what I'm saying. It's on tape. I firmly believe, now, nearly
every lady in here at some point in time has done this, is doing
this. And I don't want this to be an
embarrassment to anybody right now at all. Don't do it. I'm
instructing us here along this line. What we do is supposed
to glorify God and edify other people, not strictly for ourselves,
for our own comfort, for our own convenience sake, for the
glory of God, right? All right. Now listen to these
reasons. Let me give you some biblical
reasons for this, ladies. The glory of God. The bride in
the scriptures is talked about as being adorned for Christ with
robes, with robes, with coverings. This is a type of humility, a
type of humility. You remember the young girl,
Ezekiel 16, that Christ, that God came along and covered her
with his what? Skirt, his robe, his skirt. This is a picture of humility,
a picture of meekness, a picture of femininity. a picture of modesty
before God and men. We're to cover the form. Don't
expose, don't accentuate the form. Listen, ladies, women are
the greatest single objects of lust and desire on the planet.
You don't know what runs through these animals called men through
their mind. We're to do everything to avoid
that, especially when it comes to worship God. OK? Cover the
form. Deuteronomy 22.5 says this, and
God had good reason for saying this. He said, Let not the woman
wear that which pertaineth to the man. Now, use good discernment
now. At places where people work,
there's women that dig ditches now. You can't dig a ditch in
a dress, especially in the church house, though. Practically speaking,
let me give you some practical reasons here. A visitor comes
in. Now, here's the context of the
passage. A visitor comes in, and we had
this happen one Wednesday night. Two ladies came in who were dressed
very conservatively. They were nice, neat, respectful-looking
ladies, and I found out later on they were from a local church,
and they were looking for a place. A visitor comes in, a weak believer. We don't know their heart. We
don't know who they are. They may be a believer. And that particular Wednesday
night, nearly every one of our ladies was wearing pants. And
I thought, oh, my soul. Are they going to hear anything
I say, or is that going to be a stumbling block? Not in 1 Timothy, but in the
text. 1 Corinthians 8, 12. When you sin so against the brethren,
you wound their conscience. You sin against Christ, practically
speaking. And the word of Scripture says
that we're to become all things to all men. Practically speaking, let me
give you some more reasons later. I've got to deal with this in
depth, because I sure hope I don't get I sure hope this doesn't
bring up a point of contention here. This is not an issue of
salvation. But I've given you some good advice here. For the
glory of God, for the sake of the gospel, for the good of the
Church, for the good of everybody that comes in here. All right?
Practically. Nearly every one of you ladies
put on a dress to go interview for a job, don't you? Nearly every one of us would
wear a dress if we were going to entertain the Queen of England. we're entertaining God Almighty.
And we're to adorn ourselves and do what we do for the glory
of God, respectful of the place that we're in. Now listen to
this, and those of you who work in the clothing industry will
appreciate this. Do you know that 75% of the clothing
industry as ruled now is shaped by homosexuals? Yes. It's a fact. that the dress,
the modern dress of men and women now is going toward a genderless
dress. That is, no distinction between
man and woman. Right? It's a fact. Who did that? Homosexuals are behind this.
Men want to look like women and women want to look like men.
And our children, now let me get to our children here. I believe
our children ought to dress in such a way that is becoming this
place, and to teach them respect for what we're doing here at
this place. To teach them respect. I, at one time, say this as diplomatically as
possible, I remember seeing a child with a t-shirt with a picture
of a rock star on it, and their name emblazoned all over it,
and I thought, We're here to exalt the face,
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here this person is. Folks, our children even need
to be adorned in such a way that they respect this place, what
we're doing here. Let's teach them that. The world
needs to know that we at Central Baptist Church still want to
act. Look, think, walk, live according to this book. Old-fashioned?
You better believe it, buddy. If people want to call me old-fashioned,
so be it. I want to be fashioned like the
saints of old. I don't want to be conformed
to this world. I don't want to go the way it's headed. Even to the point of the way
our building looks, the grounds, the things we do, the way we
eat, dress, and so forth, it needs all for the glory of God,
right? Now, verse 13, let's finish.
He said, If meat make my brother to offend, I'm not going to eat
it, as long as I live, Paul said, in his company anyway. And we
have liberty. Now listen to this very carefully
as I close. I want you to don't misunderstand what I say. Would
everybody listen to this? Particularly you ladies. We have
liberty to do or not do these things. And you have liberty
to disagree with me as long as you have scriptural basis for
what you do. Right? what you do and what you say
and what you wear, that you can bring forth plausible arguments. That what you do or say or wear,
that you do it for the glory of God Almighty and not for your
own convenience or comfort. Is that right? I, as I said before,
you know my love for you, my soul. And I'm not going to put
this on the wall and say, you'd better abide by this or you're
not a Christian, you know, and you can't come here. I suffer. I hope you know me better than
that. But I hope you will consider the wisdom in some of the things
that we've dealt with here from the Scriptures. I've tried to
be true to the Scriptures here. as true as possible. God bless
you. Give us love. Amen.