Well, good morning. Every service, I'm sitting there
enjoying, and Kerry quits playing and my heart starts racing. If you would open your Bibles
with me, the book of 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy. I just heard that Sue Thacker
is back in the hospital this morning with high blood pressure,
heart racing, It's been an ongoing issue for her. Remember her in
your prayers. Brother Gary Holbeck has had
an up and down week but hopes to get back out of intensive
care today, Lord willing. I'm also so thankful to see several
who have been out sick and you're back. I'm very, very thankful. It does my heart good to have
our visitors from College Grove. That does my heart good, too,
to see you ladies. All right. First Timothy chapter
two, we'll begin our reading in verse nine. In like manner also that women
adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety,
not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but
which become with women professing godliness with good works. Let
the woman learn in silence with all subjection. I suffer not
a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to
be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then
Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived
was in the transgression. Notwithstanding, she should be
saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity
and holiness with sobriety." Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together in prayer. our Father, which art in heaven. Oh, how thankful we are to be
able to come before the God of all the earth, our Father, who
is in heaven, ruling and reigning over this creation, ruling and
reigning to guarantee the salvation of your people, ruling and reigning
every event that's happening in your creation. Father, we're
thankful to be able to come and come before you and worship and
praise as you ought to be worshiped. We're thankful that we can bring
our thanksgiving and our praise before the God of all the earth.
And we're thankful to be able to bring our cares and concerns
and worries and heartaches to the God of all the earth, who
will certainly accomplish all of your purpose. Father, we're
thankful, thankful that sinful men and women such as we are
can come into your presence in the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, how thankful we are for a Savior who fully atones
for the sin of his people, who makes his people accepted in
thy presence. Father, we're thankful. And I
beg of you this morning that the name of Christ our Savior
would be exalted and magnified. Father, I beg of you this morning
that you would show us your glory. Let us see the glory, the redemptive
glory of Christ our Savior and his work for and in his people. Father, cause your word to go
forth in the power of your spirit. Enable us to hear. Give us a
ear that would hear and a heart that would believe upon the Lord
Jesus Christ this morning. If we haven't yet believed, Father,
make this be the moment, the time, that you'd be pleased to
reveal yourself to your people. And Father, use your word to
comfort our hearts, to strengthen and edify us, we pray. Father,
we pray for those who are sick and hurting. We continue to pray
for our brother Gary, we pray for Sue, and Father, there's
so many others who are in great times of difficulty. Father,
we pray that you'd heal, that you comfort, that you lead, that
you guide. We know these things have not
come by accident. But according to your eternal
will and purpose, and Father, we pray that you comfort the
hearts of your people, that you see fit to provide a way out
and give us the grace and the faith to just keep a watch over our
time, that we don't Say something that might hurt your heritage,
your people. Father again, I pray you bless
us. Bless us this morning with an hour of true worship. Of course,
in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for his sake, for
his glory, we pray. you. When peace like a river attendeth
my way When sorrows like sea billows roll Whatever my lot
Thou hast taught me to say It is well, it is well with my soul
It is well with my soul It is well It is well with my soul,
Though Satan should bluff, Though trial should come, Let this blessed
assurance control That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate
And hath shed his own blood for my soul It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought, My sin not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the
cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. And Lord, haste the day when
my face shall be sighed, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound, and the
Lord shall descend, Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. That's so good. Thank you, Isaac.
If you would, now open your Bibles again with me to 1 Timothy chapter
2. The title of my message this
morning is Proper Dress for Women. Now whatever it was that just
went through your head, get rid of it. Forget about it. Because
I assure you, my message is not on that. Whatever it was that
just went through your head. I'm not going to talk about a
dress code for the ladies or the men. And I'll just give you
a rule of thumb on this. Men ought to look like men, and
ladies ought to look like ladies. When we come to the worship service,
we should, in my opinion, dress in nice clothes. Not for any
reason other than this, an outward sign of an inward reference.
That's what I think. That should be about all the
guidance we need on this subject of a dress code. Here's another
reason I'm not going to talk about a dress code. I'm not qualified. Everybody ought to know their
strengths and their weaknesses, and I am not qualified to tell
anybody how to dress, especially women. I don't know what's fashionable. I don't know what colors go together
unless Janet's told me. Every single time I get a new
tie, I go through all my suits and say, can I wear this with
this? I've got to remember. I'm not qualified. And if I told
you women how you ought to dress, I'm afraid everybody would know
it. You wouldn't look as good as you do now. So we're not going
to talk about a dress code in the least, but as far as are
outward clothes, but let's look here at our text beginning at
verse 9, 1 Timothy chapter 2. In like manner also that women
adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety,
not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array. Now there's no doubt that women
and men, and men, should dress appropriately at all times. And
that's especially true when we come to the worship service.
We should dress modestly, in a way that we do not draw attention
to ourselves. That ought to be on our mind
at all times. You know, we can't let what happens
here degenerate into a fashion show where everybody's trying
to see who can dress the nicest or who can dress the most religiously
or something. That can't be our goal. In everything
that we do, especially when we come to the worship service,
it ought to be not to draw attention to ourselves, either by the way
we dress or by the way we act. We ought not be trying to draw
attention to ourselves so that everybody else here in the service
with us can focus on Christ, not on us. You know, you all
don't need to see me, but all of us desperately need to see
Christ. And that ought to be something
we keep in mind in the way that we conduct ourselves and we're
with each other. Look at verse 11. Let the woman learn in silence
with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach
nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then
Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived
was in the transgression. Now I tell you this often, and
it bears repeating every single time a subject comes up, that
nowhere in scripture, and these verses included, the scripture
never, ever, ever teaches that women are second class citizens
to men. The scriptures do not teach that
women are inferior to men, that they're not as smart as men,
or they're not as spiritual as men. That's not what scripture
teaches. This is God's order for the church, plain and simple.
That's what it is. So there should be no argument
about it. There should be no problem. This is God's order
for the church. that men are to do the preaching.
And in places where women start to be preachers, you've got a
huge problem, a huge problem, and it's just going to get worse
and worse and worse. Men are the ones who are supposed to
preach, to pray publicly, to run the worship service, because
that is God's order. And it's not because, again,
not because women are inferior to men. The Lord has given everybody,
every believer, everybody in the body of Christ, the Lord
has given everyone a role to fulfill in the service of the
Lord. So you just do what God's given you to do. Don't be, you
know, trying to take on responsibilities that God hasn't given you because
that'll just make you miserable. Just do what God's given you
to do. The same thing's true in the home. Men are to be the
head of the home and women are to be in submission to their
husbands. And there's a huge trouble in the home when women
start to rule the roost. It's just so. You know, I'm not
saying anything bad about you ladies. This is God's order.
It doesn't mean that women are in fear. It's God's order for
the home. And just like the church, everybody
in the home, everybody in the family has a role to fulfill
in that family. Well, you fulfill your role,
your role, the role God's given you. And don't worry about trying
to take on responsibilities that God hadn't given you because
it'll just make you miserable, make people around you miserable.
All of our homes would be happier places if each of us would do
what God's given us to do. They really would. Men, love
your wife. Just do your dead level best
to love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for
it. I promise you that'll take up all your time. If you're doing
that, you're not going to have time to be reminding your wife
that you're supposed to be in submission to me. She already
knows that anyway. You rule your home. Make it easy. Now, you rule your home. Be the
head of the home, but make it easy for your wife to be in submission
to you by ruling with love, by ruling wisely, by always ruling
with her best interest and heart first. first. If you do that,
I can almost assure you, she'll have no problem being in submission
to you. Now, I grant you there are exceptions, but there are
few, aren't there? They really are. Now, you could
go on and on about those, what I've just said about those verses
for a long time. But if that's all we get out
of this passage, would you go home with a spiritual blessing
this morning? Would you? Where is Christ in
this passage? If all we talk about is how the
ladies are supposed to dress and how wives are supposed to
be in submission to their husbands and the ladies aren't supposed
to speak publicly in the worship service, if that's all we get
out of this text, I ask you again, where's Christ? Where is he?
Are you going to go home with a blessing if that's all we talk
about? Now, where are these things? Let me go back here. I promise you this. I promise
you this. Christ is here. Christ is here
in this text, just like he is in every text. And that's our
goal in preaching, is to see him. And these things that Paul
talks about, you know, modest apparel and gold and silver and
pearls, all that stuff, how you wear your hair, you know, wear
those things. Wear nice things. Wear jewelry
and those kinds of things. Comb your hair. Make sure your
hair is pretty. But don't rely on those things. Don't trust
those things to be your beauty, to be your standing before God. And the more that I look at this
passage, and I've looked at it for a long time, I knew it was
coming, you know, been looking at it and praying to the Lord,
give me some direction on it. The more I look at this passage,
the more I am convinced this is talking about a spiritual
dress, not a physical dress, a spiritual dress. And the reason
I say that is verse 15. Notwithstanding, she should be
saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and charity
and holiness with sobriety. Now, you know good and well that
this is not saying that if a woman has enough faith and she acts
godly enough and she dresses godly enough that she's going
to be saved, spared from pain in childbirth. I mean, I actually
saw that this week. People are suggesting that. Men. Men were suggesting that. Almost every mother here can
attest, that's not so. I know some women have easier
deliveries than other, but as I hear about birth experiences,
most births happen in the valley of the shadow of death, don't
they? I mean, it's tough business, tough business. The Lord promised
Eve that mothers are gonna bring forth children in sorrow, and
the Lord didn't lie about that, did he? No, he didn't. And you
also know this, Paul is not saying that women are saved, that they're
redeemed from sin by giving birth. I mean, you know, that's not
so. There's many mothers who have died in unbelief. The only
way anyone, whether they're a man or a woman, the only way anyone
can be saved is by the obedience and the blood of the sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that's what the verse does
not mean. Now, let me tell you what it does mean. When Adam
fell in the garden, Adam sinned against God willfully. Willfully. He wasn't deceived. He did this willfully and willingly. Paul says Adam was not deceived.
He knew exactly what he was doing. Exactly what he was doing. Adam
wanted to be God. Now that's the thing. Adam wanted
to be God. Adam wanted to be the fellow making the rules and
he thought knowing good and evil would mean that Adam would get
to decide what's good and what's evil. And he took that fruit
and he sinned against God willingly. Willingly. Because he did not
want God to rule over him. And when Adam sinned, he plunged
his whole race into sin and into death. And because of that, we
need a Savior. Because of Adam's transgression,
we need a Savior. We need one who can establish
righteousness that Adam lost. We need one who can bring us
back into the fellowship with God that Adam lost. And this
Savior, he's got to be a man. He's got to be in our flesh so
he can be our representative. But he can't come from Adam's
sinful seed. Because all Adam's sinful seed
can produce is other spiritually dead, rebellious sinners just
like Adam. So the savior must come from
the seed of woman. And we're told here now Eve was
deceived in the transgression. And we know that. So she, the
Satan deceived her. She took that fruit and she ate
it. And not one thing happened. Eve did not realize she was naked
until Adam ate the fruit. When Adam ate that fruit, when
Adam sinned and rebelled against God, he died. She knew she was
naked because Eve was in Adam, her representative, the same
way you and I are in Adam, our representative. Eve didn't die
spiritually until Adam sinned. See, she was deceived. She didn't
sin willfully like Adam. Adam did this thing willingly.
So the Savior has to come from the seed of woman. And that's
how God's elect. The whole bride of Christ, that's
how she is saved in childbearing. All of God's elect, whether they're
men or women, are saved through the seed of woman who was born
to Mary in Bethlehem. That's how we're saved. God's
elect are saved by the God-man who was born as the seed of woman. Now, the Lord Jesus was not conceived
from Adam's sinful seed. I was gonna say not in the same
way we are, but it was in the same way we are, just not with
Adam's sinful seed. The Lord Jesus was conceived
in the womb of a virgin by the Holy Ghost. the seed of woman.
And that makes the Lord Jesus Christ the sinless, holy Savior
that we need. He's got the holiness. He's got
the righteousness to save sinners like all of us. And when God
saves His people, whether they're men or women, God clothes His
bride in a glorious dress. And it's not an outward wardrobe. You can't tell who a believer
is from the outward wardrobe. This is talking about an inner
dress, a new nature that is beautiful and spotless. Now remember a
couple of weeks ago we started in on this chapter, 1 Timothy
chapter two. I told you this chapter tells
us about public worship. The only way any of us can truly
worship God is with this new heart, with this new nature that
God gives all of his people. Now I want us to look at these
verses. And let's see the nature that God gives his people in
the new birth. Let's see how it is God clothes his people
with Christ. And I assure you, this will be
much more of a blessing to look at these verses this way, than
looking at them just to determine, you know, how the ladies ought
to dress and how, you know, men can, can keep the women, you
know, pushed down by constantly telling me, God be in submission
to me. This is the dress code for believers, for God's children,
and God supplies it. You don't have to go weave this
garment or buy this garment. God supplies the dress for his
people because God can only accept what God provides. And here is
the dress that God provides for his bride. First, Paul says,
wear modest apparel. In verse nine, wear modest apparel.
Now you know that can only be talking about the righteousness
of Christ. It can only be talking about
being clothed in the robe of Christ's spotless righteousness.
The word modest means well-arranged, well-arranged. Isn't that the
obedience of Christ? It's well-arranged. It's perfect,
perfect obedience. And believers wear Christ's well-arranged
righteousness with modesty and humility. We wear Christ's righteousness
modestly, because we know, not bragging about it now, not full
of pride, but modestly, because we know we didn't do anything
to contribute to this righteousness. It's all Christ. It's all Him. It's all His obedience. It's
all His righteousness given to us. And none of our works contributed,
went into this righteousness. So we wear it modestly. It's
not like we think, well, I've got this righteousness and now
I can look down on other people that don't have it, because I
got nothing to be proud of. The only reason I have this righteousness,
the only reason I'm righteous is God put me in Christ. He made
me righteous in Christ. And I tell you what, that's a
beautiful attitude you can wear anywhere. Perfect for every occasion. Never will it be out of style
for a believer. Next, Paul says we wear shame-facedness. And
the word means reverence, reverence. It reminds me of those seraphim
who flew around the throne of God that Isaiah saw. They were
crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. And you remember
those seraphim each had six wings. With two, they would fly. With
two, they covered their feet. And two, they covered their face.
It's shamefacedness. It's reverence. And that's how
we worship, in reverence. And I tell you how I wear shamefacedness
is when I truly don't want God to see me as I am. That's shamefacedness
reference. I wear shamefacedness when the
only way I want God to see me is in His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's reference. But this word
shamefacedness, it has to do with reference toward God, but
it also, the definition of it also, has to do with regard to
others. And I tell you how we wear shamefacedness
with each other. When we do everything we can
possibly do not to be a distraction. So we've got to do everything
we can do so I don't get people thinking about me. So they can
spend that time, especially while we're here, thinking about Christ
the Savior. That's reverence toward God in
regard to others. That's shamefacedness. Next,
Paul says we wear sobriety. And the word means soundness
of mind. Now, you know what soundness
of mind is? It's to have the mind of Christ. It's to know
that the only hope of salvation I have is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the seed of woman. A sound mind is to know that
salvation has got to come to me all by God's grace and none
of my works. Anything else is unsound. Anything
else is insanity. It's insanity to think that I
can contribute some of my good works to add to my righteousness,
to add to Christ's perfect righteousness. It's insanity for me to think
that somehow I can improve my standing with God and somehow
be better than some of you all by something that I do or something
that I don't do. Thinking that my standing with
God could be improved outside of His Son alone. It's insanity. That's not sound mind. And I
tell you how we wear sobriety. It's when we preach and we believe
and we rest in Christ alone. When we look to Him and Him alone. That is soundness of mind, sobriety. Look back at Philippians chapter
2. I'll tell you another way we
wear sobriety. It's to have the mind of Christ
toward others, toward others. And here in Philippians chapter
two, the apostle tells us how that is. Philippians two verse three. He says, let nothing be done
through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let
each esteem other better than themselves. Look, not every man
on his own things, but every man also in the things of others.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Here
is the mind of Christ, who being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the
likeness of men. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Now here is a sound mind, sobriety
toward others. It's being willing to humble
myself to see that no job, no job, no task is too low for me
to do for you. I mean, cleaning the toilets
or sweeping the floors. I mean, just whatever it is you
can think, no job is too low for me to do to help you. That's sobriety, having the mind
of Christ. Aren't you thankful the Savior
did that for you? Oh my, nothing was too low. No
depths were too low for him to go to to save his people. Oh,
I'm thankful. But sobriety also means self-control. And usually we think of sobriety,
we think of somebody who doesn't get drunk on alcohol. And when
that happens, you know, you lose your self-control. You know,
it's a good idea for a believer to don't do something now that's
going to cause you to lose your self-control, make a fool of
yourself. But that's not what we're talking
about here. We're talking about spiritual things, remember? Tell
you how we wear sobriety is when we don't get drunk on the things
of this world, on the things of this world, on the recognition,
the fame, the popularity that this world creates. You can get
drunk on that. I mean, you can just give yourself
over to trying to get that stuff. That's being drunk on the things
of this world, it makes you lose your self-control. It diminishes
you if you're a believer. We wear sobriety when we don't
get drunk on the way this world thinks. Now I can't tell you
this strongly enough. Just don't be drinking what this
world is selling. Don't be drinking the attitude
that this world is selling. to think that I'm going to have
me, I'm going to have mine, I'm going to have my way, no matter
who it hurts. And buddy, nobody better disagree
with me or I'll cut them. Isn't that the way of this world? Don't get drunk on that. You
lose your self-control. Don't get drunk on that way of
thinking because that is unbecoming to a believer. And certainly,
don't get drunk on your good works. Now we're gonna talk about
good works here in a minute and you wear them, you do them, but
don't get intoxicated on them now. Don't get intoxicated into
thinking your good works improves your standing with God, makes
God happier with you. Now we wear sobriety when we
think about what is good for others before I think about what's
good for me. I wear sobriety when I think
about what you need before what I need. That's soundness of mind,
sobriety. Then next, we're told don't wear
braided hair. And the word means plaited or
braided or interwoven hair. Now, there's nothing wrong with
anybody wearing braided hair. Our girls were little. They all
the time wanted their mama to French braid their hair. And
it looked pretty. It looked pretty. I used to think
I could do a braid in a girl's hair if mama wasn't around or
a ponytail. I found out later, I was sad. mistaken. Janet was out of town
when our niece was born, and the girls went to school and
their teacher had to redo their ponytail. But anyway, if you
can do it, if you're good at braiding hair, buddy, it looks
pretty on a woman. And this is not saying you can't
do that. Remember, we're talking here about spiritual dress. We're
talking here about a nature that God gives his people that's beautiful. It is impossible to wear the
beautiful, well-ordered righteousness of Christ interwoven, braided
in with our good works. It's impossible. This beautiful
nature that God gives his people is pure Christ. It's purely the
righteousness of Christ. Having on this beautiful nature,
this sound mind, knowing that we're saved purely by God's grace,
purely by God's blood, the blood of Christ, purely by God-given
faith alone, that were fed and taught purely by God's word alone
without man's thoughts and man's ideas and man's ways being woven
in. Salvation is pure Christ without
anything else from any other source being woven into it. Now
you wear that. You wear that. That's a good
dress for anywhere you go. Then at the end of verse nine,
we're told to not with gold or pearls or costly array. Now again,
nothing wrong with jewelry. And I know most women just, you
wouldn't even feel dressed right, you know, if you didn't have
jewelry on. Now I thought about this past summer, every time
I had three surgeries this summer, every time I go into surgery,
they'd ask me to have any jewelry on. And I said, no. And I have
my wedding ring on every time. I just forget about it. It's
just like who I am. I didn't take that thing off.
And I'm telling you, I didn't like it. I can understand people.
You've got jewelry, you want to wear it. That's fine. Paul's
not saying anything about that. Remember here, we're talking
about spiritual dress, spiritual dress. God's bride doesn't wear
redemption that's been bought with our gold. You know, Paul
says, you're not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold. We're not redeemed by the gold
of our works. We wear redemption that's been
bought with the precious blood of Christ. And we wear that,
we wear that when we claim redemption through Christ's blood alone,
without any of my works. And God's bride doesn't wear
the pearls, pearls of our own works. God's bride wears Christ
alone. He's the pearl of great price.
And that's what we, not one of our own making, but one of God's
provision. And the only costly array that
God's bride wears is the robe of Christ. You think what that
righteousness cost. It's free to you and me, isn't
it? It costs the son of God his life. He had to become a man
and suffer and die to provide that robe of righteousness for
his people. That's a costly rag. I'll go
back to that thing about braided and interwoven. What are you
going to weave in with that? With the precious blood of Christ.
You're weaving, trying to weave a filthy, moth-eaten rag into
the perfect righteousness of Christ. It'll never work. It'll
never work. His righteousness is the only thing that we want
to wear. That's wearing this thing, that's
this nature that God gives his people. And then we're told in
verse 10 to wear good works. We've been told what not to wear.
Here's something you can wear. Verse 10 says, but which becometh
women professing godliness with good works. Now good works. Now don't adorn yourself with
your own works. Now that goes back to what I
said a minute ago. Don't get drunk on these things now. Get
drunk on your own works. and do them in such a way that
you're just craving attention, that you're doing these things
for your own recognition. Here's how you adorn yourself
and you adorn the doctrines of grace with good works. What is a good work? I've told
you so many times, it's a work done to help the body of Christ. Remember that woman came in with
that alabaster box of ointment and she broke it open to anoint
the Lord for his burial. And several of the people in
there got mad, you know, and they're probably mad because
they didn't think of it. You know, look at this waste, you know. That's
the only thing our Lord ever called a good work. She had done
a good work on me. Good works are works that are
done for these people you see sitting around you, for the body
of Christ, for believers. And here's just a good rule of
thumb on how we dress and how we act. Do it in such a way that
you don't draw attention to yourself. And that includes good works. If you're doing this work, and
it might be a good work, but if you're doing that work so
you get attention, you've ruined it. It's no longer a good work. If you do it so people will notice
you and say, oh, how well-dressed you are, clothing yourself with
these good works, you've ruined it. The way we do good works
is do it so that people don't notice us at all. but that they
know is Christ, that he gets the glory for it. And then, verse 11, this is a
nature and an attitude that only God can give. Verse 11, let the
woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not
a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, but to
be in silence. Now here's how you can, a believer,
how we can tell that we're dressed the right way, that we're wearing
these things, wearing the robe of Christ's righteousness, wearing
his costly, precious, perfect garment, is when we're clothed
with humility, with submission to each other. You know, submission
is not just for women now. Submission is for all of us.
Every believer, male and female, we are to be in subjection one
to another. We're dressed the right way when
we submit ourselves to one another. We think about others, the good
of others, before we think about our own good, our own needs.
And we're dressed the right way. This is very, very important.
You can't be dressed the right way without this. Until we have
submitted ourselves to the righteousness of Christ and quit trying to
add to his righteousness by our works, then we're dressed right. Then we're wearing this thing
of submission right. Because otherwise, if we're trying
to add our works to Christ, you know, to make us have a better
standing, you know, than other believers, to make us have a
better standing than someone who's only got Christ, I'll tell
you what that is. That's trying to usurp God's
authority or God's glory. That's exactly what it is. And
that dress, when we're trying to usurp God's or Christ's glory,
God's glory, by adding to His righteousness by our works, We've
got a dress that doesn't fit anybody. You know, here's a good
piece of advice for you young fellas, and maybe some of you
older fellas have been married, but after you've been married
a while, invariably you'll get this question. Does this dress
make me look fat? Do these pants make me look fat?
The answer is always no. Always no. But when we don't wear the righteousness
of Christ with this submission and this humility, trying to
add our works to it, we've made ourselves bloated and the dress
won't fit. The righteousness won't fit.
God won't have it. He won't have it. It makes us
look fat. It makes us just out of style for a believer. And
we're dressed the right way when we've all submitted ourselves
to each other, when we promote others instead of ourselves. I wish we'd learn that. I know
this nature, it just can't. The nature of Adam is so selfish
and so self-willed, but the nature that God gives him. I wish we
could learn this and constantly put this into practice to think
about others before we think about ourselves. There was an
article I put on the Facebook page this week and in the bulletin
this week by Brother Don Fortner. There's something more important
than you. If you didn't read it, go find it, read it. Maybe
if you did read it, read it again. There's something more important
than you. And we wear submission when we
remember that and act on it. That's a beautiful dress, isn't
it, for God's people. And the last thing we're to wear
here that Paul mentions is silence. And the word means not meddling
in the affairs of others. Don't be trying to run everybody
else's life. Don't be trying to tell everybody else what they're
supposed to do and how they're supposed to do it. I got enough to deal
with my own self and fight my own nature. And we don't wear
silence when we just can't help but do something that's going
to disrupt and disturb the peace of others. Because we're just
going to be selfish and just do it. We want to cause division
and disrupt the peace that people have. That's not wearing silence.
But we wear silence when we're quiet and we're peaceable. Now, that doesn't mean that you
can't point out evil words, evil, and you've just got to put up
with all that. That doesn't mean that. But we wear silence when
we're quiet and peaceable. And we do not unnecessarily disturb
the peace of others. And it goes back to what I've
been saying before. This is just a good rule of thumb
for how to wear all these things or how to not wear these things
that we're not supposed to wear. Don't do something that gets
people thinking about you or thinking about your issue instead
of thinking about Christ. Whatever it is, is our pet issue. And brother, I got a lot of them. So what? So what? People every single day are going
into eternity. And if those people go into eternity
as somebody that I've preached to, as they draw that last breath
and leave this life to go to the next one, what good did it
do if I pounded them with my little pet peeve? Not one thing. Not one thing. But if God made us faithful to
preach Christ, to think about it. Think on these things, Paul
said. To think on Him, to look to Him, to point to Him. When
they're on their deathbed, leaving this life to go to the next,
we haven't disturbed their peace. They'll have peace. They'll have
peace. And nothing looks better on a believer than that. I hope
that's been helpful. I hope that's been helpful. But
I bet that's not what went through your mind when I first told you
my title, was it? You know, the Lord has to give us this heart,
doesn't He? The Lord has to give us this
stress. But we can strive. We can strive to grow in it,
can't we? We can. And it'll be better for everybody
around us if the Lord will give us grace to do it. I hope that's
been a blessing to you. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. How we thank you for the instruction
that you give your people in your word. And oh, how we thank
you. for salvation that's in our Lord
Jesus Christ, his perfect, glorious righteousness that you so freely
given your people. It cost him the humiliation of
being made flesh, being made of a woman, made under the law.
It cost him untold suffering and agony physically and of soul
when he made his soul an offering for sin to purchase this perfect
expensive, glorious garment, the garment of salvation, the
nature of salvation for his people. Father, we thank you for it.
And Father, I pray you take your word and cause it to take root
in the hearts of your people that we would look to, cling
to, trust in, rest in Christ alone. Let us see your glory
from this text we looked at this morning, we pray. Show us your
glory. All these things we ask and we give thanks in that name
which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.