We have spent 81 sermons going through chapters 1 through 27. And we're going to try to go through all of chapter 28 tonight. So buckle up, I guess. But we'll be reading a lot. Chapter 28 has over 40 verses in it. And I'm not trying to purposely skip any content. I'm sure if we were to slow down and look at all the different gemstones in the clothing and all the different details, everything, I'm sure we could find plenty to preach on. But I just just felt that that wasn't what our plan should be for right now So tonight we're gonna try and answer look at three kind of questions and answer three things out of this chapter Because you can learn quite a bit just looking at an entire chapter dedicated to to an outfit that's designed for the for the preacher and so we're gonna We're gonna study tonight and try to figure out first of all who the priest was ministering to and Secondly, why a whole chapter on clothing? And then thirdly, what God's definition of nakedness is? Now, you probably remember last time we talked about that, because it was kind of memorable, but we will look at it again tonight. And we've thrown in a little bit extra information to this as well, because it's something that, like it or not, is ignored today, mainly by even most Christians. They walk around claiming the name of Christ, while by the Bible definition, being naked. which is not a good combination, not a good thing. We joke about people claiming Christ while holding a beer in their hand being a bad thing. Half the time they're also naked, so that's not a good thing either. And so we'll look at all these things tonight and see what we can learn from Exodus chapter 28, but we'll start with a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you for this day. Thank you as always for your word. Help us tonight to seek to learn truth. Help us to apply it to our hearts and lives. And Lord, we'll thank you for the blessings that we find every time we open your Bible. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen Exodus chapter 28 we'll just read a couple of verses to start the Bible says and take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother and his sons with him from among the children of Israel that he may minister unto me in the priest's office even Aaron Nadab and Abihu and Now right there, this is just a bonus for you, but you can see God called out these five men, a father and four sons, and two of them would end up being killed by God for not doing the job right. So, you know, you think about churches calling a pastor and he ends up being a dud. God only got, you know, three out of five that were good. And so just, you know, understand that there's there's some people that even if they're called by God himself, they don't always turn out right. And it makes me feel a little bit better about some decisions I've made of people who to trust or who to put in charge of things. And then you go back later and say, why in the world did I think that would be good? And it's like, well, even the Lord Not that he made any mistake, but even the Lord, he picked some people to serve him and they didn't do it right, didn't do it well. So just something to notice there. Verse number two, and thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron, thy brother for glory and for beauty. So now, if you look back, what was our first question we were gonna answer? Who were the priests ministering to? Well, that was found in the middle of verse number one. Bible says, from among the children of Israel that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. Now today, a pastor, a preacher, a Sunday school teacher, a deacon, an elder person who is trying to teach somebody in the faith, we essentially, we minister to each other. We minister to one another and to the brethren. But here the priest ministers to God on behalf of the people, and here we minister to the people kind of on behalf of God. It's almost like the roles have changed a little bit. But in today's day and age, it's not just ministering to the people, it's ministering to God as well. So the priests, they ministered to God, we are to minister one to another, but also while being ministers of God. Because what does the word minister mean? The word minister, as a reminder, the verb minister means to attend and serve, to perform service in any office, sacred or secular. A minister is a chief servant. So we, by default as Christians, are ministers of God because we're servants of God. We're supposed to be servants of God. That's not something that is just for the preacher. Every Christian ought to be a servant of Jesus Christ, ought to be a disciple and a follower of Jesus Christ, and we ought to serve God. The Israelites served God as a nation, but there were those, the priests, that were their job, their whole duty in life, was service to God and to the work in the tabernacle and in the temple. And so they were ministers unto God. We, on the other hand, were ministers unto God, all of us together, but then also those of us who are in leadership among the brethren are to minister to each other as well. And so it's important, it's a distinction to understand that we have a duty one to another, not just to God. To serve one another not just serve the lord second corinthians 9 10 says now that he that ministereth seed to the sower Both minister bread for your food and multiply your seed sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness Now read it and I go to this is the word minister can also mean to provide to provide. Now, we are to minister one to another, we're to serve one another, we're also to provide one for another. And what we provide is essentially spiritual, you know, we provide advice, we provide comfort, we provide advocation, we provide rebuke at times. for one for another. We are to provide for each other. There are times when the Lord leads us to provide for each other in physical needs and in monetary needs and different needs like that. And we try to help each other out, provide for each other. But we minister to each other in those ways. And preachers today ought to lead by example. They ought to be serving and also spiritually providing for the people that God has placed in their care. They ought not be some unapproachable person. I remember growing up, hearing about churches and about, you know, knowing people that they thought, oh, you, you talk to your pastor? You know, when I was a young person, a teenager, they're like, you talk to your pastor? I'm like, well, yeah, like, I goof off with my pastor. And they just couldn't believe it. Because, you know, their pastor was this high holy thing that they couldn't talk to because they weren't, you know, an adult or whatever it may be. And I've been around preachers like that, that, you know, you walk up and try to talk to them, and they think you've done some great sin, because, you know, who are you talking to me? And that's not right. That's not the way it ought to be. I remember one time there was a preacher that I tried to hand a John and Romans to him at a public event, and he ignored my existence because I was white. He was a descendant of Malcolm X and proud of it, and he was there causing trouble. So we were like, hey, he needs the gospel. So we tried to give the preacher a gospel, and he didn't want it. Maybe it was immature of me to do that, but hey, when is it ever wrong to hand the gospel to somebody, right? We did the same thing when the Mormons set up at the same events as us. They'd set up with all their literature, and we'd come by and say, hey, here's what you need, and try to give them the gospel. They never really wanted to talk to us. I just don't know why. I never could figure that out. But they claimed to love God. They didn't want to talk about God. It was weird. It was weird. But anyways, now that we're done talking about my immaturity, the minister today, we are to minister one to another. We're to help one another, provide for one another, edify one another. but always remembering that first and foremost, we are ministers of God. So when ministering to an individual would break the laws of God, that's where the line gets drawn. There's people all the time that call churches, and even our church has received calls of You know, can you give me some money for my bills? Can you give me some money for this or that? And the Bible is very clear about how to spend God's money and who it should be spent on and who should receive it and who shouldn't. And the church is not a charity, you know, to just hand out cash to people. That's not accountable. It's not a smart thing to do. And that's not a doctor we're going to get into tonight. But essentially, there's times when people want something, and you might want to help them, but you've run into a roadblock of, if I help them, I'm disobeying Scripture, then that's a problem. You decide, I'm a minister of God before I'm a minister to other people. There's people that may ask you to do something. I've been asked before to christen a baby I'm like, no, that's not something we do. We don't baptize babies. That's not scriptural And so I'd love to be a part of your you know Whatever like I'd like I'd like to help you my human nature would love to help you and partake with you But but scripturally that's just not gonna happen because I'm a minister to God before man. I hope that makes sense We try to help each other out ministering to each other. But the limit is always, is it biblical what I'm going to do? So ministering to God, it's interesting to me, it's specified there in the Old Testament that the priests were ministers to God, not to the people necessarily. And then we come to verse number three. And from verse three, all the way to the end of the chapter, we're talking about the clothing for the priests. We're going to read quite a bit of this and just get a sense of all the detail given. Verse number 3, "...and thou shalt speak unto all that are wise-hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom." Now, sorry, I've got to park and get myself in trouble again. That means some people in this world are not wise-hearted or filled with the spirit of wisdom. He said, you go speak to the ones that are wise. That means some are not. That should be simple for us to understand and agree with, but in today's day and age of not offending anybody, we can't say that some people are smarter than others, because that would be offensive. But God said, you find the wise ones, go talk to the wise hearted ones who are filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. And these are the garments which they shall make, a breastplate and an ephod, a robe and a broidered coat, a miter and a girdle, and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother and his sons that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. And they shall take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and fine twine linen with cunning work. They shall have the two shoulder pieces thereof joined at the two edges thereof, And so it shall be joined together. And the curious girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to the work thereof, even of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twine linen. And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel, six of their names on the one stone, and the other six names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth. So here we have the 12 tribes of Israel, one on one shoulder, one on the other on these stones. Verse 11, with the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, thou shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel, thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold. I love that word, ouches, set in ouches of gold. Essentially, it's a setting, a place setting. like what you would have in an earring, you set the gold in it, that's what an ouch is. And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of a memorial unto the children of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial. And thou shalt make ouches of gold, and two chains of pure gold at the ends of wreathen work shalt thou make them, and fasten the wreathen chains to the ouches. And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment with cunning work, after the work of the ephod shalt thou make it of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine twine linen shalt thou make it. Four square it shall be being doubled. A span shall be the length thereof, and a span shall be the breadth thereof. And thou shalt set in it the settings of stones, even four rows of stones. The first row shall be a sardis, a topaz, and a carbuncle. This shall be the first row. And the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. And the third row, a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst. And the fourth row, a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold in their enclosings." Now you look up all these stones, some of them we're familiar with, right? Diamond, that's pretty common. Onyx stone, pretty common. Some of them like beryl. Some of you are like, oh, I love beryl. And most people would probably say, what in the world is beryl? What does it look like? And you look up these individual stones, they're all beautiful. in their own respect. They're all, they're different colors, they're different, I guess you could say designs, like an agate has the waves through it and things. And so, very interesting, all these different things, and each of them, of course, standing for one of the 12 tribes of Israel. Verse 21, "...and the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel." twelve according to their names, like the engravings of a signet, every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve tribes, and thou shalt make upon the breastplate chains at the ends of wreath and work of pure gold, and thou shalt make upon the breastplate two rings of gold, and shalt put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate and thou shalt put the two wreathed chains of gold in the two rings which are on the ends of the breastplate and the other two ends of the two wreathed chains thou shalt fasten in the two ouches and put them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod before it and thou shalt make two rings of gold and thou shalt put them upon the two ends of the breastplate in the border thereof which is in the side of the ephod inward and two other rings of gold thou shalt make and shalt put them and the two sides of the ephod underneath, toward the forepart thereof, over against the other coupling thereof, above the curious girdle of the ephod. They shall bind the breastplate by the rings thereof, unto the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, that it may be above the curious girdle of the ephod, and that the breastplate be not loose from the ephod." Now, we could keep going here. There's a lot more. You read about bells attached to his garment so that he'd die not. when he's going into the holy place. You read about a lot of things included in this list. You've got the stones on the shoulders with the 12 tribes. You've got the beautiful stones on the front with the 12 tribes. You've got chains of gold and ouches of gold and garments of blue and purple and scarlet. It's quite a getup. I've looked. There's varying images online of what this would have looked like all together, but all of them are pretty impressive. None of them are something I would want to wear. It's just not my style. Not gonna happen. You read about a... I forget the exact word here, but I've got to find it because it's funny. You come down in verse number... let's see. Oh, well, first of all, you find in verse 33 about the bell here, "'And beneath, upon the hem of it, thou shalt make pomegranates of blue and of purple and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof, and bells of gold between them round about, a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate upon the hem of the robe round about. So they have a pattern of a bell and a pomegranate. And a bell and a pomegranate. You say, why a pomegranate? I have no idea. Because God said a pomegranate. That's my answer for that. I'm sure some theologian somewhere said the pomegranate is this type of this, and this type of that, and this picture of this. Hey, maybe, but the Lord said put a pomegranate there. It shall be upon Aaron a minister, and a sound shall be heard when he goeth into the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not. So why does he have bells on his outfit? Well, the Bible says that he died not. So how would he die? Apparently God would kill him if he didn't have bells on his clothing going into the holy place. It's kind of strange. Now, you keep going down. You have the plate of pure gold in verse 36 that signals holiness to the Lord. Then you go down, there's blue lace upon it. You keep going down to verse number Well, let's see, you got the coats. Oh, verse 40, in prayer and sons, thou shalt make coats, and thou shalt make them for girdles, and bonnets shalt thou make for them for glory and for beauty. So men, if you ever want to wear a bonnet, there's your verse. You can say, look, it's for men. Men get to wear bonnets. Now, a bonnet is a hat. And so, you know, you wear your ball cap, and biblically, technically, you're wearing a bonnet, according to this passage. But it's just funny to me, the way words in the English language have evolved and changed and been used in different ways. The Lord would not tell the people of Israel to have their priests wear bonnets if it was a lady's hat back then, because God tells them later on in Deuteronomy, don't wear women's clothing. And so he wouldn't have the priest walking around. I think the word bonnet, and I think of those Easter hats, you know, that ladies would wear in the South, the big old get-ups with all the flowers. Like, I'm just picturing all this gold and purple and scarlet and the rocks and the signet and all this stuff that's going on the priest, and I just picture that bonnet. I'm just like, I'm immature, I guess. But you see the detail that's given here. It's really incredible, all this detail. And it's, you know, to me, it's kind of confusing. You got to slow down and be like, okay, which part attaches to whip? And how does this do that? And it's just, I mean, there's a lot there. And he said, you go to wise men who are able to put this together and put it together the way that I want. And it's like, you know, how are we going to lace this up? Well, I got some yellow lace. Nope, can't be yellow lace. It's got to be blue lace. There's a lot of detail. And God doesn't do anything without a purpose, without a reason. So why all the details? I have a couple of theories here. First of all, God separated his servants from his people. Israelites as a whole are already being separated from the rest of the world by their laws. God is giving them laws that will separate them from the rest of the world and make them a peculiar and a different people. the laws about what their clothing can look like, the laws about the food that they can eat. A lot of the laws that they're given are societal laws that will impact them having relationships with people of different cultures and different religions. And God did that to keep them apart from those people. Because if you're not allowed to eat pork, and you're going to go over to some Amalekites house and they're going to have a pork dinner, it's going to get awkward. Right? You say, well, why can't they eat pork? What's wrong with pork? Nothing's wrong with pork. It's tasty. It's good. And it's very healthy. But God said, you know, God gave these laws to Israel to set them apart, make them different. God gave Israel laws about their clothing, not just the priest, but everybody about their clothing and different things like that to set them apart. So Israel as a whole is already set apart from the rest of the world. And now from even within Israel, God says, OK, my priests that are ministering to me, they're going to be set apart even from Israel. They're going to be different. They're going to have something nobody else has, and it's going to set them apart. And it's going to consecrate them, as we read in verse 3, it's going to consecrate them unto me. Now, what we can learn from this, Christians is very similar. 1 Peter 2.9, but you're a chosen generation. a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." God says, we are. Now, the word peculiar doesn't mean weird. It means owned by one. Of course, we're owned by God. We are a holy nation, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. We are set aside so that we can show forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into light. We're set aside because we are different. God made us different. Now, the minister, just like the priest, I believe, is to be consecrated from the people as well. All Christians should look, sound, and act different than the world. Do we agree on that? We ought not look, sound, and act just like the world. The preachers, the people who are responsible for leading those Christians, and leading the churches, and doing these things, and for the spiritual well-being of others, those people ought to look, sound, act different even even more so. Now, I have scripture for this. 1st Timothy chapter 3 and Titus chapter 1. 1st Timothy 3, Titus 1. I know Brother Ken knows exactly where we're going because he's had to go this place many times over the years, I'm sure, to look at the qualifications of a preacher and of deacons and all this. And this is where the Bible says, OK, you're saved. Praise the Lord. And he says, all right, if you want to be a bishop, you want to be a preacher, There's some things that I'm going to require of you that I don't require of everybody else. And that's a way to consecrate or set aside those who are serving God in that manner from everybody else. Verse 1 of 1 Timothy 3. The Bible says this is a true saying. If a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires the good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach. not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children of subjection with all gravity. For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall in the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall under reproach and the snare of the devil." Then you go on from here and you get the deacons very similar to this. So those who are set aside for service in the church, pastors and deacons, are also given a way to be consecrated from even among the people. We're different. Well, we don't have a fancy hat, we don't have rocks on our shoulders and an ethod, but we have a different set of standards to live by or to attain to than everybody else. Now, I think it would be good for every single person to try to match this list. There's nothing wrong with trying to be exactly what this list requires a preacher to be, but for somebody who's going to preach the gospel, they have to be these things. Now, Titus 1, verse 7, we find very similar Very similar list here. The Bible says, "...for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast a faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." So the preacher has a separate set of rules essentially, qualifications that are not required of every single saved person in order to serve God. You can be saved and serve God and not have to meet all these requirements until you become a pastor or a deacon. Then you have to meet these requirements. And so again, just like with the priests of old, God takes those who he's going to use in a special service and he sets them aside and gives them specific rules, give them a specific thing. Now, we're not given specific clothing, But I do think, though nothing is said in the Scripture concerning pastor's clothing, I do think that there ought to be a balance between not wearing something that is just gaudy and expensive and very flashy and all that, which, honestly, the priest's garment matches that. I mean, the priest's garment is, but it's made to show forth the glory of God. It's just like the temple itself. Everything is gold. Everything is flashy and beautiful and glorious. That's why that was that way. But in the New Testament, we're not told to wear anything fancy as preachers. We're also not told to look like bums. I think that preachers who are preaching the gospel and preaching the greatest story ever told and the greatest most important thing in history ought to dress the part. I don't think a preacher ought to be up in the front of the pulpit with flip-flops and t-shirt on because it makes people feel comfortable. I've had that argument. I had a guy block me on Facebook of all things because I dared to question the soundness of getting rid of your shirt and tie so that people felt comfortable. Okay, like I get it. A lot of people don't wear them. I'm looking around the room tonight. There's only three men in here. So ladies, I'm glad you're not wearing a tie tonight. But no, they're not allowed to hold out of ties. And in our church on a Sunday morning, they're not allowed to hold out ties. And is that a problem? No. But for someone who's preaching the gospel, why not look our best? We're representing God. Now, you know, if you're in a place where you're in Africa, and nobody has a suit and tie, then it might look a little weird. might seem like you're better than everybody else, I get that argument, but here in America, where every time you turn on the news, everyone's in a suit and tie to argue about nothing that matters, well then maybe you should wear something that looks pretty nice if you're going to be preaching the gospel. That's just my opinion, but I do think that it is based in fact from the Bible. Now, I'm glad I don't have to dress like the priest of the Old Testament. I know there's other religions that they have their fancy hats and their scepters and all their gold and all that stuff. I'm glad I don't have to do that. I'd feel pretty bad wearing all that gold on my body if the people in the church were struggling to pay their bills and get by. But such is life in some denominations and some churches. The other reason I think that we have a whole chapter on clothing, not just because God cares about ministry and ministers, Not just because God sets aside ministers and wants to make them different, make them special, have them have a separate set of things to consecrate them, but also just because God is all about details. I mean, details matter to God. From the symbolism with the gemstones, the gravestones, the twelve tribes of Israel, every piece of the garment is designed by God and it's designed in a certain way for a reason. And it reminds me of these people that, you know, they say, well, God doesn't care how you worship as long as you worship. God doesn't care how you witness as long as you witness. And there's just all this overwhelming claim today, that God doesn't care about the details. All he cares about is that you try. But you don't find that in the Bible. Now you do find people who don't know any better. And so all they say is all I know is I was blind. And now I see and praise God, but God can use that. But God does care about details. God does tell us how to worship Him. God does tell us how to witness. If God didn't care about details, we wouldn't have a whole chapter of the Word of God not telling us more about creation, not telling us more about some of the other stories in the Bible we'd love more detail on, but telling us all about the outfit that the priest wears and all the details that go into it. Our God is a God of details. We like that when we think about Matthew 1030, where the Bible says that every hair of our head is numbered. We like that. But when we think, oh, well, God might care about the details of how I am ministering to others. And it's like, oh, he doesn't care as long as I'm doing it. That's not that's not good. That's not right. And then the third thing, why I think that there's so much detail here is that just plain ministry matters to God. You know, you can be a Christian, and that's a wonderful thing. And every Christian has a ministry, whether we choose to partake in it or not. But ministry matters to God. The work of God matters to God. And so he puts this effort and this detail into those who would do his work in the Old Testament. He puts all this intricacy and detail into it because that work matters to him. That ministry matters to him. What should I wear? What should I say? Where should I go? What should I do? God has an opinion on everything. He's always right There's a lot of people we know that probably have an opinion about everything right somebody you've probably met someone who they have an opinion about everything and Maybe they're right sometimes and maybe they're not right sometimes But God he has an opinion about everything and he's always right There's a lot of people try to hide behind this use. Well, there's no verse about it. There's no verse that says don't do heroin The word heroin isn't in your Bible. You look it up. Try to find me the word heroin. But guess what? The Bible teaches us enough to know we ought not do heroin. Right? We don't need a chapter and verse specifically for every little thing in our lives. The Bible doesn't say don't get an abortion. The word abortion is in the Bible. The Bible says don't murder innocent children in the womb. We find that taught in several places in the Bible. We've had whole lessons on that. People try to hide behind that and act like nothing matters really to God, and it does. Ministry matters to God. How we minister matters to God. We have a lot of commands in the Bible about this. Look with me a couple of places. 1 Peter 5 and Galatians 5. 1 Peter 5, Galatians 5. I'll just give you some examples of God telling us exactly how to do something or what to do, which He would not do if He did not care. Those of us in here, if you've been a parent, you know you don't say things for no reason. Right? Sometimes I think my kids do. Judah, he has learned how to talk. And he talks a lot. And sometimes I'll just realize that he's talking to me and I have no idea when he started or what he's talking about or whether I'm supposed to be paying attention. I just realize I'm the only one in the room with him and he's just talking. I'll be like, Buddy, what are you talking about? And he'll just get all frustrated, like, ugh. Like, come on, Dad. I'm like, you're always talking. I can't keep up. And he's a boy. He's surrounded by girls in the house. But, you know, once Josiah gets to talk, and then I can teach him what to talk about, you know, blood, guts, kill deer, and shoot bad guys, and all that good stuff, you know, that's OK. But children, sometimes they just talk. But parents, when we say something, it's because we mean it. We don't say something idly for no reason. God's the same way. He gives us these instructions because it matters to Him how we do things and what we do. 1 Peter 5, 5, the Bible says, Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you, be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. The Bible says we ought to act in humility. He didn't say that just as a suggestion. He said that because that's what He wants us to do. We ought to act with one another in a state of humility. 1 Peter 1 and verse number 15. 1 Peter 1.15 The Bible says here, But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. So he doesn't just suggest, you know, you should probably be holy. He said, no, like I'm holy, be holy. He gives us this information because he wants us to obey it. In Galatians chapter five and verse number 13, we see here for brethren, you have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. So the liberty we have in Christ, we use to serve one another. In First Thessalonians 5.11, he talks about edification, that we edify each other. That's building someone up in godliness. That's not just saying, hey, you're amazing. It's saying, hey, you know, you did a great job teaching that Bible lesson or so. It's building somebody up, but in a state of godliness and in a godly thing, in a godly manner. And you've got a place like Galatians, you're in Galatians, so turn with me to chapter two, verse number four. Galatians 2.4, the Bible says, and that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage, to whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. You know what they said? They said some people tried to come in, spy out our liberty, they tried to get in and mess things up, and we didn't give them an hour. So we defended the faith. That's something that we need to be doing as well. So, humility, holiness, service, edification, defending truth, there's so many things in the Bible that God gives us because He cares. And on the details that we find in chapter 28 of Exodus, you see why in the world did God put so much detail into an outfit and tell us about it in the church age? Well, because He cares about these things. And it's important to him. And if it's important to him, it should be important to us. So we see the priest ministered God. We see that God cares about details. Lastly, we see an important message for daily living, for holiness, for knowing the mind of God. Something that I don't know that anybody in this room tonight needs this, but we'll just pretend there's some people listening online that really, really need this. Because now we get to look at God's definition of nakedness. So turn back with me to Exodus chapter 28. This is a vital passage in the Bible because there is very little, very little detail given about dressing and how we're supposed to dress. There are some verses that we use, but as far as details, this is as detailed as it gets in the Bible. Exodus 28, verse number 42. The Bible says here, let me turn a page here. And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness. Okay, so we're covering nakedness, so we're about to find out what nakedness is. From the loins, even under the thighs, they shall reach. Now the loins is essentially from your bottom rib to your pelvis. And the thighs, biblically, is your pelvis down to your knees. So from your knees to your bottom rib, now remember this is for the priest, which is a man. For a man, his nakedness is from the knees to the bottom rib. Anything in there exposed is nakedness. You say, my belly button is nakedness? Yes, your belly button is nakedness. The small of your back is naked. Yes, that's nakedness for a man. Now for women, we'd add some areas to that, but that's nakedness in the Bible. That's as clear of a reference as we have as far as detailing what body parts are nakedness. And if you just take down to the knees being nakedness, and you just look around. Now, thank the Lord it's still pretty cold out, so that helps. But we're in a college town. You just look around, and you can't help but see naked people all over the place, according to the Bible. Biblically naked people. It's ridiculous how far down this road our culture has gone, and sadly, you see it in the church a lot. Maybe not inside the doors of the church building, but within the church, the body of Christ, you see it a lot. You see somebody walking down the road on Monday, and you think, wow, that is not what they were wearing on Sunday. Thank the Lord for that. But they ought not be wearing it. So we have this detail given in Exodus 28. We want to find out more, though. Beyond this passage, the next closest thing we have to details on dress code in the Bible, I found you have a couple places, Deuteronomy 22, 1 Timothy 2. Deuteronomy 22 and 1 Timothy 2, you can go ahead and leave Exodus in the dust for tonight. Deuteronomy chapter 22, and 1st Timothy chapter number 2. Now in Deuteronomy 22, if you know your Old Testament pretty well, you know exactly what we're looking at here. 1st Timothy chapter 2 and verse number 9 is often used, not as often as it used to be, but often used in talking about modesty and things like that. And so you might be familiar with that as well, but we're going to look at both of them either way. So Deuteronomy 22 and verse number 5, the Bible says here, The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God." Now that's not even calling yourself a woman. That's just wearing her clothes. There's a lot of abominations to God walking around today, being hailed as beautiful. People learned how to lie in the last few years for the sake of people's feelings. Oh, isn't she bold and beautiful? No, he is messed up and ugly. Sorry, you don't wear it well. And the Bible says it's an abomination. Now, do we love on those people? Do we try to lead them to Christ? Do we try to get them help for their mental instability? Yeah, but doesn't change that it's an abomination. So, we see that in Deuteronomy 25, what pertaineth to a man, what pertaineth to a woman, now that can change. If you are, you know, that can be kind of difficult sometimes, like Bible times, what pertain to a man and woman, very similar clothing. They both have these robes that went down really low, but everybody knew what was men's and what was women's. Whether it be by the clothing, by the color, whether it be by the exact fit, whatever it may be, people knew. Today, you go to the department store, and there's men's and there's women's, and there's some things that look like the same as each other. But there's definitely, you know, this is something that pertains to a woman, or this is something that pertains to a man. And so I heard a preacher one time, in almost the same breath, he said that the pants don't pertain to a woman. And then he said that skinny pants don't pertain to men. Like, wait a second, you just said that skinny jeans pertain to women now. You messed yourself up there. I agree, men don't be wearing no skinny pants, but I wouldn't go so far as to say they pertain to women. But anyway, so we have that verse. Now, 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse number 9. Now, that verse is helpful, but not as helpful as the next one, because people can debate all day long about what pertains to a man, what pertains to a woman, cultures, you know, what about the Irish wearing their kilts and all that? Whatever. You're not Irish, I'm not Irish, at least, you know, you're not wearing a kilt tonight, so obviously you're not that concerned about it, so don't bring it up. But we find some more detail in 1 Timothy 2 and verse number 9. The Bible says here, in like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or crossly array. Now this is a good one. This is a good one to point out our own hypocrisy sometimes and to try and, you know, admit our own misgivings. I have heard so many preachers harp on this verse, go to the Greek on this verse about one specific topic and ignore the fact that their own wife is sitting there with everything else in this verse. Embroidered hair, pearls, costly array. That's all in the verse. Don't be wearing expensive stuff with pearls, embroidered fancy hair. I'm not kidding. I have watched preachers preach this verse super hard the first few words and ignore the rest while their wife sits there and exactly what it describes. That's not good. Now, I'm not telling you you can't wear your earrings. And you know, if your shirt costs more than 10 bucks, you can't wear it or whatever. That's not what I'm saying. But we got to be even in our distribution of the truth of the Bible. We take it all. And we got to believe it all. Now, the problem is sometimes people, when they don't find what they want in the King James Bible, they go to the Greek. They add things. And we don't do that here. We just stick to the King James Bible. But the Bible does teach us enough in this verse, I believe, to get what we need. And like men are also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel. OK, what is modest apparel? Now, of course, this verse is about women. And women take the brunt of the clothing issue and of the nakedness issue because, well, for obvious reasons. But men can be guilty of this absolutely too. Especially nowadays. Men walk around in less and less. Men walk around in tighter and tighter things. It's just as wrong as a woman. So I got to get that out there. So we come to this word, modest apparel. The word modest means properly restrained by a sense of propriety. propriety, I wanted to make sure I was right on this, essentially means appropriateness, modestly restrained by a sense of appropriateness, hence not forward or bold, not presumptuous or arrogant, not boastful, not bold or forward, not loose, not lewd. So from that definition, when we look at our closet, men and women, and we decide what to wear, is it boastful? Is it forward and bold? I don't know, I don't really have the body to wear anything boastful. There's some men, you know, you see the commercials, oh, I got this, you know, Under Armour shirt on that's skin tight, I'm showing off all my muscles. Us guys, you know, most of us in this room, we wouldn't want to wear that anyways, because people would laugh at us. Like, whoa, look at that. That's not impressive. But men and women, you wear something that leaves nothing in the imagination, that's not modest. You may have technically covered what is called nakedness, but if it's so tight, everybody knows exactly what wrinkles are where. That's not modest. If it's so flashy that it's designed to grab attention, that's not modest. Same thing with the men. Their muscle shirts or lack thereof sometimes, it's not modest. Now, I've got to be careful about this. There's one more passage I want to show you, because you can never have too many cross-references to defend a truth that the world hates. Genesis chapter 3, we're going to compare two verses in the same chapter. Genesis chapter 3 and verse number 7, the Bible says, And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. So aprons made out of fig leaves. That's what they determined would cover their nakedness. Well, verse 21, "...Unto Adam, also unto his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them." That means that the fig leaf aprons did not count as clothing. God said that's not clothed enough. Here's a coat of skin. Now, you know what a leaf is. Not the most secure thing in the world. You know what an apron is. Not the most covering thing in the world. And then you know what a coat is. Pretty solid. coat of skin, you know, not really any holes in that, the wind ain't gonna blow the breeze and show everybody what's going on underneath. It's more modest. So God even in one chapter says, this is what man said is covering nakedness. This is what I see is covering nakedness. And even in Genesis, even after the very first couple committed the very first sin, their very first thing they did is misinterpret what God would think was okay. Right? I mean, that's the first thing they did. They said, oh, we got to hide. We got to cover ourselves. And God said, guess what? You're not covered. Talk about messing up. So what do we do with all this? In our American culture today, if you dare say that a woman shouldn't walk around town flaunting her body, you are bombarded with hate. Just bombarded with it. Accused of not being able to control yourself. If you ever hint that any woman should ever cover herself up for the sake of men not lusting, it's, oh, you can't control yourself. Whatever happened to not putting a stumbling block in front of your brother? That's in the Bible still. Now, you can be accused of being a body shamer. Consider yourself this all I want. There's no young people here tonight other than Justin. I would consider you a young person probably. And I'm going to throw you in there too because I don't even know your age. I'm not going to guess because I don't want to get in trouble. But we'll put you guys in the same category. Most of us aren't considered the young people tonight. But we'll assume they're watching online because of course that's why they're not here. They're watching so faithfully online right now. But young people don't fall for it. It is not godly to walk around with clothing designed to make people look at you. That's not godly. That's not humble. That's not walking in shamefacedness and sobriety, the Bible says. That's not anything scriptural. And what's wrong with it? Everything. Everything's wrong with it. There's not enough of it, and it's too flashy, and it's too tight, and pretty much everything's wrong with it. Men can be the same thing. When you walk around town, the town that you live in, the town that you minister in, the town that you are supposed to witness in, and you're walking around blatantly disobeying God's word about how we're to look as Christians, that's not good for your testimony. That's what's shameful. The fact that a Christian cannot tell another Christian, hey, you should probably cover up, without that person getting severely offended. We're in a bad place in Christianity in America today. A bad place. When preacher's wives are famous online personalities because of their outfits. We're in a bad place. We're just throwing away the Bible. Now, there's nothing wrong with looking nice. You know, some of us are just cursed with that. But I'm kidding. My wife, she's cursed with that, not me. Nothing wrong with looking nice, nothing wrong with beauty. God talks about beauty in the Bible and declares many people to be fair and very fair and beautiful. But when men and women or men don't dress modestly, and they are choosing to look like the world instead of like Christ. It's not okay, and it's not something that we ought to just let slide. If you got family that does this, you ought to correct them. If you feel like you can't correct somebody about it, maybe just suggest, like, hey, are you cold? How much did you pay for that? They didn't give you all of it. My dad pulled that one on somebody one time. How much you pay for them jeans? You know, back when the cut-up jeans were all real popular, I think they're coming back again. But he's like, how much you... Really? Because they missed out. They missed some pieces. You didn't get it all. You should ask for your money back. It's sad that people have to feel like they walk on eggshells to not offend somebody, to tell them, don't be naked. You say, well, it's not naked. But God says it is. God has an opinion and he's right. And so you may not feel like it's naked because you are surrounded by people who are worse. And you watch TV and movies that show people who are worse. But God is the standard. He sets what's righteous and what's unrighteous. He sets what's humble and what's not. He sets what's right and what's wrong. And so men and women, Exodus chapter number 28, verse 42, we have a definition of what nakedness is. We break that definition and we are naked. We ought not walk around public in that state while bearing the name of Christ. What can we learn from a chapter all about clothing? Well, how much of it to wear is one of the things we can learn. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day. Thank you for your word. Lord, we're thankful that we have, Lord, as we've mentioned, that you have an opinion on everything. And your opinion is truth. Your opinion is right. What you say goes. Lord, help us to believe that. Help us to practice that in our lives. And Lord, help us to, in the right spirit, try to help other Christians to see that truth as well. Lord, we don't want to bring shame to your name. We don't want to bring glory to ourselves or attention to ourselves. Lord, help us to be humble and chaste. Lord, help us to be putting the attention towards you. Lord, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Page 268.