Some Rules and Standards

Some Rules and Standards I. The church of Jesus Christ is a very special society with rules and standards that set it apart from the world system. JAM 1:27. A. For example: 1. We cannot affirm sodomy as an acceptable behavior/lifestyle. ROM 1:26-27. 2. We cannot affirm works of the flesh as non-issues. GAL 5:19-21. 3. We cannot affirm unjustified divorce and remarriage. MAT 19:9. 4. We cannot affirm the principle of doing evil that good may come. ROM 3:8. 5. We cannot trivialize whispering, backbiting, slander, talebearing, etc. 2CO 12:20. 6. We cannot trivialize being busybodies in other men’s matters. 1PE 4:15. B. The course of this world cannot be our course. EPH 2:2. 1. We dare not conform to this world where it runs contrary to Scripture. ROM 12:2. 2. In areas of indifference, a certain amount of conformity to the world is not only permitted but sometimes even necessary. MAT 17:27; 1CO 9:20-22; 10:31-33. C. Even in “grey areas” or areas of liberty, we ought not to let the world be the standard for our appearance, behavior, pleasures or even worship. 1TH 5:22; ROM 12:1-2; 1CO 10:23; GAL 5:13. D. Suffice it to say that the world is now at war with God, Scripture and Christianity in almost every way, and even in some novel ways that (to the best of my knowledge) have never been seen exactly like this before. We had best be attuned to the potential for spiritual, emotional and physical danger these forces represent, and steer clear of them. EXO 23:7; JOB 11:14; ACT 2:40. II. Concerning apparel, if there is no standard, then anything goes. But God requires modest apparel. 1TI 2:9-10. A. modest: Well-conducted, orderly; not harsh or domineering. Of female attire: Decent, not meretricious. B. The issue here is public appearance, not private. The issue is not what is inappropriate to wear to church; it is what is worn in public. C. Young women in particular need to be taught discretion and use discretion. TIT 2:5. 1. chaste: Pure from unlawful sexual intercourse; continent, virtuous. 2. Dinah lacked discretion and lost her chastity. GEN 34:1-2. 3. Silly women (2TI 3:6) err by thinking they can expose their bodies indiscreetly and still be respected by the eyes that feast upon them. D. Nakedness is a shame that ought to be covered. ISA 47:2-3; REV 3:18. 1. cover: To put or lay something over (an object), with the effect of hiding from view, protecting, or enclosing; to overlay, overspread with. 2. Saran Wrap overspreads but does not hide from view. Yoga pants are little better. 3. The following passages define the nakedness that is to be covered (men’s and women’s buttocks and genitalia, women’s breasts): ISA 20:4; 1SAM 5:9 c/w PSA 78:66; HAB 2:15-16; DEU 23:1; 25:11-12; LEV 20:11, 18; EZE 23:3, 18-21; PRO 5:19-20. E. EXO 28:42 gives the dimensions of a garment that will cover lower nakedness. 1. The express purpose for these breeches was to cover lower nakedness. 2. These were for the priests as they went into the tabernacle to minister. EXO 28:43. 3. There was no furniture in the holy place upon which the priest might sit. He was to stand in his ministration. DEU 18:5. 4. Therefore, these breeches were meant to be sufficiently long for a normal standing Some Rules and Standards 9-18-22 Page 1 of 3  posture. 5. breech: A garment covering the loins and thighs. Now always in plural breeches, or a pair of breeches. Breeches are distinguished from trousers by coming only just below the knee, but dialectally (and humorously) breeches includes trousers. 6. pair: Two associated together; a set of two. 7. loin: In the living body. Chiefly plural. The part or parts of a human being or quadruped, situated on both sides of the vertebral column, between the false ribs and the hip bone. 8. thigh: The upper part of the leg, from the hip to the knee (in man). 9. This garment reaching to the thighs MUST cover the thighs in order to be a pair since thighs come in pairs but loins do not. 10. This is not to say that the thighs themselves are considered nakedness, but if a garment covers to the knee, one can be assured from this verse that his nakedness is covered. 11. If we have scripture giving us the dimensions of a garment that covers nakedness, it makes sense to set our apparel standard according to that scripture, especially since we are to prove all things by the Scripture. 1TH 5:21 c/w PSA 119:128 c/w JUDE 1:23. 12. You may resist me for my standards but think twice about resisting the Holy Ghost for His standards. ACT 7:51. 13. You say you love the Lord? Keep his commandments. 1JO 5:2-3. III. An adjunct of the apparel issue is distinctions of sexes. DEU 22:5. A. This is an outgrowth of the natural law which ought not to be trivialized. 1CO 11:14; ROM 1:26; 1CO 6:9. B. The word translated “effeminate” (SRN G3120, malakos) in 1CO 6:9 is rendered as “soft raiment” in MAT 11:8; LUK 7:25. C. There is latitude in this area but wisdom and discretion should overrule your “liberty.” D. “There are people in Europe who, confounding together the different characteristics of the sexes, would make of man and woman beings not only equal but alike. … It may readily be conceived, that by thus attempting to make one sex equal to the other, both are degraded; and from so preposterous a medley of the works of nature nothing could ever result but weak men and disorderly women.” (Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, pub. 1840) E. Parents: do not sow confusion in your children’s minds by fighting God and nature as touching distinctions between the sexes. 1. Raise your boys to act and look like boys, your girls to act and look like girls. 2. Tom-boyishness in girls is one thing; butch, masculinized girls is another. Likewise, a tender-hearted boy is one thing; turning such a boy into an effeminate or dysphoric disaster is another. 3. A godly woman can be virtuously strong but she does not have to become a man to do so. PRO 31:10, 17. 4. In this age of widespread gender confusion and mass communication, you dare not play games with children to fashion them after your own image (what you think is best) when you ought to be fashioning them after God’s image of male and female. GEN 1:27. 5. If you think that you can sow confusion in a child’s mind with impunity in an age where the world around him/her has embraced madness and empowered it through entertainment, education, communication and law, you are horribly wrong. Some Rules and Standards 9-18-22 Page 2 of 3  1CO 15:33; MAT 18:6-7, 10. 6. For a candid and alarming insight into the tragic consequences of sowing confusion in a child’s mind, check out Walt Heyer's personal story and info at SexChangeRegret.com and WaltHeyer.com wherein his experience at the hands of Paul Walker, PhD (a homosexual and transgender activist) may be found. a. Heyer's story can be found in novel form, Kid Dakota and The Secret at Grandma's House, and in his autobiography, A Transgender's Faith. His other books include Paper Genders and Gender, Lies and Suicide. b. Heyer’s problems began when he was being raised by a grandmother who dressed him like a girl and encouraged him in girlish behavior. c. Heyer’s story resonates with me because of an issue in my own family’s background which I only came to know about in the last ten years. 7. I taught an extensive study series on the Transgender issue in September, 2016. It should be available on our website. F. Do not trivialize Paul’s instructions concerning hair length. 1CO 11:1-16. 1. I have dealt with this in detail in the past. There are spiritual and relational issues which Paul ties in with hair length on men and women. 2. Woman’s hair is her head-covering (v. 15). By contrast, man’s head is not to be covered. v. 7. 3. Suppose that, after all Paul has set forth in vs. 1-15, he is implying in v. 16 that it is essentially an area of liberty or indifference and we shouldn’t be contentious over hair length. a. Still, it is a SHAME for a man to have long hair and a woman to have short hair. vs. 6-7, 14. b. If you think shame is something you can glory in, your god is not my God. PHIL 3:19. IV. Your spiritual state and your church’s blessing very much depend on the rules and standards that I, as your pastor, must stand for and reasonably enforce because of Scripture. HEB 13:17. Some Rules and Standards 9-18-22 Page 3 of 3