All right, we're in Genesis chapter 2 and we're continuing our series on the Alphabet of Bible Doctrines, and for the letter N we're going to be talking about what the Bible says about nakedness. Now the Bible speaks about all manner of topics, and it's important for us to know what the Bible says about all things. If you were to ask people out in the world, “What is nakedness?” you would have a lot of different opinions and a lot of confusion, but the Bible gives us the answers on these things. Point number one is this: when it comes to this topic of nakedness, nakedness is something that is actually inside of our conscience. It's something built in that we have an understanding of.

Point 1 – Nakedness is in our Conscience.

Genesis 2 verse 24: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” So at first, they're not wearing any clothes, Adam and Eve, and they're not ashamed. Now of course this is a time period where the weather is perfect. You don't have to worry about wearing a winter coat or anything like that, and they're not ashamed. They don't seem to have an understanding that it's kind of weird not to be wearing your clothes. Now go to Genesis 3, verse 6. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 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.” Now Adam and Eve were created as adults, not as babies. They're created as adults, and at first they don't seem to understand that there's anything wrong with nakedness. At this point they don't understand the concept of sinfully; they've never sinned, they've never done wrong. Then in Genesis 3, once they eat the fruit, all of a sudden their eyes are opened and they realize, actually, this is not appropriate.

When you think about a child, the Bible says about a baby, “Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.” There's nothing wrong with a baby not wearing clothes. Obviously, you change the diaper of a baby and you give it a shower, and a baby has no concept that what they're doing is kind of strange. If you give a two-year-old a shower, they get out of the shower and just run out without any clothes, and it's like, “No, no, let's put a towel on you. Let's put on a diaper. Let's change your clothes,” because they don't understand it.

I was explaining this to my son the other day, and I was explaining that at a young age children are what we would call safe, not saved but safe, meaning that if they died as a young child they would go straight to heaven. The Bible teaches that. A good way to kind of understand if kids are at the point where they would be held accountable is whether they have knowledge of sin in this regard. Basically, a three-year-old doesn't feel weird about not wearing clothes. A four-year-old doesn't feel weird about it. But eventually they reach an age where they're going to feel strange about it. If somebody was a teenager, they obviously know they should not go without their clothes on. A three-year-old doesn't get that. A four-year-old doesn't get that. The reason why they wear clothes is because you tell them, “Hey, time to put on the diaper, time to put on the dress, time to put on the clothes,” and they do it because that's what Mum and Dad say, but they don't really understand like we do as adults.

This is interesting because it's in our conscience, but we're not born with it immediately. It's something that you come to an understanding of as you get a little bit older. Verse number eight: “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.”

I wouldn't recommend this given the fact that Adam and Eve are going without clothes, but people watch various animated things on YouTube, and if you've seen one of these it's probably not accurate because you're probably going to have them hearing a voice from heaven. But it says the Lord God is walking in the garden, so this is the Son of God in the Old Testament walking, and they hear his voice as well. They're hiding because they don't want to be around the Son of God as they're not covered up. Of course, they sewed fig leaves together, but it's probably not doing the best job of accurately covering their body, so they're basically embarrassed because they're naked.

Isn't this what a normal person would feel? If you're not wearing clothes in front of somebody else, you would feel embarrassed. It would be inappropriate; it would be wrong. What I'm saying is it's built into your conscience, but it's not really built at birth. It's once you get a little bit older. Verse number nine: “And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” And he said, “I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” And he said, “Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” He's saying, “How do you know you're naked?” and they're immediately embarrassed about it. You give your kids a shower or a bath, you change their clothes, but they're eventually going to reach an age where they don't want to be around Mum and Dad while they're not wearing their clothes because they feel embarrassed about it. It's built inside of them, but it wasn't built at birth. It takes several years before they fully get this. Turn your Bible to Romans 2.

For a child that is one year old, two years old, they're completely innocent. They're born without clothes, and obviously you put clothes on as a parent. You don't want your child to be without clothes; there's nothing sinful about the baby. It's not wearing clothes—it's a baby. Unless you've got a perverted mind, you wouldn't think anything weird about it. But as a parent, obviously you want to cover up.

Now I will say this, though: sometimes you go soul winning and some parents don't really care that much if their child's running around without clothes. Especially if you go to some of the poorer areas, it's kind of awkward. You're preaching the gospel and then there's like a three-year-old running around without clothes on. It's kind of like, okay, this is a bit distracting. But you know what? Obviously as a parent you understand it, but that three-year-old doesn't understand that because they're young and they're safe. If they died, they would go to heaven. They're too young to understand the gospel at this point. Once they start feeling ashamed for that, that's kind of a sign: wait a minute, they're starting to understand a little bit better. They need to be able to believe the gospel and get saved, right?

Romans 2 verse 14: “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.” When it says here they do by nature the things contained in the law, it's not saying they're following Mother Nature and what the lions are doing and what the zebras are doing. It's saying naturally, by nature, biologically, genetically, they just do the things contained in the law.

What are we saying? Every child knows it's wrong to hurt somebody. Every child knows murder's wrong. Every child knows lying is wrong. Kids do things that are wrong and they don't want to tell Mum and Dad because they're afraid to get in trouble, but they know inside of themselves it's wrong. By nature, by how God created them, they understand certain things. Look, you don't have to teach everybody the Ten Commandments for them to get the fact that it's wrong to steal and wrong to lie and wrong to kill someone. They already know that. It's born inside of them. They do by nature the things contained in the law.

Verse 15: “Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.” The Bible says their conscience bears witness, and people are born with a belief in God, and they're also born with a conscience, and this conscience will tell them right and wrong.

People sometimes try to compare Christianity and say, “Hey, Islam and Christianity are so similar. They both have the Ten Commandments. Buddhism is so similar.” Look, everybody's born with a belief that it's wrong to steal. It's in their conscience. There are certain things that are in your conscience, and nakedness is one of those things, but it's not at birth. It takes them to be at least several years old to understand that it's kind of embarrassing or wrong to be without clothes in front of other people. Now turn in your Bible to Exodus 28.

You say, “Well, Brother Stucky, if that's true, if it's built in your conscience, how come you have native religions and people that live off the land and kind of do their own thing, and oftentimes they're just going without any clothes on or very little clothes?” Because they're rebelling against God. Inside of themselves they know it's wrong. Just because you have some native religion where they're wearing no clothes doesn't mean they don't understand it's wrong. It's that they just don't care what the Bible says, because we see the story with Adam and Eve. Nobody taught them, and they just knew. Everybody, when they reach a certain age, knows it's inappropriate. They know it's wrong.

Probably the most extreme example I know is with the religion of Jainism. If you've heard me talk about Jainism before, this is the religion where they're against brushing your teeth and against using a toilet because you could harm the bacteria, so they just use the bathroom out in public in India and make it a filthy place to live. They would never use a toilet because that's wrong, right? This is one of the most bizarre religions you could find.

There are basically two denominations of them, and in one denomination of Jainism their monks wear no clothes. Of course, these are people that are just walking the land; they don't really have a home that they go to, so they just walk around naked everywhere. A few years ago I was watching a documentary on Jainism, and apparently YouTube doesn't censor this. Immediately they just showed this guy without any clothes, and I'm like, “What is that?”

You say, “Well, why would he go around without any clothes on?” I'll just read you from this: the Digambara monks in India, in the Jainism religion, which by the way is four million people—it's not a small religion—monks of this denomination or sect reject all worldly possessions in order to live a totally ascetic life. Apparently clothing is worldly, is what they're saying. “We're against all worldliness, so we don't wear clothes,” right? These Eastern religions believe you must have zero attachments to this life if you're going to stop the process of rebirth in your life, and so basically you go away from all food, away from everything, and they're against wearing clothes.

It says, “Because they are allowed no possessions whatsoever, they live without clothes and go sky-clad,” which means naked. Digambara nuns wear simple white clothes. Now here's what it says in this article: “Their nakedness is also a statement that they are beyond feelings such as modesty and shame.” Do you notice that? Let me read that again: their nakedness is also a statement that they are reprobates, right? They're beyond shame.

Let me just read you one of the 20 psychopathic traits on the psychopathy test. One of the traits is called no shame or guilt. No shame or guilt: they're beyond shame; yeah, they're reprobate. Psychopaths see no shame or guilt even when the person's behaviour was obviously hurtful. Normal people feel significant levels of guilt, remorse, even shame, when they manipulate others, steal, cheat, or lie.

Someone who's a psychopath never gets embarrassed about doing wrong or making people feel bad. Look, I promise you those Jain monks realise people don't want to see them going sky-clad, but they don't care. You say, why? They don't have a conscience. People try to look at that and say, “Wait a minute, they don't realise it's wrong to wear clothes.” Yes, they do. They just don't care about other people because they're bad and evil people.

It's really bizarre in Jainism because it's like these Eastern religions where they don't work and they just live off the land or ask for donations and money. In part of Jainism, if you are a Jain and a Jain monk or Jain nun trying to reach that level of enlightenment comes to your house, you're supposed to let them in your house and feed them. So these Jain monks that are going sky-clad knock on your door—“I'm hungry”—and then you say, “Okay, sit on my couch.” I mean, can you imagine that? What a bizarre religion Jainism is.

Here's what I'm saying: they know it's wrong. It's built in their conscience, and we saw that in Genesis 2 and Genesis 3. In Genesis 3, they realise, “We're naked; there's something wrong with that.” People that are part of these native religions that are not wearing any clothes know it's wrong. It's built inside of their conscience. Now I'm not saying all of those people are reprobates, but they realise this is wrong. It's not right, but they don't care. Why? Because they don't care what God thinks. They're rebelling against God or they're just following the crowd of what everybody else is doing.

Point number one: nakedness is in our conscience. Point number two: what is the biblical definition of naked?

Point 2 – The Biblical Definition of Nakedness

Exodus 28 verse 41: “And thou shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him; and shalt anoint them, and consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office. And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness; from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach.”

Breeches is an old-fashioned spelling for britches, b-r-i-t-c-h-e-s, and that's kind of an old-fashioned word for pants. So breeches is basically pants, but here's the thing: in the Bible, when you see pants, it could be referring to shorts or it could be referring to pants like we would say pants. So in a modern day, you think of shorts and pants; in the Bible, pants are just basically from here to here, or from here to here, or from here to wherever below the knee. It's the same word that's being used. Now what it says here is these breeches, or pants, are used to cover their nakedness. By the way, the first reason for clothes in the Bible is to cover their nakedness in Genesis 3. We'll look at that here in a second. But it says linen breeches to cover their nakedness, and it says from the loins even unto the thighs.

Now the loins, by definition, are the part of the body on both sides of the spine between the lowest false ribs and the hip bones. That definition is being discreet, and basically it's your reproductive organs, okay, on the front or the back—the certain parts of the body that we would consider the areas that you definitely want to cover up. So basically, when the Bible is saying loins to your thighs, it's basically: look at your waist and then go to the bottom of the thighs. You say, “Well, why not go to the top of the thighs?” Because the waist to the top of your thighs is the same location. Basically, it's saying the pants cover from the waist to the knee to cover the nakedness.

This should logically make sense, because obviously that part of the body is the one that would put certain thoughts in people's minds. What the Bible is saying is when you're wearing clothes to cover your nakedness, it should go from your waist unto your knee on both sides of the body. So if this part of your body is exposed, any part of it, it would be biblically naked according to the word of God, whether it's on the front or the back. Turn your Bible to Genesis 3, verse 21: “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” The first purpose of clothing found here in verse 21 is to cover their nakedness. Now obviously, depending on where you go, you wear different types of clothing. For example, we wear shoes to protect our feet. You wear socks so your feet don't get dirty. You wear a suit if you're in a formal occasion or whatever. You might wear a hat to protect you from the sun. But at the beginning, the weather conditions are basically perfect in the Garden of Eden, so I don't think they had to worry about a lot of the stuff that we would today. So the first purpose of clothing is to cover up your nakedness.

Here's what I would say: when you're getting dressed, the first thing you should probably consider is, am I covering up my nakedness? Because obviously it's a shame, it's an embarrassment, to be showing off your nakedness. Go to Isaiah chapter 20. Let me show you a few other verses that talk about nakedness and what the biblical definition of nakedness is.

I'll be honest: I'm very thankful that the Bible talks about all subjects. It gives us wisdom on everything. When there's a question, you can go to the word of God and find out the answer. If you were to go to the world for advice and ask them, “Well, what is naked? What's your definition?” the first thing somebody's going to say is, “Wearing no clothes.” So of course the question is, what if you are wearing no clothes except for one shoe? Well, you're still naked. Then your definition of naked is not wearing zero clothing, right? The world wouldn't even know what their definition is. So it's an honest question: what is the actual definition? What the Bible said is from your waist to your knee—that part of your body would be nakedness. Isaiah 20 verse 4. “So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.” So it's not just the front part of your body, but if you're showing off the back part below the waist and above the knee area, then guess what? It's naked, because the Bible says your buttocks uncovered is naked. Now this should be very obvious preaching, but in 2023 a lot of this stuff is not that obvious based on the way people dress. The Bible says if you're showing off that part of your body, it's naked. That's what the Bible teaches. Go to Isaiah 47. Isaiah chapter 47 verse 2: “Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered.” The Bible says, “Uncover the thigh,” and it's linked with “thy nakedness shall be uncovered” in verse 3. So what the Bible teaches consistently is that if your thigh is exposed, it's actually naked according to the word of God. Now a lot of you say, “Yeah, Brother Stuckey, I already know this,” but there's probably a lot of people in here that are like, “I've never heard that before.” But that's what the Bible teaches: if anything from your waist unto your knee is uncovered, the Bible defines that as being naked. Turn in your Bible to Nahum chapter 3.

Somebody might ask, “Is nakedness always wrong?” Well, obviously you take a shower, you change clothes, and there's nothing wrong with Adam and Eve being around each other without clothes because they're married. Obviously, if you're married, there's nothing wrong with that. The problem would be if you go out in public around other people being naked. That would obviously be wrong. So valid exceptions are taking a shower, or being around your spouse. Let me explain things that are not valid exceptions: going to the beach. Why is it that if you go to the beach, all of a sudden God's rules don't apply and you can be naked? If you're wearing a bikini at the beach, number one, you're probably showing off some of your butt, and you're showing off all your thigh. Basically, you're naked. It's inappropriate. It's wrong. Why? Because it's wrong to be naked around somebody that you're not married to. It's inappropriate, and it doesn't matter if everybody does it. It's wrong.

Look, I mentioned this before, but when I first started going soul winning—and I think this was a terrible idea by the organization I was part of, Campus Crusade—they went to the beach in Florida and preached the gospel. That's probably the worst area that you're going to preach to because people are just going without clothes. But you start talking about the Bible with women, or even guys without shirts on, and they start covering up parts of their body. They start getting embarrassed. Why? Because it's built into their conscience. They know it. They're doing it because everybody else is doing it, but they know it's not appropriate.

You start talking about the Bible and they cover up. I've done soul winning before, knocking the door, and someone's dressed in an immodest way. You start preaching the gospel and they start covering up. They pretend like they're just crossing arms, but you know what they're doing: they're trying to cover up parts of their body because they feel a bit embarrassed. Why is it they feel embarrassed? Because it's in their conscience. They know it's not appropriate. They don't need somebody to tell that to them; they already know that. Yes, people get brainwashed by the world, but why would there be an exception if you go to the beach? Now I'm not saying it's a sin to go to the beach, but if you're going to go to the beach I would highly recommend going into an area that's not super crowded, because this is how people are going to be dressed. Choose a family sort of atmosphere, but I would say cover up your nakedness. It's the same reason that I used to go to the gym a lot when I was younger—and obviously having kids makes it a lot harder now—but one reason I didn't really like to go to the gym when I was in college was because of the way women were dressed. I was trying to get that out of my mind and I just wanted to work out. I love exercise, and then it's just like, I would try to go early in the morning when there were not a lot of people there, because I didn't want to be in that atmosphere. The way women are dressing, it's like I'm trying to get that out of my mindset. I just want to have a clear mind, and it's hard if all these images are popping in your mind where you are.

It's inappropriate to be showing off your nakedness, and that's the first purpose of clothing you see in the word of God: to cover up your nakedness. Nahum chapter 3 verse 4. It's kind of frustrating because the beach is one of the greatest places in the world to go, isn't that true? The beach is awesome, and I've done family vacations before in areas that don't have a lot of people, and it's an awesome time. It's like the greatest thing that you can do. But unfortunately, if you're going where there's a bunch of college students, it's not only going to be the way they're dressed; there's going to be a lot of alcohol flying around, loud music blaring, and it's just not the best atmosphere if you've got young kids. It's something you're trying to get out of your mind rather than just having it right in front of you.

Nahum chapter 3 verse 4: “Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts, behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame.” Here's another verse in verse 5 that talks about nakedness, and this can be a confusing verse because of the word skirt. When I talked about men, I said for men it talks about breeches, which is pants, and that could include shorts or pants. It's the same thing with women as well. This word skirt is not referring to like a half dress; it's not what it's referring to.

What a skirt is—and I'm going to give you the definition, then I'll show you what I'm talking about—the first definition, if you go to an old dictionary, is this: “a free-hanging part of an outer garment or undergarment extending from the waist down.” So right now this is the skirt of my garment, you understand what I'm saying? Because they'll say, “Well, Saul wore a skirt in the Bible.” No, no. He was wearing something like this where part of the object is going past his waist. This would be called the skirt of my garment.

Now the second definition of skirt that you're going to find is what we would think of as a skirt, of a woman wearing like a half dress that goes to the knee. Of course, you can see where it gets that name skirt, because the skirt of the garment is below the waist; it starts at the waist, and this is the skirt of the garment. So the Bible's saying here, when it says, “I will discover thy skirts upon thy face,” it's basically saying uncover, and he's saying, “I will shew the nations thy nakedness.” So it's saying that if you have a garment like this covering your nakedness and you bring it up, what are you showing? You're showing your nakedness, because this was covering your nakedness.

So in the Bible the word skirt is consistent. It's referring to basically starting at the waist and going below. This is not a skirt in totality, but this is the skirt, or the bottom, of the garment. Does that make sense, what I'm saying? This is kind of an old way that it expresses it, but that's what the Bible is referring to here. Now go to Matthew chapter 5.

So there's a couple things I want you to keep in mind here about this as we go into the next point. The question that's obviously going to come up is, “Well, Brother Stuckey, you said it's naked from your waist to your knee, but what about starting from your waist to your shoulder?” That's the obvious question that everybody would have. Here's what I would say: if you read the Bible, you're not going to find a clear verse that will say this part of your body is biblically defined as being naked. There's not a clear verse. The one verse I can think of, where basically it's going to be taken different ways, is when Peter is fishing naked.

I remember the first time I was reading through the Bible and I came across that part of Peter fishing naked. I just thought naked was like no clothes, and I'm like, why would you be inside of a ship or a boat without any clothes on? I was like, that's weird. Now I am going to say this: biblically speaking, if you remember Isaiah preached naked. I do not believe God was asking him to sin, because he's only preaching in front of other men, and so biblically speaking it's actually not a sin for a guy to be naked in front of another guy. I still think it's weird, though. If we have a men's preaching night event, make sure you're wearing clothes, okay? But it's actually not considered sinful in front of someone of the same gender.

I think it's still strange. For example, when I was in high school and I played soccer, before you went back on the bus to drive home, people could get a quick shower, and a lot of guys on the team did. I never did because I don't want to be around other guys without my clothes on. I think it's weird. It's strange, but biblically speaking that would not be considered inappropriate. So as Peter is naked in front of the others, basically showing off part of his body that would be naked, he's around the other apostles, and there would be nothing sinful about that. But if you go to a public place, you don't know who you're going to run into.

For example, if you walk out in public and you're showing off this part of your body, you say, “Well, I'm not in front of somebody of the opposite gender,” but you're going to walk by somebody of the opposite gender, and you realise that. So the thing is, that would actually be considered inappropriate. But when it comes to Peter fishing naked, if we're looking at the Bible and the Bible's consistent where it says this is nakedness, then you would say probably that part of his thigh is exposed. Some people say, “Well, maybe he's wearing long pants and he's without a shirt,” but there's not really a verse that you can point to that I'm aware of that would say this part of your body is naked.

Point 3 - Modesty

You say, “Brother Stucky, are you saying there's nothing wrong with showing off this part of your body?” Look, it doesn't really matter if it's naked or not, because there's something called point number three: modesty. It might not be considered biblically naked, but there's something called modesty. When we dress, of course, number one, cover up your nakedness; number two, dress in your appropriate gender; but number three, be modest. When we dress, we might say, “Well, I'm not showing off my nakedness,” but are you modest? Because modesty is actually very important in the eyes of God. Matthew chapter 5 verse 27. Matthew 5:27: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Now this is a verse that would condemn guys that have a lustful heart and are setting their eyes upon things that they ought not. That's a proper application, but I would also show you that it says “with her,” and it seems to indicate the woman can also be guilty. You say, why, Brother Stuckey? Because here's the thing: guys do not lust after women if they're dressed in a godly and appropriate manner.

Now I've talked about beauty before in the word of God, and I said that when women dress as a woman, it's a very beautiful thing, but it does not cause guys to lust in the way that somebody that's dressed like a harlot would. You see them and they look beautiful, they look like a lady, but it's not going to cause them to lust in that way. What I would say is, for a guy to lust after a woman, it's probably because she's showing off parts of her body. That's the reality. So as a lady, you say, “Well, guys shouldn't do that,” but you know they're going to, and you ought to dress in a modest way. Number one, of course, you're covering up your nakedness, but you should also try to dress in a modest way where you're not drawing lustful attention onto yourself. You've got to dress modestly. Go to First Timothy chapter 2.

Now I want to be very clear on something. Point number two was the biblical definition of nakedness, and I could stand up here and say, “Thus saith the Lord, this is what the Bible says.” Modesty is a matter of opinion, so one person might think something is immodest, someone else might not, and what I would say to that is that every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. But all of us should strive to be modest. So what I'm saying is the line for nakedness—there's no arguing this part of the body is naked. Nobody could argue that. A question of modesty, people could disagree or argue about various things, but we should just all strive to be modest.

It's kind of like when we talk about hair. The Bible says men have short hair and women have long hair. Well, how short can I let it get as a woman, or how long can I let it get as a guy? How about just not trying to get close to the level of sin, and just have the fact that you're trying to do right and God approves with what you're doing. Don't even go close to the line. And when you're dressing modestly, I'm not saying you have to look like a Muslim woman, right? I mean, the way Muslim women dress, they cover up their entire body. I mean, that's insane; that's extreme. They're covering up both their eyes. I think women were given eyes so they can see where they're going. I don't think you ought to cover up every part of their body like that, but at the same time there's kind of an in-between with how the world dresses and with how a Muslim woman would dress, and what you should strive to be is modest in the way you dress. First Timothy chapter 2 verse 9. “In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel.” Apparel is what you wear; it's your clothing. The Bible says, “Adorn yourselves,” wear modest clothing, “with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array.” The Bible says “broided hair,” which would be an old spelling for the word braided, and then gold or pearls or costly array. Now I'm going to give you my opinion on this because an obvious question that comes up is, why is the Bible mentioning braided hair? Is there something wrong with braided hair? I don't believe there's anything wrong with braided hair, but it's kind of a verse that stands out. Why does it mention this?

What I read online—and this is not the word of God, so you can believe it or not believe it; I can't be one hundred percent dogmatic—is that in first-century Roman culture, women would customarily braid or twist their hair high on their heads, often decorating their locks with jewels, gold adornments, and more to garner attention. So the braided hair was a means to put costly stuff in it if you had a lot of money. I don't know for sure if that's true. It sounds believable to me. I wouldn't see anything that would be wrong with braided hair; that's my personal opinion, but I'm not dogmatic. The idea is to dress modestly and not to draw attention to yourself. If you've got gold in your hair and costly pearls, people are going to look and say, “Wait a minute, that person's rich,” and you're drawing attention onto yourself.

Now here's the thing: there's nothing wrong with showing this part of your body, right? We're not Muslims and we're not nuns, covering up everything. But if you're putting gold and silver where people are going to look at it from afar and say, “Wait a minute, that person's rich,” that is drawing attention. Now go in your Bible to First Peter 3.

I would also say there's nothing wrong with earrings for a woman; the Bible speaks about women wearing earrings. But obviously there can be a balance between something that's flashy and trying to draw attention, as opposed to just trying to look nice. There's nothing wrong with a woman trying to look nice. You can't point to a verse that would say it's a sin to wear makeup or lipstick either. There's nothing wrong with a woman doing that, but what we're going to see here is women ought to focus more on the inside than the outside. It's more important to be right with God on the inside, and quite honestly, it's going to be more beautiful to other guys if you're right on the inside than on the outside.

Look, I didn't just preach that sermon on Mother's Day about beauty vainly. I mean it; it's true. If women are godly, it is a very attractive thing to other guys, especially a guy that is right with God. There's no doubt there is an attractiveness to a person that's dressed like a harlot—the Bible speaks about that—in a lustful and sinful way. But if you're a godly lady, you ought to want to dress in a way where you can dress nice. I'm not saying you have to wear clothes from hundreds of years ago, and I'm not saying you can't wear colours, but dress modestly, dress godly. That is actually going to be a very attractive thing to other guys when you're dressed in a modest and godly way, and here's the great thing: it's not going to cause guys to lust after you if you're dressed appropriately. The Bible says in First Peter 3 verse 1. “Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.” What these verses are saying is, care less about the outside and care about the inside. The meek and quiet spirit, the godly attitude, the godly person, is in the sight of God of great price. But in the sight of a godly person, of a godly man, it's also of great price as well. That is more important than the outside. The inside matters a whole lot more than the outside.

Now here's the thing: there's nothing wrong with trying to look nice on the outside. You would be going outside the Bible if you said it was wrong for a woman to try to make her hair look nice, or wrong for her to ever wear anything nice, or wrong for her to wear makeup or anything like that. But the Bible is very consistent and clear: focus more on the inside than focusing on the outside. Go to Luke chapter 20.

As I said, with modesty things are a matter of opinion. I don't have a verse that would say, “Well, this is not modest, this is modest.” I would just say that, you know what, we ought to all strive to be right with God and we should strive to be modest. When you dress in something, make sure, “Hey, you know what? I'm covering up my nakedness; it's gender appropriate; but wait a minute, am I modest?” That is also important. For example, you could be wearing clothes that cover this part of your body, but if they're extremely tight, I don't consider that modest. I mean, if they're drawing attention to guys looking because you're covering up that part of the body but they're extremely tight, so every curve and every part of the body is very visible, it's like, I wouldn't consider that modest. I would say you ought to strive to dress in a way that is appropriate and modest, and that is in the sight of God of great price.

Now here's the thing: it is a lot easier for men with clothing than women. It's a lot easier. I mean, here's what you've got to understand: who is it that runs the fashion industry? Women and sodomites. How do you think they want people to dress? I mean, women and sodomites are the ones that run the industry, and probably mainly sodomites run the industry. How do you think they want people to dress? Even as a guy anymore with pants, they try to make them super tight. It's not comfortable as a guy. No guy wants to wear pants like that. You want something that's comfortable, and the way the fashion industry is, they're trying to get people to dress bad, trying to get people to dress in ways that are not appropriate. I mean, it's a fact. You'd have to be foolish to not realise that when homos are running the fashion industry, they want women to be showing off their body and they want guys to be dressing like women. That is a fact, and I realise it is more difficult for a lady to get proper and godly clothes than a man.

Guys, what we do in the morning, if you're not aware, ladies, is we go inside of our cabinet at home or closet, and if we haven't had our coffee, we're like—but it doesn't matter because we just randomly grab whatever, right? I don't spend time like, “What am I going to wear today?” It's like you just grab whatever and put it on. As guys, it's just not that big of a deal, right? So I understand it's more difficult for ladies, but here's what I would say: men also should dress modestly.

Here's the thing: a guy could also dress showing off his nakedness because this is naked for both a woman and a guy. For example, what about the NBA shorts in the 80s, right? When you see those players from the 80s, you see Michael Jordan—I mean, the highlights of Michael Jordan doing that slam dunk—like half his thigh is exposed. I remember when I was younger and I played soccer, there would always be a set day where the uniforms came in and you didn't know how long they were going to be. On that day, sometimes you got your uniform and your soccer shorts for the year would go to like here, and every single guy was angry. You say, why? It's built into your conscience. You don't want to show off that part of your body. You want long shorts to just cover it up, even if you don't know what the Bible says. Is that not true for men that have played sports? You want to cover up that part of the body. You feel weird about it, right? Guys also should strive to dress in a modest way, cover up our nakedness, and dress modestly.

Now I'm going to give you an example of what I'm talking about here, and you can agree or disagree, but here's what I want to say: I believe if it is immodest for a woman to show off this part of her body, it's immodest for a guy to show off this part of his body also. You can agree or disagree, and that's fine. I'm giving you my opinion. As I said, modesty can be something that is a matter of opinion, but I would certainly consider it immodest if a woman is showing off this part of her body. I would say it's immodest if a guy is showing off that part of his body.

Now when I was in college, I was probably 21 years old, and I remember me and my friends were planning to go to the beach one summer—which I am not recommending; these are stories from my past over 15 years ago. We were college students that worked out all the time and were shallow and vain, so we were trying to get muscular abs. Here's the thing: the darker the skin, the more your muscles show. That's the way it works. That's why bodybuilders will put on the spray-on tan. I remember when I was in college we were getting ready to go to this beach trip, and I went running a lot in college. I remember I went running without my shirt on to try to get a tan, and I'll tell you what: as I went running without a shirt on, I felt weird as I ran by other people. I felt embarrassed. I felt shame. I couldn't wait to get back to my car because, man, this is not right; it's not appropriate.

Now I wouldn't have felt that way in front of another guy, because guys around a guy, it's like whatever. When you grow up in sports, you play shirts and skins as guys—no big deal. But in front of another woman, running by other women, I felt weird about it. You say, why? Did I know a Bible verse about it? No, but here's the thing: it was just inside of me. I just felt like it was inappropriate. As guys, I would say that this part of the body is also something that should be covered up. I don't see exceptions for going to the beach either. I think it's something that is immodest. Now if you disagree, that's fine; you're welcome and entitled to your opinion, but I think both for guys and girls that this part of the body is immodest. Now it's not naked; I can't point to a verse that would say that. But we should strive to be modest, and I don't think that is modest. Luke 20:45 says, “Then in the audience of all the people he said unto his disciples, Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes.” Why would a guy desire to walk in a long robe? Seriously, is that the way you would want to dress if you go to Robinsons? Do you want to wear a long robe? Look, I would never wear a suit to Robinsons grocery store, to the Palenque, or anything like that. You say, why? I would feel weird about it. So why would a guy want to wear a long robe that's not going to be comfortable? It says “which desire to walk in long robes,” and “love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms of feasts; which devour widows' houses, and for a shew make long prayers: the same shall receive greater damnation.” They like the attention. They like to be called, “Oh, it's a pastor,” right? They want to dress in a way where it's drawing attention to them.

Let me give an example of this. If a Buddhist monk is wearing his orange garb, his orange attire, his orange clothing, and he goes to Robinsons, everybody will stare at him. Why? Because it's going to stand out from people that are dressed like normal people. Is that modest? No, because modest means you're not drawing attention to yourself. When I grew up in the Protestant church, the ministers would wear these long robes, just like you see in the Bible, that were bright purple. They're wearing these purple garments and they had this giant scarf over their neck. I mean, I don't know why except for the fact they're drawing attention, and when people see them it's like, “Oh, it's the minister. It's the reverend,” as they would call them. What are they doing? They're trying to draw attention to themselves. It's like, why are the nuns dressed the way they are? To draw attention to themselves, so when people see them, “Oh, it's a holy person. It's a nun,” right? To draw attention to themselves. That is not modest either.

So here's the thing: if you saw me in Pampanga when I go to the grocery store, you know how I'm dressed? I'm dressed in a normal shirt. I don't wear a suit; I don't wear a tie. We have the ATM near our house, and when I go to the ATM I usually wear shorts and a T-shirt—shorts that go down to the knee. You say, “Why, Brother Stuckey?” Because it's hot, and because I don't want to put on a bunch of clothes if it's just a little bit away. So I make sure I cover my nakedness, go to the ATM, get the money out, and go back to the house because I'm dressed like a normal person. If you're trying to dress to stand out, that's not modest, even if you're covering up every part of your body. Look, the way Muslim women dress is not modest. It stands out. You can see them from a mile away, the way they're dressed. It's like, that's not modest.

And so when we're wearing clothing, obviously we should cover up our nakedness. It's not really part of the sermon, but gender specific also matters. We should also strive to dress in a modest way. So the recap of this sermon is this: what is the biblical definition of nakedness? If you look at all the verses, what is the thing that's very clear? This part of the body from the waist to the knee on both sides would be considered naked according to the word of God. I can't point to a verse that would say this part of the body is naked, but what I would say is it's not modest. We ought to dress in a way that's modest. So number one, make sure you're covering up your nakedness; number two, dress gender specific; but number three, we should dress in a way where we're modest and not standing out.

I mean, this is not what the Bible has in mind where it's like, “Oh, they're going to see your good works. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works. Let your long flowing robe shine before men.” No, that's not what the Bible's saying. The Bible's saying you look and act like a normal person, so when you're a godly person and you're a little bit different, that stands out because they look at you as a normal person. That is what the Bible is actually saying.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and for getting to see this topic on nakedness. God, help all of us to, number one, make sure we dress to cover up our nakedness; number two, dress gender specific; but number three, help us also to dress in a modest way. Help us to strive on the inside to dress in a way that would be pleasing to you, God. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.