Now the verse that I wanted to focus on in Psalm 96 is, in verse number 6 where the bible reads, "Honor and majesty are before him, strength and beauty are in his sanctuary." What I want to preach about tonight is the subject of beauty and I studied all the different times that the word beauty is used in the bible. It's actually used 50 times in the Old Testament, it's never used in the New Testament but it's used 50 times in the Old Testament then the word beautiful is used 23 times mostly in the Old Testament but a little bit in the New Testament also. There are a lot of interesting things that I learned as I was studying this and I want to go over all the different types of beauty that the bible talks about.
I can't go over every single mention for sake of time but just putting them into categories of the type of beauty that God talks about. First of all God is a God of beauty and He has created a lot of beauty in this world. When we look at God's natural creation we see a lot of beauty whether you're in the desert or in the forest or at the oceans. You see a lot of just majesty and beauty and God's handy work truly declares His power and glory and it is a beautiful creation. You go to the zoo and you see all the animals and they're very beautiful, you go to an aquarium and see all the beautiful underwater creatures that God had created. They didn't just evolve by accident, they're all so perfect, they all look so wonderful because they are created and designed by God.
It's funny, my wife was watching this little science video and it was showing these ants and how they build giant underground cities, massive cities and they said, "It would almost appear to be the work of one mind and one designer." In fact it's just these ants randomly do it, obviously we know that it is the work of one mind and one designer, the Lord, Jesus Christ Himself is the creator. In this scripture we see one of the first types of beauty that God mentions and that's the beauty of God's house. This is a theme that comes up through our scripture but first of all let me just quote for you from Ecclesiastes, as you turn to Exodus 28, go to the second book of the bible Exodus 28 and I'm going to read for you from Ecclesiastes the bible reads in Ecclesiastes 3:11, "He hath made everything beautiful in His time."
Which goes with what I was saying about all the animals and the plants. After God created this whole world, He looked upon that which He had made and He said that it was very good and He's made all thing beautiful in His time. All through He's set the world in their hearts so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end but what I want to talk about first of all the beauty of God's house, "Honor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary." Sanctuary means His holy place, look at Exodus chapter 28, this is talking about the Priest garments and it says in verse 2, "Thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty." Go down to verse 40, it says, "For Aaron's sons, thou shalt make coats and thou shalt make for them girdles and bonnets shalt thou make for them for glory and for beauty."
You don't have to turn there but in 2nd Chronicles 3:5, when it talks about Solomon building the temple, it says, "The greater house he cieled with fir tree, which he overlaid with fine gold and set thereon Palm trees and chains and he garnished the house with precious stones for beauty and the gold was the gold of parvaim." Throughout scripture, there's a theme of God's house being a beautiful place, it said, 'Beauty is in His sanctuary." The priest's garment who ministered in the house of the Lord wore beautiful garments that were designed by God for their appearance, for their beauty. The house itself was decked with gold and with precious stones because it was meant to be a beautiful place, it was meant to look good.
We know that in the New Testament, we do not worship the Lord in a temple made with hands, we do not have a temple or a building that we go to and call that building God's house. In the Old Testament it was so but in the New Testament the bible says that our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost but when it comes to God's house in the New Testament it is actually not just our body but it is the local church because the bible says that we have to know how to behave ourselves in the house of God which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. In the New testament the place of strength and beauty, the place of God's dwelling, the sanctuary in the New Testament is not any building but rather it is the church of the living God.
Church means assembly or congregation. When we're congregated together, this is God's house. A lot of people just say, "Well, we're the church." Even when they're by themselves. No, the church is the congregation or the assembly. When you're all by yourself, you're by yourself, you're not a church, you're not an assembly, you're not a congregation but when we come together, when we join together we wouldn't even have to be in a building, we could be outside, we could be in the parking lot, we could be at a park, we could be meeting under a tent but when we assemble together, we make up the body here. The church, the assembly of God's people and don't tell me there's just one church. No, there's a church at Ephesus, the church at Smyrna. There are all kinds of churches in locations and this is one of them, you're sitting in one, not because you're sitting in this building.
If you were in this building tomorrow, you wouldn't be in church, you'd be in a building. It's not about the building but it is about the assembly, it is about the gathering of God's people, the congregation. God's house just as in the Old Testament, it was a place of strength and beauty. That was physically signified in the Old Testament by a lot of cedar beams and a lot of gold and precious stones but in the New Testament we don't always have a fancy building. I think our building's nice but it's not necessarily a palace either but it's nice but really where does the strength and beauty come from? I was thinking about another type of beauty that the bible talks about is when it says, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things."
What makes a church a beautiful church is the fact that we send people out to preach the gospel to the lost because the bible says, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good and that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, thy God reigneth." The bible says, "How should they preach except they be sent as it is written and how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things." You can have a building that's ornate, you can have a building that's all overlaid with gold and there a lot of buildings out there today that have maybe beautiful stain glass windows and a lot of gold and silver and precious stones and decorations but if they don't have any soul winning. It's not a beautiful church. One will say, "Oh, what a beautiful church."
You're looking at the building, you need to look at the people and in fact check their feet because the bible teaches that the beautiful feet are the feet of those that preach the gospel to every creature. They go out in the highways and hedges and preach God's word. That is the beauty of the church and of course the church should also be a place of strength, it should be the pillar and ground of the truth. What's a pillar? It supports a great load, it's something that is strong and powerful. We should have that kind of strength. Not only that, go to Psalm 50, first of all we see the beauty of God's house.
A lot of people will go to an extreme on this doctrine that I just explained about the beauty of God's house and some people will say that it's wrong to have a nice building. This is the Puritan philosophy and a lot of people today for some reason exalt the Puritans as some kind of a model that we need to live up to. I'm not trying to live up to the Puritans, the Puritans had a lot of very strange doctrine, they're not baptists, they don't believe a lot of the biblical doctrines that we believe and these are not our role models, they have a cool name Puritan.
I'm all for purity, being pure is great but they had a lot of extra biblical doctrine and a lot of teachings that are not found in scripture like for example, the Puritans shunned any musical instruments in church, this is ridiculous because all through out the Old Testament, the bible many times mentions using musical instruments to praise God and in the book of Psalms, they're many Psalms that talk about praising the Lord on an instrument of ten strings and all the different trumpets and all the different musical instruments that can be named in Psalms being used to praise God and a lot of people will make this argument, "Well the New Testament never mentions a musical instrument in church, therefore we're not going to use it."
First of all, I never base what I believe on what the bible doesn't say, I base what I believe on what the bible does say, number one and number two, the bible does say that we should speak to ourselves in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. The bible says, "Is any merry among you? Let him sing psalms." If we're supposed to sing psalms, many of which talk about using musical instruments, are we supposed to sing about using musical instruments but don't use them? Unless there's a scripture that changes something in the Old Testament, it hasn't changed. If God loved to be praised with beautiful singing and beautiful sound of musical instruments in the Old Testament, He would still love that today. When in the world does Jesus dying on the cross have to do with a musical instrument? Nothing.
The things that were changed in the New Testament were things that had to do with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, prophecies that were fulfilled, symbolic things that were fulfilled, a priesthood that was fulfilled and that tabernacle, that Old Testament building where they worshiped, that signified the old covenant because it was a place of animal sacrifices and it was a place of things that were done away in Christ but musical instruments have nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ and if God loved to be praised on musical instruments in the Old Testament obviously that hasn't changed and people just add to the word of God, there are a lot of denominations today that think that it's a sin to play a mUsical instrument.
Where are they getting this? There's no such verse in this whole bible, I don't know about you but I find that there's plenty of verses in the bible for us to obey without just adding new commandments that are in there. Does anybody just have a really easy time just obeying every commandment in the bible? It's just so easy, I'm looking for more, give me more commandments. I've got this 613 down pat, I need more. Why don't we worry about what the bible does say instead of just making things up and making up new rules that aren't even in there but the bible talks about in the Old Testament how we should play skillfully with the loud noise and lift up our voices and sing praises to God and I don't know about you but I find a lot of music to be very beautiful and I find a lot of the songs that we sing beautiful and I think that music is more beautiful when there's a piano being played and when there's piano and the organ, that makes it even more beautiful.
I like it when brother Trent comes and brings the guitar and plays the guitar with the piano and organ. One time we did a trumpet but it was just way too loud, we need to shove something in the end of that trumpet to make it quieter. The point is that when you're singing praises to God, when you're worshiping the Lord in the beauty of holiness, these are things that bring pleasure to the Lord and that honor and glorify Him. God is a God of beauty and there's a beauty of God's house. There's a beauty in listening to the singing. I think it's very beautiful to listen to the children sing especially and that's what I love about our church, it's how loud the children sing out the songs and I find that to be a beautiful thing.
Not only is there the beauty of God's house, the bible talks a lot about the beauty of Zion or the beauty of Jerusalem. Look down at your bible there in Psalm 50:2, it says, "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined." Flip over just a few pages to Psalm 48 just before this it's also about Jerusalem, the bible reads in verse 2, "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is mount Zion on the sides of the North, the city of the great king." Go to Isaiah 52 and while you turn to Isaiah 52, I'll read for you from Lamentation 2:15, the bible reads, "All that pass by clap their hands at thee, they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem." Saying, "Is this the city that men call the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?"
This is after Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonian army and there saying, "Wow, this city looks awful, it used to be considered the perfection of beauty, it used to be the joy of the whole earth." Says in Isaiah 52:1, "Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city for henceforth there shall no more come into thee, the uncircumcised and the unclean." Then you don't have to turn there but in Song of Solomon 6:4, the husband is saying unto his wife, "Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners." He's complimenting his wife by saying that she is as beautiful as Jerusalem.
You say what in the world does that matter to me today that Jerusalem is such a beautiful place or that Zion is such a beautiful place, are you saying we should go there? I don't know if it's as beautiful today as it was back then, I don't know, I've never been there. Honestly I don't really have any desire to go there but the reason that this is interesting is that we know that some day we will dwell in the New Jerusalem. The bible says that our capital city as New Testament believers is not Jerusalem that now is which is in bondage with her children which represents Hagar, which represents the old covenant, which represent the unbelievers because Jerusalem is in unbelief. "Jerusalem is in bondage." The bible says, "With their children."
They have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm sure that there are individuals in Jerusalem that have but the vast majority of people in Jerusalem do not believe on the Lord, that are not saved of course. They follow the false religion of Judaism but the bible teaches that the New Jerusalem which descends down from heaven, the heavenly Jerusalem is our capital city. That's the city that we're looking for and the bible says that God has prepared for us a city. Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker was God and the bible tells in Revelation about the New Jerusalem that's going to come down from heaven and how it's going to be adorned with gold and precious stones and so forth and the bible talks about a mount Zion that's located in Heaven before the throne of God.
You have to imagine that if Jerusalem was such a beautiful place and Mount Zion was so beautiful, how much more beautiful the New Jerusalem's going to be? Our heavenly home is going to be a very beautiful place according to the bible but not only that, there's the beauty of the Lord, are you in Isaiah 52? Flip over to Isaiah 53 while you're there just because you're close by. Isaiah 53 is a prophetic scripture about the Lord Jesus Christ coming to this earth to die on the cross for our sins, this is the story that the Ethiopian eunuch was reading in the chariot and Phillip came and explained it to him and preached unto him, Jesus Christ. There's an interesting verse here because the bible talks a lot about the beauty of the Lord. Talks about the Lord has beauty but in this verse in Isaiah 53:2, it says, "For He shall grow up before him as a tender plant." Talking about Jesus, "As a root out of a dry ground, He hath no form, nor comeliness." Comeliness is another word for beauty, it has to do with how you look.
It says, "He hath no form, nor comeliness and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him." It's interesting here that this verse talks about Jesus having no beauty but elsewhere it talks a lot about the beauty of the Lord. I think what the bible's teaching here is that physically speaking, Jesus was not an extra ordinarily good looking man. He wasn't the type of guy where you looked at Jesus and you were just blown away by His good looks just, "Wow." You say, "Who would ever use beautiful about a man anyway?" Believe it or not, there is one man in the bible ... Actually a couple but they were related but one guy in the bible that the word beauty is used to describe him, does anybody know?
Congregation:
Absalom.
Pastor:
And?
Congregation:
David.
Pastor:
David. David and of course Absalom is David's son, I guess the good looks ran in the family but it says in 1 Samuel 16:12, " He sent and brought him in." It's talking about David, "Now he was ruddy and withal the beautiful countenance and goodly to look to." These are all just different ways of saying that he's a good looking guy and of course his son Absalom was also a good looking guy. Let's give an example of a couple of guys ... There's a lot more examples of beautiful women of course but a couple of times it mentions the fact that a man is a good looking guy but Jesus wasn't brought up as being a good looking guy. The bible says, "When you look at Him, there's no beauty that you would desire Him." Jesus Christ was one who I believe looked ordinary on the outside. His physical appearance was that of an ordinary man, not standing out. He wasn't and Absalom. By the way He didn't have Absalom's hairstyle either.
Jesus Christ when He was on this earth, I don't think He just stood out and blew everybody away and you think about it in the garden of Gethsemane, Judas had to kiss Him to basically show which one He was. if He looked way different or as the Christ rejecting ... Josephus, the Jewish historian claimed I think that Jesus was six and a half feet tall or head and shoulders above all the disciples or really tall guy. Then they could have just said, "Hey, you know get the one that's head and shoulders taller than everybody else or get the one with the long hair." Anyway, He looks like everybody else. He looked like an ordinary man. He did not have astounding physical beauty. See, the beauty of the Lord is not His physical beauty anyway, the bible talks about the beauty of the Lord and usually talks about the beauty of His holiness.
While I'm on that subject, flip over if you would back to Psalms because I'm going to show you a bunch of scriptures in Psalms. Go to Job 40, Job is right next to Psalms, go to Job 40, quickly on the subject of the long hair on Jesus because we've all seen it a million times pictures of Jesus with long hair. Have you ever just wondered, where did that come from? Have you wondered that?
Congregation:
Yeah.
Pastor:
A lot of times when they have these Jesus movies, like I remember when I was a kid there was a Jesus movie that was known as The Smiling Jesus movie because He's smiling non stop, He's calling people serpents and vipers just with a big smile on His face. Just never stopped smiling and there a lot of silly movies that Hollywood's put out, they never get it right, they always mess everything up and they're coming out with some Noah's Ark movie where God's flooding the earth just to save the environment or something. It's all just warped and twisted. Somebody sent me a message about this Noah movie that actually God wants all the humans dead because they're messing up the environment too much or something. He doesn't want any humans to survive.
What kind of a lying deception is that? Whenever Hollywood makes a bible movie, of course they got the long hair and usually Peter's got like the curly, marley hairdo then everybody else might have short hair but Jesus and Peter have got the long hair going on. Have you ever just wondered, where does that come from? Because the bible says that it's a shame for a man to have long hair, if the bible teaches that if a woman has long hair it's a glory for her and that it's a shame for a man to have long hair and the bible teaches that a man who has long hair is dishonoring unto his head, of course the Head of Christ is God, he'll be dishonoring God just as a wife dishonors her husband when she has short hair, the bible teaches in 1 Corinthians 11, "Just as a man dishonors Christ when he prays or prophesies having his head covered with long hair." Is what is taught in 1 Corinthians 11, have you ever just wondered where does this come from?
I think part of where it comes from because I've asked people before, "Show me from scripture why Jesus had long hair?" You know what a lot of people will say? "They'll say, well He was a Nazarite." Have you heard that one?
Congregation:
Yeah.
Pastor:
"Well, He's a Nazarite, part of being a Nazarite is that you had long hair." You know what another part of being a nazarite was? That you couldn't touch any grapes or drink any wine. Did Jesus drink wine?
Congregation:
Yeah.
Pastor:
Did he touch grapes? Absolutely. Could He have been a nazarite?
Congregation:
No.
Pastor:
The confusion comes from the fact that He was raised even though He wasn't born there, He was born where? Where was He born? Come on it was just Christmas, if you don't know now, you're never going to know. Oh little town of ... He was born in Bethlehem but then if you remember Herod wanted to kill the baby Jesus. He sent and slew all the children in Bethlehem from 2 years old and under just to make sure he was going to wipe Him out but an angel came and warned Joseph in the middle of the night, he got up in th middle of the night. Can you imagine just moving in the middle of the night? You just grab what you can? In the middle of the night the angel came to him and told him, "You need to flee because Herod will seek the young child to destroy Him." He got up in the middle of the night, fled by night with Mary and Jesus down to Egypt.
He was there until the death of Herod and after Herod was dead, He came back into Judiah but He was afraid though because He knew that Herod's son was wicked also. Instead he turned His sight to the parts of Galilee and He came into on the city called Nazareth then it says that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarine. A Nazarine, somebody who is from Nazareth. He was called a Nazarine. That's not a Nazarite. I know those two words are similar but there are a lot of words that are similar that mean completely different things. You can't just say, "Oh, those look kind of the same."
No because the fact that Jesus drank wine proves that He's not a Nazarite. That is something that was strictly prohibited also a Nazarite can't touch a dead body and Jesus touched a lot of dead bodies. Of course they came to life when He touched them but he did touch dead bodies. He did approach unto dead bodies. Jesus Christ was not a Nazarite and Jesus Christ did not have long hair, there's no evidence of that except for paintings that were painted 1500 years after Jesus. Say what about the Shroud of Turin? The catholic church is down the street, you came into the wrong building. Anyway are you in Job 40?
Speaker 5:
Yeah.
Pastor:
We don't want to mistake the fact that the Lord is definitely beautiful, the bible says that there's the beauty of the Lord but that Jesus' physical appearance though was not one of beauty, that wasn't what stood out about Him whatsoever. Not saying that he was an ugly man but I believe that He looks like an average man. I don't think that He looked exceptional as a man but the bible reads in Job 40:9, this is God talking to Job and He's challenging Job a little bit and it's says in Job 40 verse 9, "Hast thou an arm like God? Or canst thou thunder with a voice like Him? Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency and array thyself with glory and beauty."
He's telling Him how to be like God, this is how you be like God. You thunder with a voice like Him, "Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency and array thyself with glory and beauty. Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath and behold everyone that is proud and abase Him. Look on everyone that is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together and bind their faces in secret then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save thee." Again showing the beauty of the Lord but this is a great verse or a great passage of scripture just to show how stupid it is for people to think that they can get to heaven on their own righteousness.
If you want to get to heaven on your own righteousness, if you're just the type of person who likes to do things yourself and you don't like to accept the free gift of salvation purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, if you don't want to humble yourself and just admit that you're a sinner and admit you're on your way to hell and just ask the Lord Jesus Christ to save you by His mercy, this is your path into Heaven right here. This is your salvation plan. Starting in verse 9 down through verse 14, this is how you're going to get to heaven. It doesn't look good for you. You need to just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved but flip over to Psalms you're right there in Job, look what Psalms says in chapter 27 verse 4, Psalm 27:4, it says, "One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple."
Go to Psalm 90, while you're turning there I'll read for you from Isaiah 33 talking about Jesus Christ, it says, "Thine eyes shall see the king in His beauty, they shall behold the land that is very far off." It's a scripture talking about future events, bible prophecy but it says in Psalm 90 verse 17, "Let the beauty of the Lord, our God be upon us and establish thou the work of our hands upon us. Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it." So far we've seen the beauty of God's house, we've seen the beauties of heaven or the New Jerusalem, we've seen the beauties of the Lord and the beauty of soul winning and all these different mentions of beauty.
Another mention of beauty in the bible is just the beauty of women. This is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you say beauty, you think of women and rightly so because there are a lot of mentions in the bible that talk about women being beautiful. I'll just read you a few of them. It says for example in ... If you would turn to Song of Solomon chapter number 6, while you're turning there, the bible says of Rachel in Genesis 29:17 that she was very beautiful. It says, "Rachel was beautiful and well favored." Deuteronomy 21:11 says that if thou seest among the captives a beautiful woman and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife. In 1 Samuel 25:3, it talks about how Nabal was married to Abigail and that Abigail was a very beautiful woman. The bible talks about how David when he lusted after Bathsheba, he saw that she was a very beautiful woman.
Esther according to the bible was very beautiful and there a lot of synonyms of beautiful that the bible uses like comely or fair, when it just talks about women being beautiful or not throughout the bible. In Song of Solomon chapter 6, this is the husband speaking unto his wife, he says, "Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners." Then just right over the page in chapter 7 verse 1 he says, "How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! The joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman."
Again the bible talks a lot about women being beautiful and this is an example of a husband telling his wife she's beautiful and I think this is a great thing to do as a husband is to tell your wife that she's beautiful. I had a guy one time tell me that ... He said, "Well, I don't tell my wife that she's beautiful." He said, "My wife is very beautiful but I don't tell her that because he said I don't want her to think that that's why I love her or something just because she's beautiful. I rarely tell her that she's beautiful because I want her to know that I love her the right"
That's really cute of you but that's not what the bible teaches because the bible in Songs of Solomon is showing us an example of telling your wife that she's beautiful and we should express love to our wife and tell her that she's beautiful and express those feelings and there's nothing wrong with being beautiful, God is beautiful, God's house is beautiful, God's creation is beautiful, heaven is beautiful. It's nothing wrong in telling your wife that she's beautiful or saying that that's not an important attribute because it actually is an attribute that has its merits according to the bible.
Obviously we need to balance that out with what else the bible teaches us about beauty and women. Flip over to Proverbs 31, Proverbs 31 is the chapter on the virtuous woman. I don't know about you, I'm glad that I married a beautiful woman. We need to be obviously careful ... I'm going to get to that in a moment but the bible does obviously teach that there other things that are more important that physical beauty. For example it says in Proverbs 31 after it just finished describing what the ideal wife is like, the virtuous woman and explains all the attributes of a great wife and most of them have to do with the fact that she's righteous, she's godly and she does a lot of work. Hardworking, not lazy, not idle, not this tattling busy body, who sits around not doing anything productive.
Rather she takes good care of her children and her husband and her household and is a hard worker and is wise and godly and righteous and kind and loving. Those are more important because it says in Proverbs 31:30, "Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised, give her of the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates." Here God is using this mother's advice to her son where she's basically explaining to him not to just be sucked in by a woman's beauty but rather to look for these godly attributes and these hardworking attributes but that being said, you should still find your wife to be beautiful and if I were to meet a woman that I did not find beautiful whatsoever, that I was not attracted to whatsoever and I were a single guy, I would not marry that woman because obviously that's a part of marriage.
That's an aspect of marriage. I see a lot of guys today making the opposite mistake where it's like they look for the beauty first. They look for just the most gorgeous, beautiful woman that they could find first and they're like, "Okay, let's see if she's godly now." That's second. No, wrong because first of all we need to get off of the world's program of what beauty is and what beauty looks like. Go over to 1 Timothy chapter 2, let's just dwell on this for a moment then I'll get to my last couple of points. We need to understand what beauty is from a biblical stand point, not from the world's stand point because the world has a goofed up idea of what beautiful looks like.
I see a lot of young men today getting sucked into this then they end up looking in the wrong places for the right person to marry and they look at a lot of the wrong people. It says in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 9, "In like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shame facedness and sobriety, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array but which becometh women professing godliness with good works." The bible teaches here that good works can be a great adornment on a woman and that a woman should be in modest apparel, not fancy, expensive clothing. Flip over to 1 Peter chapter 3, you see there's a concept in the bible that's mentioned about 5 different times or so that's called the beauty of holiness.
The bible says for example, while you're turning to 1 Peter 3, in 1 Chronicles 16:29, "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name, bring an offering and come before Him, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." The bible says in 2 Chronicles 20:21 that they should praise the beauty of holiness. Psalm 29:2 says, "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Psalm 96:9, "Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, fear before Him all the earth." Psalm 110:3, "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning, thou hast the dew of thy youth."
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What one person finds beautiful another may not. The world is going to look at some scantily clad woman who's cake in make up, who has her face painted up like Jezebel, who's dressed promiscuously, who's dressed like a hooker, in fancy, expensive clothing and they're going to look at that and say that she's just beautiful but honestly I don't find that beautiful because beauty is in the eye of the beholder and there's nothing beautiful about sin, there's nothing beautiful about just overly extravagant clothing. To me there's nothing beautiful about a look that looks promiscuous and sleazy because what I'm looking for is the beauty of holiness in my wife. I don't want my wife to go around dressed in a way that's provocative and sleazy. I find my wife to be beautiful dressed in modest apparel and honestly women are more beautiful to a godly man when they're dressed modestly and when they're looking like a godly, righteous person, not looking like the sleaze of the world.
1 Peter 3 verse 1 says this, "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 an apparel but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which does not corruptible even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God a great price for after this manner in the old time the holy women also who trusts in God adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands."
The bible talks about being adorned in 1 Timothy chapter 2 with good works, being adorned with holiness. In verse 4 here that we just looked at it says, "Being adorned with a meek and quiet spirit. Godly, righteous attributes." The bible says in Proverbs chapter number 11 verse 22 it says, "As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout so is a fair woman which is without discretion." Did you hear that? As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout so is a fair woman which is without discretion. What does that say? A beautiful woman that is immodest, that does not have discretion, that is promiscuous is about as beautiful as taking a filthy soul and putting a little jewel in its nose saying, "Isn't that beautiful?" That's a strong language that God's using here but I think of this verse a lot.
In fact you should memorize this verse because this is a verse that comes to mind a lot. Look, there is a beauty of the whorish woman. I want to show you that. Go to Proverbs chapter 6, Proverbs chapter number 6 verse 24. We're going to get into the negative part of the sermon now. We've seen a lot of the positives, we've seen the beauty of God's house, we've seen the beauty of Zion, we've seen the beauty of soul winning, we've seen the beauty of the Lord, we've seen the beauty of holiness, now let's go to the negative side. How about the beauty of the whorish woman? Because the bible talks about the fact that a whorish woman often has beauty. Look at Proverbs 6:24, it says. "To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman, lust not after her beauty in thine heart neither let her take thee with her eyelids for by means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bead and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life."
The bible's warning us about the strange woman, the whorish woman, the adulteress that will hunt for the precious life, that will set out to destroy young men and try to lure them into her trap, evil women. It talks in other places about her mouth is smoother than oil, how beautiful her eyes are but it says, "Lust not after her beauty in thine heart." Don't let her fool you, don't let her trick you. The bible says, "Wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging and who so ever is deceived there by is not wise." Also the wise man is not deceived by the whorish woman either. We see all kinds of examples in Proverbs of both, warnings about alcohol and warnings about the strange woman, warnings about the whorish woman.
The bible talks a lot about women being physically beautiful and I don't think that we should deny that or say that that doesn't matter at all because that is something that is a reality of the world in which we live but the bible talks a lot about the fact that what's more important is character, what's more important is the meek and quiet spirit and godly attributes of a woman. Believe it or not I did not marry my wife because of her looks. I find my wife to be extremely beautiful and I love the fact that she's beautiful but I didn't just say, "Oh, here's a beautiful woman, let's marry her." No. I married her because of who she is on the inside. I married her because I loved her as a person. A lot of people today, a lot of young men I see, they go after the world's view of what beautiful looks like which is this celebrity type image that's put out there.
You know what I'm talking about. Just a worldly, celebrity type of an image and that's the only kind of women that they're interested in then they'll pass by all kinds of women who are godly, single women. They'll pass by them just because they don't look the way that the world says that a beautiful woman is supposed to look. I said earlier that young men, I don't believe that you should marry a woman that you don't find to be beautiful at all because that just sounds like a bad marriage waiting to happen. News flash, you have to like the person that you marry. If you're a woman, marry a guy that you like because you're going to spend the rest of your life with him and if you're a man you need to marry the woman that you like because you're going to spend the rest of your life with her.
If you find this woman hard to look at, you should not marry her. That being said we need to get a better view of what beauty is biblically and not just say, "Well, I'm going to marry a beautiful woman." Meaning that she's going to be this prom queen looking, caked in make up, scantily clad, Hollywood style woman. You have to understand God created people to look differently. God didn't create everybody to look exactly the same and women don't all look the same. There are some women that are very slender, there are some women that are more full figured, there are women that are blonde, that are brown haired, there are women that are short, tall and what you have to understand is that women have their own beauty, that's unique to them the way that God created them.
The world is going to tell you that less than 10% of women are beautiful because they look exactly like the stars that they promote. Whereas if God created somebody, the bible says, "He's made all things beautiful in His time." The only time I've ever looked at a woman and just thought, "That woman's hideous." The only time I've ever looked at a woman and said, "She is ugly, she's hideous." It was always a woman who had modified her appearance from what God had made. Are you listening? When I say that, I say for example you're in Palm Springs, California, there a lot of women whose faces look like this. There face looks like this and sometimes I look at that and I'm just like, "I'm sorry, that's ugly." I've seen a lot of other elderly grandmas that they did not look ugly because they just let themselves age the normal way. Without doing this to themselves.
Other times I've looked at women just caked in make up and you're like, "Oh, get off that. I don't like it. I'm not impressed by it." If you wear make up that's up to you, I'm not trying to tell you it's a sin. The bible talks about Jezebel and everything, painting her face. It's up to you. I'm not saying it's a sin because I'm not going to add to the bible because the bible does not say it is a sin to wear make up. I don't want to add to the bible but it'll tell you, I don't let my wife wear make up, she put it on one time when we were first married and I said, "You're never wearing make up again." That's my preference, that's not my conviction. That's my preference and I don't allow my wife or any of my daughters will ever wear make up. I just like natural beauty. That which God has made. That which God has created, that which is real.
Other women have modified their appearances in other ways. Today there are a lot of strange modifications that go on, a lot of just pieces of metal in places that they don't belong. Some women I've seen look like their face fell into a fishing tackle box. Just all kinds of pieces of metal and all kinds of strange body modifications and just a lot of weird things but honestly other than that you just have to broaden your mind a little bit and realize, everybody does not have to look like Ken and Barbie. I'm not a David for looks or an Absalom but I thank God for that. I'm glad I'm not a pretty boy but honestly men and women have their own appearance that's unique to them. My wife likes the way that I look, I like the way that she looks and hopefully you like the way your husband looks and he likes the way you look. That's all great, that's all fine and dandy.
The whole book of Song of Solomon, they're both praising each others appearance, that's great, that is important to make sure that you do like the person that you're married to and you like the way that they look but honestly that is not the most important thing and that should be low on the list when you're looking for a spouse. Shouldn't just be you just go for looks and just marry for looks. You should go for the godly, the righteous, the good and obviously when you see those good attributes, that can make you like the way ... If you like the person, you like the way they look more. In fact some people you might first meet them and think that they aren't very good looking but then as you get to know them, you'll begin to like the way that they look more because you like the person.
Conversely, very often you'll meet someone who looks very good looking but the more you get to know them the uglier that they get to you and these Hollywood stars all look ugly to me because I know how ugly their soul is. They are like the Pharisees, they're like those outwardly beautiful tombs, the whited sepulchers, inside they're full of dead men's bones, corruption, filth and when I look at these ungodly women today in the world, I picture that [saul 00:45:50] in the mud pile with that jewel in her snout and that's what the bible teaches but go to Ezekiel 16, I got to hurry. Ezekiel chapter 16, the beauty of the whorish woman. I just want to go to a few quick places here to show you the beauty of the whorish woman and now I want to show you the beauty of Lucifer.
Look at Ezekiel 16, here's another chapter that mentions beauty. On the positive side we saw the beauty of God's house, the beauty of Heaven, the beauty of soul winning, the beauty of the Lord, the beauty of women then on the negative side we saw the beauty of the whorish woman. Don't be sucked in by, don't be deceived by. It's a fraud and to those who are godly, it actually begins to look ugly after a while when you realize what it represents and what it stands for, uncleanness. Look at Ezekiel 16:10 it says, "I clothed thee also with broidered work and shod thee with badgers' skin and I girded thee about with fine linen and I covered thee with silk."
"I decked thee also with ornaments and I put bracelets upon thy hands and a chain on thy neck and I put a jewel on my forehead and earrings in thine ears and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver and thine raiment was of fine linen and silk and broidered work thou didst eat fine flour and honey and oil and thou wast exceeding beautiful and thou didst prosper into a kingdom and thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty for it was prefect through thy comeliness which I had put upon thee saith the Lord God but thou didst trust in thine own beauty and playedst the harlot because of thy renown and pouredst out thy fornications on everyone that passed by His it was."
Here's a story about a very beautiful woman but the bible says that she was prideful and trusted in her own beauty and because of that she became a whorish woman that gave her fornication just to every guy who passed by. Says in verse 16, "Thy garments, thou didst take, deckedst thy high places with divers colors and playedst the harlot there upon. The like thing shall not come neither shall it be so. Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver which I had given thee and madest to thyself images of men and didst commit whoredom with them and tookest thy broidered garments and coveredst them and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them." On and on, skip down it says in verse 20, "Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters whom thou was born unto me and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured, is this of thy whoredoms of small matter?"
"That thou has slain my children and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them and in all thine abominations in thy whoredoms, thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth when thou wast naked and bare and was polluted in thy blood? It came to pass after all thy wickedness. Woe, woe unto thee saith the Lord God that thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place and hast made thee in high place in every street, thou hast build thy high place at every head of the way and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred." He saying, "Your beauty now is hated. You look disgusting now. Your beauty has been abhorred and now it's opened thy feet to everyone that pass by and multiplied thy whoredoms. Thy has also committed fornication with the Egypt." ...
This passage doesn't paint a very pretty picture and this passage is about the whorish woman but it's also a warning unto those that are beautiful that they don't let it go to their head. Honestly some people are more beautiful than others. Even the bible teaches. It talks about how Rachel was much more beautiful than her sister Leah. That's one of the first mentions of beauty in the bible, is that comparison between Rachel and Leah but when you think about it, let's say you're one who is not as beautiful, let's say you're just not a really naturally good looking person. Whether you're a man or a woman. That's not something to be upset about.
We should all just be happy with who God made us and the way that God made us and women often have an issue with this, they don't feel that they're beautiful enough and they have issues about the way that they look. Sometimes even men could have issues about the way that they look but honestly I thank God for the way that I was created and the way that I look because honestly God knows what He's doing when He created us. For example when I was a kid, I was always the shortest kid, at this time I'm the average white guy height. In fact I'm probably a little tall, I'm five, eleven. I'm probably just above average in height but believe it or not when I was a little kid, I was dramatically shorter than every other kid in the class.
You know what I was called? Shrimp, I was made fun of and called shrimp because I was the shortest kid. I can remember there was a class photo of me in fourth grade when I was 9 years old and I'm just in the front of the picture just the shortest kid. I don't know why I was so short. I feel like my parents were feeding me and everything, I didn't drink coffee but I was just really short then once I became a teenager I became normal height but I remember getting made fun of and razzed and I always wished I were taller and I always wished I would just be taller. "Why am I so short? I wish I would be taller." Honestly now I understand though that everything happens for a reason and if you think about it, if God created you just to be everything that you wanted to be, let's say you were tall and good looking and if you're a woman, you just have that perfect look and that just stunning beauty.
It could make you into a bad person because think about it what if I had gone through all my school years and everybody just loved me and I was the best looking and the strongest and the most talented and I had the best charisma and the best personality and I was the most popular kid. That would turn you into a monster. Turn you into a wicked person because it's suffering and struggle and sorrow that makes us into a better person and God in His wisdom creates some more beautiful than others and some of the most beautiful become the most whorish. Look what the bible says here, here's a woman who God had given great beauty because every woman who is beautiful it's because God made them beautiful and every man who is a good looking man was made that way by God.
It's nothing to glory of themselves, it's just that they were created that way and most people who are given that natural beauty or natural good looks, it goes to their head, they trust in their own looks then they go out and play the whore. How many beautiful women who God blessed with beauty but it's not so beautiful when they've been with guy after guy. They become a filthy whore and that's biblical too, that's what the bible calls it filthy and the bible calls it being a whore. You can call it what you want, you can try to come up with a nicer way of saying it. I'm going to stick with the bible's way of saying it. That's what the bible says in Ezekiel 16, it used the word whore about 20 times, used the word filth, used the word harlot, fornication. There's nothing beautiful about it and it's disgusting, it's wicked, it's ungodly, it's sin and if you're a beautiful young woman or a good looking young man, don't fall into the trap of just getting prideful and arrogant and thinking ... It could lead you into a lot of sin.
If you have less than perfect good looks, if you're one of us that has less than perfect good looks, thank God because that probably made you a better person because you didn't get so puffed up and arrogant to think that you're just so much better than everyone else because of the way that you look. That's something that can be an issue. Let's go to the last place, Ezekiel 28 and Ezekiel 28 is really along the same lines as Ezekiel 16, talks about being puffed up because of beauty. Look at verse 12 of Ezekiel 28 verse 12 it says, "Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus and say unto him thus saith the Lord God, thou sealest up the sum ...This is talking about Satan if you stay in the context ... 'Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. " Lucifer or Satan when he was originally created, was perfect in beauty.
Says in verse 13, "Thou hast been in Eden the Garden of God, every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx and the Jasper, the sapphire, the emerald and the carbuncle and gold. The workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art thee anointed cherub that covereth and I have set thee so thou wast upon the holy mountain of God. Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire, thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created till inequity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise, they have filled the midst of thee with violence and thou hast sinned. Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God, I will destroy thee O covering cherub from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty." What was the downfall of Satan?
Speaker 6:
Pride.
Pastor:
Pride and this is similar in Isaiah 14, we have have a similar passage where it talks about the fact that he was prideful and said in his heart, "I will ascend up into the clouds, I will be like the most high." He wanted to be like God but in Ezekiel 28 we find out the source of his great pride and arrogancy and haughtiness was his beauty. It flat out tell us in verse 17, "Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty." Let me just close with this thought. God has created a lot of beautiful things in this world, He is a God of beauty, the Lord has His own beauty, holiness is a beautiful thing, God's house is beautiful, singing praises to God is a beautiful thing. God's creation is beautiful, the natural world is beautiful and God has created all people beautiful in their own way. Everyone has their own type of beauty and beauty is in the eye of the beholder but some people have been made more beautiful than others. No question about that.
Wherever God has created us upon that spectrum, whether you're a man or woman, you should just thank God for who you are and be satisfied with the way that you look and be satisfied with whatever beauty and if you're a woman, to go out and spend money on a lot of expensive clothes to make yourself look better is not something that the bible teaches. The bible in fact says that you should not be clothed with costly apparel. Does it say that?
Speaker 7:
Yeah.
Pastor:
It says, "No gold, no pearls, no costly apparel." Going out and just buying a bunch of fancy clothes and fancy jewelry and getting all decked out. The bible says, "No." I don't think that God approves of going out and getting plastic surgery. Women go out and do all kinds of crazy things and spend all kinds of money to change their body and change the way that they look. Do these stuff. They go out and they try to change the way that they look but honestly we should just be happy with the way that we look. We should just understand God has made us who we are for a reason. I knew another guy, he was about this short, he was like five foot two or so. He was short, somewhere there about and he said, "My whole life, I hated being short until I met my wife, she was five one." It was perfect, they were right there. Then he even said, "Maybe if I were taller, we might not have hit it off, we might not have ended up together." He loved his wife and he was just happy that God made him.
God made you the way that you are for a reason. Sometimes beauty can be a curse and people who are beautiful, if you're a good looking guy, not that there are any in this room tonight but in case someone's listening over the internet. I'm just kidding, if you are a good looking guy or if you are a beautiful woman listening to me right now, don't let that go to your head. Be careful to stay humble and be careful not to go around just flaunting how beautiful you are rather be humble, be modest and do not be lifted up in your heart and going around showing everybody how beautiful you are and thinking that you're so great and you're so cool.
You need to stay humble and modest or you could go down a very bad path and your beauty can become a curse to you and your beauty could become abhorred but if you're beautiful and you adorn that beauty with good works and with godliness and with modesty and humility then you will have the best of all worlds but you notice among those that God uses, there aren't many noble, there aren't many wise because God has chosen the foolish things in this world because honestly a lot of times people that are the best looking, the most talented, the smartest people that have been given the most gifts and talent often don't use that for God's glory because they just let it go to their head then God has to use people like us who maybe don't have the gifts and the talents and the looks and the charisma and the skills but we're willing to serve God and willing to be a humble servant.
Think about these things and let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father we thank you so much for your word and we thank you for all the beauty in the world. I know I really enjoy getting outside especially this time of year when it's so beautiful out and you can go outside and look at all the mountains and the trees and go up to places that are a little less deserted than where we live and see some of the scenery and I thank you for all the beauty in this world, I thank you for the beauty in your word, just as I read your word it's so poetic and beautiful.
I enjoy reading it and I thank you for all the beauty that you've created Lord, help us to praise you and to magnify you for all of your beauty and to praise you in the beauty of holiness and also Lord help us to understand that you've made people beautiful and that we should not allow that to lead us into sin whether it's lusting after the beauty of the whorish woman or whether it's the beauty of those who causes them to be puffed up and proud, help us to stay humble and modest and content and in Jesus name we pray, Amen.
