The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, February 24, 2008 in the adult Sunday school class at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

Now, then, secondly, I want to identify the 10 things that most frequently tempt men to think unclean thoughts. This is not an exhaustive list, but I have run it by my fellow elders. I have run it by some others and I believe I am accurate in saying these are 10 triggers to lustful thoughts. Let me use this image. These are like magnets in a women’s dress, magnets that draw men’s eyes to parts of their bodies that if they are to maintain purity of mind they don’t want their minds drawn to these parts of a woman’s body. Here are the 10 magnets to men’s eyes.

Number one, dresses or skirts with lengthy slits. When a man’s eye sees a slit that comes up to the knee or above, he thinks, “Oh, a few more inches and what would I see?” That is the way a man’s mind works. If your fathers have not told you this, daughters, it is true. If you husbands have not told your wives this, shame on you. You know it is true. This is a magnet to men’s eyes, dresses or skirts with lengthy slits.

Secondly, dresses or skirts which hug the buttocks. I don’t know a better word to use. I asked my brethren. What do I mean? My shirt is not hugging any part of my body except, perhaps, this is hugging my wrist. A skirt that hugs the buttocks is a skirt that not only comes down over the buttocks, but back in to the back of the thighs. When you see pictures of hookers one of the marks of a hooker, she always has her buttocks hugged, whether it is a mini skirt, whether it is jeans, whether it is tight slacks, her butt is always hugged because that is what she is selling. And that is what she wants me to buy. It is a magnet to men’s eyes.

Thirdly, any upper garment that hugs the breast. And I don’t know a better way to describe it. It is one thing for your garment to come down over and hang loosely upon the breast, but to hug the breast, to shape and isolate your breasts becomes a magnet to men’s eyes. People should not receive an anatomy lesson in mammary glands when they look at you women. It is a magnet to men’s eyes.

Fourthly, unbuttoned blouses, low neck lines or cleavage on any upper body garment. You know what I mean by the buttons. You have got a blouse that buttons up to hear. You not only unbutton here and here and here and here, but you unbutton down to one button away from bearing your bra. And when a man sees only one button to go his mind goes, I wonder what is under that one more button. I am looking down right now at a young woman who has everything up to the last button. It opens the collar, that’s all. And a man’s mind only sees that is an open collar. Come two buttons down and what he sees and what he thinks is an occasion of stumbling to. him. John Piper, ministering to thousands out in Minneapolis, he is burdened about this issue and he has posted an article on the internet, Is Modesty an Issue in the Church Today? Listen to Mr. Piper. “Necklines are an issue these days. Everywhere I turn, at the airport, at the church the necklines are plunging. Some fashion designers in the world are communicating to women today that the thing to do is to have your neckline split extend too low. Unbuttoned blouses, low neck lines on the shirts that may be under your jacket, cleavage of any kind on any upper body garment. And also, women, remember. In the church setting you are found at times bending over, picking up a child. Bend over and look at yourself in the mirror before you leave the home. What may seem to cover you well standing, bending over does not cover you sufficiently to be dressed modestly.”

Number five, another magnet to men’s eyes. Sleeveless blouses or dresses with large arm holes. You look down on your sleeveless dress and you see nothing but your shoulder. But if it is a large arm hole, a man sitting behind you looks up at the pulpit, sees through to your bra. And his mind goes where he doesn’t want it to go. It is immodest to appear in the house of God with sleeveless blouses and dresses with large arm holes. If the arm holes are tight enough that no one can see in, then that is your liberty before God.

Number six, low rise skirts or pants. This is the style made popular by Christine [?], Brittany Spears, Jennifer Lopez, these sex pots, sex pots, flaunting their bodies in their gyrations with their so called music. They have made this style popular with the skirts that barely hang on the hip bones and with the jeans that barely come up and cover the crack of the buttocks. I have been in situations with Christian women where I have had to look at the crack of their buttocks because of the low rise jeans, skirts or
pants.

Number seven, see through clothing of any kind, clothing that does not cover your under garments to the point where no one can see them. Some of you need to know the function of a camisole.

Number eight. Skirts and dresses that are just plain too short. Difficult when you are seated to adequately covered yourself. And then you get engrossed in something in a public setting and you are not keeping your knees locked together and before long the legs are spread a bit and anyone just happening to glance can see clean up to your pants. That is not modest. It is immodest. It becomes a magnet to men’s eyes. Listen to Mrs. Mohler again. She says, “If you arrive at church dressed in such a way that by the end of the service the people around you by no fault of their own know the color of your underwear and they have watched you do a shimmy dance as you try to get your too short, too tight skirt to go under you, there is a big problem.” I like her humor. You have to do a shimmy dance. But seriously, women, that does not meet the biblical standard, “I will that the women dress modestly.”

Number nine. Slacks or pants or jeans—hear me carefully, women—that hug the buttocks, the thighs and the crotch. And crotch is not a course word. The dictionary defines it as the place where the legs fork from the human body, the seam or place where the legs of a pair of pants meet. And here I speak from a deeply burdened heart. This is one of the areas, dear women, where the immodesty has taken over in Trinity Baptist Church. Some of you showing up with slacks that I have never asked you what the material was, but they either have spandex in them or they are a kind of material that is a stretch material that hugs the buttocks, comes around and hugs the thigh and presses up on your crotch and the crack of your buttocks and you have no idea what that does to many a man when he sees it. You draws the eye to the most erotic part of your body. That whole area becomes a magnet for men’s eyes. And the apostle says, “I will that the women dress modestly.”

And then, number 10, a bared midriff and back. This whole present style where tops come down and just barely, if at all, meet the low rise jeans. You may look in the mirror and say, “Well, I am fully covered,” but all you need to do is to reach here a couple of inches of your belly are showing. All you need to is bend over and people can see your back and usually the top of your underwear and it has happened right in this assembly.

 

 

Validating the Gospel in Modesty in Dress.

By Albert N. Martin

Bible Text: 1Timothy 3:9; Romans 14:13

Preached on: Sunday, February 24, 2008 Trinity Baptist Church 160 Changebridge Road Montville, NJ 07045

Website: www.trinitymontville.org

Online Sermons: www.sermonaudio.com/tbcnj