The part of the chapter that I want to focus on there in Philippians Chapter 2, is right toward the beginning there when the bible says, in verse number 3, "Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in the lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others.” Of course this is important passage on humility, about esteeming others better than yourself and about treating people well. What I want to preach about tonight is the subject of being respectful to people, and which people biblically we should be respectful to and how we should treat people. I think that being disrespectful stems from a person who is very prideful.
People who are prideful are disrespectful to others, people who are humble treat other people well and address them as they should be addressed. First of all go to Leviticus:19, let me show you one group that should be treated with respect, and how we should respect them, Leviticus chapter 19, third book of the bible. It says in verse 32, "Thou shall rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man and fear thy God, I am the lord." The hoary head is talking about white hair. The bible says here to rise up before the hoary head, that means when someone who is elderly enters the room or enters your presence, you should stand up, as a sign of respect. If we’re to go back in time, in our nation, that was part of the culture that if a lady walks in the room, you stand up, or an elderly person walks in, you stand up in order to show them respect. Just in order to be polite to them.
Today we live in a society where these type of manners are going by the wayside, and people are not very respectful to each other, they don’t treat each other with the same courtesy and dignity that they once did. Go to Ephesians chapter 6, first of all we see that we should be respectful to the elderly. A lot of times people today that are elderly are viewed as a burden upon society. They are not really treated the way that they should by their children, by their grandchildren. Now, ideally, people should have a lot of children or at least as many as God blesses them with. They should have children, then their children should have children, and if people would have children, and their children will have children, then there would be plenty of people to take care of the elderly. I think of my grandma down in Tucson, she has 30 some grand kids or something like that. It’d be pretty easy to find somebody to take care of her, somebody to help her out.
We obviously love our grandma and we wouldn’t want to just think of her as a financial burden, but we love her and would want to take care of, and there are plenty of her descendants that will do the same thing. We should respect elderly people and treat them well. They are weaker than we are as young people. Lot of times elderly people, you see them, they can’t really walk very well, or they have a lot of bad health problems. We shouldn’t just see then as a nuisance or a burden, we should visit them, help them across the street whatever, help them carry things and treat them with dignity and respect as they get older. Look at Ephesians chapter 6, the bible reads in verse one, “Children obey your parents in the lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and mother which is the first commandment we promised, that it may be well with thee, and though may live long in the earth.”
Another group that we should give honor and respect unto is our parents. The bible says that if we do will be well with us and we’ll live long on the earth. Today we see children being very disrespectful to their parents, you see children mouthing off to their parents, and not treating them with the respect that is due onto them as parents. I’ve started teaching my children to say, “Yes sir" and "yes ma’am,” to my wife and to myself, because the way that we talk to people and the way that we address people, will affect the way that we view those people in our heart. Children today, need to talk to their parents with respect not to mouth off to them, interrupt them cut them up.
Here’s one of the most disrespectful things that I’ve seen, when you give a command unto a child, and they just don’t answer you. They just walk away, they just don’t say anything. The bible actually deals with that in Proverbs, when it talks about a servant will not be corrected with words, I going to turn that because I don’t want to misquote, I believe it’s Proverbs: 29, somebody help me out if you know where I’m going with this. I want to say it’s in Proverbs: 29, here we go, verse 19, it says, “A servant will not be corrected by words, for though he understand, he will not answer.” This ties in with children, because it says in verse 21, “He that delicately bringeth up a servant from a child shall have him become a son at the length,” you back up to verse 15 and it says, “The rod and reproof give wisdom but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.”
In this passage in Proverbs: 29 verse 15, he talks about using the rod to discipline your children. Then he talks about a little bit later a disrespectful child or a disrespectful servant, will hear a command, they’ll hear a directive and they won’t answer. It’s a mild form of rebellion, they're not going to mouth off because they are afraid of what’s going to happen but they just ignore you, just won’t say anything, just kind of walk away. When I give a command unto my children, I expect them to acknowledge that and not to just ignore me, but it’s a very disrespectful thing when we ignore people when they give us a command, when they tell us to do something we just walk away, don’t say anything.
Now, calling someone "sir" or saying yes sir, no sir, is actually very biblical terminology, and I don’t really have time to read it all but I looked up all the times that "sir" is used in the bible, I think it was used about 19 times. All throughout the bible I found it over and over again. Genesis: 43:20 they said, “Oh sir,” unto Joseph, “We came indeed down at the first time to buy food.” Mathew: 13:27, the household of servants said the name, “Sir didn’t not though sow good seed in thy field.” Chapter 21 verse 30, children said unto their father, “I go sir,” and yet they went not. We have children calling their father sir.
All throughout the bible, we see "sir" but even more often than that, in fact I counted over a 100 times where people refer to someone as my lord, which is even a little stronger than sir. It’s kind of a similar meaning but even a little bit stronger, over a 100 times, someone other than God in the bible is referred to as my lord. Just a sign of respect, just showing them respect by addressing them as sir or my lord. Obviously today in America we don’t use the term my lord, that will be pretty antiquated to say that. We do use the term sir, and I think it’s very polite and respectful to use the term sir in addressing people.
Are you still in Ephesians:6 there, go back to Ephesians: 6 if you’re not there, where we talked about children honoring their parents. It says in verse 4, “And ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the lord.” Verse 5, “Servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart as under Christ. Not with eye services as men pleasures, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. With good will doing service as to the lord and not to men. Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall receive of the lord, whether he be bond or free. And ye masters do the same things under them for bearing threatening, knowing that you are a master also is also who is in heaven neither is there respect to persons with him.”
In Ephesians: 6 here, we can see kind of a two way respect even between the employer and the employee, you are the master and the servant. The bible is clear that the servant is to be obedient unto his master, with fear and trembling, to have a healthy respect and reverence for the boss and to treat him as such. Then the bible also talks about the master treating the servant with respect, forbearing threatening, okay. We as bosses, should treat our employees respectfully, and the employees should treat the boss with respect. If you’re smart at your job, you won’t just walk up to the boss, just start calling him by his first name, acting like he’s your buddy. I was talking to a friend of mine, they said that a guy at work was making fun of the bosses shoes, because the boss had some kind of different shoes, and he was mocking and making fun of the guy’s shoes. This person was telling me that they felt like this person was just on the verge of getting fired. Just for joking about the guy’s shoes.
There's a time to joke around but joking around with the owner of the company, joking around with the boss, you better have some fear and trembling and be respectful to the boss but it’s like people just haven’t be taught this today. It’s like this is just a foreign concept and it probably starts when they're a little kid, and their parents just allowed them to talk to them however they want, and mouth off to them, their children can hate them, and talk back to them and mouth off. I remember I was at the neighbors house when I was a kid, and the neighbor kid told his parent, “I hate you.” I was thinking to myself, if I ever said that to my parents they will literally kill me, I would never say it. I would never have the guts to say such a thing. Today kids are growing without discipline, they are not being spanked, they’re not learning respect of their parents so then they transfer that into other areas of their life. They get a job, they don’t treat the boss with respect. If they ever have employees, they're going to be disrespectful to their employees, and so forth.
We see that this important subject in the bible, go to first Timothy chapter 6. While you’re turning to first Timothy: 6, I would read for you from Malachi: 1 verse 6, the bible reads, “The son honoureth his father and a servant his master. If then I’d be a father, where is mine honor, and if I’d be a master, where is my fear, saith the Lord of hosts unto you, o priests, that despise my name and ye say, wherein have we despised thy name. Look at first Timothy: 6:1, “Let as many servants as are under the Yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor. That the name of God and His doctrine be not be blasphemed, and they that have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our lord Jesus Christ and the doctrine was according to Godliness. Watch this, He is proud, knowing nothing.”
Where does disrespect come from? Where does an employee who doesn’t treat his employer with respect, a servant that does not give honor unto his master, where is that coming from? The bible says he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about Christ since he strife’s of words, where of cometh envies, strife, railings, evil [inaudible 00:11:10]. A lot of strife could be avoided if we would treat people with respect. When we’re disrespectful to people, it can cause animosity and anger. The bible says, “A soft answer turneth away wrath but grievous words stir up anger.” Who also we treat with respect, you’re in first Timothy: 6 flip back over to first timothy:5, just one page back. 1st Timothy chapter 5 says this, “Rebuke not a elder but intreat him as a father and the younger man as brethren. The elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters, with all purity.”
The bible is teaching us here how we should treat people in the local church. Treat an older woman in the church as you would treat your mother, isn’t that what it says there in verse two? Treat the elder women as mothers, then he says, “Treat the younger women as sisters.” Treat them like you would treat ... He says with all purity, because he wants to make sure that you don’t get too buddy, buddy with young women in the church. Obviously we as men, should be primarily friends with other men, if we’re married. If you’re a single guy, by all means, talk to single women for crying out loud, but if you are a married man, you don’t need to have female friends. I’ve one female friend, my wife, and that's the only female friend I need. You’re just opening yourself up to temptation, you’re opening yourself up to adultery and falling into sin, when you start building close friendships and being buddy, buddy with women that are not your wife. There’s no reason for it.
Your friend should be men, and if you’re a man ... Now, when I was single I had all kinds of female friends. When I was a teenager, when I was young, I had female friends, but as soon as I got married, I ended all those relationships. Soon as I became married, those friendships were over. they were done, I had no need for them anymore. We need to realize, and people might not like that, and by the way goes the other way too, if you are a woman, you don’t need male friends. “He just really listens when I go with Carol, when Bob and I go out for lunch, he’s just a really good listener.” You’re opening yourself up to temptation. Again if you’re single, no problem having male, female friends of course, but once you are married you need to be careful with those kind of relationships, they’re not going to help you at all.
That’s why it says, “The younger, treat them as your sister but with all purity," always being careful not to cross the line always being very pure in your conduct toward one another. Look at verse 1, it says, “Rebuke not an elder but intreat him as a father.” The elder there is talking about the pastor, the words elder, bishop, and pastor use interchangeably in the bible. When it’s saying rebuke not an elder but intreat him as a father, we understand that nobody id perfect and that the pastor is going to be wrong about something from time to time, or make a mistake from time to time. There’s nothing in the world wrong with somebody coming to the pastor and telling him, “You’ve made a mistake, you’ve done wrong.” Nothing in the world wrong with that at all. In fact, if we would have an atmosphere where no one can ever tell the pastor that he’s ever done anything wrong, that can become kind of a dangerous, almost like a cold like, when you have a guy that can just do no wrong.
Now, again we don’t need to just correct people just for the sake, you know, "I’m just going to prove that I’m … Don’t worship pastor Anderson, I’m just going to find something to correct about him. I’m going to find something wrong with him and tell him about it, just to show him." Obviously there's no point in just correcting people for the sake of correcting, but look, if I do something wrong, if I say something wrong then you should be able to come to me and tell me that and tell me, “Look, you’ve done wrong.” If I’ve done you wrong personally, you should be able to come to me, and say, “Hey, you've done me wrong personally, I’m offended," or if I’ve said something wrong in my sermon, or if I’ve made a mistake and said something … I’ve said things in my sermons that weren’t accurate, I’ve made a mistake, obviously I’m a human being.
I remember one time, somebody wrote me an email they said, “You said this thing in your sermon that was not accurate, now I feel like I can just never listen to you preach again because how do I know whether what you’re saying is right?” because you made a mistake one time, now you've lost all credibility with me. If that’s the standard then you can’t listen to anybody. The whole point of you bringing your bible to church and reading your bible everyday is to verify that what's being preached is right, and not to just blindly believe what's being preached. We shouldn’t correct the pastor just for the sake of correcting him, but if I say something that’s inaccurate, if I say something that’s wrong, if I do something wrong, then there’s nothing in the world wrong with correcting me, but you should never rebuke me and say, "What's the difference, what does it mean to rebuke someone."
A rebuke is a stern admonishment, it’s a harsh admonishment. It’s somebody coming to you and saying, “Hey, you’re wrong,” that's a rebuke. It’s somebody saying, “You completely blew it, you are way out of the divot.” The difference between rebuking an elder and intreating him as a father, either way, you’re pointing out an error in the pastor. If you intreat him, you’re still coming to him and saying, “Look, let me show you something here. I don’t think that you quite got that right, let me just show you something in the bible to consider.” You know what the difference between the rebuke and the intreat is, it’s just a different level of respect, that's the only difference. Either way you’re coming to the pastor with a concern, you’re coming to him and you’re showing him something that he’s an error on, or that you think he’s an error on. The difference is that you’re being respectful and God says, “Rebuke not an elder ,” meaning it's a sin to just start mouthing off to the pastor, but it’s not a sin to point out where he’s, but you do it as an intreaty, not as a rebuke.
There’s a difference there, it’s just a difference of being polite and respectful unto the pastor. Then it says, “The younger men as brother,” treat the men of the church as you would treat your brother. Obviously the pastor should be respected, that’s why I encourage people to call me brother Anderson, or pastor Anderson, not Steve. It’s not because I’m trying to put myself up on a high horse here, but there was a time in our church where most people called me Steve, and I noticed that people just started being really disrespectful to me. I started to realize, wait a minute, this isn’t working, because I’m not trying to be some kind of a dictator here but at the same time I can’t just have everybody just running the show here. There has to be one person that’s running the church. Christ is the head of the church but I as the pastor the under shepherd to make sure that things go right.
This church is not a free for all. A lot of people disagree with that and a lot of people think that it should be a free for all. There are people out there, I call it the gain saying of [Kory 00:18:14], that’s what the bible teaches that it is, but there is an attitude out there that says that church should be an open mic, and a total free for all, and there should be no authority and then nobody should be in church. That simply doesn’t work, because first of all, the bible does say that the elders that rule well, should be kind of worthy of double honor. The bible does say, “Submit to them that have rule over you that have spoken unto you the word of God.” Obviously it’s not my job to rule over your personal life, but I do rule over the house of God, meaning that, you can’t just bring in whatever preacher and put him behind this pulpit.
I decide who goes behind this pulpit and who doesn’t and I decide what kind of music we sing, and I decide what bible we use and it’s the King James Bible only, but see, if we just had an open mic, if we just had anything goes policy. Then we’d have all the bible versions coming in, we’d have all kinds of music coming in, we’d have all kinds of doctrine coming in. Do you see where that would be a problem? Somebody has got to be there to be the guard, to be the watch dog, to be the bishop or overseer, and to say, “Look, this is the program we are on,” to be a leader, and to say, “This is the preaching we’re going to do, this is the soul wining we’re going to do, this is the doctrine that we believe.” I’m not for this pastorless church movement, this movement of not having a pastor, I don’t believe in it.
Pastor should be treated with respect and not rebuke, but intreated as a father. Who else should we respect? Go to 1st Peter chapter 3. So far we’ve seen that we should respect the elderly, treat them with respect, call them sir and ma’am, help them carry their groceries up the stairs, help them cross the street, treat them well. Don’t act like they are a burden or a pain in the neck because they can’t do things for themselves, be ready to help them and to support the weak and to love them. Not only should we respect the elderly, of course children should respect their parents and speak to them with respect, not mouth off to them, interrupting them mid-sentence, is disrespectful. Not answering them when they give you a command is disrespectful. Call them sir, call them ma’am, and whatever you do, don’t call them by their first name.
My children have never tried this, I don’t think they ever will but, don’t call your parents by their first name. I teach my children not even to call adults in the church by their first name, to call them brother so and so, sister so and so, Mr., Mrs., whatever, but just to use terms of respect. Look at 1st Peter chapter 3, here’s another group that should be respected, the bible teaches, the wife should show respect unto their husbands. It says in first Peter: 3:5, “For after this manner in the old time, the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves, being in subjection under their own husbands. Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him lord, whose daughters ye are as long as you do so well, and are not afraid with any amazement.”
Again, this goes back to the concept that we’ve seen that the way that you address people and what you call them does change how you feel about that person in your heart. When you call people "sir" and "ma’am," you'll be more respectful to them. When you call the pastor, Pastor Anderson, you'll deal with him differently than if you call him Steve. If you call your husband lord, obviously that’s going to show how you view him, especially given the fact that Sarah actually called him lord in her heart, because you don’t have to turn there, but back in Genesis: 18:12 it says, "Therefore Sarah laughed within herself saying, after I’m waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also.” That’s something that she said in her mind. In her mind she thought of him that way, that's what she called him and what we call people does have to do with how we treat them.
Now look at verse 7, and we see respect that should be had by husbands for their wives. Even though the boss at work is definitely the boss, the bible taught that the servants or the employees were supposed to be respectful to him. Then the bible also taught that he was supposed to be respectful to the employees. Obviously it’s a different kind of respect, because there is a chain of command but respect does go both ways. If you’re an employee and your boss does not treat you with respect, you should still be respectful to him anyway. It’s not like, “Well, if they're not going to treat me with respect, then I’m not going to treat them with respect.” That's not biblical, because the bible says that servants should be obedient to their masters, not only to the good but also to the forward, the bible says. Even bad bosses, we should treat with respect and be obedient to them.
Respect is a two way street but we should never use another person’s lack of respect as an excuse for us to be disrespectful. In verse 7, we see the other side of the coin in marriage that the husband should treat his wife with respect, because it says, “Likewise yea husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife.” I keep using the word "respect" but that’s because I’m speaking in 2014 American English vernacular. The biblical word that keeps coming up is what?
Congregation:
Honor.
Pastor Anderson:
Honor, it’s talking about honoring people that are elderly, honoring those that are our parents, honoring the boss, honoring the pastor. Modern day though, I’m just using the word in our vernacular which would be respect. Treating them with respect, we could do just as well say give them honor. The bible says, “Giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life that purse be not hit.” Just because the husband is in authority, does that mean that the husband should treat his wife poorly or be disrespectful to her?
Congregation:
No.
Pastor Anderson:
He should treat her with kindness and dignity, and respect and give honor unto her as unto the weaker vessel. Now feminism will teach that having a biblical view of marriage and the roles in marriage will somehow degrade women, but nothing could be further from the truth. The bible teaches that we should give honor unto women, the bible teaches of the virtuous woman who is the virtuous wife, because it’s talking about finding a wife in that passage. The virtuous wife, the bible says, her children arise up and call her blessed, her husband also and he praiseth her. Biblically speaking, the husband should praise his wife, when she does well she should be praised by him. She should be treated with honor, she should have dignity and respect, not be treated poorly. We don’t want to confuse what the bible saying, that because husbands are in church that means that they have the right to treat their wife with disrespect and do not give her, her dignity. That’s not what the bible teaches.
Anyway, now again, this is a two way street of respect, it’s a different kind of respect because there is a clear authority structure in the home, the husband is the head of the wife, but still the husband should show respect unto his wife and give honor unto her as unto the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your purse be not hidden. What's that saying, “Being heirs together of the grace of life,” he’s saying you are both children of God, you both have that same value of being a soul for whom Christ died, you will both have been purchased by the blood of Christ. We should realize that men and women both, although they are not equal, in the sense that it’s a 50/50 relationship or something like that, of course it isn’t, but there is an equal value in the sense that they're both children of God, they're both just as important. God loves them just as much as the other, men and women.
The bible teaches that men should treat their wives respect. By the way, we should treat women in general with respect. This is something that our society used to embrace, and throughout history, in America, women were treated with respect. For example, you’d open the door for a lady, or if a lady has a big heavy box to carry, you’ll carry it for her. You’ll step in and do that for her, but today you see this has gone completely out the window in many cases.
Somebody didn’t like the way that my wife was driving the other day and flipped her off. A man flipping off a pregnant woman with seven kids, you know it just shows how low our society has gone. Something was being delivered to our house this week, and this guy shows up with the delivery of boxes in the back of the truck. My wife comes out, clearly pregnant, and he just looks at her like, “Who’s going to unload this?” He would not unload the boxes into the driveway. Usually when you have some delivery to your house, you assume that they’re going to take it off the truck and put it on the doorstep at least outside the driveway, and he says, “It’s not in my contract, I’m not going to unload it.” That' pretty lame men, I mean, good night, even if it wasn’t your job, even you’re just walking by, you’d step in.
We as God’s people should esteem other better than ourselves, we should be humble, we should be ready to help people, we should treat people with respect and especially those who are weaker, those who are more fragile; ladies, the elderly, children. Treat them in a way that is appropriate. For example you see somebody who is elderly struggling with some load, why don’t you just step in and help him out, help them carry ... Some little baby dropped something, if you have any decency, you’re going to reach down and pick it up for her and put it in her hand.
Thank God I was only a couple of minutes away, my wife called me and I came home, and unloaded the boxes off the truck for this guy, along with the help of my children, okay, but this guy didn’t want to do it. It’s funny, you were just telling me this Paul, but he was having a conversation … He heard a conversation between a few ladies, and one of these ladies was one that wore skirts and dresses all the time. The other one wore pants all the time. The one who wore pant was complaining, “Men just don’t open the door for you anymore, when you’re out in public, when you’re at the grocery store, men just don’t open the door for you like they used to.” The woman who wore skirts and dresses all the time said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about because people open the door for me every day.”
You told me that a couple of days ago, I asked my wife, I just had to know, I just said, “Honey," I said, "How often do men open the door for you when you’re out in public? When you’re at the grocery store.” She said, "99% of the time," men open the door for her, but yet this woman who wears pants all the time is like, “No one opens the door for me.” Here’s why though, because when you’re a lady that’s wearing a skirt or a dress, you know what that says? Class, class. When you are respectable and honorable, people will treat you with more honor and respect. Obviously there’s always going to be … That guy that flipped her off, she was in the van so he couldn’t tell whether she had pants or a skirt on, that explains that.
Anyway, there’s always going to be that guy who won’t unload the truck for the pregnant lady, no matter what you’re wearing. In general, we should try to be honorable and respectable, then we’re going to get more respect. I’m starting to feel like I’m the only preacher who preaches this anymore, against women wearing pants, like I’m just the only one, like I’m some rare dinosaur that’s going extinct, I’m entering some new ice age or something. Anyway, obviously I don’t believe in any of that, I believe in ... It’s only about 6 hours and 300 years old. I don’t understand why I am the only preacher who believes this anymore. It seems like every pastor I know now, it’s like his wife is in pants, his daughters are in pants. Then there are these big bible colleges where they have the rule, they must dress in certain way, but they never preach it. They never teach it from the bible, it’s like you never hear it anymore.
I honestly I’m still standing on it, and I’m going to continue standing on it. My wife is not allowed to wear pants. Oh you’re going to lose people, ask me if I care, because you know what, our church keeps on growing, every year our church keeps growing, and people who are offended by that, they can go find some little sissy [inaudible 00:31:29] preacher down the road, who has big [inaudible 00:31:33] of a wife in pants, beats him up every night, but this man right here wears the pants in this family, both figuratively and literally. I’m going to keep preaching what I believe and what the bible teaches and I don’t care whether it is popular or in season or out of season.
If you are looking for a church that won’t talk about it, there are plenty of them. The reason that I believe that, it’s not just because I’m some old fabs, talking my tradition, and I’m a Pharisee and a legalist, no it’s because the bible commands that the woman shall not wear that which pertaineth to a man. Neither shall a man put on a women's garments for all that do so are an abomination unto the lord thy God.” The bible says that men need to wear men’s clothing and that women need to wear women's clothing. God is not for a unisex clothing. Like in the future and all these sci-fi movies, everybody is just going to be wearing like a jump suit, like we’re all just in the same space suit, we’re all in the same jump suit. I believe that there should be different clothing between men and women, I think there should be different hair. The bible says that men should have short hair and the ladies should have long hair, it should be a difference, it shouldn’t be the same.
Now you say, “Pastor Anderson, I just don’t agree with you that pants are men’s clothing,” but you don’t think anything in men’s clothing and therefore you’re not making any sense. I am up here making sense right now, because there's a verse in the bible that says, "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man." That means there are some clothing that’s men's clothing that women aren’t supposed to wear. Then it says, “Neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment.” Here’s whats so ridiculous about this. If I would ask you what does the bible mean when it says, for a man not o put on a woman’s garment, what’s it telling them not to put on? Everyone would say it’s a skirt or a dress. What I want to ask all the men that are okay with pants on women, are you okay with men in skirts? Are you okay with men in a dress, because if you’re okay with men in a dress, then it’s time to find a new church.
Just think about it, it doesn’t make any sense, they’re not making any sense, because like, I mean, “A man in a dress, that's queer, that’s a skirt,” why? Because a dress or a skirt is women’s clothing. What's men clothing and nobody knows, because if pants are not men’s clothing, then what is? Socks, T-shirts, turtle necks, sweaters, hats. What is it? In order for the bible to be making any sense, there has to be some art of clothing that’s a man’s clothing and women aren’t supposed to wear, what is it? If it’s not pants, then tell me what it is and I’ll give you a fair hearing. People say, "Well, Pastor Anderson, pants were invented in the 1700's.” Are you insane? Somebody told me pants are invented in the 1700's. People are like, “Oh men, they hadn’t even invented pants in Jesus day.”
First of all the bible mentions pants fine times, always on men. First of all, number one, it calls them [breeches 00:34:49]. Have you ever heard of somebody being too big for their breeches, that's what it is. It talks about men wearing breeches. People say, “Everybody in Jesus day just wore a Toga, everybody is just wearing a robe." I’ve worn a robe before, when I got out of the shower for example, you put on one of those robs. Who goes out of the house like that, just rob and nothing under it? Try that in the park in the middle of the night and see if you don’t get arrested. Just going out of the house and just a robe with nothing under it, that's the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.
You know what a robe is. A robe is like a long coat. The bible calls it like a mantle or a robe or your garment. It’s an outer wear, it’s not something that you just wear by itself. Under it you have a pair of pants underneath it, if you’re normal person. You might wear a coat, I mean, who just goes out to Wal-Mart at 2:00AM with just a coat, bad example. You don’t just put on a coat, with nothing under it. There are people that didn’t wear pants back then, it’s a lie. I read a book a long time ago, I read a history book about the battle of [inaudible 00:36:14], which was a major battle between the Persian invaders and the Spartans, and it’s a pretty well known battle, it’s a pretty well known event. This book, is a really long book that went into great detail about all aspects of the battle, all aspects of what went into it. It went into the great detail about the clothing on both sides. The Spartans were a bunch of queer homos, by the way. I don’t understand why any Christian school will have their mascot be the Spartans.
The Spartans were just the filthiest sodomite disgusting culture. I think there was a movie that glorifies them lately, people think they are cool but they are not. The Persians were actually a lot more civilized, by the way, than the Spartans, but anyway, the Persians in the historical account and we’re talking about hundreds and hundreds of years before Christ. All the Persian men wore pants down to their ankles. The Spartans made fun of them for wearing pants down to their ankles because the Spartans are basically in their underwear. They're in like a speedo, and they’re battling against the Persians who are in pants down to their ankles. Don’t tell me pants hadn’t been invented. Nobody invented pants, it’s not like a guy like Thomas Edison had to come along to figure out pants. It’s a piece of fabric on each leg, it’s not rocket science.
I guess everybody just thinks everybody just threw a sack over them and put a couple hole. The people who built the pyramids and the Aqua ducts, they were just putting three holes in sack and putting it over them, because they hadn’t figured out pants yet. By the way, throughout history, the working man has always worn pants. Your job probably requires pants. When I had my first alarm job, they didn’t even allow shorts, it was like you had to wear pants, and you had to wear steel toe boots, why? It was just a safety thing, because anybody knows that when you’re working, and you’re doing carpentry, you’re doing plumbing, you’re doing electrical, you need pants on. You’re not going to do it in a skirt. You’re not going up the ladder in skirt and climbing through attics in a skirt. It doesn’t make any sense.
When you look at these old pictures of people and togas and just these weird tunics and robes and togas, they're not working people. It’s like the aristocrats that are running the government and everything. It’s like these wealthy people who sit around, doing nothing all day, the working man has always worn pants. Pants have always existed, they were not "invented" in the 1700's no less. I don’t even know where people get these stuff, but to sit there and say that, “Well, in Christ day everybody was just wearing the same clothes, men and women dressed the same.” Then why does the bible say, for men not to wear women's clothes and women not to wear men’s clothes. See, well they just don't want them to wear men’s pants, wear women's pants.
What's the difference between men’s pants and women’s pants? The women’s pants are more tighter and form fitting, that’s modest apparel. There is no difference, pants are men’s clothing. It’s funny because this is what people would say, when you try to preach, that women should wear skirts and dresses because it’s female clothing. You know what they’ll say to that, “Oh but then they can’t do anything, if they are in skirts and dresses, how are they going to do anything. How are they going to play sports? How are they going to do all these stuff?” These are the same people, that tell you, can’t do anything in a skirt, they’ll tell you, “Everybody wore skirt in Jesus day,” how did they function.
They’re telling you, “How are you going to ride a horse in a skirt,” but Jesus disciples were all in skirts. How does these make any sense? Is anybody listening? Think about it, it's like, "Okay, so in Jesus day everybody is wearing a dress, and they’re riding horses, they’re fighting wars, they’re building buildings, they're running, they’re doing everything but then today’s women, it’s like, “If you make them wear a skirt can’t do anything.” See how these people just throw logic out the window, it’s just they want to wear pants. By the way, it says something about what’s in your heart. When you are a woman who cuts her hair short and puts on pants, it shows that you want to step outside your role there, or maybe society is telling you to step outside your feminine role.
In reality, biblical Christianity exalts women and embraces femininity, and actually doesn’t tell women that they have to dress and act like men in order to have value. Feminism says, “If you want to be a real woman, you’re going to dress like a man, act like man, go to work like a man.” Biblical Christianity says, “Celebrate womanhood. Give honor unto the wife as the weaker vessel.” Don’t just keep telling her, “No, you’re just as strong, you go girl, you are as strong, you can do it. Put on pants, cut your hair.” He says, “Give honor unto her as unto the weaker vessel," what does that mean? It means that it’s honorable to be feminine, it’s honorable to be the weaker vessel, you don’t have to take steroids and become like a man, you don’t have to dress like a man.
It’s honorable just to be who you are and to be who God created you to be as a woman. I thought that was interesting, just how women the way that they dress, they get treated differently in public. When you see a woman that's in a skirt or a dress, it’s like just this instinct kicks in, “Open the door, treat them with respect.” A woman with pants doesn’t always elicit that same reaction, because she’s basically trying to, I guess make it in a man’s world or something. It’s like, “Open the door for yourself then.” I open the door the door for women no matter what they're wearing obviously but that's just because that's something that I believe in. Everywhere I go, I always try to get there and open the door for them.
The other day a woman opened the door for me, I thought that was pretty weird, but anyway, I try to open the door for women, I try to open the door for elderly people. It’s just being respectful. We should respect women and we should give honor unto their feminine role and exalt and we should think it’s cool to wear skirts and dresses as women. That should be our culture. Not a culture that says, “Pants are cool, and all skirts and dresses, that's okay, that’s all right,” no, it should be I style that should be our style. Skirts and dresses are always in style anyway, nobody is saying you have to dress like little house on the prairie and wear those kind of weird night gowns. You can wear normal skirts and dresses and still be in style, and still be feminine and still look good.
You don’t have to dress like the bad lady. While we’re in 1st Peter chapter 3, let me just take a quick little commercial break here, on what the false versions have done to this passage. A passage like this, 1st Peter chapter 3, this is a pretty politically incorrect passage, wouldn’t you say, when it says in verse six that Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him lord. Wouldn’t you say that’s probably a little bit politically incorrect today? If I told the average Christian even about a wife calling her husband lord, “That’s abusive, that’s horrible,” wouldn’t they? Of course some of the modern versions have tampered with this. Listen to this, you look at your King James bible there in 1st Peter chapter: 3:6. Listen to what the message says, the message bible, which is a pretty popular bible. I mean it’s not even a bible, it’s a paraphrase, but here is what it says, Sarah, for instance, taking care of Abraham. Notice, instead of obeying Abraham, it becomes she took care of Abraham. Is that different?
Congregation:
Yeah.
Pastor Anderson:
Big difference, taking care of him, obeying him, two different things. It says Sarah, for instance taking care of Abraham would address him as my dear husband. That’s a pretty big difference between calling him, “My dear husband,” and calling him, “Lord.” What does lord mean? Boss or master. That’s a big, big difference. Let me keep on going, you’re following along in the King James version, the message says, “You’ll be true daughters of Sarah if you do the same, unanxious and unintimidated.” Verse 7, “The same goes for you husbands, be good husbands to your wives, honor them, delight in them, as women they lack some of your advantages, but in the new life of God’s grace, you’re equals. Treat your wives then as equals so your prayers don’t run aground.”
These little buzz words, these little modernistic buzz words, “Hey, you’re equals, she doesn’t have your advantages,” Were you disadvantaged? Like women are handicapped or something, that’s what the message is saying, like disadvantaged children or something. What does disadvantage mean, a disadvantaged child means they're poor, or they are handicapped or something. To them, being a wife is like being handicapped, or poor. It’s not a disadvantage, there is nothing wrong with being feminine with being weaker. Men should be stronger, it’s just the way things are, it’s not a disadvantage. Then even the new living translation says, this, “She may be weaker than you are, but she’s your equal partner in God’s gift,” By the way, I hate that stupid word "partner." It’s my wife, I’m her husband, we’re not partners. Partners sounds like a couple of queers, isn’t it?
Congregation:
Yeah.
Pastor Anderson:
I hate it when I get something, “You and your partner,” I’m like, “What in the world, I don’t have a partner, I have a wife,” but everything is getting all gender neutral, your equal partner. Then you go back to Genesis: 18:12 and the message, because the message took out the calling him lord. I went back to where she actually calls him lord to see what she says, instead of calling him lord, she says within herself, “An old woman like me get pregnant with this old man of a husband?” Instead of calling him lord, she calls him, “This old guy, this old geezer I’m married to.” You say, “Oh well, this new versions are just only easier to understand.” I know the message is kind of out there, as a version, but the new living translation is a pretty mainstream version. In fact it’s the fourth most popular version. Although the new living translation doesn’t take out the part about the calling him lord, it makes husbands and wives equal partners.
That's a mainstream version. This is something that we need to be aware of. Go to 1st Corinthians: 11 quickly and I’ll move on to my final point. First Corinthians chapter 11, just I’m finishing up here with marriage. So far we’ve seen, being respectful to the elderly, being respectful to our parents, being respectful to the boss at work, being respectful to the pastor. Wives need to be respectful to their husbands, and husbands need to be respectful to their wives. First Corinthians: 11 gives a little bit more teaching on this, First Corinthians: 11:3, “But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered, dishonoureth with his head.” Who is the head of the man, according to verse 3? Christ. In verse 4, If the man prays or prophesize having his head covering, who is he dishonoring?
Congregation:
Christ.
Pastor Anderson:
He’s dishonoring Jesus Christ because he’s dishonoring his head. Verse 5 says, “Every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head.” Who is she dishonoring according to verse three?
Congregation:
Husband.
Pastor Anderson:
Her husband, “For that is even all one as if she was shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn, but it’ll be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. If you jump down to verse number 13, he explains what the covering is, he says, “Judge in yourself, is it comely that a woman pray under God uncovered. Do not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering.”
You might think, “Pastor Anderson was way out to lunch a few minutes ago and he’s talking about women getting treated better when they wear skirts and dresses and being treated differently and acting differently. Here he uses hair, long hair on a man, short on a woman and he says that a short-haired woman dishonors her husband. We can see that our appearance and the way we talk can have an impact on our respect that we show, or disrespect that we show for the people that we ought to respect, or honor or dishonor to the people we ought to honor. A wife is dishonoring her husband when she has short hair. A wife is honoring her husband when she calls him lord and so forth.
We see here that it does have an impact the way that we dress, the way that we look. People can huff and puff about it and say that I am the Taliban and I am Muslim and I’m old fashioned, and I’m telling people to wear burkas and everything. At the end of the day ladies, if you want to be classy, if you want your husband to treat you better, if you want to have a better attitude yourself, if you want to be feminine and Godly you wear a skirt and a dress. When you’re putting on a man’s garment ... I mean think about it, let’s say if I’m right, because you think I’m wrong, let’s say I’m right and that pants really are men’s clothing. Let’s say the bathroom door was right all along, let’s say the universal sign of a man and a woman actually there was something to that in the end. Then that means that when you wear pants you’re an abomination. That means when a man wears a skirt or a dress, he’s an abomination. That’s what Deuteronomy: 22:5 says, that's pretty serious.
Not only that, it’ll just help you to have a better relationship with your spouse if everybody is in their proper role. If you’re in one of these gender neutral marriages, it’s going to fail. These queer looking gender neutral 50/50 marriages, where the husband and wife dress the same, act the same, live the same live. You are going to have to go and commit adultery or something, because you’re going to sit there and think to yourself, “Oh there's nothing for me at home.” They go out and commit adultery because their marriage is so stupid.
The number one way to not commit adultery is have a good marriage, number one way not to commit adultery. Obviously there's no excuse for adultery, even if you have the worst marriage in the world, to commit adultery, the bible says, you'll be put to death. Let me tell you something , people today have these weird 50/50 marriages that’s why they keep getting divorce and committing adultery, because you can’t have an exciting relationship with your spouse, if you have these queer looking 50/50 relationship. This is not going to happen.
Women are attracted to men, men are attracted to women. The more feminine the wife can be, and the more masculine the man can be, the more successful that marriage is going to be, just remember that. With all the things that are working against us in society today, with all the things that are attacking our marriage, with all the cultural and societal pressures that are harming our marriages, it couldn’t hurt your marriage just for your wife to start looking like a woman and for the husband to start looking like a man, it can’t hurt at all. The more manly you can be guys, the better. Get off this metro kick and dress like a man, talk like a man, act like a man. It will cut down on divorce, it will cut down on adultery if people would stay in their proper roles. If men would be men and if women would be women. We ought to be respectful to women and allow them to be feminine. We ought to be respectful to men.
Lastly we need to be respectful to strangers. Not only should we respect our parents, the elderly, we should respect the pastor, we should respect our boss at work. Wives should treat their husbands with respect, how they dress, what they call their husband. You think that it’s crazy for a wife to call her husband sir or to call him lord, you know what, then the bible is crazy. If you’re not comfortable with that, get comfortable with the bible. We need to, as husbands though, be loving and gentle and caring and respectful to our wives and not abuse our power as husbands. Lastly this, we should be respectful unto strangers. Even just while we are in our daily lives, and we meet new people, we should treat them kindly and with respect, and not be rude to people, and disrespectful to people.
My biblical example of this, I already went over it last week but just quickly turn this, the last place we’ll turn, Genesis chapter 18, there are so many examples of this. I found over a 100 examples like this, of just God’s people and men of God, just being very respectful unto just strangers, unto just people that they meet, just treating people with respect. We’re living in a disrespectful society, we’re living in a society where people are just rude to one another, especially to people that are in authority over them. It’s not biblical, it’s not Christian. By the way, when some TSA agents try to strip search you at the airport, you don’t have to be respectful to him, and people will try to say, “Oh you wouldn’t let them grope you at the airport? You’re being disrespectful to authority.” Newsflash, “The TSA agents are not in authority over me.”
Let me just explain this to you, in our country, we don’t live in a Nazi Germany style dictatorship, yet. Therefore we actually live in a free country, which means that we are not total slaves. Who thinks that we are just total slaves in America, we’re just complete slaves, we have no freedom we are slaves? Does anybody believe that? Who thinks that Barack Obama is the king of the United of America? Who thinks that we are living under a complete dictatorship, we are complete slaves, we are vessels to the futile state, anyone? I just don’t want people to misunderstand this, when somebody wants to grope you, or put you through a naked body scanner or arrest you for no reason, I don’t believe that you have to be respectful, to some scam bug jack boot. You know what I mean? That’s not an authority figure.
It’s funny, the bible tells you to obey magistrates, here’s the clue. The minimum wage TSA worker at the airport is not a magistrate, and some cop that wants you to lick his boots, puling you over for no reason, sorry, not going to be respectful. I’m not going to be respectful to homosexuals. Some homosexual tries to talk to me in public, I’m just like, “Get away from me.” Some faggot is behind the counter at Trader Joe’s, “I can help you over here.” No thanks I’ll wait for a straight cashier. You got to understand but look, 99% of people, just hear me out here, 99% of people out there are not homosexuals, are not government jack boots trying to steal our freedom and turn us into the Soviet States of America. Therefore we should polite and respectful to 99% of people.
People sometimes get the idea that I’m a disrespectful jack, because there are videos of me being disrespectful to enemies of the US constitution, domestic enemies of freedom that want to enslave me and my children. Put me through a naked body scanner, grope me, take away my freedom so that I won’t be able to spank my children, so I won’t be able to preach the bible, so I won’t be able to go soul wining, so I won’t be able to live a quiet and peaceful life. Look, what if a gang member came up to me and put a gun to my head wanting to rob me, “You didn’t treat him with enough respect.” These guys are operating outside the law. Sometimes you should probably be respectful to him just because if you don’t they’ll literally kill you. If some gang member came up to me and put a gun to my head, I might be respectful to him just to get out of there alive.
I’m not telling you to just be disrespectful to these people and unnecessarily get yourself killed or tasered or whatever, but I’m telling you that there are plenty of videos on YouTube of me being disrespectful to these jack boot thugs, is because that's what they are, jack boot thugs. They're evil people working for an evil government, evil satanic bankster, I don’t have any respect for that. I don’t want you to misunderstand that because 99% of people don’t fall into that category and that's why 99% of people we should be very respectful and kind to them and treat them very well.
There are sometimes when you need to get in somebody’s face, there are times when you need to rebuke somebody, there are times when you need to defend yourself, defend your liberty, defend your family, defend your freedom, that’s a different scenario. 99% of the time, are you listening? 99% of the time, you should be very polite and courteous and respectful to people. Even strangers, look at Genesis: 18:2, “He lifted up his eyes and looked and lo, three men.” He didn’t know who these guys are. Three men stood by him, and when he saw them, this is Abraham, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground and said, “My Lord, if now I found favor in thy sight, pass not away I pray thee from thy servant.”
Abraham is a very wealthy powerful man, and yet he calls himself their servant, and he calls them my lords, why? Just being very respectful and courteous. Genesis: 19:2, flip over just one page, 19:2 it says, “And he said, behold now my lords, turn in I pray you, into your servants house,” notice he calls himself their servant. He calls them my lords, “and tarry all night and wash your feet and you should rise up early and go on your ways.” They said, “Nay, but we will abide in the street all night.” Go to Genesis: 23, we’re just looking at a few quick examples of this. Genesis: 23:6, "Hear us my lord, thou art a mighty prince among us, in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre but that thou mayest bury thy dead.”
Verse 11, “Nay my lord hear me,” verse 15, “My lord hearken unto me.” See how polite these people are being and how respectful they're calling each other basically sir. Then in Genesis: 24 last place says in verse 17, "The servant ran to meet her and said, “let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher,” and she said, “Drink my lord, and she hasted and let down her pitcher upon her hand and gave him drink. Don’t turn there but I’ll read you one more verse in Mathew: 5:46, it says this, “For if you love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others, do not even the publicans so?”
Notice that phrase, “If you salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others, do not even the publicans so, be therefore perfect even as your father was in heaven is perfect.” Even the bible teaches that we should salute people other than our brethren. I think that what that saying is that when we’re out and about we should actually say hi to people, and acknowledge people and greet people. Today, people will walk right by you, and they don’t say hi to you, they don’t wave at you, they don’t acknowledge you, especially that shouldn’t happen in church. When people come to church, you need to say hi to everybody who comes to church and salute them. Salute means what? Just greet them, say hi to them.
When we’re out and about saying hi to people, being friendly to people, calling them sir and ma’am, being nice, being respectful, these should be things that characterize us as God’s people. We should not be known as people that are rude, people that are unfriendly, we should be very respectful, courteous and treat people with lots of respect. Are there some wicked people that we should not respect, of course. Are there certain situations where someone is trying to rob us, or enslave us or steal from us. Again sometimes, you might want to just try not to get killed in that situation. Seems like every day there is story in the news about the cops just shooting someone, because they didn’t smile big enough or something. They weren’t nice enough to them or whatever.
We ought to be respectful to people that we meet in public, we need to think about the way we talk to our parents, think about the way you talk to your wife, think about the way you talk to your husband, think about the way that you talk to your boss, think about the way that you talk to whoever it is in your life and even just the way we deal with strangers. Let’s practice being friendly, and saluting those with whom we come into contact and being a good representation of Jesus Christ and it starts with a heart of humility. We think we’re so important, we think we are so cool, then we talk down to people. We should rather get a humble attitude and treat people with respect and esteem others better than ourselves.
Let’s bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, please just help us to put this message into practice, help us to be very respectful, of people that are in authority over us, or even just strangers, even just people that are maybe elderly or disabled. Just help us to treat people with dignity and respect because they are human beings made in your image, and in Jesus name we pray, amen.
