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Three.
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Of continuing on in Matthew 24.
But what we had yesterday was pretty much above the heads of many of the young people.
Some nice thoughts were brought out, but.
Perhaps we could get more into Christian ministry.
What is needed?
For those that are being established in the word of God, in the ways of God, in the assembly. So if there's some thought of another portion besides what we had yesterday, perhaps it would be profitable.
Deep burden to me it's.
So many young people with children raising families.
And they need to know what their responsibility is in the home. That's the first thing that Satan has attacked. He succeeded in doing it.
One Corinthians 11, I would suggest the first part of that chapter is man's place and then followed by woman's place, and the last part is the Lord's Supper. I was talking to his sister who used to be with us and remember the Lord with us, and I asked her, I said, when did you last remember the Lord in his death? Where you now go? She she didn't know. I said, how about the last Lord's day? Did you remember him there?
She said no, it was a preacher that was supposed to be worship. That's not even worship. Our young people need to know the difference between worship and.
Ministry and I said to her, and I couldn't say it to her without tears flowing from me.
Said he asked us one thing.
He asked us to remember him in his death, and you're not doing that. You used to do that. Now you're with a company that it might be a good sermon, but the best sermon is not what he wanted. The Lord wants us to remember him on that day when He rose from the dead. Well, that's just one of the things. And when we take this up, if we do, and I hope we will.
We have two more readings and we've, I think we've said enough on Matthew 24 to cover it. For most of us, the young people, it was over their heads, I'm afraid, but.
I want to give, I'd like to give to look at a passage that I've never heard administered on at a conference. And I think it's needed, it's needed today as never before. Do I have an agreement on that.
I think the chapter we had yesterday was, shall I say, a wake up to us and perhaps reminded us of where we are. But perhaps the subject is a bit large to consider in a gathering like this. And of necessity, the comments don't always present things in the orderly way in which it would be nice to have them. So I'm in full agreement with our brother Chuck's suggestion.
First Corinthians, be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that you Remember Me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. 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, dishonor with his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesied with her head uncovered dishonor with her head. For that is even all one, as if she were shaved. Or if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered, for a man indeed ought not to cover his head.
For as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head, because of the angels.
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Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man and the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, Even so is the man also by the woman, but all things of God.
Judging yourselves, Is it comely that a woman prey under God uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame on him?
Woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, or her hair is given her for a covering.
But if any man seemed to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not that you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the Church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe in it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are true may be made manifest among you. When you come together therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper.
Or in eating, everyone taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunken. What have you not houses to eat, and to drink in? Or despise you the Church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not, for I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you.
That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. When he had given thanks, he break it and said, take Eve, this is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cop when he had saw saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood.
This do ye as OFT as ye drink it in remembrance of me, or as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lorde death till he come.
Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cough.
For you to eat us and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lords body.
For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. Or if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren?
When you come together to eat, carry one for another, and if any man hunger, let him eat at home. They come not together under condemnation, and the rest will I set in order when I come.
This portion, we'll get to that.
Who is it that Satan hates?
Above everyone else in the universe.
Lord Jesus Christ, Satan hates him. He hates to see his redeemed company.
Around himself, remembering him in his death. That's what he's asked us to do. Well, we'll get to that. But it's he wants to, he attacks the that which he hates the most. First it was Christ and then the first part of this chapter, he attacks man's place and woman's place. When did that start in this country in World War 2?
They drafted all the men for the war and who was going to take the men's place out in?
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The world that had to have things done well, the women did.
Once they got out in the world and a taste of that, they didn't want to give it up.
And in order to be there, where did they, what did they have to leave the home?
Most important responsibility for the woman is the home, especially after especially after children are born.
What do we have today? Both are working and the children are farmed out to a daycare center.
And Satan sits back there and he's the God and Prince of this world, he says. Now I've got to got him just where he wants.
Well, that's just a little bit of thought on this.
To Christ, but everything that God has set up and established.
On the earth for the blessing and good of man. And there are two great institutions that God set up for the blessing of man. The first was the family. That was the first institution that God set up on earth. And Adam and Eve were placed in the garden and the family, the home was instituted. And then there was another great institution, and that's the assembly. And as Brother Chuck said, the enemy has been busy ever since the institution of those two things to tear it down, to smash it.
If he can. And when has there ever been an attack like on the, I'm sorry, when has there ever been an attack on the home? And not only the home, but the Christian home like there is today. And so a book like Corinthians is very helpful because he takes up the various spheres, as we've had mentioned, the sphere of the man, the sphere of the woman, he brings in the assembly and so on. And all these things are very practical.
Is a doctrinal side through it all that we need to have?
Principles clear in our mind, but I believe there's a very practical side to it, and I would echo the exercise of several already that we need to seek by grace to gain some of those practical lessons. You know, sometimes things are said that might offend and seem very hard, but can we be wiser than God? And if it's the truth of Scripture, are we to go against Scripture and expect the blessing of God in our families or in the assembly? Never, brethren, how good it is to go back to these fundamental principles.
And seek by grace, not just to know them, but to be doers of the word, and not hearers only.
Ephesians chapter 2 because everything goes back to the beginning.
Of things in Genesis chapter 2, verse 18.
The Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone, I will make him and help meet for him suitable for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam, to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a help.
Suitable for him.
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept.
And the Lord took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the ribs which the Lord God had taken from men made he a woman. In our chapter 12 of First Corinthians refers back to this.
She came out of him. He was there first. She was made for him.
And he brought her unto the man. Just imagine what went through Adam's thoughts when he was awakened from that sleep and he saw that beautiful woman.
Adam said This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
She's one of me.
She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. The woman is not inferior to the man, but she's there as a helper, a supplement, so to speak. She can only do the place that she can do. And he, he has his responsibilities, but together, working together, he the head and she in subjection to him. That's a family when the children are born.
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They were both naked, he and his wife, and were not ashamed. And then in the next chapter Satan comes in and he gets ahold of the weaker vessel, which is the woman, and he gets her deceived. And then she takes she eats of the fruit that was forbidden, and Adam ate of it.
And in the third chapter, verse 16.
Unto the woman, he said.
I read verse 15. The Lord says.
I will put enmity between thee and the woman. He's talking to the serpent.
Between thy seed and her seed, the woman's seed was Christ.
It shall bruise ahead.
And thou shalt bruise his heel that took place on the cross.
When Satan's power was.
Destroyed. Now notice verse 16. Under the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow. Thou shall bring forth children and thy desire.
Shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule.
Over thee that has never been rescinded.
That has never been rescinded.
And Satan has done everything he can to upset and set aside what God sets up.
Well, that's a little bit of an introduction to what we have. I'll read that verse again under the woman. He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception in sorrow. Thou shall bring forth children. What a wonderful thing I look at a, a mother that's just brought forth a little child and I envy her in a way. I said I I can't do that. She has the the she has the place that God has assigned her.
To bring forth these children, that makes a family. And Satan hates that. He hates that. And if the man falls from his place of responsibility and she from hers, he succeeded.
And thy desire, he says to the woman, shall be to thy husband.
And he shall rule over thee. That's never been changed. That's a little background and foundation for what we have here in the New Testament in First Corinthians 11. I've talked to some, I've gone to Christian bookstores and I pull out the their exposition, these writers on 1St Corinthians 11 and 14, and they say that.
Well, that was just back for then. That was just back for the condition of things that existed at Corinth.
Wrong, absolutely wrong. Look at the 1St chapter. Not going to take too much time, but this is a good introduction in the first chapter of First Corinthians.
Verse two under the Church of God which is at Corinth.
To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called Saints. Now is this letter only to the Saints at Corinth? No, with all that, in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. So all the instruction he gives to this local church at Corinth applies to the whole Church of God throughout the world.
And there are many places where that's referred to.
And in our in our chapter.
It says in verse 16 of Chapter 11.
But if any man seemed to be contentious.
And there's been more contention. The Spirit of God saw, of course, what would happen in this.
20th century, 21St century of ours. He saw what would happen. There's all kinds of contention about this, this teaching you, you can't. That seems to put to insist that the woman has to put a covering on her head that makes her inferior. No. Did the Lord become inferior when he became a man?
He took the subject place, and she's in the subject place. It's not an inferior place.
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Is a wonderful place that only she can fill, and he's in the place of headship.
Wonderful verse 16 if any man seemed to be contentious. We have no such custom, neither the churches of God. The churches of God were not following the custom that was being practiced at Corinth.
What's being practiced all throughout American Protestantism and Canadian today? The woman has taken his place. Who's at fault? The man's at fault. The man has given to the woman his place and she's taken it.
Sorry to say it's a very serious thing. Let me just read in the 14th chapter.
In the 14th chapter, verse 34, let the women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted to them to speak. Has that ever been changed? Was that only for Corinth? Oh no, that's for the whole Church of God.
But they are commanded to be under obedience, as also say, at the law. And if they.
They will learn anything from their husbands. Let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame.
For women to speak in the church. What's everywhere now?
When I was a boy, a young boy, that never happened. Just in my lifetime, everything has been turned around.
What he says, he can just anticipate the objection that would come. You talk about this subject. That's a subject you don't want to talk about because it's going to offend someone. Well, that's the word of God offends you. That's your problem.
Came the word of God out from you, or came it unto you only?
Any man think that to be himself, to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge. Paul says that the things I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. How dare we call ourselves Christians and just blatantly violate what he sets before us in this epistle. Very serious thing. You have a tremendous responsibility.
Young sister and you, young brother, you have yours and she should look up and she wants you to have the place of headship. She really does. It's built into the woman. She doesn't really want to be head. She wants to be subject to her head.
And the man wants to be subject to his head, which is Christ, and Christ was the perfect subjection, a perfect picture of perfect subjection to God.
We can't change that, can we? We can't change that. Dave, you've driven me by a church, a huge church in Saint Louis.
That has a woman preacher. I don't know how much you said she takes in, but she's a very, very, very rich woman. That's totally contrary. She's a preacher, totally contrary to Scripture. I don't care how much she takes in.
Go ahead. Well.
It's not far from here, a few miles South.
What a very popular woman in the Christian circles.
Does massive writing, speaking and traveling and so forth. And twice a week she with a vacation. Once a month's vacation a year she takes in $1,000,000 twice a week.
With her ministry, yeah, I think she's a child of God.
And perhaps I've never heard her speak, but she does. Her life was brought before the Saint Louis Saints a couple of years ago when the the.
Saint Louis.
Newspaper big one.
Five day for five days gave the first page and several pages inside the paper on her ministry and her work and her income. The richest woman in the city, that is where she lived and she is pressing, pressing, pressing for.
If you give, it'll always be returned to you. God will return.
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More than you give. And so she got quite a bit of money, but that's George Myers. Well, we're thankful for any way the word of God goes out. Paul said whether in truth or pretense, Christ is preached and I therein do rejoice, yay, and will rejoice. And God is sovereign, but our responsibility is to walk in obedience to the word of God. If God shows us something from the word of God by his Spirit, the only happy and blessed path for us.
Is to bow to it and to obey. And I just like in thought, without turning to it, to go back to what Chuck read to us in Genesis because very instructive that when Eve was brought to Adam, she was taken from his side. Now I realize in that picture that God had something in mind far greater than just the blessing of Adam on the earth and companionship for Adam and for those who would follow him in the human race.
God, of course, was looking forward to the time when his Son would have a bride.
As a result of the deaths and shedding of the his precious blood on Calvary's cross. But I think there's something very practical, too, to consider from the fact that Eve was taken from the side of Adam. And I've sometimes said in addressing a groom at a wedding that she was taken from his side, close to his heart to be loved by him. Maybe I'll just say a word about that for a moment. You know, loving our wives is not an option.
I have sat down with young brothers and I'm afraid some who are not so young and they say, well I don't love my wife anymore. That's not an option. Husbands, love your wives and not only does he give tell us to love our wives, He gives us the standard as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Is that an option brother? Brothers, is that an option for you and for me? Can we some say at some point subsequent to our marriage?
That we don't love our wives anymore. I have heard many people say that.
But that is not an option. And that's a little aside. And so she was taken from his side to be close to his heart, loved by him. But you know, I sometimes thought that if she was taken from his head, she would be over him. If she was taken from his feet, she would be under him. And God in his wisdom, I say there's far more to it than this, but God in his wisdom took Eve from the side of Adam, took that rib and formed the woman and brought her her to him.
And yet, brothers, our wives are not over us. They're not under us. They're to be at our sides, close to our hearts and love by by us. Sometimes when I enter the homes of believers, I see a little motto often in the breakfast nook or over the table, and it says this the head of this, that Christ is the head of this home. That is not a scriptural statement. And I I believe that subtly the enemy uses these.
Statements that seem pious.
To throw things out of whack. To throw God's order off course. Christ is not the head of our homes, brothers, those of us who have wives and children.
The man is the head of the home. Christ is the head of the man. Christ is our head, and we are the heads of our homes. And I just say that because I think it's good to keep these things in their proper scriptural order. God has an order and it's for our blessing. That's in verse 3, isn't it? Yes, and I think it's good to see that there is authority. It's a question of headship. It's a question of authority without that.
It is all confusion and disorder. Nobody doubts that the number one man in the.
U.S. government is the president. He may not be the smartest man in the country, but nobody questions the fact that he is number one man as to authority and that keeps order. And that's why it's so important to understand and respect the order of authority that God has said in this world. Let's just read that verse three again because that gives the order of authority I would have you know.
That the head of every man is Christ. So it's not the head of the home. Christ is not the head of the home, but he's the head of the man. And the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Christ is a man, recognized the headship of His Father, and he was in obedience. He was in that place of obedience, so it's God.
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The head of Christ. Christ, the head of the man. Man, the head of the woman.
And so it's important to keep those things in order. I'd just like to say too, Jim, I think it is very important that what you said about loving our wives, the woman is never told in Scripture that I can find to love her husband.
The woman or the older women in Titus two are told to teach the younger women how to love their husbands. But that word love is not agape love. It's filial love, something to think about. But the word that you mentioned in Ephesians 525, husbands love your wives. It has been a real help to me to understand that that is not the love of emotion.
Merely, we always think of love as an emotion and it does affect our emotions.
But it's the love of decision.
I have decided to love this woman.
And that is my responsibility before God. And not only that, but it's the love of sacrifice.
As you mentioned, who of us have laid down our lives for our wives?
Brethren, let's not be pointing the finger at our wives and blaming them.
They might have faults, but why do they have faults? It's because we as the head of the wife.
As the head of the home are not supplying proper help.
In time. So I think it is really important to understand that, that it's the love of decision and we need to love in sacrifice. Christ gave everything. I haven't done that yet, brother. I'm at fault. If there's any fault in my home, I'm the responsible head and the blame comes back to me, not to anybody else. So this is really important to understand. I'd just like to make one more comment.
That back in the past eternity, if we could go back beyond creation in our thinking.
God's thoughts, God's eternal purpose.
Was that there would be a companion for his son that we now know is the Church or the Assembly.
That was his eternal thought, his eternal purpose.
Came the time when He created this world, and He created creatures to inhabit this world, and He created man in the image of God and the likeness of God to be in this world. And He put them in relationship to one another to reflect that eternal truth of Christ and His Church. So the thought is in man and the woman.
Companionship and it's interesting, Chuck, what you read in Chapter 3.
About the man having rule over his wife only comes.
After the fall, because of sin that has come into this world and the disorder that sin has brought in, that there's necessity of order, of authority. So it's not a matter, like you say, of superiority or inferiority and creation. No, that's not the thought, but it's a matter of recognizing that in authority the woman is subject to the man.
That's the point and she really wants to be. She really wants to be. That puts her in her place that God assigned to her. I want to read in Colossians 3 verse 18, it says wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. That's not found in Ephesians. It's husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.
But this brings in the thought of bitterness. What can cause bitterness to come in?
Is when she's not subject.
Well, she's not subject. I remember being in a home. I've never been in any other home just like this.
Don't even remember who it was, that's not important. But I remember he said to me he was. He loved his wife so much. He said how could I ever have lived without her?
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And then I talked to her in private and she said he just loves me. He just loves me. That's the way it ought to be.
There is one little qualification in the verse you read as to the submission of the wife, and that is as it is fit in the Lord. And I just say that because there is always a higher authority. If we're asked to do something that is contrary to the to the Word of God, we appeal to a higher authority. Let me just give you an example. This is ridiculous, but just to make my point, suppose I asked my wife to go out and rob a bank so we can take a little vacation and have a little more money next month.
Is she just submit she's my my wife. I'm the head of the woman is she to submit No, let him that stole steal no more were to provide things honest in the sight of all men. I know that illustration is ridiculous, but it makes I think it helps us to make the point and so I have seen situations where a wife may be asked to do something a Christian wife may be asked to do something contrary to the word of God and against her conscience. Is she to submit in that case?
No, she appeals to a higher authority, and there's only one infallible authority.
All lower authority is fallible. God has committed authority to man.
He's given man authority as the head of the woman. He's committed authority in the home, in the assembly. He's given governmental authority, set up governments for the authority for authority and blessing of man on earth and so on when there's righteousness executed. And that authority is is imperfect at best. And so sometimes people think if they submit that.
Sometimes people think that.
Authority and infallibility are the same thing. They are not the same thing. There's only one authority that's perfect. That's God. That's the Lord himself. Just to carry my thought a little further, we, we live in a world where Christianity is being suppressed in many places and Christians are suffering for their testimony. Christians are suffering and meeting in fear to read the Bible to remember the Lord.
To have prayer meeting, you see, they've appealed to a higher authority. You say they're not submitting to the government, but they appeal to a higher authority, forsaking not the assembling of yourselves together, the Scripture says. And so they feel the Lord has commanded them to meet for those purposes, and they go against the authority of the government. But the only time we are not to submit to authority that God has set up on earth is when it goes contrary to the word of God. Is that right, Bob? I like to put it this way, Jim.
That in saying I cannot obey that command.
I submit myself to a higher authority, like the three friends of Daniel when they were commanded to bow down to that image. They said, in effect, we will take the alternate, the alternative of being cast into the fiery furnace. They were not rebellious, and it's never right to be rebellious. But there's a movement that's called civil disobedience.
That's not the right spirit. We should never be rebellious in spirit. We should be always subject. Like you say. If someone that is not infallible commands us to do something that is wrong, then we submit to the higher authority and we better know what that authority says, not just do our own thing. Bob, while we're on the subject too, I'm afraid that what has happened in the world leave room for someone else.
Make their comment. I'm sorry Chuck, I just want to say this.
This is an actual case. Husband got drunk and his wife wanted to go to the meeting and he said, no, you can't. And she said, well, when you were sober, you said I could, I'm going to obey you when you were sober. And she went and that's, that's an actual illustration. And he didn't oppose it when he got sober, he realized.
What he was commanding her when he was out of his mind, so to speak, was wrong.
And but she she kept the place of submission.
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And that's that's what is so important that she doesn't set her.
Herself above him, but just to submit to him whenever she possibly can for the Lords glory. And sometimes she'll say all right.
You won't want me to go. I won't go, but that's then you'll have to answer to the Lord for my not going and I'm bowing to you. And that didn't last very long either. He got saved from that. That's another illustration. So I don't, I don't quite agree with what you said, Jim.
That we have to just find a way out. The woman has to find a way out so she doesn't have to submit to her.
Her husband's authority? She should seek to submit to it as far as she possibly can, unless it's gross sin that she's being asked to do.
Another aspect to the Apostle Paul's ministry in this portion that is helpful, it uses the word dishonor with her head. And then he speaks of the glory. And So what we find is in the breakdown that we speak of this after this morning is that there's dishonor to the name of the Lord and there's dishonor to the order that He's desired that we might walk in if we walk in disobedience to this order that he outlines. And so it speaks in verse 7.
Of the glory, he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. And so God has desired that there would be glory in the relationship. There would be a reflection of some of the glory of Christ in the relationship that we read of it here this this morning. And so you know, the woman covers the glory of the natural man, the first Adam. She covers that glory in the presence of God.
That the glory of Christ might shine forth. And so that's what it says here in verse 7.
He is the image and glory of God, and so the man doesn't cover his head in the presence of the Lord.
Because it's the glory of the Lord that needs to shine forth in the assembly, and when the Word of God is read, it's the first Adam's glory that needs to be hidden and covered. And so there's proper order that needs to be exercised and obeyed that there might be glory brought to the Lord as a result.
Brother Rob, would you say you mentioned in the assembly, but wouldn't we say this is more than just the assembly because as we go on in the chapter, it says because of angels?
Yes, that's absolutely appropriate. There's it's a lovely picture. You know, when you see a woman in the home and the word of God is picked up and just opened and spoken up. Perhaps not even the Bible is picked up, but verses of Scripture are quoted. And she goes and she gets a head covering. She covers the glory of the first Adam. She says, I don't want the first Adam to shine out in this discussion at all. I want Christ to shine into the glory of the Lord to be prevalent in this discussion. And so the word of God is read in the glory of the natural man is hidden.
And there's profit, there's blessing, and there's a testimony not only to those in the home that see that subjection to the order.
Submission to that order. And but there's also blessing is, is it says for the angels look down, there's a testimony, a heavenly, a testimony of the heavenly beings as it were as a result of that order. And so it's Christ that shines forth.
Says in verses 5 and six, there's this two of the woman. Now every woman that prayeth or prophesied with her head uncovered, dishonoured her head, for that is even all one, as if she were shaved.
For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But it would be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaved, and it is, it was. Let her be covered. So if she prays or prophecies, there were four virgin daughters that prophesied, they should have done that with their heads covered. But the women that are preaching nowadays in Christendom, in the pulpits, they don't. They have the brazen boldness to preach without their heads covered.
I mean, it's just like slapping the Lord in the face. What does the scripture say? It's just like she had no hair at all. She had a complete shave. Just like a football player, he gives his head completely shaved off.
Terrible, just an answer to what Stephen was saying is some people take this chapter as if it's just in the assembly. But in the 17 first we find a break in the in the thought it moves on. And he says now in this I declare unto you, I praise you not that when you come together. And so I can't it says if I have long hair, nature says that it's a shame for a man to have long hair. Well, I can't have short hair and meeting and long hair outside.
00:50:28
It's what we're reading in these first 16 verses is everywhere. It's not just in the assembly. What we're reading about head coverings. I'd like to say this too, in connection with Bob's verse, is that sometimes as men we sit in meeting and we sort of say how women should conduct themselves in these difficult situations with a drunken husband and so on are an unreasonable husband. But that verse that Bob quoted from Peter was that the older women should teach the younger women how to love their husbands.
Is that it really is the work of the godly older sister to do.
And sometimes it's very difficult for our wives to know just about how to go about loving us.
And so in these situations, it's good. And we say a woman, if she prays or prophecies with her head on coverage, she dishonors her head. And you say, well, when does a woman pray or prophecy? Not in the meeting, not in church, so to speak. But there is a place for a woman to prophecy. And it's exactly in the context that our brother Bob spoke of when his sister may instruct the younger sister just how she ought to conduct herself in a very difficult situation.
It may be 14th that 14th chapter clear. I'll read it again. Let the women keep silence in the churches. It is not permitted to them to speak. So she can't prophecy in the church, but she has to be quiet if they will learn anything, I slip them as their husbands at home and so on. And then he says what came the word of God out from you going to argue with the word of God? Oh, that's just your opinion. My opinion is different. Well, my opinion doesn't count for a straw, neither does yours is what God says.
If we don't go by the word of God in everything, we're off the ground of of obedience to the Lord that what it says in verse three of four and five is when they pray or prophecy that is not limited to the assembly and that's why we take off our hats if we got any hats on, take them off when we come into a public meeting, but that should reply.
Anytime I pray, take off my hat, take that stance of prayer, the woman puts on. It doesn't matter whether it's in the meeting because I submit, brethren, that women pray in the meeting. They don't pray out loud, but one brother stands up and prays and he's the voice of the whole assembly. Are the women praying? Yes, they're praying. They are represented in what the brother is saying.
They don't take part audibly, but they do. And I think the women should say Amen at the end. They may not say it audibly, but they are praying as much as the men, so it's proper for them to be covered. And what is given Chuck in Christian circles so often is they say that the woman's hair is her covering.
If you look back at the scripture here, there are two words used. There are separate words in verse 16. It I mean verse 15, it says her hair is given to her for a covering. The word is really in the in the margin of veil. It is not the same word that is used in the first part of the chapter in verse 5. For example, every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, that's a different word.
That's used, and if you look at it carefully, the scripture has no meaning. If you make the hair the covering, is it something she can just put on when she starts praying and then take off afterwards? No, it's not talking about the hair. It's talking about something that is a sign to the unseen angelic hosts that are watching.
That this woman recognizes yet the order of God-given authority by putting a covering on her head when she prays or prophecies wherever that might be. That argument is so false. That would mean that every brother would have to have his head cut, his hair cut off. If the hair is the covering, he'd have to come ball. There's some bald headed brother in here. They could qualify for that.
00:55:14
But most of us still have our hair. It's nonsense. The hair is not the covering. It's something you put over the head. And that's the what the woman should have. I was in a synagogue 1, not a synagogue. I don't know what it was. It was a building and celebrating a Jews, a Jews funeral. And they passed out these little caps. All the Jews cover their heads, males, the males cover their heads. And they passed me that thing and I said I don't put that on, I'm a Christian. I don't put that on. I'm a Christian. And if that gave them a fence, too bad.
I wouldn't do what scripture says I shouldn't do. I shouldn't have my head.
Covered. That's the place of the woman, but I don't know where they get that from. Maybe someone knows here where they get that from, of covering their heads, the Jews. But that's what they do.
There are two things mentioned in Corinthians with respect to man for men that are effeminate, and there are men that are abusers of themselves with mankind. And to put it in simple language, not all effeminate men are gay.
Effeminate is really for a man not to take his place his head, and a great deal of the failure has come because man has failed to take occupy the place.
That God has put him in. We go to work and a man's a credit manager and he doesn't say, well, who am I to say you can't do this and who am I to say that you can't have this money? He acts responsibly because he's been put in a place as a trustee over in other bands goods. And so as men, we have ahead.
And it's Christ and God gives us children and God gives us homes and we're responsible to guide them as stewards of what God has given us. And to not do that is to say, who am I to do this is we're really, it's really being effeminate. And so this question is we don't cover our heads because we own the responsibility given to us of God. The sisters cover their heads because they realize they've been put in that place, that they've been there to reflect the glory of the man. And so.
They cover their heads to mark, as has been pointed out, that they are in a place of submission.
It's not a place of inferiority. It's a place that God has assigned to the woman. You can't have two heads. I saw it portrayed this way, the way it's put God.
Christ. And then, then it branches off man and woman. That's unscriptural. That puts the woman on the same level as the man. The Scripture is God, Christ, man, woman. She's under him, not next to him.
In that in the order that we have here. So she has her head covered to acknowledge that I'm under him and.
If he has his head covers covered, it's a dishonor to Christ. Who is his head? His head ought to be seen. The man's hair head being not covered, it is because he's the image and glory of God.
That ought to be seen.
The whole order that is being practiced in Christian circles today is wrong.
It's unscriptural.
Women who pray without being covered.
Certainly is.
Sometimes it's because there's not proper instruction and we have to be patient.
Don't we with others?
But we need to be reminded of the authority of God's authority, God's order. Verse six says let her be covered. And so in Christianity, the Lord isn't going to command it as it were. There's going to be a command to the heart. Let her be covered. And so you know, the Lord says a little later on in this chapter this do in remembrance of me. He's not going to demand it and insist.
The upon it, as it were. But His word reaches the heart and the conscience.
And there's a responsive heart. And he says, let her be covered. And so she responds in her heart. She says, oh, I love this, glory, this, this.
Display of how I can honor the Lord in this proper order. And oh, I just delight to honor the Lord in this way and to come into subjection and to reflect how Christ will have his bride beside him and she won't reflect her own glory.
01:00:05
Anyway, it'll be the reflection of the glory of Christ, and so she submits to that order. But isn't it lovely how the Lord just brings this out? The the apostle Paul just says, and he uses it so often in his ministry, let her be covered, the woman.
And it was, I think it was 0 or maybe even below 0, and he was called to go out and do a survey, some property and I was sitting in the back.
And of course, I had my hat on and I said, Lord took it off. I said, I got to pray to you. So I took the hat off because I didn't want to pray with the hat on. And that's just a little illustration. You might be a sister in your car and you want to talk to the Lord and pray with the Lord. Be nice if you had your head covered. But if you don't and you see you're going to have an accident, you could say, Lord, help me, Lord, save me. Hear that prayer. You'll hear that prayer.
But the normal state of things they probably would have heard. I mean, if I had my my head covered and we're going to have an accident, I could cry to the Lord. But that's not really what's the point in this passage. Man has his place and the woman has her place, and both are precious. The man should not desire her place and she shouldn't desire his place. Each one is given a place and it makes the blessed Lord, He took the place of subjection. That ought to make the woman feel real good.
He took the same place that I'm occupying. Wonderful. But the man is in subjection too, isn't he? Yes, it's to Christ. And so we should never get the idea here. I'm in command here. I'll do what I want to do. We should operate always in the sense that He is our head. One other thing too that needs to be mentioned is the woman doesn't cover her head. Who is she dishonouring? It's not the Lord, it's her head, which is her husband.
That's what she's dishonouring.
Wonder if I could read up.
1St in connection with the chapter, and the first one is from Ephesians 2.
Or, excuse me, Ephesians 3 and verse 10.
To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heaven.
Might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God, and so those.
Created intelligences and heavenly places are looking down, and in seeing God's order displayed in this earth, they're learning and understanding the purposes of God in Christ from a past eternity.
And it comes right down to these simple things that we're taking up in this chapter.
That God's purposes are being displayed in an outward way in this earth. Now I'd like, with that thought in mind, to turn back to two Old Testament scriptures.
One in Numbers chapter 5. Numbers chapter 5, there was a special ordinance given if a man was suspected his wife of infidelity and was jealous. There was a trial of jealousy. There were a number of things performed, but one of them I'd like to read is verse 18 of numbers five. And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord and uncover the woman's head.
And so she was in a suspect place, and when she's brought before the Lord, her head was uncovered. Now if we turn also to Deuteronomy.
And chapter 21.
And this is an ordinance in connection with a man bringing home a captive from war that he wanted to take as his bride.
Deuteronomy 21, verse 12. Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house. She shall shave her head and pair her nails. One other scripture from Jeremiah Chapter 7.
Jeremiah, Chapter 7.
In verse 29.
Cut off on hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away. Take up a lamentation on high places, for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
01:05:07
The woman is the glory of the man, just as Christ is the glory. The church is the glory of Christ. She is to be the outward display in this world of the glory of Christ. Christ is hidden God in heaven.
He's no longer on display here, but in the church. His help meet, His glory is to be displayed in this world. And God has purposed that in this order of things, of the man and the woman in their proper place, that that glory, that same thing would be displayed in this world in a very practical way, not only for this world, but even for the angels.
Two things the church never is to Christ. She's never in a suspect place and she is never out from under His authority and his care. She's never with her head uncovered and that place of a trial of jealousy. She's never like this captive, no longer under the authority of her father's house. She's been taken captive, not yet in marriage, been brought into the authority of a new husband.
And she's to cut off her hair, that hair which is a picture of that subject place that she's into, she no longer is in that place. And it's to be cut off when God casts off his earthly people for a time because of their sin and wickedness, He says Jerusalem, cut off thine hair. You're not going to have the token any longer of the subject place which you've abandoned.
And for which I must cast you off.
Those are two things the church will never be to Christ, and so it's so important.
In the sight of God that created intelligence and authorities looked down as well as this world. See in a practical way those two things. And the woman who is the glory of the man, the outward display of his glory, that the church is always in the confidence of Christ. Head covered. She's always in the place of subjection and under his care and authority. Long hair. Both are important.
Brethren, both are the subject of this chapter. Not just the covered head, but the long hair. And you see that with the Nazarite as well. The Nazarite was to let his hair grow. Why? Because he was taking a special subject place to God, completely laying aside every other thing, and being totally subject to God. What was the commandment or razor shall not come upon his head. He was to have that outward token.
Of the subject place that he came into and in Revelation where we get in the plagues that come upon this earth in symbolic language. One of the afflictions in the description of it says they had the hair of women. It wasn't because it was red or blonde or curly is the only way you could identify the hair of women is in one thing, its length.
Its length, because every other attribute of that hair men share as well. And so it's again seeing in that particular plague that though it looks like it comes from Satan, it's totally subject and under the hand of God that long hair is a picture of subjection as well.
Can you comment on verse 10? That goes right along with what he was saying in Chapter 11.
Did it that when it says here this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels, it's a sign that she is under that subjection, isn't it? Is that, is that what you were getting at?
And it's so beautiful to see because what is she looking at? Something above the present situation. If I look around me and Bob, you were bringing this out in your.
Gospel yesterday, but if we look around us, everything is upside down.
In this world everything is out of order and it is very easy to have our hearts guided and otherwise formed by what we see around us. I cannot carry this out unless my eye is on something above because of the angels and then even more as has already been brought out because of the glory of the Lord. What a what a difference it makes because everything down here I may look at it and say well.
01:10:14
That's hard to do, or nobody else is doing it anymore.
I knew an old minister, a Baptist minister, had happened to be, but that doesn't matter. He's with the Lord now. I knew him very well.
And he said, you know, when I go to my church on Lord's Day, he said my wife's the only one that wears a head covering. And he grieved over that. He felt it. And yet he felt powerless to do anything about it, even though he was the preacher. But what a difference it makes if we look above it all. Is that is that right? Is that what you were getting at? The angels are always subject, aren't they?
They're called in First Timothy 5, the elect angels.
And they are preserved in sinless sinlessness.
So they don't know anything else but obedience.
Remember Eric Smith used to comment on that and say what do the angels say when they see a disobedient Christian?
You know, they're observing us. They're present in this room right now, they're ministering spirits and most of the time we don't see them, but they're observing us. And that head covering on the sister is not just a custom that we have. It's gathered the Lord's name. It's there's a there's a purpose to it. Dear sister, you are showing.
Your recognition of authority to God. And it's an outward way. Sometimes people reject it by saying, oh, I just something outward.
Yes, it is outward, but it is then that way we show our submission to God-given authority. The man in the same way should make sure to have his head uncovered when he prays or prophecies. It's a testimony. I've seen it happen many times in Bolivia. Somebody wants to give testimony to the gospel and as soon as the Lord is mentioned, off comes the hat.
It's a testimony, people say. Why do you do that?
Because he's prophesying, he's speaking the word of God, and that's a testimony that that man recognizes the authority that God has set in this world. The angels are there. I don't think we realize how much we profit from the ministry of angels. Do we recognize the authority that they recognize? Are we submissive to it?
Not only for the woman, we concentrate on the women, but it's for the man too.
Brother, I wonder if we could have a little balance in this. Scripture says that we're to pray without ceasing.
So if we follow the instruction that we've had, we have women always wearing head coverings and men never wearing hats.
I just bring this out as a as AI feel that there's a needed balance to what we're bringing out here.
It's interesting, Bob, I just said about outward appearance. Just read in First Samuel 16 because I think there's help, something helpful about this.
And.
God says to Samuel, Somebody help.
The first man worketh on the looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart.
Seven yes, thank you. But the Lord said unto Samuel, look not on its countenance, nor on the height of his stature, because I've refused him for the Lord. Lord seeth not as man seeth. For the man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart. And shall people often use that? And they say, well, God sees my heart. It doesn't matter what I look like on the outside. But now let's just turn down to the.
12Th verse and see what this word of God says.
And he sent, that is alive, sent for David, and brought him in. Now he was Ruddy, and with all of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look upon. And the Lord said, Arise and anoint, for it is he.
And so there's not a contradiction here that if there is a heart that's devoted for Christ, it's going to reflect itself outwardly.
01:15:00
There's going to be an outward manifestation of it. There's another scripture I'd like to point out that might be a help to the young sisters, and that's in the book of Esther. We were speaking about living in up confusing days where everything was upside down and backwards. And certainly that was true in the days of Esther, that here was a people taken away captive. They were in an enemy land, and here was this young girl shut up in a House of the concubines of the king, foreign king.
And in Samuel Esther chapter 2.
And verse 10 we read this, Esther showed not herself nor her kindred, for Mordecai had charged her that he should not, she should not show it. And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the woman's house to know how Esther did and what should become of her.
You know, we hear today people say, well, I'm 18 years old and I'm going to move out of my father's house and I'm not under my father's roof anymore. And so I don't have to be subjection to him anymore. But here was a young woman. It wasn't even her father. It was her uncle. And yet she had a head. And what a happy thing. You know, it's a very interesting thing in this book that that Gentile bride was set aside because he pleased not the king. But Esther is even among the Jews today.
As celebrated and honored.
As a woman and even, you know, young men, we need to honor that which God honors. And I think sometimes the young ladies try to present themselves in a way that they think the young men are interested in. But the world, they look at a Christian woman and they say they see something that is of great price and great value.
And the Jews, they still on arrest her, but she was subject to Mordecai. She went to Mordecai for advice, even though she was not living under his roof, even though it wasn't exactly her father, it was her uncle. But she had a head. And it is something that the world even recognizes. And so, well, the woman doesn't preach that publicly, that she displays Christ in a way that words cannot.
Question if I may.
Back a few verses that uh.
We talked about verse. We talked about verse 3 where it says the head of the woman is the man.
There was an expression used as well that I don't know what's in Scripture that says the man is the head of the house. And here it's I see that it says that the man is the head of the woman or the wife. Is there a difference between being the head of the wife and the head of the home?
The authority that God has placed with the man and not with the woman. I want to answer Phillips a comment Notice verse 4 every man praying or prophesying since the praying there is coupled with prophesying, which you don't prophecy to yourself, you're prophesying out loud to someone else to hear you. And the same thing is true of this kind of praying when a woman takes the place which is normally.
The man's responsibility, if that happens, is she prays or prophecies. She should have her head covered as showing that she's doing this in subjection to the man. She's not taking the man's place, but she's doing something which is normally the man's responsibility.
And I may be praying without ceasing all the time, but it's like you say, Jack, I think it's when you take the stance in a public way.
Of praying or prophesying that that is the case to be practiced.
Time and so God has his glory, and in this chapter it says the.
01:20:04
That man is the glory of God.
God then has chosen to give to what he has created its own particular and individual glory. And so man has a glory. It's the woman, it says in the chapter.
He creates the woman, and he gives to her her own glory, her long hair.
And so it's somewhat simple, but it's important to recognize that God, to each that he has created, has given to that creation its own particular and individual glory, which is its own.
Lord Jesus.
Is a special case really, because He is also man, but he is head over all other men, and he is also had over the Church, and the church is his glory.
Each one who is under at any level has a head is to act in every way so that they do not take away from the glory of one that is over them in headship.
And all that we've said this morning really comes down to that principle that man, the woman, Christ, each one acts in such a way that they enhance or reflect or.
Are the glory of the one that is over them.
God says I don't give my glory to another.
And consequently, even the Lord Jesus Christ.
In his place with God as man acts in such a way that everything he does is to the glory of the one who is His head.
And in such as in putting a covering and so on, it's done so that the one who is above in headship has, does not have competition or does not have something which takes away from their proper place of glory. And so in order to do that, many times this morning has been expressed the expression of subjection.
Because subjection is always that act at every level that is expressed here of headship. It is that which puts that person who has a glory under the other. It keeps that one above them in their proper place. And so I just say again, God has His glory in man.
Christ has His glory in every man.
And in the church, man has his glory in the woman, and the woman has his glory in her long hair.
And all are a proper reflection in their place of God's supreme glory, and will always be such, because God Himself, in all that He has done and all He has created, has done it.
He tells us that's why we were created for His glory, and the failure many times at a lower level of headship is because of the failure of the one above them.
But in God's case he never failed. In Christ's case he never failed. The greatest failure in the matter of headship is the man, not the woman, even though we've emphasized the woman in its practical expressions and praying and so on and so on. But in the reality, if there's to be shame in this room, the greatest expression of it is in the man.
Not in the woman.
She has failed but in Adams place in the Garden of Eden.
He was responsible to guard the woman because he had dominion and responsibility and he failed in it and exposed the woman and sin came in and.
01:25:10
Our great failure, brothers.
Is not having submitted to the headship of our Head Christ?
And it has infected the Assembly of God and it has affected the woman.
And we so easily take up a subject like this and immediately look at somebody else's failures, this church in that place and somewhere else. And the It's easy for us, in the end to feel good about ourselves. But the truth of the matter is, we should feel humbled when we recognize that the supreme place where headship has broken down is not with God.
Not with Christ, it's with the man. And in under that, yes, the woman has failed.
200 M 200 I'd like to say before we close in connection with your question, Dave, just we are our only safe in the way we keep to the very language of Scripture and Scripture does say that the man is the head of the woman, not of the home. There's one verse I'd like to point out. It's in First Timothy 5 and verse 14 that I think shows the that the woman has rule.
In a certain place as well, and I'm going to read it out of the new translation, Mr. Darby's translation. I will therefore that the younger marry their children rule the house.
Give no occasion to the adversary in respect of reproach. The man is nothing. There often is at work. Most of the time the woman is to rule the house.
200.
We stood in condemnation.
Pride and death at the cross of every sword.
Has grazed him from the truth.
01:30:20
I'd like to just read one verse in Revelation, the third chapter in the 11Th verse. We've had some very exercising things.
It isn't like one sister said. How is it we get around that? We don't want to get around it. We want to meet it fairly squarely and in the fear of God. Revelation 3 and verse 11.
Behold, I come quickly.
Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. We need to hold fast to what is the teaching of Scripture and we're not in a box. Somebody recently said that and and felt constrained to leave the testimony. But you know in the Song of Solomon it says.
That were looked at as a garden enclosed, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed, so much different than a box. But all to think of the liberty of the Lord looking at us, rather than our looking at ourselves as in a box.