Address—C. Hendricks
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
We were noticing in Genesis.
One and two and especially the 2nd chapter when we get the details of how God formed the woman.
The bride of Adam.
How he took her from Adam's side after he put him to sleep type of Christ's death.
And builded a woman, brought her to the man.
And she said this, he said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.
This is the only type in scripture of Christ in the church that we have before sin came in. All the other types are after sin had come in.
But sin doesn't come in as we know until the 3rd chapter of Genesis after.
The woman was created and brought to the man.
And united to him.
Someone wondered.
How long Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden.
Before Satan tempted them.
I remember them asking me that question and I said well, maybe a day.
And they were a bit startled.
I don't believe that Satan.
Gave them any time.
To enjoy the place that they had been set in.
The very fact that we read after sin had come in, in the 3rd chapter. Adam knew Eve, his wife and their son.
He we don't read that.
When they were in the state of innocency.
And it didn't happen when they were in the state of innocency. They didn't have any children before sin came in.
So the whole race of man headed up by Adam was after.
They had sinned after they had disobeyed God and brought sin into this scene.
So all of Adam's descendants were created, or were born, I should say, in a state of sin.
And.
And so it.
The tape that we have in the 2nd chapter of Christ in the Church, Adam and Eve was before sin had come in. It shows that it wasn't an afterthought on God's part. What would I do now that man has disobeyed me?
Man and the woman.
And committed sin.
No, he knew what would happen. He was perfectly aware of it.
And he was of course, accomplishing giving a type there, but accomplishing all the way through his dealings, accomplishing his eternal purpose of Christ in the church.
We are, of all people, the most privileged on earth to be a part of that heavenly bride.
That will soon be united to him in heaven.
After the Rapture takes place. What a wonderful, wonderful.
Prospect is ours now. Turn tonight to Ephesians 5.
I made the comment yesterday that you really can't understand Ephesians 5 apart from Genesis 2 and vice versa.
Ephesians 5 and verse 22.
In Ephesians I might make the comment.
The first of chapter 4, the 1St 16 verses, he's dealing with the sphere of the assembly.
And.
All the teaching there flows from that.
And then from the 17th verse of chapter 4 to chapter 521, it's the world that's the sphere he deals with. And from chapter 522 to 69, it's.
The family circle.
And that's divided into wives, verse 22, husbands, verse 23, and verse 25.
And then we have in Chapter 6 children.
And parents.
Fathers mentioned and mother.
There's the next.
Pair and then we have servants in verse 5 and masters in verse 9. So you have these three couplets, you have wives and husbands, children and parents, servants and masters. And it's always the the one that's in the subject place that is mentioned first.
00:05:13
The wives, the children.
The servants.
And then the epistle closes with verse 10 of chapter 6. He says finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high or heavenly places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. And then he, he delineates what that armor is. And in order for us to stand faithful to the Lord against the enemy in those three spheres, the sphere of the world, the sphere of the assembly, I should say, the sphere of the world and the sphere of the family.
So here we have the last sphere mentioned in verse 22 of chapter 5. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
This was proper for Eve since she was created after Adam.
And she was there for him to be his helpmate and to succor him and to stand by him.
And not to rule him.
But to to be his counterpart, so to speak. She supplements him and she compliments him.
Very beautiful as we see God's thoughts. I I remember the the the story that I read once about.
A chief of a tribe in some remote part of the world, where the gospel was just entering and the truth of the preacher was being presented. And this chief heard it. That husbands love your wives. It was the first time he'd ever heard that, and he was quite startled.
That he was to love his wife.
That was a completely new thought to him.
Up till then, his wife was regarded by him more like a servant.
And to be used at for his pleasure.
And and so on without consideration of herself.
But only of himself and pleasing himself.
And when that truth came home in power to his soul, there was a big change in his life and the life of the tribe.
But we start out with the one who's in the subject place. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body. Now as we read this, we know this verse, these verses quite well. I'm not going to be presenting anything new to you as far as this chapter is concerned.
But the world doesn't know it. The world doesn't know it.
These things, they may have heard them, but they don't believe it and they're not bound by it, so they don't feel that this is something that should pattern, that they should pattern their lives.
Against.
But we know it.
And so our responsibility is very, very solemn, is it not, to carry these principles out that are laid down in the Word of God in the marriage relationship? I believe that Ephesians 5, if really understood and acted on, would produce harmony and real happiness in the family circle. Ephesians 5 in the first part of chapter 6.
The husband is the.
Head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, you could say, even as Adam was the head of Eve.
And he is the Savior of the body, the preserver of the body. Now I used to wonder as I read this portion, is he talking about the church here as the body of Christ or as the bride of Christ? Which was it? Well, the only type that we have in the Old Testament where the woman is not only the presented to the man as his wife.
His bride, but she is also his body. She has taken from and made from his body. And that was Eve. It's the only instance that we actually have. So it's a, it's a double tape, you might say, that represents what we have in Ephesians 5.
00:10:17
So the answer to the question that I was searching for is he's talking about both. He's talking about the church being a part of his body, members of his body, and also being the bride.
And this is this was true of Eve with respect to Adam, beautiful type that we have in the very first part of the.
Scriptures of Truth.
He is the savior of the body. She was there to be his helper and to succor him and to help him, and He was there to preserve.
Her, and to keep her as the apple of his eye.
Therefore, as the Church is subject unto Christ.
So let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
I don't think there can be a proper family relationship or husband wife relationship until the truth of this really sinks into our souls and we seek by the grace of God to act upon it in our domestic circle.
The world knows nothing of this.
It doesn't act upon it and there's an increase on every hand of divorces.
And disharmony in the family circle.
The husband is the head of the wife. Now this is God's order.
Even as Christ is the head of the Church.
It would be monstrous to think that the church was the head of Christ, wouldn't it? That would be monstrous and absolutely absurd and ridiculous. And so it is. In the natural sphere there has to be a head, and that is the man, a type of Christ.
And the woman in subjection, a type of the assembly, the church.
In subjection to her head.
Therefore verse 24 As the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
And now we have a word to the husbands. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.
You have the Lord's love for the assembly for the church in three tenses. You have it in the past, which is verse 25. He loved the church and gave himself for it.
He loves it now in the present time, and his is working for the church's sanctification and purifying and fitting her for that future day when she will be presented to himself a church glorious without spot or wrinkle. So his present function, his present activity is 1 of sanctifying and cleansing the assembly by the washing of water, by the Word, and that we.
Verse 26, That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.
And we who are husbands are responsible to use the word of God.
To do this very thing with our dear wives.
Is that they be sanctified.
And be brought in tune with God's mind and thought from the Word of God, and that they be cleansed by the washing of water, by the Word, cleansed from humanistic ideas and thoughts and attitudes and practices that are so prevalent in the world today. Now it's the responsibility of the husband to do that, to teach her.
To instruct her to use the word of God.
For the forming of her as Christ is doing it to form the assembly for himself.
And to have God's thoughts as to himself as she is, to have God's thoughts as to her husband.
Now the husband is to as Christ does. He is to love his wife.
Even as Christ also loved the church that was passed, he showed that love in giving himself on the cross for her. Uh.
00:15:04
Over 2000, Nearly 2000 years ago now.
He gave himself for it.
In Galatians 220 the apostle makes that very personal, and he speaks of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
And we can each one individually appropriate His love to each one of us, as the apostle does there and in the first part of Ephesians 5.
Verse 2 it says, And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us.
And hath given himself for us.
And offering in a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor.
So he loved me.
He loved each one of us individually, and He gave himself for each one of us collectively, as He views us as the family that He is going to present to the Father one day. Behold I and the children which thou hast given me. But here we read something even fuller and more precious. He loved the Church.
The church.
Do you love the church?
Do I love the church?
Our our thoughts.
Our activities.
All that we do and that controls us in tune with with Him who loves, who loved and loves the assembly, who is sanctifying her in the present time. He died for her in the past. He's sanctifying her and cleansing her with the washing of water by the Word, so that everything that is contrary to the mind of God be removed by the Word of God.
Remember in John 13 the Lord washed the.
Disciples feet that was individually and Peter said thou shalt never wash my feet. He felt it was absolutely inappropriate for the Lord of Glory to humble himself to the point where he got down at Peter's feet to remove the defilement that he had contracted as he walked through this world.
And the Lord said, Except I wash thee, thou hast no part with me.
And his washing with us, each one individually, is that we might have fellowship with him individually and go on in that sweetness of fellowship with himself.
He's doing it for his assembly.
Verse 26 again, that he might sanctify and cleanse it.
That he might, I think the new translation reads. That he might sanctify it, cleansing it with the washing of water by the word.
That is, the sanctification is practically carried out by this cleansing process of the Word of God as he uses it in in connection with the assembly. And so the husband with his wife, it is his responsibility.
To support her, to nourish her.
It says He is the savior, the preserver of the body. She's viewed as his body, and so he cares for her as he would care for his own body.
He also cares for her and loves her as he does his wife.
The two thoughts are blended together in this chapter, and you see those two thoughts together in Genesis 2.
You really can't appreciate and understand Ephesians 5 appropriately properly if you don't see the connection between it and Genesis 2, Adam and Eve.
Past husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.
That he might sanctify it, cleansing it with the washing of water by the Word.
Word of God is a cleansing agent. We're born of the water of the Word. We're born again by the water and by the Spirit.
Peter talks about our new birth as being born, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. So the impartation of life by the power of the Spirit is accomplished by the Spirit using the Word of God and presenting it to the soul, and the soul believing it. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
So when we hear His voice in the Word of God and receive it, life is there and faith is there. The two come together at the same instant. I cannot explain it any other way. One does not precede the other. You cannot have life without faith. You cannot have faith without life. The 2GO together.
00:20:18
You might say I don't understand that you don't have to.
You don't have to, but that's the truth.
And then there's a future aspect to this, that he might present it.
To himself.
All that he has done for her.
Giving Himself for her, dying for her, suffering the agonies of the Cross for her and what He is presently doing, sanctifying her by the washing of water, by the Word, is all with a view to one day conforming her to His image and presenting her to Himself. A church glorious.
Without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing that he might present it to himself. A glorious church. A church glorious. Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.
What a passage. It's a tremendous passage in the Word of God. We should not read it rapidly and just wish through it we should. After each verse we should have the word Selah.
Pause and reflect on what you're reading here, because it is powerful truth.
Powerful truth.
But that it should be holy and without blemish. Selah.
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.
Now when Adam saw life, saw Eve, he said this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. He should be called woman because she was taken out of man.
So when the man loves his wife, when Adam loved Eve, he was loving himself because she was part of himself.
And so this is the picture here. When Christ loves the church, he's loving himself because she is part of him.
She comes from him, so to speak.
Adam was Eve was created from Adam's side, and so the soldier plunged the spear into Christ's side, and forthwith came thereout the building material for the church, blood and water.
And by the blood he's cleansed us, and by the water he's cleansing us from the defilements of the way.
Sought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife.
Loveth himself and you can appreciate that and understand that when you go back to the type and apply it to Adam. When you love Eve, Adam, you are loving yourself because she's part of you. She came from you.
And now she's your wife.
And she was built from your rib.
Not a separate creation like the animals and Adam was from the dust of the ground, but right out of Adam's side.
And every reference that we have, not every reference, but some of the references we have in the New Testament in connection with the woman's place and the man's place refers to that truth. We looked at it very briefly yesterday. I was very dissatisfied with the rapidity with which we looked at it. We'll look at it more carefully tonight.
Either loveth his wife, loveth himself.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh.
But nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord, the Church.
If Adam had hated Eve, it would have been hating his own flesh, so to speak.
And so he's applying that to every.
Christian Marriage.
The relationship.
I I gave my wife a plaque.
Some years ago that just struck me with great power in the store as I read it. Very simple verse from John's writings. If God has so loved us.
We also ought to love one another.
She's got that hanging in the bedroom, that precious, wonderful verse.
00:25:00
And how that should speak to each of our hearts in our relationship with our spouse.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord, the Church. And that is the husband's responsibility, to love his wife, to nourish her, to feed her, to instruct her to, to train her to use the Word of God, to, to cleanse her from the defilements of this world and the attitudes and opinions of this.
Of this world that is astray from God, so that her thoughts.
And his thoughts be formed by the word of God.
And since he is the head, it's his responsibility to carry out that responsibility.
And that function.
No man ever yet hated his own flesh.
But nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord, the Church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh.
And of his bolts.
Now those that last clause of his flesh and of his bones is left out of some of the modern translations.
And it should not be.
Absolutely. Is scripture based upon Genesis chapter 2? This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
And so this is taken from that members of his body. Now that's the truth of A1 body.
That's the truth, that the Church is united to him as his body.
We get that in the 1St chapter of Ephesians. Turn back for a moment, verse 22.
God hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all.
The church.
Which is his body.
And then we have.
The apostle quoting.
The 2nd chapter of Genesis for this cause.
Shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife?
And they too shall be 1 flesh.
Notice it doesn't say the woman leaves her father and mother.
But he leaves his father and mother now. What's the thought behind that?
When he's in his home. When the man is in his home.
He is subject to his parents.
To his father and mother, he's in the place of subjection.
And when she's in her home, she's subject to her father and mother. She's in the place of subjection.
When she gets married.
When the man gets married.
He leaves his father and mother.
He leaves the place of subjection to them and is set up as the head of a new family unit.
So he leaves that place of subjection and assumes the place of headship.
She leaves. She does not leave the place of subjection. She exchanges subjection to her father and mother for subjection to her husband, but she remains in the place of subjection.
So she does not leave the place of subjection as the man does.
He becomes the head now of a new family unit.
And then it says, for this cause shall a man leave, his father and mother shall be joined to his wife, and they too shall be 1 flesh. Now the first union, or I should say the first couple, Adam and Eve, he was united to him by being created from his body. She was part of him.
One with him.
In that sense, by creation and then she became one with him by the marriage union.
And they too shall be 1 flesh, and that's referring to the marriage union.
This is a great mystery.
But I speak concerning Christ and the church. He's, he's using marriage here to illustrate such a beautiful, uh.
Reality of Christ in the Church. The mystery.
Christ in his assembly.
And then he closes by saying, nevertheless, let everyone of you in particular so love his wife even as himself.
She's viewed as part of him.
One with him and the wife see that she reveren.
Fear, respect and honor her husband.
00:30:04
Beautiful type.
Now let's turn to first Peter.
I just want to show.
How that every time you have the wives and the husbands referred to, there is some reference back?
To the Old Testament, and especially to the book of Genesis.
I'll quickly read this portion likewise first. Peter 3 Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they may also they may also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wise.
While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear, whose adorning? Let it not be that outward adorning of planting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
For after this manner is the In the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands. Now that's the same line of truth that we had in Ephesians 5, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, Whose daughter ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. Now here we have Sarah being subject to Abraham calling him Lord. And so that's from the book of.
It's not from the first two chapters, but it's from that book which has been so attacked by the higher critics. Likewise ye husbands, one verse devoted to the husbands, Dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered.
Now let's go back to First Timothy 2 again.
We touch this quickly, I'd like to spend a little more time up on it.
First Timothy 2 and verse 8.
I will therefore that.
The men in contrast with the women.
It really is pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.
The men are in that place of public testimony and prayer.
And we learn from the next passage, we'll look at First Corinthians 11, that when the woman prays publicly or prophecies, which has always got to be publicly, she is to have the sign of subjection on her head.
To exhibit the truth that she is subject to her husband.
But the man is to pray everywhere.
Without wrath and doubting with lifting up holy hands, that is the hands that that he is lifting up to God are holy. They have not been engaged in evil in of any kind. That is, he's in a state which is.
Proper for one that is in the place of interceding.
And then that's just one verse for the men and then number of verses for the women. In like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array.
But which becometh women professing godliness with good works.
I remember speaking to an older sister just recently at a conference about a young a young girl, a young woman.
She was more than just a girl now, she was really a young woman.
Very attractive.
And beautiful.
And appealing to the.
And yet she was clad in such a way as to produce lust in the heart of the young man.
And she may not have realized that. I believe some of our sisters do not really realize that the way they dress.
Is lust producing to the opposite sex?
Not always to just a young man.
But to all of us.
And Hugh and I were talking about that and I said to her, I said.
You are an older sister.
You should go to this young sister and speak to her quite frankly, that the way she is clad at this conference is inappropriate and that she should cover herself becomingly according to the word of God.
00:35:01
Thankfully, she did this.
And the young sister not realizing that she was.
She was producing this kind of a, this kind of a.
Lust producing image. To some many it was very difficult not to notice it.
She covered herself appropriately for the rest of the conference.
I believe that this kind of thing is the responsibility of the older sisters to take the younger sisters in hand and speak to them.
In a way that would be of help to them, not in a condemning way, but that they might realize that there are great temptations out there that can snare a man.
The Lord clearly indicates this when he says, he that looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
The woman doesn't have that same, that same.
Desire after the man, as a man does when he sees a beautiful woman. You remember what happened to David when he couldn't sleep that one night, and he got up and he walked upon the housetop and he looked and he saw a woman bathing, and it says she was very beautiful to look upon, resulting in a very grievous sin of adultery, followed by one of murder.
And uh.
Very sad.
A man of his stature.
And it happens to every area of life.
So.
Verse nine of our chapter here is addressing the attire of the woman, these things which would which would tend to beautify her and to make her more attractive and becoming and to really incite.
Lust in the male species.
But verse 10 not these things mentioned in verse 9, these things that adorn the woman, that makes her beautiful and attractive and appealing, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works.
This is what is to adorn the godly woman.
Let the woman learn in silence.
With all subjection.
But I suffer not a woman to teach.
Nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
Her place is not one of teaching men. She can teach children.
That's given to her. She can teach young women, the older women teach the young women and so on. But for her to set up to be, say, a teacher of a book of Scripture, that's the man's place.
Teaching the word of God, being a teacher, that's simply I know this is being violated everywhere today in Christendom.
Women have assumed the role of a teacher who's at fault.
The man, the man's at fault. Who was at fault? When Eve took the lead and took of the fruit and gave it to her husband, Who was it? Fall. It was Adam. He should have stopped that.
But he did not, and he still held accountable.
And so when the woman gets out of her place, it's because the man has failed to discharge his place responsibly.
Before the Lord.
I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. I remember when I was a young man, I used to go down to the County Hospital in Chicago.
Every week.
Friday night.
Took the elevated down, had to change several trains to get to the County Hospital, and then we'd go downstairs and there were a lot of Christians. I was just young. I was just young in the faith. I'd just been saved a short time and full of zeal to get the gospel out to the lost. And the County Hospital was a tremendous place that you could go. You had complete liberty to go there and speak to the patients and that and spend time with them.
When we would go downstairs.
And I'd go down with them and we'd form a circle, kind of put our arms around each other and a circle. And there were men and women and they would pray. We would pray before we went upstairs. And then we would sing hymns at the, at the, the entrance to this long ward, maybe had 50 beds in it. And then us males would go in the men, they would go and visit each bed and give them tracks.
00:40:03
And literature and speak to them.
A wonderful opportunity.
But it bothered me.
It bothered me that the sisters downstairs in that little prayer circle.
Were not did not have their heads covered. I'm getting maybe ahead of myself. This has to do with First Corinthians 11. I'll just bring it in here. They didn't have their heads covered.
And that bothered me. And after I learned the ropes at the hospital, I ceased going down and joining them in that circle because I wasn't comfortable with with an order of things that was going on that I felt was contrary to the word of God. So I just went directly up to the wards and started passing out tracts. I forfeited being part of the singing, which I regretted, but.
I kept my conscience clear by not joining in with what I thought was not according to.
Scripture.
Suffer not a woman to teach.
Nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. What is the reason for that?
For Adam was first formed.
Venice. She's not to take the lead she was. She was created to be his helpmate.
His counterpart, his helper.
And he was to take the lead.
And Adam was not deceived.
He ate that fruit with his eyes wide open. But she was deceived by the serpent.
And when the Lord talked to Eve, she said that the serpent deceived me and I did eat.
Adam blamed the woman and blamed the Lord in doing it. He said The woman, thou gavest me, she gave me of the fruit and Idd.
So what we call buck passing is.
Very old.
Right back to Adam.
And Adam was not deceived.
But the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
And this is one reason why, a basic reason why she is not to teach and usurp authority over the man, because she's more apt to being in more of an emotional creature. She's the heart of this beautiful relationship, the family relationship. The man's the head and she's the heart. He's the intellect and the reasoner and she's the the feeler. She's the soul and he's the spirit, as it were.
And it worked beautifully when each one is in their place and functioning together in harmony. Beautiful.
And that's God's order.
Notwithstanding, she shall be saved or preserved in childbearing if they Christian women.
Continue in faith and charity or love and holiness with.
Sobriety. I believe what preserves the woman in her place of subjection, in her place in the family, is having children and raising them the most important.
Job there is down here.
To raise children for the Lord.
Now let's go back to First Corinthians 11. I went through this very fast.
And I think it deserves a more.
Appropriate treatment.
First Corinthians, not Second Corinthians. First Corinthians 11.
In the second verse, he says.
Now I praise you, brethren, that you Remember Me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you.
In verse 17 he says, Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not.
That ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. Now notice that that ye come together. In verse 17, he's talking about their coming together and what was happening in connection with their partaking of the Lord's Supper and the disorder that had come in and the things that he had to correct. But in the second verse there he says, I praise you, brethren, that you Remember Me. And in the 17th verse he says, Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not.
00:45:11
He has to correct it. So let's read this first part. This first part is really not properly the sphere of the assembly.
Because you see, women do not prophesied, do not pray and prophecy in the assembly.
That's a public kind of thing. Certainly prophesying is public, and I believe the prayer that he's talking about of the woman is public as well, like we had at the hospital in the basement when the women would pray.
They would pray just like the men, and they did it publicly. It wasn't an assembly meeting. It wasn't a church meeting, but it was a public thing. And when they did that, they were to have their head covered and they didn't. And this is what bothered me. Now, verse 2 again. Now I praise you, brethren, that you Remember Me in all things and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you.
The ordinances, the directions, the instructions that he delivered to them.
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. Christ here viewed as a man, of course. So you have the the echelon of authority, you have God, you have Christ, you have man and you have woman. That's the order. Woman's head is the man who said is Christ, whose head is God.
Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonored his head dishonours Christ.
But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoureth.
Her head, Who is the man?
For that is even all one as if she were shaved. That is, if she doesn't have an external covering. It's just as though she's praying with a bare head. And that was a shame.
And that's what he says in the next verse 4. If the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn if her hair was her covering, which is which is the contention of so many today.
Then that would that would make no sense. If the woman be not covered, that means if she doesn't have any hair, if the hair is recovering and she's not covered, that means she has no hair. Let her also be sure and let her hair be cut off. How you can get cut off something that isn't there. He's talking about an external covering. He's not talking about the hair is the covering. He does later and we'll get to that in a moment.
But for if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. She doesn't. If she refuses to have to wear a head covering, then let it be shown by the shearing of the woman's hair that she is in rebellion against God's order. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaved, and it was it, it was the attire of harlots in that day, and it was a shame to have that kind of.
Demeanor.
And so it is important the way we present ourselves, the way we cover ourselves, the way we clothe ourselves. It is important, and it's not a minor thing. It's minor in comparison with some things in Scripture, but it's not to be set aside as of no importance because it's God's order.
God's order between the sexes. One of the most unbiblical concepts that's happened of late is unisex one sex, as though there is no difference. And they're even teaching in psychological, psychological circles that there is no difference between boys and girls. Nonsense. Utter nonsense.
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. Now this is the second reason. The first reason was that he is the head of the woman, and and as head then he should be, he should be in display. And the and Christ, I mean the excuse me.
The man's head is Christ, and he should be in display. The woman's head is the man, and he should be covered.
In the in the in the public functioning of the of the Christians.
But now he gives another reason. Verse seven. 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. Now the glory of the man ought to be covered, but the image and glory of God ought to be not covered and in in display. And that's what his head represents.
Now he goes back to what we have in Genesis 1 and 2. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. She was taken right out of Adam's side, as we saw. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. So these instructions so important.
00:50:09
Our flow from God's order in creation.
Have nothing to do with the local condition of things at Corinth.
It has to do with God's order and creation.
For this cause out the woman to have power on her head or the sign of authority on her head because of the angels. They look down and they ought to see carried out in the assembly in that which calls itself the Christian, and the Church carried out God's order in creation. The angels ought to see that sad what they're seeing nowadays. Isn't it sad?
They're seeing just the opposite, and they're even hearing from men who are responsible to teach the truth that it's all right to do that.
To ignore God's order.
Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman.
Neither the woman without the man in the Lord. Each one needs the other. And we know that we can't do without the woman and the woman can't do without the man. And how important that we realize we are both needed and needed together to function for the glory of the Lord.
For as the woman is of the man, she was taken from his side, and God builded a woman. Even so the man also is by the woman through birth, but all things of God.
Now that's his argument, that's his teaching, part of this passage. Now he appeals to nature.
He says, judging yourselves, Is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him? I remember at the Denver conference some years ago, at the conference they have Sunday school time picnic, and we were at the picnic enjoying various games and activities with the children and the young people, and there was a young man.
That was sitting at the table.
As we began eating after giving thanks for the food and he had hair down to maybe his waist long hair.
And I sat next to him and I said I'd like to show you a passage from Scripture.
He said fine. He was very congenial and ready to hear what I had to say.
And I read him this verse.
If a man have long hair.
It is a shame unto him.
And he said to me, Is that in the Bible?
I said yes, there it is, read it yourself. I didn't know the Bible. Let him read it.
And he thanked me.
He thanked me for that.
Sometimes, you know, we shy away from addressing an issue, speaking to a soul, correcting that person by the word of God because we don't want to hurt their feelings or whatever it might be. But he was thankful for the instruction. He did not know that was in the Bible.
Next time I saw him, which was sometime later, months later, maybe a year later, he had short hair.
He had learned and profited by just one passage of Scripture.
We don't.
Do right when we automatically judge and we see someone like that and say he's a rebel.
Maybe like this young girl, when she was where she was, her skirt was way up here and the thighs were exposed in that. She didn't realize that that was.
Lost producing a tire.
And when she was told, she covered herself properly.
And so this man.
Proper, proper, proper, properly covered. Corrected the error that he was guilty of.
That's 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's a glory to her.
For her hair is given her for covering. Now that word for covering in the original language is a different word than what we have in the first part of his argument. And it means a veil. It means not the covering of the head, the long hair, but the covering of the body. And it it beautifies her long hair, beautifies her and covers her, which is in keeping with the teaching of the woman's place in the New Testament.
00:55:02
And in all of scripture.
As compared with the man's place.
But if any man seemed to be contentious.
And there were those at Corinth that were not that were contentious and were not going to submit to Paul's teaching.
He says we.
We apostles have no such custom. The custom they were going on with at Corinth was one where women would pray and prophecy with uncovered heads.
And he says we don't have that custom, neither do the churches of God.
So you are the ones that are out of tune with the Apostolic custom and also the other churches elsewhere.
And that's really the meaning of that verse.
Every woman praying or prophesying now, she doesn't prophecy in the assembly.
So this is outside the sphere of the assembly.
Chapter Verse 34 Paul clearly says let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.
And then he says what he could hear the outroar.
That would come came the word of God out from you.
Are came it unto you only.
Doesn't come from you, it came to you through me and from God.
So he says, If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
And then he says very caustically, if any man be ignorant, if you say I don't see it and I won't submit to that. If any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant and he just drops it.
It's a solemn thing to be in rebellion against God's order.
And.
So Paul, if you read First Corinthians, you will see that he is constantly correcting their mistakes.
Constantly correcting their wrong thoughts and their errors and their practices that were wrong and their thoughts that were wrong. And he's doing that in this.
1St Corinthians 11.
Well, it's as far as we can go tonight.
Let's look to the Lord in prayer a little bit over.