Expounds on the divine order within the church, emphasizing the headship of Christ and the glory of God as foundational principles. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 11 and 1 Timothy 2, it argues that the Apostle Paul's instructions regarding head coverings and women's roles are not cultural but rooted in creation and divine truth. The message clarifies the symbolic meaning of head coverings for women and the uncovered head for men, illustrating ascending headship and descending glory, and concludes by urging believers to recognize and uphold this order to glorify God.
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Number one, there is a question box at the back. I won't be delivering to answer any of them this evening because we have our plate full. But we were all willing to be looking at some of those answers Thursday and Friday night. And then I've just got a few. I'm sorry I don't have more, but I had a few booklets down here. We may wish to pick them up. They're three for a dollar. And there's the head covering on the side there. Don't think now, which is a study of the three references in the New Testament, calling us not the things. Think not in tribulations, think not in prayers, and think not in good works. And then one called How God Comfort. In other words, we'll take a look at those later. Now, I'd like us to read some scriptures, please.
The first one in First Timothy chapter three. First Timothy chapter three. and verse fifteen, pardon me, verse fourteen. These things write unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly, but if I carry long, thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar, and ground of the truth. behave thyself in the house of God.
We can go on to read in chapter four and verse seven, exercise thyself unto godliness. And verse fifteen of the same chapter, meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them. Verse sixteen, take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. And in doing this, the result of these things is that thou wilt save thyself, and them that hear thee, that is, to save ourselves from a wasted life. And then in verse twenty-two of chapter five, keep thyself pure. And finally in the last chapter six, and verse five, speaking of those who are proud, knowing nothing, doting about questions and strife of words, whereupcome attendees, strife, railings, evil, surmising, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing the gain of godliness from such withdraw thyself.
And there we have this sevenfold responsibility of the child of God. Behave thyself, and exercise thyself, and give thyself, and take each of thyself, save thyself, keep thyself pure, and withdraw thyself from such. Now what I'd like to do this evening, is go at it a little bit backwards, because I don't want to be rushed in this third section. What tends to be the way is we spend a little too much time, perhaps, on the first two sections, and then we zip through the last section and really don't deal with it properly. So I'd like to begin with the third column. Everyone have a white sheet? If you don't put up your hand, someone will give you one, maybe.
On church order, I'd like to begin there, and then go back to the beginning and see how far we get through. So let's turn to First Corinthians chapter eleven three. First Corinthians chapter eleven. These 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, dishonors his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesies, with her head uncovered, dishonors her head. So that is even all one as if she were shaven. Now if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn, but if it be ashamed for a woman to be shorn or shaven, 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 power ought the woman to have power or authority on her head, because of the angel. Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in 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 pray unto God uncovered? Thus not even lay for itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him. But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering. But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom neither of the churches of God. Now we'll stop by reading there, although we would do well to read on to the end of the chapter, and I'm sure you realize that. When Solomon was building the temple that had been prepared by David his father, the command came from God, gold for the things of gold, and wood for the things of wood.
Now there is a tendency among us to make, or at least to try and make, gold things out of wood, and wood things out of gold. And while I would be the last one to deny that the head covering of the woman was an important fruit. I would not be so foolish as to say that that was gold, but that was a supreme truth in the Word of God. But what it symbolizes is one of the supreme truths, and that is the headship of Christ and the glory of God. Now, I have a little chart here, and I hope it's not too confusing in this third column. We have God and Christ and man and woman and the woman's hair.
And the Apostle Paul, so that we don't miss anything, has given to us in point form the truths regarding the two great principles of ascending headship and descending glory. Now the ascending headship, you'll notice, has nothing to do with the woman's hair. We read in verse three, I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ. The head... of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God. So here we have ascending edges. On the other side we have descending glory. In verse seven we discover, and here you'll notice that long arrow. My pen didn't slip.
That's because the Lord Jesus is not included in this subject of descending glory. But we read in verse seven that the man is the image and glory of God. We also read in verse seven. that the woman is the glory of the man. And we read in verse fifteen that her hair is her glory if it is long. Now I have listed here the two reasons for the order that the Apostle Paul gives to Timothy. You can add to that the four reasons or two reasons with two part of heat that the Apostle gives to the church at Corinth here in chapter eleven. Here he states the four reasons beginning in verse eight, the man is not of the woman.
That is, he did not come out of the woman. But the woman did come out of the man. Also in verse nine, the man was not created for the woman, but the woman was created for the man. Now here we have one of the great arguments of many. thoroughly destroyed by the words of the Apostle Paul. It is the argument of many, and you'll read it in many commentaries, and hear many others speak about it, that the head covering is not for today, it is a cultural thing. That it had to do with that age. It had to do with some prostitutes that had to do with the goddess Diana or something, or, you know, I don't know what they have in mind anyway.
But I do know that as far as culture is concerned, that the Jewish believers, it was their history that it's the man who wears the covering, not the woman at all. And so it was really the opposite of the Jewish tradition, certainly not going along with their custom. But the Apostle Paul does not make a cultural argument. He doesn't even take us back to the fall. He takes us beyond the fall to creation. And he lays down the reason for the divine order in the church as having its root in the creation of the man and the woman. When he writes to Timothy, he makes it quite clear that the reason there is that the man was first in creation, which is what we have here in verses eight and nine.
But he adds a second one. And there he says that the woman was first in transgression. That she was the one who was deceived. Adam was not deceived. Some have argued, it appears as if, on the surface, that Eve was less guilty than Adam then. I mean, if Adam stepped into it with his eyes open, surely he was more guilty than Eve who was deceived. But what the Apostle Paul is stating there is that the man had no choice in the matter. The man recognized the unity, the oneness of the husband-wife relationship. Eve did not. Eve passes on her own in this most important and dreadful decision.
But Adam realized that even though she had cast the ballot, there was only one vote between them. When Adam said, when Eve said, the circuit deceived me, he fooled me, and I took it. God did not disagree with it. I've heard many people say, oh, there it is, passing the bus, you know. But God agreed. That's exactly what happened. She was deceived. But then Adam said, the woman which thou gavest me. And he's not saying there, I don't believe he's saying there, God, it's your fault you gave me this woman, and she's been troubled ever since. What he is saying is, the woman which thou...
gave it to me. Not the woman which thou gave it to me, but the woman which thou gave it to me. That is, at his first wedding it was the father who gave away the bride. And he, Adam, recognized the great significance of the husband-wife relationship. But even though she had chosen, when he should have taken the final responsibility, she had to go along with her because they were one. She was saying, in effect, what else should I do? We are one. And though I should have made that decision, she cast the ballast, and I have to live with it. The woman which thou gavest me, she gave me three.
And I did each. So we see at the very outset of our study that this is not an argument that is based in culture at all. Further to that point, this letter to the Church of Corinth, if you would dare to turn to First Corinthians chapter one, you would read these words. That this letter was not addressed only to the Church of Corinth, but to all that in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus. It obviously was a book that was not simply written to one church a long time ago, but to all that in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus. It's the only letter that's addressed in that way.
And that's at the beginning of the letter. When we come to the end of this section, chapters eleven through fourteen, again we read a warning. This is chapter fourteen and verse thirty-seven. He has just finished speaking about the silence of women. the divine order in the church, and he says, if any man thinks himself to be a prophet, if he thinks himself to be spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are apostolic maxims? No. Are cultural necessities? No. These are the commandments of the Lord.
If any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant you know that's more than just oh well you know if you want to be a dummy be a dummy this is this is a statement really god locking in your choice we read about it again in revelation twenty two eleven don't we choose it is filthy let him be filthy still in other words if you want to be that way god will walk you into it and so it is when we come to these holy passages we're dealing with the most significant truth in the Christian church, and that is the recognition of the headship of Christ and the revelation of the glory of God.
There is no higher truth in all of the Bible than this twofold principle that God must have supremacy in all things, and that he must receive the glory. Now let's look at first Corinthians eleven. The Apostle Paul begins with these words in verse two. I praise you, brethren. And that's always a good thing to do. That's one of the characteristics of the Apostle Paul's trial, isn't it? And whenever he deals with this subject, he always praises the Christians first. He gets them over on his side. He blesses their heart before he cuts their living, so to speak. And you know, I think that's a very important thing to realize that when we come to the Word of God, we are not coming to a conflict.
You want to know the truth, don't you? And I want to know the truth. And so if we are fellow helpers to the truth, rather than seeking to get our own way or to enforce our own opinion, we just allow the Word of God to speak to us. And so he says, I praise you. Later on in verse seventeen, he's going to say, I praise you not. And these two sections are obviously bound together. Now there are some who suggest that halfway through the chapter, and of course the chapter headings are not inspired, but halfway through the chapter the Apostle Paul leaves what many think to be simply an order in the world or something like that, a human family order, and then he begins to deal with the church.
But it's quite clear, it seems to me, that chapter eleven in its entirety is dealing with the New Testament church. He is dealing here with a principle that is laid down from the beginning. God set this principle of divine order. And it's going to be carried out in a church as it was not carried out at the beginning. So we see the reason for the head covering. As far as the angels are concerned, it is a declaration to them, an object lesson to the angels that though Adam and Eve spoils the divine picture in the beginning of the order... that was set by God, it was going to be true of the church that they would carry on and declare this divine order.
Now we recognize that the man and the woman equally have responsibility before God. As well they have privilege before God. And you'll notice that after the apostle has mentioned that the man was not created for the woman, the woman was created for the man, she was a help suitable for him, not the other way around. And though we read that the man was not made out of the woman, but the woman was made out of the man, the apostle Paul would not witness the thing, that the men are in any way superior to the women. And so he says, Nevertheless, verse eleven, Neither is the man without a woman, neither the woman without a man in the Lord.
For as the woman is of the man, that is, in the beginning, God made the woman out of the man, so is the man also by the woman. The first woman came out of the first man, but ever since that time, every man has come out of a woman. And so he's teaching us here the intricate relationship in the human family between the man and the woman. And he is not suggesting in any way that the man is superior to the woman. What he is stating here, he is not saying that the man is the boss of the woman or anything like that. In fact, when he teaches the church at Ephesus this truth, he teaches that it is the man who is the servant in the relationship, not the woman at all.
That the man is to so love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Did the Lord Jesus... wish to be minister to when he came. No, he came to minister to others. He came not to be minister to. And so if the man recognizes his position as the servant in the relationship in loving his wife, so then we recognize that it is the women's privilege to submit to their husband. And if the husband does his job, it makes it much easier for the woman to submit to her husband. Now, whether the man loves his wife, as Christ loves the church or not, does not change in any way the woman's responsibility to submit to her husband in the Lord.
That is, to recognize that it is the Lord who has asked her to do this. And as she submits to her husband, she is in fact submitting to the Lord and pleasing him. The man has a twofold responsibility, and so does the woman. His responsibility has a passive and an active aspect, and so does the woman. As far as the man is concerned, his passive role is that he does not wear a head covering. We may think of this lightly, but certainly the Jewish believers would think twice before taking off their head covering, the Jewish men, that is, in the presence of God. but it was something that was required in this new order in the church, that the man was to be uncovered because symbolically the man is the glory of God.
We'll notice another word that is given here in verse seven, that the man is the image and glory of God. Now we do not read that the woman is the image and glory of man, nor is she the image of God. In fact, we read very carefully the divine record in Genesis. We read there that he created man in the image of God. And then we read male and female created he then. But it does not say that he created the woman in the image of God. Now this does not mean that there is not a likeness. Certainly every woman as well as every man is a tripartite being.
There is a likeness there between the creator and the created one. There is a God consciousness, the ability to love and to worship. These are things that form a likeness between us and God, whether male or female. But the word image is a different word. We're not talking about our image in the mirror. Image here bears with it the idea of representation. And the woman is not the representative of the man, nor is she the representative of God. But let us notice what the Bible does say. That the man's passive role is that he does not wear a head covering.
His active role, and how important this is, his active role is that he is always ready to be used as God as the Spirit moves upon him to stand in the gathering of the saints. And either to speak to God on behalf of the assembly in prayer, or the word that is used here, prophecy, to speak on behalf of God to the assembly. Now that's a holy privilege, and it is a frightening one, isn't it? We are to speak as the oracles of God. We do not have pre-course. We can't get up and say anything that we wish.
We are bound before God to take this responsibility seriously. And I say, brethren, if it is wrong for a sister to stand and speak representatively in the assembly, and it is, how terribly wrong it is for a brother who has been moved by the Spirit of God to glorify Christ or to speak a word to the people of God not to do it. Now, the one, on the one hand, it becomes obvious, doesn't it? If a sister stood to speak, it would be obvious to us all. But if a brother doesn't open his mouth, well, you know, that brother's just not the type. Not what type?
Not a Christian, you mean? Not open to the Spirit of God, you mean? Not reading his Bible, you mean? What kind is not the type? Is this not the great principle of Scripture that the Spirit of God can move and orchestrate the meeting? calling upon one brother here and another brother there to speak on behalf of the assembly to God or on behalf of God to the assembly. I think we ought to be exercised about this, brethren. It is wrong for a sister to stand and speak representatively, but it is terribly wrong to rob God of glory when you have been called upon to stand and speak, and don't worry about the words that they don't come out right.
It gets to heaven in the revised version, doesn't it? God hears your heart. But that doesn't mean we ought to be sloppy. For we have the responsibility of praying in such a way, as Paul says in chapter twelve, that everyone in the assembly should be able to say amen. I agree. And sign their name to the petition and the worship that rises to God. So that's the brother's twofold responsibility. On the one hand, he does not wear a head covering, for then symbolically he would be hiding the glory of God. On the other hand, he is to be always ready. Let every one of you, says the Apostle, come with a psalm or a hymn, a word from God's book, something to offer.
We should always come prepared. Now, unfortunately, because we have gone much more to arrange meetings than was true in the early days, sometimes we just sit back and say, well, Brother Stone, so it's turn today. But we are always to be exercised before God, and there ought to be a place in every assembly where a brother can relieve himself of a burden that God has placed upon him. Now, I don't know of the arrangements in this meeting, but I think those who are responsible should see to it that that is true. I was in one assembly. a long, long way from here. And on a particular Lord's Day morning, at the breaking of bread, just before the bread was passed, a young brother got up and he started, well, exhorting, I'll use a kind word, he started exhorting the Christians about the need to get out and preach the gospel.
And boy, you know, I have a hard enough time keeping my thoughts together as it is, as the breaking of bread. And I didn't need that distraction, and I was really getting upset with a brother until I realized something. That brother had probably really been burdened by the Lord about that matter. But the Christians weren't getting out and evangelizing. And he didn't have any other opportunities. Everything else was arranged. And right after the, in fact, while the offering was going around, there was a brother walking up to the front to read the announcement. There was absolutely no time for that young brother to relieve himself of a burden that God has placed upon his heart.
So we have to be sure that every brother in the assembly, whether he is gifted as a teacher or not, he may have opportunity to speak a little word to relieve himself of this exercise that God has given to him. Now, on the other hand, the sister also has a passive and an active role. Passively, she is not to speak. representatively. Now, I underline that word. She is not to speak as a representative. Now, we allow the women, obviously, to speak, don't we? Singing, obviously, the form of speaking. And when we sing together, we sang beforehand. We didn't say, all right, this is the brethren, sing, please.
All the women speak silent. Of course, the women were able to raise their voices in glory to God. That's because they weren't being representatives. Likewise. I believe every woman, as well as every man, should say, although I'm not going to orchestrate it, they should say Amen audibly at the end of every prayer, if you could say Amen to them. I think that's something that we are called upon. All the people said Amen. And so we endorse what our brother has said in the presence of God. I've refused this. There's led out some lucky Amen. The man had kept down real fast, wouldn't there? I believe that's a privilege because it is not a representative act, you see.
Now when we say, the men can speak and the women have to keep silence. We're being rather simplistic, aren't we? The women can say as much as they want to God. No restriction at all, isn't there? On worship, on petition, thank God. Thank God for the prayers of the sisters in a meeting. And thank God for the worship of the sisters. I've been to some meetings and the Lord wouldn't have gotten much worship at all from the meetings. It wasn't for the sisters. Oh, we didn't hear them. But we didn't. So you can say as much as you want, you see. You don't have to shout, God hears us, doesn't he? He hears our hearts anyway. And so the sisters have every right. And when we deal with priesthood, there are two great privileges of priesthood, aren't there?
The holy priest and the royal priest. As the holy priest, we go into the presence of God to offer up spiritual sacrifices to him. That is to worship. We go in to worship. And there is no restriction on the priesthood of the sisters. You can worship as much as you wish. Then we go out from the assembly. In our personal lives, as royal priests, we go out to witness. And there's no restriction on that either, is there? You can witness as much as you want. You can talk to all the neighbors down your street. You can go through the phone book if you want to and call up every house in the city. There's no restriction whatsoever on these two great privileges of priesthood. I think we've made far too much of this one restriction, we might say.
It is that when we gather together in New Testament church order... that the sister does not speak representatively. Likewise, we say the men can speak. Well, that doesn't mean any old man can get up any old time and say any old thing that he wants. There are some people who come into the assembly thinking that's what it is. Some kind of an open forum, you know, and if you've got your one string to get up and pluck it, you know, and get it off your chest, well, that's not what the assembly is for. Hold on. Three feet. The Catholic ministry of the ministry.
And God sees it just as truly as the active ministry of the brethren. It is a holy ministry, a holy privilege that she does not speak. Now, on the other side, when I say she does not speak, remember now she does not speak representatively. On the other side, there is her active role. And it seems to me that this has been greatly minimized. She is the steward of the covering. This is a holy ministry indeed. When I stand to speak, I speak to, you know, fifty, fifty, a hundred people. But when the sister puts on her head covering, she is making a declaration to all the angels of heaven. Isn't that a wonderful privilege?
And she is being used as an object lesson. Just as surely as you Sunday school teachers pick up Daniel on the wall and say, young people, be like Daniel, or put up Samson and say, don't be like Samson. God is teaching lessons about his holiness, his order, his glory. and the headship of Christ in the assembly, and he uses you as an object lesson to the unseen hope of God's divine purpose. I think that's a wonderful purpose. And we ought not to make a sound like something distasteful. We ought to recognize the holy honor that's involved. Not only that, but when the sister recognizes that this is not something that all of a sudden was sprung on the Christian church.
that it has its roots back in the Old Testament order. Just as the priesthood, though it was a circumscribed priesthood, it was just one tribe, and you couldn't be a priest just because you wanted to be one. Now we have a whole kingdom of priests, not a tribe. So too, the privilege that was once afforded a few is now afforded to many. And that is to be the steward of the covering. You remember that in the old days there was the tabernacle, and the tabernacle had covering on top of covering, on top of covering. So the idea of more than one covering is not new for the New Testament. In fact, the priest would put covering on top of covering, wouldn't he?
He had his plain white garment. And on top of that he had another garment that he placed, a beautiful garment. On top of that he put the breastplate and the ephod. And so there was covering on top of covering, because each one of them... We're teaching a lesson. And here we come to the reason for the garments of the priest. We read in Exodus twenty-eight two that they were for glory and for beauty. Now let's not confuse glory and beauty. I remember talking one time, this is years ago, probably ten, twelve years ago, on the subject of the woman's head as a symbol and how her hair is to be long, if it's to be her glory.
And we'll talk about how long is long in a minute. But, as I was talking about it, this girl came to me and she said, well, I think my hair looks cute. Sure. You know, I don't think it looks nice long and I think it looks cute. Sure. Well, I said, well, who said anything about whether it looks cute or not? Oh, she said, well, you were talking about, you know, it's the glory to her if it's long. Well, now, I don't mean anywhere that it's a beauty to her. That's not what God's talking about. The garments of the high priest were for glory and for beauty. The beauty of the woman is not to be an external thing at all. This is one thing we get from the New Testament concerning the women. It is that their beauty is an internal beauty, isn't it?
The adornment of a meek and quiet spirit. That's what makes a woman beautiful in the eyes of God. But this is a lesson in glory, and glory is not beauty. Beauty, when we're speaking about God, The beauty of the king, the beauty of the Lord is the revelation of the divine character. But glory is the revelation of divine truth. We read about, for example, the beauty of holiness. That's his character. But here we're talking about the revelation of divine truth. In other words, God is teaching a lesson here. That's what glory is. Glory is the outward expression of an inward condition.
revealing something that is hidden. That's what glory is. We could not see God, but we could see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Why is the man the glory of God? Well, God made man out of the dust of the earth, but man was not a living soul until God breathed into him something, so that what came out of God determined what man was. So there's a symbol there. Now, when God was going to make Eve, he didn't make another model out of the dust and then breathe into that model. Did he? No. He took something out of Adam. And out of Adam he made the woman. So that the woman is the glory or the expression, the outward expression of something that was in Adam.
Now, it's a symbol. We recognize that. It's a symbol. But that's what God is saying here. And then, of course, the woman's hair comes out of her own body. It's an expression of something. So here we have this principle of glory. Now all we have to do is look at the point. The Apostle Paul puts it in point form so we don't miss it. And he says that there are three glories involved in the church. There is the glory of God, the glory of man, and the glory of the woman. In order for the glory of God to be made manifest, there are two great responsibilities. On behalf of the man, it is necessary for the man to stand and speak, let God be glorified.
In prayer, in interjection, in thanksgiving, in petition, in worship, in praise, in teaching, in exhortation, in the preaching of the gospel. This is how God is glorified in the assembly. However, On the other hand, it is necessary for the sister to realize that her responsibility is to keep any competing glory out of the way. So then, as the sister recognizes her responsibility as the steward of the covering and what a holy responsibility it was, For if the stewards of the coverings did not have that tapestry in place, when the priest went into the door, he would drop dead right on the spot.
That's our serious doctrine. And God has not changed his mind. He still sees it as a serious matter. That God's glory be hidden. Pardon me, that others' glory be hidden, that God's glory might be an anointed. Now what are the other two glories that might compete? They are the glory of man and the glory of the woman. Now, symbolically, they are to be covered. And when a brother sees a sister's head covering, what do you think about, brother? You know what you aren't to think about? You ought to think about the fact that there is no place for your glory in the assembly.
You see, it's not just an object lesson to the angels. It's an object lesson to us. We who are men, when we see the sister with her head covering on, we ought to learn this. That the head covering is covering up the glory. What glory? Well, there's a twofold covering because there's a twofold glory. We read, first of all, that the glory of the man is the woman. So the woman must be covered. to cover the man's glory. Follow? If the woman is the man's glory, then the woman must be covered to cover the man's glory. Now we read that there is a natural covering that has been given to her.
Verse fifteen. Her hair is given her for a covering. Not to cover her glory, but to cover his glory, to cover the man's glory. Now, maybe I should interject here. We're not talking about husband-wife now. All right? This is the man and the woman's glory. Any and every man is ahead of any and every woman in the church. And I know that's great on women's liberation movement, but that's what God teaches. We are not talking about the boss of, or better than, or anything like that. Please get that out of your mind. We are talking about the divine order. And God has drawn an order, and it's very simple. God, man, woman.
That's it. And he says that the man has a glory, and that glory is the woman, not his wife. But that any and every man, symbolically in Adam, gave up something within them to make the woman what she was. And so we have this glorious symbol of the man and the woman. And in the Apostle's writing, he shows that this is the mirror image of the church and Christ. And so he says now, if the man's glory is to be hidden, then the woman has a natural covering.
You see, even if the sister doesn't care about covering her own glory, at least the man's glory is covered by the sister's natural covering, which is her hair. So then the man's glory is covered by the sister's hair. But then we learn that not only is that hair the man's covering or the covering of the man's glory, it is also her glory. It is his covering, but her glory. So there is the necessity of a second covering. This time, not a natural covering, but one that she puts on of her own will to cover her own glory. So you see? There are two glories to be covered, so there's the necessity of two coverings.
The one covering is to cover the man's glory, that's her hair. The other is to cover her glory, that is the head covering. And so we have two coverings to cover the two glories. Now when that is true, the symbol is in place. But if we are to practically show for his glory, then the brother must be exercised about coming and glorifying God through the word and through prayer. And he must not be interested in glorifying himself. You can have all the head coverings in the world, but if the brother stands and glorifies himself from the platform, or stands and magnifies word in his prayer in the presence of God, seeking to impress others with his grasp of the Scriptures, all the symbols in the world won't mean a thing, will you?
So there is this imbalance, isn't there? The symbols are in place. And those symbols not only teach the angels, but they are to teach us something. That the woman has a place of submission. And that the man has a place of responsibility. But here's a place of submission too. For the man's glory is covered as well as the woman's glory. You see, by the man not having a head covering, in no way suggests that it's the man's glory. That's God's glory. For the man is the glory of God. The man's glory is covered too. So there's no place for human glory in the church. It is all to be the glory of God.
Was that praying? I hope... It's as plain as I can make it anyway. And if you have questions, please ask afterwards. I'm trying to make it as plain. No, I'm not trying to make it plain. God makes it plain. I'm trying to keep it plain. I remember a professor I had at university, and he was so upset. After he had made a statement, someone would stand and say, are you trying to say such-and-such, you know, and he stopped them with a thunder on his brow. He said, I'm not trying to say anything. I said it. You're trying to understand it. Paul's not trying to say anything. Paul said it. He was trying to understand it. And it seems to me that the Apostle is making it perfectly clear. There are, however, a couple of, as they say, sticky wickets, aren't there?
And one of them is the verse four and five. And verses four and five, it would appear to suggest that it may be possible for a sister to pray and prophesy as long as her head is covered. That is to take public part. Some have suggested, well, you know, prophecy is no longer for today, and prayer can be done privately. I don't really think that's being shared with the passage. Do you? Praying and prophesying, I think, are taken in their widest tempter. Praying is anything that we say to God. Prophecy is anything that God says to us. And, in fact, the apostle defines the term prophecy in just a few verses when he talks in chapter twelve about prophesying as being unto edification, exhortation, so.
We ought to always understand, and this is a basic principle of biblical understanding, we always ought to understand the most obscure passages or the difficult passages from the plain ones. Now, there were certain plain statements in the Word of God. And if we were to turn to chapter fifteen or the first Timothy chapter two, it would read very clearly a number of statements, I think seven in all. A woman is not the assert authority over the man. She is to be in silence. She is not to teach. She is to be in suggestion. And statement is piled on top of statement until you have to really not want your understanding to avoid those clear statements from God's word.
What then do we have in this person? I've used the illustration before. I hope my children will excuse me. They don't do this. But suppose we were sitting at the dinner table and my boy picked up his plate of food and hurled it at his sister's. I probably wouldn't say, oh, John, don't raise food. Don't you have the food he was going to do? I wouldn't say that, would I? I would be rather severe in my rebuke than he had attacked his sisters. A thousand batteries. Now, afterwards, I may have said, oh, and by the way, I'm really very attentive. The Apostle Paul is dealing with first things first.
And on two other occasions, three in all, being a first Corinthians, he deals with a two-fold problem, a compound problem, by dealing with one part first and then the other part second. For example, he says that if you go to someone's house and they're offering food off of your idols, they're serving you food off of your idols, go ahead. If it doesn't bother you, if it's not hurting your conscience, don't offend them by not eating it. Just go ahead. I mean, after all, an idol is nothing, right? You know, an idol is not a real god. It's just a little piece of stone or wood or something. So go ahead, me. So it appears that he condones it, suddenly, later when he gets, not to the subject of appending a brother, but when he gets to the subject of fellowship, he says, you can't sit at the table of God, the table of the Lord, and the table of devil.
You can't sit. So he appears to condone one thing, and then he turns around and he makes it very clear when he deals with the second of the compound issue, that he is making it very clear, that's what he has in mind. Now here we have the same kind of thing. He begins with the head and then goes to the body. And that's always God's pattern, isn't it? When he's willing with the church, he always begins with the head and then goes to the body. And here we have the very same thing. We are dealing here with the headship of Christ and the glory that belongs to him. So that's where he begins. And he says, don't deceive sisters, but not only when you stand to speak, are you offending the Lord, but you're doing it as a living lie.
You have on your head a covering. And you're saying, by that act is you're being convicted. Now he says, imagine a woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered. They not only are dishonoring God by what they say, but they are dishonoring God in symbol by what they have not done. So he deals with the first part here. It's obvious, and if we had time to look at it, we could see that he's dealing with a kind of parallelism here, isn't he? And there are certain variables, and there are certain constants. And you don't have to know too much about mathematics to see what he's doing here.
The constants that are given are... praying or every and praying or prophesying and the head and dishonoring the head over the conscience so the conscience are not what he's dealing with he's dealing with the very women and what are the very women the man and the woman the cupboard and the uncovered head that's what he's dealing with here and then he goes on to explain the reason for the covering on the woman and the lack of covering on the man Now, having said all that, I think we come to recognize that whatever you put on your head, it says, God sees your heart.
I have heard it said, in fact, I've heard it said at conferences when I was on a panel discussing with other brethren. And it made it very obvious to me, one brother said, I believe I'd rather see a sister with a submissive heart who didn't have a head covering than one with a rebellious heart who did. And I said, brother, how do you see a submissive heart? Can't see that thing. And in fact, what he was saying was, he was twisting the sister around to say that if I see a sister with a head covering, I could assume she's rebellious. And if he doesn't have one, I should assume she's submissive. So yes, that wasn't bad enough. The next brother says, I believe that in our culture, the woman's head covering has been replaced by her wedding ring. And an activist's admission to her husband.
I said, well, brother, you have to have a real small head, wouldn't you? Imagine. And you see, if you want to run from the scripture, you can come to all kinds of ridiculous, and see. But if you want to happily submit, and that's what he admits, happily submit, not to your husband, but for the Lord. It's the Lord who asked you to be with the sisters. And brethren, may I underline again, that you often take great pains to encourage the sisters to wear hair covering. You have to recognize that our responsibility is a very great one, in which we are responsible to glorify God with our lips. in calling the saints to worship the Lord and in the declaration of the Divine Spirit.
I hope I've spoken on this in a gracious manner. And I don't intend to offend anyone. If you're offended, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. But I wish that the Sisters should see the great honor that God has associated with the ministry. They ought to wear the head covering for God. And then they wear it for the angels. And then they wear it for all the men in the assembly, as an object likened to the men. As soon as you see that head covering, brother, next Sunday morning, you'll remember, there's no place for glory here for me. It's not my glory that's to be shown. It's his glory. And then they wear it for themselves.
That is, as a privilege. It's a great honor for the sister to wear the head covering. Now, the time has gone, and we have not dealt with a lot of issues yet. And perhaps we'll have to go on in the same chart Thursday evening. And we'll look at how long is long, and what is in his covering, and when should his covering be worn. But I want us to get the basic principle here. And then we can look at some of the particulars a little bit later on. And then we'll be looking at these very important truths that have to do with those who are responsible for governance in the assembly, the elders and deacons, those who are responsible for growth in the local, not just the local church, but the universal church, the evangelist, pastors, and teachers.
And then we're going to look at the priesthood of believers in number three. So, I wish we had a little more time tonight. Unfortunately, we don't. And I don't want you to go over to the St. Joseph young families and so on. And so, let's close with a little prayer. Our Father, we ask you to help us to grasp the proof of the great honor that is afforded the sons of men to glorify the living God. If you think of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has made a curse for us, that we might enjoy his blessing. The one who is ashamed, that we might never be ashamed.
The one who is in darkness, that we might live in the light. The one who is thirsty, that we might never thirst again. The one who bore reproach, that we might share his glory. Oh, what a wonder this is. And we thank thee, our Father, for not only telling us what we must do, but why we should do it. That was very gracious of thee, Father, to tell us how we may glorify thee, and why, so that we might appreciate not simply the basic principles of Scripture, but the high honors associated with those principles.
The Lord Jesus said, I haven't called you certain. A servant is simply ordered, I've called you friends, and I've told you why. I've let you in on the divine secret. He thanked you for that. We ask you to help us, then, to take our responsibility and privilege seriously in the local assembly. That as the sister puts on her head covering, that you will think of the high honor that has been afforded her. It's not simply an act of submission. for an act of glorifying the Lord Jesus by hiding the glory of man and the glory of woman. We thank you for the brethren. We realize it's not easy to get up and to take part, especially if we are reticent in our own nature, but we thank you that thy spirit is able to help us.
And we hear the words of... that thou didst give to Moses so long ago, that he would simply be willing that thou would be his might and his mouth and his message. We pray that we might all be exercised before thee, the pictures as well, to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. So we thank you, Father, for thine massless word, for all that thou didst give to us, but all thou hadst done for us. And we realize that we ought not to lose sight of the gold here, The wood is necessary, the structural things, the symbols, the patterns, the three responsibilities. But beyond them all, there is the goal of the glory of Christ and his kinship in the church.
And we pray that in this assembly and in all our lives in particular, that he might have the pre-eminence, we ask, as we give thanks in his peerless name, Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, I'd like us to think together, and I really am sorry that we have to interrupt this and we'll actually have the day in between. But I hope you can gird up the lines in your mind. Don't let any of this slip away. And let me get back together and do a look at some of these other issues. Let's think together. Number three hundred eighty-nine. Now, this came as specifically speaking about our individual lives, but let's remember that the local assembly is no more than the composite of all the members, the individuals in it, isn't it?
And we can't expect to have a spiritual assembly if we don't have spiritual people that gather together. And so we are acknowledging in this hymn, as we sing it, that the Lord he that is sovereign in our lives, that he is the head, that he is the one who is Lord of all. Let's sing together, Psalms two and three after I read the first psalm. Where he may lead me, I will go, for I have learned to trust in so, and I remember it. was for me that he disdained on Calvary. When we think of the great price that he paid for us wearing a head covering or standing to our feet tremblingly, spending time in the book is hardly a great price to pay in the light of the great sacrifice that the Lord gave us.
So let's think in Psalms two and three, three hundred and eighty-nine. How we stand the same. oh i delighted his command love to be led by his dear hand his divine will is sweet to me i lost my blessing alvary jesus shall lead me night and day jesus shall lead me home away it's the truest friend to be all i remember how but he I'll be with Christ my great year trusting that I someday shall see Jesus
my friend of Calvary Jesus shall lead me night and day. Jesus shall lead me all the way. He is the truest friend to me. Lord, I remember Calvary. Oh.