Expounds on the concept of creative order as established by God, drawing from 1 Corinthians 11 to illustrate its manifestation within the church. The message begins by emphasizing the new birth and the new creation in Christ, where all that was lost in Adam's fall is regained. It then delves into the divine distinction between male and female established at creation, asserting that this order is to be reflected in the church, highlighting mutual dependence and genuine subordination rather than superiority. The sermon further appeals to nature and intuitive human understanding, using the example of hair length as a natural indicator of this order, and concludes by addressing potential contentiousness with the ultimate authority of God's Word and the unchanging nature of God's sovereignty.
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Again this morning, the first Corinthians chapter eleven, and we want to read this morning, and we shall begin our reading at verse ten from first Corinthians chapter eleven. We shall read through verse sixteen. For this cause ought the woman to have authority or power on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord. For as a woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman, but all things of God.
Judge in yourselves, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for hair is given her for a covering. But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. Now may the Lord bless the reading of his word. Let's pray together. Our Father, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we bow before you this morning.
We acknowledge that thou art God. Beside thee, there is none else. In infinite mercy you are given yourself for us in order that you might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto yourself a holy people, a peculiar people, a people of thine own calling, who are zealous of good works. We praise thee, O God, that you hear prayer and you answer. You have graciously undertaken to a good extent for Mrs. McDonald. We know that she's weak, and we ask you to graciously give her strength, give her a new start, and may her lips praise you because of what you've done.
When we think of Mrs. Edgerton, we only have thoughts of joy in our soul when we think of the multitude of thy dear people that she has ministered to waited upon who have gone through surgery and when they were awake in the recovery room there she was as an angel of mercy now she's laid aside and we would bring to thee like the disciples brought to thee the things of Dorcas there in Acts chapter ten and we would ask thee to graciously undertake for her raise her up and give her a new start and then for the surgery that's anticipated for Steve Elliot we just we just commend him to you and we ask you to graciously minister to him but our father we pray this morning for our missionary family we think of Sarah and her needs, Sarah Murdoch.
We ask you graciously, our God, to supply those needs, and may it please thee to work in our life that which is well pleasing in thy sight. For the Stephens, for Robert Layton, for Mrs. Patterson, and you have a multitude of those who serve thee worldwide. We bring them all to thee, for the Church of Jesus Christ is united. And we ask you, O God, to build your church and then bring your church home to glory in the fulfillment of thine eternal plan, thine eternal purpose.
And in the meantime, we pray that holiness may be the touchstone of our lives. For holiness becometh thy people. You called us to yourself in order that we might be holy and without blame before you in love. And grant our God that this great salvation that saves from the penalty of sin may be manifestly declared as that which saves from its power. in our everyday lives. That the competition and the other things that characterize the world will not characterize thy people.
That we'll be like Abraham, who was able to say to Lot, you take whatever you want. I'm looking for a city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. To this end, our Father, we ask you to work in our midst. May we hear thy voice this morning through the word of God. May we be built up in our most holy faith. And may we know the reality of being delivered from this present evil age. We pray this for Jesus' sake and for his glory. Amen. This is the third Sunday that we're dealing with this very difficult portion in First Corinthians chapter eleven.
It deals with the symbols of creation that are to be manifest in creative order in the Church of Jesus Christ that locally gathers in what we call the local assembly. Now, there's only one possible way to get into the family of God. And that is to be quickened by spiritual life to spiritual life. By the word of God. And by the spirit of God. We call this regeneration or the new birth. Now unless a man is born of God.
He may be the best person on the face of the earth. But he does not have the life of God within him. Therefore he does not possess a new divine nature. And he is not part of the family of God. Now the new believer in Christ, the person who is regenerated, is spoken of in the New Testament as being in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. These are terms that are always used. And Second Corinthians five, verse seventeen says, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.
And in this new creation, what Adam lost by the fall, what Adam lost when he fell into sin, when he rebelled against God's order, all is regained in Christ. And when you read Romans chapter five, you find two words appear on numerous occasions, much more. We have gained much more in Christ than Adam lost. through sin now the passage here in first Corinthians eleven teaches us that creative order that God established at the dawn of history God made a distinction in creative order between the male and the female between sexes and this is to be carried out in his church and therefore I believe that what First Corinthians eleven is teaching, it is teaching the creative order that is manifested in the new covenant.
You and I are partakers of the new covenant. Now, throughout Scripture there is a principle that you can find if you look for it. We can call that principle the now and the not yet. I want you to think about that for a moment. When Jeremiah wrote chapter thirty-one of his prophecy, he said, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. There is a now of Jeremiah's time. There is a not yet that of the future. And he looked forward to that new covenant and that new covenant blessing.
Now, when you come to the New Testament and we come to Matthew twenty-six and our Lord, when he introduces the Lord's Supper as we know it, he said when he took the cup, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. There's the now. And you and I right now, if we're saved by grace, if we've been quickened to life in Christ, We are partakers of all the blessings of the new covenant. But there's not yet part of that new covenant, by the way. Israel has not been brought into it. For when Jeremiah wrote it, he said, In Jeremiah, he said, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
Not like the day when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, which covenant they didn't keep. But he said in the new covenant I'm going to write my law in their minds and in their hearts. And you and I are waiting that time. So we have the now. We have the not yet. Now when we come to the millennial kingdom. Do you know in the millennial kingdom you have the now and the not yet? In the millennial kingdom you can read about it in Isaiah sixty five. There are verses there that deal with the eternal state. and the kingdom reign of Christ is a foretaste of the eternal state.
You have the now and the not yet. Isaiah sixty-five, verse seventeen says, Behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. Now that's eternal state. That's the eternal state when God creates a new heaven and a new earth. However, in the very next verse, In Isaiah, he deals with the millennial reign. So there's a principle through Scripture. You have the now and the not yet. And even right now, John says, first John chapter three and verse two, here's the principle.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God. But it does not yet appear what we shall be. That's the not yet. But we know that when he shall appear, We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. So with this before us, the now and the not yet. Here in I Corinthians eleven, I believe we have creative order that should be expressed in the church. And this creative order is the New Testament way of showing it. So let me quickly review. In verse three of this chapter, we have creative order expressed. where he simply says, but 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.
Then in verse four, you have creative order expressed in relation to the man. In verses five and six, you have creative order expressed in relation to the woman. And then beginning in verse seven, down through verse ten, you have the reasons given for creative order. Now God doesn't have to tell us why He does something. But it's glorious that He does. We're living in an age when we say something people say why. Why? Well, He tells us why. He tells us why this should be. First, the man is the image and glory of God. Second, the woman is the glory of the man.
For in creation God invested man with dominion. The third reason? In creation, the man was not of the woman, but the woman was of the man. And finally, the ministry of angels is important. For this cause ought the woman to have authority on her head because of the angels. Now, beginning in verse eleven, and that's where we begin today, and I trust, we'll be able to cover these verses. We have the co-equality of the man and the woman. The man and the woman are mutually dependent. The one cannot exist without the other.
In other words, in this passage, while the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man, nevertheless, you see, the man is not without the woman, neither the woman without the man and the Lord. There is mutual dependence. This is a genuine and a beautiful subordination. These passages do not teach superiority. Our Lord Jesus is co-eternal and co-equal with the Father. But when he came to earth, he didn't say, I'm going to have my own way. He said in John six, verse forty, I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me.
and beloved you and I who have submitted to the will of God in salvation the lordship of Jesus Christ this is how we were saved that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord we submit to his lordship in salvation now he calls upon us to permit that we permit him to live his life to us and we recognize divine order there is co-equality with subordination in the Godhead. And you have that in verse three. And God expects in his church to see subordination with equality in his church.
The mutual dependency here of the man and the woman is by divine appointment. It is according to the will of God. Now in verse twelve he tells us that the one is not without the other. The woman originally was formed out of man, but the man is born of the woman. You see, this is a proof, not of the admitted equality of the sexes in the kingdom of God, beloved, but of admitted equality of the sexes in the kingdom of nature. When we look at the kingdom of nature, You see, nature, according to Romans chapter eight, was made subject to vanity.
When Adam sinned, he threw the whole of creation out of balance. And creation is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. That's the not yet, friends. But right now we're sons of God. And it is right now that we have the privilege of manifesting in the church the manifold wisdom of God and we cry out to God in the new creation and we say when you create it we don't believe in evolution we don't believe in evolution we believe that God created and it's an amazing thing friends in the one way that God gave man to show this in the church in a special way people rebel against We build Christian schools so that our children can be taught that there's no such thing as evolution.
And in the church, we deny it. I could cry over these things. I really could. Beloved, I believe what we need is to forget about what people say and simply come to the Word of God. The kingdom of nature is important. It is important to God as his kingdom. They're not antagonistic one to another. He's the author of it all. And we can say with David in the eighteenth psalm and in II Samuel chapter twenty three, as for God, his way is perfect.
All things are of God, beloved. And they are both are alike. God the kingdom of God and the kingdom of nature now we move on in verses thirteen through fifteen the Apostle deals with the comeliness of creative order what God has done in creation we look at creation and we say well done my wife and I have a bird feeder and we watch a certain bird every day and we can't We have bird books and we still don't know what that bird is. That's coming to the bird feeder. We'd like to know. I'm not going to take time to describe it and then have somebody tell me.
But anyway, I enjoy creation. There's a comeliness to creation. When I see Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal on the bird feeder, I tell you, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. I know which is Mr. And I know which is necessary. God has an order in creation. Now, this is an appeal to the believer's sense of propriety. The apostle often recognizes intuitive judgments of the mind as being authoritative. I don't know if you realize this or not going through Scripture.
But there are certain intuitions that God has given man. and they work with conscience and these things become authoritative to prove that till you turn with me to Romans chapter one the last verse of Romans chapter one in the first chapter of the Romans what God does he shows the whole of the Gentile world as totally corrupt in his presence and totally deserving of his righteous judgment and he lists the sins of man There in Romans chapter one, we're not going to read them. And three times over, the sins that are prevalent and are constantly being pushed by the media today, the sins of homosexuality and lesbianism are described here in all their horror and in all their disobedience to God and the judgment that's going to fall because of it.
And then we have the news media described in the last verse. This is what it says. Who knowing the judgment of God? That they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but take pleasure in them that do them. In other words, there is an intuitive knowledge in man that he knows that this is opposed to nature. It deserves the just judgment of God, but he goes on doing it anyway, and he makes a sport, and he takes delight in those who do it. So you see when we come down to it, there are certain intuitive principles that are in the minds of mankind no matter where you go.
And these are authoritative because it's a communication of the will of God, even to the natural man. So you have the teaching of nature. He says, nature itself teaches us that long hair is a disgrace to a man. But it is a glory to a woman. To the one it's a disgrace. To another it's an ornament. It is disgraceful for a man to be like a woman. And it's disgraceful for the woman to be like a man. That's just how it is. Now the hair were to the woman a natural veil.
That's what it says. Her hair is given her for a covering. It is a natural veil. And it is a glory to her. Why? Because it is a veil. It is a natural veil. Therefore the veil itself that he speaks about in the earlier part of the chapter. And which could never be the hair. That veil must be becoming to a woman. in her submission to God. Now when you come to verse sixteen, he says, But if any man seemed to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
Now the argument against the woman appearing unveiled has been presented. The apostle says, Now if any man, notwithstanding what has been presented, notwithstanding all the arguments I've given you, he says, if any man appears to be contentious, I don't have anything else to say. That's what the apostle is really saying. Authority is the only end of controversy. And if you don't accept the word of God as authoritative, there's nothing else to say. The word of God has the final say. The authority is here, as it expressed, is that of the apostle.
and he also brings in the various churches. No man is justified except on clearly scriptural principles and grounds. And no man is justified apart from the necessity that we obey God rather than man. Now I have a few minutes. I want to take up a few minutes. of the objections to first Corinthians eleven that you have heard some of these you have heard from Bible teachers one of my favorites says this and of course we don't agree and I'm not there at the microphone with him and I can't talk when he's talking I'm not on his program but nevertheless I bring up first of all the historical problem this dear brother in his questions and answers He always says this is a clear problem that had to do with Corinth and nowhere else.
Well, now that's okay if you don't have a good memory. That's alright if you don't have a good memory. You see, I listened to that brother when he taught First Corinthians one. You see, First Corinthians doesn't begin at chapter eleven. It begins at chapter one. And I want you to notice the second verse. First Corinthians chapter one. And I want you to notice the second verse. And every Bible teacher that I've ever heard on First Corinthians one spends time on this verse. It's an amazing thing. And then they discard it when they get to chapter eleven. Now you can't do that. And I don't care how well I like the fellow, you see.
And I really like him. But it says in verse two, unto the church of God, which is a Corinth, To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus. Called saints. With all that in every place. Call upon the name of the Lord. Call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Both theirs and ours. Of all the New Testament epistles. That you and I should claim for ourselves. Now we should claim them all. But here's one that's written especially for us. You can't say. That this is only for the Corinthian church. For the simple reason he said, If any man be contentious, we have no such custom.
Neither the churches of God. And this is written to all that in every place call upon the name of the Lord. Then there's a second objection that is raised by many. The second objection is the veil is only a symbol. Do you know you're right? The person who says that is absolutely right. The veil is a symbol, but what is it a symbol of? You see, when we talk about the symbols of the Old Testament, the tabernacle was a symbol. What was it a symbol of? It was a symbol of the tabernacle in the heavens, the sanctuary of God in the heavens. So we read in Hebrews chapter nine.
And our Lord did not enter into a tabernacle made with hands like Moses did. He entered into heaven itself. And he entered into heaven by his own blood, not the blood of bulls and goats. So a symbol always, another word for a symbol is a shadow. Now you can't have a shadow where you don't have the real thing. You see, when I go home today, I don't want the shadow of a meal. I want the real thing. A shadow of a meal will never fill you up. It's a symbol, friends. Now what's it a symbol of? It's a symbol of creative order.
That's what he's teaching in the chapter. But now watch. Are there other symbols in First Corinthians eleven? Are there other ones? Yes. There are other symbols in First Corinthians eleven. There's a symbol of the bread. This is my body which is given for you. Every time we have the Lord's supper there's a symbol of the bread. There's a symbol of the cup. The cup portrays the blood of Christ. Which one do we want to do away with? You see, do we want to keep one and not the other? You see, that is the basic teaching here.
Well, there's a third objection. Somebody says, these verses are difficult to explain. Do you want to know something? I agree with that, but I go further. These verses are impossible to explain if you don't take the simple meaning of what the Scripture says. They're impossible, not difficult, impossible. To what extent does the Word of God mean what it says? That is a good question that you should apply to every passage. If we try to avoid the plain, simple teaching of the passage, these verses are impossible.
I want to close with this. When Oliver Cromwell ruled Britain, he sent a secretary to the continent. And when he sent his secretary to the continent on a mission as an ambassador, he also sent a servant with the ambassador. to wait upon him. And it so happened they always slept in the room, in the same room. And it so happened that the servant was sleeping well. And the ambassador rolled and tossed and couldn't sleep. Finally, he woke up the servant and he said, Why is it that you can sleep so well?
And I toss and turn and have no rest. And the Servant said, may I ask you a few questions? He said, yes, you may. He said, question number one, was God on the throne before you were born? Oh, yes, of course he was. Another question, he said, will God be on the throne after you're gone? He said, yes. He said, well, why not, is he on the throne now? Instead of worrying whether your ministry is going to be successful, why not commit it to God?
He's on the throne. And you know, they both went off to sleep. What a lesson for us. God is a God of eternity, friends. And God is God. We began this morning by singing, sing to our God, immortal praise. Mercy and truth are all his ways. You see, the God who saves is the God of creation as well as the God of redemption. And as we sang in opening, sing to our God, immortal praise.
I think we should sing in closing number thirty-four. the first and last. All hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate all. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown him, Lord of all. Now let's pray together. Our Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for enabling us to cover these verses. And we ask you that from them you will speak to all our hearts that we have a new vision of creative order and a new vision of creation the glorious creator and our blessed redeemer deliver us we pray thee from the spirit of the age from the world that crowds in upon the church and desires a church to be like her help us oh god to truly Be strangers and pilgrims on the earth while we await the city that has foundations whose builder and maker is God.
Hear us in these things and take the word and bless it to every heart for Jesus' sake. Amen.