Expounds on three symbolic ordinances delivered by God: water baptism, the Lord's Supper, and the practice of head coverings in worship. It clarifies that ordinances are "things delivered" and that emblems, like baptism, visually represent spiritual truths such as death, burial, and resurrection with Christ. Believers' baptism is emphasized as an immediate confession of faith, with immersion being the scriptural form that pictures union with Christ. The Lord's Supper is presented as a time to focus on and appreciate the Lord Jesus, not for preaching or rebuke, and its regular observance can deepen one's walk with God. Finally, the head covering for women in worship is explained as a symbol of God's order, signifying submission to male leadership, mirroring Christ's submission to God, and is rooted in creation, not social custom.
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Delicious meals I've enjoyed, and I just thank you for all these kindnesses, and above all for your prayers that we might be enabled by the Lord to continue our ministry of his precious words. Tonight we are going to look at the three symbolic ordinances in God's words. First of all, I'd like to make clear what an ordinance is. Let's look at First Corinthians sixteen, two, where he uses that word and go from there. First Corinthians eleven, two, I'm sorry.
First Corinthians eleven, verse two. Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. Ordinances, the word itself actually means things delivered. We find it so many times in the Bible, for instance, it's used in a bad way. In Matthew fifteen two, the traditions of the elders. That is, in those days everything had gone sour. And the Lord said in verse three, you make a vain the law by your traditions.
And that's the word ordinances. We have it in Galatians one fourteen. Paul said he was zealous of the traditions of his fathers. He was a blind Jew and he was fighting against the Church of God. So you can see the word, that word traditions being the same Greek word, paradoxes, which means things delivered. So it can be good or bad, it just depends on the context. But that's in substance the meaning of the word ordinance. It can mean anything delivered.
And as Brother Steve was saying yesterday, the teachings of God's Word. You could say that's the ordinances for all of the teaching of God's Word has been delivered to us as a deposit, entrusted us to keep, to practice, and to pass on to others. So the word generally means things delivered. But We're thinking of three special ones tonight. The three that are symbols or emblems, really, a symbol doesn't picture what it represents.
It just represents something like a plus sign. It's not a picture of anything, but it is a symbol. It tells us what to do with those figures we have or times. That's a symbol. It only tells you and you learn the meaning of it, but it doesn't actually picture the thing that it represents. Whereas an emblem is something that resembles what it represents. And that's what we have in these ordinances. They are really emblems.
because they picture what they represent. For instance, the baptism pictures, the very act of going down under the water and coming up, is a picture of the truth that's involved. You couldn't have a finer picture of death, burial, and resurrection. That's an emblem, and probably would be more nearer the truth. Instead of saying a symbol, we said an emblem. But there are three of these ordinances or things delivered to us to keep that are as symbols or emblems to be corrected, to put it correctly.
And those three are water baptism, the Lord's Supper, and the man not wearing a something on his head in the public meetings, and a lady having something on her head. That's an emblem. It's a sign of her being under authority, and it's a sign of the man being the head, the leader, and even representing Christ in his church, both of them, picturing That is, the man with his head uncovered is representing Christ as the head of his church.
And the woman's head covered is speaking of her being in submission to the head, her husband, to the man, leader. And it's a lovely picture. And so on. So let's look at these ordinances one at the time. First of all, baptism. And I would call it believers' baptism. Acts two in verse forty-one says, Then they that gladly received his word were baptized. Notice these weren't people that were just in a family that were saved.
And so that cherubim and they were baptized. No, these people receive the word. The Philippian jailer, your number, it says that he was baptized with all his house believing on the Lord. So the baptism is for a believer, one who really is convinced in his depths of his being that Christ is the Son of God. And God the Father sent him into the world to die for our sins and to settle the score that was against us and reconcile us to God by one thing, by his blood on that cross.
And such a believer, one who is saved should be baptized. Believers' baptism, we call it. In Acts eight, thirty-five through thirty-eight, we hear Philip preaching the gospel to the Ethiopian official of great authority, and when he believed on Christ, then he baptized him. Believers are the ones that are to be baptized, not the unsaved. Also, we notice that The onus, if you'll excuse an expression, the onus is not primarily upon the person that's saved.
It's primarily upon the person who gave that. Laws say it so, the gospel. So if you give the gospel to somebody, it's up to you to tell them, now you need to be baptized. If you really believe on the Lord Jesus, to obey him, You need to be baptized. You know, I think baptism pretty well corresponds to what we have today, where people go up and shake hands with a preacher. We consider that the way to confess Christ as your Savior. Well, I wouldn't knock that. That's okay if you want to do it that way.
But I believe that in the Scriptures, the baptism was their profession. That's how they flew their colors and said, I am a Christian. I accept Christ as my Savior and Lord. And so they were baptized. Because baptism in the New Testament seems to come right on the steps of believing. They didn't wait for six months. They didn't have people to sit there until they learned the meaning of baptism. In fact, Paul, in Roman six, when he takes up baptism, he says, no, you're not. Are you ignorant? And as someone has pointed out, usually when Paul uses that expression, are you ignorant?
They usually are ignorant. And he obviously thought they were because he went right on and taught them what baptism pictured. So we don't need to understand everything to be baptized. We just need to believe on him genuinely, sincerely, and it's real to us. And by our baptism, we confess Christ. And the reason I say the onus is on the person who presents the gospel to a person to see that he's baptized is that some people think you ought to wait till that believer comes and asks for baptism.
But I don't see that anywhere. Peter said, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ. He didn't wait for them to ask for baptism. He told them to be baptized. And that's the reason I say the burden is on those of us that give the gospel. Or maybe we have met somebody that's just become a Christian. And they don't know about baptism, and it's our responsibility whether we gave them the gospel or not. If they're really saved, we should urge them to be baptized. Because it's the first step of obedience of a believer to be baptized.
So there's no prolonged waiting period to be baptized. In the Scriptures, it's immediate. And I trust that's what we want to follow. Well, the form of baptism, the element and the form. Well, of course, the element is water. John the Baptist went to the River Jordan. There was a lot of water there. And again and again we read that he baptized in Jordan. So, obviously, it was water. And then also the form of that baptism was immersion. The scriptures make that very clear to my own heart.
Look at Colossians two, verse twelve. It says, Buried with him by baptism into death. That luck, let's see. Buried with him in baptism, in which also you are risen with him through faith in the operation of God who has raised him from the dead. So the form is that of immersion. What better picture could you have of death, burial, and resurrection than to be placed under that water and then lifted out of it? Picturing your own death with Christ, your burial with him, and your resurrection with him.
So it does picture. The form of it is immersion. When the Lord Jesus was baptized, we read that they came up out of the water, or the Lord Jesus did, when he was baptized, came up out of, out of the water. So he must have gone into it to come out of it. It wasn't just someone holding a vessel and sprinkling water on his head. And certainly that wouldn't picture death, burial, and resurrection. In Acts eight, thirty-eight, we read that the Philippian eunuch who believed the gospel and Philip who gave him the gospel, it says they, in Acts eight, thirty-eight, they both went down into the water.
So obviously the form of baptism is immersion in water. In our baptism we confess our faith in a person. In the case of Moses, we read in First Corinthians ten, verse two, they were baptized unto Moses. That is, they recognize Moses as the representative of God. They were baptized in the cloud and in the sea. So their baptism was unto Moses.
They were following him as God's voice at that time. When John the Baptist came along, we read that they were baptized unto John in the... First Corinthians ten, two, it's Moses. And in Matthew three, six and eleven, we find that they had John's baptism. They were baptized unto him because he was God's voice to Israel at that time. But in our case, we were baptized unto Christ Jesus, Romans six. baptized unto him.
And that's Christian baptism. So it's a person that we are baptized unto, declaring our faith in him. And of course, since Christ has come, that's the only person we would ever be baptized unto, confessing him, owning him, declaring who he is and what he's done for us. The significance of our baptism. Moses, I believe, is declaring that God is a God of miracles who will deliver his people by his right arm, his outstretched arm, as he did again and again for Israel.
And he started with splitting that seed and then closing it again upon the Egyptian army and drownings. the Egyptians. So it is they were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, speaking of God's power for deliverance for many of their enemies. John the Baptist of baptism in Matthew three eleven it says, I indeed baptized with water unto repentance. He was calling upon the nation of Israel to repent. That was their condition. They were God's people, but they had gotten so far from him that they had come unto all this judgment.
And he was saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And he called upon them to repent. But John's baptism is not Christian baptism. Christian baptism is unto Christ Jesus. Romans six, verse five. Romans chapter six. We'll look at that. Romans six, verse five. If we have been united with him or identified with him in the likeness of his death, what is the likeness of his death?
Well, the likeness of his death is that person being put under the water as burying him in the likeness of his death. We shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. What is the likeness of his resurrection? It's being raised up out of the water. That's the likeness. It's a picture, we might say, of his resurrection. So we've been identified with Christ by water baptism. declaring not only that we acknowledge him, but we are looking with faith upon this great work that he accomplished.
In Romans six, the significance of baptism is in that picture that we died with Christ and we were buried with him and we were raised with him. Verse five. three beginning there. No, you're not at as many of us as were baptized unto. The Greek word eis is the one used about Moses. They were baptized unto Moses. That wouldn't mean baptized into Moses, but unto Moses with a view to him, with acknowledging him. And here it's the same word.
They were baptized as many of us as were baptized unto Christ Jesus were baptized unto his death. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism. Certainly a little sprinkling of water would never fulfill this picture here of being buried. You'd never bury any person with just a few crumbs of dirt or water or anything else. Here it says, we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Now, though this is at the beginning of the Christian life, right at the start that we are baptized, we seem to learn the truth of it later. And I'm still earning it. And I guess you are too. That is to enter into the full meaning of it and the impact of it on my own life. And dear Christians, this is where we have to come to if we really want to live the Christian life, as people put it. Living the Christian life. We have to acknowledge our death first. That God couldn't improve me. that God couldn't make me better.
All that God could do with Lydon Sheridan was to crucify him, be done with him, bury him. And I should write that across my very being, is that I have died with Christ. He did that for me. And it's as if I was right there and I died. God counts it so. And I bless God that he does. And he doesn't know us anymore as just given sinners, as children of Adam that have been pardoned. But he sees us one. And Romans chapter five and verse twelve and on through this chapter, he's talking about a different truth of the cross.
It's not his bearing our sins he's talking about and taking away the guilt and penalty of it, but he's talking about our very selves. God had to deal with me, and he could not take me and improve me even if my sins were pardoned. For there was so much else wrong here. Sin was my master, and even though I was saved, I still couldn't overcome it, because it's still resident in my being. and in every Christian's being. And it not only had us in this bondage and it was more powerful than we are, but Paul said, I want to do good, but I can't.
And the things I hate, that's what I do. He's finding out by experience what he really is. But thank God he got the victory. He found God's answer. And the answer is, God crucified you. and we have no right to live anymore. We have no right to self-will in doing our own thing, but we are risen creatures, one with this risen Christ, and our baptism declares it, and that's the significance of our baptism. Well, we'll have to pass on to the next ordinance, and that ordinance is the Lord's Supper.
First Corinthians verse twenty first Corinthians eleven verse twenty when you come together therefore into one place this is not to eat the Lord's Supper now this is put in a negative way because these Christians were so carnal minded they they hadn't entered into their baptism they hadn't seen the fact that no longer I but Christ they'd never crossed our self as God does it, and let Christ really live in them. And they were carrying on something terribly, as you well know, unbelievable things they were doing.
And therefore, he says, you can't eat the Lord's Supper when you come together. You can go through the fall, but you're not eating the Lord's Supper. But it's the words here he uses about this supper that I'd like to point out. The Lord's Supper. You know, when I was in the denomination, we had the Lord's Supper about every two months. And it usually was about a ten-minute meeting at the tail end of the great important preaching verse. And half of the Christians went home. They had to cook dinner or something like that, you know. And it was a very dry, ritualistic thing.
And I remember going to my father, who really knew the Word of God, and I asked him to help me on this night of the Lord's Supper. I said, Daddy, I don't get anything out of the Lord's Supper. How about telling me what it's all about? Explain it to me. I don't know how well he explained it, but I know I didn't understand it still. And it wasn't until... Years later, when we felt compelled to leave the connection with our denomination and just start all over, go back to the scriptures and seek to obey him as far as we could. And we started gathering together to remember him as we noticed that the saints did on the first day of the week.
And my what a change. I suddenly saw the simplicity of it. The reality of it. And it really did something to my heart. And has ever since. It's called the Lordium Supper really. He uses the form of the word Lord in this verse. And Revelation one ten. And that's the only two times he uses it. In the entire New Testament. You have Lord's. But not this word. This is not Lord possessive. We know that apostrophe S would say it's his, lords, the Lord's supper, that it belongs to him.
But the word there is not just lords. It's the Greek form that's a descriptive adjective. It's not a possessive noun, as you would see when you read the verse like it is. That tells me that this supper is all about the Lord. That's our thought, our occupation. And certainly, it's not the proper place to preach the gospel and to rebuke Christians or to try to teach doctrine. It's the place to help the saints focus their eyes on the Lord.
It's all about Him. And it's all for Him. That's what really broke the ice for me. When I saw how much the Lord Jesus appreciates our appreciation, then I really entered into that supper, the Lordium supper. It's for him. He said when the crowd was pressing on him and this woman who was sick, I believe, crawled to him. When she got there, she touched the hem of his garment, and she was healed.
And the Lord Jesus said, Who touched me? In all that crowd, he said, Who touched me? Those disciples must have tried to hide the sneer on their face when they said, Lord, who touched you? The crowd's pressing on you from every side, and you say, Who touched me? Yes, he knows who touches him. He appreciates our appreciation. Ten lepers were healed of their lepers. And nine of them just kept right on going to do the ritual, the Jewish law, what it required. One of them turned around and ran back to the Lord and fell at his feet and worshiped him.
And the Lord Jesus said, Were they not ten cleansed? We're the other nine. Don't you see, the Lord's sort of like us too. We appreciate appreciation. And so does he. And we're there at that supper to tell him we appreciate him. It's all about him. It's for him. I remember when we left the denomination, people were asking us, well, what are you going to do differently?
And we said, well, for one thing, we're going to remember the Lord Jesus every Lord's day, like we see it was done in the Scriptures. And so often I got this response, well, don't you think that'll get to be a little bling and really take away from the sacredness of it when you've had it so often? Well, I liken that into a thing that happens on the telephone between my wife and myself. When I'm away at a good period of time, I call on the telephone. And then we talk a bit, and then I never put that receiver up until I hear those words.
I love you. And you might say, don't you get tired of that? Would you think I would say to her, look, you said that a thousand times. Can't you change it to something different? No, a thousand times no. Those words are sweeter to me today than they ever were. Do you think the Lord Jesus will ever get tired of you coming to that table and saying, Lord, I love you? Do you think you can get tired of it? Oh, how it blesses our hearts. I remember, you know, they were less two of them.
I remember my wife one day saying to me, I wish you were the kind of husband at the end of the week that you are at the beginning of the week. Well, I had to go off and think that one over. And then I realized what she was saying. At the beginning of the week, I sit at that table, and I don't dare sit there with any unjudged, unconfessed sin in my life. I'm just plain afraid to, because I know he's going to judge me for that. He said he would in First Corinthians chapter eleven.
And so I clean up before I partake of the Lord's Supper. And then also as I sit there and behold him, and the brethren bring these precious thoughts, as the Holy Spirit seems to play like on a heart with different chords, the brethren expressing their praise and adoration of him, it touches my heart and tenders my heart. No wonder my wife said that I was different. at the beginning of the week from what I was at the end of the week. In fact, I think if she had her way, she would say, let's have the Lord's supper twice a week, once at the beginning and once in the middle just to keep her husband straight.
But anyway, it does things to us. We all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being changed. into the same image. Not only does it bless his heart for us to remember him at this supper, but it changes us, and we don't even know it. We are not conscious of it, but all the blessedness of that precious ordinance that he left us. The final one is the head cover in the First Corinthians the reason I feel safe in calling this an ordinance in the way that people speak of these ordinances that are emblems or symbols if you prefer that word and they usually recognize only two as ordinances because all of them are their things delivered but these special symbolic
or emblematical ordinances. I include this as one of the three, not just two, Board of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. The reason for that, let me point it out. Verse two of first Corinthians eleven, he says, 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 In other words, his subject is ordinances, and he's just going on. He's mentioned ordinances, and he says, but I've got another one to give you.
But I would have you to know. And then he takes up this order in the things of God, and in our home. He takes up God's order, which has put man as the head, the leader, and the woman as the one who follows and lovingly submits to the leadership of the man, whether it be at home as husband and wife, or whether it be in the church, man and woman, there's that order of God. You know, sometimes women who haven't seen this and really accepted it from the Lord and enjoyed the truth of it, They feel like we are downgrading women when we speak this way.
But remember, it's not we who speak. It's the Lord that's speaking. And he's not downgrading the woman. The proof of that is the Lord Jesus was in subjection to the Father. And he said, I don't say anything but what the Father tells me. And I don't do anything. But by the Father, he was in total subjection to the Father. Does that make him inferior to the Father? Certainly not. It's just the divine order, and he has taken that place of submission to God the Father. And what do you know when he puts everything under his feet?
It says then he will be subject to him, to God the Father. In other words, throughout eternity, the Lord Jesus is going to be in subjection to the Father. How could you call that inferiority when he says of God that he would have men honor the Son even as they honor the Father? Yes, he's co-equal, co-eternal, co-everything with God the Father, but he deliberately has put himself under the authority of the Father. What an example for us.
And that's God's order here, and it has its blessings. The lack of the head covering, not wearing it, is the part of the man to display this truth, the truth of his headship. That's the point of it all. head covering is pointing out headship. I would have you know, verse three, that the head of every man is Christ, the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having something over his head, to put it literally, dishonors his head.
That is, his head is Christ. that you just noticed that the head of every man is crossed so if a man is praying or prophesying having his head covered something on his head he's dishonoring his head in heaven the Lord Jesus verse five but every woman that prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head and that's her husband of course verse three said the head of the woman is the man. So she dishonors the man if she doesn't have her head covered. It certainly is very simple, isn't it?
I think the problem people get into is, for instance, in the verse that mentions that even naturally the woman's hair is given her for a covering, verse fifteen. Here it says, if a woman have long hair, there's a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for covering. And so some people say, well, that's her covering, so she doesn't need any veil or any covering over her hair. Well, that would be to make this whole thing ridiculous. Why don't you just come right out and say, long hair, if that's what he meant?
He kept talking about something that covers to veil strong various definitions, but it winds up a covering over her head. And here the Lord Jesus, I mean Paul the Apostle, is giving us an illustration from nature. He's already laid down the fact that a woman should have a head covered. And now he's saying, doesn't verse fourteen doesn't nature teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame to him most of us feel that immediately we understand that and we feel like it's a perversion really for a man to have locks like a woman long hair that is like a woman notice he says nature he's not teaching Again, now, what he just got through saying about a covering and its significance, but he's giving nature, an example from nature.
But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering. Now, he uses a different word here for covering. It's peri-ballon, which means a mantle. It's different from the word covering used throughout the chapter. The only time in this chapter is right here. So he's even changed the word covering. And it's talking about her long hair. So obviously the first mentions of covering have to do with an added covering over the head and over the hair. And the long hair is a natural covering.
mantle of covering that she's given. And notice again that this covering is upon the head. It's not to cover her body, though there's nothing wrong with that, of course, but he emphasizes it's on the head. And the reason is that it's this matter of headship, the man being the leader and the woman following and being in submission. One other thing that my wife enjoys about this is verse ten. For this cause ought the woman to have authority on her head because of the angels.
The word there is not dunamis. It's exousio, which means authority. The woman, notice where it is, the woman ought to have authority on her head. Obviously, he's saying that that covering is that sign of authority that she's submitting to because of God's word telling her to. And I say my wife enjoys that because she said, this is one thing she can do that I can't. And that is she can wear that and preach to the angels because that's exactly what it says. Because of the angels.
You know the reasons he gives for these things. At least five reasons he gives for this order and this covering, of course, being the symbol of it. Five reasons he gives for it. And every one of them goes back to the beginning. Not to some social custom of the day. Not to what Jews did for men wore the covering. And even to this day, to go into a Jewish synagogue, a man has to cover his head. It was not Jewish. It wasn't even Gentile. It's a new thing. And it's really wrapped up in the truth of the church.
The Christ the head and the church his bride. So he goes back to creation. Man was not made for the woman, but the woman for the man, and so on. My time is gone, and so I won't go into those reasons, but I urge you to notice that every reason he gave him, that's plenty of reasons, and it's not like God to say, I'll explain it to you. Yes, I'll explain it. No, he usually gives a command, and that's it. But he gives us five reasons for this order in the house of God, and in our homes. in our lives.
And it's certainly very emphatically not some passing social standard or custom. It's God's own word from Genesis to Revelation. Dear saints, I hope the Lord will just warm your heart to study the truth of the church and of the churches and to yield yourself as Romans and yield yourself to serve the Lord in relation to the church of God, to the house of God, to the place that he's put you in his name. Shall we close in the word of prayer?
Father, we thank you for this opportunity to speak of these things, thy revelation and will for us Christians. And I pray that you bless the hearts of these dear saints that have been so faithful in coming out to hear the word. And I pray it might really do something in each of our hearts. Renew us, Father, and make us to rejoice in thy word and to obey it and to know the blessing of it. We ask it for his own honor and glory.