Please be seated. Would you turn with me to 1 Corinthians, on to chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. We're gonna be considering verses two to 16 this morning. But before we do that, let's ask for God's help. O Lord, we look to You in our weakness, and we ask for Your help. We pray that our heart's desire would be Your glory above all else, and that we would seek to know Your ways, and that we would as you reveal them to us, rejoice in them, each for ourselves. And in areas where there is not as much clarity, that we would live with one another joyfully, and that we would all seek to know our mind according to your word and to practice that and to respect one another. And we ask these things through Christ, amen. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, beginning in verse two. Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you. But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonors his head. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God. But woman is the glory of man. For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for woman, but woman for man. For this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless, Neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man in the Lord. For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman. But all things are from God. Judge among yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her. for her hair is given to her for a covering. But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God. Thus ends God's word and the reading of it. So, for those of you who aren't normally with us, we are going through 1 Corinthians, and we have taken a break to look at other things over Christmas and at the beginning of the year, things to do with the coming of Christ. and also about just our life in Christ. And we've done that in part because that's really the center and the heartbeat of our congregation. It's lifting up the Lord Jesus Christ and loving Him with all of our lives. But we're coming back to 1 Corinthians now. And another thing about our congregation is that we walk through books of the Bible, and sometimes we come to things that are delightful and easy. Sometimes we come to things that are a bit more tricky. But we don't shy away from anything that's in Scripture. We seek to take Scripture as we find it, and to submit to all of it. So, here we are in 1 Corinthians 11, and we're starting a new section in Corinthians. Chapters 8 to 10, including 11.1, held together. Chapters 5 to 7, held together. Chapters 1 to 4, before that, they held together. You might remember, if you've been here, that overall, 1 Corinthians is about living for and through Christ in this present age. Living for and through Christ in this present age. And so far, what the Apostle Paul has done as we've walked through Corinthians is that he has opposed worldly thinking that was prevalent in the church at the time and is still today. And he's shown how Christ and his lordship transforms our lives. We've seen this first with division in the church, then with immorality and relationships, and then most recently with the issue of Christian liberty. Now, Paul is starting another section on public worship. So, he's going to address things like our conduct at the Lord's Supper. He's going to address things like our use of spiritual gifts, like order in public worship. And this section is very clearly about public worship. We see that even in verses 17 and 18 of our chapter, where it says, now in giving these instructions, I do not praise you since you come together, not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear, and he goes on, Some people have said, well, does verses 2 to 16 really go with this larger section? And I think it clearly does, because there is a correspondence between verse 17, I do not praise you, and verse 2, now I praise you. So, this is us going into this new section in 1 Corinthians. And as we do that, I want to remind you that Corinth was a bit of an edgy place. It was edgy in the same way as London or New York might be today. It was edgy because those in Corinth didn't always do things according to the established order. And the established order was a little bit up for grabs. As is often true in situations like that, it wasn't only the established order according to the cultural norms, but it was also the established order according to the way God had designed the world in creation. And that edginess had even worked its way into the worship of the Church of Corinth. It seems that some women were removing their head coverings to lead in prayer or to prophesy. They were seeking to reject or blur the order and distinction between the sexes that God has worked into the structure of reality. This is the issue behind verses 2 to 16 in 1 Corinthians 11, and I'll demonstrate that later in the service. But what I want to say now is while edginess is often seen as a virtue in our world, edginess does not produce the righteousness of God, nor does it accord with the glory of God. Paul's purpose in this is not just external but spiritual and devotional. His method is to back up and remind the Corinthians of God's created order between the saxes And this is the foundation of a particular practice, that of head covering. So he first focuses on the principle, and then he gives several reasons for the practice. The principle's in verse three, and the reasons are in verses four to 16. And I wanna follow that same structure. So I wanna look first at the principle, and then at the practice. But as I do that, I am keenly aware that both the principle and the practice are hot topics. The principle I believe we must accept as the clear teaching of Scripture. But when it comes to the practice, there is a bit more latitude. The practice of head coverings is something that good men have come to different conclusions on. There isn't today a whole lot of consensus in the church on it, though that's a relatively new thing in the history of the church. And, of course, our culture is no longer supportive of the practice, but outright opposes it. So please hear me loud and clear. As a church, we never have had a policy on this, and we don't plan to have a policy on this. I fully expect after this sermon that we will continue to have a variety of practices on this in the church, and that's okay. As elders, we see this as a matter for each family, for each single woman, if that applies to some of you, to know your own mind about based on Scripture, and therefore to joyfully and freely practice whatever your position is. However, we do want you to base that position on Scripture rather than on culture. I know it can also be a divisive topic, and believe me, my aim is not to be divisive at all. Let's make submission to the Word of God what unites us. If there are places that I err in this sermon, if I err according to the Word of God, come and speak to me afterwards. I would really, really welcome that. If the Word of God challenges you this morning, listen to the Word. If there are areas surrounding what I say this morning where we disagree, let that be because we are both coming to the Word of God, submitting to it, and yet in good conscience we're coming to different conclusions. There is common ground in that. There is mutual respect in that, and that's what we want. So I pray that this sermon will be edifying and thought-provoking. More than that, I pray that it will spur you on to glorify more fully the Lord Jesus Christ and His Father. My title is Heads and Coverings, and my points are simply the principle and the practice. So the foundation principle on which the practice of head covering rests is the principle that can be found in verse three. But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Now let's just be honest, that is a red rag to the bull of our culture, but The Word of God says it, and therefore we have to understand it and submit to it somehow. The first thing to note is that this is absolutely not a hierarchy of value. Value is not the focus here at all. And a hierarchy of value, particularly between men and women, would be absolutely and completely foreign to the rest of Scripture. Verse 10 makes it clear that this is a hierarchy of authority. For this reason, a woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, verse 10 says. Now, this is a hard concept for us 21st century moderns to get our heads around. We have been told countless times and in countless ways that authority and value go together. The more authority you have, the more value you have. We also live in a radically egalitarian society where any sort of hierarchy is erased and downplayed and hidden as much as possible. Yet, we often don't live that way. Most of us get deep down inside that we're not all equal when it comes to gifts or resources or authority. A captain in the army has more authority over the men under his command than one of his lieutenants. But none of us would say that he has more inherent worth than those under his command. The elders of a congregation have more authority in that congregation, yet no one would say that they have more inherent worth. Our own confessional standards include a whole number of catechism questions on the fifth commandment in which the sins and duties of superiors, inferiors, and equals are enumerated. The Catechism is not suggesting that some people have more inherent worth, that some people are inherently superior to others. Rather, it's just reflecting what everybody understood and embraced prior to several decades ago. That is that there are chains of command built into all of life, and not just in the military. The foundational chain of command is what we find here in verse 3, God, Christ, man, woman. Now, it's important to say that there are various links in this chain, and they're not all identical. The way in which God is over Christ is not exactly the same as the way in which Christ is ever man, or man over woman. And every man here includes women as well. It's talking about mankind. So, a Christian woman has direct access to God in Christ. There is one mediator between God and man, mankind, that is men and women, one mediator between God and men and women, the man, Jesus Christ. So when it comes to access to God, matters of sin and salvation, et cetera, no man stands between his woman and Christ. Mankind does not act as a mediator between womankind and Christ. Even still, this link in the chain between men and women is the one that just rubs us like sandpaper. And we'll come back to that in just a moment. But before we do, you might be wondering, how can Christ be under God? Christ is God, right? Well, the answer is that Christ is spoken of here not as the second person of the Trinity, but as the God-man, as a man, as God's anointed King and the last Adam. And in that capacity, he is under God. He does his will. He obeys his commands, and so on and so forth. It's the same idea as what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, where he says, now when all things are made subject to him, then the Son himself will also be subject to him, that is the Trinity, who puts all things under him, that God may be all in all. This order that we're talking about here in no way teaches the eternal subordination of the Son to the Father. The second link in this chain is that of Christ over man, over mankind, as I just said. It is simply saying that Christ is King. All authority has been given to me, he says, in heaven and on earth. Paul assures us he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. Our first father, Adam, was the head of the old mankind. Christ is the head of a new mankind. but the old mankind is in rebellion against God and His Christ and will lose and be condemned. God, therefore, has offered salvation through Christ, the head of this new mankind, to anyone who will forsake their rebellion and will turn and entrust themselves to Him through Christ and be saved from the wrath to come. Christ is the head of this new humanity, and you either stand in the way and refuse to join Him and stick with the old humanity and are judged, or you join Him in this glorious new reality that He has created and is creating. So Christ is King. However, The link in the hierarchy that is particularly relevant for this passage is the relationship between man and woman. You might not like some of the things that I'm about to say, but I at least want you to see that this is the universal voice of Scripture, and that it has been the position of the church down throughout the ages. To understand Scripture on the relationship between man and woman, you need to go back to creation, where we see both the man and the woman, both men and women, were created in the image of God. Both are commissioned to subdue the earth and fill it. But that commission is given to them as a team, and different parts fall to the man and to the woman with different emphasis. Only Adam is the head of mankind, Romans 5, 1 Corinthians 15. He is the prophet who declares God's will. He declared the prohibition not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and he was to declare that to Eve and to his children. He is the priest who is given the command to watch and guard the garden temple of Eden, which he failed to do, consequently leaving his wife vulnerable to the temptation of the devil. He is also the king who is under God to rule over everything, including his wife and any children that would have come from that, which he again failed to do by being led by his wife, something that God particularly rebukes him for. On the other hand, only Eve could help Adam fill the earth with worshipers by nurturing and bringing forth life in her body and coming alongside him to support him and to multiply what they were doing together as his partner. Adam we see from Genesis was made first, and in 1 Timothy, that's given as the basis for why a woman is not to have authority over men or to teach. And interestingly, although it's in the context of the church, The argument is not that the church is some special realm and therefore this applies, but rather that this is a creation principle and therefore it also applies in the church. Eve was made from Adam, Eve was made for Adam in the sense of help and support, and both of these truths are pointed out in our text in verses 8 and 9. Yet, in a beautiful and wonderful way, man is not to crush woman, for they were made to be a team. They were both made interdependent on one another to work together for the glory of God. In the Old Testament laws, like we saw, there is this order that's reflected. Politically in Scripture, the Scriptures have a dim view of order. of women rulers. Isaiah 3 says, as for my people, children are their oppressors and women rule over them. O my people, those who lead you cause you to err and destroy the way of your paths. The one example we have of a kind of positive female ruler is Deborah, and she's only a partial ruler. She doesn't lead in battle. And that's in a situation where the church is in decline, and actually it's a judgment on the men involved because they're all unfit for rule. Ideally, a godly woman that's presented in Proverbs 31 is presented as a strong, competent, initiative-taking woman, but all of that takes place within fulfilling the created order as she does her husband good and not evil all the days of her life. And we could go on into the New Testament to Ephesians 5 or to 1 Peter 3 that speaks about a marriage, Ephesians 5, for the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let wives be to their own husbands in everything. So what I'm trying to say is this is something that's throughout Scripture, and we see this chain of command in its most concentrated form in marriage. But because the difference between man and woman was made in marriage back at the beginning with the creation of woman, this basic arrangement goes beyond marriage to the church and into society. Now, the basic upshot of this is men are to lead, protect, and provide. Women are to follow, help, support, and nurture. And together, together, we build, we multiply, and we conquer for the glory of God. You see, this is really significant because the world wants to pit men and women against each other. That's what it's been doing very successfully for the last hundred and plus years, pitting men and women against each other. But the Bible brings them together, brings them together in an ordered and beautiful and fruitful way. And this is something that's been recognized throughout church history, this order. I'll just put a few quotes to you from men that we respect, and quotes that at first might strike you as odd. Please feel free to speak to me afterwards if you find them difficult, but know that these men from their writings very much valued women. John Calvin wrote on this passage, God's eternal law, which has made the female sex subject to the authority of men. Matthew Henry wrote on this passage, Christ in his mediatorial character and glorified humanity is at the head of mankind. He is not only first of the kind, but Lord and sovereign. He has a name above every name, though in his high office and authority he has a superior, God being his head. And as God is the head of Christ, and Christ the head of the whole humankind, so the man is the head of the two sexes. Not indeed with such dominion as Christ has over the kind, or God has over the man, Christ Jesus, but a superiority and headship he has, and the woman should be in subjection and not assume or usurp the man's place. Hodge, Charles Hodge, a 19th century theologian says, On this passage, he then reminds them of the divinely constituted subordination of women to the man. This subordination is proved by the very history of her creation. Eve was formed out of Adam and made for him. This subordination, however, of women is perfectly consistent with the essential equality and mutual dependence of the two sexes. Neither is or can be without the other. Now all of this is never, never, never an excuse for men to lord it over women or to abuse their authority. This is also saying men are under authority in relation to Christ and to each other in various ways. Men and women are dependent on each other and God takes very, very seriously and punishes men's abuse of authority, especially in relation to women and children. So what does this look like in practice? Well, in marriage and the family, it's fairly straightforward. The man is to be the ruler and leader of his family and marriage, but the husband and the wife are a team who work together alongside each other with mutual respect. In the church, the offices are held by men and teaching is done by men. The leadership and initiative is taken by men, but in such a way that is supported and augmented by the work of their wives and the women of the church. How this works out in society in general at the moment is a very fraught question. Our world and society is currently a mess. This principle is transgressed everywhere, in home, in church, in the military, in shops, in the boardroom, in the halls of parliament. Hear me very carefully. We cannot We cannot go out there and rigidly apply this all at once, nor is it our responsibility to do so. Recently, I was talking to a man in the military. His new boss is a woman, and there wasn't even a hint in our conversation that he shouldn't respect that authority. To do that would be stupid, and it would also undermine the very structures of authority that God has established. What God has called us to do is to believe this principle, to apply this principle where and when we have authority to do so, to pray to God, the ultimate authority, that He would establish this principle and His authority through it, and to pray, to pray for revival. We're never gonna see this apart from revival and the spread of that amongst people at large. Sometimes it's asked, does this mean that every woman is to submit to every man? And the answer to that is, of course, no. When Calvin says that female sex is subject to the authority of men, he's not saying that every man has authority over every woman as he has over his own wife. Rather, he is saying that men are to lead, and therefore in relation to various authorities that a woman is under in family, in church, and in society, she will be under the leadership of men. In addition, we ought to recognize that there is a certain dignity which ought to go with authority, and so that broadly impacts male-female relations. We can think of it this way. King Charles, has no actual authority over citizens of the United States living in America. But invariably, when they meet with the British monarch, these citizens of the US treat him with respect. I looked at another way. I would never dare to assume to interact with any of you ladies the way I interact with Anna, my own wife, lovingly, but as her head. I'm not your head. And yet, both you and I know that interacting between us is different than you between another woman or me between another man. To flesh this out in the real world, take, for instance, a workday at the church. Sometimes we have workdays where we all get together and do work on the church. Normally, that's initiated by the deacons, who are men. In general terms, the leadership of the day is done by the men. But if I were to go into the kitchen where a bunch of ladies were organizing these things and one of you was leading that, I wouldn't at all assume that somehow I would just sort of take it over. I would just fit in where you were leading and see how I could help. And furthermore, if the ladies thought that actually one of the priorities for the workday needed to be cleaning the floors of the church because the children were crawling all around it, and it was a real big problem. It would be the height of stupidity for the men to say, well, we're not going to make that a priority because it wasn't our idea. So these are how these things work out in practice. Believe me. I know that this is unpopular according to the powers that be in our culture today. But there are many, many people today in our culture who are rejecting atheism, and they're going on a journey. and we want them to find the God who is enthroned in heaven. And the only way they're gonna find that God is by submitting to the Lord Jesus Christ through repentance and faith. There are many, many in our society at large who are questioning the dominant narrative of our culture on men and women, and they're going on a journey. And we don't want them to find the twisted, depraved vision of Andrew Tate or the empty frills of a trad wife. We want them to find this beautiful, glorious creation order, this creation order in which God has made a way for both men and women to be reconciled to himself through Jesus Christ. This creation order in which men and women are brought together to work side by side in joy, powerfully, in an ordered way, in a way that's complimentary, together, serving God through Jesus Christ, their head. So that is the principle that we find in this text. And I've spent a lot of time on that because it's the foundation upon which the practice here is built. But now I want to turn in point two to look at that practice. And I'm just gonna be straightforward with you about what I think it says and why I think this passage says what it says. But listen to me, I want you to come to your own view. I want you to study it for yourself and decide what you think it says. As I mentioned in the introduction, the situation in Corinth was, I believe, that women in the church were trying to overthrow this creation order that we've been looking at. How? Well, they were removing their coverings in order to lead in prayer or to prophesy. They were the ones being edgy. And this is important because some will argue that the covering is the long hair, especially since verse 15 says, her hair is given to her for a covering. The big problem with this, or one of them, is that the Greek word for covering all the way through the passage has to do with something you put on top of your head, a veil or something like that, until it gets to verse 15, and then it's a different word. Not to do that with that, and it's talking about the hair in a different way. So it's difficult to say that that is the covering. Others argue that the covering is only for women who are praying or prophesying and that they needed this because they were doing a male thing and therefore they needed a symbol of authority on their head. And this only applies to the apostolic age because that's when you had prophecy and that sort of thing. However, the problem here is that Paul himself, in chapter 14, verse 35, specifically forbids women from speaking publicly in church, not just judging prophecy, as some say. And the context is specifically that of prophesying. And there's also the same language of shamefulness, as we see in this passage. You might be wondering then, Why would Paul command women to cover their heads when leading in prayer and prophesying if they wouldn't be able to do these things in the first place? Well, the answer is he doesn't command them to cover their heads for specific activities. What he says is that they are not to pray or prophesy with uncovered heads. Imagine this situation. The women of Corinth ordinarily covered their heads in worship, but some women were removing their coverings to lead in prayer or to prophesy. Why would they do that? Because the head covering is a symbol of authority, it is a symbol of the women being under the authority of her husband or father, and they knew instinctively that praying or prophesying was an authoritative teaching, a leading role, a men's role, and therefore it was awkward to do it looking like a woman. This is what Paul is condemning. Nothing in the passage necessitates Paul approving of women leading in prayer or prophesying publicly. If I were to say, every man preaching in a dress is a disgrace, but every woman preaching in men's trousers is also a disgrace. you wouldn't assume that I'm approving of women preaching as long as they wear a dress. You know I'm condemning women trying to look like men in order to preach. Preaching is a male activity, and it is disgraceful for a man to do it, presenting himself as a woman, and it's also disgraceful for a woman to do it, even if she presents herself in a more masculine way. The same sort of thing is going on here. This is the understanding of the text I take because it draws the theological principle of verse three together with the rest of the passage, and it also harmonizes chapter 11 and chapter 14. Paul then goes on to give four arguments as to why men ought not to cover their heads in worship, but women ought to. And the first is an argument of honor and dishonor. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered, dishonors her head. For that, having her head uncovered, is one and the same as if her head were shaved. For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered. It is dishonorable for a man to have his head covered, and it's dishonorable for a woman to have her head uncovered. And each dishonors his or her head, Christ or her husband or father, if they do this. To support this, Paul says that it's shameful for a woman not to cover her head. And he says that if she doesn't, then let her be shorn. Why? Because then she would look like a man. So he's basically saying if you want to act like a man, you ought to be made to look like a man. And you can't equate here hair and covering because it's saying if the woman's not covered, then this is to happen. So it's two separate things. Now, make of that what you want, and, you know, it's for you to study the passage and figure it out. There's some uncomfortable things in there, but that's the view that I think makes the most sense. Secondly, he grounds the creation order in scripture and connects that to this practice. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man. For man is not from women, but woman from man, nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. For this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man in the Lord. For as woman came from man, even so man also comes from woman, but all things from God. I don't think I need to say much more on that. We've seen that in the last point. The whole foundation for this practice of head curving is this creation order. Paul then goes on and he turns to an analogy from nature in verses 13 to 15. Judge among yourselves, is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering. Now if these verses weren't there, then it would be clear what Paul was driving at. But there's a lot of confusion that's been introduced here because at least In one reading, it looks like the hair here is the covering. However, is there a way of understanding these verses that fit with what we've seen before, that make the whole passage work together? Yes. Paul here is not telling us what the covering is. Rather, he is using the analogy of hair length the difference between men and women, to say that we see this in our general lives, that there's a difference, and nature supports that difference. And therefore, if you agree with that, you ought to also agree with this practice. And finally, he says that this is the universal practice of the church. But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God. This verse can be interpreted in different ways, but they all amount to the same thing. It can mean we have no such custom of contingent. It can mean we have no such custom of women going unveiled, which would be my preference, or less likely, it could mean we have no other custom other than women covering their heads. And then he adds, to whichever way you take it, nor do the churches of God. Exactly how one takes this makes little difference to the meaning. Paul is making appeal to the broader church, and indeed, from the records we have, this seems to have been a broad practice through the early church. According to Tertullian, who lived just 150 years later, it seems that this is likely the interpretation that the Corinthians themselves took of the passage. As this applies to our day, although this practice has become very unusual in our time, it has been the practice of most of the church through most of history. So, what is Paul saying? In particular, what is the practice that he is upholding? It is that men worshiping with their heads Covered is shameful, they ought to uncover their head. Women ought to worship with heads covered. Why? Because of the shamefulness of a man covering his head and a woman uncovering hers. Because the head covering is a visible sign of the created order, which God has established and ought to be upheld. Because of the natural distinctions between men and women that we see just in general, like hair length, and because this is the practice of the universal church. Before we leave this section on practice, I want to take notice of two objections, and not really to sort of defend my position, but because dealing with those objections sharpens our understanding of the passage. Some argue that the abiding command here is simply that men and women ought to present themselves in worship in a way that is masculine or feminine. And that's great as far as it goes. The problem is that this text talks about a commonly recognized symbol of authority. Paul is not just teaching the creation order. He is teaching that the creation order ought to be symbolized in worship. Indeed, this is why this practice, I think, is so offensive today. The world, of course, is now trying to police our thoughts and our words, but simply believing something or saying something is child's play to symbolizing it. For Christians, embracing this practice also makes our culturally unusual beliefs more visible. It is one thing to believe in male headship, but when it remains in thoughts and words, it can sometimes be more easily hidden or forgotten. The second objection is that we don't know the form of this covering. Kevin Young writes of this, it is impossible to know precisely what the head coverings were like. Being largely ignorant of the practice, any attempt at exact obedience would be more symbolic than actual. I don't find this very convincing. Surely the exact form of the covering is not particularly important. That's not what Paul's driving at. That's not his focus. These things will always be different from time and place and different places in our world. These coverings will look different. If one is going to practice the head covering, one can go back to what it looked like before our culture put it off, or actually, there's all sorts of freedom a woman has now to do it in different ways. And in fact, in our congregation, different women do it in different ways. We don't need a particular form to obey, but there needs to be a symbol. And Of course, a man can be effeminate with an uncovered head, or a woman can be unsubmissive with a covered head. But when a man worships bareheaded or takes off his hat when he comes into worship, when a woman covers her head, she's symbolizing something according to this understanding. And when a man or woman does this, Well, they are encouraging themselves to be what they ought to be. As much as we ought to affirm the principle of the creation order, and we ought to do that, God has given us an outward symbol to help us. Now, remember, I've made an argument, and that's what I believe the text says. I'm going to preach the text as I think it says. But this is something that you are free to look at and to come to your own conclusion on. And all I ask is that you do that in study, and thoughtfully, and in prayer. If you come to a different conclusion, then that is perfectly fine. So as we wrap all of this up, what we see here, first and foremost in this text, is this creation order. That feels today edgy. But in reality, that is the way God has designed things. It is our culture that's edgy because it's pushing against that. And the first thing that we need to remember about the creation order is that God and his Christ are at the top of it. You may be sitting here and have found all this talk of creation order and head coverings weird, annoying, even infuriating, but the point you really need to focus on, particularly if you're not in Christ, is that the head of every man and woman is Christ. The Son of Man, the Son of God came to be a man, to live, to die, to rise again. He has all authority in heaven and on earth, and He is coming again. He is the head of a new mankind, and He will bring them to live and reign with Him forever, but He will cast the old mankind into everlasting judgment. If you're not a part of that new mankind, that new humanity, you need to be, and you need to do that by repentance and faith towards Jesus Christ, the great King that we see in this passage. If you're a Christian, this passage first and foremost reminds you that God is in charge through Christ our Lord. Before you even get to any of the head covering stuff, that's the thing you need to take away, that Christ is in charge, and that includes all of your life. Third, then, please do figure out, if you haven't already, what you think about this passage. But finally, let this passage provoke you to long for the glory of Christ more. That's what it's all about, right? At the head of this order is Christ and his Father. It's all about glory, a glory flowing upward. And therefore, if you're provoked this morning, let that not first and foremost be on the particulars of this passage, but focus your mind and heart on living all of your life for the glory of God, and then secondarily, think about these things. May we together love and serve the Lord our God, and may we respect one another in our differences on the particulars of these things. Let's pray. Lord God, We have seen from Your Word a lot of things which are hard and controversial in our day, but Lord, we pray that You would give us grace, grace to focus on the main things, grace to long first and foremost for Your glory through Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, we pray that if there are things helpful that have been said this morning, that you would apply them to our hearts. And if there are things unhelpful, that they would fall away, that you might be all in all through Jesus Christ, amen. to cement that focus on the glory of Christ, we are going to sing now Psalm 72, and that's in the Scottish Psalter, so that's in the back of the book. You can find that on page 314 because we're just singing the last few verses, verses 17 to 19 of the glory of Christ and of the glory of God in Him. So let's lift our minds and hearts and voices to Christ our King.