imitate me just as I also imitate Christ. 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 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 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 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 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 to the churches of God. Amen. More than a year ago I left off our series on 1 Corinthians because we had reached chapter 11 and I was not prepared to tackle at that time a subject so potentially controversial and divisive. Since then I've listened to a lot of sermons, read a great deal, prayed much. And I've reached the conclusion that I can't go on putting this off. I was reminded the other day, listening to another minister, he was saying that when ministers ignore portions of Scripture, it is offensive to God. And I'm not willing to offend God, simply because this is difficult or controversial. Now, some of you may be wondering why this Now. I mean, we've been talking about revival and suddenly we're dealing with head coverings. Well, part of the answer to that is simply my own conscience. That the honest truth is I left 1 Corinthians because of chapter 11. And that has nagged upon me and bothered me ever since. And then second, It seems to me that there is indeed a connection between any truth in the scripture and revival, that if we are obedient to God in all things, if we are willing to be obedient to God, willing to do as He wants us to do, however radical it may be, we can expect the Lord's blessing. Now, before I begin, what I'd like to do this morning is to make some preliminary comments that I hope will be helpful. First of all, I recognize that most of you have never been taught on this subject. It's been virtually ignored. Pastors have avoided this text, ironically, while spending a great deal of time in the second portion of the chapter. But it has been mostly ignored. And so you cannot entirely be blamed for not being clear about what God wants from you. I think that's just important for us to recognize. Now most of you know that head coverings are new to our family. One of the reasons for that is that I never asked Aaron to wear a head covering. And I never asked her to wear a head covering for two reasons. Number one, my position on the matter is not shared by this denomination. And number two, I did not want her to do it simply because I was asking her to. So I want to assure you today that I have no intention of forcing anyone or guilting anyone to doing anything they don't want to do. If you begin to wear a head covering, and I'm speaking out of the women, if you begin to wear a head covering simply because a minister tells you, you are missing the point. And that is why in the 60s and 70s all the head coverings began to vanish. Because they were doing something they didn't believe. And that is hypocrisy. It wasn't coming from the heart. It wasn't based upon the Word of God, and I don't want that. If you were to start wearing a head covering here only to take it off when you visit other churches, that is a mark of hypocrisy, so don't do it. I'm simply today going to lay out for you what I understand to be the meaning of this text, and after that it is between you and the Lord. We're not going to make this a weekly issue. It's not going to be an ongoing conversation. It's simply going to deal with the text and leave it with you and God. Second, I want to acknowledge that you will not find a word of this in the Confession, which simply means that it's not a point over which we should divide. But be careful, because the Confession is man-made and the Bible is not. And if our man-made documents say nothing about head coverings, God's Word does. There are some rules in my home that are more important than other rules, but I wouldn't take it very kindly if you came into my home and sat my children down and told them that they were free to disregard this or the other rule because in your estimation it wasn't a very important rule. And I don't think that God takes it kindly when we disregard any portion of His Word. It's one thing for us to come to the text and wrestle with it and reach a conclusion. It's another thing to simply ignore it. If it wasn't important to Him, it wouldn't be found in His book. So, if you're not prepared to tear this out of your Bible, then you have better face it. Third, We need to be honest and admit that though part of the blame lies with our teachers, with pastors, most of us have been guilty of doing something with this portion of Scripture that we don't do with others. What I mean by that is that we tend to skim over it. I don't know about you, but I suspect even the experience of hearing it read aloud just now is rather unusual. How many of you, having come to this passage, have really investigated it? How many of you have said to God, very honestly, I don't want to wear a head covering, but I'm willing, if you want me to, show me what you want me to do. Number four, there is sadly often a fear of what outsiders will think. I heard it before put like this, if the women in the church start wearing head coverings, what will people think when they visit the church? And what will the unconverted say? And how will we reach the world for Jesus? Do you know, I think that kind of reasoning is absolutely appalling. Are we really afraid of what men think? Would we really refuse God what He demands because we don't want to offend or embarrass a carnal, unbelieving world? You know, that kind of logic, and we've seen it creep in in the church in many different ways, when it makes its way into the church is a disgrace. because it is the Lord who builds his church and he promises blessing on nothing less than obedience. We do not serve the world by becoming like the world. Our impact on an unbelieving nation is just in proportion to how different we are. It's actually exactly opposite to thinking of so many. how unlike them we are, how much of God is upon us. So what matters most is not how appealing our worship, appealing our dress, but how pure. and how pleasing to God. I was struck the other day, I went to visit a church the last Lord's Day, and it just amazed me how it seemed everything was tailored to suit the outsider. Everything geared to make the unbeliever feel at home. But you know, that's backward. The only way to make a carnal person, a carnal man or woman, feel at home in a church is to remove everything that is spiritual and ultimately to banish God. Now, yes, absolutely we want the unconverted to be confronted with the love of Christ. Yes, we should warmly welcome them. But if God is in the midst, I assure you they will be anything but comfortable. Stop worrying about what people think. If you want to curry favor, curry favor with God. I prayed a moment ago that we would be people who would live as if for an audience of one. He's the only one we need to concern ourselves with. And then lastly, last preliminary consideration and comment. People will tell us that, well, this is a difficult passage. Sure, the Greek words that are used here are not difficult at all. So why is it so difficult? You know, that was the question one minister asked his congregation. Why do people think this is so hard? It's actually quite simple. The plain reading of the passage goes against the majority opinion of the church. Now, listen very carefully. It is always easy, and this goes for a host of issues, it is always easy to see difficulties and complications when we want a passage to say something else. You just find somebody in a church that ordains women and ask them what they think of 1 Timothy chapter 2, and you won't believe the complications they manage to dig up. Things that never occurred to you. When you opened up your Bible, you read chapter 2, and it was plain as day to you. And you know, the simple fact is, people in this generation do not come, they do not come to this passage wanting to find here an argument to wear head coverings. Do they? I've never met that woman. I've never met the man. Honestly, we wanted to say something else, and so all the apparent difficulties, it seems to me, came, the majority of them at least. Well, from us, we made them up. We wanted an excuse, and so we found one. One of the greatest objections to head coverings, and one that you will hear in the Reformed churches, Evangelical churches, and the Liberal churches, is that this was a cultural practice. Apparently, we're told, you don't find a word of it in the letter to the Corinthians, but apparently the prostitutes in Corinth went about without head coverings. And so Paul didn't want the Corinthian women to be mistaken for prostitutes. Or they would say that the passage really is about headship. It's about the role of men and the role of women and head coverings. Well, that's sort of a side issue. And it depends on the culture and all of that. But you know, that's something like saying that Romans chapter 12, with all of its particulars and application, is, well, because it begins with the word therefore, really isn't about all those particulars and application points. It's just about everything that came before it. Now, there's absolutely a connection in Romans chapter 11 with everything that came before. That's why the Apostle Paul says, therefore, that chapter 12 of Romans is about the particulars. And I'll tell you, 1 Corinthians 11, you'll find a great deal said about a particular. Over and over again, the Apostle Paul uses the word. Now, we're gonna get into the passage and look at it in just a moment, but I want you to think with me for a moment about the cultural argument. R.C. Sproul, commenting on this text, said this. He said, it is totally inappropriate to assign to Paul a reason for his saying something that is different from the one he himself gives. Did you hear that? It is totally inappropriate to assign to Paul a reason for his saying something that is different from the one he himself gives. He does not leave us without a rationale. He appeals to creation, not to Corinth. He goes on and he says, if anything transcends local custom, it is those things that are rooted in creation. Paul doesn't say, women, wear a head covering because we don't want anyone to be thinking that you're a prostitute. He doesn't say, now women, what I'd like you to understand is here's your role in the church, and let me go over that again and explain why that's your role in the church, and by the way, you ought to have something in some way that shows that you agree with this. No, no, he actually insists that the matter at hand The matter at hand is this thing called a covering. And he will then say at the very end of this section, that far from being a Corinth-only issue, that all the other churches, without a single exception, practice this. But what I want you to understand today is that this is exactly how people, in my previous denomination, dismissed the Apostle Paul's words about women ruling over men. They insisted that this was a cultural matter that needed to be addressed. It was for a problem that was peculiar to that particular setting and that particular time. And the problem, of course, with their argument is just like it is here, that the Apostle Paul and 1 Timothy never once addressed those cultural issues that they have brought up. That was not the reason that he gave. In fact, he gave two arguments, both of them theological. He went right back, as he does here in chapter 11 of Corinthians, to creation. When my pastor friend was interviewed by the CVOQ, the denomination that I came from, and he admitted to them that he did not believe that women should be ordained, that women should not be pastors. He was told, well, if you're gonna take that position on 1 Timothy 2, then what about 1 Corinthians 11? Shouldn't your wife be wearing a head covering? My friend smiled and he said, well, she does. But you see, those cunning liberals were onto something. You've got to be consistent. If you can play fast and loose with one portion of the Bible, you can do it with another. So let me ask you a question about Biblical interpretation in general. If you once decide that certain portions of Scripture do not apply today, how do you decide which portions of Scripture do? Who gets to decide which parts of the Bible are relevant and which parts are not relevant? Because that's the society in which we live today. Did you see the problem? It puts you and me in a position that's deadly, that's not right. We are the ones who decide which parts of the Bible are for us. We judge God's Word and our own likes and dislikes suddenly creep in. We're deciding on which thing I'm going to obey and which thing I'm not going to obey. And you know what that is? That's liberalism. I heard it from another minister, but it was so pointed, it was so accurate. He said, you cannot decide which parts of the scripture are cultural and which are not scriptural without resorting to liberalism. You always end up with human minds judging what God has said. And he said, it all becomes very complicated when you go down that road. Now, I cannot emphasize that last point enough. I'm setting aside this very particular issue for a moment. Think about what he said. It all becomes very complicated when you go down that road. Here God has given us a book that is meant to be understood. But God's not mocking us. He didn't give us this book so that we would look at it and walk away confused and mystified. All of it, he said, every word of it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, instruction, and righteousness. It's given as a revelation to be picked up, read, and understood so that even children can pick up their Bibles, read them, and know what God wants them to do. But I went to a liberal seminary, and I'll tell you what liberals are good at, making everything complicated. Because man is deciding which part is relevant, and man is deciding which part isn't relevant. And no longer are the authors of the Bible allowed to supply their own reasons for what they say. No, no, you need the scholars to come along and tell you why they said it. And the Bible becomes a closed and mysterious book instead of the precious, inspired, and living Word of God. Now, in the conservative churches, we have a much, much higher regard for the Bible. And it's a blessing to find people who are willing to take up their Bibles, read their Bibles, and do what the Bible says. And I think many of us would say, if God says it, that does it. We're not afraid to say, the Bible tells me so. There are things I don't understand. I don't know why He wants me to do it, but He told me to do it, and that's enough. But you know, there's one great exception. And I think it's right here. It is here where all of a sudden what our forefathers called the perspicuity of Scripture, the clarity of it, its understandability, is thrown out the window. And God's Word suddenly becomes so complicated that nobody can understand what it means. And so we just must move on and read about the Lord's Supper. Now why? I believe it's because we didn't want it to say what it says. But if you do that here, you will eventually do it somewhere else. And if you don't believe me, if you don't believe me, look at the church. I want you to notice something. One man, he made this observation. He said lots of problems in churches today would not be problems if they weren't problems in the world first. These problems that are in the church today, they wouldn't be problems if they weren't problems, first of all, in the world. It's as if we're always trying to play catch-up. What an embarrassment to a holy God, when the church, like a child on a playground, cannot stand up to a bit of peer pressure. And we'd rather the approval of the world than the approval of God. But you know very well that this is true. Look what's happened recently with regard to homosexuality. To some of us, this is still just staggering what's happened and how quickly it's happened. All of a sudden, churches are rethinking what they've always believed. Why is that? Well, part of it is that many of them don't know their Bibles, and so their own beliefs didn't come from the Bible. They believe the things they believe because they're told to believe them. And so now they're rethinking homosexuality and transgenderism because the world has embraced these things and they feel the pressure to conform. But look at what happened with the place of women in the church. The church didn't sit down with their Bible and discover that they'd been mistaken for centuries. No, they responded to the feminist movement. Demands were being made and the church was pressured to conform. And the same thing happened with head coverings. It wasn't so long ago that it was a common sight to find in the church women wearing something on their heads. And where did it all come from? What changed? It was the changes that were happening in the society. the impact of the feminist movement, women going off to work, women rising to positions of leadership, women's rights, the demand for equality, and suddenly the church followed suit. And why would you wear the sign of submission if we don't believe we should submit? And the head covering, after all, is a sign of a woman's agreement with God's order. And suddenly the church didn't agree anymore. But again and again, scripture has been re-read and re-read and re-interpreted to fit cultural customs. And I'll tell you the sad irony is that we have the temerity so often, and the audacity as the Church, to read the culture into the Bible, when actually it's our own culture that has changed. And if we're perfectly honest, it's our own cultural norms that we prefer over the norms and standards of the Bible. And so when we read God give a reason for what He's told us to do, the temptation for us, instead of believing Him, is to decide, well there must be another reason why He would say that. Because we don't want to look so unlike the world. And I will admit to you that in a culture like our own, nothing looks so ridiculous as a head covering. Because I believe everybody understands instinctively what it means, even in our day, that it is a visible sign. It's almost like a neon sign. of the woman's submission to the man. It's our woman saying publicly, I know the place that God has assigned to me, and I embrace it for the glory of God. What a statement. And it's no wonder to me that when the church rejected the authority of the man in the subordination of the woman, that they rejected the sign of that submission. So having made all those preliminary remarks, let's look briefly at the text. Verse number two. The Apostle Paul talks about these traditions or ordinances. He's not speaking about man-made traditions or ordinances. Usually in the Bible, when the Bible speaks about traditions, the man-made ones, it does so disparagingly, but he doesn't do that here. He's talking about oral traditions, oral scripture. These things that God has passed on to us, and he says, listen, I praise you. Because you're keeping the traditions as you should keep them. But the letter to the Corinthians was written to address a host of issues. There were problems in the church, as there often are in churches. And he's going to deal with three particular matters that pertain to public worship. Three matters that pertain to public worship that need to be corrected. Number one, the head coverings. Number two, the Lord's Supper, the way they're doing that. And third, the manifestation of spiritual gifts and the fact that they're speaking in tongues and it's all out of order. Excuse me, verse number three. He gives the basic principle. Let's read that again. 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. So there's the basic principle behind the practice. The head of every man is Christ, the head of every woman is the man and the head of Christ is God. So this is not about worth. Christ is not less glorious or lovely or worthy than the Father. But for our sake, for the work of our salvation, the Son submitted to the Father. And in the same way, our women are not less lovely or worthy than our men. Actually, they are His crown. And Paul will specifically say that they are His glory. They are precious in the eyes of God. Women, you are precious in the eyes of God, but you have a role in the world which is a role something like that of Christ. That you aren't to be subject to men as Jesus is subject unto the Father. And so now with that principle, the Apostle Paul now says every man who prays or prophesies having his head covered actually dishonors his head, which is to say he dishonors Jesus. Because you remember the head of man is Christ. Verse seven. He is the image and glory of God. That's the reason. He is the image and glory of God. Now isn't it interesting that we have preserved that? Do you understand what I'm getting at? I don't see a single man here wearing a baseball cap. We don't think it's acceptable for a man to wear a head covering in worship. And some of you, if you saw a man sitting in front of you with a cap on his head, you'd just be all you could do not to reach out and pull it off of him. And Paul is saying to us, you know, it is not acceptable for a man to wear a head covering. No, no, it's not right. It's not good in worship. He does that and he dishonors the Lord Jesus. So let's back up for a moment because Paul uses two words here and he does so in verse 5. Praying and prophesying. Verse 4 and verse 5 he repeats those words. What does he mean? Praying is obvious enough. And prophesying could mean one of three things. It could mean foretelling. It could mean telling about what's going to happen in the future. And that is something that in the Bible women sometimes did. Though Paul will later say that women ought to keep silent in the church. It could mean foretelling. So not foretelling, but foretelling where you would preach or teach, which clearly God has forbidden in the case of women. Or it could mean singing. If you turn in your Bible, we won't look at it now, but later on, perhaps, you can look at 1 Corinthians, Chronicles, I should say, chapter 25, and you find that prophesying refers to singing and playing instruments. So when you come to the next verse, and you read about women doing these things, praying and prophesying, you have some like John Calvin, Matthew Henry, who believed that Paul was not here addressing the appropriateness of women doing these things in public. in public worship, I should say, but simply saying that in that context of prophesying and praying, men should not have head coverings, but women should. And so then they would say, well, later on, the apostle Paul deals with the question of whether women can actually prophesy or pray aloud in the church. Now, whether you take their view, or you decide to take the view that this refers to singing, Or you just simply understand that what the Apostle Paul is getting at here very simply is this, that where there's praying happening and there's prophesying happening and the women are silently agreeing as they ought to be doing in that same context that you have the Lord's Supper, the same context where you have to sort out the matter of speaking in tongues, in that context, men are not to wear head coverings and women must wear head coverings. Now we can have a conversation about family worship, corporate prayer, but for now, let me just say that what's very clear, what's at very bottom least, is that these instructions apply, as they do later in the chapter, to gather public worship services. So now we'll notice what Paul says in verse five. He says, the woman that is in this setting, who is during it where the prophesying is taking place, where the praying is taking place, When she uncovers her head, she dishonors her head, which is to say she dishonors man. Now the word cover is used repeatedly in this chapter. What it refers to, very simply, is something that covers the head. It's not a veil to cover the face, but something to cover the head. Why? Very briefly, to conclude this morning, let me consider with you the reasoning. Paul lays out two arguments why this is necessary, why it's important. and why it's important specifically for the women to wear the head covering. It says you have the principle number one of the subordination of women to men. And then in verses 17, 7 to 16, you have these arguments. Number one, so neither argument is cultural. Two basic arguments, number one, man's consciousness, our sense, our instinct that God has made a difference between men and women. Now this argument begins in verses five and six, continues in verses 13, 14, 15. Paul is saying, listen, God has made an obvious difference between men and women, and it's to be shown For example, in the way that they dress. That women are not to dress like men, and men are not to dress like women, even for pretend. And men are not to style their hair like women, and women are not to style their hair like men. And men should not have very long hair, and women should not have very short hair. Now, he takes this for granted. Our culture doesn't, but he does. He says, everybody knows this. It's written upon the hearts and minds of everyone. And if it's a shame for a woman to be uncovered in the one sense and to have her hair cut short like a man, so it is a shame for her to be uncovered in the other sense. He put it like this a little bit earlier on in this chapter. He said, if a woman is uncovered in worship, she might as well be shaven. In other words, if her hair is not covered, it should be cut off. So Paul is not talking about the woman's hair being her covering. You try to insert the word hair every place that it says covering in this chapter. You watch what happens to the passage. It doesn't make sense. He's borrowing from nature. He's borrowing from this distinction between men and women, his short hair, her long hair, to support his argument. And you don't support your argument by repeating your argument. He assumes that it is an obvious shame for a woman to have her hair cut off. And what he is saying then is that if the woman goes into the worship service without a covering on her head, she might as well shave her hair. But since it is a shame to be shaved, let her also then have a covering on her head. No, he's not comparing a shaved head with a shaved head. He's not saying, if it's a shame to have her hair cut off, she might as well cut off her hair. He's comparing a shaved head with a head uncovered. That's the only interpretation that makes any sense. Teach the propriety of the other. The second argument has to do with the created order. It begins in verse 7 and continues through verse 11. You've got the fact that man was made first, verse 8. Same argument as 1 Timothy chapter 2 and the whole question of women teaching and preaching. But I want you to pay particular attention to verse 7. 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 man." So the man, he's saying, is the glory of God. And the woman is the glory of man. And the glory of man should be covered in worship. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And no flesh should glory in the presence of God. Now, we understand this instinctively. We know instinctively that it's not proper for man to be glorified in the worship of God. You see, in a woman, she's the glory of the man. And so for that reason, she's to be covered. Do you see the reason? She is His glory. And because she's His glory, we understand man's glory is not to be on display when we come before a holy God. And so her physical head is not to be uncovered, but covered. She's to have power, a symbol of authority on her head, a symbol of her submission to her head, which is the man. And notice the word about the angels. Did you know that they are witnesses to what we're doing here? Hebrews says that as we gather in worship, we have come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God and unto an innumerable company of angels. It's as if when we gather for worship, there's a sense in which we've stepped into heaven, that we are participating in the worship of heaven and the angels. are among us, and they're watching, and the Bible says they long to inquire into these things. They want to learn. Because there are things they don't understand. They never sinned. They didn't need a Redeemer. What does it say to watching angels? Because this is what the Apostle Paul is getting at here. What does it say to watching angels when women do not wear coverings on their head? But if you take the text at its word, it seems to say that they are refusing the role that God has given them. I heard one man say that it reminds the angels, it almost surely reminds them of the rebellion of Satan and his angels against God's order at the very beginning. So remember that moment. Satan. Not pleased with the order. Not pleased that God should have the glory. Not pleased that God should have authority. Rebelled. And here are the angels in our midst watching. What a message to send to the angels even as we're engaged in the act of worshipping God. That we're refusing the order that God has given to us. Do you see the reasoning? You've got on one hand the fact that God has covered her hair with long, her head I should say, with long hair. And the clear distinction between men and women, even in nature, which he says ought to be the pattern then for our worship. That there should be a distinction here as well. A symbol of the difference that God has put between a man and a woman. And then the fact that while man was made first, and made in the image of God in this particular area of authority and divine order. That the woman was made, on the other hand, from man. And while he is the image and glory of God, she is the glory of man. And when we gather to worship, it's not right to hide and cover the glory of God, but it is appropriate to cover the glory of man. And so to have this visible symbol of her subordination to Him. Showing the angels, showing our world that she's willing for the glory of God to embrace this role that has been given to her. She's saying that she's willing for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ to submit herself to the man. So it's not just for married women. Now I recognize on so many levels this is a very hard saying. And so let me just plead with you, don't do this simply because the minister has told you to do it. I do pray, however, that God would make you willing, in the day of His power, that you would treat this text like you treat any other text of the Bible. That's all. And you do this then for the glory of God. You do it to show the church, show the world, show the angels, that more precious to us than the approval of man is the approval of God. We're willing to look like fools for Him if need be. And even as Jesus made Himself of no reputation for us, and was not ashamed to call us brethren, so are women would be willing to be like Jesus. of no reputation, and not ashamed to embrace their God-given place in God's order. Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, we pray that you would please give us hope in this area. Our Father, that your word would be very clear to us, and that we would be found willing in the day of your power to do whatever you want us to do, no matter how painful, no matter how difficult. Again, our Father, we pray, as we prayed earlier, that not only in this area, but in all areas of our lives, we would be willing to live as if for an audience only of one. We would not concern ourselves with what others think, but that we would concern ourselves only with what you think. Father, where there is still any measure of confusion, we pray that you would clear it up. We pray, Father, where there is any spirit of grief, where there is resistance to these things, Lord, we pray that you help us be merciful. Lord, we pray that you would make the church to be a shining light in a dark world. And that by the differences that the world finds here, that we would show them and send to them a powerful message of the power of the grace of the gospel. And by our conduct, by our dress, by our words, by our very demeanor, we would lead many unto Jesus. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand together and sing number 123 and the psalter 123A.