Good morning. We're going to be looking today at the topic of head covering as it appears in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and verses 4 through 16. Now, I want to say ahead of our message today, calm any hearts that might be trembling at this point, that it's not the place of myself or of the elders as a team to make some pronouncement about whether or not women should wear a head covering. But it is our place to unpack God's word and to get to the place where we have in our minds what Paul had in his mind when he wrote these passages. And it's my understanding that it is a husband and wife's part to work out between themselves how to respond to what they understand to be the will of God in regard to this topic or any other. And so I just want to begin this message with this clear announcement that this message is not intended to lay down some kind of law, okay? But I'd like you to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 4 and we will begin reading there. 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and beginning at verse 4 continuing through verse 16. 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 God. 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 do the churches of God. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the riches of your word. And Lord, as the Apostle Peter once said of the Apostle Paul, he's written some things hard to be understood. And certainly this is one of those things. But we ask God that by your Holy Spirit, you would open our eyes and our understanding to get a sense of what Paul means by what he writes here. And that we might walk in the light of that. And that we might enjoy the benefits of walking in the light of your word. And so we give you all the praise and all the glory, asking desperately for your help in seeing and understanding this passage. And we give you all the glory. Amen. Now again, Paul is responding to a question that has been sent to him by the church, specifically about the proper relationship between men and women in Christ. And so as we see in 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 1, now concerning the things of which you wrote to me, this is one of the things of which the apostle Paul wrote, or the people in the church of Corinth wrote to Paul. And Paul, in all of the answers that he's been giving, he is virtually shouting into the wind of a pagan culture. It's like a hurricane. Imagine trying to have a conversation in the middle of a hurricane. The wind is going by, trees are going by, everything's blowing around, and you're trying to have a conversation. Well, Paul is trying to have a conversation with these young Christians in Corinth about how to live in this world in various ways. And it flies in the face of the pagan culture, every one of them. And so in this particular case, he's shouting into the wind of pagan culture by explaining how we should demonstrate proper respect toward the authority God has placed over each of us in the order of creation and in the consequences of the fall. We're not going to recover that territory. I think we've covered that already in the past two or three weeks. And so in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 in verse 4, Paul begins this passage by saying, every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head. Now, what's the difference between praying and prophesying? Praying is us talking to God. Prophesying is God talking to us. Okay, now you say, well, when does that happen? Well I believe, along with the Puritans, that anointed preaching is God talking to us. That's prophesying. And so when anyone steps into this pulpit or sits down in a Bible study and opens God's word and having prepared prayerfully to understand the passage and then they begin to share it with others and comment on it and clarify and explain, that fulfills the purpose of prophesying in the New Testament. It is not the same as Old Testament prophesy where we say, thus saith the Lord, and if this doesn't happen, then you stone me to death because I am a false prophet. Now we have much more prophet, Paul said, I wish that all of you would prophesy, right? So we're dealing here not just with some overtly manifested gift, but with the process by which God speaks to us through his word. And the primary responsibility of any preacher, pastor, Bible teacher, is not to give us new things, but to remind us, always to remind us of old things, to remind us of what the scriptures say, what was given to us once and for all time, the faith that has been passed down to us through God's holy word, the Bible. And so, for man to pray to God, or to teach the word of God, or to exercise some more overt gift as in prophesying in a charismatic sense, is to be done having his head uncovered. Because if he covers his head, he dishonors his head. And as we've seen, the head that's referred to here for the man is Jesus Christ himself. Jesus is the head of every man. But every woman who prays or prophesies, notice she's potentially involved in both here. Any woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head and her head is her husband. Or perhaps her father, if she's an unmarried woman in relationship to her family, her father functions as a covering for her in relationship to God. And husbands are responsible for the spiritual nurture and care of their wives and their children, and their young sons as well. So we have this principle of honor and dishonor. And to honor someone is to feel the weight of something. You know, honoring has to do with the weightiness of something. You don't take your your teacher's word lightly. That's the idea. It's metaphorical, but it is the idea that you don't just disregard. When someone is in an authority relationship over you, you don't take what they say lightly. You feel the weight of it. But that doesn't mean that you always have to do exactly what somebody else tells you to do. Because if somebody asks you to do something that's in conflict with God's will, and you know that it is dishonoring to God, you have the right, as Peter said to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, we must obey God rather than man. So it's not an absolute submission. It's a submission as unto the Lord, as we see in various places. And so we don't want to dishonor our head, whether it is a man in regard to Christ or a wife in regard to her husband. Paul is dealing with that issue here. And so today we're going to look closely at this topic of head coverings and try to understand what Paul has in his mind as he writes this. Now we saw that headship is a responsibility. Colossians 2.19 says, holding fast to the head, which is Christ, from whom the whole body, that's the church, is nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments and it grows. And so Paul uses the head and the body as a metaphor in regard to how the head is responsible for the care and the protection of the body. We've seen that in the last few messages in this series. So the physical head of a physical body is that part of the body through which nourishment and protection are provided. So headship is a responsibility. It's not a reward. You don't get to be a head because you've been a good boy, okay? You get to be a head because you got married, okay? If you marry a wife, she's now your responsibility. You are her head, and Christ is your head. And whatever relationship you have to Christ is intended to be carried through in the way that you relate to your own wife. And we see this very clearly when Paul teaches on the relationship between Christ and his church. And he says, I'm not just speaking about marriage here, I'm speaking of Christ and His church. And so a husband must love his wife, and the wife must respect her husband. And so in 1 Corinthians 11 3 we read, but I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ. The head of woman is or of a wife is her husband and the head of Christ is God. That's how he begins this whole passage. Now, biblical headship is the God-given authority that comes from God's creation order. And you see this, and we've seen this referred to several times, that it's the order in which God created man and woman that now affects the way that we understand the relationship between man and woman. The creation and the fall governs Paul's view of not only women, but of everything. And it's very clear in his statement in verse seven of this passage. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, why? Since he is the image and glory of God. But woman is the glory of man. Where do you get that, Paul? He says, for man is not from woman, but woman from man. Adam was created, and out of Adam was taken a rib, and that rib was crafted into a woman, and that woman was then given to Adam to be his wife. You know, for thousands of years people have, outside of the church and those who are not believers, they've scoffed at this idea of God taking a rib and then turning it into a woman. But today we can do that with a single cell, with the DNA from a single cell, a stem cell. We can create an entire being, creature. And so there is nothing, in fact, God had a lot to work with with a rib, right? He could have just taken a single cell, but he took a rib from Adam's side and he created a woman. So rather than getting all bent out of shape about how fantastic this might seem, The reality is scientists are just figuring out how to do this. Okay, so it does work. And Adam and Eve are one in the same. Flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone. And you shall be called woman. In 1 Timothy chapter 2, well I need to finish the passage, nor was man created for the woman but woman for the man. God noted that it's not good for man to be alone. And then there's this process by which all the animal kingdom is evaluated in terms of is there anything here that might work as a partner for man. And even dogs didn't make the cut. Man's best friend didn't make the cut. And so God created a woman and gave her to the man. And her reason for existing was to be his wife and to be the suitable, fitting helper that God noted that he needed. So that's very important. And so he says, For this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head. What is that all about? There should be some way of noticing that she accepts, she embraces, she's okay with the purpose for which she was created. That's what this is all about. Is there some noticeable way that she can signal to others, I'm okay with God's purpose for my existence. I'm accepting that. I'm embracing that. I'm not fighting against it. And so that is why he says, for this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. Now this reference to angels has been debated for thousands of years now. I'm, as I'll show you in a moment, I'm convinced that this is referring to actual angels and that the angels are observing. As we worship, the angels are also entering into worship. Call them guardian angels. Children we see in scripture have angels who are standing before God on behalf of the children that they have been assigned to. We don't know how exactly that all works, but it's there and so we just accept it. It's part of God's Word. And so these angels are in total submission to God. Those angels that rebelled against God were cast out of heaven. And so now the angels that remain in loyalty to God are absolutely submitted to the purpose and plan of God. They do what they are asked to do by God. They are sent with messages at various points in the story of our salvation. And so we can assume that right now in this room or above this room or somewhere, the angels are observing. And it must come across to them as being very confusing for them to be in total submission to God and for us to have this conflict between who are we submitted to and why. And so Paul refers to this as being something that is for their sake as well. To give a signal to the angels themselves that we are okay with the place that God has placed us. That men are okay with Jesus being Lord. That wives are okay with their husbands being their Lord, as we're going to see. And so Paul writes in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 11, let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. There we go again, the order of creation. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. And so the consequences of the fall are also a very real part of Paul's understanding of the relationship of men and women to one another. Everything Paul teaches about headship, head coverings, the role of women is in response to what he knows to be the truth about the consequence and the sequence of the creation story, the fall of mankind, and all that followed in the Garden of Eden. So that's Paul's writing out of that worldview, okay? There is no confusion in his mind as to how God intended us to relate to one another in this hierarchy of headship. Now, God's rescue for women is for her to simply repent. What does it mean to repent? You know, most of us know the answer to that, but sometimes if you're a little new to the faith, you may not be quite clear. But repenting is not just saying I'm sorry. Okay? I've got a five-year-old grandson who, when he does something that he knows is wrong, and I confront him on it, he goes, sorry. Sorry. And he just kind of looks at the ground. It's like, oh, I gotta get this over with. Sorry. And then he'll do the same thing again. And then he'll say, sorry. That's not repentance, okay? Repentance means to turn around and go in the opposite direction. So if you're hitting your little sister, repentance is not just stopping hitting your sister. It's turning and going the opposite direction. So what would that look like? Be kind to your sister. Play with your sister in a way that's fun for her. Repentance is not just stopping the bad stuff, it's pursuing the good stuff with the same enthusiasm that you once pursued the bad stuff. Now you realize how revolutionary that's going to be in your life. You don't just stop sinning, you start doing what's right. And you do it with enthusiasm, with eagerness. So all of you children are looking at me right now, okay? I don't ever want you to just say, sorry. I want you to stop and ask yourself, what's the opposite of stopping what is wrong? And how can I start doing that? And what it's going to look like is brothers who play together well. who play together, who intentionally please one another, look for ways to do something that makes one another happy. That's what it looks like to stop hitting your brother. Okay? Are you guys in for that? Will you do it? Okay. I want to hear a report. So God's rescue for women is for her to repent of her rebellion against God's order and purpose for her life. And I realize that this is, we are shouting into the wind of our culture when we say this, aren't we? We just had a democratic convention here that was just filled with all kinds of open rebellion against God's purpose for women, even to the point of having abortion trailers outside of the convention center and actually performing abortions. Planned Parenthood welcomed to participate in the convention. This is so close to mullet worship. I don't know what else to call it. celebrating the destruction of children as a political policy. Now, 1 Timothy chapter two and verse 15, nevertheless, in spite of all of this in this worldview of Paul's about the fall of man and the curse that would came upon both Adam and Eve, nevertheless, she, the woman, will be saved in childbearing. If, there's an if there. If they, which would include her husband, if this husband and wife continue in faith, love, and holiness with self-control. So the way to rescue a wife or a woman from the sin that has dominated her life is for her to simply repent. And again, what does repentance mean? Don't just stop being in rebellion, start being enthusiastic. and excited about doing the very thing for which you were created in the first place. Paul writes then, therefore I desire that the younger widows, these are women whose husbands have died, that they remarry. and that they bear children, that they manage the house. Now that's not just staying home and mopping the floor. We're talking about things like bookkeeping, talking about home business, talking about all kinds of ways in which a woman, you know, manages with the budget that she has available to provide the best. And if you go to Proverbs 31, the last two thirds of that chapter, you see a pretty good picture of what Paul has in mind when he says, manage the house. Okay, it's not a boring drudgery. It's an exciting opportunity. And the reason for this is to give no opportunity to the adversary, that's the devil or the unbelieving people in the community, an opportunity to speak reproachfully about the church, to make fun of the church, to mock the church. And so wives are asked to participate in the church in ways that are going to earn the respect of those outside the church. So God's way of rescuing women from his judgment on Eve is that all women repent and embrace the purpose for which God created them in the first place. And let's be honest and blunt about this. They were created to help a man. And if you're not okay with that, you can pile all the doilies on your head you want. You can have a quilt over the top. You can wear a burka. It won't matter how much you cover yourself. If your attitude is still, I'm not going to serve any guy, then you are in open rebellion against the purpose for which God created you. Now, I'm not saying you need to be a helpmate to some jerk, but sometimes men can be jerks. And it's in the Bible. This will normally include marriage, not always. Paul encourages some to not marry if they have the gift to be single, to not be burning with passion and so on. But normally it will include marriage and it should be to a godly man. Do not be unequally yoked together. with unbelievers. Don't marry an unbelieving man. Don't do evangelistic dating, where you think, well, he may not be a Christian yet, but I'm going to turn him to Christ. Well, my mom tried that. My father didn't come to Christ until nine months before he died. And they had a long and very, very difficult marriage. So I don't advise you to do evangelistic dating. You look for a man who is seriously about serving God and he's only willing to marry you if you're willing to help him serve God. He's going to love God more than he loves you for the rest of your life. And you should love God more than you love Him for the rest of your life. And because you both love God more than you love one another, when God tells you, I want you to love this woman, and lady, I'd like you to respect this man, both of you are submitting to the will of God in your life. And that's going to make for a very successful marriage. So, by the way, if you want to meet a match for this type of thing, go and do what you would hope your future spouse was doing with his free time or her free time. And you might just show up in the same place at the same time and get to meet one another. I use the illustration of go to some jungle in South America, you know, and you're building a church building for the people there and you reach for a brick and another hand reaches for the same brick at the same time and you look into one another's eyes and you've met your match. There she is. There he is. And you're both there for not to meet one another, you're there to build that building. But because you're there doing something that's righteous and wise and good and pleasing to God, there's a good chance you meet other people who are there to do what's wise and right and pleasing to God. And if that sounds cheesy to you, I just want to let you know, thousands of good marriages have started that way. Millions of good marriages have started that way. Go do and go and be what you would hope your future spouse was going and doing and being and you will find them because God is sovereignly arranging for that appointment to be made. This attitude toward childbearing is what saves the woman from deception. Not all women can conceive. Not all women can even get married. But by having the attitude that childbearing is good, that it's honorable, that circumstances allowing it, you would love to be a mother and a wife, That's a healthy, safe place to be in your attitude. Okay? So I'm not saying, and I don't believe that Paul is saying, you've got to be able to actually get married and get pregnant in order to be saved. But the attitude that sees those things as good and right is the attitude that God wants in every woman. And so what Paul teaches about head coverings is in the light of his understanding of the fall and of the redemption of womanhood in this way. And I want to just remind you again, the submission is a part of God's plan for everyone, not just for women. Okay? 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 5 tells us, likewise, you younger people submit yourselves to your elders. Do you know why the elders are called elders? Because they're not youngsters. I think that's important. There is something that comes from life experience that even if it's not all good, at least it teaches you the kinds of lessons that you need to learn in order to be helpful to those who are younger and to counsel and advise them in ways that are going to do them good and not harm. You can be an old fool, remember that. You can be an old fool and nobody should listen to your advice. But if in your lifetime you have learned a few things and those things are useful to younger people to not make the same mistakes that you've made, then you are able to do the work of being an elder in that person's life. There are family elders. There are church elders. And so we all, as we get older, we get to play the role of an elder in the lives of those who are younger. And they are intended to submit to us. And notice it says, yes, all of you be submissive to one another. You know, this is the old, no, after you, no, after you, no, after you, no, after you. Eventually somebody's got to walk through that dang door, right? But the attitude is how can I serve you? How can I support you? And so submission is important for everyone therefore Peter writes in second or first Peter chapter 2 in verse 13 Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake that's talking about speeding laws on the road and I'm feeling guilty as I speak. It's talking about not jaywalking. You know, you gotta crosswalk just a few feet down the road. Use it, don't walk through the traffic. Don't make life hard for everybody else. This is, when you have an ordinance that says pay your taxes, Paul says pay your taxes. So we should all have this attitude of saying, I'm going to submit myself to every ordinance of men for the Lord's sake. Whether it's to the king as supreme or to his ministers, we could say to presidents, even if he's not the president you voted for, he still holds the office of president. You honor that, you take, hold it, feel it, feel the weight of it, be in submission. Submission is simply coming under the authority of another in order to support them in their mission. Hopefully it's a God-given mission. And if you marry as you should, it will be a God-given mission. and be someone who wants to do what's pleasing to God. Every believer should be eager to come under the authority of their head in order to help them fulfill their calling in life. And all of us have received a calling. Read Ephesians, the last three chapters of Ephesians, and you will see the callings that we have in relationship to one another. In Ephesians 5, 22, wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. Every husband should be very careful to avoid wasting the life of his wife by failing to have a godly mission in life that is worthy of her full support over the course of his lifetime. When we marry one another, we promise to love, honor, respect, love, honor, and cherish until death do us part. And so that is a lifetime calling. The submission of wives to their own husbands is no different than the submission of men to Christ Jesus as their head, as their Lord. Now, we are all under the Lord Jesus Christ. In terms of our salvation, there's neither male nor female, bond or free, you know, Greek, Jew, all of it is the same when we stand before God in that courtroom scene of God's justice. Only the blood of Jesus Christ will suffice there. We have nothing to offer in our own justification, no matter who you are. But as soon as we come to Christ and we've been rescued from our sins and we're transferred into the family room of God's family and his kingdom, now these hierarchies are very real. It would be just like if I say to my oldest son when they were all young, I say, I want you to look after your younger brother and sister here. And I look at the younger brothers and sisters and I say, I want you to listen to what your older brother says. I want you to cooperate. He's responsible. Make sure you're having a good time. And you're responsible to work with him and not make it hard for him. If you're a toddler, that means when your mom's trying to put your t-shirt on, you put your hands up, right? Submit to the one who's serving you. All right. Now Peter offers us a very powerful Old Testament example. In 1 Peter chapter 3 and verses 1 through 7. And I want all of us to really hear this carefully. There's a lot here. Wives, likewise, speaking at, he's been speaking to servants, okay? Speaking to servants, and he says, wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands. that even if some, that's some of those husbands, do not obey the word, that's the word of God, they, without a word from you, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives. So Peter is saying, don't nag, don't badger, right? Stay quiet. And show your husband by your conduct that you respect him, even though he's not obeying the Word. And when they observe your chaste conduct, that means you're not flirting, you're not looking out at the world and wishing you could be out there at the parties. Accompanied by fear, that's the kind of fear that respects someone, listens to what they have to say, doesn't take it for granted. Do not let your adornments be merely outward. You know, and he gets specific. Arranging the hair, wearing gold or putting on fine apparel. Rather, let it be the hidden person of the heart. with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God." Now, get this picture. What pleases God? A gentle and quiet spirit. What is gentleness? Gentleness is the ability to use strength carefully and with concern for others. You know, you might be, you know, one of these weightlifters in the Olympics, you know, you can lift hundreds of pounds, but when you reach down and you pick up a toddler, You're going to be gentle, right? Gentleness is not a lack of strength. It's strength guided by concern for others. And so a woman is not weak when she's being gentle. She's simply using her strength in ways that are considerate of those around her. A quiet spirit doesn't mean she can't talk, but she has a spirit, an attitude of heart that is able to just remain calm, not talk a lot. She's able to be in the presence of others and not dominate the conversation. And it says that this attitude of heart is very precious in the sight of God. And that's why we read over and over that you do these things as unto the Lord. Servants are to serve their earthly masters or employers as unto the Lord, as though He was your boss. So even if your human boss is a jerk, you serve that jerky boss as if he were the Lord and you do a good job because God is watching, God is noticing. Now, for in this manner, In former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves. They adorned themselves with this gentle and quiet spirit. Being submissive to their own husbands as, and here we go, Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror. I mean, sometimes you're doing what your husband would like you to do is scary. but you should be willing to go along. Husbands, likewise, just like the wife, dwell with them, that's your wife, with understanding. Don't just be inconsiderate of her, don't just be living like a single guy in a marriage. Understand her and what she cares about, what pleases her. Giving honor to the wife. There was that word, honor. Let her desires and her pleasure be weighty in your mind. to the wife as to the weaker vessel. But boy has this one gotten a lot of attention over the years. The weaker vessel? Are you saying I'm a weaker vessel? Have you seen these biceps? Well what's being referred to here is the role that a wife plays in relationship to her husband. There's a reason why men have the upper body strength that they have. There's a reason why women have the breasts that they have and the body that they have in order to be able to nurture, conceive, bear and nurture children. And so this weakness that's being referred to here is the reason why the ladies don't go off to battle with their husbands. They're supposed to stay home and take care of the next generation. So we have this relationship within the scriptures that reflect the reality that we see around us, if we're willing to be honest and we're not blinded by some ideology that would try to deceive us. And again, I'll use the term, we're okay with being a woman when we're a woman. We're okay with being a man when we are a man. And we embrace that with joy. And it says, as being heirs together. Now this is where the husband and wife come together in this partnership, heirs together of the grace of life. You are alive by grace. That is an unmerited favor that God has granted to you. And you are to exercise that partnership in such a way that your prayers will be strengthened because you're in agreement with one another. You're both okay with the assignment that God has given you. And when you come to God in prayer, it's not the prayer of two rebels or one rebel or another. It's two people in agreement with God about who they are and why they're here. And when you have that, your prayers will not be hindered. So when either a husband or a wife rebels against God's will, both of their prayers will be hindered because they are one. In their marriage, they have become one flesh, and God will deal with them as one. team now sarah's lord you remember sarah called her husband lord well he was not a model husband okay i'm going to run through this real quickly but i just want to make the point peter is honoring sarah for calling him lord in spite of some of the things that he did, not because of the things that he did. And so in Genesis chapter 18, we come to verse 10. Behold, Sarah, your wife shall have a son. And Sarah is listening outside the tent to this conversation between the angel of the Lord and Abraham. And when Sarah hears this, she laughs. She laughed within herself, saying, and I want you to notice the details here, OK? And she's laughing to herself, saying, after I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord, being old also? This is the only place in scripture where Sarah calls Abraham Lord. And it's in the context of being told she's going to have a son, and her mind is not even on having a son. It's the idea, am I going to have pleasure? Do you realize what an Easter egg this is in the scriptures? Because throughout history, there have been one guy after another who assumes that it's not important for his wife to have pleasure. And this tells us she is to have pleasure, and she's laughing about the fact that God is saying to Abraham, you're gonna have a son, and there's no other way to get that son than to have pleasure with your good old husband. now without being indiscreet here I just want you all to get the message husbands dwell with your wives with understanding she has a need for pleasure she deserves to have pleasure and you should be eager to give her pleasure now let's keep moving on now Genesis 20 verse 2 now Abraham said of his wife Sarah his wife she's my sister And Abimelech, the king of Gerar sent and took Sarah to be his wife, part of his harem. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by the night and said to him, indeed you are a dead man. That's pretty blunt. Because of the woman whom you have taken for she is a man's wife. Not just she's Abraham's wife, she's the wife of another man and you've taken her into your harem. Now he hasn't had anything to do with her yet, but he is absolutely terrified. And Abimelech called to Abraham and said to him, what have you done to us? Because the whole community is getting sick. And Abraham said, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said to her, in every place, wherever we go, say of me, he is my brother. Now, why would he do this? Because he's afraid that if some evil king wants Sarah to be his wife, he could just have Abraham killed and take his wife, and there'd be nothing to do about that. But if he says, oh, she's just my sister, then if she's taken, now the guy who takes her is sinning. And in this case, God confronts him in the night. Sorry. In Genesis chapter 21 and verse 1 we read, and the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the set time which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac, which means laughter. Now, this is the guy that Sarah is submitted to and calling him Lord. And Peter is saying, you need to be like that. You need to be like Sarah. Your husband's not always going to make the right decision, but you're here to be his helper in dealing with the consequences of that wrong decision. You're not to rebel and say, I don't have nothing to do with you, buddy. You're so foolish. You work with him. Now, the danger here is some people hear this and say, if your husband beats you, that's just, you know, just toughen up and bear it. That's not what it's saying. But we also need to be careful not to go too far in the other direction and create this idea that a woman does not have the responsibility to be her husband's helper, okay? To help him. And one of the ways you can help him is report him if he is beating you and doing other things that are clearly criminal, okay? So if you really love your husband, you don't just look the other way as he does something wrong. You are there to help him turn around, repent, to go the other direction. So we come to Paul's teaching on head coverings and how this all works. And so he says, every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonors his head, which is Christ. Every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, which is her husband, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. There is shame in reversing male and female styles, not just roles, but styles. And so in 1 Corinthians 11, 6 it says, For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. For if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered. What is Paul saying here? These were culturally established ways of distinguishing between the sexes, between men and women in society, and also of expressing respect toward one another in marriage. And so the styles may change, but the distinctions should remain. In the Greek and Roman world, the attire of the men was different from the attire of women. Now, I want you to notice, who's wearing the skirt in this picture? Right? Now, would you say that he is being effeminate by wearing this skirt? No. The style of a soldier at that time, this is very practical, by the way, because when he's in battle, he doesn't want to be running around in pants. The women are wearing long dresses. This Roman official, magistrate, has got this specific kind of robe wrapped around him. Nobody else in the society is allowed to wear a robe like that. It would be like walking around with a crown in England, like you were the queen or the king. Nobody gets to do that. It's reserved for those for which it's been made. Now there are a lot of different versions of the same idea here, but you'll notice that there's a distinct look for the women, and there's a distinct look for the men. And the clothing styles reflect what is practical in terms of their types of work, but also their sex in relationship to the opposite. sex. So God forbids us to blur the lines between the sexes. In Deuteronomy chapter 22 verse 5 we read, a woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man nor shall a man put on a woman's garment for all who do so are an abomination to the Lord your God. Now, an abomination is a particular kind of sin. It is a sin that is especially offensive to God, and normally that is because it either is a profaning of who he is, or it's a sin that unravels the fabric of morality in society. It has a way of running like a cancer through the body politic and the community. To give you an example of that, look at Proverbs 20 and verse 10. Now what is this? When you go into, let's say, a hardware store and you're going to buy something by the pound, if behind the counter there are two sets of weights, one set of weights for when you're selling and a different set of weights for when you're buying, And this would allow the business to be able to buy something for far less than its weight would suggest. And then on the other hand, to sell it for far more than its weight would suggest because you have false weights, different weights, different measures. The same would go for measuring cups. You know, you dip out a big cup full of something. If you've got one size cup for buying and a different size cup for selling, that will create a society in which nobody can trust one another. And that would be an abomination to the Lord. It would unravel the fabric of society. And so it's not just a matter of God hates some sins more than others. It's that He knows the impact of some sins as opposed to others. In Leviticus chapter 20 and verse 13 we read, if a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death, their blood is upon them. That means they get what they deserve by doing something that will be the unraveling of society, that will eat through society like an acid eating through your flesh. And so God's mercy shows up in Deuteronomy. We have all these capital punishments in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. And we say, well, that's not fair. Everybody's getting killed for doing things that, you know, today we do without even thinking about it. But in God's Word, in the Old Testament, we see mercy in the fact that in Deuteronomy 19 verse 15, one witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits. By the mouth of two or three witnesses, a matter shall be established. Do you realize that that means that if you were committing the sin described in Leviticus 20 verse 13, you could only be convicted of it if it was observed by two or more witnesses. This is where the idea of the closet comes from. And coming out of the closet is to be willing to defy God's Word in order to be, you could be prosecuted and in the Old Testament put to death for this behavior. But by staying, quote, in the closet, you were safe. Today in our legal system, you can be prosecuted on the testimony of not just one witness, but on circumstantial evidence. And that's why so many people are in prison today who are not guilty. They have been set up. They have been framed. And often they have been framed because of racial prejudice. But the point is, the Old Testament was much more merciful than modern legal jurisprudence. In the Old Testament, you had to be flaunting your sin in order to be prosecuted. Isn't that interesting? So although God makes it clear what his will is, he is not rampaging through the neighborhood, convicting everybody on the testimony of one disgruntled neighbor or one disgruntled employee. You hear what I'm talking about? Or you'll read about it in the news. And so, men stand before God without a covering. Why is that? Because the man is the image and the glory of God. He stands before God with no one between him and God. We're not talking here now about just something covering your head. We're talking about an attitude that says, I stand before God, there's no mediator between me and God. All men have been created by God in His own image, and they're to stand before Him with their head uncovered by any other mediating authority because it's the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of God, who became man, who is the only mediator. We read that in 1 Timothy 2 and verse 5, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. So the reason that men take off their hats when they are in church is because they stand before God as one who bears the image of God and there is to be no symbol of somebody else's authority between them. But the woman is the glory of man. Again, we saw that once again that the woman has been taken out of man. She's been given to him to be his wife. She's been named by man as her husband to be a suitable helper that God himself saw he needs in order to fulfill his purpose in life. And ladies, my prayer is that you will all be okay with that. Not just okay with it, but enthusiastic about that. And looking for ways to fulfill that, whether in marriage or in your singleness, to have this attitude of being the helper that helps make the good stuff happen. In every culture, there's always been a clear distinction in clothing between men and women. And so Paul writes in verse 10, for this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. This symbol of authority would logically be selected and approved or approved by the authority himself. The husband or the father, for his own wife and daughters, should have a conversation and say, the important thing is in your heart. That's where it matters. It won't matter how many things we put on top of your head if your heart is still, you know, upset about them. But if you want to show your respect for me as your husband or your father, then let's talk about how you'd want to go about that. What would that look like? It could be a doily. I use doily just because, you know, it looks like a doily. I'm sure there are other names for it. You go to the German Baptist or the Ukrainian Baptist churches and you see the ladies with very, very nicely designed head coverings. And they wear them all the time. Anytime they're out in public, they're wearing them. It could be a prayer shawl. It could be a bonnet, you know, the Sunday bonnet. It could be a hat. There was a problem in the early 1900s, late 1800s, early 1900s, where the women, especially the upper class women, the wealthy women, would compete with one another as to who could have the coolest hat, you know, the biggest hat, the most expensive hat. And you couldn't even see the preacher. I mean, all these ladies are sitting there with these huge hats on. There are some Pentecostal churches in which they decide that it's her hair being worn for her husband. And so they call these the big hair ladies, right? They have their hair piled up on top of their head and they look like a character in a cartoon, you know? But their hair goes way up high. And again, nobody can see the preacher because of all these big hair ladies who are blocking your view. Now what I want to make out, a point I want to make with that is no matter where you go or how you try to respond to this, human sin will take what's supposed to be an expression of respect for the authority that God has put in your life and turn it into a competition as to who can spend more time at the hairdresser or who can get the biggest hat. So let's not do that. Let's not go there. But it can also simply be her hair that has been worn in a way that he approves and sees as being effective as a sign of respect for him. Now I found this picture on the web, and I thought it captured the attitude that we're looking for, a meek and quiet spirit, very precious in the sight of God. She's got a, I guess you'd call this a shawl, or what would we call this? Ladies? That's a head covering, yeah. But she's, it's attractive, but it's probably not expensive. She's not all dolled up in gold and silver. The idea is not that you can't go to the hairdresser, but that you don't do that instead of having a meek and quiet spirit, which is of great value, very precious to the Lord. Now, The angels are spiritual guardians, as I said. They submit to God and will eventually be glorified. We are going to judge angels, Paul tells us. So these angels are watching us, and someday, when Jesus returns, we will actually have responsibility to judge the angels. And I don't know how all that works or what they're being judged for, but it doesn't tell us. But it does tell us that the angels are very much concerned about our attitudes toward one another. Because they are holy angels. They submit to God's will and they would hope that we would as well. Men and women need one another, Paul says, in a mutual cycle of life itself. Nevertheless, he writes, neither is man independent of woman nor woman independent of man in the Lord. For as a woman came from man, that's where Eve came from, even so man also comes through woman. Every man that's ever been born since has come from a woman. But all of these things are from God. The fact that God has established man as the head of the woman does not diminish her importance in God's grand design. I think we need to be careful not to make equality such a big deal any more than we would say, well, is the quarterback equal to the blocker or the tight end or the guy who catches the ball, you know. We've got a team here. Everybody plays a role. Who can say who's most important? Take away the quarterback and pretty much all the plays fall apart. But that quarterback's got to have a team to pass to or to run through. And so we look at it like that. We want to win the game of life. And to do that, we have to play our roles and our positions on the team. Paul expects all of us to see this clearly. Now, in 1 Corinthians 11, 13, judge among yourselves. Let's talk about this. Not in a, what do you think of that sermon of Greg's? Wasn't that horrible? That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about it among yourselves. Judge among yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Paul thinks we should all say no. He assumes we'll all say no. He's assuming that anyone who's not been totally deceived by this world will agree that women should cover their heads whenever they, and wherever they pray or prophesy. We would call this a kind of a spiritual cringe factor, right? That senses when something is, that's just not right. That's what Paul assumes that we would have if we have the right attitude, a biblical attitude toward this world. Our conscience must be set to the standard of God's word and not to the standards of this world. Our conscience can become so seared by repeated offenses that we can no longer feel ashamed of ourselves. The Native Americans have an idea of how conscience works that I think can be helpful to us. Their idea is that your conscience can get worn out, okay? 1 Timothy 4.1 says, now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times, Some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. So here's what the Native Americans thought your conscience works like. This is your heart. Inside your heart is this spinning triangle, okay? And when you do something you know is wrong, that triangle begins to spin and the points on the triangle poke into your heart and it hurts. It hurts your heart to do things you know are wrong. But if that triangle spins for too long, eventually the tips of the triangle get worn down. And in that situation, that conscience is in there spinning and spinning and spinning, and you don't feel it. You don't feel it at all because your conscience has been blunted by repeated offense, repeated offense. Just because we get used to something doesn't make it right. And so we should all ask ourselves, what does God's word say about something? How can we bring our lives in the line with his word? So in a similar way we should all have a cringe factor concerning men and women trying to look alike, trying to look like one another. And Paul writes, does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair it is a dishonor to him? Now, how does nature itself teach that long hair on a man is a dishonor to him? Now, just so I cover my bases here, I got this from John MacArthur, okay? So, if I sound estranged, it's him. It's him that said this, but here's what he said. There is, in fact, a hormonal reason why men go bald far more often than women, and that is because of the hormone testosterone. If you have high levels of testosterone in your system, it will actually cause hair to slow down growth, and it will cause more extensive balding, different kinds of balding. Now, there's other reasons for balding, but he points this out, and evidently, and I looked it up, it's true, if you use, if you take testosterone, it'll affect your hair growth. So women's hair also grows faster than men's hair because they don't have so much testosterone in their system. That would suggest that long hair is going to be symptomatic of a person who is low on testosterone. Which, that affects a lot of other things, right? So the point here is When Paul says nature itself teaches you that if a man has long hair, it's a dishonor to him, it's going to suggest that this guy is less manly, not just because of his hair, but because of the very fact that his hair is long and he hasn't lost it to any kind of balding process. Now there's also a balding effect from your maternal grandfather and the genetic thing that goes back and forth and all that. So I don't want to, you know, ignore that. But we're living in a time when Paul probably wasn't aware of any of that. And he simply makes the observation that men with long hair usually have other characteristics as well, which reflect a lack of, he didn't know what, but lack of something. So likewise, there's an opposite awe factory, the factory that comes, that makes a woman's long hair beautiful to us. And this is in cultures around the world. This is not just in a biblical culture. In 1 Corinthians 11, 15, but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering. And so long hair on a woman is universally revered as something wonderful. Now the covering of hair referred here may entirely satisfy the need for any other symbol of authority on her head if it is worn in the way that it is worn as an expression of deference and respect for her husband or father. That's why it would be so silly for the elders, church leaders to make some kind of proclamation that all the ladies have to wear head coverings because we would be This is supposed to be an expression of respect for your own husband or father, not deference to the elders of the church. I've seen churches really get messed up when they've actually tried to rule over the wives and the women of the church in disregard for the wishes of their husband. So we won't do that. This is between you and your husband or you and your father. Now, if you want to confer with the elders, if you're a single woman and you'd like to talk to us about that, we just want all the women of the church to be eager to show their embrace of womanhood. and to do it in ways that Paul describes as being beautiful and precious to the Lord. So Paul's point is that whatever is used, it is to be used out of respect. And finally, in closing this lengthy message, if you disagree with Paul about anything he has written in the Bible, not just this passage, but anything, you have nowhere else to go within the Christian church, okay? Not just this topic, okay? If there's anything that you say, oh, Paul, I disagree with you on that, you got a problem. There's nowhere to go within the church that trusts God's word. So he writes in chapter 11 verse 16, but if anyone seems to be contentious We have no other we have no such custom. Okay, there's no other option here Nor do the churches of God. This is not just a Corinthian church thing. I This is for all of the churches. This teaching is not a matter of my personal interpretation. Paul is far too clear and far too consistent for this to be anything other than a settled doctrine of our faith. That women are created for a purpose. Men are created for a purpose. We're supposed to play together well. And so when we take that to heart and embrace it, that is when we see the church become strong. When Christ's church, rather than retreating from the sound doctrine, instead joins with Paul in shouting into the wind of our pagan culture, We're going to see stronger families, stronger churches, not just our church, but all the churches around the world are strengthened when any church is willing to follow God's word faithfully. And it's going to result in more gospel impact on the world around us. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for your word. I pray that this message will be useful to you, not only here with this audience, this congregation, but also for any who might be hearing it in other contexts online and so on. Lord, may your word be exalted. May pastors be emboldened to preach your word without fear. and to be able to see the fruit that is born by our walking in the obedience of faith. And we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.