Let's open up this morning's
study hour in the blue hymnal number one. Number one, oh worship
the king. Number one, if you could please
stand. Oh, worship the King, all glorious
above, and gratefully sing his power and his love. Our shield and defender, the
ancient of days, pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise. O tell of his might, O sing of
his grace, whose robe is the light, Whose canopy space is
chariots of wrath, The deep thunder clouds form, And dark is his
path on the wings of the storm. Thy bountiful care what tongue
can recite, It breathes in the air. It shines in the light. It streams from the hills. It descends to the plain and
sweetly distills in the dew and the rain. frail children of dust,
and feeble as frail. In thee do we trust, nor find
thee to fail. Thy mercies, how tender, how
firm to thee end. our Maker, Defender, Redeemer,
and Friend. Good morning. We're going to
continue our study in 1 Corinthians this morning, picking up where
we left off at the beginning of chapter 11. 1 Corinthians
chapter 11. Most of you probably have heard
that Todd Nybert is in the hospital uh... has pneumonia and uh... i want us to pray for him this
morning they have him on antibiotics
and as you know he's uh... had that esophageal cancer and
i guess some of the uh... of the uh... acid reflux that
he uh... has all the time has migrated
into his lungs and that's uh... probably the cause of his pneumonia
so want to pray for him so let's
do our Heavenly Father we're thankful once again you brought
us here to this place we can join our hearts together in worship
we confess to you Lord our our sinfulness and our dependence
upon your mercy and your grace Oh, how we hope that you'd be
pleased now to send your Holy Spirit in power. She would enable
me to speak. Pray Lord that you would enable
us to hear. We pray most importantly. That
you would speak to our hearts. And reveal to us your own glory
and cause us to be brought by your spirit into a spirit of
worship. We do thank you for our brother
Todd and for Lynn. Lord, we pray for the medical
professionals that are ministering to him. We ask that you would
use them as instruments of healing. We pray, Lord, that you would
give him complete recovery and that you would comfort and encourage
the hearts of our brethren in Lexington during this time of
trial. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. In case somebody asks you, our
website is down this morning, but it's fixed. We're just waiting
for our web hoster to get it back up, and it should be done
sometime today. So nobody's watching now, but
if somebody was to contact you, tell them to log on later on
today, and it should be up and going. this entire chapter eleven deals
with the order of worship the order of worship and uh... i was just thinking about how
important it is for us to be reminded as to why we are here
people have lots of different reasons for going to church Either
they go for social interaction, or they go because of keeping
peace in their home, or they go because they're trying to
earn points with God, or they go because it's always been the
thing you do on Sunday. They go out of habit. For us to be able to, I think,
understand this passage, we need to ask ourselves, why are we
here? Why are we here? And the church at Corinth had
lost sight of why they were gathering. And the Lord is now rebuking
and instructing them, and I pray that he would do that for each
of us, causing us to re-evaluate our reason for being here. The church is the bride of Christ. This passage of scripture cannot
be understood apart from the spiritual relationship that the
bride has with her husband. We have come together to meet
with our husband and to worship him. and uh... to glorify him
to exalt him to lift him up that's our that's our objective that's
our hope that's our purpose for gathering together uh... the
lord seeks those who worship him in spirit and uh... in truth and so we want to be
always faithful to the revealed truth of God's Word and always
dependent upon His Holy Spirit to give us spiritual eyes to
see Christ, spiritual ears to hear from Christ. There was an issue in the church
at Corinth you know Paul said in Ephesians chapter 5 when he
was talking about the husband and wife relationship he said
I speak concerning a great mystery relating to christ and his church
and so uh... men by nature are in curable
works oriented unless the lord gives us spiritual eyes we're
going to take the things of scripture and make a work out of it uh... that certainly has been done
historically with this passage of scripture i can remember in
my lifetime where a woman did not enter into a place of public
worship without a hat on. Church as a child looked like
the Kentucky Derby. I mean, it was a competition
among the women to see who could wear the fanciest hat. and uh... it was just uh... it was just
a show in the flesh and uh... and then i can remember another
experience bernard had this experience in a in in ukraine uh... where all the women had to have
their heads covered during public worship and i can remember a
woman came through the door altering about this side she came through
the door and she made about three steps into the auditorium before
she got her doily over her head and her husband publicly humiliated
her uh... for not having her head covered
when she came into the church uh... so many abuses and taken
from Scripture. This is the passage of Scripture
that these sort of things came from. And they come as a result
of people not understanding the spiritual union that Christ has
with His church and the reason for which we're here. And the
reason for that is because they don't have spiritual eyes. They're
just interpreting everything in light of what can be seen
physically. And so, with that as an introduction,
let's look at these first verses of scripture. Now, as you know, the chapter
divisions were added much later, and sometimes they're not probably
at the best place. Verse 1 of chapter 11 really
goes with chapter 10. It's sort of the conclusion of
everything that has been said. in chapter 10. Paul's admonishing
the church to follow after him and the counsel that he gives
as he follows after Christ. And so that's sort of the concluding
comment from the previous chapter. Verse 2, Now I praise you, brethren,
that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I
deliver them to you. Now, he's talking about public
worship. He's talking about baptism. He's talking about the Lord's
Table. He's talking about public prayer. He's talking about public
worship. He's talking about preaching
and the order that needs to be maintained when you come together. They had lost sight of that because
they lost sight of the reason for which they were there, to
worship Christ and to seek Him. but i would have you know that
the head of every man is christ the head of every man now that
word man is not used in uh... in the sense of uh... of describing
the gender of the mail stone but every man every person the
head of every person is christ and a in order for us to understand
that this whole passage of scripture that's where begins my head is
christ your head is christ we are members of his body and uh... all different parts of the body
but we have one head and uh... that had uh... controls the body
just like your head controls your body and uh... your hand
uh... might not know it when you stub
your toe but your head knows it and uh... And, you know, we're
different parts of the body. We may not know the hurts and
needs of other members of the body, but your head knows it.
He knows every need that every part of his body has. and he supplies to every part
of the body the nourishment the care that that that that that
part of the body needs so this is the beginning of understanding
that this is christ and his church this is the body of christ and the head of the woman is
the man That's true. I know this is not
politically correct language. This is not acceptable in our
society. Women recoil at this idea, but
it's biblically accurate. It's the Word of God. It's Scripture. And it's taken from the fact
that the head of the church is Christ. and and this is not a
license for a man to to abuse his wife and abuse the authority
that he has in any way it's a burden of responsibility that the man
has for his wife I'm just as Christ bears the responsibility
for his bride let me ask you this man what do you need from
Christ What do you need from Christ? You need security. You need safety. You need assurance. You need love. You know what
you depend upon Christ for? That's what your wife needs from
you. It's just that simple. She needs
to know that she's cared for, that she's provided for, she
feels safe and secure and loved by her husband. And she will
follow and submit to the leadership of a man that cares for her like
that. So, he says, every man the head
of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God. Now, in no way is the very first
heresy that came into the church was called Arianism and it came
up out of Alexandria, Egypt in the early days of the church
after the death of the Apostles and it declared that Christ was
created by God. that in order to preserve the
unity of God, this guy by the name of Arian brought out it
was a big problem in the early days uh... and uh... he would've used a verse like
this to say the head of christ the head of christ is gone god
created his son he's the only be gotten that is the farthest
thing from the truth uh... The Lord Jesus Christ is the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. All the attributes of God are
bound up in Christ. And all that we're ever going
to know about God, we're going to discover in the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the eternal God. He's the second way, you know, Norm mentioned Wednesday night
when he was preaching that there's things we don't understand. We
don't understand anything we believe. We don't. Tell me something that
you believe about God that you fully understand. We have glimpses of truth and
light, and what we know, we know is true, but to understand it
fully, we don't. I just want to make clear that
when the Scripture says that the head of Christ is God, He's
talking about His humanity. he's talking about the dependence
that the Lord Jesus Christ had on his father in his earthly
ministry completely dependent upon the father now in the next verse when it
talks about praying and prophesying it's not talking about just the
act of praying and prophesying it's using that to describe public
worship so right now we are praying and prophesying uh... To prophesy
is not to foretell some future event, it's to foretell the meaning
of Scripture. And so right now I'm prophesying,
and I hope that you are praying right now in your heart, asking
the Lord to speak truth to your heart. So this is all about public
worship. and the order that God has given
to his bride for the functioning of the body in public worship. Now before we go any further
let me take you to verse 15. But if any woman have long hair
it is a glory to her for her hair is given her for a covering. Now, the man is instructed not
to cover his head in public worship, the woman is instructed to have
a covering on her head, and here it says that her hair is her
covering. And that's sufficient for me. The glory, and it's a
sign of submission. Christ doesn't cover his head.
He doesn't present himself with a covering. He reveals his glory
to his church. and uh... the bride being a type
of the of the wife here is always like those you remember the seraphim
in isaiah chapter six that were i mean these were these were
the the angelic host that uh... were the angels of angels hovering
over the throne of christ and what were they saying holy holy
holy is the lord god of host they were worshiping the lord
And with two wings they did cover their face, and two wings they
covered their feet, confessing their creatureness before the
Creator, and their unworthiness to look upon Him. And that's
the picture here. The woman is to have a spirit
of humility, and that's for all the church, isn't it? It's for
all the church. so and the next verse i want
you to see also verse sixteen but if any man seemed to be contentious
we have no such custom neither the churches of god i would say
that if a woman feels like from this passage of scripture that
she has a mandate from god to cover her head i'm not gonna
fight with her over that i'm not gonna make an art we're not
gonna make a contentious argument over it uh... would make a uh... a statement if it be careful
that you don't make a work out of it Uh... Because that's what's
happened historically, isn't it? Women have made a work out
of covering their head. But we're not going to be contentious
over a non-essential as to whether or not a woman wears a covering
on her head or not. I don't think that that's what
this scripture is teaching, that your hair is a symbol of that
humility and that covering before the Lord. All right, go back with me to verse 3. Every man praying or
prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head.
So all he's saying is that men, you come into public worship,
you're a type of Christ in his relationship with his church,
and it would not be appropriate for men to wear a covering in
public worship. But every woman that prayeth
or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head,
and that is even all one as if she were shaven." So, the temple prostitutes in Corinth
would have had their head shaved. uh... to identify them for that
and uh... what the lord saying here is
that if a woman doesn't have her head covered if we don't
show submission and humility before our husband in public
worship then uh... then we would be like a prostitute
who had her head shaved and uh... and we've lost sight of why we're
here uh... to worship our lord you see the
spiritual the spiritual meaning of this is what has to be a you
see how easy it is for men who don't have eyes to see the gospel
could make a work out of this and they have this has been so
abused over the years Verse six, for if a woman be
not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for
a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. Again, verse
15, ladies, your head is your covering. And really the point
of this is the humility and the submission that the bride of
Christ has to her husband. 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 the man." The bride of Christ is to His
glory. And I mentioned a moment ago
about what wives need. in a relationship. They need
security. They need safety. They need love. They need to feel safe in that
union. And what a man needs is respect. needs respect and I would encourage
you ladies to to find something that you can respect your husband
for and show him every deference of respect that you can and you
will find that he will live up to to that expectation where we're just we're just that
way aren't we if we The strength of sin is the law. If a man puts his wife under
the law, you will submit to me. All he's going to do is engender
rebellion in her heart. and uh... if a woman doesn't
uh... doesn't submit to her husband
she's going to add to him being uh... less responsible and uh... and less likely to show uh... uh... respectable ways uh... in his in his life you know we'd
we that's that's true in our relationship with christ isn't
it what is it that makes you uh... respect christ what is
it that makes you honor him more and worship him and love him
more it's when uh... when he communicates to you here's
accomplished work of salvation when he when he shows you his
grace when he says to you It's okay, I've got this. I've paid for your sins. I'm
all your righteousness before God. When you hear the gospel
of God's free grace in the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's what causes you to look up to Him and honor Him, isn't
it? The same thing's true in a relationship
between a husband and his wife. And I hope the Lord will grow
every one of us in our marriages, in our relationships with one
another, always causing us to see Christ and His bride as the
model for the way we ought to treat one another in this world. This all has to do with order.
That's what this whole chapter is about. Order in your home,
order in the church, order in society, but, you know, particularly
in public worship and in the home of believers, the Lord has
given this as a pattern for being, for giving order and mutual respect
in the church and in the home. Verse 8, for the man is not of
the woman, but the woman of the man. Christ didn't come about because
of us. We came as a result of Him. And
where was the bride taken from? Where was Eve taken from? She
wasn't taken from a bone in His foot to be crushed by Him. She wasn't taken from a bone
in His neck to control the head. She was taken from a rib the
closest to His heart, and the bride came from the husband. And so it is with the church.
The church came out of Christ from a rib closest to His heart. This is what binds us together,
isn't it? It's the love of Christ that
constraineth us. In our marriages, in our relationship
at the church, in our relationship with Him, it's the love of Christ
that constraineth us. Verse 9, neither was the man
created for the woman, but the woman for the man. The church is here to, you know,
Eve was made to give Adam a help meet suitable for him. And in
no way is this denying the integrity or the value of the
woman at all. It's just giving us the understanding
of the way the Lord designed it. And it works best that way. It works best that way. Ladies, you will have a husband that will give you more
of a sense of safety and security and love if you respect you will you'll you'll you'll
measure up to that let me I share this with you before you know
this is true I'm we each see ourselves in light of what the
most significant person in our lives says about us That's just
true. Children are going to have a
self-image of whatever their parents tell them they are. You
tell a child that he's stupid, he's going to be stupid. Whatever
you tell them is what they're going to... Isn't that true?
Now, the question that we all have to ask ourselves is two
questions. Number one, who's the most significant person in
your life? And number two, what does he think of you? Now, if
you're a child of God, you've got to answer that first question
with, Christ is the most significant person in my life. And then the
second question is, what does he think of you? And if you ever
get a hold of that, oh, you'll be delivered from a lot of things
that are bothering you about yourself right now. Well, that
translates into our relationships in our homes as well. your your man your ladies your
your husband will measure up to uh... to a man that will that
will be more respectable if you'll show him respect and uh... it goes both ways doesn't it For this cause, verse 10, ought
the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. Now,
I confess to you, I don't know what that means. I've got some
idea. I've read a lot of commentaries
on it. What is he referring to? He's
talking about having the head covered and the herods are covering. And there's lots of different
opinions as to what he's meaning by the reference to angels. uh... angels are present here
with us when we gather together in worship we know that uh... we're not going to try to delve
into that way it's a it's a mystery uh... but i i think the best
understanding that i have of this is to see this angel as
and the word angel is a messenger and night as you know in the
book of revelation the pastors are referred to as angels their
messengers of god uh... and uh... uh... i think what he's referring i've
seen this i've seen this order in a church trust me on this
i i've i've seen it uh... disorder comes in a church when
a woman or a group of women try to take control of that church And it makes the role of the
pastor impossible. Impossible. And so he's talking
about, he's talking about the women understanding their role
in the home and in the church for the sake of giving order
and authority to the men and to the pastor, being the angel
here. for as the woman is of the man
even so verse twelve uh... i'm sorry we've missed verse
eleven nevertheless neither is the man without the woman neither
the woman without the man in the lord so he's not you know
we just said that the woman came out of the man and the woman
was made for the man uh... but now now the lord is making
sure that we don't abuse that by saying, well, the man's more
important than the woman. Men, where are you going to be
without your mama? You're not going to be here. The man is from the woman, and
the woman from the... So we're completely codependent
in this male-female relationship, aren't we? And that's all the
Lord's saying here. There's no, this is not to be
interpreted as one gender being more important than the other.
It's to be understood as what God has designed for order in
the home and in the church for, for there to be, for there to
be order. Okay. uh... burst well for as the woman
is of the man even so is the man also by the woman but all
things are of god all things are judge in yourselves is it calmly
that a woman pray unto god uncovered judge for yourself judge this
in your own heart is it calmly For us to have a non-submissive
attitude towards the Lord as His bride, is that comely? Pride
and arrogance and self-righteousness, is that comely? No, it's not. It's ugly, isn't it? Humility
is what's comely. And the same thing is true in
the relationship between a man and his wife. 1 Peter chapter
3, ladies, if you want to look at those, the first five verses
in 1 Peter chapter 3 speaks to this as well as far as the woman's
inward beauty versus her outward beauty. Verse 14, doth not even nature
itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame
unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her,
for her hair is given to her for a covering. But if any man
seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches
of God. now the rest of this chapter
deals with the lord's table that they were abusing they were coming
together uh... uh... to celebrate communion
the lord's table and they were fighting over food and some of
them were getting drunk and uh... and and and the lord the lord
shows how shameful uh... their public worship was and
i hope that the lord will will uh... always calls us to have
a a spirit of worship that will be submissive to our husband
and will be mutually beneficial to one another in our public
worship and in our homes. All right, let's take a break. Okay.