We're going over these sales and merchandise and things to be bought. I'm reminded of a slogan that is proper in the Hebrew community around Philadelphia and New York, where the population is larger than it is in all Palestine. And the saying is, when the merchant saw you coming, he rejoiced, doubled his price and cut it by 30%. My brief tour through Bristol tells me that although this is neither Tel Aviv nor Philadelphia, the spirit is not far from the place. Well I would say, I would say caveat empor in a proper sense, and if you don't know what that means, then you have to find one of the learned men to discover it. This evening, I've learned at Bristol when these fellows start sneaking around to be very weary, lest I see underneath me a slip on the floor. The burned child dreads the fire. There are other things I've learned, too. Like the man who lays out his watch before the meeting doesn't have to apologize for not having laid it out after the meeting. That is also part the whole thing. I also said to the lady in the bookstore that I would browse through there and make my own recommendations on books. I'm always slow to do that because recommending books is hard. I never recommend anything I haven't read and studied rather thoroughly. Otherwise people come up with all sorts of things. So I'll make a second statement. If you want to check on the devotional literature, see my wife. She's already bought something of almost everything in there. My wife can check on his devotional literature for you. I did notice three or four works by Schaefer. His work on grace is there. His work on evangelism is there. His work on God is there. I noticed those things today. And although everybody says things differently, Schaefer, in my mind, is very good in those subjects. I've always thought his work on grace was just an excellent, excellent work. Otherwise, I will go ahead and read this evening in 1 Corinthians 10 and in 1 Corinthians 11. I've been talking about practical authority of the word of God in the life of a local company. And I've talked about the authority of that word with regard to our message, and with regard to our gathering, and with regard to our government. Tonight, Lord willing, I'd like to talk about the practical authority of the word with regard to our order. And by order, I mean the way we arrange ourselves, call ourselves, set ourselves, establishes our practices and beliefs and so forth. And Lord willing, then tomorrow morning, I will go ahead and discuss the practical authority of the word our exercise and kind of pick up where Brother Wilson was this morning with his excellent discussion in Ephesians 4 and the way in which Christ has blessed the church. At least I will hope to do that, Lord willing, tomorrow morning. This evening I want to talk with you about the practical authority of the Word of God as far as our order is concerned, and I want to begin reading, interrupting the context just a bit, in 1 Corinthians 10 at verse 31. And the context goes considerably further back, but I want to interrupt by beginning my reading 31, and then reading in 1 Corinthians 11, verses 1 through 3. So in 1 Corinthians 10, we read these words, Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give none offense neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles nor to the church of God, even as I pleased all in all, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now, I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Shall we pray? We're thankful for the blessings, Father, that come to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. We're thankful for the fellowship we have here at this conference. And we pray that in the many things in which we are occupied, that we might be blessed, a concept of giving glory to God. And as it's already been prayed in our midst tonight, we pray that the word of salvation might be real to us all, and that the word that's given to us from the Scripture might be a guidance and judge and a director of our activities and thoughts. We prayerfully ask these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Yes, the practical authority of the word of God in our order. And by order, I mean how we arrange ourselves, how we call ourselves, how we set our practices and the things we do. I've been talking about this concept of the practical authority because, as I tried to say last Saturday night, the Word of God gives us our right to be. Take away the Bible and you've got no right to be here. Take away the Bible, you have no right to talk about God. Take away the Scripture, you have no right to talk about salvation. But if you talk about God and salvation and eternal life, but do not bend yourself towards the authority of Scripture, things away and banishing them from recognition and from use. So I mentioned last Saturday that I'd like to talk about the practical authority, the way in which the Scripture speaks to us in these areas of life so that we might not only know a true salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, but a true government and a true gathering and a true sense of order as we're bound together. With regard to order, there are two or three things that have to be borne in mind that are a little bit tedious, but that we've got them over with early in the evening. That's a little bit tedious. order is not a matter of inferiority and superiority. Order is a matter of arrangement for progression and for understanding. So in the Army, we used to have the tall men line up first and the short men line up at the end. They always line it from the tall to the short in my day. I don't know how it's gone today, but it was from the tall to the short, the tall fellows at one end, the short fellows on the other end, and we in the great compromising state somewhere in between. I am trained and slept in traction to make six feet, but have never made it yet, five, eleven and a half. So I would fall in line, and there would be some fellow over here who in his mind was six feet one, but about this high on my head. And I would say, how tall are you? And he'd say, I'm six, one. And you don't argue with a fellow who's six, one. I would just kind of flink down further and further and further down the line. And eventually I'd get to where they meant being five, eleven, and they were about shoulder high. And after a while, a non-comic come along, and he'd say, you fool, what are you doing down here? And I'd say, well, he's 6'1", and he'd say, he's not 6'1. He'd grab him and shove him down and shove me back up. And I'd never cease to marvel about how your height stretches when you're telling others and trying to line up in a row like that. But that was order. From the highest to the shortest, for some reason of their own particular sense. If they'd measured us on a circumference basis, it would have really been a riot. But from the highest to the shortest, and that was their idea of order. Well, order did not mean that the tall men were superior and the short men were inferior. mean that at all. It merely meant that there was a logical progression and arrangement, and that's what they wanted. They could have had tall, short, and tall, and no inferiority was suggested. So sometimes when we talk about order and we say we're going to do this or that, people get the idea that we're suggesting that if something's high on the order, it's big, if it's low and the order it's bad. Not at all. It's a matter of arrangement and practice. Order is almost necessary for the showing of any kind of testimony. That's why 1 Corinthians 14, we're told to do all things decently in an order. Order is necessary for some type of reasonable sort of testimony. But you have to remember also with regard to order that it is not an end in itself. The mere form and the mere arrangement of things is a means to an end of doing God's will, but is not the end of God's will in itself. So David arranged the choirs and the priesthood in the army after a course of 24 orders. But you know when a man was put in an order. He didn't refuse to serve because he was in that order. The order was not an end in itself, but a means to serve God. So when we talk about practical standards in the Bible for our order, we are talking about things that are given to us in the Scripture for the way in which we arrange ourselves for the greatest efficiency in knowing God's truth and in presenting that truth. And if you throw away order and throw away direction, then you throw away a lot of testimony and the ability to witness with it at the same time. Now, I will not mention any further problems in order. I want to go immediately to these six verses in the Corinthian letter. I want to mention that as far as the practical authority of the Word of God for our order is concerned, the first major thrust is found in chapter 10 of 1 Corinthians verses 31 through 33. The first major thrust for the group, the collective group, is to establish the right priority. As far as order is concerned, that kind of runs ahead of everything else. To establish the right priority, We might say that of your personal life, but certainly of the group, to establish the right priority. And the right priority for the group is summed up in two points in these verses, maybe three. The one is kind of a lap-stance thing. But in verse 30, the right priority, or verse 31, rather, the right priority is making sure that God is glorified in all that we do. And in verse 33, the right priority is making sure that the result of that is that salvation is made plain and available to those who need it. and those who will believe it. In between those, in verse 32, you have the concept of a priority of not being offensive in the presentation of these things. But the writer is saying, in your order, make sure you are built under the right head. And the right head is God himself. Consequently, all is to go up in glory to him. And the outreach of that is that it shows forth to those round about that they might be saved. So says Paul, we do nothing that intentionally offends, the gospel may bring its own offense, but we do nothing that intentionally offends, and we do nothing that intentionally cuts people off because we would like to see people saved. And he said, I pleased all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many that they might be saved. Now, I suggest to you that this is what I mean by the practical authority of God for the local company in the matter of order, that the local company look to see that what it does is a matter of glorifying God and fulfilling his will as far as their own building and the reaching of loss is concerned. When we say that it's a matter of glorifying God, that is not as nebulous as it might seem. Back in the passage that our brother was reading from this morning in Ephesians 4, God is obviously glorified in the first verse by walking worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. That's the thing that the apostle prays for in the first book in the second Thessalonians chapter one, rather, that believers would walk and be found and judged worthy of the calling to which they're called. So when somebody says, what do you mean by doing things to the glory of God, what we mean is that what one does is a credit to him and demonstrates that the individual doing it is desirous at least of honoring the God who called him. Now it's hard to illustrate, although it's not hard to tell a thousand stories about it, it's hard to illustrate. See, I'm wearing this microphone. I'm sure I need it. It's a big room and the fans run and the ears are rough and other things. I'm wearing this microphone. This microphone is about a kind of a short course. It means if I'm going to wander, I've got to move to the left. But in politics, I'm strictly on the right. So I kind of hate to be toxic in a compromising situation like this. Actually, I'm not that minded in those areas. But when Mr. Redling, whose advice is so highly respected by me, when he says, we're microphone, I put it on. I run the risk of messing up my copier and maybe otherwise hurting my ear, but when he says, where? I put it on. And I don't complain, I just make public, you know, that's that. Now, now I do that, see. I do that because I believe him and the others, and it is a credit for me to do what they want me to do. It's a credit to them. It's really no credit to me. I invite somebody else for tomorrow, say. Amen. It's a credit to them that I do what they want me to do. Consequently, you read in the Bible what God wants you to do, and you credit him by doing that thing. The dedication of your life, the giving of yourself, the obedience of his word, the fellowship of the saints, the participation in the government of the company. You credit him by doing what he wants you to do. Now, says Paul, eating and drinking as you do them in this context, and whatever else goes with them, do it for the glory of God. I said a few moments ago that just by starting at verse 31, we are rather atrociously interrupting the context. But the point is still a big one. When it comes to the practical authority of the Bible for the order of your company, let it be sure that what you do is for the glory of God. I don't have any trouble believing that the worship meeting is for the glory of God. I have trouble believing that the business meeting is for the glory of God. I kind of view the business meeting as a necessary evil. I mean, it's necessary, and I'm just telling you the problems I have to overcome myself. So I'm prone to look at the business meeting of something that I would just assume be ill that night. If I've got to be ill any night, let it be the night they're going to have the business meeting. And we have happy ones. We've never had a, you know, I can't remember any fuss or fury at the business meeting, but I can tell you exactly how it goes. The treasurer reads a report on how much money is in the missionary fund. And then we look around and decide what we're going to do with it. And for about the next hour and a half, we will recite the history of every missionary who's passed under our eyes in the last year. And then in about the last five minutes, we will suddenly, with lightning action, dispense the plan. And I sit there with my economic mind, and I say, why couldn't we have done that in the first five minutes, and we could have gone home early tonight. And then after that, we'll discuss two or three other things, and after we've talked about them for an hour, and five minutes, we'll take care of that matter, too. So I always have a tendency to say, well, what, but you see, the conducting of the assembly business in decency and in order is to the glory of God, and it needs the participation who's qualified to be there, to be there if it's going to be done to the glory of God. Things can go tremendously astray if things are just allowed to be haphazard and nobody really cares. Now, in this connection, the priority is the matter of doing those things to the glory of God, and the primary thrust of those is that out of doing that, he gives a testimony to saving truth. And so he says, I please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many that they may be saved. of 1 Corinthians 9, you find that nothing is more important to Paul in terms of outreach than the saving of men's souls. Glory to God is the means out of which one works. And consequently, it's only if he's obedient to God that he's really able to reach men's souls. You wouldn't get anywhere by taking a machine gun and running down the street and say, we give you three seconds to be converted to Christianity. You really, you might get a lot of professions that way. You really wouldn't do much good in an eternal sense. So Paul in terms of glory to God, and then I think in terms of reaching out to save men's souls. The Apostle knows that he doesn't save them, the Lord Jesus Christ saves them, but he becomes all things to them in order that through his ministry they might be brought to a saving knowledge of Christ. You have no idea how important salvation really was for the Apostle, or at least most of us have only a small idea, that he would give all that he had in a physical sense, an emotional sense, and a mental sense to reach people. apostle Paul knew that there are only two kinds of people. There are those who have trusted Jesus Christ and are born into the family of God and are saved, and there are those who have not trusted Jesus Christ and are not saved. And the apostle knew that it wasn't a matter of how good they were or how nice they were, but what they believed about Jesus Christ. I don't want to elaborate on that long tonight because I have a lot of things I'd like to say, but he knew that. And consequently, he says, I reach out, putting a priority on showing men the truth of eternal life that by it they might be saved. And let me just say it frankly to you what I was trying to say last Saturday night to those who were here then. The only thing that really concerns you in this area right now is your own soul. Do you know that it's saved? Do you know that you've confessed Jesus Christ in a personal way and have come to a place where order is proper? You hate to say it so belligerently, you are born into the family of God, until you are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, there is no order to life. It might be a good life, it might even be a great life from your point of view or from my point of view. But there is no proper arrangement of it until the soul is right with God. The soul becomes right with God through saving trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, a recognition of need and a calling upon Christ for the salvation that he offers. don't have to understand everything about it. What you have to do is believe that God is and that he's the rewarder of them to diligently seek him. And you have to say, Father, I want eternal life. That might not be the right word. You say, I'm believing on Jesus Christ. I'm trusting him as my Savior. And then one is brought to a place where order is possible and part of his life. It is an intensely personal matter. I've known some folks that didn't like to be approached personally on it, but it's an intensely personal matter. And in the long run, it's you. You, see, if not the group, in the long run, it's you, knowing whether you are trusting him with your soul or not. If you've never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ in a personal way, then while you're at a conference like this where there are people that will talk with you and counsel with you and pray with you, this is the place where you ought to come to grips with that issue. You don't have to consort with me or with Mr. Redling or the other platform men, but we would be glad to talk with you. You can usually find these fellows because they stand out. We would be glad to talk with you. But almost anyone, you know, you've grabbed somebody and say, I'd like to know more about it. If he doesn't know more about it, then there are two of you that don't know more about it. I realize it takes a certain amount of bravado to get on with it, but it's awfully important because if you don't know Christ in a saving way, you are lost and there is neither order for your life nor for your activity. Now, the practical authority of the Word of God on our order is, first of all, to set the right priority for the meetings of the assembly for the activities of the church for the goings forth of the people of god the right priority that god might be glorified as we do his will and that people outside of us might be reached with the saving message that christ died for them and that through faith in him eternal life may be theirs in a real and a living way the second thrust as far as the order from God's word is concerned, comes in chapter 11 and verse 1. Verse 2 is a kind of a tie verse, but it comes in chapter 11 and verse 1. And I will simply say that the second thrust of the biblical application, the application of the scripture in a practical way to our order, is that you follow the right person. That you follow the right person. Not anybody, but the right person. And so Paul says, be ye followers of me, but notice, as I also am of Christ so what he is actually telling us is that our order is one of following Christ follow me says the Apostle he says that similar wording four or five times in the epistles follow me he says but only as I follow Christ he makes it plain in Galatians 1 that if anybody comes and preaches any other gospel and that which Christ revealed through him he should be a curse even if the Apostle himself or an angel should relent on the saving message of Christ and the redemption of his, that would be wrong and that individual could be anathematized. So says Paul, follow me as I follow Christ. Now that's an awfully important concept. He does not say, follow me. He really says, follow Christ. But you follow Christ by example and as I follow him, you follow in the train that I follow him too. So the second practical application of scriptural authority to the local company as far as order is concerned, is to make sure that you follow the right person, namely that you follow Christ. And that is to follow Christ in sincerity, of heart, and purpose, and in gathering too. I don't know how you feel about it, but I'll tell you how I feel. When you read in 1 Corinthians 1 that there was a sect of Paul and a sect of Apollos and a sect of Cephas and a sect of Christ, I've always thought that all four were wrong, see, and that probably the sect that said they followed Christ While denying the realities of the others, I've always thought that they were probably the worst of them all. Now, not all scholars agree on that, and not all simple-minded people agree on it either. I'm not sure which of those classes I really belong to. But there's not unanimous agreement. But I kind of feel that way emphatically myself. The apostle says there shouldn't be a Peter group and an Apollos group and a Cephas group and a Christ group. He said there ought to be one recognizing that Christ was crucified for them and that they are bound to God through faith in him. Now, when the writer says, be followers of me as I follow Christ, he means that in activities and designations, be sure you follow the right person. I get weary of all the titles we have to use today. I mean by that the titles that people want to identify you by, much like Brother Wilson mentioned this morning in a kind of a different area. But I have been to some places, and the first thing they wanted to know was, well, are you, I don't know what you're interested in in the way of title, so they want to know, are you a pre-tribulationist or are you a post-tribulationist? Well, I'm really a pre-tribulationist, and I know if things are buts, and I expect the coming of the Lord, well, I believe it might be any moment. I look for His coming, and I live in that expectation. But that's not the most important thing in the world. And I hate to walk into a room and somebody says, are you a pre-tribulationist? Are you a pre-millennialist? Are you an Arminian? Are you a Calvinist? Are you a Lutheran? Are you one of the grand brethren? I just hate to be asked enormously because I would like to think that my obligation is not to follow any of those men or those things, but to follow Christ and to make sure that I am identified with him. Now as I'm identified with him, I'm going to be identified with you too if you're identified with him. So I may be walking behind you in terms of life and teaching, and so in a sense I may follow you. thing that should mark our order. I should not have to identify myself with Kelly or Grant or Darby. If you'll just let me speak to the issue, I should not have to identify myself with those or with Calvin or Echel and Paddyus or Zwingli or Jacobus Arminians. I shouldn't have to identify myself with any of them. An identification with Christ is what the scripture requires for order. Now, they were first called Christians in Antioch and no doubt in derision because Christian means little Christ. The I-A-N-O-S ending in Greek is a diminutive, and in effect it says a little Christ. No doubt they did it in derision. But by the time Peter wrote his first epistle, the term that had been used in derision had come to be an honorable term. And so Peter says, and speaks of people suffering as a Christian, living as a Christian, being Christian, that is living after the pattern and manner of Christ. So the emphasis that I draw is that the scriptural authority is to follow the right person. namely Christ, in your creed, in your dogma, in your fellowship, and not to allow yourself to be drawn away unnecessarily following another situation. I went to a prayer meeting in Philadelphia once in one of my friendly assemblies. It was a humorous thing, so I'm telling you a note of humor. This is why you fear the tape recorders, incidentally. The tape recorders pick up everything, and people don't know sometimes whether, well, anyhow, never mind. But note of humor. I was not going to lecture, I was just going to go fellowship. And one of the brethren said to me, I think he said it humorously, I'm not sure. He said, well, who are you an expert on? And I said, who am I an expert on? Yes, he said, uncle so-and-so, he said, is an expert on J&J. And he said, this brother, he said, is an expert on CHM. And he said, this brother is an expert on Bellot. And he said, I personally am an expert on Kelly. He said, who are you an expert on? So he said it kind of humorously. And I said, well, I said, I don't, I don't I don't, you know, I was kind of at a loss for words that I don't really know, and somebody thought maybe I was an expert on Scofield, which I couldn't qualify on either, and so I, you know, you inwardly kind of chuckle. Really what I wanted to say was I'm an expert on the Bible, but that, I mean, I, there's lots I don't know, and there was a lot more I didn't know then, so I didn't dare be that presumptuous, but that's really what I wanted to say. But actually, see, in much of life, it gets that way. You can quote 77 people and not the words. times it happens that way, many times, not always, but a lot of times it happens that way. And the biblical authority for our order is to be a follower of Christ. Now, as I said a few moments ago, that requires a new birth, and then dedication of life to him beyond that. But I personally have come to a point where I kind of defy all other titles than Christians. Now, I can still live with brother, but I kind of personally defy all other titles. There was a day in my academic life when I felt very proud of knowing a lot of big words and knowing how to use them. And so I could walk into a group and say that I was a commensalistic something or other and give a big identification that would astonish the group. And it didn't make them impressed, it just astonished them. Sometimes bewildered them a little bit. But I personally have tried for about the last 15 years to get over them because these terms, which are not biblical, create more heat than light. And they tend to obscure the true saving message. Now, says the Apostle, be a follower of me as I am of Christ. At least four times in the New Testament we are told specifically how to follow Christ. In 1 Peter 2 we're told to be a follower of him to follow after the pattern of his steps and the way that he endured without fighting back at his tormentors. In Hebrews 12 we're told to be a follower of him and the way that he looked at the joy that was set before him and endured the shame and put the testimony to himself. In Romans 15 we are told to be a follower of him as he pleased the Father and did not his own will. And in Philippians 2 we are told to be a follower of him in the way that he thought and the way his mental processes went. So the emphasis is follow the right person, namely the Lord Jesus Christ. And the order has got to be that way. I'm not a prophet of doom, but I am one of those fellows who about 24 years ago escaped nominations. No, it's not true that they threw me out. I escaped. I'm not saying that in any disrespect. It's just a simple fact. I escaped. At the time, I didn't know where I was heading. I ran into the brethren in Augusta and they helped me out. But I escaped about 21 years ago from a large nomination. If I didn't learn anything else, I learned how easy it is to be a follower of others rather than the Lord. And I want to tell you, the fact that you go to an assembly, or the fact that you call yourself something else, does not mean that you are automatically free from that tendency. To be a follower of a group or of a particular bracket or somebody's book or somebody's magazine, well, that's the way it goes. Now remember, as we follow the Lord, we find ourselves in company with a lot of other people. And you're kind of a linked hand sort of thing as you follow the Lord. And since there are always some of them that are ahead of you in years and time, in a sense you come behind them like you come behind Paul. You follow them as they gave themselves to the Lord and as they followed the Lord. And that is the scriptural authority for our order. It says you make sure you have the right priority and you make sure you follow the right person. God's glory and God's work and God's son as the one who guides us in all of these things. Now, the third of these I refer to as a practical biblical thrust. The third of them shows up in 1 Corinthians 11, starting in verse 3 and then runs through this chapter, probably through chapter 12, certainly through chapter 14, with a side excursion in chapter 13 to tell you how you're to operate in love and kindness. And so I have merely read verse 3, and the concept is to demonstrate yieldedness. To demonstrate yieldedness, or if you will, submission to God and to the order and to God sets up. Now, submission and yieldedness have always been words that I didn't like. I don't know why, unless it's the rebellious nature, but I never really was very happy with them. And when I was a kid and somebody would wrestle with you and they'd pin you on the ground until you said uncle. I don't know what was so good about the word uncle, but they'd wrestle with you and beat you until you said uncle. And when you said uncle, it was like voluntary submission. And more than once I had the experience, I got beat up a lot as a kid. But more than once I had the experience of some fellow scratching me. He's going to pound me until I said, Uncle. And in a feeble voice, I'd say, Uncle. And as soon as he let up, I jump up on my feet and said, I never meant it. I never meant it. I had my fingers crossed and take off running for dear life. I might add that I was very fleet of foot, so I rarely got beat up twice for the same person on the same day. There's just something about it, that the nature that we have come by and what is brought into us through this world speaks against us. And I have watched it in very little children, very little children. I'm very fond of little children. It's just between the ages of two and 18 that I have trouble with them. But I have watched it in very, very little children. They start out rather early insisting on their own will, and any parent with a baby knows it. And the parent who comes by and says, my child never insisted on his own will is either, well, why categorize them tonight? Why categorize them tonight? I had an experience on Long Island not long ago where I said to a mother, I'm not all wise either, but I said to a mother, the child is hungry. And the mother said, the child just ate the child can't be hungry. Six-month-old child, and I said, the child is hungry. And the mother said, well, Mr. Taylor, she said, the child just drank her milk and just ate her grucal, and she can't be hungry. And I said, well, I'll have to prove to you the child is hungry. So with an old trick that I learned years ago, I washed off the back of my knuckle in a sanitary fashion and stuck it into the child's mouth. upon the child clamped onto it with loud slurping sounds. And I said to the mother, see, I said the child is hungry, but the mother still did not want to admit it. She said, the kid just wants her own way, she said. At six months, at six months, well, I don't know if it was right or wrong, but I do know it's true. Consequently, there's a tremendous tendency on the part of most of us not to want to show submission. Now, in a passage like this, we are told that the head of Christ with some of the things our brother mentioned this morning in connection with the psalm with regard to this administrative arrangement between the father and the son. But in that situation, the son says, in the volume of the book it's written of me, I delight to do thy will, oh my God. And there's no indication of anything but a perfect yieldiness there, and yet the son is in no sense inferior to the father in moral values or standards. In no sense, he is God, God. You can't say it loudly enough and you can't say it heavily enough. enough, he is God, and in no sense inferior to the Father in moral quality, character, or situation. But in an administrative arrangement, you have Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so we are told here simply that the head of Christ is God, and then we are told that Christ is the head of every man, and then we are told that the head of the woman is the man. The God is head of Christ, that Christ is the head of the man, that the man is the head of the woman. And we are told that that is an order of divine precedent. And you'd say to yourself, if the Father can make that kind of an arrangement with the Son, he can certainly make the rest of that kind of an arrangement with us. And consequently, the matter of order, biblical authority, the matter of order, is a matter of demonstrating yieldedness, demonstrating yieldedness as the Son demonstrated yieldedness to the Father. Now this is a long subject, and I'd like to say a word to you fellows like myself. I haven't been to a conference that lasted more than 30 minutes, in the last 10 or 12 years. I haven't been in this business a long time, but I haven't been to one that lasted more than 30 minutes in the last 10 or 12 years, that they didn't want to have about three hours talking about head coverings for the sisters. I will say just one word about that in a minute, I think, but it comes up endlessly and endlessly and endlessly. But I rarely ever hear a man stand up and say, how do I show that Christ is my head? I rarely ever hear a man say it. that he's bald, that he shows that Christ is his head. As Christ willingly bowed to the ill of the Father, so the man willingly bows to that Christ. The will of Christ becomes the will of the man, and as he demonstrates that, he demonstrates that Christ is his head, and there is good order there. Now, you demonstrate that kind of outwardly. You demonstrate it by participation in Christian worship and by prayer and by leading in devotion and by leading in other areas too. but it's demonstrated outwardly. And I have always been caught in what I regard as one of the great contradictions that men are mightily worried about women showing the proper submission while they themselves are insisting on having their own way with God. They want their wives to be in the right place, but they don't want to be in the right place themselves. And it's one of those fault-finding kind of situations where all order is denied by us. I would like to say it as emphatically as I can. yielded to the will of God in that administrative arrangement. I likewise should be perfectly and totally yielded to the will of Christ in a similar arrangement that is imposed both by creation and by the gospel administered by Jesus Christ. He saved me, brings me into the family through trust in him, and he is indeed my head, and I ought to be yielded to him pretty much that way. I meant to tell you earlier tonight that you should not feel badly that I wear a coat in these situations. I did last year and I did the year before that and I did the year before that. Now, if you were a group of teenagers in blue jeans and dungarees and other things sitting on the floor, all hunkered up against the wall, then I would probably just wear a sports shirt. See, blue jeans never appealed to me. I had to wear them all the time when I was on the farm and they've never appealed to me since. The further I can get away from them, the better I'll like it. Blue jeans and clawed hoppers are things of See, but here, see, I feel very comfortable. And people say, how can you feel very comfortable? And that's because my head says to my body, feel comfortable. If you were teaching in the seminary, this is the way it would have to be. You know, it could be 110 in a room, you'd have no choice unless you wanted to defy your authority. So feel comfortable. And so consequently, believe it or not, you just have to take my word for it. You know, I'm known for truth-telling. My body feels comfortable. It may not when the service is over, but right now it feels great, except there's a big wind blowing up here that I keep having to anchor the page of my Bible down on, but other than that, right now it feels great. It takes directions from the head. Now, you can't always control yourself that way, nor can I, but that is the aim in the spiritual body. Christ speaks. You hear, you do. Now, this whole matter of the head covering on a sister is designed as an external showing that she, too, is in proper submission. And I personally have very little sympathy with the people who try to weed it out culturally. Some of our believers today have weeded everything out of the Corinthian epistle culturally. There's nothing left to it anymore except a couple of cases of fornication, which are in the old church. They've weeded out, they go to law with one another, and they'll curse one another, and they'll gouge one another, and if you take them to Corinthians, they either run it off dispensationally or weed it out socially. But the thing that demonstrates submission is just a tiny little thing, tiny little things particular situation. And I think myself see that the real thing that's important is the heart, but as I tried to say yesterday, the heart and the body kind of go together. And ironically, a high priest, his heart should be feeling bad, but he had still better be wearing the right clothes when he came to administer. And he had better have his beard in the proper shape, too. He couldn't come in looking like an Assyrian priest, you know, wearing the Babylonian symbols and saying, well, you know, my heart's bad, so I've made everything else bad too. Really couldn't do it. Heart and mind go together, I think, along with the external things also. But the important thing is a display of yieldedness. Not to me, but to God. And then to God's order as He explains it in the Word and as He sets us before us. And consequently, order is almost a necessary part if the testimony is to be sound and the gospel will be sound. Now let me capitalize those things. We're talking But the practical authority of the Word of God for our order. Number one, have the right priority. If you're born again, let it be the will of your company to glorify God. If you've never been saved, you can't do it. Tonight would be the night to trust Jesus Christ with your soul. Just to call on him and say, Lord, I need you and I want salvation. But if you are born again, then with your own heart and your own activities, you begin the search that God is glorified. That becomes the watchword for your fellowship, not how big a gym you build, but how God is glorified. And then two, follow the right person. As a company, make sure that Christ is head and Lord, not just in theory, but by the word and what you do. And then three, demonstrate submission to God. As Christ himself, I don't know how to say it in a good theological sense, but as Christ himself said, I delight to who are brethren say, I delight to do your will, Christ, and you who are sisters say, I delight to show that I know my order too, Lord Jesus. The emphasis falls pretty much that way, and that's where we'll leave it tonight. But there is no area of life known to me that the scripture does not touch on it with real authority, and it touches on our whole company very much so. Now you can deny the scriptural authority, and you may build a giant company. You may deny it, You may forget the scriptural authority and you may have the biggest Sunday school this side of bongo bongo, hard to tell what may happen. You may have great, great, great success. But those who set aside the scriptural authority in one area of life, it's only a matter of time till they lose it and suffer in other areas of life too. The man who sets aside Christ today jeopardizes all eternity. The company that sets aside the principles of the Word of God today justifies testimony and their continuance. So let it be our principle to come back for the practical instruction of the Word, both for our order and our witness. I want you to join with me in closing prayer, and I want to just tell you this as we pray. what we really need is to get our heart serious with God and say, Lord, I would like to live in an orderly fashion. Or if that's the wrong way to say it, say, Lord, for my fellowship and myself, I want to be well ordered. And you might very well with me ask that the Lord would be your guide, that you'd follow him alone, that you'd show proper submission to him and that you'd set the right priority before you. But it may be that those things don't mean much to you because you've never trusted Jesus in a saving way. As we wrap our meeting up prayerfully, if you've never trusted Jesus Christ in a saving way, won't you ask him tonight to be your Savior? If you'd like to talk with me about it, I will talk with you and discuss it and pray with you. But right where you are, out of your heart, you can say, Lord Jesus Christ, I want you to be my Savior. Forgive my sins. Save me. Shall we pray? We are thankful for the grace of the Lord Jesus, who did always those things that please the Father and who does those things that are right for us. We are thankful for His saving grace and for the way the Spirit of God is applied at the hearts in a gathering like this. And Lord, if we have anyone with us tonight who has never trusted Christ in a saving way, and you alone know their hearts fully, Father, we pray that this day they might open the the heart and believe on the Son of God, respond to the gospel and cry for the mercy that Christ provides. But our prayer also is, Father, that you'd help us to walk orderly, and that you'd help us to see that that orderly walk is part of the Word of God and the scriptural principles that we might be given to them, not out of convenience, but out of conviction and trust in the wisdom of Almighty God. those things to us and bless us tonight. We pray in the wonderful name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.