McKendrick, Jim: Month Of Meetings-2001-07 ~ Luke 14-Headcovering-1

Well, good evening. Once again, I'd like to have you turn with me this evening to First Corinthians ten, chapter eleven. While you're turning there, I certainly want to thank you on behalf of my wife and I for the lovely month here in Nassau. We always enjoy the fellowship and the, of each of you as you go out of your way, I know, to make our stay here very comfortable and relaxing and enjoyable in every way. Also want to salute the guys in the Haven. Keep your eyes on the Lord, though, for only, for only when you keep your eyes there will you go and follow him. I always enjoy being involved in the Haven when I'm here, getting to know some of the young men. Unfortunately, I don't come back normally often enough to keep, there's always new guys there, but it was, it was neat to come back, uh, within a six-month period this last time, and, uh, see some familiar faces that I, that I met in November as well. We trust you'll all go on to the Lord. First Corinthians chapter 11, and then verse two. And the reason I start here is the fact that it says, now I praise you, and that is the indicative key in all throughout this book of First Corinthians that, that signifies a new subject. It is that little phrase, now I praise you, now I, now concerning, now concerning the things you wrote to me, now concerning the things I've heard. This is the indicative phrase that starts with now each of the way, each time through, and that's why I choose to start with verse two of First Corinthians chapter eleven. Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I have 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. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. But every woman that prayeth and prophesyeth with her head uncovered, dishonoureth her head, for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the women be not, if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. 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. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angel. Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither is the woman without the man and the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman, but all things of God. Judge in yourselves, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Does 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 her for a covering. But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. Last week we bro- broached into this subject, frankly, in this, in this passage, and it was just a couple of things that, uh, I want to reiterate again. We, we talked a lot last, uh, Sunday evening about interpretation and the fact that we want to, uh, interpret this literally because we interpret all the rest of the scriptures literally. Uh, and thus we would want to apply all the scriptures and interpret them all in the same way. I have a problem with the allegorical interpretation of scriptures because I never know where it becomes allegorical and where it becomes literal, and it seems to switch back and forth. However, in a literal interpretation of the scriptures, uh, it is consistently literal all the way through, and that's a whole lot easier for, uh, guys like me, which don't have all these wonderful theological degrees, and so I have to take it simple, and so I take it literally. The next thing I, we talked about at a great, well, not at, not at nearly the length that I would like to have talked about, was the distinction there is in the teaching of the church between the teaching that surrounds the universal church, that is, all those who have been saved from Pentecost to the rapture, and the ch- and the teaching that surrounds the local church, that is, a group of believers gathered together in one location. A couple or three or four of those differences is the fact that the teaching surrounding the universal church is individual in responsibility, and it the the corporate, uh, corporate responsibility would be involved in the local church. In the universal church, we have, if you will, positional truths, those truths which are true of every believer, with no distinction on whether he's mature or immature, whether he's male or female, and none of those kinds of distinctions are in the teaching surrounding that which is true of all the church of God. Uh, however, in the, uh, local church, we have distinctions made, distinctions in gifts, distinctions in maturity, distinctions in male and female, and that is around the, the, uh, the, uh, the local church teaching. Also in, in, in, uh, involved in this is since the universal church is not seen in its entirety, never in one spot. Well, I suppose you could argue that it was seen in one spot at one time on the day of Pentecost, uh, but since that particular day, until we all get to heaven, what a glorious day that will be, when all the church will be gathered together, surrounding the throne of God, and then it will be manifest in a very real and wonderful way, as Ephesians five would tell us, as a glorious church without spot or wrinkle. What a gl- glorious day that's going to be, uh, when we all get there. However, however, in the local church teaching, we have that which is visible. Those things which can be seen because the local church has a visible testimony in the immediate surrounding locality in which it is placed. And thus, things that are visible are seen in the teaching surrounding the local church. And of course, we have been talking about the idea of symbols, and that is why the symbols surround the idea of the local church. And thus we have these symbols that are here in chapter 11 of First Corinthians. We have four of them, Two of them, unfortunately, we are not going to get at at all. We have the symbol in the last, the two symbols in the last part of the chapter are bread and wine, which are involved in a corporate meeting of the church where we have the visible symbols in front of us of the bread and of the, of the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we gather around those visible symbols, and we remember the Lord Jesus Christ in his own death, burial, and resurrection in his own appointed way. At the front of the chapter, the chapter that we have, the part of the chapter that we have, uh, read together, we have two more symbols that are visible. One of those symbols is a, uh, that that gadget that sits between your shoulder blades, and we call it a head. And in this chapter, we will note that it becomes a symbol. It is taken as a symbol. And also there is another symbol, and that is a covering, a veil, which is to cover the lady, and that is a visible symbol. Just as visible in the negative sense of the word, and just as important is the uncovered head of the male, and because it is uncovered, it becomes as important as the covered head of the lady. One can't go without the other. And so, uh, this is what we have here in, uh, in this chapter. Now, eh, for sake of time, we're gonna have to run through this relatively quickly, uh, and so, uh, please excuse me if I just m- run through this. I'm gonna try very, and I'm looking at my wife when I'm saying this, I'm gonna try very hard to stick very close to my notes, which is not normal for me, uh, and uh, but we're gonna work real hard at that so that we can get through this by seven o'clock. I wish we had another two hours of teaching and about two hours of questions and answer- answers after that, but I have a feeling that by midnight tonight, maybe all of you would be more, more tired, uh, anyway. Anyway, we won't do that. So, bottom line is what we're going to look at, and I'm going to try to give this clearly and concisely, and what I see in this passage to help us understand it is the fact that I see three heads. I see three glories, and I see four arguments. Now, uh, maybe everybody won't exactly break it down the way I do, and that's fine, but this is the way I'm going to break it down for tonight. We have three heads, we have three glories, and we have four arguments. So, it's very obvious and clear at the beginning of the chapter. I mean, you don't have to, uh, you don't have to look at this chapter very hard to understand we have contrasts in here, male and female is contrasted, long hair on the ma- on the female, short hair on the male is contrasted, uh, covered the females and uncovered males, it's contrasted, males, females, covering, not covering, long hair, short hair. These things are simple, they're on the, on the surface, and all of them, uh, play a part in this particular passage, and it is these things that are going to be weaved together in the subject of headship and, uh, and, and in the subject of glory. And he's going to give us four arguments that are very, uh, precious and solid, uh, for this, for this subject. Now, the statement that Paul makes at the beginning, he argues, as Paul always does, very tightly, uh, very interconnectedly, very like an, like a lawyer would argue. He begins by making a statement of fact, as verse three. And then from verses four to seven, he's going to give you his first argument, and that argument is going to be theological slash spiritual, if you will. You can call it either way, I'm not going to get upset about either way. In verses eight to twelve, we have argument number two, and he is going to argue from creation. And in verses thirteen and fifteen, he's going to make a third argument, and that's going to come from nature. And then verse sixteen, he's going to have one more argument, the weakest in one sense, and yet very important. He is going to say, this is the teaching of the church, period. In other words, he's going to argue, if you will, apostolic authority. And he saves that one for last, and I think with very good reason. So verses, verse three is the statement of fact, which reads, but, it's interesting it starts out with but. This is a very classic yes, but. Verse two is a yes. Yes, I would praise you. Yes, I would praise you because you remember me in all things. You bear me in mind. I praise you because you keep the tradition, the ordinances. It's an interesting word, the word tradition. Uh, used in the New Testament negatively and at times positively. Mm, basically used negatively more often than positively because n- there's a lot of negative traditions out there. Uh, the, the traditions of our fathers, which may should have been th- thrown overboard a long time ago. And the New Testament is filled with that idea. But there is tradition that is used in a good sense, and it is that lifestyle, that thing which I do in my life, which in fact will reflect the teaching of the apostles, and those traditions need to be held to from generation to generation. I would refer you later to second Thessalonians chapter two verse fifteen and second Thessalonians chapter three and verse six where that word tradition is used in that sense. But, that's where we start verse three. you see? But, I would have you to know, here's something that maybe this church wasn't understanding, obviously from the teaching they didn't understand, and it is something that maybe we don't understand, it is something that we need to understand, and that is this, but I would have you to know that the head of every man is Christ. I find this fascinating because that's where he starts. Now, normally in a progression, because we have three heads here, the head of every man is Christ, the head of the woman is the man, the head of Christ is God. Now, I would have assumed that we would have started at the bottom and worked our way to the top, or we'd have started at the top and worked our way to the bottom, but that's not what he does. What he is saying here, and this is the emphasis of the passage and the emphasis of the book, and that is that Christ is the head of the church. It is Christ's glory. It is Christ, the purchase of his blood. It is his will. It is his name that needs to be honored in the church, and and the bottom line here is the headship that we want to visibly demonstrate here is the headship of Christ. Now, he would also go on to say, on top of that, uh, also that in fact the head of the woman is the man, and also the head of Christ is God, and I find that very important in this passage, and I'm so glad that the Spirit directed Paul to put that there, because it is an argument that is necessary for our day, because it is an argument that is necessary for our day, because we tend in our culture, in our day, to think that somehow submission equals inferiority. That somehow, if I'm submissive to someone over me, that makes me a second class citizen. And in fact, if that is true, then I would have to argue that Christ is inferior to God. And brethren, we had better not go that way, because there is equality in every sense of the word. He is God. In every sense of the word, co-equal, co-eternal. He is God. And there is nothing in his being which is inferior. And may I add, there is nothing in the female being that is inferior to a male being. And we need to understand that. We are not talking about inferiority of being. We are talking about ranking. We are talking about headship. There's got to be a captain in the ship. There's Commander Waddle, the stubborn. And no matter what happened and what mistakes were made by men under his command, he was the guy who made the decision, and he's the guy who gets retired from the Navy. And that's what we're talking about here. So if this is the picture, this is what we're trying to say here. We're trying to say that Christ is the head of the church. Okay, fine. Now, for Christ is the head of every man, and the head of the woman is the man. Now we're going to go on to say, in verses four to seven, we are going to have, if you will, a theological argument for that, or at least a spiritual argument. In verse four, we start out by saying that a man praying or prophesying, covered, brings shame. That is a very strong word. Dishonor may not be as strong as it needs to be there. It brings shame on his head. At verse three. who is the head of the man? Christ is the head of the man. Okay, the second thing he says is a woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered, brings shame, same word, brings shame on her head. Who is her head? Verse three, the man. Now he goes on, and he reiterates that. He says, because if a woman isn't covered, let her also be shaved bald. But, if that is shameful for a woman to be either shorn, that is to have a close cropped hair, or shorn completely, I mean cut off completely, bald type, if that's a shame to her, well then, she better be covered. Now that's the basic argument. There's your spiritual argument. We say here in verse seven, we wrap it up by saying then, why is this true? What is the reason for these two sentences? Why is he saying that? Why is this true? Well, here's why it's true. Because a man indeed ought not to cover his head, for as much as he is the image and glory, here's our first glory, the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. Now we have to ask a question here, and we'll get back to this maybe at the end. We will get back to it at the end very quickly. We have to ask the question, in what, in what sense are we talking? In what sphere are we talking? May I suggest that on the surface, we must be talking about the context of the local church, because what we're talking about is covering and uncovering, that's, that's, that's visible. We're talking about males and females being together here and displaying this, that's corporate. And we're obviously making a distinction between males and females, and that becomes local as well. So we're talking about the, the area of the local church. We're in that sphere. We're not in the sphere of the universal church, we're in the sphere of the local church. Now, let me understand what we're saying here. We said here, because the man is the image in glory of God. Now that's interesting, isn't it? The image, image means representation. He represents. Glory is manifestation. We have representation and manifestation, and it says here that, that the man is the representation and the manifestation of God. Now, in creation, it's interesting that that we go back to Genesis chapter one, and both equally, both males and females equally, are in the image and likeness of God. But that's not what the apostle says here. He says the image, the representation, and the glory, the manifestation of God. But, on the other hand, the woman is, he doesn't go, he's he's not in the image here, isn't he? He skips that because what we're dealing with is manifestation. What he wants to bring across is the idea of glory, the idea of manifestation. And it says here that the woman is the glory, the manifestation of the man. In other words, as the man manifests God, so the woman manifests the man. That's fascinating, because what is this is being manifested by the covering or the non-covered head. In other words, we have that the head is to be covered of the woman because it is shameful, if you will, for a man to be seen or visible as the head in the church. So actually, what we're saying here is the man's physical head is in fact used in these verses as a symbol, as the manifestation of the headship of Christ. Therefore, it needs to be uncovered because he manifests the headship of Christ, and the head becomes a symbol as well. Now, on the other hand, the woman's head is a physical sim- is used here as a physical symbol, and her head becomes the manifestation of the headship of man. Now, obviously, we're dealing with the local church here. We can't be dealing with the family here. We have to be dealing with the local church here. And when she covers her head, then what she is saying is man and his headship is in fact covered in the church. Because there can be only one head in the church. There is only one head in the church, and that is Christ. And this is a visible demonstration of the one head in the church, and that head is Christ, not the man. No man can be head in the church. For when a man takes headship in the church, we have a two-headed church, and that becomes a monstrosity. Now, that's the theological argument. The, the, the creatorial argument is this. Paul argues headship on the basis of creation. He says in creation, and he goes back to Genesis chapter two, very frankly, he argues here that the man was not of the woman, but the woman of the man. You go back to chapter two to find that out of Genesis. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. Therefore, you go back to Genesis chapter two and you discover that, and I don't have time to do that tonight. You will have to do that at your leisure. But one of the great lessons that you want to underscore in that is you will dis- discover in chapter two of Genesis that God created man out of the ground. And he created the trees out of the ground. And he created the animals out of the ground. But he didn't create woman out of the ground. She came from man. She was of him and for him. And in that act is established the headship of the man in creation. And that's a long argument. I wish I had an hour, an hour to get into that, but, uh, there, there we go. Therefore, in verse ten, for this cause ought a woman, ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. Interesting verse. Tough verse, not an easy verse. Lots of different ideas on this verse, by the way. And may I just suggest this? Therefore, because this curatorial reality, of which the angels are aware, the woman needs to demonstrate visibly for the angels that she, in fact, understands and is a submissive to the authority that God has placed in the universe and in mankind. At least that's my take on that verse. You may have different ones, that's fine. I wish we had two hours to discuss that, but we don't. So the angels learn from the church. They learn a lot of things from the church. They, they learn some things in Ephesians chapter three. and here they learn as the, as the saints gather together, they learn that authority and headship is being displayed, and the head is Christ. And that's what is displayed for the angels to understand. Argument number three: Are we moving through this fast, or are we moving through this fast? Turn up, like I say to the folks in Grand Rapids, turn up your hearing aids, I'm going to speak fast from here on in. The third one is nature. I want you to understand that this is an argument from nature, not culture. This is an argument from nature and not hairstyle. Folks, you and I both know that hairstyles on men and women have gone up and down like hem lines on women. But that's not what we're talking about here, because Paul is not going to argue from culture. He is not going to argue from style. That is not what he's arguing here. Not once in this argument he's come close to that. So what do we mean from nature? It says here, in verse thirteen, judging yourself, is it comely for a woman to pray and to go out uncovered? Now here's where he says, doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame to him. Same word as dishon. But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering. Now I want to tell you a story, and it's only taking me thirty seconds. We're going to have to say this real quick because I was struggling with what we meant here. And I will never forget, as I was struggling through this, it was a number of years ago. And I was struggling through this, thinking it through, trying to figure this, this, this passage out. And, uh, I was having coffee between meetings in the morning in my home assembly back in Grand Rapids. And this brother walked in, and he had on a dark blue suit. He had on a white shirt. I forget what his tie looked like, but he had the brightest red vest that I have ever laid eyes on in all of my life. And the very first thing I thought about was the fact that he looked like a robin. I mean, I, I have all kinds of crazy thoughts go through my head. You got to forgive me a little bit here. I thought, man, he looks like a robin coming through that. And just as I said that... That's the answer. We're dealing with nature here. May I take, give you a lesson from nature? Who is covered in nature? The female or the male? Now, this word covering here in verse fifteen is not the same word. It has no relationship to the word up in verse 7, and 5 and 4, and 6. It has nothing to do with that. It's a different word altogether. It's a word that means vesture, and it's translated vesture. It's translated garment, that which is thrown about you as a vesture or a garment. The woman is covered in nature. There is a vestment, a garment that surrounds her, that designates her, and everyone in the world knows that this is a female. I go out hunting when I was a kid. I haven't hunted for years and years and years and years. I used to go pheasant hunting when I was a kid, and uh, you walked to the cornfield, see, and you had, uh, you you could only, uh, you could only, uh, shoot the the the the the male pheasant. And I tell you, it didn't take you, it didn't take you a nanosecond when that pheasant flew up between the cornrows to know whether that was a male or a female. It was a female, you could hardly see her. She was covered. She was a female. She was covered. Now the male, what are you just saying? You got the green and the red, a beautiful bird. I mean, I, how many of you have seen pheasant? Absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous bird. And in just a nanosecond, you figured out this is a male. He was uncovered, wasn't he? He was there for all the world to see. And the female was covered, and I don't care in what species you go. To my knowledge, now somebody out there is going to give me a species that this is reversed in or something, but in nature, we have the bottom line, we have the female covered and the male uncovered. Now he's dead. That's what nature teaches us. Now, how is that demonstrated in human time? It's demonstrated in human time with the long hair of the lady and the short hair of the man. For you see, if a man has long hair, I don't care what your stylist says. He is looking like a female. I want you to go to the grocery store. Take a pick, take a grocery store, pick any grocery store, and look at the glamour magazines. You don't have to buy one, just look at the front cover, that's all. Most of what's inside of it, I presume, is nonsense, but you, you look at the cover, and all the cover girls, and all the Glamour magazines, they got short hair or long hair. You know what kind of long, what kind of hair they got. Because it manifests the radiance of the glory of the lady. And there was a radical feminist, as I was flipping through channels the other night up in the apartment, and she... it took me about thirty seconds of listening to her to know that she was a far out radical feminist, and her hair was shorter than mine. And you will find that in the world around about you. What is Paul saying? In nature, there is a distinction. He created us male and female, and men ought to look like men, and females ought to look like females. And that is done with long hair and short hair. And the long hair is for her manifestation that she is female and deserves to be treated like a female. And she comes under the covering. It's given to her for his house. Now, are you still contentious? You still want to argue about it? Well, okay. You want to argue about it? Paul says, bottom line is that there is no such testament in church. Now, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. It isn't the custom of males and females being distinct and covering and uncoupling. That is not, that is not what Paul is talking about here. And you can read any other translation outside of the King James, and it makes a whole lot clearer, by the way. This contention about males and females and their distinctive roles and the reality of headship is not to be contentious in the church. The word of God is to be honored and obeyed, lifted up. And there is no contention about what the word of God teaches. What we need to do is be in obedience to it. Now, I have to answer a couple of questions. I have emphasized in my teaching this evening that this is in the context of the local church. Why do I say that? I say that because it is visible, and that is a, that is a clear clue of the local church. It is men and women gathered together, and it takes both men and women, by the way, to, to, to demonstrate this principle, does it not? The uncovered male is just as important to this demonstration as the covered female. You need both. In this section, Paul begins at a very foundational truth, the truth of headship. And that is very closely connected with lordship, by the way. And what does he do? He begins in verse seventeen to specifically talk about the fact that when they were gathering together to have some sort of a fellowship supper, they were not gathering together for the Lord's Supper, even though they were calling it that. And he begins in specifically to give them teaching concerning the Lord's Supper. He argued from the general, if you will, the foundational principle to the specific. He does that in Acts, in Romans, uh, First Corinthians chapter eight through ten. He argues from the general in chapter eight. an idol is nothing. We know that an idol is nothing. All these things are a bunch of stone. There are no gods except one. But boy, by the time he gets to chapter ten, when he's specifically arguing the idea of separation and fellowship, he suddenly gets very specific, and he, he contradicts himself. No, he doesn't. In chapter eight, he's talking general. By the time he gets to chapter ten, he says the idol is something because that which, when those people bow to those idols, they're bowing to demons, so we cannot be associated with demon worship. He argues from the general to the specific. He argues from the general to the specific, specific. In chapter twelve, he starts out with spiritual gifts, and when he gets, uh, general in chapter twelve, motivation in chapter thirteen, and then he gets the specific in chapter fourteen. What Paul is doing is arguing from general to the specific in eight to ten, chapter eleven, and chapter twelve through fourteen. Now, that says that I need to interpret verse five for us. And I know I'm overhand, but since this is my last day, you can't do anything about it, because I'm leaving tomorrow anyway, but I won't keep you that very much longer. I have to talk about verse five. Now I have my good, I have good brother. I've chatted with them for, for, for hours on this subject, very frankly. And they will say, well, the local church begins with verse seventeen, and in verse eleven or chapter verse five means that there is a place for women to pray and prophesy, but obviously not in the local church, which would be true in verse four in chapter fourteen. Now, when I argue these things, I have to argue from the clear to the unclear. I mean, I don't care what, what subject. You talk about the, the, the, uh, you talk about the, uh, uh, assurance of salvation, eternal security, and I got verses in the New Testament that make me wonder if I got eternal security or not. But I argue those in light of the clear verses, don't I? Now the bottom line here is the fact that if I argue for a place for women to pray or prophesy, but not in the local church, I must have teaching in the New Testament that tells me when and where they are to pray and prophesy. And may I, may I inform you that you can't find that. There is neither principle, precept, or practice of women at any point and in any situation outside of the family situation and in the home, praying with coffee. Now, if the local church chooses, which we have done over the years, chooses to have gatherings which are not contemplated in the New Testament. We have a number of them. We have ladies meetings, we have youth meetings, we have Sunday schools, we have, hey, we got a bunch of them out there. Now, when, and I'm not saying it's wrong or right to do that, I'm, that's not my question here. But if the local church chooses to do that, then the local church needs to choose how they are going to conduct those meetings. And since I don't have a biblical example to tell you, that is for the elders of the church to figure out for themselves, given the wisdom of God. Now I know I have just raised old constant questions, and I wish I had triage hours to answer them, but I can't find. So we need to be careful that what I'm going to do tonight is I'm not going to interpret a verse in light of something that there is no precept or principle or practice in scripture to do, therefore, I must interpret it in light of the fact that Paul is talking about praying and prophesying to the men, so he turns around and talks about praying and prophesying to the ladies because what he is aiming at is not the praying and prophesying, that's left of chapter fourteen. What he is talking about in this section is headship and headship only, and he wasn't going to confuse the fact by talking about praying and prophesying in the same text. But when he gets to chapter fourteen, then he will discuss praying and prophesying.