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Now let us read from the first epistle by Paul to the Corinthians, chapter eleven. Paul's letter to Corinthians, the first of them, and chapter eleven, verse one. Be you imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you that you remember me in all things and hold fast the traditions, even as I delivered them to you. Verse twenty three: For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. How that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it and said, this is my body which is for you, this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, this do as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord's death until he come. In our consideration of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, we have found a certain pattern build up before us. As Paul seeks to help his believers in Corinth, his fellow believers in Corinth, to solve some of the practical problems that beset them, we find that he constantly takes them back to first principles, and indeed takes them back to the great sacrifice of Christ, which underlines, underlays, and forms the foundation of the Christian gospel. So in chapter one, we found him bringing the believers to think of the cross of the Lord Jesus. And then in chapter five, when dealing with another problem, he invites them to think of Christ as the great Passover that brought the believer deliverance. And then last week we found in chapter ten how he points to the death of the Lord Jesus and all the benefits that have come therefrom under the figure of the table of the Lord. Now this week we find him referring once again to the death of the Savior, but this time not as the cross of Christ, nor as the Passover sacrifice, nor as the table of the Lord, but on this occasion as the covenant sacrifice, the cup of the new covenant. This cup is the new covenant in my blood. So for a moment, we ought to s- to think of exactly what this aspect of the death of Christ conveys. What exactly do we mean when we talk of the death of the Lord Jesus as a covenant sacrifice? What is it that we are saying when each week we take that cup into our hand and drink wine therefrom? What is it that we signify? This, says the passage, is, uh, the cup of the new covenant in my blood. And if we ask its significance, we can soon find help to discover what it is. First of all, let us think, uh, of the fact that it is the new covenant, contrasting it with the old covenant. The old covenant, you may remember, it was a covenant entered into by God and Israel as Israel stood at the foot of Mount Sinai. There, on the basis of the law of God delivered over to them, God made a covenant relationship with his people. It was to be observed and remain intact as long as the people obeyed God's law, for that covenant was based on the law. And the law was holy and just and good, but that covenant proved impossible to preserve because, do you see, the people were unable to keep the law. Given the very best intention in the world, given people like Saul of Tarsus who delighted in the law and wanted to keep the law, they found that that law given to them by God became, instead of a minister of righteousness, became a ministry of condemnation. It was always saying, do this, but it never once gave you the power to do this. It was forever lasting coming alongside and saying, well, don't do that, but never gave you the power to abstain from doing that. It became, therefore, a ministry of judgment and a ministry of condemnation, and its ineffectuality is vividly shown by the fact it was written on two tables of stone. There it was, objectively written. None could dispute its authority, none could dispute its rightness, but it was written on two cold tablets of stone that couldn't supply to anybody the power to keep the commandments that it ordained, the old covenant. Today, thank God, we stand related to God, not on the terms of the old covenant, but on the terms of the new. But pray notice what the terms of the new covenant are. They don't run, the old covenant laws were difficult to keep, so from now on you won't have to keep any laws. The covenant doesn't run like that, does it? The new covenant runs, I will write my laws on their hearts, and on their minds will I inscribe them. The other week, talking to some of my younger brethren and sisters, I rather naughtily and unfairly suddenly popped them the question out of the blue, said, ah, you know, this last year, perhaps fifty two times you have taken the cup at the Lord's Supper. It is the cup of the New Covenant. Can you please recite to me the terms of the New Covenant? And I shan't tell you how many passed the exam, but I'm not quite sure I ought to repeat the test just now. Can you, my brother? Can you, my sister? Right now, by memory, repeat the terms of the new covenant, the cup of which you just now took. Word perfect, all the The clauses. clauses? Dear, dear, for if we can't, of course, taking that cup into our hand, the New Covenant, and not being able to remember what the terms are, would be a very curious thing to do, wouldn't it? What was I saying when I took that cup? I was agreeing that our blessed Lord should write his laws on my heart and on my mind inscribe them. For this covenant too is concerned with the way that Christ governs his people. Then we may remember when it was set up. This very passage reminds us it was on the night in which he was betrayed that Jesus took bread and took the cup. What an exceedingly dramatic night it was. All through the week that we call Holy Week, our Lord had been coming into the city during the daytime to teach in the temple while the crowds were around him. But at night, when the crowds left, he left too, so that the authorities would not be able to come and arrest him in the city under cover of darkness. It was a dangerous week, was that last week our Lord spent in Jerusalem. Because he had come to the city riding on the ass, the fold of the ass, fulfilling Zechariah's promise, coming unto Jerusalem as Jerusalem her king. Your king comes to you lowly. But he'd found the city in the hands of his enemies, who were even now plotting to destroy him. And in their heart, the defiance, we will not have this man reign over us. It wasn't safe for him to be in the city after dark. Came that last night, however, when he was determined that he would keep the Passover feast with his disciples in that city and in Jerusalem, capital city of the King Messiah, our Lord in secrecy held this Last Supper that he might establish his kingdom, and offered the cup of the covenant to those two twelve men that sat around him, that he might become their king and Lord, and begin to write the laws on their hearts and on their minds. And then he went via the cross and home to glory, and still he hasn't come again. We live in a hostile world. Its ruler, ultimately the prince of this world, his satanic majesty. And here, my brethren and sisters, we have gathered once more this morning in the absence of our Lord, waiting till he come. Taking that cup in our hand, have once more looked up to the Savior and proclaimed our loyalty to him. In a world that was hostile to him, in a world where some betray him. We have taken the cart to profess our loyalty to our absent king, and to repeat our hope that our king soon shall come again. I have told you the story before, and you've heard it from many other mouths. Let me use it again. In Chester City in England, they will take you round the old walls of the city and presently into a guard room built in the walls. They will show you a board painted with what looks a complete muddle of colors, you can't make head nor tail of it. And then they will take a tankard and put it on top, and as the colors are reflected in the tankard, there comes a face. It was the face of the king. When one of the kings of England was in exile, those loyal to him used to gather and drink the health of the king. It had to be done secretly. What king? But everybody round that table, when the the tankard was put down back on that board, knew which king it was. In the absence of him whom they regarded as their true liege lord, they drank his hell, expressing their loyalty to him till he come again. Thus have we done this morning by taking that cup. What relevance then has it got to our problems? The problems that Paul is talking about, therefore, in this chapter, let us notice, first of all, verse 2, and then in verse twenty three, concern two of the major traditions of the church. First of all, in verse two, I praise you that you remember me in all things and hold fast the traditions, even as I delivered them to you. And then in verse twenty three, though the word tradition is not used in English, it is the same idea in its original language. I have received of the Lord that which also I deliver unto you. There are some folks, of course, who think tradition is a very bad thing. Well, tradition can degenerate into being a very bad thing, and there can be some bad traditions that are bad right from the very start. But true tradition, of course, is an exceedingly important and sacred thing. The idea behind tradition, you will see in this verse twenty three, it means to receive from somebody and then hand on to somebody else. That is what the Latin word trado means unto you. There are some folks, of course, who think tradition is a very bad thing. Well, tradition can degenerate into being a very bad thing, and there can be some bad traditions that are bad right from the very start. But true tradition, of course, is an exceedingly important and sacred thing. The idea behind tradition, you will see in this verse uh twenty three, it means to receive from somebody and then hand on to somebody else. That is what the Latin word trado means. That is what the idea in the Greek word means. And therefore, the validity of the tradition depends in the first place who you get it from. So Pete Paul says, I have received from the Lord that which also I deliver unto you. Do you see the chain? It's the Lord who is the source of the tradition. He hands it to the apostle. The apostle takes that tradition, keeps it himself, and passes it on faithfully to the other believers. There is the train of, uh, uh, of tradition coming from the Lord himself. And I praise you that you keep the tradition, says Paul, in all things. I want us to think of ourselves this morning in that light, as those who profess their loyalty to the absent Lord and King. And that absent Lord has handed over to Paul certain things that he wants kept, and Paul in turn, in the name of the King, hands them over to us so that we keep them. What we must be sure, therefore, before we look at these particular things, is what the chain of command is and where the command and the tradition comes from. Then you will see in these chapters two lots of traditions are concerned. First of all, in chapter eleven, verses one to sixteen, Paul deals with those symbols by which we express our reverence to God and our loyalty to the Lord Jesus, and incidentally our respect one for another. The fact that in general, men, Christian men praying, pray without veil or hat. That tradition. Let me repeat it. The fact that Christian men, praying generally, anywhere, do not cover their heads with veil or hat. That's the first part of the tradition. It has a corollary that Christian women, when they pray or prophesy, do cover their heads with veil or hat. That's the first tradition. Second tradition, that as we meet in church, we take bread and wine and remember the Lord using these two symbols, bread and wine, to proclaim the Lord's death until he come. Two lots of symbols, therefore, and both equally important, both coming from the Lord Jesus, and therefore to be treated with equal reverence and equal obedience. Obedience. I shall not need to tell you that the symbols treated of in chapter eleven, verses one to sixteen, nowadays are not always popular. For changes have come about in the world outside. And therefore, sometimes we shall hear it said that these traditions about women when they are praying or prophesying, being veiled or beheaded, are simply matters of local custom. That it was good for the believers to observe in far off days in Corinth, but which can be safely set aside in modern Belfast or New York. The plain fact is, of course, when we read the verses, yes, there are things there due to local custom, but not that alone. The reasons that Paul gives why we men should keep our side and not be veiled or hatred, and the reason he gives why the women should be veiled or hatred, these are, among other things, first of all, the order of redemption. In which the man has his head, and the woman has her head, and Christ has his head. The fact that our blessed Lord has his head isn't a local custom to Corinth. That is a truth, abiding truth, all down the Christian years. And its symbolism must be preserved. And another reason he gives, as you see from verses seven onwards to verse twelve, is the order, not now of redemption, but the order of creation. Ladies and gentlemen, creation isn't a thing that they did in Corinth at a certain stage because it was in fashion and then passed away. The order of creation remains. And finally, his third major reason given us in verse thirteen is nature. Thirteen and fourteen: doth not even nature teach you? And because dear old beldame nature is the same today as she ever was, nature's teachings remain. It's not a question of fashion, nor of local custom merely, but of the order of redemption, the order of creation, and the teachings of nature. But some will say these verses surely are derogatory to women, and Paul wrote them in a day in which women were not really regarded very much, and nowadays Christ has taught us better. In those old far off days, there was a horrible distinction in status between man and woman, and now in Christ there is neither man nor woman. Well, you may be sure that in the old world, in some countries, women were treated simply like things, and sometimes worse, like slaves. And if you knew anything about the ancient Greek world, you would thank God, ladies, every day of your life for the Apostle Paul, who taught Christian men to honor women. But you see, while it is true that in Christ there is neither male nor female when it comes to our status in Christ, when it comes to function, there is a difference. Let us think again of the second lot of traditions. What's all the fuss about in the second lot of traditions from verse seventeen onwards? Well, because in their treatment of the Lord's Supper, the believers in Corinth were confusing another important distinction. First, in verses one to sixteen, they were confusing the difference between man and woman. Now, in verses seventeen um onwards, they were confusing the difference between the church and the home. And of course, there is a difference, isn't there, between the church and the home. Of course, if you are a Christian, you will see to it that your home life is under the control of the Lord and sanctified by his presence, as your life in the church is under the control of the Lord and sanctified by his presence, of course. If we only behaved when we were in church and forgot to be Christians when we were at home, what a lot of old hypocrites we should be. Christ should rule in my home as he rules in the church. Does that mean there's no difference between the home and the church? Well, there is a very big difference, these verses command it. And say these verses, look now, pray observe the distinction between home and the church. If you want a jolly good meal to fill your hunger, take it at home, please. And if it's a question of keeping the Lord's Supper, that we do in church. A clear distinction between home and church, just as there is still a clear distinction between man and woman. But let us forget the negative things. Why should we allow these things to appear glum and gloomy? Some people say that these are horrible verses that have caused division amongst the Lord's people, and as soon as they are scrapped or neglected, the better it will be. Or no. If we have read these verses aright, this we shall find at least Three times over does Paul use the word glory. Look, please, in verse seven. For as much as he is the image and glory of God, and the woman is the glory of the man. Verse fifteen, but if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her. Glory, glory, glory, says Paul. And if we read these verses aright, we shall go home today with our hearts full to bursting of a sense of the glory of God and the glory that our blessed Lord has conferred upon us. These symbols that Lord, our Lord has given us to use are not demeaning symbols. They are symbols of glory. Why then should men not wear hats? Not be veiled when they pray? Well, the verses tell us to begin with, that is because of the order of redemption. Verse three, 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. And I suppose of those three statements, it's the middle one that's a little bit difficult, isn't it? It sounds so dictatorial, what the head of every woman is man, man it, oh dear, dear, dear. That doesn't lie well with modern ethos. And indeed, doubtless it has been abused over the centuries to favor all sorts of tyrannies. But you will not blame the tyranny on Christ, will you? The head of the woman is the man. My good sister, before you start resenting it, pray read the next verse, and the head of Christ is God. He has his head then too. Pray tell me, how did the Messiah come to have a head? Thought he was equal with God, of the exact same nature as God. How did he come to have a head? Well, I can tell you why. That he who was in the form of God, absolutely equal in substance with the Father, thought it not robbery to be on equal terms with God, but emptied himself and became a servant. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death. That's how he came to have a head for the sake of our salvation. He was on and remained equal with God in his nature, but for our sakes willingly gave up being on equal terms with God. You say, what is the difference? Forgive me if my analogies get repeated. Some of them happen to be quite good. Here is my lord, the Duke of Duke somewhere. A vast estate and a beautiful stately home, and the beds therein are all featherbellied, dun or pillow, goodness knows what else, slumberland, and I tell you what. And his grace, the Duke goes to bed every night surrounded by inconceivable wealth and comfort. Ah, but the income tax man comes after him, and death duties and whatnot, you'll see. And now, believe it or not, in order to keep up their style of living to which they are accustomed, something will have to be done. The whole lands will have to be open to the public, and they shall have to allow the public to come and look around the house to collect the money to keep the house going. They can't afford to lose their profits by hiring somebody to stand on the gate and take the tears, and so they ask for a volunteer. And you know what? The Duke's blue-blooded son, as blue-blooded as his father, volunteers to go down to the gate lodge and for the summer, uh, period to live in the old gate lodge and sleep in the gate lodge and take the tears at the gate. I can tell you something about the gate lodge. The windows are all broken and drafty, and all he has is an old camp bed, and the rats occasionally run across the floor. And as the prince sleeps there, he's still equal in his nature with his father, but I tell you what, he isn't on equal terms with his father. His father is still in the feather bed up in the house, with servants to wait on him every minute. The son is in the gate lodge, himself a servant. What your Lord did for you, my sister, my brother. He could have stayed in heaven, couldn't he? And for our sakes, he didn't count it a thing to be grasped onto, to be on equal terms with God, but made himself of no reputation and became a servant and a slave, that he might save us. What shall I say after that? That I am not going to accept anyone as head? When the head of Christ is God, the head of man is Christ, the head of the woman is man. There we have a hierarchy. For the purposes of redemption, a hierarchy. You think that's terribly undemocratic? What would you say about a rugby team? Supposing they even won. What would you say about them? That it's wrong to have a captain? And undemocratic, and nobody must be able to tell the others what to do? In the hierarchy of redemption to bring our planet back to God, there is a very definite hierarchy. God is chief. Under him is Christ. Under him is man, and under him, woman. All in the same great team for the redemption of mankind. So that our functions differ. You men, I might talk to you, you mustn't, when you pray, wear hat or veil. Why not? Because if you did, you'd dishonor your head. Not only your own physical head, but Jesus Christ, your Lord. He is your head. But because he's absent, you must represent him publicly. And as you pray without your, with your head unveiled, you are bearing witness to the fact that Jesus Christ is your head, whom now you have the responsibility to represent. That's why men don't wear hats when they prayer. Nothing to do with custom. Yesterday I was in the synagogue in Belfast. All the men there were wearing hats when they prayed, and prayer shawls as well. Why? Because they're not gentlemen, you say. No gentleman would wear a hat in the presence of a woman. No, they're perfect gentlemen, delightful gentlemen, but they wear hats. Even in the synagogue when they pray, and at other times when they pray, they'll wear a hat or a covering. Why? Well, it is their, it is their custom. And if I went to them and said, look here, gentlemen, please take those old hats or be liberated. What do you think they'd say? Certainly not. Why don't they wear, do like we do, and the men not wear hats? Because they don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah, that's why. Oh, my dear good gentlemen, you won't start wearing hats, will you, when you pray? Because you'll be denying the Christhood of Jesus if you do. Don't dishonor your head, will you? This is an exceedingly eloquent and important symbol. Nothing to do with local custom whatsoever. And the women folks are asked when they pray and prophesy to cover their heads, for if they don't, they'll dishonor their head, that is their menfolk to whom they are responsible. For it's just as if you were shaven or shorn, says Paul. Now we have a bit of local custom, for an if in the ancient world a woman was shaven or shorn, she was a woman that had been unfaithful to her husband. And for a woman to pray and prophesy without a veil, says Paul, is to dishonor her head in the same way as she would dishonor it if she became a woman of loose morals. And then, says Paul, there is the question, you see, of creation. If you read your Genesis, you will find that man, the human being man, was made in the image of God. But of course, if you read Genesis two, you'll find that men and women weren't made in the same split second, were they? The man was first made, says the ancient record of creation. And then the woman. And why was the delay, and was it significant? Yes. The man was made in the image of God to have dominion. The woman was made, uh, afterwards and for him. That's not a local custom, that's God's order of creation. Let none abuse it and turn it into a tyranny. For the other thing is true, that if woman was made after the man, then ever since that time Adam accepted, all men have been through the woman. A partnership in God's creation. But that is God's idea of order. And why should we bother about it when we pray and prophesy? Because you will perceive, won't you, that God's creation has become disordered. Into that lovely scene of order there came Satan with his rebellious doctrines. I will assert myself. I will be as God. I won't be under anybody else. And all that sorry insubordination and disobedience that has ruined the harmony and paradise of our world. And Christ is doing what? Putting it right, my brother and sister. How? By a tyrannical decree from above? No, by himself becoming a servant and accepting a head and obeying, and having learned obedience by the things that he suffers, leading us to in the pathway of disobed- of of obedience. And for that reason, likewise. For that reason, likewise, we do it for the angels' sake. For unseen by us this very morning, of course, angels have been watching us, watching this great and marvelous thing, how that the Messiah has begun to restore God's creation to its true and glorious. They have read it in our hearts. They have read it in the symbols that we have used. And finally, there is what nature teaches us. Teaches us a lot of things, does nature, doesn't it? Teaches us that if a man have long hair, it's a shame to him. Teaches us that if, if a woman have long hair, it's her glory. What a realist Paul was. Not all ladies, they won't mind my saying it, not all ladies do have a beautiful long head of hair, do they? Our African sisters don't. But nature teaches us that if a woman have a beautiful long head of hair, it's a glory. Magnificent. For God has given it to her as, alas, the authorized went and said as a veil, but that isn't the word for veil, it's another word altogether. It is given at her as a mantle to cast around her. And when God invented a lovely head of hair for a woman, he thought he was giving her a something beautiful, like a husband who gives his wife a stole, meat stole, you should see her, where she puts it on and goes out to this or that function. My husband gave me this, of course, but look how beautiful thing it is. It is for the moment her glory to watch the other women's eyes and the gentleman's too. And they see this glorious thing. And God, giving some women a lovely head of hair, thought it would be for her glory. What a delightful thing. Meant to be admired, of course, by all and sundry. You will notice he didn't give the men to have long hair. He made the more glorious in this respect the woman. Precisely because she is so glorious, God asks that when we come to spiritual exercise, a woman should veil her glory in the presence of God. As she attract to herself in that moment the attention that God should receive, undivided for himself. The traditions of the church, they come from Messiah, they come through Paul, they come to me. As I have taken that cup into my hand this morning, the Lord grant his laws be so written on my hearts that I shall willingly obey them and keep the traditions that have been delivered to us.