So, we thank you in advance for the spiritual food we're about to receive, and I pray that you would bless the one who comes to preach. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. You'll have to pardon me this morning. The ragweed is out and it has me a little stopped up and then the steam in the baptistry has helped open me up a little bit. So it's a good thing, thankful for that. What a good day. It's just wonderful to see the Lord work in people's lives and to recognize that. I want you to open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. We're back in our study, living in the kingdom, living and working in the kingdom. If you were going to put one word to kind of overarch this chapter, And really a word that permeates the rest of Paul's teaching, and to some degree we should see it in the whole of the book of 1 Corinthians, it's the word submission. It's the word submission. That's kind of an overarching word and theme for the book, especially for this chapter and for the context of what Paul is dealing with in the life of the Corinthians. Remember, this is a local body of Christ. It has people like us in it. They have their differences. They have their difficulties. They don't always see eye-to-eye with one another. They don't always see eye-to-eye and they can have factions and groups. And this is one of the issues that we see Paul dealing with. in the context of these next couple of chapters is he's wanting them to see that they've not only had their issues that are doctrinal, they've had their issues with individuals, but they've also had some factions in the church. They've had some concerns to where certain groups have kind of gone against one another and he even here will talk about the contentious and so he's really kind of dealing with a church of people just like us nobody's perfect everybody has their quirks everybody has their personality differences we all have different perspectives lenses that we see life through and so it takes a lot for us to sometimes come together and this is what the body of Christ has to do in the love of Christ and in the name of Christ and we do that according to Christ's word and his commandments. And so in this chapter what seems to be the main issue for most people and commentators is the idea of what's called head coverings. If you were to poll most Christians who knew a little bit about 1st Corinthians and especially this chapter You would ask them, what's chapter 11 about? And they'd say, oh, that's about head coverings, whether you wear hats in church or not, and whether you make a lady do it. And I want to say to you today, that is not the main focus of this chapter at all. That's not even the main focus of these 16 verses. Now we're going to see that there's an element there that there's a practical question that has to be dealt with. But at the end of the day, there's a very, very, very, very, very big issue here. And that issue is authority and submission. Authority and submission. So I have three things that I want you to consider this morning. The first two will be more brief than the third. Number one, Head coverings are potential pitfalls. Head coverings are potential pitfalls. Number two, head coverings and some historical context is important. Head coverings and some historical context is important. And number three, if you're taking these notes now, don't worry, I'll restate these in a moment, but I'm giving you a heads up. Number three, head coverings and their covenantal identity are important. Head coverings and their covenantal identity are important. Let's begin by reading 1 Corinthians 11, beginning in verse one. Now I'll go ahead and caution you. I don't think the first part, verse one, I don't think it actually goes in this chapter. I think it should go with the end of the chapter before. Okay. Um, remember your chapter divisions, they're not ordained of God per se. That wasn't a part of the way this is, but anyway, be imitators of me just as I also am of Christ. Now, I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions just as I delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head. But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head. For she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off. But if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head. For a man ought not have to have his head covered since he is the image and glory of God. but the woman is the glory of man. For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man, for indeed man was not created for the woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake. Therefore, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman, For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman. And all things originate from God. Judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? But if a woman has long hair, It is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering. But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God. Now, you need to recognize that I'm going to give you my best understanding of what this text says. You could go do all the reading I've done, and I honestly can tell you I've read on this passage for 25 years or better to try to understand it. The first time I really tried to understand it was in 1990, late 97, early 98. I was reforming. Some odd reason I decided to help the student ministry understand the Bible better. We needed to start with the book of the Bible and nobody told me where to start teaching because I'd been doing topical messages for about three years, two and a half years. I got the bright idea to start with 1 Corinthians. And if I could go back and tell my younger self what to do, I would say, don't do that. Not a good idea. So as I tried to teach through 1 Corinthians, I began to see some of the pitfalls that I might deal with and I came to chapter 11 a couple of months before I was ever going to teach on it and thought to myself, what in the world am I ever going to say to these young people about 1 Corinthians 11? And so I began studying and trying to figure out 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Some of my positions have changed since then. I think I've got a better understanding of some covenant theology that I think informs this passage. And over the years, sometimes some of my positions have changed. Thankfully, the Lord was very gracious to me because I actually resigned, almost got fired before I had to teach 1 Corinthians 11. So if you don't think the Lord is gracious even when you lose a job, Let me tell you, he is, because he was very gracious to me. Because had I gone before that youth ministry and tried to teach them this passage then, there is absolutely no telling what I would have said. And probably every student in there would have been more confused than I am. But the Lord's merciful in these things and he gives grace to us, but he also gives us these things for us to remember there's a greater context at hand. And so I want you to remember that idea of submission authority is overarching in all of these things, but first and foremost to recognize head coverings, they have potential pitfalls. What are those pitfalls? Well, if elders are not careful, pastors, elders, if they're not careful, they may require something for worship that God does not require. That can be a problem. That's a potential pitfall. When you begin to require something for people, for the worship of God, and you say, God requires you to do this, you are now putting those people under the bondage of that word. And you might want to be careful doing that. As elders, we want to lead the church in biblical mindedness. We want to lead the church in the understanding of what does God tell us to do in worship. That's the first and foremost thing any elders need to do is to lead the people to worship God according to his commands. There's a lot of other pastoral things we do. There's a lot of other discussions we may have as elders. But first and foremost, if elders are not able to lead the church in the worship of God rightly according to his word, then there eventually will be great problems. And we see that in the churches. Now this particular issue though is one that oftentimes is not in the sense of the problems that we normally see. Normally we see problems where churches are going away from those things that are more closely aligned with God's Word and they begin to get vague and become broad-tented and big-minded and they get into all kind of things where they add things to worship that have nothing to do with the Word of God at all. But this is one of those issues where there's some text that seem to give us an indication of something that seems to be very important. And so some churches become very minded in the context of saying, well, it's right there. It must be something you have to do. Well, it is right there, but it's right there in a particular context, which we'll see in a moment. So we have to be careful not to require something for the worship of God that God himself does not require. Secondly, under this heading, if believers are not careful, they may burden themselves under a yoke of unnecessary bondage. If believers are not careful, they may burden themselves under a yoke of unnecessary bondage. I've seen situations where A church doesn't require head coverings but there are individuals who desire in their mind to follow God's word and so they will follow what they think is biblical and they'll require that in their own homes and you'll see that happen occasionally. And I would always caution husbands. You need to be very careful with a doctrine like this because you might bind your wife's conscience to something that's an unnecessary yoke put upon her and you're putting that bondage on her and she doesn't need it. She has enough things to deal with already than us not understanding something and putting a further yoke upon her. She needs to submit to her husband but visibly showing that by a physical head covering I don't think is the context in which God has desired for the people of God. So you can see some of these potential pitfalls. We have to be careful about this yoke of slavery. Number two, head coverings and some of its historical context is important. Head coverings and some historical context is important. Now, you could read 50 different commentators, and literally there's a bunch of them, more than 50. You could read 50 different commentators and you'd have four, three, four, maybe five main views that come out of those 50 commentators. especially concerning historical context. That seems to be the real issue that most commentators try to get at is for people to see there's a historical context issue in the church in Corinth, there's something in the background that's going on. I think that has its place. I don't want to deny that. I think it has its place. But then you're going to find other people that disagree with that. You're going to find other people that disagree with me. If you disagree with me, you know what? I'm okay. And I hope you'll be okay with disagreeing with me. But these passages have a historical context that we need to point to. And many commentators point to the historical issue of the day being the idea of a head covering in the culture itself. As you read about the culture of Corinth, one of the ways that in Corinth, now remember this is a primarily Gentile culture. As you read about the people of Corinth, one of the ways that women would hold themselves apart from prostitutes in the culture is that those women would wear a head covering to make sure people knew they were not a prostitute. There's all kind of discussion about the validity of that, about how much that was really in the culture or not. But there seems to be some evidence that that's somewhere in the background of this. That Paul recognized that in Corinth there was kind of this issue. That, you know, in the culture women often covered their heads not to be viewed as a prostitute. So that often, apparently, in the view of some commentators, carried on in the church. Wouldn't a woman who went to worship God want to show up with a head covering so everybody knew when she came in she wasn't a prostitute? Most women want to be viewed as such a woman that people would know, I'm not a prostitute, right? Makes kind of common sense. That seems to be something in the background. It's in this historical context that that setting is there. The other issue is that some commentators point to a historical context of the Jews. There were all types of Judaic laws and the sense of the head covering in the Jewish synagogues and all those kind of things. That's in the background there too. And so here you have a Gentile and a Jew and the idea of this head covering come together in some way. And now there seems to be this debate in the church about these head coverings. Well, I think the way you're going to see Paul deal with this is that Paul's going to recognize that the biggest problem here is not the historical context, whether or not the culture has a view of why a head covering should be worn by a woman or Jews have a view of why a head covering should be worn by a woman. What Paul's going to do is he's going to deal with the covenantal context of it. But first and foremost, Paul wants to recognize the contentious problem in the church. Look at verse 16. I think this is kind of the crux of one of the issues here. Paul says, but if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God. So whatever Paul is going to say, he's going to say, here's the practice. But he says, you know what? there's some people that are inclined to be contentious. And he said, contentious people, you need to be careful because you might be barking up the wrong tree. This is probably the most important historical issue regarding this matter of head coverings is that Paul's dealing with it because there's contention. And you have to think, because remember, what did we say earlier? Some of the things that Paul was dealing with was because the church had written some questions to him, right? You remember that? They had written some things to him and wanted some information. Now, we don't have here the introduction to this section like we do some others, but it can't be far off to think this is one of those things, whether they wrote to him or not, Paul was aware of it. If he hadn't been aware of it, then why would he have written it? He was aware that there was a contentious issue, and part of the contention started with this issue of the head covering. Some people in the church were being contentious over a matter that did not rank as the greatest problem among the church. That's what's interesting to me. There may have been an issue here, Whatever direction somebody falls on, whether they fall on some physical head covering or not, there may have been that issue, but the bigger issue is there was a contentious faction in the church about it. And quite frankly, Paul's gonna go right into the Lord's Supper after this, and he's basically gonna say, whatever your issues are with head covering, That's not even the greatest problem you got. You got a problem coming to the Lord's supper table. And he says that's directly commanded in worship. That's the big deal. This thing you're being contentious about is a secondary matter. We'll not only recognize the contentious problem in the church in verse 16, But just as a practical application, recognized contentiousness is not a godly manner of practice. Recognized contentiousness is not a godly manner of practice. The scripture warns us of this in various places, men and women. Even in the Proverbs 26, 21, like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife. Proverbs 21, 19, it is better to live in a desert land than with a contentious and vexing woman. So it deals with both man and woman, doesn't it? Some people like to quote the women versus more than they do the men one, but we just do both here, because men can be just as contentious as women can be, and vice versa. So contentiousness is a heart problem. It's not a gender problem, it's a heart problem. and it's not a godly manner of practice. The church doesn't need to be a contentious place. Where else is a contentious place? Everywhere. And the church doesn't need to be that place. Our political realm right now is what? Contentious. Government, contentious. Our workplaces are often what? Contentious. Most families and homes live with a lot of what? Contention. Well, that's not a godly practice for us as believers. And so we need to be striving against it in our homes and in the church. And Paul is addressing this as an issue. Well, thirdly, head coverings and their covenantal identity are important. Head coverings and their covenantal identity are important. First and foremost, you need to recognize the importance of godly ordered authority. Recognize the importance of godly ordered authority. Paul's going to give them some praise in verse 2. He says, I praise you guys. Thank you very much because you remember me and everything. These people have been praying for Paul. They've been remembering him. And he says, you hold firmly to the traditions just as I delivered them to you. Now I want you to think about that for a second. Here's a church that's dealing with a lot of issues and Paul is addressing those issues and yet at the same time he says to this church, you know what? I want to give God the thanks for you and I want to give you some encouragement because you've remembered me in everything and you hold firmly to the traditions which I delivered to you. Now I think what Paul is about to say is, is your frustration over head coverings is not a tradition I delivered to you. You've gotten that from somewhere else. And I think he's gonna set that up with godly ordered authority. Recognize the importance of godly ordered authority. Now when we read verse three it says, but I want you to understand, I praise you, thank you for your remembrance of me and all these things, for holding firmly to these traditions that I deliver to you, but I want you to understand. This that you're fighting about, that's not one of those traditions I deliver to you. So how am I gonna solve it? I'm gonna solve it from the top down. But I want you to understand. That Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. The word translated in most of your versions as head, here, that word gives the meaning of authority, okay? Kafale is the word, and it gives this meaning of authority. Some people will make an argument, if you read a bunch of commentators on it, they'll go, well this word actually comes from the Septuagint, and the Septuagint uses this word in the context of the source, which we get from the Hebrew, and the idea of the source is one has gotten their source from here. Now that's fine and fair enough, and you can do that etymology if you want to. But in that etymology, at the end of the day, when you're dealing with something that has its source from somewhere, that also is its authority. And ultimately, this is a word which is really giving us the sense of this is about authority. What authority is that? Well, I'm gonna move backwards here. Well, I'm gonna rearrange Paul a little bit here. God the Father is the head of Christ. That's the last one he mentions. God the Father is the head of Christ. Well, he's giving us the idea. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father. If you want to have some argument of source, the Father and the Son are of co-equal essence. There's never a time when the Son was not. So if you want to talk about source, that's fine, but ultimately, that's an issue of authority. God the Father is the head of Christ. Now, God is the head of Christ in the distinctiveness of person, not essence. One essence, co-equal, among God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yet, God the Father and the Son, having the same one will, that one will in God, the Son carries out the will according to the work of his person. The father, remember we were talking about the decree last week? The father elected, the son procures the elect, or he redeems the elect, and the spirit applies the work of the son to the elect. Each one co-equal in essence, yet working in the context of the distinctiveness of their person or their subsistence. So we see the Son in John 17 saying, I am willing to do your will, O heavenly Father, your will. It's the Son giving a sense of the authority of God the Father in his subsistence as the Father. We have to recognize this authority properly. Because then that authority which is given to the Son by the Father, Paul says, Christ the Son is the head of every man. The text says every man. Everybody that likes the word every and all ought to be real excited here. Here's a place where you can apply it in its right context because we know from Genesis itself, and then from other passages, John 1, 1 John 1, Colossians, we know in these other places that it is stated clearly that Jesus is the Creator. And He holds all things under subjection. And that authority was given Him by the Father, Ephesians 1, 20-23. Christ the Son is the head of every man. If you want to talk about source, fine, but that's about authority. This is an issue of authority. Who is in authority? And Paul is stating in verse 3, Christ the Son is the head of every man. Isn't this the problem with the world is they don't want to bow the knee to Christ? This is the problem with the world, isn't it? The world wants to think They found an alternative way that they came into existence. A big bang. A small cellular plasmic pool. We've evolved. Whatever definition different scientists want to put to the idea of evolution, it's changed. Darwinism has changed so much so Darwin wouldn't even recognize some of it anymore. But that's actually saying Christ is not my head. I was not created by the one true living God. And Christ, I will not be under subjection to His authority. And Paul's just stating, now you've got to think now, in this Corinthian church, he's reminding the Corinthians of something that is covenantal in its context, because you remember, these Greek and Roman cultures and societies, they would have had all kinds of gods that they worshipped, and Paul now is putting all that into context to say, remember now, We're not just talking about an arbitrary God who you're under his authority, but this is the one true living God who sent his son and you, mankind, is under the headship of Christ. He created you. Christ was there at creation. Christ was there before time began. Christ was there when time began. Christ was there. So Christ the Son is the head of every man. You would not be in existence and I would not be in existence if it were not for Christ the Son of God. And Paul's reminding them of that. Then in verse three he says, man, the first human, is the head of the woman. This is all pointing back to the creation ordinance. And I think the whole passage really is pointing backwards to that. He says, man, the first human, is the head of the woman. Now he states that in verse three very plainly. The man is the head of a woman. Now, I want you to do something, just for a second. I want you to skip verses four through seven. I know you'd be, just work with me here. Skip verses four through seven, go down to verse eight. Man is the head of the woman. For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man. For indeed, man was not created for the woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake. This is all pointing back to the creation ordinance. This is a covenantal context. He's saying this is about the authority set up in creation itself. Once again, isn't this what the world is kicking against? The whole feminism movement is just a kick against the creation ordinance. As women, well, I should say it different. As women, I'm sorry. We're separate. That's the whole idea, isn't it? saw this ad the other day. I was reading an article and you know how sometimes ad pops up. I know there's probably a way to get that off. I'll get some of y'all to help me with that later. But this ad popped up and it was an ad for mortgages. I guess they thought I needed one. And So there's an ad for a mortgage. And you know what the ad for the mortgage is? It has a video on it. And here comes, I'm sitting there trying to click this thing, turn it off. Here comes this woman saying, you know, I was thinking about being in this relationship so I could buy my own house. But who needs a relationship to buy their own house? Now you tell me what that's trying to say. Separate. We don't need those men. Awful, terrible men. We don't need them. That's what it's trying to say. You've gotten the whole creation ordinance wrong. You've completely skewed the whole thing. Paul is trying to sum that up. For indeed, man was not created for woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake. If you go back to the Genesis account, the whole idea is that these two individuals were made to accompany one another, to help one another. The man in his headship would lead properly unto God and lead rightly in the context of his work and what he would do. The woman would come alongside nurture, continue to grow in the context of that relationship, what is necessary, things that the man in and of his makeup is not always good at doing. Paul is saying, don't y'all remember this is about a creation ordinance? If you're gonna come into the worship of God, don't you recall that this is something to do with our covenantal background? Before you start talking about sticking some little thing on your head, whatever it may be, and I think he's specifically saying to some of the ladies in the church, ladies, aren't you being contentious about something instead of just submitting with a good heart to the covenantal context for what you were created for? Most of the world is telling women, get out of what the Bible tells you, it's wrong. Most churches today are telling women, get out of what the Bible tells you of what a godly woman is, get away from it. And Paul's reminding them. Submission's at the very heart of this. Now he certainly is desiring for men to be godly and biblically minded in their leadership. There is no excuse for a man to say he's the head of his home but he treats his wife like dirt. No, the Bible gives no excuse for that. That's just sin. But here we have this issue that no one is thinking about the creation ordinance and Paul is pointing them back to it. And he just point blank says, man the first human is head of a woman. Now later in Ephesians he's going to say to those in the church that wives submit to your own husbands. He's going to give that a peculiar and particular context. He's not saying that every woman is in subjection to every single man that's all around them. He's just saying, you know what? There's a creation ordinance here that falls out in the whole of the creation that man, being the first one created, was given certain authority and that woman was created for the man. And then as believers, we ought to recognize it properly. that a wife is subject to her own husband. Now there's certain places that other authority can be over a wife, but even in that, there has to be a recognition if she is a married woman, she is first and foremost to submit to her own husband. Elders don't have the right to just walk in and tell somebody else's wife what to do all the time. No. No, she first is under the headship of her own husband. For daughters who are unmarried, it's to their fathers. There's a recognition that this is the setup from the creation ordinance itself. So we have to recognize the importance of godly ordered submission. Every man is under God in Christ. Every woman is under a man by God's created order. And then we have to recognize the importance of godly created fashion. Now, I want you to see here verses 11 and 12. However, in the Lord neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman, and all things originate from God. We're kind of keeping this as an overarching theme in the covenantal context. It's that old rock and roll song. It's a man's world, but it wouldn't be nothing without a woman or a girl. Well, the rock and roll person, I don't remember who wrote or sang that song. Don't try to think of it right now. I know where your brains are going. He's just bringing up biblical identity. there's a sense here in which we have to understand. God created man, God created the woman, gave the woman to the man, and yet at the same time, how does mankind go on? Birth through the woman. You can't do one without the other. If men treat women bad, it's gonna be bad for culture and society. If women treat men bad, it's gonna be bad for culture and society. If men or women try to do away with the usefulness of one or the other, it's gonna be bad for society. So with that created order in its proper context, then you can deal with verses four through seven and verses 13 through 16. we have to recognize the importance of godly created fashion. And I think Paul addressed the question with liberty in mind and submission at heart. Because look at verse 13. He says, judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? He says, you judge for yourselves, but let's think about this for a minute. Are you gonna judge it based on the created order? and deal with submission in the heart? Are you gonna keep looking at these outside issues? Because I think in verses four through seven, he's hearkening back to the context of how man was created. Man was created to go before God with what God gave him. You say, how do you know that? Look at verse 14. Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her? For her hair is given to her for a covering. When was her hair given to her? At creation. What's been one of the great distinctions throughout all of time, space, and history about a man and a woman, primarily? It's been their hair. you could primarily tell the difference between a man and a woman by their hair. Even before the days of short haircuts. Now, some churches have gotten into this and now we're going to measure men's haircuts and we're going to measure women's haircuts. That's not the point. That's not the issue here. There has never been a time in any culture or society in any thoughtfulness in created order that you could not tell the difference between a man and a woman primarily due to features of how they were created, including their hair. Some people are trying to take this and make it way more difficult in my mind than it has to be. I think when you read verses four through seven, Paul is actually debating with them in the context of saying to them, look, God himself created them in a particular way and this is the way they ought to come before God. There's even Old Testament context to the shaving of a woman's head and it being to her dishonor. I think simply this is really about women coming before God as women, created by God as one who is under the authority of man with the hair that God gave them. So Paul is questioning them and saying, hey, Fine, there's liberty in these things, and you need to recognize this liberty. He's saying even in verse 13, hey, judge for yourselves, is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Well, you know what? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? If you can't distinguish a man as a man, is that not a dishonor to him? But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering. It's interesting here that everywhere the word covering is used, it's in the same content, and when Paul comes to this place, he makes this statement, for her hair is given to her for a covering. I think Paul is arguing here in the covenantal context, it doesn't have anything to do with adding something extra. And as a matter of fact, he's actually going against that and saying if you add something extra, you're doing that upon your own authority and not the Word of God. Furthermore, when he comes to verse 16, he says, but if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice. Well, he just said that for her hair is given to her for a covering. I think that's the practice he's referring to. He's not denying there might be cultural things that women in the culture may wear a head covering to separate themselves from being called prostitutes. Fine, fair enough. But he's actually saying if that is the cultural issue, then to come before God in worship, that's not what's commanded and necessary. He's actually saying, come as God created you, man and woman. It's interesting even here that we have a cultural problem because now this isn't, is this not the problem that we're facing even in our own country in the Western world? People are trying to decide whether or not they want to be identified as a man or a woman. Parts is parts, but that doesn't matter. We're going to kick against that and rebel against it. Interesting enough, isn't this saying here, If you try to come before God as a transvestite, God will not honor you because you are not coming before God first and foremost in the creation ordinance. Come as the gender God created you, man and woman. Furthermore, Paul addressed the issue with a created covenantal perspective in mind and hopeful submission at the heart. So much contention arises in a church over secondary matters. So many churches are thinking so hard about secondary things. I personally think you have to do mental and quasi-biblical gymnastics to come up with a biblical mandate that every woman's head must be covered by an external covering to come in to the worship of God. Matter of fact, I think that's part of the ordinance even in the old covenant that is done away with because of the person and work of Christ. That's why your covenant theology matters. In one sense, you can take the eldership and make some connections to the priesthood, but in another sense, you better not keep those connections. I don't have to come before you all in this building in any way, in the shape, form, and fashion, and the dress of an old covenant priest. And there's a reason why, because we have one priest, the high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is saying our created covenantal perspective matters and our salvific covenantal perspective matters. Don't try to make something external be the determining factor of you coming before God rightly, even in worship, unless it is purely, explicitly commanded. Does the Bible teach modesty? Yes, the Bible does teach modesty. We ought to modestly cover ourselves up and not saunter around in our bathing suits in worship. And yet at the same time, being modest is even different from being mandated to externally cover one's head to be pleasing to God in worship. Ladies, God gave you your covering. It's in the hair that he gave you. come and worship him as the woman God created. Submit to him in your hearts. Submit to your husbands rightly in all authority. Paul simply directed them to their God-given hair as a godly fashion of submission. The woman's longer hair from creation is her covering, and that is all she needs to approach God. but she approaches him with the right heart. You can have the longest hair you want to, but if you're of a rebellious heart, it won't matter. Let's not make secondary matters a place for distraction and destruction in the church. Some people may agree or may not agree with my thoughts here, and that's okay, but I'm hopeful. My goal, and I think the goal of our elders, is not to bind the conscience of anyone unless the scripture binds your conscience. And to the best of my knowledge, this is my understanding. Robin and Scott may have some slight differences or tweaks, but I think all three of us stand pretty much together in this. Open to questions. But I don't want to spend eight weeks on head coverings. My hope is that you'll see, as Paul says to the church in Corinth, there are bigger fish to fry. And that's the Lord's Supper. Okay, let's pray. Heavenly Father, be merciful to us in your word. There are so many. So many distinctives in your word, Lord. Sometimes some of those distinctives. In language can be confusing and difficult. Lord, I do not claim all knowledge. You are the only one that is all knowing. So I come asking your mercy upon your people. That if I, as a shepherd, have given information that may be incorrect, please be merciful to the people. But Lord, if I have said mostly what is correct, will you give them hearts to hear and understand and to move forward in looking to those matters of greatest importance? We love you with all our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength through your son alone by the power of your spirit. We give you thanks for all these things as we come to the table. In Christ's name we pray, amen.