I wanted to ask if you, I wanted to quiz you and see what book of the Bible do you expect that we would turn to, that we must turn to, that we would have to allow time for at a conference around such a theme as this? Issues facing the church today. What is the one book of the Bible, more than any other book, that deals with issues in the church and ethical problems and behavior situations in the church. And it was written to probably the most troubled, difficult church in the New Testament. Which epistle am I referring to? Well done. Turn to 1 Corinthians in your Bibles. Thank you. You passed the quiz. Excellent. How could we have a conference like this and not turn to the issues epistle, you could say? I mean, name another book of the Bible that covers as many issues as this. Factions, divisions, liberty, license, legalism, asceticism, ecstatics, charismatics, the abuse of spiritual gifts, lack of love, sexual immorality and incest, church discipline, lawsuits and unresolved conflicts, all in one epistle. And there's more. Divorce, remarriage, singleness, who you should marry, who you should not marry, what do you do when a Christian is married to a non-Christian, finances in the church, remuneration for ministers, gender, homosexuality, drunkenness, theft, clothing in the church, abuse of the Lord's Supper, people dying during the worship service. You want to talk about issues in a church? At 11 o'clock you begin the service with 100 people and when you finish the service after communion there's only 95 people. That's a big issue in a church. People are dropping on the floor. But you wonder, why are there so many issues at the Corinthian church? What was the issue behind all the issues? What was the mother problem behind all the other problems? Yes, it was sin, but what kind of sin? Particularly it was, starts with an W, ends with two S's, worldliness. worldliness. That is what was plaguing the church at Corinth in so many of their problems. My wife was speaking to a lady the other day who illustrates the ignorance of Christianity in our day. She was boasting that the music in the new church that she was going to, she said, we like the music. My husband and I really enjoy singing it because it is worldly. She didn't even know that it's a negative word. She was actually saying how good the music was because it was so worldly. I know she meant to say contemporary, but I think it was an appropriate slip. And I like the definition that David Wells gives for worldliness. It is whenever righteousness looks strange and sin looks normal. Whenever righteousness begins to look strange and sin begins to look normal, you have been infected by worldliness. And remember, Paul writes to the church in this epistle, in chapter one, verse two, he says, I'm writing to the church of God in Corinth. But it's been said the problem with Corinth and the Corinthian church was that there was too little of the church of God at Corinth and there's too much of Corinth in the church of God. There's too little of the saints in the world and too much of the world in the saints. And isn't that our problem here in Africa and African Christianity all across the land? Why is the church having so little impact on society in Africa? Because there's too much of the world in the church. We've become so worldly. One of the chief evidences of worldliness in the church, in every age, in every culture, one of the surest signs that we desperately need biblical reformation is in this area of gender confusion and the confusion of the roles of men and women. Whenever you see the women wearing the pants and the men failing to lead in the home or in the church, you know that worldliness has arrived. It's not a new problem today, is it? It was as old as Corinth. Praise God that he has given us this epistle here as an antidote to our worldliness. To cure our churches of this Corinthian flu. First Corinthians, it's all about how the gospel confronts our worldliness, how the cross of Christ transforms our ethics and our behavior. Why? Because we have, as Paul says repeatedly, the underlying motivation, the chief incentive for why we should be less worldly and more godly, because you've been bought with a price. You are not your own. Therefore, honor God with your body. Redemption requires transform lives. And so we come to one of the hottest burning issues today and long ago in Corinth, this battle of the sexes, this confusion over the roles of gender. Brothers and sisters, how many of you have ever heard an expository sermon about head coverings in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 in your church? Raise your hand. Raise it high. Okay. I think we have a problem, don't we? We are vulnerable, and we need to be taught on these things. 1 Corinthians chapter 11 is the longest, most detailed passage in all the Bible about the roles of men and women in the church. And yet, many pastors who have been preaching for decades have never addressed this text. Even the great Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the famed expositor of London, in all of his 66 fat volumes, show me one place where he touches or addresses 1 Corinthians chapter 11, you will not find it. Not a single sermon. You probably heard the saying, there's no problem too great that we cannot ignore it. That's the usual approach to this passage and this issue. The liberal scholars are so uncomfortable with Paul's statements about gender that they say this passage shouldn't be in the Bible and that Paul didn't write it. The problem is there's no manuscript evidence whatsoever for that claim. In fact, what Paul teaches here fits exactly with what he says elsewhere. Like in 1 Timothy 2, which we'll look at tonight. Please pray for me. This is the second most controversial passage in the Bible. Tonight is the most controversial passage, 1 Timothy 2. Why? It should not be female pastors. Ephesians chapter 5 and so forth harmonize with exactly what Paul says here about God's design for men and women. But it's hard, it's difficult. The sermon that I'll be sharing with you tonight kind of has some, you could say some blood on the manuscript because it has even cost me significantly in past years of ministry. I mean, just reading this passage that we're about to read in polite company today often will make a room either go hushed with embarrassment or erupt in violence. The last 50 years we've seen titanic changes on society's view of gender roles. Marriage has never in human history been under greater attack than now. The battle of the sexes has never raged more fierce than it is today. And we know our archenemy Satan is behind all of this, isn't it? Isn't he? What has always been his tactic and his strategy? From the beginning in the garden, remember what was the God-given, good, wise, beautiful, hierarchy, it's not a bad word, properly understood, the ranking that the Creator established. God above all. Under God, who was to govern and rule the earth. man. And then man was given, who? To name her and for her to help him and to be under his leadership. Woman. And under God, man and woman were the creatures subduing the earth, ruling over creation, naming the animals, right? When sin came in and the fall of man, what did Satan do? Complete reversal. Who listened to the serpent? The woman, who listened to the woman? The man, who listened to God? Nobody. Is that not a trademark of the tempter? A signature of Satan throughout history and around our world today. Turning God's design on its head, perverting, twisting the good order that the maker has established. On a lighter note, a recent feminist wrote this against the traditional and biblical view of gender roles. We can marry, and I will take you home to my castle, where you can keep house, prepare meals, clean my clothes, bear my children, and forever feel grateful and happy for doing so." Later that night, on a repast, a meal of lightly sautéed frog legs, seasoned in white wine and onion cream sauce, the princess chuckled to herself and thought, I don't think so. Sound like the world that we live in today? Despising God's design, chafing against the order and the roles that the creator has established. Or sometimes just confused about them. Probably some of you even in this room, in troubled marriages, in difficult or sensitive or hostile situations, either in your church or in your own home, even in your own bedroom. because of confusion about the roles of husband and wife, man and woman. We talk about in Sola 5 and in our Reformed churches that we are complementarian. How many of you are familiar with that term, that adjective, complementarian? Only a few of you. The contrast, and you cannot be both, people try to be both. They are afraid to take a position today. They say, oh, we are in the middle. We are middle of the road. You know what happens in the middle of the road? Ask the cow that's now on the side of the road. Dead. You get hit if you stay in the middle of the road. There's a bus coming called egalitarianism and feminism, as we heard last night, that's destroying the church. You must take a view. How will you decide who can be an elder in your church? How will you train your young people about who they should marry? How will your marriage survive? You have to take a view. Either you are odd, you are a freak and a weirdo today, and you are swimming upstream because you are a biblical complementarian, or you are an egalitarian. even if you are not conscious, even if you're denying it. Most churches, most people, the direction of society, the downstream pull, the gravitational thrust is moving rapidly in one direction. Galaterian feminist churches that believe there is no distinction between men and women, effectively. That whatever a man can do, a woman can do, and usually, what do they add? Better. Egalitarians will say that the sexes are equal in basically every way and should be able to perform most or all of the same functions and roles in the home in society. There's a whole trend called equal parenting. I find this pressure even in conservative Christian circles. Whatever the wife is doing, the husband must be doing. 50-50, 50-50, 50-50. No. According to the Bible, it should be 100-100. She should be 100% feminine and I should be 100% masculine. but we'll come to that in a moment. We are not egalitarians. We deny that position, and we affirm complementarianism, which means that God has created man and woman, yes, equal in dignity, value, and essence, and worth, Genesis chapter one, but Genesis chapter two, we are unequal. We are distinct and complementary and different and separate in our roles and functions that God has assigned. Even in the Solah five handbook, core value number seven, we say this. By the way, I don't know another at least English-speaking Christian group in South Africa, an association or denomination of churches that takes a stance on complementarianism. It's extremely rare and unpopular and people are afraid to talk about it because it is unpopular. But in Sola 5, core value number 7, we say, God, our creator, has established a difference in the creation and roles of men and women which we are not at liberty to change. Therefore we affirm the male headship of responsibility in the home and church to be exercised in the spirit of Christ-like sacrificial servanthood. We deny that women are inferior to men in value, and we deny that women may serve in leadership roles as pastors or elders. In our church at Antioch, probably like many good Reformed Baptistic churches, in our doctrinal statement, our Declaration of the Faith, as members we affirm this statement. We believe, according to God's good and wise design, He created men and women equal in value and dignity, but distinct and complementary in their function and roles in the home, church, and society. Does that help you understand the difference between the position of complementarianism? We teach this in our church in the membership course. Before anyone becomes a member, one thing we explain is why we are a complementarian church, not an egalitarian church. We're going to look this morning then at 1 Corinthians chapter 11, because if all you know is big words and fancy labels and theological systems, but they don't stand up to the specific texts of Scripture, then you don't have a very strong position, do you? If all you do is hide behind, well, I'm a Calvinist. You notice there's a lot of good words that start with C, by the way. I'm a Calvinist. I'm a cessationist. I'm a creationist. I'm a complementarian. But you can't defend it verse by verse, chapter by chapter from your own Bible. And if you just say, well, that's what my pastor, that's what my church says, well, then it's not a very strong position, is it? And you won't be helpful as you disciple the next generation of believers. And so we're going to walk through 1 Corinthians chapter 11. We're going to look at six reasons this morning, this afternoon, six reasons to honor your head. That's my title, honor your head. Six reasons to honor your head in the church in particular. six reasons to honor your head. It's not just a sermon to women. It's also to the men. All of it is for the men, and it's good for the whole church, as Paul's writing to the entire Corinthian congregation at this time. Number 1, verse 2 and verse 16, the way he starts and finishes, frames and brackets this whole passage. Honor your head, number 1, because of apostolic tradition. Apostolic tradition. As Vody already made very clear last night, when Paul says, I, it's not the same as you or me saying I. This is an apostolic I from a commissioned delegate and a royal deputy who speaks on behalf of the king. Look at verse 2. Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions, just as I delivered them to you. This is an eyewitness of King Jesus, who is a sent apostle, who's speaking. And by the way, is the word tradition always bad? It's not. There's an increasing fear from Western culture and among the younger generations to throw off tradition. Watch out when you speak that way or think that way, because the word tradition is in the Bible. What we reject is man-made, unbiblical traditions, as Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for in Mark chapter 7. But tradition itself, if something is, the word means handed down or delivered to you from good sources and from godly authorities and according to Scripture, then if that's the way you've always been doing it, for good and godly reasons, in faith, and with meaning, and in love, then keep doing it. We don't need to be innovative. Paul wanted to be faithful to what had been handed over, given over to him by Christ. Now jump down to the end of the passage. How he began is how he ended. It shows you what's at stake here, and Paul seems to know there's going to be resistance, and he would be up against opposition, just like you will be today if you teach these controversial truths and unpopular principles. And so he bookends the whole section with a strong emphasis on apostolic authority and consistency. Look at verse 16. But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God. You can see him with this apostolic smile, as it were, looking out on the congregation saying, you got a problem with this? Your problem's not with me. Your problem is with the one who sent me. And with all the other churches who are following what he says. By the way, not just because it's the majority, but because it's God who speaks. And when the Bible speaks, God speaks. And if I don't like it, tough, God says it. And it must be good, it must be wise, it must be best for me and for my gender. because it comes from my Lord who died for me and rose again, and he will build his church, right? And I will follow his rule. Speak, Lord, your servants are listening, right? So honor your head because of apostolic tradition. Number two, honor your head because of the Trinity, because of the Trinity. I love how Paul begins there in verse three, look in your Bibles, but I want you to know, who's you? Is it just the School of Theology and some clergy, scholars, and top theologians? No. It's to the ordinary people in the pew at Corinth, remember? Not many wise, not many noble, not many strong, not many impressive, not many wealthy. These were the ordinary believers, remember? Such were some of you, he says in chapter 6, some who had been adulterers, homosexuals, and others who Christ had redeemed and saved them. He believed that the ordinary members in the church could know, understand these difficult truths, even about head covering. So we can't just dodge or avoid these tough texts. And then, keep reading verse 3. He says, I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ. The head of woman is man. The head of Christ is God. What an amazing way to start a practical section on dress code for a worship service, by digging into lofty, profound Trinitarian theology. Reminds me of what they said about Jonathan Edwards. All his doctrine was applied, and all his application was doctrinal. Don't you want to be like that in your church? That's my prayer for myself. What God has joined together, let no man separate. Doctrine and application. So Paul is dealing with thorny, sticky, touchy issues in terms of what you wear to church. And to do it, he dives into the triune Godhead, as we heard last night, and the relationship of the persons of the Trinity. And then we come in verse 3 to the key word in this whole passage. It gets used nine times in the next nine verses. The word is head. Head sets the whole tone, the direction of this passage, just like a head does on the human body. And don't let those egalitarians and feminists twist the scripture and tell you head means source. That's not Paul's normal usage, and it violates the whole context here. Head means head. Ruling, governing, authority. Just look around at all the heads in this room. Imagine if there's a body seated next to you without a head. Would you like to introduce yourself? You can lose other limbs, an arm, a leg, and still be recognizable, but I would like to see you without your head. You can transplant most human organs with the advances in medical technology today, right? But not the brain. This is the role of the head. It's from here that you see and smell and taste and hear and understand and speak and read and sing and pray. Now Paul gives three crucial pairs about this principle of headship. Three ways in which God's principle of headship is manifested. And notice, none of these is particularly Jewish, or cultural, or chauvinistic. They are eternal truths rooted in the very Godhead itself. Submission is built into eternity. It's woven into the fabric of the universe. So here comes God's hierarchy or ranking in His perfectly wise and good design. First of all, look at verse 3. What's the first phrase or the first pair that He gives us? Christ is the head of every man. Or your text might say, the head of every man is Christ. God wants husbands to be submissive to Christ. True manliness is when a man puts himself under King Jesus. No husband is autonomous, even if he thinks he is. One day he will answer. And every man would do well to have Christ as his Lord and head. Don't go telling your wife she should submit if you haven't submitted to Christ. You're going to make a bad husband. And if you're not married, don't get married until you give your life and surrender your heart to the Lord Jesus, who died for you and rose again. Or you won't be a good husband. All the terrible problems in Africa of abusive males and oppressed women because of harsh husbands would not exist if all the men submitted to Christ as their head. Then they would all be good husbands who take care of their wives. Christ is the head of every man. Second phrase, the man is the head of a woman. God wants wives to be submissive to their husbands. True womanliness, biblical femininity, is found when she puts herself under her husband's authority. So Ephesians 5 is all about, right? Wives, be submissive to, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord, for the husband is head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church. Remember in, I think, about the year 2000, when the Southern Baptists, the world's largest Protestant denomination, simply adjusted or added a brief line to their Baptist message and doctrinal statement, almost the exact language of Ephesians 5, that men should be heads of their home and wives should be submissive. Ash! Explosions! Conflict! America was up in arms. Millions of dollars were removed from the Southern Baptists. Hundreds of churches left the denomination. Revolts and chaos just for reading the Bible and saying what the Bible says. Oh, but you say, wait, does this mean women are inferior? Less value to men if they have to go under a man? Paul knew that you were going to ask the question. Thanks for asking. Read the next phrase, the third parallel phrase here in verse 3. And the head of Christ is God. Now, egalitarians will say this idea of hierarchy and submission and these nasty words like subordination is a result of the fall. It didn't exist in Eden. Well, I don't know what sort of garden they're imagining, but it's not the one in the Bible. Egalitarians, real problem is with the Trinity. Feminists, if they're honest, they hate the Trinity. Because what do you do with an eternal son eternally submitting to his eternal father? Are you ready to say that that means Jesus was inferior? and that Jesus is less than God? Are you ready to say Jesus in any way is less divine, less deity, less powerful, less all-knowing, less good, less wise? That's heresy! You might as well join the Jehovah's Witnesses. Maybe they're having lunch today as well. I don't know. It's heresy. And yet, Paul says, so it is in marriage. that a woman comes under the man, though she is equal to the man, in value, in worth, in dignity, but different, complementary in her function and her role. It's not about abilities or intelligence. It's all about God's design. I have a pastor friend, he's speaking tomorrow, Doug Van Meter, and I quote him often when he says, if I believe women should be elders in the church, my wife would be the first one. And I wouldn't be preaching this sermon. She would. She's smarter. She's more articulate. She's more eloquent. She's more wise. But she's female. And God's design is for men to lead and to exercise godly headship. And Paul is saying the whole universe would unravel without headship and submission. Except for God the Father, everyone, everywhere, in every place, for all time, has been in submission. Even the Son to the Father, or should be in submission. honor your head. Alexander Strock, excellent little paperback book I would recommend on this subject, called Equal Yet Different. Strock says, What a tremendous encouragement this truth is! If Jesus Christ, our Lord, is submissive and willingly suffered in obedience to the will of His head, so can every Christian man and woman gladly submit to their respective heads, even when it is disagreeable or difficult to do so. Honor your head, because of apostolic tradition, because of the Trinity. verses four to six, honor your head to avoid disgrace. To avoid disgrace. Look in your Bibles there at verse four. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head. As Vody calls it, these are sissified men. In Corinth, it was kind of like men today showing up at church in a dress with high heels. or with a shawl, a nice feminine shawl, or those nice, beautiful African wraps, or the sari type of thing. Or a purse over their shoulder, or makeup on their face. Or, I'm sorry, but in the West, I still, and my boys will tell you, when they're under Dad's roof, we're not gonna be wearing pink. Men shouldn't be wearing pink. A good friend of mine in the first session came later, he had a jacket on and he opened his jacket and he said, look at the shirt I'm wearing today. It's pink. I leave it to your wisdom, how you apply these principles, but you must find a way to apply these principles. I mean, with my boys, I'll remind them, we don't go to the salon, we go to the barber. They don't do my hair, they cut my hair. In the morning, I don't do my hair. I just either gel or I fix it. I don't do my hair. And my girls will sometimes say, oh, Dad, that's a nice top. Girls, it's not a top. It's a shirt. You wear tops. Boys don't wear tops. I'm not mean about it. And you want to be winsome. But however you express in your culture, there needs to be difference. male and female not male and she-male or when you're you tell your boy if he looks more like a sister than his brother there's a problem and I'm not counseling sensitive situations where we need to deal privately with those who might be tempted by same-sex attraction we must be ready to counsel from scripture with these biblical principles but here we are in a Greco-Roman city like Corinth and they knew it was a disgrace for a man's head to be covered. That was a symbol for women, especially wives. Not for men. Now, you can talk to me later about why, after this time, I think it was about the 4th century AD, Jewish men started to wear yarmulkes, or in the Puritan era they would wear powdered wigs. Each culture is different, but those were masculine. That was not the mark of a woman in those cultures. in different times in history. But here at Corinth at this time, a man was not to have his head covered. It was an effeminate, inappropriate, confusing signal to be sending. God does not believe in cross-dressing. He's not impressed with men who are effeminate worshipers. Men, honor your head. And there's kind of two aspects to this meaning here. First of all, your physical head. Don't bring shame on yourself. And then most of all, Christ your head. Honor Him. It's sad to see guys today in churches with over-styled hair, earrings, feminine-looking earrings, and all kinds of other jewelry. It's sad to see a man with a tone of voice or a posture or gestures that clearly are not masculine. We need to love them. If their parents didn't teach them, the church must teach them. And love them enough and disciple them in these areas. You know the real reason why John Knox brought the Reformation to Scotland, right? All the men were wearing skirts. Honor your head, he says. Keep reading in verse 5. But every woman who prays or prophesies with their head uncovered dishonors her head. For that is wine the same as if her head were shaved. Ladies, this is how you honor your head. Again, your literal physical head and your husband as your spiritual figurative head. This is Corinth. The culture of the day, the women would wear some kind of veil or shawl to show their femininity, show that they're married, respect their husbands. It's been proven by archaeologists across the ancient world at that time. Sculptures, carvings on the catacomb walls, ancient writings. with an unveiled head, with her hair down, was public statement. It's like putting a sign on your shirt that says, I am available, gentlemen. It's a shameful, shameful thing. It was sensual, it was seductive. Like in the Muslim world, much of the Middle East today, right? The burqa or the woman's veil signifies her modesty, her purity, keeping herself and her charms and her pleasures for her husband only. That was something of the culture at Corinth. The modern feminist movement may have only begun in the 1960s, but it was alive and well in Corinth because Satan is never original. All he can do is copy, right? And this has always been his tactic, to confuse God's people about his design for the sexes and the proper roles of gender. Here's what the feminists in the Corinthian church seem to be saying. They were advocating the new Roman woman. in the first century. Come on, ladies, remember that you are now free in Christ. All things are lawful. All things are permissible, right? Come on, ladies. Women, arise. Express yourself. Paul taught us we're all one in Christ now, neither slave nor free, neither Jew nor Gentile, neither male nor female. Throw off this old-fashioned head covering, this embarrassing symbol of, this archaic, outdated symbol of male headship. Step up, ladies. Sounds like today, doesn't it? Sounds like the next politician trying to get votes. Every woman, verse 5, who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. Paul is not impressed. He says, if you're going to let your hair down and look like a prostitute, you might as well go all the way. I mean, don't do a half job. Just go ahead and become a skinhead. The ultimate shame and scandal, keep reading verse six. For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it's shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered. He's come back full circle. But if it's a disgrace to shave your head and remove your physical covering, then you should see the importance of the head covering in that context. Remember even in the Old Testament when enemies or even Israelites were disgraced or humiliated or defeated, they would shave their heads, right? So it was in Corinth in the first century world, a woman shaved head, usually communicated that she was either a slave, a prostitute, a woman caught in adultery, a mother disgraced by a wicked child, or an extreme feminist and a rebel who is publicly proclaiming or renouncing her very identity as a woman. So typical, just like today. Here you have talk shows and people like Oprah, you know, America's theologian, Oprah, taking a five-year-old on TV and saying, so, what gender are you going to choose now? Shocking, shameful, horrible day in which we've come to. Notice three times now, verse four, verse five, verse six, the word disgrace, dishonor. God cares about worship and gender roles that honor him and his design for the sexes. He hates disgraceful worship. When men or women dress, in a way that blurs the distinction between male and female, undermines male headship. It dishonors God. So ladies in our churches need to be taught to embrace their femininity as a gift from God, not a curse, as a joy, not a burden. It's sad because the business Western secular culture, right? I mean, I see it all over Johannesburg, and I'm sure it's coming to Lusaka. The culture is androgynous. It is towards unisex, ungendered clothing. It was in the news just on the weekend. whole new lines of clothing coming out so that women look more and more like men, business suits that look more and more like men. Is it any irony that two of the most prominent women today, one in the political world, Hillary Clinton, and one sadly in the Christian world, Joyce Meyer, both of them, have you heard their voices? Would you want your wife to sound like that? It's husky. It's not very feminine, is it? How alert, how careful we have to be in these days. A lady should not be saying, what can I get away with? How close can I come to the men? But how feminine, how supportive of male leadership, how much like a wife and a married woman can I look? I didn't say this in the other group, but I've just noticed even among adult men, more and more, they try to look like teenagers. Messed up jeans, messy hair, trying to look like kids. At some point it's like, you're old! You're not getting younger! Stop pretending! Teenagers do that because they're teenagers. You are an adult. Don't be afraid of looking like an adult. My wife can hardly find jeans in the stores anymore in Johannesburg. The jeans they sell for women either are too immodest or they're too manly. It's hard to even find normal female clothes anymore in the stores. How many of you have heard of the most influential false teaching church in South Africa, Rehma? How many of you know about Rehma? True story. They're just five minutes from my house. I couldn't believe. I should have expected, but we are still naive, aren't we? I drove and they had on their big billboard at a major intersection in Johannesburg, as wide as this end of the room here, on a massive poster, come next month or whatever, two months, to our kick-butt woman conference with a big picture of a high heel. going like this. Kick butt. I'm thinking, how did we get from gentle and quiet spirit to a kick butt woman conference? Some churches should just be honest and say, come to the Corinthian Baptist Church. How to be like Corinth. It's exactly what was happening in Corinth. But men, we're not off the hook. Don't think that we get a free pass. The underlying principle here is avoiding distractions in corporate worship. What about other distractions in corporate worship? Cell phones that we forget to turn off, arriving late, not training our wife and our daughters to dress in a modest and appropriate way for corporate worship. We, too, could be a part of the problem if we're not careful. I mean, it's shameful, isn't it, what husbands and fathers at the beach If you go on a holiday to the beach, I'm still shocked. I realize I'm naive. My wife says, honey, welcome to the 21st century. It's not right, but it's very, very common. I often think, oh, that wife or that daughter in a bikini, the dad mustn't know. And my wife says, no, no, honey, the dad is proud of it. It's true, have you noticed? The father is proud. Look at my gorgeous wife, look at my gorgeous daughter, flaunting her body before the world, and the men like a bunch of ravenous beasts after a piece of meat. What kind of father does that to his wife or his daughter, and doesn't love her enough to protect her, and to remove that disgrace and that shamefulness, and then to do it in church, worst of all? honor your head because of apostolic tradition, because of Trinity, to avoid disgrace. And now, number four, the largest point in this passage, verse 7 to 12, because of creation. Because of creation. He's going to tell us what the man ought not to do, and then what the woman ought to do here in this fourth point, because of creation. First of all, what the man ought not to do. Look at verse 7 there in your Bibles. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God. I mean, the women might be thinking, What? Who gave the man the front row seat? Image and glory of God. Wow. Genesis says we are equally made in God's image and likeness. True. Paul is not saying less than that. But he is saying more than that. God made man to be head and an authority, especially in the marriage. And there's something about that masculine role, which especially magnifies and highlights God's glory. His attributes. I'll give you a few examples. God's glory is shown through a man's strength and ability. Authority and strength. Typically male bodies are larger. Their features are more sturdy. Their voices are deeper and louder. They're designed to be initiators and decision makers. I believe also it could be speaking of how God's glory is shown through man's roles that resemble the Creator. Man as father, as son, as bridegroom, as husband, as warrior, as king, as priest. All roles that are originally and ultimately in the Bible ascribed to God, right? Man is the glory and the image of God. And another third way, it seems to be God's glory is shown by men leading in worship. in their homes, in the church, as 1 Timothy and 1 Corinthians and throughout the Old Testament. And by the way, at the very basic sense, how does God choose to reveal Himself? He's not gendered. He is a spirit being without a material body. But how does He always reveal Himself to us in Scripture? Never as a she. Always He. Never to be addressed as mother. Always as Father. He did not send His daughter into the world to save us. He sent His Son, not because men are more important, but because of this eternal, biblical principle of male headship, patterned after the very Trinity. Keep reading, verse 7. So, man is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. What? Is the Bible saying that a wife's job is to glorify her husband and make him look really, really good? Yes. I can't believe I didn't think of this until now, but Proverbs, what I'm about to tell you. Proverbs, I just remembered, the wife is the crown of her husband, Proverbs tells us. But Paul's going to show us how that happens, how a wife glorifies a man. But let's face it, we've all seen this. You've seen that single guy in your church. In fact, you were that guy. And I know I was that guy. And he just didn't really have it together. I mean, he was fat in all the wrong places, and he wore all the wrong clothes, and he had glasses as thick as the Berlin Wall, and he was just a mess, you know? And all of a sudden, this beautiful, godly woman respects him, gives her life to him, and becomes his wife. And then you see him walk into church the next week, and you're like, what happened to you? Where did you find her? Is she feeling okay? Does she have her glasses on? How did you land up with such a prize? She makes you look very good. Your credit ratings have just soared up a thousand percent. She is a glory to a man when he needs her. It's not good for man to be alone, right? Woman is the glory of man. It didn't say she's made in the image of man. No. We're all made in the image of God. Same in dignity and value, but different in roles. She's the glory of man, and now He's going to illustrate and spell that out for us in the next two verses. Look at verse 8. For a man is not from woman, but woman from man. Woman from the man. What was the name given to the first woman? What was she first called? Before she was called Eve, yes. Ish-sha. Ish is the man. Ish-sha was the first name for the woman, taken from man. Man as her source, her fountain, her root from which she sprang. Verse 8, woman from the man. Verse 9, woman for the man. As the Lord told Adam, it's not good for man to be alone. I'll make you a helper, right? Suitable, a helpmeet, corresponding, complementing, supporting, supplementing who you are. Notice the man's role is not defined here in terms of the woman, but the woman's role is defined in terms of the man. It's a non-reversible, fundamental law of life in God's world. Often I get asked by our young people in our church, and we have been so blessed by a number of your Zambians who are Monash students there in Johannesburg, and we will have young people, especially if they didn't come from some of your good Bible teaching churches, and they'll say, me and my boyfriend, or this guy, we're getting ready to graduate, and he wants to do this, and maybe he wants to serve the Lord in India, but I, as a female, I haven't had the same call, or the same voice, or the same vision as him. Must she wait for that? Did God ever promise that they will each independently receive the same phone call, the same Skype, on the same cell number, in an equal way from God, so that they can agree, alright, we both got the thumbs up, the green light, now I will submit to you. According to the Bible, a husband is called to the task of providing, the wife is called to the man. The man is called to the job, and the job of the wife is the man. You're not going to hear that today unless you read your Bible. Whatever else she does is fine, but it ought to be secondary to that main function. It's very liberating for the woman, actually, as there's one country-western song that says, life is sweet in the passenger seat. For a woman to say, all I have to do is trust God and submit and follow my husband and enjoy the ride. He has to make the hard decisions, and he will answer to God for that. And my wife is a strong, gifted person for any who know her, and way more intelligent than me. In our vows at our wedding, she gave, she spoke to me the words of Ruth, where you go, I will go. Your people will be my people. Your God is my God. I mean, think about how beautiful a wise queen makes a king look good, but an ugly, misbehaving queen, no matter how, noble the king is. It puts a cloud over him, right? So it is in every marriage. Woman is the glory of man. I love the way Strock puts it. God created woman to directly reflect the man's headship, authority, by recognizing it, revealing it, submitting to it, receiving it, and supporting his leadership. This is not a cultural issue or concept. It is the divine plan. By the woman's very being in the image of God, her beauty, grace, and wisdom her life-giving powers, her dependence on the man, her sexual responsiveness, her support of his leadership and authority. She is his glory. As the woman is the glory of the man, so too the bride, the church, is the glory of Christ. And only the woman can do this. No other creature on all the earth can do that for a man and, in essence, honor Christ like the woman can, particularly in marriage. So that's what the man ought not to do. Here's what the woman ought to do. Verse 10, for this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head. In this context, I believe it is a literal head covering, some kind of veil or shawl in that culture to show feminine submission to her husband. But now there's a fifth point, and it's actually sandwiched and stuck inside of the larger fourth point. The fifth point, verse 10, honor your head because of the angels. Because of the angels. Look at how verse 10 concludes. She should do this, he says, because of the angels. How did they get there? Where did Michael and Gabriel show up? What do they have to do with gender roles in the church? How is this supposed to motivate us? I know some people who will say, ah, this proves every culture, in every church, women should still wear head coverings. But I say to my friends, why isn't your wife wearing them? If you can't even persuade your own wife, then don't tell me. That's not about head coverings. That's about headship. I don't believe that's what the text means. What is one of the favorite occupations of God's elect good angels in the scriptures? 1 Peter 1, Ephesians 3, 1 Timothy 5, 1 Corinthians 4, Hebrews 1, Hebrews 12, Matthew 18. The angels care about what is happening in the people of God, the church of Christ. They are watchers. They are observers. What are they looking for? the thing they love most, the glory of the triune God, the display of His order and His beauty and His design, right? The answering of Jesus's prayer that He taught us, may your will be done more on earth as it's being done perfectly in heaven. And Psalm 103, they love to do His will, and so they love to see those who are doing His will, and reflecting His design for their gender. They sang at creation, Job tells us, and they sing when you are following the order of creation in your gender, as male or female, masculinity or femininity. This is an incentive for us. Remember Paul with Timothy? Preach the Word. Why? In the presence of God and? the angels right now they're watching to see are we accepting God's good design or are we resisting his pattern for our masculinity or femininity as husband or as wife and in our churches But then Paul comes back to this fourth, larger point, about honoring your head because of creation. Look at verse 11 in the text. Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. It's a plain fact, like it or not. If you are here as a macho man today, on the authority of God's word, I tell you, you need women. And if you are some Roman woman independent feminist here today, on the authority of scripture, I tell you, you need men. And thus your name is Adam or Eve, and you came uniquely in the garden, which is impossible. How did you get here, if it wasn't for a man and a woman, right? Keep reading, verse 12. 12 For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman. By the way, it's not just, and in case the men were starting to swell with pride or male ego at this point, Paul says, watch it, guys. Your mama brought you into this world and your mama can take you. We ought to be humble. It's not just our moms who birthed us, it's our moms who raised us. Yes, as we're gonna see tonight at First Timothy 2, the pulpit is not, the preaching role in the church is not for women, but they have the far bigger pulpit. They have most of the airtime. They're with the children way more than the father. Tell me who's doing the most important teaching and preaching and influence in the home. the church ought to be a place that embraces differences in gender, where the battle of the sexes has ceased, and we have celebrated gender and God's design for our maleness or femaleness. I love where Paul ends in this point in verse 12. Womyn came from man, even so man also comes to the womyn, but all things are from Everything is traced back to His hand. He's the potter. We are the clay. In Him we live and move and have our being. All things are from Him and through Him and to Him. To Him be the glory forever, right? And now the sixth and final point. Honor your head, not only because of tradition, apostolic tradition, trinity, to avoid disgrace, because of creation, because of the angels. Number six, verses 13-15. Because of nature. Because of nature. Look at verse 13. Paul says, Judge among yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? He appeals to common sense. There is proper worship. There is improper worship. You better know the difference. In your culture, applying biblical principle. Keep reading. Verse 14. Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? What? Hang on. How does nature teach us not to be long-haired men? Paul's normal use of this word, nature, in his writings is an instinctive sense of right and wrong that God has built into humanity, especially human sexuality. God has implanted into us a sense of what is appropriate or fitting for men versus women. And in almost every human culture, women have longer hair. Paul's not saying that every man must look like a United States Marine with shaved hair. But compared to women, men should look like men. And it starts with their hair, one of the first visible impressions when you meet a person, right? And related to this, Paul might also be thinking of the natural physical makeup of a man's hair versus a woman's. We're told that testosterone speeds up hair loss in men. You ever seen a bald woman? It's not as common. not just because they wear wigs, but estrogen normally causes women's hair to grow longer and to last longer. But I know in Johannesburg it's the age of the metrosexual, young men who will spend a thousand or two thousand rand just to have their hair fixed. Friends, at some point that is dishonorable and it is effeminate. The church should be different, not conforming to the world. Biblical masculinity, as I train my sons, it's about, okay, deal with body odor, look decent for the day, but be ready to lay your life down like the men on the Titanic who said, women and children first, and they sunk to their deaths. What happens today when a ship goes down in pretty much anywhere else in the world? All the men jump for the ship first. I mean, I must say, there was a woman who fell today at tea time. How quick were we? to give our chair. She needed a chair. It's a test. How quick are the men to sacrifice, to honor, to lay our lives down. Biblical masculinity is to sacrificially take responsibility and to honor women and children. Not be as beautifying yourself, grooming with cosmetics so you can be a pretty boy. Verse 15, but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering. You see this when a woman goes to chemotherapy and cancer treatment. She's going to be quick to get a wig or a scarf. A man is not going to care so much if he's having to lose his hair. It's going to happen anyway. Just look at how long it takes for your wife to do her hair. It's a construction project. You've got to get a building manager. You've got to have deadlines and, you know, a spreadsheet to plan it out. On-site equipment and a contractor. But ladies, this is your verse. Next time you need a haircut, you pull out this verse and say, Honey, shell out the cash. I need a decent head of hair. Okay, don't take that too far. for her hair is given to her for a covering." By the way, I don't think that phrase, end of verse 15, is saying that the head covering is the hair. I think that's very unlikely in the Corinthian context, and I don't see why Paul would have walked us through such an elaborate case for head coverings if it's really just the woman's hair. I think Paul is saying that the woman's hair is another type of covering similar to the veil or the shawl that was appropriate in the ancient world. So, six reasons, and maybe we'll have a couple minutes for questions. Notice, none of these six reasons is culturally bound or limited. It is universal, it's abiding, it's binding in the church in all places and time. Honor your head. Embrace biblical femininity, honor male headship because of apostolic tradition, the trinity, avoid disgrace because of creation, because of the angels, because of nature. Now I know you're saying, Tim, you're not leaving this room without answering, should we practice head coverings in our churches? And based on what you ladies have been wearing in the worship services, I'm guessing most of your churches have the same view as my church, and I think most of the Solo 5 churches. We do not believe that that is required today. I think, ironically, for many women in many cultures today, if I said to my wife, Michelle, you need to wear a head covering of some kind in church, it would actually draw more attention to her and embarrass her and shame her, which is the opposite of the principle Paul is teaching. And the context here would be if she's praying or prophesying, well, I'm a cessationist, so there won't be any prophesying. And if I don't believe that today, it's not. And the praying, well, some of that relates to your view or your elders, your churches, how you want to apply the principle about women being silent in church. And we're going to look at some of that tonight. Please do pray for me. I think head coverings today would be an option. If a woman in her conscience believes that she should do so, then we should allow that. We should not discourage. We should not assume it's legalistic. Romans 14, let each be fully convinced in their own mind. We should welcome. We should honor that and not intimidate or make her feel awkward. However, I don't think it's required biblically. I think it's kind of like foot washing and holy kisses in the New Testament. There's a physical symbol of a spiritual principle, which might take a different form today depending on your culture. I think for women to require them to wear head coverings today would be a symbol without symbolism. And I think that I don't think that's required of us today. Maybe it would be something, it should look something more like a wedding ring or a modest dress or other ways that she makes it clear that she is glad to be a woman she knows that God made her a woman and she is married or preparing for marriage in most cases not always but normally wants to honor male headship and honor her husband