Head Covering — Don Courville

The Healing at Bethesda and Prayer for Revival

And after this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk of blind, haught, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.

For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water. Whosoever then first, after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.".

Let's pray. We come to you asking that you would speak to us from your word this morning. We thank you that you are in control, that you will bring a revival in Israel, that you will save this nation as you promised, and that even as the Lord Jesus came along and healed this one Israelite, who for thirty-eight years had been in bondage because of his sin, you can come along and change things in a second.

Now Father, thank you for directing this morning, in Jesus' name, Amen. Well we have a friend that's joined us this morning, his name's called Harry. You know what Harry's are good at? Eating gardens.

And leaving bunny trails wherever they go. And that's what we're going to have this morning, is a bunny trail. Because I have got off on a bunny trail. This angel has got me interested in angels. So I did a little study on angels in the New Testament.

Angels in the Old Testament. Angels are mentioned in the book of Revelation somewhere between, I imagine around, I know I counted up a little over fifty times. And the rest of the New Testament, angels are there, and I come up with these questions.

So Harry here is going to lead us on a bunny trail this morning, but these trails always go to somewhere, and of course you ever watch a beagle out after a bunny, he just goes all over until he finds the warmest trail, and then he zeroes on it and goes after that bunny.

Of course he may be out there all day howling and yapping, and never even get the bunny. But this angel, this angel, and we've been doing some study and other studies, and so I have a couple questions, or I had a couple questions, and one particular in my mind I've always wondered about.

And so I said, I'm going to go ahead and do that today. Vicki and I were in a discussion on the angels and things, and so this is where we're at today. Now boys and girls, we'll let Harry sit over here by Ms. Greer.

You think she'll watch him real good and won't let him get away? There. You can even play with him. We'll put him down there. How much involvement do angels have in our lives? Do you think they have much involvement in our lives, directly, indirectly, just involved?

What is it that God wants to reveal to the angels through us? Have you ever thought about that? Because of the passages in the New Testament, in regards to the angels and us, have you ever just taken some time to study that?

Well, I did. And I had a question about something I always wondered about, and that was why in one of the passages, and we'll come through, I'm just going to take you through some verses on angels, and then we're going to try to maybe park at the ones that have to do with angels in particular in regard to us.

Like the Apostle Paul, he said angels were watching him. He was a spectacle to angels, to men, to the world basically. But there was one thing about angels I never understood, and we've been having this discussion the last few weeks, and some of you have been studying this too, about why were the Corinthian women given a rebuke about not wearing their head covering?

And Paul said, for this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. I never really understood that. Now let me take you back a little bit and just run through some things. In Matthew 1 .20, angels directed Joseph.

28 .2, they rolled back the stone, and there were other things in between. In Luke, they appeared to the shepherds, and all the way through, angels were involved. In the book of Acts, in 5 .19, they opened the prison doors.

In 7 .53, Paul made this interesting statement, or Stephen, in his farewell address. He said that they had something to do with the law. He said, who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.

I never realized how much angels had to do with the disposition. Disposition means arrangement. Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, if I've got that understood clear enough, of angels, have not kept it.

In Romans 8 .38, angels can't separate us from the love of God, meaning that they might try. When we say angels, there's two categories. There's fallen angels, demons, and then the heavenly host of angels.

1 Corinthians 4 .9 said that... Let's go to that one. That'd be one of our first ones. 1 Corinthians 4 .9, Paul said this, For I think that God has set forth us, the apostles, last, as it were appointed to death.

For we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. So, and that word there, spectacle, is the word phaeron, where we get theater. It's just like a show to the world. And then 1 Corinthians 6 .3, he said that we shall judge angels.

He told them, can't you take care of your own matters? You're going to judge angels, and there's a lot there probably that we don't realize that in proportion to our following the Lord, and being in submission to Him, and obeying Him, we're going to have positions of power and authority with angels under us.

1 Corinthians 11 .10 is the one that has been sort of an interesting thing to me, where he said, For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. 1 Corinthians 13 .1, they have ability to speak languages.

Paul said even if he had that ability, it wouldn't be any good to him unless he had love. In Galatians 3 .19, Paul said that the law was ordained by angels. Wherefore then serveth the law, it was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

Interesting verses. In Galatians 2 .18, they can be worshipped, and I think we have a revival of angel worship going on in our country from what I've seen. I talked to a man at the radio station one day, who is basically in Broadbent, some huge program to do with angels, and I got a piece of his material, and after I saw that, I said, this is nothing but angel worship.

And that's, I guess there's a big movement in the country on worshipping angels. We've had books written on angels. I haven't read one of them yet. In 2 Thessalonians 1 .7, it says, Jesus will come with the mighty angels.

In 1 Timothy 3 .16, God was seen of angels. And while we're there, go to 1 Timothy 5 .21. 1 Timothy 3 .16 is one of the clear passages on the deity of Christ. A lot of these other versions like to take and change and put the word who in.

But 1 Timothy 3, let me read 3 .16, then we'll go to 5 .21. 3 .16, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

In place of God, a lot of them like to put in the word who. But it was God. Now, 5 .21, this is an interesting passage. The whole passage has to do with elders. It starts off in verse 1. Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father.

And then it comes into widows. So he covers widows real heavy through there. And then about the time you come down to verse 17, he comes back to the elders again. Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.

For the scripture said, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that tradeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward. Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Them that sin, rebuke before all that others also may fear.

And then he goes in this verse. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that thou observe these things without preferring one another, doing nothing by partiality. So they were given a strong exhortation.

But it's interesting that the angels are in there, isn't it? Before God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels. The angels are very observant and very involved in what's going on in our lives. Now, a couple more verses.

Angels as Ministering Spirits and Witnesses

Actually, about that many more. Several more verses. Hebrews chapter 1, in the first part of Hebrews, talks about angels very much. And I'll just pick up maybe a few things on it since there's so much about it.

But in verse 6, when Christ was born, God the Father gave a command to the angels to worship Him. Being that He was God the Son. And again, when He bringeth in the first begotten into the world, He saith, Then let all the angels of God worship Him.

Verse 7, And of the angels, He saith, to maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire. I haven't studied it out to really know what a flame of fire means, but they are spirits. They are a flame of fire.

And 13, there's something about angels. And 14, He says they're ministering spirits for the saints. This is interesting. That the angels are ministering spirits for us. If I can rustle my paper on over there.

For they are not all ministering spirits. I better start in 13. But to which of the angels saith He at any time, Sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

So they minister to us. 12 .22 of Hebrews talks about an innumerable company of angels. 1 Peter 1 .12, let's go over and look at 1 Peter. And this is just a quick skim through on angels. This is not a real heavy study on it.

But to see that they are involved in our lives. That they are interested in what's going on. 1 Peter 1 .12. Start off in verse 11, low background there. Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them.

He's talking about the Old Testament prophets. Did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that shall follow. Unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister.

The things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you. With the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. Now here's the interesting thing. Which things the angels desire to look into.

These angels are interested in something in your life. They're looking for something. Did you know that? They are looking for something in our lives. 3 .22. So we start off with an angel stirring up the water.

Now we've got a little interesting study going on. These angels, God uses them. I don't know how long he stirred up the water. For those people to jump in there and get healed. Then Jesus came along and that's another story.

But 3 .22. Talking about Christ. Start off in 21 again. Let's pick up the context. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us. Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh. But the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Who has gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God. Angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him. All angels, all powers, all authorities are subject unto God. He's never had anything out of control.

Anyone does anything, they have to work under His authority. And if something evil happens, it has to happen under God's allowing it to happen. His permission. So these angels. All angels and authorities and powers are subject unto Him.

In 2 Peter 2 .4. Angels can sin and go to hell. Ten angels are mentioned. 2 Peter 2 .11. Not to bring a railing. They don't bring railing accusations against those in authority. Jude 6. There's angels that left their principality to enter into human realms.

And do devious mischief and bad things. One more verse. Then we'll come back to this subject. In 14 .10 of Revelation. They will witness the torment of the lost. Revelation 14 .10. And like I say, angels many times are mentioned here.

But I'll just read this one. The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation. And He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever. Now, the subject. The subject that we're talking about is the subject of government. When we come to this subject of government, it's a big subject.

Now, as I was, I meditated on this chapter 5 and the angel, he was interesting into that. But as I went through this, all the angels are in the area, in the category of government. They have authority.

They cover areas. Satan has his government of angels. And they have their principalities. He has a principality over this area. God has assigned his angels. And there's warfare going on all the time. And we work with our angels.

However, God gives them, delegates them. We communicate with God. We don't communicate to the angels. We communicate with God. And then he communicates to his angels and has them delegated. They're not, they're working for us.

But we don't command them as far as I can see. We don't do things like that. We communicate with God. Now, the subject then is one of government. And because of what it says in 1 Corinthians 11, 10. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.

Christ's Authority Over Principalities and Powers

I went ahead and studied this out some more. In Colossians 1, 16. Colossians 1, 16. Talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.

All things were created by him and for him. Christ is the head. It says in 17. He is before all things and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.

In 12 of that chapter. 13 and actually all through 16. Paul gave direction that we're to give thanks unto the Father, which had made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who had delivered us from the power or the authority of darkness.

Now we all know that if we give ground to Satan, we give him authority. And he will come into our lives. And we've learned that. And hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, that even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.

In 16. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and earth. And we went through this. Now, in 2 .14. Let me give you some more background. 2 .14. Batting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us.

Colossians 2 .14. Which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, knelling it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Now we are coming back to the angels. But we need to establish this principle of authority. That God is in control. Some Christians don't act like that. Maybe sometimes we don't act like that. When things seem to be going out of control.

But God is in control. Now, there is a couple more verses. Actually, these verses all the way down to 19. Are in this context. In 18. He warned them to let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility in worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.

But I don't know if you have ever seen people worship angels. But the cults are angel worshippers. I remember, and I think I mentioned this before when I was in the Air Force. One guy, he was a Mormon.

And he had his little idol there. And he worshipped his demon. That he had there. And this is getting to be more prevalent in professing Christian areas. And I think there has been a real revival of demon worship and a supposed revival going on in our country.

I've got a book. I'm going to read on it. I guess this guy was on the station here a few months back. Talking about this area of these revivals. Where actually a lot of demons are in there. And people worship these things.

People worship them by doing what they tell them to do. I think there was one more verse. I wanted to read there in verse 19. Did I read that? Okay. In 18, let's come back to this again. He said that we're not to go into worshipping of angels.

And then 19. Here's what happens. When people move out of the realm of authority and not holding the head from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered and knit together increaseth with the increase of God.

And not holding the head. This area is government. The area that Paul was talking to the Corinthians about was an area of government. And let me give you a little bit more and then I'm going to give you some background on that.

The Mystery of God's Wisdom Revealed Through the Church

Ephesians 3. Let's go back to Ephesians 3. As we build our foundation. I wanted to know my basic question. I wanted to know why was it and I even wrote this question down. What does the head covering have to do with the angels?

And what's the root of this? Where does this go back to? Why did the women in the Old Testament wear head coverings? And up through the New Testament they wore coverings. And up through the years they wore coverings.

And then the latter few years we have not worn the coverings. And I haven't done a lot of study on the history in the latter years. But I know it was just common. They wore a covering. So why don't we do it today?

Matter of fact, I asked my dad last night on the phone about this. I asked him what he knew about this. I knew that he was raised as a Catholic and then he got saved and that they wore their veils. He didn't know much about this but he did say that he knew this.

He said it's in the Bible. That's what God says. And he said he didn't know why we didn't obey the Bible on this anymore. We got out some pictures and looked at some old pictures back in the early part of the century.

Churches. Almost all the ladies, or all of them I could see in the pictures I looked had bonnets on or hats. Then we come up into the 30's and it was the same way except I saw a few there that didn't have it on.

And I imagine as we come along we'd see more and more. And of course it can grow into a fashion. Now Ephesians chapter 3. I'm not there. But I'm there now. In verse 7, Paul said, Whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His power unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ.

Now notice this verse. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. And if you had a key verse in the New Testament, this is it.

This is it. What's God up to? Why does He want us to do different things that He wants? What's the reason of the head covering? And it's this. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.

What is the manifold wisdom of God? What is the manifold wisdom of God? This is the, to me, as I studied on this, and I don't, there's a lot to learn. I have a lot to learn on this since I've just studied this recently to dig into this.

But what is the manifold wisdom of God would be what I would want us to come up with. Because this is the thing that the principalities, the powers, all these angels are watching so closely. The mystery.

To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. This mystery to make all men see. In verse 9. What is the fellowship of the mystery?

Submission, Authority, and the Fall

Now, I think it's this. I'm going to give you this. And we're going to come back and say it again. It's going to be like an Oreo cookie. We like Oreo cookies. They're not good for you. They've got that hydrogenated oil in it.

But you've got the chocolate on the outside and the gooey stuff in the middle and then chocolate on the other side. It's a little sandwich. A little sugar sandwich. Gives you, you know, a good taste but doesn't give you any nourishment.

I think this is the wisdom of God. That submission works in power to accomplish the purpose of God. The area of government is submission. The angels would not submit. Satan would not submit to the head of Christ.

He got all he could. 130 of the angels rebelled with him and they went. They would not submit. We come to the Garden of Eden. He slithers up to the woman and what's the first thing he gets her to do? Is to get out from under her head.

And he tempts her. She had all the freedom in the world in the Garden of Pleasure. Eden means pleasure. And there she was and she had been given a commandment. God had commanded Adam. Eve had the commandment too.

Not to eat of that fruit. He takes her and he deceives her. She surrendered her authority. She surrendered her authority by obeying Satan. Now, let's go back to 1 Corinthians and see what is in this passage.

And I have no intention with the time we have this morning of exegeting this passage and going into all that is in there. But let's read the passage and then make some comments. And there are three words for covering.

Three Greek words. The first one is to cover fully. And as we go through here I probably should pick out and the other one is covered to have on the head. That's used in verse 4. And then the other one is in verse 15 which is a completely different word covering something cast around which he talks about here.

Verse 2,. But now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God.

Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonored his head. That's the word to have on the head. In other words, the man was not supposed to have something on his head when he prayed or prophesied.

Verse 5,. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head, for that is even all one as if she were shaven. And what was happening in the service as far as I can see, is because of the extreme pagan setting of this church, some of the women or one of the women or whatever was coming into the church was not wearing her covering.

And by doing that, she was saying, I am the same as a man. I am the same as a man. I can do this. Paul comes back with a rebuke that that was not proper. Verse 6,. And by the way, in verse 5, this is the word to veil or to cover fully.

5, 6, and 7. In 5,. Every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head, for that is even and all as one as if she were shaven. For if the woman, verse 6, be not covered, this is fully covered, same word, let her also be shorn, and if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.

Verse 7,. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, this is the same word, fully covered, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man.

Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. And this is one of the causes for the woman. She was created for the man. The second cause is for the angels. Verse 10,. For this caused not the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.

Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman, but all things of God. Judge in yourselves, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?

Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering. And that's a different Greek word, which means something cast about her head.

Head Covering as Obedience and Testimony

Now, the lessons that I come up with this, the number one lesson that I see for the head covering, why the Old Testament woman wore it, why the New Testament woman wore it, why the Bible taught it, was for the glory of God.

For the glory of God. It glorifies God. And here's how it does that. It does it by these two ways as I see it. By obedience. Because it was a commandment. It came from the husband down. They obeyed. And so, their obedience glorified God.

And then also, it showed the angels God's proper order of government was submission. The head covering is a testimony to the angels that the woman was under authority to Christ. Under authority to Christ by being under her head.

In submission to her husband. So, it was a testimony to the angels. And as far as I can see it, it's like it gives God glory when God says, look, it works. My wisdom is working in the church. And the angels are always peeking around, looking, trying to learn things about Christ.

And this is one of the areas that they see the beauty and the power and the mystery of Christ living in us, the Spirit of God working in our lives, is the head covering. Now, another lesson is it gave a testimony that they were under authority.

This is the area authority is privilege. Suppose I was to give one of you the keys to my car, and say, here, you can take it and you can drive it wherever you want. I have given you authority. I have also given you a privilege.

And it may not be worth much, but it's still mine, and I expect you to bring it back when you're done. I had one guy that didn't do that. And one of the deacons in our church, we had to go get my car.

But it's a privilege. Authority is a privilege. It's also a choice then. It's a privilege. You can use it or not. By the way, that's what the word power means. It's authority. In verse 10, for this cause ought the woman to have power on her head, to have authority on her head.

So the lesson there is submission is acceptance and agreement. Submission is acceptance and agreement. And there's a lot of words, the same words for power, that you can go look up. The third thing is the testimony area.

The first woman lost her testimony. The new woman in Christ gained her testimony back through Christ. And she wears the head covering. She wore the head covering as a testimony that she was back where Eve had got off the track.

She's back. And she was under authority. Satan rebelled. Came out from under God's authority. He draws others. He opposes truth. He's just a mess. He's just about like our government now. Just about like the world.

As the world is going in the way of the evil one, we're preparing for the coming of Christ and then the anti-Christ coming. The more things go out from God's direction of order, the more of a mess it gets in.

Many of our families are in a mess because they're out of government structure. They're out of a proper government structure. I believe this is why many of our churches now as we move into this age and the power of Satan is working more and more, many of the churches are just a mess because they have moved out from under the authority structure of elders.

Elders, if there's not an elder structure, then there will be one head there in the church. And as I've gone around and preached in dozens and dozens of churches around this country, almost always I can pick out, unless God is really working in that church in power, and since we would go in there to bring revival, usually there was something wrong, but almost always there would be somebody that was their kingdom.

It was their little kingdom. It may have been a deacon's wife, a pastor's wife, or it may have been some money person in the church, or whatever, they were controlling the church. God's ordained that the church is under the control and the head of Christ, the elders are under him, so there's no one head there but Christ.