Dressing for Order?

Our scripture this morning is 1 Corinthians 11 verse 2 through 16.

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 shames his head.

But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying shames her head, for she is one and the same as if a woman whose head is shaved.

For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut short. But if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut short or her head shaved, let her cover her head.

For a man ought not 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 authority on her head because of the angels.

Nevertheless, 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.

But 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 any of the churches of God.

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, it is a time that we come to a text that is divisive.

Lord, in people's application, your word is perfect and you have a meaning that is clear.

Lord, help us to find it. Lord, help us to not be contentious, as is to our shame so often the tradition of the modern church.

Lord, we long to be a church of God. We long to obey your scripture. We long to have consciences that are properly attuned to your law,

Lord, so that we would not sin against you. Lord, I pray that we would act charitably.

But most of all, Lord, I pray that we would have clear consciences and a heart that loves your word, that loves to obey your word.

And Lord, that our love would be shown, and it would show to one another, and that it would indicate and be the sign that we are your people.

Lord, help us to understand. Help us to be clear. And we trust in you to do that work through your

Holy Spirit this morning. Amen. You may be seated. Alright, before we get into what you all want to know, after reading a passage like that,

I think we have to see that there has been a turn coming in 1

Corinthians. And what's been going on is there is a beginning on the centrality of the cross of Christ.

Really, chapters 1 through 3, we start to get into trouble. There is this constant thing of the

Corinthians are wise, they are so learned, they are knowledgeable, all this kind of stuff. But in the midst of that, there is trouble in the church.

There's trouble with their interpersonal relationships. There's trouble outside the church. And so Paul has talked about the sexual immorality in the church, the lawsuits in the church, eating meat offered to idols that's going on in the church, secular pagan worship, a lot of burdening of consciences.

And then in this section, in chapter 11, we get into a block of a text that really goes from chapters 11 through 14 that is talking about the mayhem and the disaster that is going on during the gathering.

It's crazy in there. If you've ever watched YouTube videos, I would recommend it. If you ever look at a situation where you've got people who are jumping around, running over pews, slobbering on the floor, turning in circles, yelling, wailing, shooting strobe lights everywhere, that is really pretty akin to what's going on in the normal weekly gathering in Corinth.

But then they add a layer to it because you can't take communion because if you're in the end of the line, all the elements are gone.

Because the rich cut in line so that they can drink to their fill and get drunk at the love feast.

And that's what you'll see next week. And so what is often happening is, and I see this, as we turn to head coverings, what's going on in this passage is it is the beginning of a salvo of fire where Paul is trying to correct the internal workings of the

Lord's Day gathering. It's out of order. It's a problem. And so we can be excused in seeing that this passage is unique in the

New Testament because the situation in Corinth is different and unique compared to the other churches that Paul writes to.

It's really a mess in there. And so there is going to be a lot of word spoken and we get to some of the more confusing passages in the

New Testament in this block between chapter 11 to chapter 14. And we're going to walk through that together.

But the big idea is this. There is something that is required of men and women in worship.

And there is something required that is based on the natural order of creation that God has instituted hierarchies to work in a certain way.

And then when we throw off those hierarchies, when we do what is right in our own eyes, whether that is cultural or whether it's based on our own idea of sola scriptura, where we just take interpretations for ourselves and run with them, we can run amuck and messes come.

And we have to examine fruits because the fruit is what shows the rightness of one's action over time.

So this morning we can't dodge it. My dad said a couple weeks ago, like, why don't we just do the traditional

Baptist thing and just miss this section? Let's go on to the next thing. The problem is

I think we got issues with communion, too, and that's next week. So you really just have to skip the whole chapter. And then people notice.

It's like I was looking at a Lifeway pamphlet, Sunday school stuff, and it was going through Romans. And we know that Calvinism is abhorrent to many in the

Southern Baptist Convention. And what Lifeway did was they just skipped chapter 9, Romans 8,

Romans 10. Here we go. We can't do that. I would get threats on my life.

But, Trumbose, I'm not going to make you feel bad this morning, I don't think. So I'm going to take a break from that, and we're going to talk about head coverings.

So if you're with me, and I say this all the time, I say it jokingly and lovingly to my brothers who are here with me in the social media reform ghetto,

I will tell you that one of the fights that comes up periodically and consistently in the reform social media world is endless arguments over head coverings.

How could you be so stupid as to not cover your head? What are you, some kind of blue -haired leftist feminist?

Oh, you're a weirdo covering your head. What are you doing there? Is it okay to be immodest while you cover your head?

I see it. And what we do is we pick at each other. We pick at each other. And what I don't want to do here, and the point of this sermon is to determine, what does

God require of us? That's the most important thing. What does God require of us? And then how do we not tear each other and other churches and other people in the church apart with good faith, different interpretations of certain scripture?

Now, that is a big deal because what's going to happen is there is one position that is pretty easy to understand and pretty understandable, and we should understand it.

And I think oftentimes we do. I think it's the other position that takes work, and much of the work has not been done.

I think that it's been rather lazy at times, and so we're going to go through that. So there are multiple positions on this text.

I'm going to give you four of them. I think that in my studies I found that most of the positions of these texts devolve and dissolve into really these kind of four main ones.

Number one position on head coverings is that women are apostolically commanded during the

Lord's Day gathering to cover their head. Usually this is restricted to wives, although that has been disputed in church history to mean virgins also, that sort of thing.

So that is position number one. Wives must cover, and then there are sub -positions under that one that would be maybe daughters also, and maybe they have to cover all the time everywhere, not just in church.

So those would be sub -points of that position. Another position that has been championed for a long time, it's probably been the dominant

American position. In fact, there was a joke told this weekend about it, and that is this, that head coverings were a cultural practice that was encouraged for a time and place, and Paul is commending them in this text in a time and place.

And so the argument goes that if these were a cultural commendation for the church at Corinth, we are not in Corinth today, and therefore this passage is totally cultural and is not binding on anyone today.

The problem with that interpretation is that the cultural thing, there are passages in this scripture that are rooted in the very created order.

There are truths that have to be uncovered that never changed. Man is created before woman, there is a hierarchical position, and what

Paul argues for the covering is based on this hierarchical position. So we can't just wave a magic wand and say that was for Corinth, this is for now,

I notice that you're not kissing each other with a holy kiss when you come in, that was a cultural moment, we can just wave that one away, like these sorts of arguments.

I'm not going to deal with that one too much because I just don't think when you really get into the scripture, I just don't think it's very convincing, although there are obviously cultural aspects in this text.

So I'm not calling anybody an idiot for this, I'm saying that it's not convincing to me. The third one is that the hair is the covering, so there's no need for any other covering.

I'll just be honest, I don't really understand that argument because what Paul does in this text, if you take that, that the hair is the natural covering that takes care of the commendation in this text, the problem is that Paul specifically says that if the hair is a covering and you're not going to cover it with something else when you pray and prophesy, you should all just shave it off, that makes no sense.

So the hair can't be the covering, that makes a hash of the text, it doesn't work. Now, there is a fourth one, and that is that the covering is a symbol, whether that symbol is a cloth or something else, and I'm going to argue today that, look, here's the deal, let me say this,

I rarely do this, so take it from my heart in this. My goal today is not to convince you of a position on head coverings.

My goal today is to convince you of the good faith arguments from a couple of different camps so that you can make up your mind whether this is a baptism issue or whether it's a hymns versus psalmody issue.

Now, there's problems within that dynamic, and I hopefully am going to be explaining those, but we know with Baptists, right, that we have a difference of interpretation with Presbyterians, and we do not throw

Presbyterians into the outer darkness for their interpretation on baptism, but at the same time, we often do not have church because when a baby is born, there's a decision to be made, right?

And we're a Baptist church, so we're not baptizing babies. So we have decided there are some times that we're going to have to separate.

That doesn't mean that we are throwing each other in gloomy darkness. You will have to decide for yourself whether this issue is one of those, and I do see the argument for it, so I'm not throwing those people into the outer darkness, okay?

So here we go. In the modern church, no matter the view, you're going to hear a phrase like this, we allow the conscience to dictate.

Now, I will say that three of the views that I mentioned, number two, three, and four, that you're basically the not covering people, the not covering people do have a consistent basis on which to say, let the conscience dictate.

Option number one, if this is apostolic command that women wear some sort of cloth veil or head covering on their heads, if that is an apostolic command, then the conscience has nothing to do with it because we do not have a conscience when it comes toward the commands of God.

We have to follow the commands of God, period. It doesn't matter what your conscience says.

If your conscience tells you not to follow this command of God, your conscience is a liar, and it's going to bring you into hellfire, so don't listen to it.

So that is an incoherent position with number one. Now, one thing that is absolutely certain from this text that I do hope to convince you of, and that I would be adamant about, is that women have to be covered when they're praying and prophesying.

If we're going very specifically in the text, it is pointed towards when women pray and prophesy, they must be covered.

It is a disgrace if they're not. Okay, so here we go. You guys might think that I'm a crazy, wild person for this.

I've debated and struggled, and I'm going to read some stuff here, and I'm going to make my argument, and I'm going to start, hopefully, shaping my position.

I'm not alone, but I am in a stark minority with this, so I'm aware of that, and I hold it with some humility.

So here we go. Section 1, there is praise for Corinth. Praise for Corinth. Verse 2, and verse 2 was actually the stumbling block for me in this whole passage.

I know what everyone wants to ask is, what about the angels? That's the first question everyone has. But I think the first question really should be, verse 2, what is

Paul talking about? We have read the letter up to this point, right? Let me remind you,

I'm not going to talk to you guys about anything besides the cross of Christ, because what you're doing right now is you're basing your whole salvation and your whole spiritual place on whether you're of Apollos or Paul or Cephas and for the most holy of Jesus.

And then you have a man who you're showing your great love for one another in the church by tolerating that he is currently sleeping with his stepmother.

And you are going to the pagan courts to sue each other so that you can raise your standing up.

This is going on in the church. You're suing one another, appealing to the pagans, because none of you lacks the wisdom to determine these matters in house.

And if that's not enough, you're inviting everyone over to dinner, and you're serving the meat that was just on the idols, and you're arguing out the space in direct opposition to the council of Jerusalem that we should be able to go to the temple of the pagan gods and eat the meat that was fresh off of the big idol.

This is what's going on in the church. And then Paul breaks, and he's going to commend them and praise them.

Why? Because they've remembered him in everything, and because they have held firmly to the traditions just as Paul delivered them to them.

Strangely, in chapter 4, verse 17, Paul writes, and he says, For this reason

I have sent you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in the church.

Why does he need to send Timothy to remind them? They already know. Right? They've remembered everything.

Have the Corinthians really remembered the doctrine that Paul taught? Have they remembered the essentials? In chapter 3, verses 1 and 2, he says,

And I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as spiritual men, but as to fleshly men, as to infants in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not able to receive it.

Indeed, even now you are still not able. You guys cannot receive the basic fundamentals of Christianity.

Flip the page in the letter. You've remembered everything I taught you. You've held to every tradition.

Let's talk about these traditions. What are the traditions? You've held to all of them.

Paul uses this in a couple other letters. Both in 2 Thessalonians, Paul says this in chapter 2, verse 15,

So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.

What do the traditions mean? They mean to do what Paul has said. Paul has planted these churches.

There is a way that the church is organized. Follow the tradition. He clarifies in chapter 3 of 2

Thessalonians. He says, So we get clarification.

To walk in the tradition is to stay away from unruly men who are not following the tradition.

What is going on in Corinth? These are the traditions. The gospel.

Loving your neighbor. Purity from sexual immorality. Brotherhood and unity.

And casting out unruly people and wolves. These are the traditions. And so I ask you.

This is a pebble in my shoe. I knew this sermon was coming. We've had it mapped out. I've been reading the books.

The people who are closest to me are like, Josh, can we stop the head covering conversation?

My wife is tired of it. I'm sure Corey's tired of it. We've done hours on Monday mornings talking about this.

And here we sit. And what I could never get past is verse 2. What in the world is Paul talking about?

What traditions have they held to? And have they remembered him in everything? He's just been chastising them that he can't even be paid by them because they won't believe him if he gets paid by them.

But I praise you. You've remembered me in everything. So I'm going to give a nod to this one man who is in the foxhole with me.

And I have to. His name is Douglas Van Dorn. This guy, he writes very interesting books.

Very interesting books. And I was on this path. And I was asking these questions.

And I was thinking through this letter. And then David Basin, who I was having a breakfast with, and I said, man, this book, this letter, it's so sarcastic all the time.

And David goes, oh, I think I need to send you a book. And he sent me one.

And it was by this wild man named Douglas Van Dorn who is a Reformed pastor. In fact, he gave the book to a group that he calls the

Reformed Fringe. Now, I'm going to tell you, I like that. All right. Because I am Reformed.

And some people, I think that I'm a centrist, a moderate centrist. But some people would think that I'm on the fringe.

And this is what Douglas Van Dorn posits. He would say that what's going on here is basically this.

In the midst of bedlam in the church, people are, you can't even hear the preaching of the word because people are crying out random prophecies and blathering in tongues.

And they're all so proud of themselves because the number one thing that's going on in the Corinthian church that we know this is they are puffed up with pride and they want to exhibit their holiness to everyone so that everyone can applaud them for how amazing they are.

And the thing that is most amazing is the outpouring of spiritual gifts. And I'm going to throw one dagger, it's probably the only dagger in this sermon.

If you can imagine a situation where a bunch of people are blowing up with tongues and prophecies, what do you envision?

Because I envision a bunch of loud women in the church. And there we come to chapter 11.

Because what I think Paul is doing is he is arguing and building a case for what he wants to stop.

And what he wants to stop, he tells us very explicitly later in chapter 14, and that is that the women need to be quiet.

So the letter itself makes an argument for sarcasm. Let me read you a couple parts. I've already given you some, but let's go.

Chapter 4, Paul writes to them, You are already filled. You have already become rich.

You have ruled without us. And how I wish that you had ruled in deeds so that we might also rule with you.

This is the Apostle Paul telling the church. Chapter 6, verse 5, Is it really this way?

There is not one wise man among you who will be able to pass judgment between his brothers?

There's no one wise in the church. You're so wise. There's not one person that can render judgment. Chapter 9, he says,

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the

Lord? He's using rhetorical questions. Verse 6 of chapter 9, Or do only Barnabas and I not have authority or refrain from working?

Scathing in 2 Corinthians, which the whole book is really sarcastic to the same church, he says this,

For you being so wise are bearing the foolish gladly. For you bear it if anyone enslaves you, anyone devours you, anyone takes advantage of you, anyone exalts himself, anyone hits you in the face.

To my shame, I must say that we have been weak by comparison. But in whatever respect anyone else is daring,

I speak in foolishness. I am just as daring myself. Even in this passage, there's sarcasm.

Verse 6, Historical commentators will say that the apostle is being, quote, peevish in this passage.

Verse 6, If a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut short. But if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut short or have her head shaved, let her cover her head.

If you're not going to step into the order that you are called into doing by throwing off any man, by throwing off that cover, then what you're going to get is you should shave your head as the shameful act of a collaborator and adulteress.

And this passage, specifically verse 6, that is sarcastic, has led some people to make a mishmash of this text and think that the head covering has to do with modesty.

This text is not about modesty. This text is about the posture of women during certain things that are happening in the church.

Now, we must... I'm going to... Oh, sorry. Half dagger. I don't intend it this way, but it's going to be a little bit.

Sorry. It is no wonder to me that in a church... And we have to see where we are, friends.

We are in this blob of churches that's called the conservative church. Okay? Where we haven't just thrown off Scripture and done whatever we want.

Right? We do want to follow Scripture. But in the conservative church, what we have done is we don't really even have a basis to see what

Paul's talking about, because there is no prophecy. And there's very little praying out loud.

And so what we do is we instantly transport... We don't really pay attention to what Paul is saying here, because we really don't have a way to do that.

Because what does it mean when it says that a woman should cover her head when she prophesies? And we're like, ooh, that's weird.

That doesn't even happen. That gift has ceased. Interesting.

But let's put it back together. So here's my argument, and I will make it succinct. The application and the end result of my argument does not depend on my argument.

Okay? And I'll explain that. But here is my argument. I think that what Paul is doing is that he wants to get the church in order.

And so what he is doing is he is writing because he wants the women to be silent. He wants there to be order to what is going on so that people can orderly worship.

Order and communion. Order and preaching. Order and administration of the gifts. All of this stuff.

And I think what he starts with, as you can almost hear a slow clap, is I think what he's doing is in the midst of chaos, he is taking time out to rhetorically congratulate them for wearing a cloth on their head while they're doing it.

See, you guys are blabbering in tongues and blasting off prophecies, and no one understands what's going on, but at least you have your head covered while you're doing it.

I think that's what he's doing. Now, like I said, the rise and fall of my argument does not depend on the passage being sarcastic, but I do think the passage is sarcastic.

There are a couple of reasons why. I'll explain those as we go. But first, let's peel it back and let's go to what's timeless and inarguable.

Verse three. Timeless truths and principles in this passage. 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.

Here's one thing that we have made total disarray of, and one of the reasons why this thing gets so complicated with us is that up until about 100 years ago, every woman in the church would have had a cloth covering on her head.

And what has happened since then is that women in general said, we don't need no man, and they took that covering off and they burned it along with their bras and they took over the church, and the only person who even inhabits an area like this is someone who has all the approval of the women in the church because the men are checked out and gone and they don't care anyway because all they hear coming from up here is

TED Talks to make you feel better. That is the situation we are in and it has confused stuff.

And I think that that is a very strong argument for wearing cloth coverings. Very strong indeed.

And so I am more than sympathetic, I understand it. Okay, like I said,

I am not trying to convince everyone because there is a timeless truth that is in play here and that is this. Christ is the top of the hierarchy.

Not controversial to say, right? I can say this in any conservative church. Christ is the head of the church.

Amen. Amen. That's great, brother. Keep saying it. The problem is we don't really care what he says a lot of times.

So is he really the head? Because if you love him, you will obey his commandments. If you respect the authority of Christ, then you are going to do what he says.

And if you don't do what he says, you are not under his covering anyway and your church is not under him and so it's not a church at all.

Christ is the top. Man is under Christ and woman is under man.

Church father after church father would talk positionally and hierarchically that man is superior and woman is inferior.

That's not talking about ontological value and worth. What that's talking about is a position of hierarchy.

There are superiors and inferiors. We know this. We talk about this. The CEO of a company is superior to the mailroom worker.

That doesn't mean that he's better before Christ. It means he's in charge. Okay? So let's not be confusing.

Let's be clear. We know that the head, the feminists make arguments in this passage and say head means source.

No, head means the controller. Who controls your body? The head.

We all know this. We all know this. The head is a position of authority. The head of the family is the authority in the family.

The head of the church is Christ and he is appointed under shepherds who are called elders who are heads in the church who make decisions.

This perfectly reconciles with the doctrines of the church, the family, and marriage. All of these.

And I would... Well, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do the civil magistrate thing right now. I don't have time. Sorry. You know my thoughts.

Here we go. Another timeless truth. Eight and nine. We are not in a position where because men are in charge, because men are the superiors, that doesn't mean that women are tools for our pleasure.

Timeless truth. Verses eight and nine. For if a man does not originate from woman but woman from man, for indeed man was not created for woman's sake but woman for the man's sake.

Nevertheless, 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, but all things originate from God.

We don't get to do this alone. We don't take our ball and go home. Men and women need each other.

Natural law tells us this. Revealed scripture tells us this. That men and women, for the good of humanity and for ultimate glory to God, we need each other.

Woman was created for man, not man for woman. If you doubt me on that, go back and read

Genesis. That's the only reading of chapters one through three that what happened is it was not good for man to be alone.

He was looking at all the animals. He was naming them, but there was nothing according to his type. And so what God did is in his mercy and his grace and his ultimate plan that he caused deep sleep to come over the man and he pulled a part of him and fashioned it into woman.

And Adam woke up and he saw what God had fashioned and he said, this is flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone.

We will not be separated. We will be together and there will be nuclear power in the family by which this union, there will be procreation, there will be dominion, and she will help him and he will lead her.

And when you throw this upside down, things start to break. Things start to break.

So let's not throw it over. The church has to be run by men. Not in name only, but in reality.

You can't have shadow elders who are ruling from the dining table on Sunday afternoons.

Well, dear, I think you really should tell so -and -so this.

This is characteristic of the patriarchal church in America today.

It is so hard to be ruled by men in a thoroughly feminist culture because men are aggressive and violent and men don't nurture and men don't make things feel comfortable.

Men do not seek consensus. Men seek truth and clarity. It makes you uncomfortable right now.

We all just want to get along. Men do not primarily in their masculine urge seek to get along.

Men seek to win. What's fun for men? Winning. It's always fun, right?

The most fun game is the one you win the most often. And the better the competition, the more fun it is to win.

That's why men are constantly wanting to play against better people so that they can be tested more sharply and win because we know in our hearts that what we want to do is be the best.

It is a masculine urge. Now, it can't run amok. It has to be restrained and trained.

But we talk often about how feminist stuff is and then we have to look.

In this passage, are we being ruled by women? Boy, I hope not.

The temptation's always there. And it's easy to slide in the temptation. But the timeless truth is this, is that men have to rule the church.

Men have to rule their family. We have been given that position. God is the one who appointed

Christ as the head of the church. It was because of God's plan that Christ came and gave grace to all the people.

It was the Father's plan and Jesus perfectly submitted to the will of the Father in His person and work and He saved all of us and it was a model of how headship and submission works.

See, if women throw off this authority in rebellion, they will be ruined.

And if men disregard their own authority, they will be disgraced and ruined.

Where does this leave us? 30 minutes and I haven't answered the question. I'm not afraid.

It just takes work. There is a culture of chaos and rebellion in Corinth. Let's go back to Corinth.

Women are praying and prophesying boldly and without order. Now, here's where I'm gonna make distinction number one.

I'm gonna tell you that there are two positions of the four that I most respect and I'm gonna illuminate those.

Position number one, women have to wear cloth coverings on their head in the gathering of the saints. I respect the position and I see its point and I want to carve out room and say,

I'm okay with that. And I look at our arguing about that point to be like inter -varsity squabbling around a table with a pint where we're all gonna hug each other's neck afterwards and I'm fine with that.

And I look at position number four and I say, is the real covering something else? And that is the position that I'm going to argue here.

Okay? I do not think the hair thing and the cultural thing bear the weight. I don't think they're good arguments and I would try to convince you out of those arguments because I just don't think they are good faith and I don't think they're the position that lands us and where we can understand each other and we can disagree understanding because that's ultimately what

I want is to build unity without disobeying God. So this passage makes me tremble and it should in a way because even if it's the smallest little command that seems like what are we fighting about?

If it's a command of God we need to do it. So here's part number one that I have a problem with with apostolic command view.

Okay? Part number one that I have a problem with and that I'm having a hard time getting past and it is this.

I think that to equate the specific action of praying and prophesying.

Remember if she is praying and prophesying without a covering on then she's a disgrace.

And if a man is praying and prophesying with a cover on he's a disgrace. Now I do think that it is a leap to turn this thing into the

Lord's Day gathering at large. And I'm going to explain why. Okay? And this is traditionally what has kept me as a non -cloth covering guy.

Okay? I do think that Paul wishes to be clear. I do not think that this is a good way to describe the gathering of the church.

It's by saying it would be like this. What are you doing this Sunday morning? Well, I'm going to sing and pray.

That would be strange. We all say we're going to church. And then it involves all of these things.

Women are told if they are uncovered when they're praying and prophesying they are a disgrace.

Now look, I'm not lampooning anybody. But I am saying that there is other stuff going on in the church. There's preaching.

There's singing. There's reading. There's communion. There's baptism. There's all this stuff. And then to make matters worse and this is where I've been for a long time.

There are these verses that have to be dealt with. So remember, women are told if you pray and prophesy without a covering on you are doing a bad thing.

Now, what does that mean? That means by definition that if you have a covering on you're okay to pray and prophesy.

Right? It's a disgrace if you don't have a cover. But it's okay if you do have a cover.

Put the cloth on. And remember, this is why I think the sarcastic thing. You're doing bedlam but at least you've got the external sign on.

Okay? Listen to this. 1 Corinthians 14. This is where I think he is finishing out his argument.

Verses 34 and 35. The women are to keep silent in the churches. Now notice a couple of things.

Number one, he now is talking about very specifically churches. When you're in church women keep silent.

For they are not permitted to speak but are subject themselves. Subject, hupotasso.

You are under the command of. You are obeying. You are subject yourselves just as the law also says.

But if they desire to learn anything let them ask their own husbands where at home.

For it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in church. I want you to notice that passage.

I want you to notice disgraceful. I want you to notice where she can talk. I want you to notice who she can talk to.

Does she call the elder because she has a question? No. That's disgraceful also she talks to her husband.

Is that rankling to a feminist culture? It should be.

I think it is. What if I fire back and you send me an email woman and I say have you asked your husband?

Quit talking to me. You are stepping out of your headship. And friends

I have I have facilitated the disorder of my sisters in the past by not doing that.

And I tell you right now I repent of it. So I tell you women if you have a question to me ask your husband and have him talk to me if you guys can't resolve it.

And I'm sorry for how I have how I have let that slide the past. It's a bad thing.

But notice there to keep silent. Now this is difficult right? Because why would

Paul say that it's a disgrace for them to pray and prophesy if their head's uncovered.

But then just a few pages over he says but you can't do it anyway at all. And not only this he invokes the law.

The law says another thing that came up in study you guys will know this these are key passages for this kind of text.

First Corinthians 14 always gets paired with First Timothy 2. But there was something that caught my mind.

It was the admonition to men verses 8 -12 in chapter 2. Therefore I want the men in every place to pray lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissension.

Look at that specifically. What will men do? Men will get into wrath and dissension. We've seen this right?

Men like to fight. Men like to get angry. But men also are admonished in the church to pray lifting their hands.

What are women told to do? I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing with modesty and self -restraint.

Not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing but rather by means of good works as is proper for women professing godliness.

A woman must learn in quietness in all submission but I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man but to remain quiet.

Can you prophesy publicly without exercising authority? By the very definition of it you are speaking for God.

Can a woman prophesy corporately without assuming headship? No. Neither can she preach without assuming headship.

And in this text are women supposed to pray with their hands lifted up? No, they're supposed to be quiet.

See in the text here what has always been the pebble in my shoe in this text and I will always say this I will tell you always the plain simple reading of 1

Corinthians 11 verses 2 through 16 would tell you you should wear a covering on your head in church.

The plain reading of it would say that. And I affirm that all day long. There's just been pebbles in my shoes.

Why would Paul tell them that they have to cover to do this and then later tell them you can't do it at all?

I know there's answers. I know there are. And listen, there's answers on both sides of this in every direction. This has been much studied.

We also need to know from this text that there's a shame of feminism.

Shame. If you have your head uncovered while praying or prophesying you are shaming your head.

You're shaming your husband. Loud women shame their husbands. Their husbands do not like it.

It emasculates them. And ladies if you're hearing me this morning and you're going yes, cover my head.

And you go home and your husband says I think Josh is wrong about that.

I think you need to cover your head. If you defy him you are uncovering your head in every way that I am advocating.

And you are a stinky feminist and you need to repent of it. It's God awful. If you woman decide oh,

I think that I should have the head covering on and your husband says no, I don't think so.

And you're like well, I have to. No, listen. We know from the marriage vows you trust your husband to trust

Christ. Right? That's what is going on. He is washing you in the word. And if you wear a head covering over the objections of your husband you are not covering.

You are rebelling and you need to stop it. Pray that your husband would seek counsel and wisdom.

Pray that he would have conviction of the Holy Spirit. And be quiet and win him without a word to your cause.

See, we are given very specific instructions about how men and women are supposed to operate. There is a horror of effeminate men in the church.

If a man has something on his head while praying or prophesying he shames his head. Who's his head? Christ. If a man cannot say a single thing to you unless it's been filtered by the women in his life he is a shame to Christ.

Because there is no masculinity. And what we would say is God made a big mistake by making men into the way they are.

We have to be women. And that has been the project of the public school for a hundred years.

It's turning boys into girls. Now explicitly. Before that subversively.

You are not allowed to focus group your ideas through women so that it will be acceptable to women.

That will tear the church apart and it has. It has. Then we have this other curious thing where nature teaches.

I see this. This passage is very interesting. I'm going to start in verse 13.

Paul writes, Judge for yourselves is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?

That could better be said to pray to God uncovered. Because with her head is added in in English.

I actually think it un -clarifies the passage. Judge for yourselves is it proper for a woman to pray to God 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 to be covering. I have to be very quick and efficient with this. Nature teaches no such thing.

This is how Paul uses natural law. He uses it in Ephesians 1. He uses it in Romans 1. Here's the thing.

The way a thing looks and is purposed results in what it does. That is natural law.

Men and women are made naturally to procreate. That is an obvious picture.

So when they do procreate everything good is happening. When they refuse to procreate they are breaking natural law.

They're not doing what they're for. Does that make sense? It would be like watching a dog try to fly.

We would be like what is wrong with that dog? Notice we would do that. We would say what is wrong with that dog?

And the reason we would say that is because we know inherently that dog is not acting according to its nature.

Now we have to look. What is the purpose of hair? The purpose of hair is to grow and protect.

Right? It protects your head. It protects the heat loss. It is ornamental.

But hair will grow. Does men's hair grow as long as women's? No, it does not. But men's hair does grow long.

Now here's what's interesting about this passage. Is that we know from Acts 18 .18 that Paul had long hair when he wrote this.

Paul having remained many days longer. 18 months to be certain. He took leave of the brothers in Corinth.

And he put out for sea for Syria. And with him were Priscilla and Aquila. And he had his hair cut for he had been keeping a vow.

Paul made a Nazarite vow when he went into Corinth. When he went into the synagogue and he started turning the world upside down.

He made a Nazarite vow because he was discouraged. Remember that God told him go back in here. I have my remnant.

I have my people. Paul makes a Nazarite vow and the work is explosive in Corinth.

Because he is showing them that he respects the traditions of the Jews but the gospel has gone to the

Gentiles. It's a tumultuous tension filled world in Corinth. But when Paul leaves

Corinth 18 months later he cuts his hair. When he was with them his hair was getting increasingly longer.

And so he writes that having long hair is a disgrace to a man. It's a dishonor to him. This is a cultural passage.

Men should look like men and women should look like women. That's what it means and that's what we know it means. Was John the

Baptist a disgrace because his hair was long? And I'm not doing the thief on the cross thing making an exception.

What I'm saying is that Paul is using the word nature here in a way that he doesn't use it anywhere else. And that lends to my sarcastic lens.

Paul knows for sure what arguments from nature are and he's not making one here. What he is saying is men need to act like men and women need to act like women.

Your own, everything you see with your eyes is teaching you this. The Roman culture, very famously, the

Roman culture disgraced long hair in men. If you were a good Roman citizen you had your hair cut short.

That's what the powerful people did. But remember, Paul didn't come in power. He came with the foolishness of the cross.

Then we have the angels. Women ought to have authority on her head because of the angels.

There are two good explanations for this and I actually appeal and adopt both of them. Explanation number one, because this is the first question.

What's the deal with the angels? Here's the deal. The angels long to see hierarchy exhibited in the church in such a way that the church mirrors the throne room of God in order.

The church, we know the angels like to look into the mystery of the gospel. They love to see the saints worship.

I pray and I hope that there are angels watching us right now and I hope that they are encouraged by what they see. But they're looking in and they want to see order.

I think there's a second explanation, it's this. I think that Paul is saying rhetorically the angels are so impressed by the cloth coverings that are going on in the midst of complete disorder and disarray.

See, they look the part externally, but they're not following any of the rules that are the tradition in the other churches.

And I think both of these are true. And I will tell you, if you see speculations about these angels being Nephilim, I've seen all kinds of crazy stuff here.

Those are speculations. Even the first one is a speculation. We're not given that. We don't really know what the angels have to do with anything here.

Okay? We have to make assumptions based on other texts and try to make sense of this.

So how do we conclude? This might be my longest sermon at CBC. Sorry, I knew it was coming.

Here we go. I think the conclusion ends with where he ends this argument. If one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice nor have the churches of God.

So let's take from this what we need to learn, friends, and that is this. We are to be unified and not contentious.

We disgrace the gospel of Christ when we're contentious with each other. That doesn't mean bad things.

We're sinners. Bad things are going to happen. We see it. You guys, if you've been in church for a long time, you've seen it.

Unfortunately, you're probably going to see it again. God's children fight. And it's ugly.

But God's purpose is never deterred. The reason folks teach this as a command from the apostle is obvious.

Guys, would you say if you read this, what would you come away thinking? You would think that women should wear a covering.

I fully admit that. However, there are some issues and I want to leave us with this because here's where I'm at.

Some people in the church are convinced that there should be a covering on the head. Remember, back to the beginning,

I'm not trying to convince you that you're wrong. I'm not. I don't know that you're wrong. Do I know that the

Presbyterians are wrong about baptism? No, I don't know that. Okay? Here's the thing, though.

What I am trying to do is give space for you can go and say, that guy's not covering. Does that just mean he disrespects apostolic commands?

And I would say, here is my case to you, brother, so that we can live in harmony with each other and not think that I disregard

God's law. Here it is. There is no clear Old Testament precedent for this.

In fact, the people that were covering in the temple were priests. Male priests. So they would go in and something has changed here in that we have no mediator between God and man.

That is Jesus Christ. He is the one mediator. And so there is not a practice that gets brought forth in the church, in the temple from the

Old Testament. There is a cultural practice in society at large that married women would cover their heads in the public square.

That was cultural. It was a tradition. If this is indeed an apostolic command, if it is indeed, it is a strange apostolic command,

I would argue the strangest of the New Testament but because of this, because of its isolation in the text, one spot, because of its location in the midst of chaos in Corinth, because of the seeming emphasis on an external symbol in the midst of rampant problems in the church at Corinth.

I think, you have to admit with me, it's kind of a strange command. And people inherently know that this text is a little bit difficult.

Okay? The specificity of the command in the context of praying and prophesying, we can differ on what that means.

I think it's very specific. And I do think that Paul is making a point of saying, you're not going to be able to do this whether you're covered or not.

Covering with an external symbol is not stopping or pleasing God with the disobedience and wickedness of your rebellious hearts.

There is a lack of specificity on what the cloth covering is. Traditionally, the word is kind of translated into a veil or shroud.

So, what do we know? Is a headband, again, not throwing daggers, not being facetious.

How do we know? Do you need to, because I heard it said in a podcast that we don't cover our face because we approach

God as being uncovered. Guys, that is a category error. We approach

God being uncovered. That is a mediator... Using a fancy word. That is the mediation of Christ that means that we don't come before His face covered.

He's uncovered. That's a category error to loop that into saying you don't wear a veil over your face.

In fact, we don't really know. There would be a cultural thing. There's a lack of specificity. There is a generic word for men and women being used in this whole passage.

It's rooted in creation, the position of men. And so, how in the context of church we leave out virgins.

Do women need to cover when they pray before God at home? Are they outside of the covering of their husband if they don't cover their head when they pray in the house?

And church fathers have disagreed on this over the past. There's questions about this text. And there are seeming inconsistencies.

Why is there an emphasis in Timothy on braided hair in the church if you're going to be covered anyway?

Who's going to see your braided hair? These are the questions I have. Why do they have to be covered if they're forbidden from speaking in the first place?

And then, I would say this. It's been practiced. It was taken off with feminism.

But I will say that we often do unthinking cultural things with scripture when it is in the air around us.

Dispensationalism currently is a great example of that where we have a whole swath of people who think that the promises to Abraham in Genesis 12 apply to Bibi Netanyahu today.

And they will say, if you curse Netanyahu, you're not even with Christ. And the reason that people believe that is because of a tradition that holds up to very little scriptural scrutiny.

Very little. It's very difficult to make that position scripturally, and yet people believe it and they will get mad at you if you question it because their tradition tells them otherwise.

And so I would say, it was wrong for women to take off their covering a hundred years ago.

They should not have done it. And if they hadn't, I will say this. We would probably all be covered today and we wouldn't be talking about it.

But that itself is a very strong argument, but you have to recognize the argument. The argument is cultural, and so what happens is you do have to dig in the text in a way that you probably wouldn't.

And if I'm a dispensationalist, I'm going to read Revelation and think that it applies 3 ,000 years into the future because I've never thought differently.

And I don't see the inconsistencies in that view because I've never thought about the inconsistencies because it's the air

I breathe. It is a respected position. The simple reading yields the conclusion.

History yields the conclusion. And so I respect it and it doesn't make me grind my teeth. But here's what we should do.

We should always hit the main points. We should not be contentious. We should not neglect clear commands of modesty for the appearance of piety.

Do not cover your head and wear revealing dresses. We see this all the time.

Head covering and boobs. Come on now. What do you think you're doing?

What do you think you're accomplishing? We're clearly called to be modest.

Right? Clearly. No debate. We have to be ordered. Men have to lead.

Women have to be silent in the church. We have to respect and maintain this hierarchy. And women, here's where we leave today.

If this is bothering your conscience in one direction or the other, you should have a conversation with your husband.

Your husband should think about it. Do the studying. Your husband should tell you what to do and you should listen to him on this matter.

And that's where I leave it. And I won't tell you not to ask me questions. You can ask me questions, but hopefully

I will not talk about this issue for five years from now. I joke. But I know it's a thing.

Please don't let it be contentious. Please bear with one another in good works. And I think that there are things that we can do.

Okay? Let's pray. Lord, your word is good. It's always good.

Lord, I pray that we would understand it. And Lord, in context,

I pray that we would see the biggest things for what they are. Lord, that there would be order in your church.

That the hierarchy would please you. That it would be according to the way that you have designed, not only the world but the church itself.

You are our head and we are body parts. Lord, I pray that we would not rebel against that.

Lord, I pray for our marriages. I pray that they would exemplify and model the way that you've designed things.

The way you've designed it to work. Lord, I pray that this would not be an issue of contention. Not only within the church.

Lord, but within other church groups. Lord, I pray that this would not be something that divides.

I pray that we would understand that we can partner with. Lord, I pray always, and as I started this,

Lord, I pray that you would convict me if I'm wrong. Lord, that you would give me the blessing of knowledge of sin and the

Holy Spirit. And Lord, that I would take up the gift of repentance and repent. But Lord, I also pray that we would all have clear consciences as people who want to follow you.

As people who want to obey you. As people who want to love you and serve you. I pray that for your church.

I pray that we would remain faithful and steadfast. That we would not forget what you've called us to do.