Gender Roles (Part 2)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Avendrop.

Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the Scriptures verse by verse with No Compromise.

I say it a million times. I'll say it again. I love masculinity in men. I love femininity in women.

And these women were trying to act like men. God has a structure. God has said.

Certainly, if you look at this covering here, it can't simply be just hair. There's a divine order to things, but Paul goes further, verses 7 through 9, and he talks about creation.

Why should women wear head coverings, the Corinthian women, Paul says, because of creation.

Further describing why they should do this. And this has nothing to do with culture either. Look at verse 7, for a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is a glory of man.

Just think if I was on the campus of Yale saying this. This is what God said.

I mean, what you can say is, well, that's not in the Bible. Men wrote that.

But it's very simple. Nobody's better. There's just an order to God's economy. And if you're after your rights, you should be thinking about God's glory instead.

This is how God is glorified. That man is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.

Here's what Paul's saying. In a local worship service, nothing should detract from the glory of God.

Both the man and woman created in God's likeness and image, Genesis 1, but the woman is the glory of man.

Opposite of glory is shame. Don't shame your husband. Woman reflects the glory of man, not of God.

So man stands uncovered, woman stands covered. That's just what the text says.

Verse 8, why should a woman bring glory to man? For man was not made from woman, but woman from man.

Think of that word from there, because the next one's for, this is from. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man.

Remember Adam was made first, not because he was better, just that's what God did. And remember from his side, he took some rib and some tissue and made a woman.

Adam woke up and he was married, right? I always think that's interesting. I was only engaged for four weeks and I thought that was fast.

Woman was taken out of a man. So there's a creation order, which one was made first?

Nobody's better. Christ's redemption includes women. By the way, how about the Old Testament days when there was the court to worship and then there was the court of the women way over here?

We have come a long way in terms of worshiping Christ Jesus because we are equal in Christ.

There's no court of women here. What if the balcony up there was the court of women? Men could come down here, all the ladies up there, court of women.

But no, we all have access through Christ Jesus, our Lord. A creation order says man was made from woman, but woman, man was not made from woman, but woman from man.

It has nothing to do with inferiority, if that's your default, think again. This is just a fact in God's world.

And look at verse nine, it continues. Not just from, Eve wasn't just from Adam, she's made for Adam.

If you're not mad yet, look at this verse. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.

That's closing prayer. Why would I not want to even say these words? Because I know what the culture is saying.

The culture is saying subordination equals inferiority, and in God's economy, that has nothing to do with anything.

Quoting right from Genesis chapter two, it is not good for man to be alone, but I will make a helper suitable for him.

Adam didn't create Eve, God made Adam, and then he created Eve from Adam.

Adam needed a helper. By the way, if you don't like the word helper, ladies, God is also called in the

Old Testament a helper. There's nothing wrong with being a helper. Paul's not arguing from the fall.

The feminists want to say, see how the fall messed everything up? Everybody's equal, then the fall.

So let's go back to everybody's equal. Paul says everybody's equal, but they're functionally different.

Number three, this is the wild one. There are differences, yes, because of divine order.

There are differences, yes, because of creation. But then this one's thrown in here, verse 10, out of all things, verse 10 is thrown in.

I was okay until this came up. That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head.

I just wish she would have put a period there. That would have been easier. That's why. Okay. Let's get to the

Lord's Supper. Because of the angels, oh yeah, those angels, there's a divine order to things.

There's a creation order to things, and angels watch. I wonder what they're seeing today here.

Charles Hodge said, quote, there is scarcely a passage in the New Testament which has so much taxed the learning and ingenuity of commentators as this, after all that has been written, it remains just as obscure as ever.

I don't think it's that obscure. The Greek says the woman ought to have authority on her head.

If I was a kid, I'd think that sounds heavy, have authority. Who are these angels?

Well, the Corinthians knew, that's for sure. But there are a few options. Let me give you two bad options, and let me give you the good option.

Option one. First one is, these angels were bad angels.

And these are the angels that would prey on women, like in Genesis 6, wanting to have relations with women.

And if women say, you know what, I got my head covered outside the church, I walk into the church and throw my head covering away, and my hair's in some kind of sensual way, and hair was an enticement back in those days.

Angels are looking down, the demons are looking down. They see some girl's wild hair, and they're like, wow, we want to go after them.

So ladies, buckle up. That's option one. But Paul never uses angels to refer to these bad demon angels.

Second possibility of who these angels might be, who watch. Remember the angels in Isaiah 6?

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. All the earth is like a platform for His glory.

And what do the angels do? Remember, without sin, yet still blushing, and they're covering their what with, remember they're covering themselves just because of the blazing glory of God.

Some people think that's it. But I think the best is the most simple.

And that is, these were good angels that function as guardians to creation order.

The Jewish tradition was, good angels had a role in making sure creation order was right, and that there was leaders, and there were followers, and that were male and female, and everything didn't get blended, and angels just watched.

And if angels watched over a little one, they also watched over, according to Jewish custom, seeing if creation order was right or wrong.

But then Paul almost backs up. Maybe you are thinking women are inferior to men. So look at how he kind of reels this in.

Look at verses 11 and 12. Nevertheless, there's this mutual need between men and women.

We all know this. Nevertheless, in the Lord, woman is not independent of man, nor man of woman.

That was a wild thing to say in 55 AD. For as woman was made from man, remember,

Eve was made from the side of Adam, so man now, not Adam, but so man now is born of woman.

Who here has not been born of a woman? Men. Do you need women? You need women for lots of reasons.

One, so that you could actually exist. Minor point. And all things are from God.

So Paul is trying to make sure you don't get bulldozed over with the point, and somehow think, well, you know what?

Men are great. Women aren't. Meet Tarzan, right? Caveman.

Can you imagine me carrying Kim around by her hair? You don't know Kim very well if you think that would be a possibility.

I just was thinking of semi -automatic guns. And all things, verse 12, are from God.

Men and women are both humans, not a different species.

Paul's point is interdependence. We need each other. Just in case somehow you think to yourself,

I don't need ladies, I'm better. He goes on to say in chapter 12, the eye cannot say to the hand,

I have no need of you. Men need ladies, ladies need men. Even though God created

Eve from Adam, every man now comes from a woman. Number four, the sense of right and wrong, or what we call nature, that tells us something should be done.

There are differences. Let's go to verse 13. This is a wild one.

If you haven't think it's wild so far, this is getting pretty wild. The argument from propriety, as some would say.

Paul's back full circle now. Verse 13, judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?

You be the judge, and what you're judging should say is this, of course not. So Paul asks some more questions.

Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is a disgrace for him?

But if a woman has long hair, it is her glory, for her hair is given to her for a covering, true or false?

Don't look at your little gadgets to find out. Men and women, men and women's hair grows at the same speed, in general.

Now some people might be sick, or there might be an exception, but in general, men's hair, ladies' hair grows at the same speed at the same rate.

What's your guess? The answer is true. Six inches a year on average.

So what does it mean? Nature itself teaches you that if a man wears long hair, it's a disgrace for him.

If men's hair grew slower, I know it grows finer. But if it grows slower, okay, see, fast hair growth, slow hair growth.

Ladies, by nature, they got a bunch of hair, it's faster, men. But that's not what's happening here.

This word nature has nothing to do with created nature. This has to do everything with society and the society's expectations.

In other words, society knows. It knew back then, it knows now.

Women shouldn't be butch when it comes to their hair. They shouldn't try to look like a man.

And men, they shouldn't try to look like a woman with their long hair.

This has nothing to do with nature because our hair grows at the same length. Why is my hair super short?

Because this is just part of society and the way we function, societal expectations.

Doesn't even this society tell you women have longer hair, men have shorter hair?

By definition, something's going on. Why do women have, I mean, think about it. We have two people in the garden, man and woman.

Who says one has to have long hair, the other has to have short hair? Why don't they just both have the same kind of hair? Why aren't they just bald?

God could have made them just both bald. That would have been interesting. But one has short hair, one has long hair.

Why? Because it's just built into people that men should have short hair, women should have long hair because it points to a bigger picture.

And that bigger picture is women have longer hair because it's given to her as a covering. It's not saying it's in light of the covering.

It's instead of the covering. But nature even teaches you that, societal expectations.

Some commentators I read tried to tell me that hair grows faster in men. That is not true. One man said the unique beauty of a woman is gloriously manifest in the distinctive femininity portrayed by her hair and her attendance to feminine customs, social decorum, men short hair, women longer hair.

And then he says, number five, why should this all happen? Then we're going to give a couple of takeaways. All the other churches in the

New Testament time, they all did this. Corinth isn't the exception.

The universal church practice, verse 16, is the final reason why Paul says, ladies at Corinth, you ought to have your head covered if you pray or prophesy.

If anyone is inclined to be contentious, hey, anybody want to argue? Who likes to debate?

Paul says, look at all the other churches. We have no such practice of having women have no head covering.

We don't have any other practice. We don't have any other practice except they do cover, nor do the churches of God.

Take a look at that verse again. We have no such practice. We, the apostles, we don't do it any other way. All the other churches here around Asia Minor and every place else, they all do it the same way.

Don't argue with us, all these other churches do it. Jew or Gentile, woman who's married, you have your head covered in society, you walk into a church, you keep it on.

All right, now what does everybody want to know? Everybody has the burning question, and we'll visit that next week.

No, I'll tell you, let me give you a few takeaways, all right? One, God cares about the way you worship.

The how matters. How you worship matters.

And if you say I'll just do whatever I want, then there's a problem. God ordains worship.

Two, men and women are equal, but have different roles in society, at home, and in the church, equal but different.

First Timothy chapter two makes it clear, men, elders, men, pastors, men, deacons.

That's just the way it is. How do you conduct yourself in the household of God? God tells us, because of creation order and because of deception.

That's just what he says. And we're different, nobody is better. By the way,

I'll just push a little bit. When you walk in, if you ever turn on TV and you see a woman preacher, your reaction, if you're thinking biblically, should be the same reaction as if you see a transgendered person running from this universe.

That's what you should be thinking of. This is not right, this is wrong. I remember when

Gracie was about to be induced, it was 5 AM, we walk into St. Vincent's Hospital. And I'm glad I don't believe in omens, because I walked in and there was a woman preacher on TV at the checkout at 5

AM in the emergency. I thought, that's interesting. And then we walked over here to go through the corridor.

There was another TV with another TBN false heretic Bible teaching channel that doesn't believe in the

Trinity. I don't know why they call it the Trinity Broadcasting Network. And then there was a woman up there preaching. I thought, that should make me say, something's wrong here.

People say, I love Joyce Meyer. Well, she's a heretic, one, and two, she ought not to be preaching.

Why, because I'm better? No, just like when I got here to the church and people would come to me and say,

Pastor Mike, you're not a very good scripture reader. And you get up, they never really did formal scripture reading, and so I began to read.

And this particular lady said to me, you don't read very well and I'd like to read scripture. And I said, well, you're probably right,

I don't read well, but I can't allow you to read scripture because the Bible is super plain. It's super simple to just look at.

And we fought and fought and fought back and forth, and I tried to teach her and be patient and explain 1

Timothy 2, explain 1 Corinthians 11, and explain 1 Corinthians 14, and she just would never stop.

I read scripture better than you do, and you know what, she probably could. But I finally had to say to that lady, you will stand here on Sunday morning and read scripture over my dead body, because it's clear, it's easy.

I'm not better, but this is what the Bible says. Number three, beware of paganism sneaking into the church, particularly feminism.

Number four, don't forget about progressive revelation. Paul writes 1

Corinthians around 53, 54, 55, the canon's not closed, people stand up and prophesy, thus saith the

Lord. But by 65 AD, 1 Timothy is written, no more signed gifts, no men standing up to prophesy, no women standing up to prophesy.

And Paul says in 1 Timothy 2, I don't allow a woman to teach or exercise authority. Number five, how does a lack of submission show itself in our culture today?

Here's the scoop, this is what you wanna know. Does Mike believe in head coverings for today or not?

Before I answer the question, how does a lack of submission show itself in our culture today?

And I would like to say to you, I don't think it has anything to do with head coverings. Because outside the church, who wears them?

Who wears head coverings outside the church in our country? Well, maybe some

Muslims do, maybe some other religious people do. But if I see a lady today with a head covering on, you know what

I typically think of? I think of a Mennonite or an Amish person. I am under my husband's authority.

And when they go into church, they do not take those off, and I commend them for that. But how does a lack of submission show itself in our culture?

And I would say to you, and by the way, we're all able to learn and grow, aren't we?

I used not to believe in the covenant of redemption. I believe in the covenant of redemption. I taught for 20 years that I think a woman should wear their head covered in a local church service.

Why? Because of these reasons, taking the high road, all kinds of other things.

But if my wife doesn't wear her head covered, is that a sign of rebellion?

It is a sign of rebellion in this culture, our overseas today, where I don't wear it outside, and I don't wear it inside.

It's also a sign of rebellion if I wear it outside and don't wear it inside.

But friends, what does it show today? For all those who didn't come in with their head covered today, forget about what you're wearing right now.

If you didn't have your head covered today and you came walking in, and we all looked, and we watched you get out of the parking lot, and you grabbed your

Bibles, and you yelled at your kid to hurry up, and you did all these things, what would we look at you, and what would we say?

Girls are wild out there, they have no head covering. That's what

I said. So I had Kim stay home today from first service, and I don't want her to be too wild.

Nobody said anything like that, because the culture is, women don't wear heads covered to show that they have a sign of submission.

Their husband, they wear a wedding ring. If you live in a culture where you show your marriage status outside the church, then when you go to the church, don't change.

But if you say, you know what, I think a woman should have her head covered today in the church, then you should have her head covered outside the church too.

Because now you're walking out and you're showing the world rebellion that she's not under your authority. I used to think, just because I took the high road,

I'd see all the commentators, it's cultural, it's cultural, it's cultural. Well, do you know what?

That's a bad way to go theologically. Blood atonement is cultural too. Paul doesn't use cultural arguments here.

But in the culture, Paul uses other arguments to say, women, the way you dress outside the church should not change when you go inside the church because your husband is over you there and your husband is over you here.

There are differences. Tom Schreiner said in the first century, failure to wear a covering sent a signal to the congregation that a woman was rejecting the authority of male leadership.

Paul was concerned about head coverings only because of the message they sent to the people in that culture. If you have no head covering on today and you're a woman married, what are you sending to the culture?

What are you telling the church? So is it for today?

If you live in a culture overseas where your head is to be covered outside and you walk into a church,

I think you should keep it on. If you today believe in a head covering,

I want you to know this. I respect you. Because you don't just default to, well, you know what, that's just cultural.

And you know what, how am I ever gonna ask my wife to put a hat on, a veil on?

How am I ever gonna get my wife in a toga, put the thing up? It's just never gonna happen. She's not going to submit, which is indicative of the problem.

And the problem is husbands that don't lead and wives that don't submit. And they're trying to just show on the outside,

I'm not gonna submit to you when I walk into the church. But outside and inside, there should be the healthy respect and fear of godly submission in a woman.

By the way, this is not the only argument, but you can have a hat on in here and be a total rebel against leadership and your own husband.

So if you didn't hear me the first time, let me just summarize. Paul tells the church of Corinth, listen, paganism has shrunk and snuck in here rather.

Don't act like a pagan. For those of you that don't have your heads covered today and are married, how are you acting like a pagan?

The only way I could try to argue this is, you know what? Angels are watching you, you should have a head covered.

But I would say to you, you're not allowed to publicly pray and you're not allowed to publicly prophesy. And those are the two things that Paul says, if you're going to do, you've got to have your head covered.

So now in progressive revelation, ladies aren't allowed to publicly pray. Ladies aren't allowed to publicly prophesy.

So since they do neither of those, why do they have to have their head covered? They don't. Aren't you relieved?

At least most of you are relieved. Men and women are different. Equal in Christ, but different.

Should I wear a head covering today? If you're single, no. If you're a man, no.

If you're a lady who wears a head covering outside of church and you want to wear it inside a church, friends, don't ever say anything mean to those who have enough conviction to live by their convictions.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

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