Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to a podcast by Lance Lambert Ministries. For more information on this ministry, visit lancelambert.org or follow us on social media to receive all of our updates.
[00:00:10] In today's episode, we'll be listening to Chapter eight of the Audiobook for the Importance of Covering by Lance Lambert. In this chapter, narrated by Michael Cross, Lance applies the covering concept specifically to women's head covering in church, sharing his view that the sisters serve as a living symbol to remind the entire church about spiritual covering, divine order, and dependence on the Lord's authority. The complete audiobook is available for purchase and you can find the link in the show notes. Let's listen to chapter 8 of the importance of covering chapter 8 the testimony of sisters to covering 1 Corinthians 11:2 16 now I praise you that ye remember me in all things, and hold fast the traditions even as I delivered them to you.
[00:01:02] 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.
[00:01:11] Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonoureth his head but every woman praying or prophesying with her head unveiled dishonoureth her head for it is one and the same thing as if she were shaven for if a woman is not veiled, let her also be shorn but if it is a shame to a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be veiled for a man indeed ought not to have his head veiled, 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 for neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have a sign of authority on her head, because of the angels.
[00:01:57] Nevertheless, neither is the woman without the man, nor the man without the woman in the Lord for as the woman is of the man, so is the man also by the woman.
[00:02:09] But all things are of God.
[00:02:11] Judge ye in yourselves.
[00:02:13] Is it seemly that a woman pray unto God unveiled? Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a dishonour to him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her for her hair is given her for a covering. But if any man seemeth to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
[00:02:38] Genesis 2:18 25 and the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helpmeet for him.
[00:02:50] And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens, and brought them unto the man to see what he would call them. And whatsoever the man called every living creature, that was the name thereof and the man gave names to all cattle and all and to the birds of the heavens, and to every beast of the field but for man there was not found a helpmeet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs, closed up the flesh thereof, and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
[00:03:31] And the man said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.
[00:03:41] Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.
[00:03:49] And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
[00:03:56] Ephesians 5:22 33.
[00:04:00] Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands and as unto the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the savior of the body.
[00:04:13] But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything.
[00:04:20] Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it, that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself. A glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.
[00:04:43] Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies.
[00:04:49] He that loveth his own wife loveth himself for no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church, because we are members of his body.
[00:05:03] For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
[00:05:11] This mystery is great, but I speak in regard of Christ and of the Church.
[00:05:17] Nevertheless, do ye also severally love each one his own wife, even as himself?
[00:05:23] And let the wife see that she fear her husband.
[00:05:29] Shall we pray?
[00:05:33] Now, Lord, we have asked thee to be with us. We have together confessed and recognized our need of the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. And we thank thee now, Lord, that we can just spread out our time before Thee.
[00:05:47] We believe, Lord, that Thou Thyself will take note of our cry and of our confidence in Thyself.
[00:05:54] And Thou will meet us in this time.
[00:05:56] O Lord, hear us take away all strain, all tension. May we just know what it is to be in Thy presence. We ask it together in the name of our Lord Jesus.
[00:06:07] Amen.
[00:06:11] We are going to consider now perhaps the most controversial point of all in this matter of covering the sisters, the testimony in the church to covering.
[00:06:21] Some of us may have background difficulties or we may have complexes in the matter. It is amazing how this subject brings out rebellion and resistance and many other things.
[00:06:32] I just pray that the Lord by the Spirit will free us from a lot of these silly things that bind us.
[00:06:39] The Significance of Head Covering as a Sign unfortunately, many people approach this subject of covering by taking the matter of sisters first, and this entirely puts everyone off, particularly the sisters. We have gone the other way around and seen the whole subject as a tremendous thing, far, far bigger than any physical difference between men and women, even in the church.
[00:07:06] Now we come to this question as to whether in fact it is true to say that sisters are meant to be a divinely constituted and divinely given sign in the church. To this vitally important truth, we have a number of signs which testify to and express certain truths. For instance, we are all well aware of the sign that we see every Sunday morning and at other times when the Lord so leads us of the bread and the wine. We are quite clear that the bread speaks of something. It has significance. It signifies something. We are quite clear that the wine signifies something. There is a testimony within the bread itself and the wine itself to something far, far greater than either the bre or the wine, something universal in its significance and meaning. We are all well aware of baptism. When people go down into the waters of baptism and are immersed in the water, we know that it is a symbol.
[00:08:03] Baptism itself does nothing. The waters are not magical. There is nothing supernatural about it. But in the simple ceremony there is a sign. Something is signified. The death and burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is set forth.
[00:08:21] The laying on of hands is a sign.
[00:08:23] It covers a whole number of things in Scripture, but in it there is a sign. There is a significance of identification with the body or with the church and with the risen head as other members lay hands on us.
[00:08:37] Anointing with oil when we are sick is another sign.
[00:08:41] The oil does not do anything.
[00:08:44] Many centuries ago, Zwingli, in a famous sermon in Zurich, said, better keep your oil for Salad dressing. If you think that it is going to do anything to you.
[00:08:54] He was talking about extreme unction. And the doctrine of rushing oil to someone who is dying. So that they may get into the kingdom. But he said, better have it on your salad. If you think that there is anything supernatural in the oil.
[00:09:08] However, the anointing of the sick person with oil is a sign. It signifies something. It is. It signifies the health and soundness and wholeness. That there is for us in the life of God, in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in life through the Spirit of God.
[00:09:26] In many senses, marriage is a sign. It signifies something much more than just two people coming together. And the creation of a family and a new home. Something more is signified.
[00:09:38] I think we are all well aware of these signs. We have no argument about that. The point we are making is that it has been given by God to the sisters. In their very constitution, their behavior, their attitude and their dress. To be the perpetual reminder to the whole church. Of one of the most important truths in the Word of God.
[00:10:00] I find it very sad if sisters opt out of such a testimony.
[00:10:05] I find it extremely sad when sisters jam some hat upon their head. Without any understanding at all as to what it means.
[00:10:12] There is no glory in that.
[00:10:15] There is no real significance in just obeying a regulation. Any more than there is in someone who is not really saved. Thinking that the waters and the rite itself will do something.
[00:10:26] So obviously just wearing a hat, as some say in obedience. Is not going to get us very far.
[00:10:33] But, oh, how wonderful it is when this matter is understood not only by the sisters, but by the brothers.
[00:10:42] Brothers don't always help the sisters in this matter at all. Because they don't understand.
[00:10:47] They often think it is just a question of women shutting up and being obedient. Therefore, they ought to wear a hat in that context and meaning. So you get the old battle of the sexes brought into the church. With all the deep bitterness that comes from it.
[00:11:01] Freud was right, of course, when he said. One of the deepest things in human life. Is the battle between the sexes.
[00:11:09] It is often very deep and very hidden. We don't often talk about it. But even within the people of God. There is this deep seated battle, bitterness, rebellion, and many other things that come from it.
[00:11:22] This ought not to be.
[00:11:24] We are free, we are delivered. We are the people of God. And in that sense there should be none of that at all.
[00:11:33] All that we have studied on this matter of covering. Is summed up and expressed in this sign. In the most remarkable way.
[00:11:40] But it is not just to do with head covering. It goes far deeper than that.
[00:11:45] The sister is a sign in her constitution, not just in the hat that she wears or whatever she may put on her head.
[00:11:54] On few subjects has there been produced so much perplexity, misunderstanding, and in many instances, so much bondage and bitterness.
[00:12:04] I cannot think of any subject quite like this matter.
[00:12:08] I know that there are many subjects that cause tremendous difficulty and complexity. But I can think of no subject that is more perplexing to many sisters in particular than this matter.
[00:12:19] Certainly the most extraordinary and contradictory teachings have been deduced from these scriptures that we have read.
[00:12:26] There are theories of adjustment and theories of accommodation whereby you start off with something and fit the Scripture into that mould.
[00:12:35] The 20th century says so. And so in the society we live in, therefore the Scripture cannot say this. There must be something wrong.
[00:12:44] Many theories of adjustment have been propounded on the most weak and sometimes false facts.
[00:12:50] I have heard the most amazing theories propounded on these Scriptures.
[00:12:54] It is not unlike the enemy to have sought to obscure a glorious truth and a glorious privilege.
[00:13:01] If this is a truth in which there is glory and a privilege that has been gloriously given to some of us, then we can understand Satan coming in. He has done so with the Lord's table, with baptism, with so many things so as to obscure the truth and to make it so perplexing and so complex that we almost throw up our hands in despair and abandon it altogether.
[00:13:25] Satan has sought to turn light into darkness.
[00:13:29] On the one hand, there are people who tell me that it is deliverance to throw away your hat, turning light into darkness.
[00:13:36] On the other hand, we find a whole section of the church has been pushed into the most abject bondage and misery by this kind of teaching. Turning light into darkness, turning privilege into bondage, turning testimony into misery.
[00:13:51] I say all that because many folks, especially the ladies, cannot approach this subject without deep seated prejudices and bias.
[00:13:59] I suppose there is no century in which it is more difficult for the ladies to approach this subject without prejudice and bias than in this day of women's lib. But here it is. We've got to face the word of God. Is the word of God.
[00:14:16] False conceptions about head covering?
[00:14:21] There are a number of false conceptions from which we need to be delivered.
[00:14:26] By searching the word of God and looking to the Lord, we are going to seek to find what the Lord really has to say.
[00:14:33] Here are what I consider to be some of the false conceptions about this.
[00:14:39] The woman is inferior.
[00:14:42] The woman is not an equal partner either in marriage or in the church. She is inferior. And indeed the whole implication is that she is to be servile. She needs to be seen, but not heard.
[00:14:54] That is a fallacy. It approaches heresy. You have only to think for a moment to recognize that a woman's soul and a woman's personality are as valuable as that of any man. There is no second class citizen in the kingdom of God.
[00:15:10] Out of this comes much of the bitterness, the prejudice and the bias against this whole subject.
[00:15:16] And Christian gentlemen have not always helped the sisters in this matter.
[00:15:21] It has often been put over in such a way that the sisters deep seated suspicion that they are being told that they are unequal and inferior is supposed to be founded in the word of God. But it is nowhere found in the word of God. That is the first thing and the most important, because out of this has come all the bitterness and trouble on this whole matter.
[00:15:44] Private prayer or sisters meeting.
[00:15:48] But every woman praying or prophesying with her head unveiled dishonoureth her head, for it is one and the same thing as if she were shaven.
[00:16:01] We are told that this is not a church meeting. This is obviously private prayer, or it is a sisters prayer meeting.
[00:16:09] This has no Foundation.
[00:16:11] In 1 Corinthians, the apostle is dealing with church matters and church gatherings.
[00:16:17] He is speaking about the contribution of both men and women in the gathering of the church.
[00:16:22] For this reason, in some circles a sister's hat is hardly ever removed.
[00:16:28] I remember some years ago my sister went to stay with a rather strict group down in Cornwall, where, to her amazement, the ladies went into the sea with their bathing costumes without at any point removing their hats.
[00:16:41] Then, to her even deeper amazement, she found the dear sister at the cooker with her hat on.
[00:16:47] She said quite honestly and sincerely, from pure motive, well, I might be praying.
[00:16:53] This is very interesting because in Orthodox Jewish circles, this is why Orthodox Jewish men keep something on their heads the whole time, lest at any given moment they might pray and be caught out by heaven.
[00:17:07] Rather than do that, they have a little black thing on the back of the head which stays there permanently. Even when they take their hat off, that has no foundation either. It is another thing that is a false conception.
[00:17:24] First century customs, we are told the veil had to do with married women and that it corresponded to the wedding ring. Therefore, if you have a wedding ring, you can remove your hat. For the spinsters this is rather sad, but for the married ladies you can remove your hat because your wedding ring is your covering.
[00:17:45] This is fallacious.
[00:17:47] Maybe in certain quarters there was such a thing, but never in Jewish circles. In fact, it was the unmarried girls that always wore the veil and the married ones who could more easily discard it.
[00:18:00] They never did discard it. It is quite the other way.
[00:18:04] This is a theory of adjustment, and we have got to be very careful. There is no ground for it. It is not even a weak fact. It is a false fact.
[00:18:14] Then the false conception which I was brought up on was that in Corinth the loose women of the streets never wore a veil. The apostle was so afraid that the Christian ladies would be thought of as women of the street that he said all this.
[00:18:29] In other words, it is only to do with the first century. It has nothing to do with us today.
[00:18:35] This is perfectly true. But does the apostle really mean this? To go to such lengths? Why doesn't he simply say, you know that all around you there are these kind of ladies. You cannot do this kind of thing?
[00:18:48] Why does he say, because of the angels?
[00:18:52] The same people who say it belongs to the first century tell us they believed in the first century that angels were present at their worship.
[00:19:00] So now we find that a whole passage has absolutely no relevance to any other century than the first two.
[00:19:06] Where do we end? Shall we throw baptism out? Shall we throw other things out? Where do we end on such a thing?
[00:19:14] There are many other things that are said on this matter of first century custom about it being old fashioned and antiquarian. We are told that in those days the ladies were veiled from head to foot, that you saw absolutely nothing.
[00:19:29] It is true, of course, that in parts of the world where women and the position of women were degraded and devalued, they were so veiled.
[00:19:37] But it has been one of the glories of Jewish history that never in its history, except when they came from Paddan Aram, which was not really looked upon in quite the same way.
[00:19:48] Did Jewish women ever have their faces veiled? Their heads were veiled, but never their faces. It is a weak or false fact upon which a tremendous amount is built. The whole thing is an argument about ladies being swathed in a black veil from head to foot, out of which there were two peepholes.
[00:20:08] Of course, some people who visited the east saw Bedouin ladies with this black thing all over them with two little slits and all sorts of coins, and said, now that is what it was like in the old days when the Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Corinthians.
[00:20:23] It is absolute nonsense, a sign of spirituality.
[00:20:31] I wish I could believe that Spirituality could be so quickly acquired.
[00:20:36] The tragedy of it, for some of us who rebelled against this whole matter when we were younger. Is that it was thought the older the hat and the more dowdy the appearance, the more spiritual the sister.
[00:20:48] I remember when we were young, sitting behind some sisters in certain conferences, wanting to push back the pins in their bun. It was sticking out all over. A kind of unkempt, careless attitude. And this was supposed to be spirituality.
[00:21:03] No wonder people have reacted against something like that. That is entirely false. Putting a hat on no more makes a person spiritual than does anything else outward.
[00:21:17] A sign that the church is a man's world.
[00:21:21] This is wickedly untrue. The sisters do not have to speak to have a very great influence in the church.
[00:21:28] Sometimes when sisters speak too much, they lose their influence.
[00:21:32] God has so positioned us, so constituted us as men and women. That women can influence things very, very greatly. By just being quiet and just being women.
[00:21:43] The old saying is, behind every man stands a great woman.
[00:21:48] Sisters have a tremendous influence. And it is only when women are insecure that they have to throw their weight around. They have to tell people to do this and that. They have to jump in and tell people when they are wrong.
[00:22:04] The hat is only to be worn at the Lord's table.
[00:22:09] I was always amazed. In some of the places I went to, none of the sisters wore a hat at all.
[00:22:15] But suddenly, at the Lord's table, from the depths of portmanteau and trunks, wicker hats appeared. Everyone came with a hat.
[00:22:23] I have seen this often when we've been on holiday and elsewhere. The people seem to think the Lord's table is the meeting of the church. So you wear a hat for that. But at other gatherings you can choose.
[00:22:36] Then again, if you move into a house for a church gathering, you don't have to wear a thing.
[00:22:41] This just reveals our conception of the church.
[00:22:44] And there is a variation of this idea that you only have to wear something on your head when you pray or prophesy.
[00:22:51] I call that a misconception.
[00:22:55] The testimony of brothers.
[00:22:59] In what way are the sisters a sign in the church to this matter of covering?
[00:23:04] Perhaps we will begin to see this matter more clearly if we first take a look at the brothers.
[00:23:10] The whole problem is that everyone thinks that the woman is the sign.
[00:23:14] But if we look at the brothers first to see what they signify, we shall see much more clearly what the sister's significance or testimony is.
[00:23:24] The man represents Christ as the image of God.
[00:23:28] For a man indeed ought not to have his head veiled. Forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God. But the woman is the glory of the man.
[00:23:40] A man ought not to cover his head, for he represents the very person and glory of God. JB Phillips the fact of the man's head being uncovered was the sensational thing in Paul's day.
[00:23:54] I do wish everyone could get hold of this. There was absolutely no question about women having their heads covered. They had always had their heads covered.
[00:24:03] But the fact was, up to that point, men had their heads covered as well. They had the prayer shawl. No child of God under the old covenant would ever come before God without drawing the prayer shawl over his head.
[00:24:18] Most of them wore something on their heads, especially the Pharisee, all the time.
[00:24:23] When the priests went into the presence of the Lord, they never took those hats off.
[00:24:28] They had to be carefully clothed with special hats headwear. What did it all mean?
[00:24:35] It was sensational when the early Christian men uncovered their heads and stood before God, praying and worshipping and contributing in the gatherings of the people without something on their heads.
[00:24:47] It was only in pagan worship that they ever uncovered their heads in that way.
[00:24:53] The prayer shawl or the hat was a sign that there was a veil between God and man. Something blocked heaven, the heaven above the man and the woman's head was closed.
[00:25:04] The covering on the head was a sign of that.
[00:25:08] But he is to pray or prophesy with his head uncovered. The veil is gone, torn in two. Heaven is opened above him. Sin has been dealt with by Christ.
[00:25:20] He is the only one who inherently had an open heaven.
[00:25:24] Remember when heaven opened at his this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
[00:25:34] Heaven had never opened to a human being before, but it opened to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:25:40] The man is a sign of the Lord Jesus Christ, upon whom there is an open heaven, who has dealt with our sin and torn away the veil.
[00:25:50] In the early days of the church, that was sensational. It was so sensational that the sisters said, aren't we included? This is so marvelous. This is so absolutely wonderful to see all the brothers standing there without anything on their heads. It thrills us.
[00:26:06] Why can't we throw off the veil as well? We are all one. We are all saved.
[00:26:12] This is the whole point of why the apostle Paul had to write to them and say, don't do it, don't do it. The men signify something and you sisters, signify something else. If you disregard this difference, you will lose something very, very precious. The woman represents the church, not Christ.
[00:26:31] She represents the Church as the glory of Christ.
[00:26:36] It says in this passage, the woman is the glory of the man.
[00:26:40] The woman represents the church as the glory of Christ, his fullness, who filleth all in all.
[00:26:48] The men have the privilege of reminding all of us brothers and sisters that Christ has an open heaven. The veil is gone. And the sisters have this wonderful privilege of saying before us all, we are the church in ourselves. We have no open heaven, but we have an open heaven in Christ.
[00:27:07] So don't let any of us who are saved think we are something in ourselves. Heaven open to us because of what we are.
[00:27:15] We often think that having been saved by his grace, we can persuade God to bless us through our good works.
[00:27:23] No, the sister is the perpetual reminder that the only way the church has communication with heaven is. Is through her head, through the Lord Jesus. She is taken out of him. Her place is to be together with him, to be part of him, to be his complement.
[00:27:44] Eve taken out of Adam.
[00:27:47] This is why the passage we read in Genesis 2 is fundamental to this whole matter and also why the passage we read in Ephesians 5 throws so much light on this whole thing.
[00:27:59] Why did God do this with Adam?
[00:28:01] It begins in Genesis 2 with this.
[00:28:05] And there was found no help meet for him.
[00:28:08] Immediately afterwards, God produced all the animals of the field, brought them all before Adam, and said, adam, would you name these creatures?
[00:28:17] I used to think when I was first saved, that was the strangest way of doing things. Why didn't God name them since he had created them?
[00:28:26] We would call this a rhinoceros, and we would call this an orangutan, and we would call this a giraffe and so on. But no, it was man who had to do it. What was God doing?
[00:28:37] He was trying to make Adam realize that he was not complete, that it was only half of him there.
[00:28:44] Actually, the other part was in him, and God had to get it out.
[00:28:48] So he put him to sleep.
[00:28:51] There wasn't a single one of those creatures that Adam could live with. He looked at them all and named them. And they trotted or loped off. But there wasn't a single one. Not even the orangutan that I am told is supposed to be man's great ancestor. That he felt, well, now there is nothing else. Perhaps I will settle down with her.
[00:29:10] But never.
[00:29:12] So God put him to sleep, opened his side, took out bone, and fashioned woman.
[00:29:18] Woman was a creation of God, just as man was.
[00:29:22] Then he woke Adam and said, here, now. Adam didn't say, oh, this is such and such we would call it such and such. He said, this is entirely different. This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. I can feel it. This is my other half. I will call her woman because she has been taken out of man.
[00:29:42] The two belonged to each other.
[00:29:46] This is a picture of what God did with our Lord Jesus.
[00:29:50] Do you remember that extraordinary statement of John the Apostle when he told of the soldier who stood by the Lord Jesus when he died? When he fell asleep, the soldier ran the spear into his side and forthwith there came out blood and water. And John made so much of it. He said, I who stood by bear witness to this, and my witness is true.
[00:30:14] Then he emphasized it again.
[00:30:16] He was trying to tell us that the blood and water has produced something out of the open side of the dead. Christ, people say, oh, but it is redemption. Yes, of course. But the redemption was already ours. There was no need to open his side.
[00:30:34] The opening of his side was to make us understand what God did with Adam when he took Eve out of him through the blood and through the water. God has taken an elect people for himself.
[00:30:47] When the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, it was just as if God was presenting a church to him.
[00:30:53] And he said, this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called the church because she has been taken out of me.
[00:31:03] When you understand that, you begin to understand the whole matter of covering.
[00:31:09] I remember a dear brother, in almost the last message he ever gave, saying that Eve was taken out of Adam. And there was a sense in which he always felt that the only place of security and safety for her was when she pressed back into his side.
[00:31:24] While she was pressed into his side, she was secure and safe. She was covered.
[00:31:33] The Church's safety in Christ, some of the sisters say, why should we have to do that? But the fact of the matter is, it is a picture of the church.
[00:31:45] Do you think the Lord Jesus has to flee to the Church for security and safety?
[00:31:51] Think of it like that. Do you think he has to appeal to us to enclose and protect him, to keep him? Of course not.
[00:31:59] When we see it in spiritual terms, immediately the whole thing falls into place. We begin to see that the place of the church is to be hid with Christ, to be concealed by him, to be hedged in by him, to be enclosed by him, to be protected by him, to be overlaid.
[00:32:18] It is not just by the woman's head covering, but in her very constitution, her very behavior, her very outlook, her very attitude, and also her dress that she is to be the sign in the church of this tremendous truth.
[00:32:33] She is to remind all the brothers as well as the sisters that the only safety we have is to be pressed into the side of Christ.
[00:32:42] O Lamb of God, still keep me close to Thy wounded side.
[00:32:47] Tis only there in safety and peace I can abide.
[00:32:53] Some people seem to think this matter of wearing a hat or something on the head is just something for sisters to remind them all to be subject to shut up. But it is not that. It is far, far greater than that.
[00:33:06] Do you think that the angels are so bothered?
[00:33:09] No, there is something far greater than that.
[00:33:13] The significance of the woman's dress and of her behaviour, of the fact that she is a sign, is to remind the whole church that their only safety is in Christ. They have come out of Christ and their safety is in Him.
[00:33:27] The woman's testimony is Only in Christ is there an open heaven. Only in him is there no more veil.
[00:33:36] Only in dependence on him is there safety outside of Him. Destruction.
[00:33:45] What? Head covering signifies the supremacy and centrality of Christ.
[00:33:54] For a man indeed ought not to have his head veiled 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. For neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man.
[00:34:12] 1 Corinthians 11:79.
[00:34:16] Translate this immediately in the light of Genesis 2 and Ephesians 5 into spiritual terms and you have it.
[00:34:24] Christ was not created for us, we were created for Him.
[00:34:29] We came out of him and have been created for him, and we are his glory.
[00:34:35] So the sister is a testimony to the supremacy and centrality of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:34:42] In a sense she reminds all of us, brothers as well, that the Lord Jesus is everything.
[00:34:48] We have come out of Him. That is our origin, our source, the source of our salvation, the Source of our life, the Source of our well being and the source of our fulfillment is Him.
[00:35:02] We have been created for him, to please him, to satisfy him, and to be a joy to Him.
[00:35:08] We are his glory.
[00:35:10] It is all understood when we see it as Christ and the Church. And this is exactly what Ephesians 5 tries to tell us.
[00:35:18] It states quite clearly that this whole matter is something much more than husbands and wives or man and woman. It is the Church.
[00:35:26] The Church is to be subject to Christ. The wives subjection to their husbands is a picture of something.
[00:35:33] We get such unhappy ideas about subjection as if it is servility, as if it means that there is no possibility of communication, no possibility of expression, and no possibility of mutual fellowship. Oh, the ideas, the bitterness that have come into this matter.
[00:35:51] It is so tragic.
[00:35:54] We know that the Church is Christ's inheritance. It is spoken of his inheritance in the saints in light.
[00:36:02] That is why we have to emphasize so much this tremendous matter of the building of the Church, because it is his inheritance, it is his bride.
[00:36:11] When you think of it like that, you begin to understand the significance of this testimony to Christ as being everything.
[00:36:18] The Church looks upon him as all and in all.
[00:36:22] Remember then what covering means to conceal, to hedge in, to to enclose, to protect, to overlay in Christ, concealed in him, enclosed in him, hedged in by him, protected by him, covered by him, overlaid by him, abiding in Him.
[00:36:43] There is the testimony.
[00:36:45] Every time the sister takes her place in the gathering of the church, she ought to be a shining sign to this.
[00:36:52] All of you are in Christ.
[00:36:54] There is no dowdiness here, no crumpled old hats here. There is something wonderful about this. It is glorious. It is absolutely marvellous. Look everyone, I don't have to say a single word. I am preaching a sermon by my presence. Here I am to you all an encouragement and a warning.
[00:37:17] The mediatorship of Christ.
[00:37:21] The woman's head covered signifies that there is no open heaven except in Christ and through Christ.
[00:37:28] Again, there is something marvelous in this testimony. She is reminding us continually of this one.
[00:37:36] Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one cometh unto the Father but by Me.
[00:37:47] Did you know, sisters, that you are a testimony to that? When you put something on your head, you are simply saying there is no open heaven except through Him. The veil is not rent except through Him. There is no way except through Him. There is no truth except through Him. There is no reality except through Him. There is no life except through Him. There is no experience except through Him.
[00:38:13] There is no way to the Father except through Him.
[00:38:18] When you begin to understand this wonderful scripture, for there is one mediator between God and men himself. Man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all. 1 Timothy 3:5, 6.
[00:38:33] Then you know that this testimony is something that the angels are very interested in.
[00:38:38] When they see it disregarded and despised, there is a shock.
[00:38:42] How can that be? That those folks there just disregard this? Of course the motive is right. But why do they disregard it? Why don't they at least inquire there is shock in heaven if the kind of testimony we don't even realize we are bearing is saying Christ is not supreme, he is not central, and he is not all. We have an open heaven in ourselves. We have a right to it.
[00:39:07] If a sister were to think we are speaking for ourselves as sisters, the brothers have a right to an open heaven, but not we sisters. This is nonsense. They are speaking for the whole and saying there is no way through except this.
[00:39:23] In Christ there is absolute safety, absolute security, absolute provision, absolute victory and absolute fulfillment.
[00:39:33] This is what the testimony of this mediatorship really means.
[00:39:37] It is not just that Christ stands between us and God. That is one tremendous cornerstone, but it is more than that.
[00:39:45] He is the means by which we are fulfilled, the means by which the will of God and purpose of God are fulfilled and realized in our lives.
[00:39:53] The means by which, through the Holy Spirit, all the fullness of God comes to us and we are complete in Him.
[00:40:01] What a wonderful privilege to remind everyone every time. Look here, everyone. I don't have to say a word. I am preaching a sermon. I am declaring something through my very presence here.
[00:40:15] Outside of him, there is nothing but harm, danger and destruction. You would immediately see that there is no way of getting to God except through Jesus Christ. Do you know that?
[00:40:26] But how slowly we learn it.
[00:40:28] People are trying to get fullness of the Spirit.
[00:40:31] They are trying to get holiness. They are trying to get this and trying to get that apart from Christ, as if it is an experience in itself.
[00:40:40] But this testimony is virtually saying that it is impossible.
[00:40:45] Only harm, counterfeit and superficial experience can come that way.
[00:40:52] The headship of Christ.
[00:40:56] 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.
[00:41:08] For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the Savior of the body.
[00:41:17] Ephesians 5:23.
[00:41:21] The authority of Christ, the name of Christ, and the relationship to him, is what is testified to in this matter.
[00:41:29] When a woman marries a man, she takes his name. And when you and I are saved, God gave us the name of Jesus. We were named with the name of Jesus Christ so that we can pray in his name, we can gather in his name, and whatsoever we do, we do in his name.
[00:41:46] It is not that we tack it on the end all the time. That could be an empty little epithet. Some people use the name of Jesus as if it is just a charm and then cannot understand why something does not happen.
[00:42:00] But it is the inward truth behind the use of that name, which is the thing that matters when you pray in the name of Jesus. What are you saying?
[00:42:09] You are saying, I am in him, Father. I am married to him. I belong to him. I am one with Him.
[00:42:17] The sister is to remind us of the headship of Jesus Christ, the authority of Christ, and our relationship to Him.
[00:42:25] She is to remind us all that there is only one Lord, one mind, one will, and one way in the Church.
[00:42:32] She is simply to remind us that we don't do what other people think, but only what the head says.
[00:42:39] Covering is being obedient to the Lord. Uncovering is getting out of his will, divine order and distinctions.
[00:42:51] 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 dishonoureth his head. But every woman praying or prophesying with her head unveiled dishonoureth her head. For it is one and the same thing as if she were shaven.
[00:43:14] 1 Corinthians 11:3 5.
[00:43:19] There is a distinction made between men and women. It has nothing to do with inequality or inferiority, but it has all to do with the difference of function and of gift.
[00:43:30] God has made men and women different, and we live in days when that difference is being obscured.
[00:43:36] We live in days of what is called unisex.
[00:43:39] You cannot imagine anything more diametrically opposed and contradictory to the mind of God.
[00:43:45] Nature itself teaches us that men and women are different.
[00:43:49] So why try to abolish the difference?
[00:43:52] We have been constituted physically different. We have been constituted mentally different, and we are complementary to each other.
[00:44:00] The whole question of divine order and distinction is simply God has placed us in a different way, men and women, husbands and wives, and so on. There is a difference in function and there is difference in gift.
[00:44:14] In one sense, you could say there is difference in position, but there is absolute equality.
[00:44:21] There can be neither Jew nor Greek. There can be neither bond nor free. There can be no male and female, for ye are one man in Christ Jesus.
[00:44:35] There is the absolute equality of every saved soul. Neither male nor female. But we are still male and female. And as such we have an essential part to play in the church.
[00:44:47] This is something that all of us have to ask the Lord to help us over. Because we are living in days when the whole pressure of society and its teaching is to destroy the distinctions in the home and in every other part of society.
[00:45:00] They cannot be disregarded.
[00:45:03] What is this testimony about divine order?
[00:45:06] I know of no subject over which people can get so easily uncovered as the matter of divine order. It is the easiest thing in the world to disregard divine order, to contradict divine order.
[00:45:18] When we come up against the flesh and blood, we get our eyes so filled with the flesh and blood that it is the easiest thing in the world to lash out at them and then to find out afterwards that we have come right up against divine order.
[00:45:32] We have come into collision with something which is divinely ordained and appointed of God.
[00:45:38] Therefore God takes it up. When that happens, there is uncovering.
[00:45:44] We went through the Old Testament seeing example after example of this very kind of thing, the setting aside of divine order.
[00:45:53] We read of Korah, Dothan, Abiram, Miriam, Aaron, and case after case given to us as examples of this very thing for our instruction upon whom the end of the ages have come.
[00:46:06] It is so easy to do it. We can do it in the home, we can do it at work, we can do it in society.
[00:46:13] For the magistrate is as God to us, as the scripture says.
[00:46:18] Remember when the Apostle Paul said to the magistrate who happened to be the high priest, whited wall, tottering wall.
[00:46:27] The guard who stood by struck him on the face and said, do you dare to speak to the high priest, the magistrate?
[00:46:34] And when the apostle, who had bad sight recognized him, he said, I am very sorry. I didn't realize it was he.
[00:46:42] The fact was that the high priest was a tottering wall. But he had contradicted divine order, and he apologized for it.
[00:46:50] The question is so tremendously important, I do not know how to cover it, except to say that it goes far deeper than just a question of position in the church.
[00:47:01] In 1 Corinthians 12 we are told there is diversity in unity.
[00:47:06] It is not a question of inequality, it is a question of diversity.
[00:47:11] This one is this. This one is that. The other is this.
[00:47:16] God has set some in the church, this, that, and the other.
[00:47:19] This whole matter of the wearing of something on the head is a testimony to divine order.
[00:47:24] It is not in itself so important as if God wants his people to wear something on the head, as if he wants 2/3 of those who make up the church to always be permanently covered.
[00:47:36] There is something deeper. The sisters remind us of divine order in all things.
[00:47:45] The mystery of covering.
[00:47:48] For this cause ought the woman to have a sign of authority on her head because of the angels?
[00:47:54] 1 Corinthians 11:10.
[00:47:58] If for no other reason, we ought to stop and reflect deeply on this phrase because of the angels, is it not an evidence that there is no fear of God in us? If we can chuck overboard a whole passage with something like that in the midst of it. I would have thought that one phrase would have halted even the most fearless, and at least to make them think again.
[00:48:20] This whole matter has much more in it than something physical, or even something only to do with things visible. It somehow affects the angels.
[00:48:30] How does it affect the angels?
[00:48:32] I can only say that the whole subject is lifted by this phrase onto another level, something of which we need to take a more serious note.
[00:48:41] We touch the mystery of covering, the whole mystery of it.
[00:48:45] Somehow it affects the unseen world, the unseen host, fallen and unfallen. It affects principalities and powers, because it is not just merely to do with people wearing something on the head. It is the significance of it. It is what that action signifies.
[00:49:04] We ought Also to note two things mentioned in 1 Corinthians 11, verses 2 to 16, which are often confused.
[00:49:13] On the one hand, we have the hair, also called the woman's glory, and secondly, we have the veil or covering, also called authority on the head.
[00:49:25] These two things are often confused because of the statement of the apostle in verse 15 that the hair is her covering.
[00:49:33] Now another Greek word altogether is used there in that connection.
[00:49:38] This is what I mean by weak or false facts. People read the authorised version, which used the same word covering all the way through, and then they say, oh, well, now it is quite clear. I don't quite understand it, but it seems that the hair is the covering. But it does not say that.
[00:49:56] Professor Bruce, in his paraphrase, inserts the word the hair is her natural covering.
[00:50:03] The apostle's argument is because the hair is the natural covering, it needs to be covered.
[00:50:09] Now you think that is a very strange and almost irrational argument, isn't it?
[00:50:14] He goes on to say that if she does not have something on the head, let her cut off all her hair.
[00:50:21] Therefore the thing he is arguing for is that if she has got long hair, let her wear something on it.
[00:50:28] Do you remember the scripture we Read in Isaiah 4, verse 5, over all the glory, a covering, it is mystery, and I cannot explain it. I only know that the hair of the woman is called her glory. And the authority on the head, the word sign is not there is that there is something covering it.
[00:50:48] There is a token as a covering, something that signifies we are touching divine and eternal mystery. And this is what the sister reminds us of.
[00:51:00] There is something here beyond us.
[00:51:02] We believers have been introduced into a sphere which we don't fully comprehend or understand.
[00:51:09] In Christ we are safe, we are covered in him.
[00:51:13] But beware that we are all really abiding in him.
[00:51:17] That is really the significance of it. It is the sister's privilege, by her presence, by her attitude, by her dress, to remind all of us concerning this vitally important matter of covering. She is an encouragement to the whole church, an exhortation to the whole church, a comfort to the whole church, to every one of us to take his or her position in Christ and praise the Lord, come before the Lord and intercede before the Lord.
[00:51:47] On the other hand, she is a solemn warning and reminder of the danger of being uncovered or getting uncovered.
[00:51:55] When most people come into a Christian gathering, they bow their heads.
[00:51:59] What do you say?
[00:52:01] It is so empty in some cases that I have known people who said, lord, for what we are about to receive, make us truly grateful.
[00:52:09] It is because they are not thinking.
[00:52:11] Next time you see a sister there with something upon her head, bow your head and say, lord, I take my place in Christ.
[00:52:19] Here I am in him, clothed with the garments of salvation.
[00:52:24] I trust that all the sisters will be lifted so entirely out of bondage in this matter that their faces will shine under those hats and so help everyone to really rejoice in the Lord.
[00:52:36] There is nothing more terrible than this awful bondage and rebellion.
[00:52:41] What is the point of wearing a hat if it is something like that?
[00:52:46] I do not wish to be cheap. But what would you think of the Lord's table if the bread was mouldy? You would be shocked. You would think, we know it is a sign and there is not much in the sign itself. But shouldn't we all be careful?
[00:52:59] That goes for the brothers too.
[00:53:01] How we need to be careful so that we really are a testimony to the Lord.
[00:53:06] There is something very wonderful in this whole matter.
[00:53:10] Only God can throw more light upon it, because a study like this can create as many problems as it seeks to solve.
[00:53:18] But by opening up the whole matter, and with our openness of heart and spirit and the word of God and the Holy Spirit as our guide and teacher, we can search out the Scriptures. Whether these things be so, the Lord help us all, above everything else, to be covered, not just physically covered, but truly inwardly covered by abiding in Him.
[00:53:41] Shall we pray our Father? We need divine enlightenment. It is so easy to do something because someone says it ought to be done, or because we feel that everyone else does it.
[00:53:55] But our prayer, beloved Lord, is that there may come to us divine enlightenment and we may begin to understand that there is more in this whole matter than perhaps we ever realized.
[00:54:07] O Lord, tackle anything that is just rebellious or dark or. Or bound or dead.
[00:54:13] Grant, we pray, that the glorious privilege of being in any way a testimony may come to each one of us.
[00:54:21] We pray for the sisters, Lord, that they may truly be a testimony. And we pray for the brothers that they also may be a true testimony.
[00:54:31] Help us then, in this matter, we pray.
[00:54:34] We ask it together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:54:38] Amen.
[00:54:43] In the sea Washes over the throne.
