This sermon emphasizes the importance of maintaining God's divine order, particularly in the church, highlighting the significance of head covering as a symbol of submission to Christ's authority. It delves into the historical context of how divine order was established in a community of believers and the challenges faced in upholding this order. The message stresses the need for both brothers and sisters to keep their heads covered under Christ's headship, with sisters wearing a physical head covering as a public testimony of their submission to God's authority.

Good morning, family, and good morning, saints. Good morning, the house of God. We are all these things in Christ. It's good to be together this morning. We had a meeting last night, a family meeting. I thought it was very encouraging for me. I hope so for the rest of you. And that scripture keeps coming back to me, you know. Remember not the former things nor the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. And we do hope that the Lord will do a new thing, not in the sense that it has to be absolutely new. Sometimes the Lord has to recover something that we had a long time ago and to bring it forth. I'm kind of hoping that's what the Lord will do this morning on this matter of head covering. Now, a lot of you sisters have your heads covered this morning with the sign on top of your head of authority. Some don't. And I guess many sisters probably may be wondering, what is the significance of this matter of the physical covering of the head? Is it really important? Is it significant? And this morning, I hope the Lord will really show us the glory of what head covering is, what it is, meaning of being under his absolute authority and headship. And so as we go into this subject this morning, I just want to open with a word of prayer. Lord, we do come under your headship and authority this morning. Lord, we do recognize you as our head in life as well as in the church, Lord. We do recognize your authority this morning. Lord, in no way do I want to misrepresent you, your government, your order, or, Lord, the life that you've given to us. Lord, I want you to be able to express what's on your heart this morning to all of us that we might see the glory of God's divine order, the glory of being under the headship of Jesus Christ. We just pray, Lord, that you will give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation this morning, that, Lord, we do not want to in any way enter into a religious activity or take up a religious symbol, but, Lord, we want to truly honor our head, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, the first surprise I have is I'm going to be reading from Darby. And if y'all been around a long time, you know I'm a King James guy. But I tried to find a translation that I thought was as close to the Greek as I could. Actually, I like weas very much, but I knew, I don't think we got weas on that. So we're going with Darby this morning. First Corinthians 11, verse 1. First Corinthians 11, verse 1, and we're going to go through verse 10 into 11. Be my imitators, this is Paul speaking to the Corinthians, be my imitators even as I also am of Christ. Now, I praise you that in all things you are mindful of me, and that as I have directed you, you do keep the directions. But I wish you to know, and this is very important, he wants them to know this, Christ is the head of every man. But woman's head is the man, and Christ's head is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having anything on his head, puts his head to shame. But every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered, puts her own head to shame. For it is one and the same as a shaved woman, or having her head shaved. For if a woman is not covered, let her hair also be cut off. But if it be shameful to a woman to have her hair cut off or to be shaved, let her be covered. For man indeed ought not to have his head covered, being God's image and glory. That's speaking of in the church. But the woman's is man's glory. For man is not of woman, but woman of man. For also man was not created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man. Therefore ought the woman to have authority, or that side of authority, on her head on account of angels. Okay, as you read that, it can seem very legalistic, doesn't it? But it's not at all. This matter of head covering is meant to be a sign of the reality of Christ's authority being effective in your life and in the life of the church. It has a much greater meaning than just taking a symbol. Well anyway, on this matter of head covering, it's very interesting. On October 1st, 1972, my dear brother Kenny and I for the first time met at Lou Ellen Miller's house to hear our brother Stephen Conn. And for the first time in my life, and I thank Kenny's as well, the Lord opened our eyes. It electrified our lives that night as we discovered that Christ is the head of a body, that he has a body, a living organic body, and that body is the church. The church is not an organization, it was an organism. I cannot tell you how that opened my life and my heart to the Lord. And I know that both Kenny and I, I think from that very time, we had a passion that we would not only follow the Lord Jesus Christ and do it together, but that we would enter in to this matter of being the body of Christ, that it might become a passion of ours, that the Lord would have what he wanted in this body of Christ. That was October 1st, 1972. Interesting enough, exactly one year later, on October 1st, 1973, our brother Stephen shared on divine order. Because at that time, we'd been meeting together for a while, obviously for a year. The sisters had been meeting many years before that, five or six. A little bit of history might be helpful. At that time, we had some sisters in their 40s, I think. It was Lou Ellen Miller, Elsie Prince, Mary Ann Mize, Ray Walker, Ugartha Woods, Marzie Brewington. They had been before the Lord. They had been to a conference in Wabana, New Jersey, and the Lord had opened their eyes to see that very same thing. Christ was after a house. Christ wanted his body to be built up, that he might have that helpmate, that bride, that we see in the book of Revelation. And they came back, and they got together, and they began to pray that the Lord would raise up something in Richmond for himself of what he wanted, organically. And our brother Stephen began to come down. I think in the beginning, he was living in New York. And he would come down once a month, and he would share with these sisters. And they would continue to pray faithfully that the Lord would have what he wanted and to raise up what he wanted. They were, I would have to say, very spiritual sisters in the Lord. In 72, a number of us brothers began to meet there as well. By 1973, our brother Stephen, I remember, he came to a few of us brothers, and he said, you know, brothers, you brothers need to begin to take the lead. I honestly didn't know what he meant, other than he wanted us to be more responsible. I got that. And he went to the sisters and said, sisters, we need to establish God's divine order, that God's divine work might be carried out. And so, they were encouraged to take a more supportive place. Now, you gotta remember, these sisters were in their 40s. Kenny and I were in our 20s. They were quite astounded, astounded, I think, at that time, that the Lord had brought to them some very young brothers, and now, the Lord was asking them to take more of a supportive position. And I have to confess, I think it was very difficult for our sisters to begin to take that more supportive position. But they had it in their heart that they wanted to do what the Lord had asked them to do, and to represent Him on this earth. And so, it was very interesting. They did begin to do that, begin to really pray for us brothers, also, and that we would take up our responsibility. And I have to say, it was a difficult time at times. Some of the times, they were very bothered that we weren't taking up our responsibility as they thought we should, and they told us about it. And you know, but that's part of being supportive, isn't it? They did it in love. It was with a good attitude. So, it was really part of their responsibility. Anyway, the point being, that in order for the God to have what He really wanted in our midst, He needed to establish His divine order in our midst. And like I say, it was a little difficult for a number of years. But praise the Lord, those sisters remained faithful. They continued to pray for us. They continued to be supportive. Yes, they would come to us when they saw issues and issues and problems, but that was okay. And the Lord really touched the hearts of us brothers and said, you know, indeed, we need to be more responsible. So, we began to meet faithfully once a week and we have been doing that for 45 years, once a week to pray concerning the assembly, to share concerning the assembly, to keep the assembly before the Lord's heart. Well, that is kind of a history. Now, when our brother shared in 1973 on divine order, that was the point at which the sisters really were challenged. And us brothers were really challenged. The brothers were really challenged to begin to take up lead. And the sisters really challenged to kind of back off out of the leading position because they had been leading, there's no doubt about it. That's what the Lord had. And that's what the Lord used at that time. I say all of this to emphasize that God's divine order is critical to God completing his work and establishing his work. And we'll get a little more into that in just a moment because I want us to be clear on that. But I wanted to also be clear that in the very early days, this message, once again, I think really electrified our life together. I don't know a better word than electrified. But it really did bring us together. The sisters were praying for us, we were praying for the sisters. And our whole purpose was that the house of God might be built, that his testimony might be strengthened, and that the Lord could have what he wanted. And at that time, honestly, brothers and sisters, we didn't know exactly what the Lord wanted. And that's why we began to search the scriptures. That's why our brother continued to be faithful in coming to Richmond once a month to share with us. And I remember we would listen to his word and it seemed like the Holy Spirit, whatever he was sharing on, particularly out of the book of Corinthians, it became really real to us immediately. There would be some testing, something would come up that the very issue that we had talked about, we had to deal with. And so I'm grateful for what the Lord showed us in those early days. And I hope that we can be refreshed in that same life that the Lord gave to us in those early days of all of us being one together with one purpose. As our brother Kenny said last night, the Lord gave us a passion for him, for himself and what he wanted. And a passion that he might have what he wanted as a testimony here in Richmond. And we gave ourselves to him for that purpose. Brothers and sisters, by his grace, today we're still here. We have had our troubles and tribulations, but we're still here. And I wanted to testify today, particularly to the sisters, I really think the reason we're still here and still together is the faithful prayer of the sisters. And I am grateful and thankful today. So as we come together this morning, I want us to understand that this matter of God's authority, God's divine order, coming under the headship that Christ has established in his divine order is important, that God might build his house, that God might have his bride in the end. And we see her coming down adorned as a bride for a husband out of heaven, as we see in Revelation 21. That is coming, brothers and sisters. And we all want to be a part of that. And I think as we're talking about taking up ministry, taking up encouraging one another, this ministry of being under the headship of Christ, taking up head covering is important. Well, let me get into the subject a little more. I'm afraid I may go over a little bit today, but I do think it is important that we share on this this morning. First of all, in the world, the world rejects God and the world rejects God's order. Today, this United States is in great turmoil over this issues of the fundamentals of life. In this scripture, we talk about God being head, God being head over Christ, Christ being head over man, and man being head over the woman. All of these are very fundamental to God's divine order. That's the way God established His divine order. But we see the world rejecting God, rejecting God's divine order. Even today, I think it's very interesting that in the schools, our children are being taught that we have to be gender neutral. There are no male and female. They want to do away with male and female, God's divine order. Not only do they not want God, they don't want His order either. And so it's important to the world to destroy God's order. And of course, it's under the direction of Satan. And this matter of gender neutrality does that. In other words, they're being taught, you can't use the word, teachers are being told, not maybe all of them, but I know in the schools in California, that you can't use the term boy or girl, or refer to them as boys or girls. They are all students. That's gender neutrality. So the world will destroy God's order if it can. God created man male and female. And now they're saying, that's a term we shouldn't use, male or female. As a matter of fact, how you're born biologically doesn't determine where you're male or female. You decide, you make that decision. You're the head, not God. So you don't have to recognize God's divine order, that even as you're born in natural order of things. Brothers and sisters, God set up this divine order when He created man. Remember when He created man, it says God created man, and then it says He created them male and female. So when God was thinking about creating man, in His mind, that man was male and female, united together. So He created Adam first, the male. And out of Adam came the female. We know that from biblical history. But that's very important. That's God's divine order. God created woman for man. Now that's interesting. But we have to remember that man, male and female, were created to serve God's purpose. That's what we were created for, to serve God's purpose. So the woman was to be Adam's helpmate to see that God's will was done on this earth, to serve God's purpose on this earth. That was the purpose of man. Remember, he was to take dominion of the earth. Unfortunately, he gave it up to Satan. But Eve was supposed to be his helpmate in maintaining that dominion over the earth. They were to be one together. Adam was to be head, and Eve was to be the body, the servant, helping serve the Lord together. It required both. And when Lord made man and woman, they not only are physically different, but they're constitutionally different. Now what I mean is, I have to confess that sisters, I do not always understand you. And I think that sisters feel like they understand men, but I'm not sure that you do. We're built up a little differently. We think differently, but that's not bad. Unfortunately, in the world, it's used to destroy one another, but not in God's intention. His intention was, this difference, was that we might become one whole thing to have completed the man that he was really after, this union of man and woman. So we were really made for one another. And without one another, we're not really complete. And that's the way God intended it. That is the divine order. And he created man first, and he said, he will be the leader, the head, and the woman will be the one who will be his helpmate to serve him. Now brothers and sisters, the church today is like the woman. Christ is the head, and he's created the church that she might become his helpmate. So think of that. The divine order that God has set up in mankind is patterned after what God wants for the Godhead. Today, the world is rejecting this order. They're tearing, excuse me, they are tearing apart the family. It's interesting. There's a professor at William and Mary that is now declaring, apparently well listened to, and well written, that you and I as parents do not really have any rights over our children, that the rights to be a parent are given by the state, and that the state should have full authority over the children, and even the state should decide that when you have children, who the parents will really be. That's what's being taught to this current generation. In other words, a destruction of the family. And we know that the family is the building block of the church. That's what God intended it to be, that the whole family would be united together in serving the Lord and building up his house. Well, that's the rebellion that we see in the world. And we certainly don't want to enter into the rebellion with the world. They're attacking God's divine order. And as I was thinking about this, I said, isn't this very illustrated in Psalm 2, verse one through three. Why do the heathen rage? Why are they in turmoil? And why do the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth have set themselves, and the rulers take counsel against the Lord and against his anointing, saying, listen to this, let us break their bands asunder, cast away their cords from us. In other words, we know that the church, the Christians, have held to this divine order, at least up until recently, and even it's being affected in the church now, unfortunately. But they're saying, we need to cut off the bands of God. We need to do away with God. We want to be the head. God is not the head, we are the head. We will not cover our heads under God. We will not submit his authority. We will not listen to him. In fact, let's just do away with him altogether. And so now we see the whole divine order as it's lived out on this earth being crumbled and taken away. A new world order is developing where man is definitely to be the head and to be over everything. And whatever man thinks, that's the way it is. Brothers and sisters, this of course is Satan's assault on God's divine order. If he can no longer assault the Lord Jesus himself, which he can't, he can certainly attack his body. He can attack, brothers and sisters, God's divine order in order to destroy God's helpmate. And he's willing to do that. But this is not new. This assault began in the Garden of Eden. You remember how Satan went to Eve. He didn't go to Adam, he went to Eve. And he had a very subversive purpose in that. He wanted to overthrow God's divine order. So he went to Eve first. And he basically told Eve, you can become God, remember? You can be like God. In other words, you can be your own head. You can make those decisions. You don't have to come under the headship of God. You can raise your own head. And Eve took the bait. The word of God said she was deceived. So deceived that she went to her husband and said, look what I have discovered. I can be the head. You can be the head. We can make our own decisions. We can be our own gods. And Adam knew exactly what was happening. The word's very clear. Adam was not deceived. He understood what was going on. But brothers and sisters, Adam uncovered his head by choosing Eve over God. And in so doing, disobeyed God. And also ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So we find that that first family faltered. Satan was able to overthrow that family, overthrow what God's order and purpose was by destroying God's order on this earth. And now today we find that man no longer has dominion over the animals like Adam and Eve had. He doesn't have that dominion. And it was because the divine order had been destroyed and they had not taken God as their absolute head. Eve should have consulted Adam. And maintained God's divine order. But Eve uncovered her head, brothers and sisters. And we know what happened. Man fell. Now, I'm very, I said before the Lord, I said, Lord, I don't want to offend my sisters in any way. But it is so important that we maintain God's government that we have to share the truth of God with one another. So, 1 Corinthians 11 three says that the head of Christ is God and the head of man is Christ. And the head of the woman is man. This is God's order. This is what God established in order to execute his will on earth through man. And we need to understand that. Now, it says God is the head of Christ. I think that's interesting, isn't it? We thought God and Christ were equal, didn't we? They are equal. They are equal in life. But when it comes to carrying out the work that God has designed to carry out his purpose, a divine order was set up and Christ voluntarily took the lower place and took God as his head. He voluntarily took God as his head. It was ordained that way. Now, you need to be very clear. Just as Christ is not inferior to God, the woman is not inferior to man. We got that straight, I hope. Just as Christ was not inferior to God, even though he took a lower place, the woman is not inferior to man and he's given her that place of being the helpmate. It's the glory of God. It's his decision. It's glorious what he has determined to achieve his purpose. Brothers and sisters, we are created to be one together, male and female. And one is not inferior to the other. It's a matter of taking up God's divine order that God's divine purpose might be accomplished. So it has nothing to do with being inferior to one another. In fact, I can very easily admit to the fact that in those early days, those sisters that I named were much more spiritual than the young brothers that we were. They had much more knowledge, but not only that, they had much more experience with Christ. And we needed that in the life of the assembly here. So brothers and sisters, I don't want anyone to come away with the idea today that in taking up God's government, one becomes inferior to the other. In taking up God's divine order, what we're really doing is taking the designed place for each of us that his will might be done. This order comes out of the Godhead. I like to say it's an organic order. Brothers and sisters, we as Christians have the life of Christ in us, don't we? We have the DNA. And the fruit of that DNA is divine order. In other words, if we really, each one of us, individually take Christ as our head, eventually we will take up this divine order because it is his life that we're living by and under. It is the fruit. This divine order is the fruit of divine life. And I want to be very clear on this. So, I think if we begin to discover God's divine order, we need to have the right attitude to take up that order and live by that order. And let's read Philippians 2, 5 through 9. Philippians 2, 5 through 9. Have this attitude in yourself which was also in Christ Jesus. In other words, you need to have the same attitude that Christ has. Although he existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, being made in the likeness of men, being found in the appearance of a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason, God has highly exalted him. He didn't cling to the privilege of being equal with God. In order to have God's will done on this earth, brothers and sisters, he stripped himself of all of his rights as the Godhead. And became basically a slave, it says, a bond slave to God himself and to man. And I really like this. Because he covered his head under God, because he took the low place, it says God highly exalted him. Our Lord Jesus took the lowest of the low place is among humanity, even came to serve us and not to be served, to die on the cross that we might be set free from our sin and the death that was destined for us. Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus took the low place, but now he has the highest place at the right hand of God. So brothers and sisters, whatever place that God has designed for us, we should glorify him in taking it up under his headship and authority, keeping our heads covered under him. God created this earth, he created man, he created the trees and the animals, he created everything, all of creation was for his son. But when man fell, when he uncovered his head before God and fell and was taken out of the garden, brothers and sisters, God did not give up his plan. His plan was to redeem man. And in so doing, that he might have, Christ might have, excuse me, Christ might have that helpmate that the father so desired for him. Christ the head, the church's body. That was the plan. And God carried it out. And the way they carried it out was they got together. The Godhead got together. And the decision was that God would head up all things. In other words, there couldn't be two heads or there would be chaos. It wasn't God the head and Christ the head, it was God was the head. And Christ submitted under the headship of God and came, even took up Calvary's cross that the father's will might be done coming under his headship. He gave up all of his privileges and rights to do that, brothers and sisters, and even came in the form of a man. He voluntarily took that place, that lower place, and made God his head. What does it mean when I say he made God his head? I think it's very clear in the word of God that he was always saying, remember, I can do nothing of myself. Whatever the father tells me, that I do. I cannot just say what I want to say. I listen to the father. And what he says, I tell you. The Lord even said, my time is not my own. It's not in my hands. But when my time comes, I will obey the father. He was under the headship of the father. That's what it means to take Christ as your head. He's Lord of your life. He's over your life. I think it's very interesting that once again, when Christ was baptized, remember, he was taken into the desert. And for 40 days and 40 nights without food and water, most men would have died. But then he was tempted by Satan. And what was Satan's temptation? Really, it was to upset the divine order. It was to get Christ to act on his own. He wanted Christ to act out of himself. To uncover his head. He said to him, he said, look, you're starving to death. You're thirsting to death. I'm surprised you hadn't already died. The father is supposed to be taking care of you. You need to take care of yourself. Just turn these stones into bread and you can take care of yourself. But Christ said, no, I live by every word of God. In other words, brothers and sisters, I come under the headship of God. He is my head. I will not uncover my head by doing this out of myself. The same way, he went, he took him up to the top of the peak of the temple and said, look, if you're really God's son, cast yourself down. You know, if you're really God's son, he's not gonna let you get hurt. You just go ahead and do that. He said, no, word says not to tempt God, not to test God. I'm not going to uncover my head by jumping down to prove God. He wouldn't want me to do that. I'm not going to uncover my head. And then the enemy came. The enemy came with his, the best shot. He said, look, took him to a high mountain. He said, look over all the kingdoms of the world. He said, if you will just bow down to me, make me your head, I'll give you all the kingdoms of the earth and you don't have to go to the cross. I give them to you now. Of course, he didn't have the authority to do that. But the point was he was tempting to Christ to uncover his head before God and he would not. So brothers and sisters, this tactic of the enemy has been going on since the time of Adam and Eve. Today we're appalled, I think most of us are appalled it's what we see going on in the United States. But brothers and sisters, this has been going on ever since the beginning, the attacking of God's divine order. I hope the Lord is beginning to show us the importance of his divine order and maintaining that divine order by keeping our heads covered. Well, in life, Christ and God are equal. But to carry out God's plan, Christ took the lower place. He kept his head covered. This is God's divine way, brothers and sisters. Maintaining God's government, keeping our head covered in absolute submission and obedience to God. God's purposes then can be achieved. This is God's way. And brothers and sisters, this is the living pattern, I want to say, of God's order. Then in Galatians 3, it says, you know, interestingly enough, in Christ, there's neither male nor female. So it seems to be a contradiction, doesn't it? But that's not true. In life, God and Christ are equal. In life, there's neither male nor female. The Lord Jesus is not partial to males or females. As a matter of fact, as I've already stated, the sisters were more spiritual than we were. It's because they had exercised their life before the Lord. They had grown in the Lord. They had been willing to take up the cross and follow the Lord. And therefore, they were growing in Christ and had grown to a much greater extent than we had. But brothers and sisters, do you see, that to me just tells me how important God's divine order is. And I am so grateful, as I've already said, that those sisters saw what our brother shared on October 1st, 1973. How important God's divine order and were willing to submit to the cross. Willing to submit under the headship of Christ and say, okay, we're going to support these brothers and let them take the lead. That was quite an accomplishment in the Holy Spirit in our midst. In Corinthians 11, it says that Christ is the head of every man. Now, interestingly enough, when it says Christ is the head of every man, he includes male and female there. Listen to this very carefully. I don't want anyone to misunderstand. Every redeemed one, whether you are male or female, sister or brother, has to come under the headship of Christ. He's your covering. You need to keep your head covered under him. You should give absolute submission and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, both brothers and sisters. It's interesting, isn't it? It says in Romans that we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice. He is the head. We don't present our heads, we present our bodies. To the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, he is the head. We're not many heads, including Christ's head. There's only one head, and that's Christ. We keep our heads covered. In other words, Lord, I'm yours. You can do with me as you choose. I will take whatever place you decide for me. I will come under your headship and authority. That's what it means to make yourself a living sacrifice. Lord, you are my head. You are my Lord. You are the head. I am the body. And I offer myself, my body, as a living sacrifice. Brothers and sisters, that divine life that is within all of us as Christians, yearns for Christ to be head of your life. And we need to challenge ourselves and say, Lord, are you really head of my life? Have I really made you head of my life? Well, also, brothers and sisters, in Ephesians 1, 2, and 3, it's very clear, or 123, I think, that Christ is head over the church. It says, Christ is head over all things of the church. He's the head. Which is his body? The fullness of him that fills all in all. The fullness of Christ is to be manifest through his body, but it will not be unless he is the head. And so that's how important head covering is in the life of the body. We're united together under the headship of Christ. You know, the word of God tells us to hold fast to the head. What does that mean? It means that we all keep our heads covered under Christ. That's what it means. And if we do that, we will come together in unity because he is the head. Now, if we decided, hey, you know, I need to take up a little headship on my own, not only are we gonna crash with Christ, we're gonna crash with one another, clash with one another. Maintaining the headship of Christ is important to the life of the assembly. Each one of us has that responsibility. Every member under the headship of Christ. And as we do that, receiving the life of Christ, we're able to share the life of Christ with one another. And the body is built up from within because it is sharing the life of the head. Do you get it? I hope. That's how important every member is. So we must keep our head covered. And now it comes to the most difficult part. It says man is the head of woman. Now, I've already said that the family is part of God's divine order, the building block of the church. The family is to be a unit, serving God together, bringing the enemy unto the feet of Jesus in their family, in their household, that they might serve Christ together as a family. The husband and wife and life of the Lord and his grace are equal. But the husband should take the lead and the wife should be supportive. That's God's divine order. But brothers and sisters, and brothers I'll speak to first, it is our responsibility in our families to make sure our head is covered under Christ. You can't run the family if you're gonna be the head. You are the head, but only because your head is covered under Christ. Do you see? If you're trying to run your family and you're not under the headship of Christ, it's gonna be chaos, brothers and sisters. So we must, as heads of our family, keep our heads covered. How can the sisters really be submissive? How difficult, let me put it that way, how difficult it is for sisters to be submissive when the brother, when the husband is really not under the headship of Christ. It's difficult. But the Lord doesn't say it's okay, sisters, if your husband's that way, you don't need to be submissive. It's not that at all. The brothers should be submissive. They should love their wives. They should be trying to encourage their wives, to strengthen their wives' lives in the Lord. They should be willing to lay down their lives as a living sacrifice for their wife and for their children. That is what we're called to do, just as Christ laid down his life for the church. That's a tall order and responsibility. And sisters, we need prayer. We need prayer to take up our responsibility. We need that supportive prayer. So, if we both take up our responsibility under the headship of Christ, then the divine order can be maintained and God's work can be done through the family. Let me say this much, because, boy, this is a lot to share. But, you know, husbands, under the headship of Christ, should always give absolute obedience and authority to Christ. The wife should always give absolute obedience, absolute submission, I'm sorry, submission and obedience to Christ. He is head of both the brother and the sister. But in the family and in the church, God has asked sisters to voluntarily take that lower place in his divine government and be the ones that through submission can frankly help their husbands in maintaining their headship under Christ. And they come under the covering of their husband as well. There should be submission. There should be that submissive spirit. But I will not say that there has to be absolute obedience, because we can be wrong. We can give wrong directions. We can do things that is not really the Lord. And the sisters, you don't need to obey that. For instance, if your husband said, you know, I don't think you ought to be fellowshipping down there with those other people. I think you ought to be staying at home with me. The Lord said, do not forsake the assembling of self together. It's the Lord's will that we be together. Yes, you should support your husband, but at the same time, you'd have to say in a submissive spirit, I have to obey God. Remember Peter and the disciples, how they were locked up and they were eventually told, they said, look, it's okay, you can go back out. We're going to release you, but you can't speak in the name of Christ. And what was their response? Their response was, look, we have to obey God. We'll be submissive. If you decide to put us back in prison, we'll go there. But we have to obey God. We cannot stop speaking in his name. So I hope that helps us all. Now I will say this, it's the work of the enemy. He's been doing it since Adam and Eve. Frankly, it's very difficult for some reason for brothers to take the lead. I think part of it is that they don't really give themselves totally under the headship of Christ, but it's difficult for them to take the lead. For the sisters, it's difficult to be submissive. And for the children, it's difficult to be obedient. We find that in all of our families. But brothers and sisters, I think this just shows the ever-present tactic of the enemy to destroy God's divine government, that he can destroy God's final outcome of having that helpmate for his son. Well, let's go on. Christ is head of the church. He is the divine government over the church. In 1 Corinthians 11, I think it's very clear. It says, when the church is in life, in life, brothers and sisters are equal. In other words, in the grace of God, we're equal. Sisters can actually, and are many, many times, in fact, I have to say most of the time, it seems like, more spiritual than the brothers. They're willing to yield more under the work of the cross. But at the same time, the brothers, it says, in the functioning of the church, when we come together, meetings, prayer meetings, times together, and it says in the church, brothers represent Christ. And they should not have their heads covered. Now, their heads are covered. They're covered under Christ. But they should not wear a physical head covering, Paul says, because in the church, they represent Christ. And Christ is the head of the church. And there can only be one head. So it's very clear that the brothers should not wear a head covering. It's dishonorable because we're dishonoring Christ's head. I hope we understand that. Therefore, as we gather, brothers shouldn't have caps on. You know, their heads shouldn't be covered. But it goes on to say that sisters represent the church. They represent the body of Christ. Men, the brothers, represent Christ, the head. The sisters represent Christ, the body. It's the same Christ, but one represents the head and the other represents the body and the church. It's a testimony. It should be a testimony to the reality of God's divine government in the church. It's not a matter of equality. It's a matter of God's divine order in the church. All brothers and sisters should keep their heads covered under Christ. But in the functioning of the church, Paul says the sisters should wear a head covering. Now, I wanna say this at this point. This should only be carried out in spiritual reality. In other words, sisters, if the Lord touches your heart on this matter of maintaining the testimony of God's authority in the church, you should wear that head covering. I don't want anybody to do this as a religious act and take it up and cover your heads when it's not real in your heart. But if it's real in your heart, please take it up. It really is a testimony. It's interesting. Because of the place of submission, God has given the sisters a special ministry, I think, in the church of being supportive. And he says, if that's your heart, you really should wear the sign of authority on your head, a head covering. It goes on to say, strangely enough, that this actual wearing of a head covering by a sister is a testimony to the angels. It's a testimony to man. It's a testimony to the brothers in the fellowship. It's a testimony to good angels. Because you know, the good angels saw the other ones fall and never were recovered. And when you and I are born, we are unfortunately born in a rebellious state. We all want to be heads. I know that was true of my little babies and children. They think they're the head of the family, don't they? They certainly demand that attention and that place. We are born with that spirit that seems to be contrary to God's order. But God took the low place, that he might deliver us out of rebellion and bring us back into unity with the Father, in union with the Father and himself. Brothers and sisters, I think the angels are absolutely amazed at God's grace. And when he sees, they see the head covering on the woman, they say, they are under the headship of Christ. It represents God's authority and they're in the church. I think they're really amazed at what God has been able to accomplish by his grace, that he could bring a rebellious creature under his headship and authority willingly. Number two, I think it is a testimony to fallen angels. Because they look, they've been able to successfully attack Adam and Eve and down through the ages. They were unsuccessful in attacking Christ. And we are in Christ, brothers and sisters. We are in Christ. When they, the bad angels, the fallen angels look in the assembly, they see that physical sign of head covering. It tells them that their tactics have failed and that their doom is imminent. Because Christ is in authority. I hope we see the importance of that. The physical head covering is an outward sign of an inward reality. It should be an inward reality in your heart. It should not be a legal thing that you do as a religious act. It's not. It takes away. Let me, give me a few more minutes because I think it's important. You might ask, does it really matter if I wear a physical head covering? Brothers and sisters, I think sisters particularly, I have to say yes. It does matter. Because if in your heart, you really make Christ Jesus your head, and in your heart, you want to support God's divine order in the church by taking that place of submission, by taking that place of support, being supportive. And brothers and sisters, I have to say, the prayer of the sisters through the years has been the great support. And I'm so grateful. So I think it does matter. If your heart is right before the Lord, if you want to have Christ as your head, if you want to take that place in his divine order under his headship and authority, yes, I do think it makes a difference. It is more than a religious symbol. It's similar really to baptism. You know, it says baptism is a sign as well. When you take up the act of baptism, you are declaring publicly that I am the Lord's, that I've been purchased at Calvary's cross by his sacrifice, blood sacrifice. It's a testimony that you no longer belong to the world. It is a public confession that you are his and you're not the world's. You do not belong to him and you want to follow him. Isn't that what we did when we went into baptism? It's also a testimony that I'm in Christ now and that I have been buried with Christ. The old man has been buried and now I have been raised with Christ, buried with him in the water and raised. That is a public testimony to a spiritual reality. The same is true of the Lord's table. It also is a sign. It's a sign, brothers and sisters, to me, it's a public declaration when you take this table. It shows forth his death until he comes. That death that has bought you and purchased you, it says show it forth until he comes. It's look forward to his own coming. It's really a sign when you take that table. It's a public demonstration that you are living by the life of Christ. He is the bread of life. You are living by his life. It's a public declaration. And the principle, I think, is very clear in the word of God. Romans 10, 10 says, if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God has raised him from dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart, man believes unto righteousness, and listen to this, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that he died for us, that he was raised for us. That true belief in our heart brings us salvation. But the word says confess with your mouth. The Lord wants us to publicly confess what has spiritually taken place in our lives. He wants us to make that public confession. That's what the physical head covering is. It's a public confession. And brothers, when we see the sisters with their heads covered, it should deeply touch our hearts that we have a responsibility to lead in the family and in the church. It should deeply touch us that we need to be under the headship of Christ. And function under his headship. It's a testimony to us, a reminder to us that they've taken that place, that lower place. And I guarantee you, God will highly exalt the sisters. They've taken the lower place. It should remind us that we should take our lower place before Christ as our head and take up our responsibility. Well, my prayer at this point is that there be no misunderstanding of what had been said. I do pray the enemy not be allowed to manipulate anything that's been said today. Because maintaining his divine government, particularly in the church, is extremely needed. It's absolutely needed for God to fulfill his purpose, brothers and sisters. That's how important it is. And that's why I think in those very early days, the Lord impressed our brother Stephen that if we were gonna be a true testimony to Christ, his divine order needed to be established in our midst. And I would say today, it's a reminder, 44 years later, brothers and sisters, that that divine order is still needed today in order to carry out God's plan. Now, last night we got together. I really am thankful for that time. I really sensed a sense of being together, wanting to be more together, wanting to serve the Lord together. And I think my brother Kenny said something. In those early days, we really had a passion for the Lord. And we wanted him to have what he wanted. And we looked to him, and when we were challenged with this matter, the divine order in our midst, we were thrilled. We were overwhelmed. We were electrified in our spirits that in taking up God's divine order, he could accomplish his plan to have his bride. And that without that divine order, we would be a hollow testimony. So may the Lord encourage us all, brothers and sisters. The brothers need to pray for the sisters. Sisters need to pray for the brothers. And we both need to maintain our headship under Christ as head of our lives. Lord, we come today. We thank you for your precious word, Lord. We thank you for, Lord, you desire us, Lord, to be a part of your great plan, Lord, and to carry out this matter of becoming that precious helpmate to Christ in the eternity to come. Lord, I don't know what to say other than it takes your spirit. It takes revelation to really see. Otherwise, it'll be taken legal and as a law. And that's just not the case, Lord. You never intended that. So I thank you, Lord Jesus, that you've given us an opportunity these 44 years later to share these things. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. By the way, I know we have a little time to sum up things in prayer, but that message from October 1973 is available on the testimony. It's not called tape ministry anymore. It's testimony ministry, Christ's testimony ministry. Actually, I woke up at 2.30 last night in the morning, and I said, you know, Lord, I hadn't listened to that tape for 44, well, I didn't know it was 44 years at the time. So I got up and listened to it. And once again, it thrilled my heart. So I would pray that you might do that. We also have a little book that we shared, distributed a few months ago on God's divine life and God's divine order, which Stephen shared with us in 1991. And once again, I think many, many were moved as a result of those things. Also, there's a book by Lance over there that each family can take one. It's free, and it's also on the headship or head covering. There's a chapter on head covering in that. So Lord, once again, I just do wanna close in prayer and say, you are Lord. We testify that today in Jesus' name. Amen.