The Assembly: Communion - Headship and the Lord's Supper (Part 1)

Now, I confess to you, I did ask what time, how much they needed to get rearranged for the gospel. And they said, five minutes. You can't do it in five minutes, I knew that.

And so he said, well, what time would you, I says, I would say I'll be done at 345. By then I'll have bled enough, okay? So 345 is the cutoff. I'm going to read this section relative to headship first, and that will take us till 10 to three, okay? Ten to three.

And then the remaining will take up the Lord's Supper. And the emblems as discussed are outlined on your outline. So this first part, and I'm only going to read the first part relative to headship, we will take for that period of time.

If we go a little past it, that's fine. But we do have to draw a line somewhere, brethren. I mean, we could spend the whole time on headship alone without any difficulty.

I think all know that. But it is so encouraging, as they've said, to see so many that have made such a effort to come back and to be with us today. Some have driven, I don't want to say fast, but quickly as you got back here a good time.

Thank you. I'm going to read in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Chapter 11.

Now, I think that at least verse 1 and 2 likely belong to the end of chapter 10. However, they are in chapter 11, that's where we will start our reading. Words of the Apostle.

1 Corinthians, for those that just came in, 1 Corinthians 11, verse number 1. Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things. Keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you.

But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head. Every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoreth her head.

For that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.

For a man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he is the image and glory of God. But the woman is the glory of the man, but not the image of the man, the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man.

Verse 9, neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord.

For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman, but all things of God. Judge in yourselves. Is it commonly that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her.

For her hair is given her for a covering. But many men seem to be contentious. We have no such custom.

Neither the churches of God. And then, of course, the next, it leads up to the, well, I might as well read the next few verses. Now in this, that I declare unto you, I praise you not.

Now notice, as we mentioned yesterday, he praises them, but now he has to tell them that he praises them not in this, that you come together not for the better, but for the worse. First of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you. And I partly believe it, for there must be also heresies, that is the word for divisions among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

That's as far as we will read. You might think that this circle up here among these fellow preachers is a very safe place to be. I'll tell you, it's a very dangerous place to be.

I lost my iPad just about two minutes ago, and I'm looking under my chair, you know, at this age, I mean, everything gets lost, okay? So poor Jim and Janice, I left them looking for my hat back at their house, and it was in the truck with me when I got here, so I'll just tell you, okay? It can be cruel without added things to it, some guy playing tricks on you. Now without mentioning any names, I can only tell you it was not my good friend William, okay? So just keep it in mind. You think this would be the safe place to be, it's not, very dangerous.

Interesting chapter, very interesting. Now I'm going to say right at the outset, not only do we have a world out there that disdains anything that marks authority or control, that's one thing. The sadder thing is when that creeps in amongst us.

That mentality that has been taken by the world is adapted by us as if, well, who's really in control here? Who really is the ultimate authority? And this can be battered back and forth, so what we're going to discuss in this reading this morning here, and when it comes to the breaking of the bread, I do realize, without even going into it, that that is not accepted out there. Even in denominational circles, that's one thing. It's another thing.

When companies that I would have once frequented, I can no longer go there, because what we're going to discuss, they don't believe. In other words, maybe getting ahead of myself, head chip, recognized in a woman wearing a head covering, her choice. She doesn't want to wear it, that's fine.

It happens and it is happening. All I can say is, the purpose of a reading like this, selected by these brethren, is that this truth, these truths, may be maintained to us. So I am not going to go over the little outline there of the representation, the relationship, the responsibility, and the rule, and so on.

You've got it written there. I'm just going to make a few opening remarks, and they will be very brief, and then we'll get going. It's interesting, the apostle says, be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

That's a tremendous statement, for a man to say, be a follower of me. There's times brethren went, boy, we would want somebody maybe to follow the path or the course that we have taken. But then he adds that, as I also am of Christ.

What a beautiful example we have in this dear man that gives us likely over half of our New Testament. So he starts out at how good it is, I praise you brethren. We can be so quick to criticize, please, and it was brought up very nicely yesterday, be as quick to commend, be as quick to encourage, be as quick to lift up as to put down.

It has untold rewards when you can do that to believers. When something that you have forgotten about, they come and will say, you know, remember that time you spoke to me? No, I don't remember the time I spoke. You speak to a lot of people.

Well, that encouraged me. He said, well, thanks for telling me, brother. Thanks for telling me, sister.

And sisters do that too. There are sisters that have been a tremendous encouragement to me and still are, and to younger believers and younger sisters and so on. So whenever you can find something and there should be, listen, if in the coming day at the judgment seat of Christ, I believe with all my heart, God will find something in every believer to praise.

If he can find it, can't we? Can't we? Now, I know there's those that can become unruly, those that have to be spoken to and plainly spoken to. And I don't, I really don't envy brethren that have to do it. I was never an overseer in an assembly.

I've got friends that are overseers, but I could never be an overseer in the assembly. I might as well tell you because I couldn't take the guff sometimes that they got to take. Some of them are nonsense.

I just... My makeup is not... I just couldn't handle it. But they can. Good for them.

So just to encourage you. So we're not trying to put anybody down at all in this. Now, another thing, verse number three, but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is the man and so on.

But verse two, back to verse two first, but now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things. Keep the ordinances. And I think all know what that word is.

It's the word traditions, traditions. There are biblical traditions. We seek to follow those traditions as we know them to be.

It grieves me when I hear this term brethren traditions. It's not in the Bible, it's not in the word of God. Traditions of teaching, principles, practical traditions that have been followed by men far wiser, far more learned and experienced than myself.

We honor that. Okay. Hebrews chapter 13, remember the guides who have gone before you and so on.

So what we carried out here this morning, it is a tradition. It's not a tradition of the brethren. It's a tradition that's given to us in the book.

This do in remembrance of me. Now when we get into, and I may as well just state myself now and we can discuss it. When it comes to the truth of headship, we've got to keep in our mind that it neither stops or starts with the head of the woman or the man.

It starts with a head that's in heaven with Christ himself. Okay. And it flows out from that.

Now we're going to go over the various distinctions of the covered sister and the uncovered man, his head and so on. And of course, the question will come up about the hair. What do you believe about the hair? Well, what do I believe about the hair? Ideally, ideally, and I'm not trying to be political or ride the fence here.

I would like to think uncut hair. Okay. However, after 62 years of assembly fellowship, I have met people, sisters who have had a real exercise and have had it, but because of medical issues and circumstances, they have had to cut their hair.

Now, am I going to condemn that? I can't, brethren. Others maybe can, but I can't. What I do find alarming is those that have no reason to do that.

And yet once they start it, unfortunately, it doesn't stop and invariably it will get shorter and shorter and shorter. You can't cut it long. You can only shorten it.

Now, we'll get into the word, the nourishment of it and what that means, the care of it. And I know sisters personally today, their hair is likely better than it would be than if they hadn't cut it or trimmed it, whatever you want to say. But they've nourished their hair and they have a testimony.

So it's not just what they're doing with their hair, but it is consistent with their life. That is the secret of it, you see. I mean, I just take the position of a sister and, well, I'm not touching my hair and I'm around condemning everybody else that I think is, whatever it might be.

I've seen sisters in tears that have been wrongly accused of things they didn't do. Okay. I'm sorry, brethren.

It's happened and it does happen. So we want to be very careful because, you know, really when it comes to gathering as we do, most of us men get off easy, really. I mean, you think of a sister today trying to buy clothes.

Now, I only know this because I have my wife, daughters in the family. You sisters know what I'm talking about better than I do because I'm not really in that department too often, but it is a task. They just don't have what you would like to wear.

They got their wearing out there and the less, the better. Okay. That's not what we think.

That's not what we do or what we practice. So my sympathy goes out to you. Keep at it, sisters.

You find a place that's got proper clothing that adorns you as a sister where you gather. Tell the others where they can get it too, okay? I don't care where it is, but share that. And brethren, whatever you do, you be respectful of that, all right? Since I've been here in Iowa, it's just come to my mind now a sister come up to me.

She'd be a little older than I am. I said, called her by name and says, hey, you got new glasses. I said, they look good.

She says, I've had them since January and you're the only second person that ever noticed them. Well, I said, there could be some blindness here in Iowa, but I said, really when I look at a person, I'm not looking at the back of their head, okay? I'm looking at them in the eye. But she thanked me.

We have a sister back home, Scott knows her well, and so does Brody, and she just retired from an optical store, and she walks up to her husband, Dieter. He's the man that said he'd never take part, by the way, and looks him right in the eye and says, nothing new. He says, no, I don't know, no.

She says, my glasses. He says, you get a new pair every other week, how can it keep up? So we don't all work at that, but look them in the face, okay? We're not looking at the wrong side of the head, all right, that's what I'm telling you. Now that clock's got ahead of me and I'm just going to sit down and we're going to open this starting at verse number one, and I know our brethren that have come in so graciously and helpfully as they did yesterday, and even our brethren here that are preaching the gospel and others that have come along to help us out, we appreciate your help very, very much, and if you don't give us help, we're going to be calling on you, so you know just a bit what this character's like.

So please, brethren, and if we didn't get time from the audience, we'll try and do that today, okay? I know it gets a busy street up here, but I'm direct in traffic, so if I've got to slow some down, I'll do it so you can get in. So having said that, we'll begin at verse number one, 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Isn't it remarkable that the apostle lived in such a way that he could encourage believers to be imitators of him because he was an imitator of Christ? Now, earlier in the epistle in chapter four, he sends Timothy to Corinth, who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways, which be in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.

So two things. There's the character of Paul that could be imitated, and plus the teaching that he's giving in this epistle, and certainly in this passage, was taught everywhere in every church and every assembly. So that does away with the thought that the substance of this is cultural.

This is creational. It's universal. Is that not further brought out? Within the general epistle, you've got different sections, right? So this section starts in chapter 10, more over, and then it goes to the end of chapter 14.

And what do you get at the end of chapter 14? These are the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ, right? So it goes beyond the cultural aspect of just Corinth. And that is singular there, isn't it? Just commandments of the Lord. Yes, yes.

Very good. I think with what Brother William mentioned, that verse 16 kind of ties that together. Amen? There seem to be contentions.

We have no such custom. Neither do the churches of God. What he's saying is we have no other teaching.

No other teaching. And what he's saying is we have no other pattern. This is the pattern.

As we were talking yesterday, we seek to adhere, conform to that pattern. But to go along with your idea of being encouraging, I would say contextually, verse number one is directly linked to the end of chapter 10. Yes.

And the end of chapter 10 is handling your weak brother with grace. So he's going to have to be stern when he addresses the Lord's Supper, but he's not going to stand up for things that are not doctrinal to cause division. Very good.

As I deliver them to you, verse two, and I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things. Keep the traditions as I deliver them to you. If I remember right, looking that word up is the thought of a courier that is expected to deliver the goods in the same way in which he received them.

If we want the Old Testament example, remember when they were going through, everything was weighed at the far end to see if they'd lost their weight on the way through. So that we've got to be careful as we consider things today to say, well, with the passage of time, have these things lost their weight with us? It's interesting that that same phrase or formula of words is used in verse 23 when he's introducing the Lord's Supper. For I've received the Lord, that which also I delivered unto you.

So this teaching about headship is of equal import and of importance as the teaching regarding the Lord's Supper. Exactly. Exactly.

Would you think that that's why the divine order is given to us in the scripture, that this has to be established first and then the teaching of the Supper. Okay. Now I know what we have in chapter 10 as well, but certainly fits in with that.

So Murray, how do we know that this is being taught in the context of a local church rather than just to the body? Well, I think that it's when he's addressing them personally as that church in Corinth, you're thinking of the church in a local aspect versus the wide aspect. He's addressing that church. And I think some of our brethren touched on that yesterday when we're going to come to that, the word ye or you, okay, it's not we, all of us together, but he's teaching to a local company.

However, having said that, he says there's no other company that takes it any other way No, that's absolutely true. What he's saying here is that this behavior and this teaching is taught in every local company, but it is specific to the local where it is practiced, right? Because in the church, as Frank took us yesterday, there's no male or female in the body, but here there's distinction. And I think that really is the key to understanding how this is counter to our culture is that the Bible maintains distinction between the male and female, right? So that headship is distinct from the headship of a home, correct, right? So that helps us with the head coverings.

You're looking at assembly meetings, seeing the importance of that right where I live across the road, men and nights, I don't use that in a derogatory way, but they feel they have to be covered all the time. See, they're misunderstanding the context and we'll get into the different coverings that we have here, natural and spiritual. But the principle of headship really is universal in God's purposes.

That's right. That's why he traces it back to creation. So it's expressed in the assembly gathering because in all this wide world of rebellion, God expects an assembly to be displaying recognition of his authority.

That's right. So what he has done really is he has taken a truth that goes back to creation, but he's added a level of nobility and spirituality to it that was never there before. And that is by linking it with Christ as the head.

And so there's two different types of order in the scripture. There's an ascending order and then there's an assembling order. And here you have that Christ, it brings everything to God.

And so that was not there before. So that is something now that is congregational. And that's important to notice in this too.

So Brother Murray, if I could specifically bring you to verse three, but I would have you know, what's the thrust of those words, that expression? Evidently they have been practicing that which the apostle approves of. You're keeping the ordinance, the tradition as I delivered them onto you, but I would have you to know. Do you think that they were actually practicing this, putting on display headship? Were they doing that? And all he's doing is explaining the reason why.

He's filling them in on information, but I would have you to know. I think it would be, he wants them to understand why they're doing it. That's it.

I was just going to say that, Brother. You took the words out of my mouth. What he is telling them, they're likely doing it, but maybe not knowing why.

That happens a lot among us. We're doing things. Now, please don't give me this line that you were raised with a generation.

You just were told what to do, but you didn't know why. How stupid do you think I was? Wait a minute. I sat teaching.

You don't want an answer, do you? Not for you. I sat in teaching meetings of what I would consider were, I looked up to them and they taught us from the word of God. Much better than I can do, okay? I knew I was doing those things.

But this idea that you just did them blindly, but now the younger generation, they want to know why you're doing it. No. Our brethren have brought this out rightly here.

He is just establishing, as Brother Bill has said, wants them to understand why you were doing it. Just before we hit that, let me say something about the order of headship. We are not saying that it's not in the church in its wide aspect or the universal church.

It is, but you can't see it. But I can see it in that local company. That's why the angels are looking at it.

They can't see it in the church in the wide aspect. God says, you want to see it? Well, here's that local company. Here's the display of that.

And what we learn from verse three is what we need to keep carrying with us right through as we go through this. Headship doesn't have anything to do with worth, something greater than something else. We find from verse three that everything to do with function, role.

So the role of a sister is given by God, and the role for the man is given by God. And if you're doing that, both are valuable to God. It's not a determination of, oh, the woman is less than the man.

And do we not get that, Brother Murray? The head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man. But the head of Christ is God. Well, might be a young Christian here who says, I thought that Christ is God.

So help us with that. No, just as well as I do. What he's teaching is, it's just a divine order in that, okay? That is not making him less than God, even though he is God.

In the same way, he's not making the woman less than the man. What we have in creation, as we're seeing here, likely recovered, there's two genders, and there's only two genders. I filled out an application yesterday for my wife and I for a rapid COVID test to get back into Canada.

Under genders, there was five options. Ridiculous. Amen.

Five options. That's Canada. It is Canada.

You know? It's worse here. We learn from here. You better be careful.

We're in the minority here. I know. But I know where you were born.

Murray, in what sense is the head of Christ God? Isn't there equality in the Godhead? Yes. So in what sense does this come into play? Look, how do you understand that? I would understand it this way, and our brethren can come in on it. Even though there was the equality of that, there still was submission by him, you see, to God.

There was that submission. So if he could submit, where does that leave me? So Christ has been given a task to do by God. And ultimately, Chapter 15, in the fullness of time, he will deliver up the kingdom to God, the Father, that God may be all in all.

So both names are given in 15, to God, even the Father. But here, it would be absolutely incorrect if the Spirit of God, of course, he would never do that, would say, the head of Christ is the Father. That's right.

But it's incarnation. In him now becoming a man, entering into humanity as not only a man, but a male too, over all men, he is now given the task, but also the capability to carry out that task. So, because headship involves not only rank and order, but capability to do that.

That's right. One more thing, just you were saying, Brother Bill was saying about, he's giving us the why here. I think it's important to also remember that when we're in this section from Chapter, was it seven on, that these are a series of questions that have been asked by those in the assembly, and he is addressing those questions.

We have that right up into Chapter 16, now concerning the collection of the saints. So, it would seem that there was some question that was behind the content of this. And it could very well have been, although we're not told, that while the women, there was the head covering, because he commends them for that, they may have even been removing that to physically take part.

We don't know, but that could have likely been the case. Could it not be also that those surrounding them were questioning and challenging them, why do you do this? Very good. Yeah, and that's no different from our day to day.

Yes. That we have those that deny this reality, so far as practice is concerned. And we need to know why, so we can defend it.

That's right. And continue the practice of it. I'd like to say, too, that we have two types of heads here, the spiritual and the physical.

Yes. But if we have here that the head of Christ is God, we know there's equality there, but we have to be hearing there's submission there. Well, you have the same thing with the man and the woman.

That's right. There's equality there, but there's submission there as well. And I think that what we have here as a reverse, let me put it this way, what Satan did in Genesis chapter 3 was a reverse of what we have here.

That's right. Because in Genesis 2, you have God, you have the man, and then you have the woman. Yeah.

What does Satan do in Genesis chapter 3? He comes in and he goes to the woman. That's right. He avoids the man.

The woman goes to the man. God is out of the picture. So I think what he's doing here is he's reversing.

God is bringing back the original order here so that he can have a place on earth where people can see his original plan. Yes, very good. And with that, too, Brother Tom, we refer... Adam was right there when that was taking place.

He should have stepped forward, which sometimes men don't do, and said, get out of here. We've heard from God. We don't hear from... But he didn't do it.

That's right. So that... Just to clear the record here a little bit, the form I was filling out was not a Canadian form. It was an American form.

So just... I just filled them out, too, so don't worry about it. So, Brother Murray, would it be... Sorry. Very simple, but in some of the versions that young people maybe read, it's talking about a husband and a wife.

Now, we know that Adam and Eve had that relationship, but it's talking about a woman and a man. That's right. So are we saying here... Is the word of God saying here then this is all men, all women, right? Right.

So the German Bible brings that in. That's why it's big amongst the Reform and the Mennonites and that's so on. And that's where your ESV is desperately wrong because in the margin, they will say this is equivalent to marriage.

It's not. Man and woman is being used to take us right back to creation. So in the Greek language, there's no word for wife.

There's no word for husband. But you'll often get an adjective like his woman, obviously. Possessive pronoun.

Yeah, yeah. So here's another thing just before we jump out of verse number three. Is there not something else happening here to, once again, emphasize this is not about worth? Because if I was writing this, I would start with the woman.

The head is the man. Man is Christ. Christ is God, see? But here, he starts right with the man.

Almost like in the middle. Do you see my point? That's what I was saying earlier. There's a difference between the orders that are given to us in Scripture that sometimes it's an ascending order, but then other times there's an assembling order.

And so here you have the assembling order because the truth of the assembly is involved. Excellent. Very good.

Yeah. I just want to say the reason why it's important that we're not looking at husband or wife here is because we have a lot of unmarried women here, too. And the head covering pertains to them as well.

That's right. Brother back. There are some people that, you brought up the Mennonites.

They wear the head covering outside of the assembly. Can you speak to that quickly? I had an occasion to be in a new assembly in northern Maine. And they were, as soon as Frank would remember that, Scott would remember that, as soon as they went to give thanks for the food at the meal, the sister made a mad dash for the counter, grabbed her little headpiece and put it on.

So, okay. So I said, tell me, if you take that down to McDonald's, can you go there? So she looked at her husband. He looked at the ceiling and they quit doing it.

Verse 11 would answer that though. Yes. I don't want to jump down, but since the question was asked.

Verse 11, nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord. So now lordship is involved. And so where lordship is involved in the assembly, in the gathering center, you must have components that are brought together, the man and the woman together to illustrate this truth.

But then he says, for as the woman is out of the man, even so is the man also through the woman, but all things of God. So the first part of that verse is telling us something about the congregation and congregational order. The two must be together to display this order.

The second half of the verse is telling us about creational order. And so that the first man came through the woman, sorry, the first woman came through the man, but then all other men come through the woman. So there's the distinction between the two.

Wouldn't that order also be the proof that I believe that ESV translation is wrong? Absolutely. They have translated the words in an allowable way, but not contextually. Exactly.

The context indicates it has to be man and woman generically. Right, right. It can't be husband and wife.

So just to answer, our brothers help you with an answer there. Verse number 10, and we're not jumping ahead because we're going to build up to this. You have to understand what a covering speaks of.

And once you understand that, you'll understand, I think it's a key to the passage. So if I, I'm going to describe a symbol to you and one word is going to come to mind, skull and crossbones, poison. Whenever you see a woman with a covered head, submission.

That's what it's all about. Then in the chapter, he's going to give you two distinct coverings. What does the covering speak of? Submission.

There's going to be the natural hair. That's a covering. And there's going to be the temporary covering.

That's a sign of submission. And that's going to function in two spheres, out in nature and in the assembly. So that's why the Mennonites don't see a distinction between the individual coverings and they think, they don't realize that the physical hair is a covering out there.

When it comes into the assembly meeting, I got a temporary covering. So God has me, God has a woman and a man as well with the uncovered head displaying headship, both internal and both external. So that's why both head coverings are important.

The temporary one and the natural one. Sometimes we overemphasize the temporary one. Oh, as long as they have this, but that's only for one sphere.

God's just as interested in the natural sphere, which is covered by hair. So the point is, when there are no men present, then the women should not wear a head covering. That's the basic truth.

In other words, you're coming together and both the men and the women present are displaying this truth. Neither is the man without the woman or the woman without the man in the Lord. So Lordship is displayed in the assembly and both are brought together.

Corporate gathering. Yeah. But you cannot have that gathering without men and women.

So all women together, even if there was 25 of them, sorry, or 25 men. Now Brandon over here, give us a break. Could you give us a little help, Brandon? You're doing good.

No. That's not helping. All I ask you, don't say, we don't want to jump ahead, but 10 verses down.

My question before, you touched it a little bit. Could you just explain the difference between Christ, the head of the church, and the head of man? Yes. Very good.

What's the difference? Well, I thought, when I think of him as being the head of the church, okay, I'm thinking of it, I guess in two aspects, in the wide aspect, as well as in the local company. And the display of that is seen in the order of headship displayed with the man with the uncovered head and the woman with a covered head, acknowledging Christ, okay, as being head. Did you have something? No.

You touched on it a little bit. There's a headship that isn't seen. That's right.

Right? And would that be Christ, the head of the body? Mm-hmm. And then when it comes to the local assembly, it's Christ, the head of the church, what is seen? I would link one with redemption. Do you not have that in Ephesians 1? Ephesians 1 brings both headships in view, right? Yeah.

Ephesians 1, in terms of the millennial kingdom, where he will head up all things in Christ in the age to come. But now, he has given him to be head over all things to the church. To the church.

So that there is a headship that will go beyond the church. There is a headship that will go beyond. There is a headship that will go eternally.

There is a headship that is now. You remember the psalmist says, thou art my God, in a prophetic statement of the Lord Jesus, thou art my God from my mother's belly. Not his father.

That was eternal relationship. But in incarnation, the Lord Jesus now assumes a place of headship over humanity. He is the standard now by which God will judge all men.

And so in that sense, he is his God from his mother's belly. Can you say that this is the reassembly of the headship that was failed in the garden? Yes. It will ultimately be that establishment of that.

It was put into the hands of Adam, who failed, and it was lost. It is now put into the hands of Christ, who will succeed, will never fail. That's right.

Because he is capable. There's at least five aspects to Christ as head. You mentioned one of them.

He's the head of all things. He's the head of all principality and power. He's the federal head in new creation.

He's the head to the church in two ways, I take it, as a head to a body, and as a headstone to a building. And then he's the head here of every male person. Very good.

We must move to verse four, brother. Could I say just one little, I've been trying to say this for the last 10 minutes. It's like the pull of Bethesda.

When you can't jump in, somebody jumps in before you. I actually had a Bible reading to show that head coverings weren't necessary all the time, because of the Mennonites that came into Rose Isle. But what about the man's head? So I told them, well, the man of his head's uncovered, then he can't wear a cap or anything.

So that's very simple, but it proves that they're all wrong, doesn't it? Yeah. If the woman has to be covered all the time, then the man should be uncovered all the time. Sure.

And if you take a Jewish man, take the Jewish faith, where you've seen them with a skullcap. Yeah. Well, that to them symbolizes I'm under the authority of God.

Now, that must be awfully hard when they get saved and come into the assembly, what they've customed. Well, the priest had to wear the covering. Yeah, see the different, God used headpieces in the Old Testament, but the changes in the New, so.

So that would be part, it might have been Jews that came into the assembly, didn't really understand that. That's important. Aaron had his head covered when he went into the sanctuary, right? That's right.

Okay, and so now Paul is teaching something different here. Very different. And the reason is, is for the glory all be given to God.

And if the man has his head covered, he is covering symbolically the glory of God. And the same thing is now, if you go into another gathering where the man is uncovered and the woman is uncovered, what do you have? You're saying that the glory of God is at the same level as the glory of man, right? Follow me there? Yeah. So then when you come to the assembly and you have the man's head uncovered and the woman's head's covered, you are saying the glory is all for God.

And that's the reason why the woman has to have her head covered because of the, it's a symbolic symbol. It's a symbolic message, even to the angels, that Christ is all in all in this assembly. All the glory goes to him.

Verse four. Yes. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, just honoreth his head.

Okay. So obviously the woman with her head covered is saying, well, the man is not on display here. Okay.

The man with the uncovered head is saying it is Christ that is on display here. So he brings in the thought of praying or prophesying. Maybe give us some help on that, brethren.

I'll just open it. Would you take it that that would, I take it that that goes back to the questions that they were possibly asking. And so the question might've come in like this, Paul, and we have some spiritual women here and so when they pray or prophesy, should they leave their hats on or should they take them off? And Paul was saying, now you'll understand that when you understand the truth of headship that that is impossibility.

He will enlarge upon that later on as his style is in chapter 14, let your women keep silence in the churches. And he states it emphatically, but at this point he's developing the truth of headship. So he's going to deal with these things orderly, one thing at a time.

Even chapter 13 prophecies will fade away. Now one more thing to support that is that in verse four it says every man praying or prophesying, but at the end of the section, when he has established this truth, he even drops the prophesying and he says, judge among yourselves, is it even comely that a woman pray unto God, which would be her right to do. She cannot do that.

But, but keep in mind too. So verse number four and five together, the two, yeah, I'll just take me just one at a time. So verse number four, every man praying and prophesying, have his head covered, dishonor said that's easily fixed by the reverse.

Leave your head uncovered, pray and prophesy, you're honoring God, right? You agree with that, Frank, right, right? Good. Yeah. Okay.

So when you come into verse five, you got to be careful because the opposite doesn't work, right? Right. Because if a woman all of a sudden says, Oh, I got my head on covered, Oh, wait, I'm going to cover my head. Then I'm going to pray.

Then I'm going to prophesy. Does that make it okay? It did for the man. The opposite? No.

What he finished. Now he starts to develop the truth of the headship and how it's going to affect the woman. And that's why the prophesying is dropped off.

Then when he comes to the end of chapter 14, the prayer silence, say, so as you said, he's orderly going through this whole systematic thing and just putting a nail in the coffin against this thing that's out there. So yeah. Brother Lavery, maybe you could help me.

What was the, what were they called in Ireland that where the women had the meetings and preached? Pilgrims. Pilgrims. Okay.

There's another name I thought, I mean, Tom Bentley and didn't Sidney Maxwell get saved in their meetings? Oh, faith mission, John Thompson, the faith mission, called themselves pilgrims. So I asked, I think it was Mr. Maxwell, did the woman wear a hat while she was preaching? He said, I can't remember. I think they did.

Did they? Okay. You'd know better. You men, it's your native country, but to see if they did.

But he's making that so clear here, just as our brethren are bringing it out. So he's not, he's not here dealing with what the woman is doing that is wrong. He'll deal with that later.

As our brethren pointed out, it's orderly. We're talking about headship here. So he just makes it very clear in four and five, taking up the man and the woman prophesying with her head uncovered, dishonored her head, for that is even all one as if she were shaven.

So dishonoring her head. We have two heads here. We have her head and then we have her head.

So which is it here? She dishonors her head. I take it both. I thought it was abrasive for both.

Would you think that? If both are called her head? Yes. Yeah. I think in verse three, isn't it, you got the word head, how many times, one, two, three times.

And it has to do with the establishing what he's going to show symbolically here with a head covering. So we're dealing with head that is, um, not a divisible, as you might say, head. It's not the head it's on your shoulders.

But when you come to verses four and five and et cetera, that's the head that's on the shoulder. That's the physical head. So in, in verses five and six, then the appeal that he's making is for consistency.

That's right. For consistency. So if it is a shame for a woman to be shaven, like with a razor or shorn, like a sheep being shorn, if that's a shame for her, and obviously it is, then he makes the argument, let her also be covered.

He's arguing that it's assumed that they knew it would be a shame for those things to occur. Right. So the absence of hair, if that's a shame, it's also a shame in the church.

If there's an absence of an artificial covering, he's appealing for consistency. That's what verse six is. It's her glory that's shaved.

Norman Crawford used to say, the difference between shaving and shorn is one blade or two blades. And that's right too. And in Ireland, if a woman fraternized with the police, with the forces, when the troubles were on, they shaved her head.

Wow. So it was a shame to her. Sure.

I thought that the apostle here, for the sake of argument, is using the extreme. Okay? He's not condoning somebody doing this, okay, well then I'll shave it all off. No, no.

He's using the extreme side of an argument. We do sometimes to press the point. So we want to move on to verse number seven, for if a man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man.

And Murray, just a quick comment on verse six, just to show what he's doing there is come back to the two spheres, come back to the two distinct coverings, the natural hair for outside, and then the temporary covering for the inside. So a sister walks into the meeting and says, I'm not going to put a covering on. What does the spirit of God say? He may as well cut all her hair off.

It's just that dishonoring. Then he goes on the reverse again. So let's say a sister out there says, I don't care for long hair, I'm going to cut like a man.

But then she comes into meeting, she puts on a temporary covering. God is saying, why are you acknowledging one covering and you're not acknowledging the other covering? Both are of the same value to me. So I'm coming back to this point.

We can overemphasize one at the cost of other and our young sisters end up, they end up realizing, oh, I guess it doesn't matter. It does matter. Your natural hair matters and your temporary covering matters.

So that's what the word of God is doing here. We'll get into that a little more, but just those two words, just to support what you were saying, shorn or shaven actually come from the same Greek word. One is a derivative of the other.

One is in the middle voice, one is in the passive voice. So whether someone else is doing it to you or you're doing it to yourself, that's not. But the word here for even shorn, shaven, of course we know shave, but shorn is actually the same word here used in John 11 and 44 for the linen bandages that were wound around the body of Lazarus.

In other words, it's like very close. This is not trimming the hair. This is something that was shameful and he's using the extreme.

Just a note here on a very sensitive side, a sister that has lost all of her hair due to a sickness or other reasons, and I've been approached by about this, putting a headpiece on, okay, a wig, whatever it might be, understands that's still got to be covered. That does not constitute a head covering, the personal or practical hair covering if you want. So that... If a man wears a wig, you can't put him under the mirror? No.

That's right. So it falls into the area of a prosthetic. That's right.

Okay. Just like getting teeth. They're false, but I don't have false teeth, other than the crown.

What does teeth have to do with this, William? They're part of the same thing, really. His argument is toothless. One thing that should be mentioned, brother, wouldn't it be, this word means something that can be put on or taken off.

Yes. When you get on the chapter, it's a different word. So this is a thing, this is a covering that is just something put on.

They're two different words, right? Can you give us a little difference between the two words? Well, the other one is more of that which hangs down, which indicates really, you might say, by suggestion, the long hair. So that is not something that can be removed. This is obviously, by the language that's used, something that can be put on or not put on.

That's right. That's not true of the natural hair. That's right.

That's different. Is there any link to the Old Testament vow of Nazarene hair or not? None. Amen.

There was a shaving, there was a long hair. I have heard people use that argument for this and people have said, you know, well, look at the Nazarite. Well, the Nazarite did cut his hair at the conclusion of the vow.

And it was both for men and women. That's right. And that's number one.

And number two is if you're going to use a Nazarite vow to support this in terms of the position of the hair, well, then what do you do when you come to the second half of the chapter and you can't drink wine? So you can't pitch our take of the Lord's Supper then, right? It does show that the long hairs are covering. That's it. The Nazarite was covered.

It is true, though, that the language of the Nazarite is that all the days he let his hair grow. Yeah. And that's really the thought that you have when you come down the chapter.

That's right. It's nourishing or letting the hair grow because if you don't cut it off, it's going to grow. But I wouldn't link it with the Nazarite.

No, I'm not saying so, but I'm saying that it's a similar thought. Yeah. Because then he had to shave it.

The practice of it. I wonder if we could state something here for our sisters that with your head covered, you are telling that this place is in submission to Christ. That's what we're really saying by this.

Now, it's possible to have your head covered, as you should have, and really not be in submission to Christ. So we as brethren, if our sisters are doing it, and symbol they are saying we are as an assembly, submission to Christ, may God help us all to be in submission to Christ and that this be a place where the glory of God is manifested and the man is out of the picture, as it were. We are just there as servants, and it's a joy to be here and be able to serve our Lord in this way.

So both parties are putting Christ on display. Yes. The man, verse 7, he ought not to cover his head, his physical head, because his spiritual head is Christ.

Symbolically, when he uncovers his own head, he's putting Christ on display, his head. And then similarly, the woman is the glory of the man. Man should not be on display.

Rather, it's Christ. That's right. And so she covers her head to symbolically hide the man.

But just to throw a little tiny wrench in, a very small one, we want to make sure that we understand that Christ is also on display out in the world. It's not only when the assembly comes together. If the male and the female are both following the word of God, that brings honor to God, and God is displayed here, and God is displayed out there.

But I would say, so we would say that the husband is the head of the home. So, in that sense, outside there, the man is on display. In that sense.

Okay. Yeah, but then, okay, so just follow your argument through then. But she's out there only with her hair.

She doesn't have this temporary covering that you're telling me says man is on display here. Well, her temporary, rather her covering, her natural covering, is literally saying that she's in submission to the male, to the man. Right? Not Christ.

Okay, so you wouldn't take that to God? No. Well, I take it as God's order, but it's displaying the man is on display in the world. But what we have done, as Brother Thomas said, is when we come into the congregation, the women are simply saying this, no man is on display.

Okay? And the men are saying, one man is on display. I just see it as a role. I think too, Brother Scott, it helps us to understand that it's when we come together.

Absolutely. Okay? So, I know what you mean when you speak about out there in the world, but that'd be in a totally different sense than what we're talking about here. Oh, I do agree.

That's where I'm seeing the two different spheres. One is natural, one is spiritual. As much as I'd like to get on, and our time is gone.

But here it's because of the angels, isn't it? That's right. Say a few words about that, and then you can get on. In a minute, we will, Phil.

I'll hold you to that. Now, we're going to ask some of these extra, I'll get back to you. Memory's not that bad.

Some of these brethren that haven't had a chance to ask a question or something out here, you can ask, please. I might ask you. You're doing better.

At the beginning, some had that extra meatball, put them to sleep. So, go ahead, Brother. Could you speak for just a minute to whether we should have our young daughters who are not saved, should we have their heads covered in the assembly meetings? Well, personally, Brother, I wouldn't push that too hard.

Okay? However, it's kind of nice when they realize why Mom does it, okay? It has nothing to do with headship in their own life or in the assembly. Maybe an example, like, you know, because I'm a bit of a stickler at this, I'd like our kids over here to go to school like they do in the north of Ireland. And then they, a suit and a tie, and the rest of it wouldn't be so bad, because they've done it for 14 years.

Rain or shine, there they are, standing in the corner with it. So it becomes, we're over here, ah, you know, everything is different. So it's nice for them to see the order that's carried out, but I wouldn't push it.

What were your thoughts on it? Okay, some of the brethren here. Well, I would just, this is where, when you understand it in the context of an assembly meeting, that helps us. What about funerals? What about weddings? They're not assembly meetings.

Now, dear sister, if you have a conscience against it, don't wear it. If you have a conscience for it, wear it. If you're afraid to offend somebody until the teaching gets out to more and more people, and they start to understand it, just wear it.

If your husband asks you to wear it, just wear it. But understand, this is not an assembly meeting. I'm not covering my head because the word of God is being read.

No, I'm covering my head because of the doctrinal significance of assembly gatherings. So what we're saying is that all of these things can have a practical teaching effect, but they have no spiritual value. Right, in certain areas.

The corporate portion of it is important. That's what we're covering, the whole series about the corporate gathering. That's the context.

Yeah, and you've got, so if you were to require it for children, then you would have to say they're part of the corporate gathering, and they're not. Right. But then if parents want to teach their children this way, with an understanding, it's not going to hurt.

We put little coverings on our kids when they got how old. It didn't harm them. So, you know, common sense.

Far better, though, to teach them. I think what has been said is this is specific to the gathering. While it brings in complementary creational truths, far better to teach our children those things in our homes, like the order in the home.

And even love, like Ephesians 5, love for the wife. Show that to our children, how we love our wives. Husbands, you know, wives, how we love our husbands, and so on.

So that order can be clearly seen, whereas this order is really relegated to the church. That's right. You know, I have to admit, in our own home, my parents made us do things that I likely didn't make my children do, and wouldn't.

And I don't think they really could support from Scripture what they were doing. But, you know, something didn't kill us. That's right.

And, you know, I thank God for it. We just respect it. It was never an issue, that sort of thing.

And I don't think our children really have an issue with it. You know, that's the thing. Did that satisfy you? I think I could go back to the context of there's nothing wrong with teaching it.

There's nothing wrong with practicing it. But from the standpoint of being able to say it's of the corporate. Oh, yeah.

Sure. To address it is important, I think. And I think it's good to address our children in a good way when they come to me.

Not just so casual. I mean, that's coming in among us. Yeah, I know.

I know. I hear you, Brother. Did we get to your question, Brother, that we ran you off on? I can't remember what it was.

It was on verse 10. Yes. Verse 10.

Power of God. I was just trying to get you moving, you know. Time's short.

But angels, because of the angels. I was going to say that was a first, but I won't say that. Let's get moving.

Yes. But these are important things, Brother. We'll go.

I know some are looking at their watch. Everybody's kind of woke up a bit. I know some had one extra meatball they didn't need, and they were fading on me.

But looking better now.