Tonight, we turn in the scriptures to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. As I said in the prayer, it's a, I feel, one of the more challenging sermons that I've had to work through, texts, to prepare a sermon. I learned a lot. Whether I communicate that to you, that's why I asked the Lord tonight that it would go well. When we read it, I think you'll initially feel the challenge of it, but I think if we can stay close to his main point tonight, which I'll try to reemphasize over and over, hopefully that's what you're able to take and then apply appropriately to our setting and in a way that is beneficial to us as we worship the Lord. So let's give our attention tonight to 1 Corinthians 11, beginning at verse 1. Be imitators of me as I am of Christ. Now, I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head. For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. Nevertheless, in the Lord the woman is not independent of man, nor man of woman. For as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God. Judge for yourselves. Is it proffer for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is a disgrace for him? But if a woman has long hair, it is her glory. For her hair is given to her for a covering. If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice nor do the churches of God. May the Lord bless tonight the hearing of his word. In the last section that we considered in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul said something that really does drive tonight a new subject that he feels the need to address in the church in Corinth. Remember what he said at the very end of chapter 10 in verse 31. He says, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. And in doing that, you don't want to give any offense to Jews or Greeks or to the church of God. And then he goes on to say, listen, whatever I do, I don't seek my own advantage, but that of many that they may be saved. I'm not trying to please and do my own thing. There's the tie tonight. I'm not trying to please and do my own thing, but I am consciously aiming for and thinking a lot about the glory of God. That's my goal. That's how I've learned to deny myself. That's what I do now. So that's the context of which he now works to address what I believe is a mammoth subject in the life of the church of Corinth. We've been talking a lot about separation in the Corinthians as Christians in Corinth and that our Christianity needs to be separate today and distinctive from all that is in the culture, idolatrous and profane. And we looked at a variety of different subjects. We looked at sexual morality. We looked at idolatry. We've looked at worship. We've looked at what the design of ministry should be. But if I were to ask the question tonight, what is one of the few areas that we as Christians have all backed away from talking about that we all fear to talk about what is it it's how we present ourselves as christians in worship in terms of dress and style it really has become the one area that we're afraid now we're afraid to make any distinction i saw a parent crying out today crying out about the new generation and saying you know we're the only generation that's afraid of our kids. Isn't that really what it is? We're afraid of our children. We don't lead them. But this is the one area I think that we are somewhat afraid because we're worried about how we're going to be viewed by others. I remember visiting a church a long time ago and remember looking at their membership requirements and I kid you not, there was an actual vow that new members had to take that they would not wear a coat and tie to worship. We almost universally hear, listen, God doesn't care what you look like. It's all about your heart. So long as you love Jesus. I hear that all the time. Just love Jesus. What you look like doesn't matter. That's the approach of the church today. I saw on a Reformed Church website a statement, any visitor should not care at all how you dress. They said, we're not legalistic like that. and you should feel comfortable to wear whatever you want to wear whenever you want to come to the house of God. It doesn't matter. Does it? Does it? I have a question. Does what you look like matter? Does what you look like matter? Is it really just about loving Jesus in the heart and then what is external is out now? Is that it? Are we wrong to even talk about this? Should everyone just feel free to express themselves however they want to express themselves? I know this. Everyone seems free today to tell me it doesn't matter. I know that. Everyone seems to be as free game to tell me it doesn't matter and that anyone who says, well, it might matter, is scoffed at, is called legalistic, is thrown under a bus, put in a box, and that alone should cause us, well, maybe we should think through this issue a little more carefully before we just say these things. I'm saying tonight emphatically, it does matter how you present yourself in church. It does matter. And that's exactly what the Apostle's saying to us in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. That you would deny yourself extends to how you present yourself. Oh sure, I'm not going to give you a dress code tonight. I promise you, I won't give you a dress code, nor I'm going to tell you it has to be a coat and a tie. But I am going to do exactly what Paul does here. And here's what he does. We as Christians should not be radicals. We should not do anything in our styles that blurs the distinction of who we are as Christians made in God's image and that does not bring glory to Him. That's what Paul is essentially saying tonight. That's what I'm working from. I'll say it again. We as Christians should not be radicals. We should not do anything in our styles that blurs the distinction of who we are as Christians made in God's image and those things that do not bring glory to him. And so I'm somewhat putting this all under the category of modesty tonight. It's gotta be one of the more challenging sections we've come to in the scriptures and especially now in the book of 1 Corinthians because we're running up against cultural practices that are not familiar to us. That's part of the challenge of this. And as I studied this this past week, I walked away thinking, well, the main point's not difficult, but some of the particulars and some of the way that Paul is combating that is somewhat a challenge because of the particular cultural context in which he is writing, and this was inspired. Some have looked at this and tried to garner and come up with a universal application in all times and in all places for literal head coverings. I have met these people. If they want to wear head coverings, that's fine. But I've noticed in these circles, it becomes highly dogmatic, separatist, legalistic, and condemning of anyone who doesn't do it. And that's not what Paul's doing here tonight. I think it's a mistake to do that with the text tonight. It's not right to do that with the text tonight. At the end of the day, I believe he's not ultimately saying and using the head covering idea as the first century in their context as we would understand it, but he's applying this in a particular way so that it would be and would be something of a principle through all cultural contexts. So you've got to be careful with something like that. The problem that Paul is dealing with is simple. Cultural practices at one time and in one place may be fine, may have been fine, but in the culture of Corinth, they have now come to infringe upon and violate God's creation norm. The practices now have come to violate their separateness as God's people. In other words, trends in society and culture were now violating God's principles that Paul will even say are in nature itself and woven into the heart of man. And he's dealing with something particular that has become very provocative and it's now infringing and assaulting their separate identity. What is it? What am I talking about? Well, the issue that Paul is now shifting to in this particular section of 1 Corinthians is public worship. We're now getting into worship. And notice I said public. Public worship. There was something not being understood about it. There was something not being appreciated about it. And what is evident back from chapter 7 is that the Corinthians, many of the leaders had many questions for Paul. They had been writing questions and Paul had been dealing with a series of questions. Remember divorce and remarriage and these sort of certain issues. But now they had a particular question about how women were presenting themselves when they gathered for worship. What was happening? Well, some women were given in the early church praying and prophesying roles. You see that there. That seemed shocking to us, but it was happening in Corinth. And it's not totally certain exactly what was going on, what it looked like. We know Paul would later say, I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man, but to be in silence in worship. But whatever was going on here in these kind of public roles, in the midst of this phenomenon, something was greatly distressing the apostle. What was it? Well, simply put, the distinctions between men and women were being mingled up. It was confusing people. Paul wanted to explain a certain cultural practice that was gaining acceptance in the culture at large and was now making its way, lo and behold, right on into the church. What was happening? A cultural challenge. What's the cultural challenge? Well, societies and trends and cultures, they're always in flux and they're always in change, especially when it comes to style. Isn't it true? I go back and I look at men's basketball shorts from the 70s and I think, how could they ever have wore those things? You know how short they were? And then in my generation, we wore them past the knee. Did some of you really wear leisure suits? Blue, baby blue too? Bell bottoms? Long sideburns? Are you kidding? I look at the 70s and I think you guys look crazy. if you were um to go back would you've ever dreamed if you've been in the church a long time that a woman would not be in a dress uh-oh whoa don't touch that well wait wait as the working woman went out into the world the pants went on and so did the suits cultural trends come and go some of them are fine they're not necessarily wrong i'm not saying they're all wrong that's why i i somewhat have a hard time with telling everyone that they need to look a certain way there are things in any given culture depending on that culture that are proper for a formal event and those that are not and we have to exercise wisdom as christians but there's something else happening here that we're not thinking a lot about it's that cultural shifts often push boundaries and those boundary pushers often assault something that we don't realize the issue before us had to do with the fashion of men and women in corporate worship especially the women corinth was a well-to-do church corinth was the up and coming of the society we looked at that it was filled with the upper class of the city and if you were to travel the different cities of the time and you were to walk through the cities now i know this is somewhat foreign to us but but but think of a first century context you looked at women in a first century context if you saw a jewish woman she was covered in society she wore a covering in fact roman women generally did the same thing but all among these greek women particularly the corinthian women there was a lot of trend setting going on one pastor called it a kind of women's liberation movement that was going on and you can kind of begin to see what happened there you know there are the old fuddy-duddies in those coverings and listen they're just stuck they're stuck you have the whole weak and strong problem going on too with all of this don't you and they're stuck with all their old traditions i mean you have the whole fight going on and and you could see this today think about the cultural thing you run up against in looking at a muslim woman if a muslim man is if you think about it if his woman is out in a bathing suit in public she's known as a what a prostitute a prostitute covering in the first century was known as that which was innocent and that which was virtuous well among the upper class women there were a variety of new styles that were developing and some of them began to let their hair down lo and behold with long and provocative beautiful hairstyles here was the problem it was directly associated with prostitution in that culture that's like wearing the miniskirt it was intentionally pushing the status quo it was boundary pushing it was provocative and they were flaunting it and they were drawing attention to themselves especially when you had the jewish women and the roman women covered up and here's what the women weren't thinking about and the men they didn't realize their styles were now tying into something else here's the connection to chapter 10 and idolatry by the way if you can create an idol and that idol has a direct connection to the demonic realm because the demons are behind it animating it can you make yourself an idol can you make yourself an idol and tie right into it yourself think about that the culture was used here to reveal to have these real cover uncoverings of women in worship well this is cultural we're liberated and so you came into worship and there were these women praying and prophesying in corin and the men had never seen anything like that in public. If I said to you tonight it was wrong for you to let down your hair in worship, you'd laugh at me, by the way. You see how cultural shifts happen? But was it wrong in that context? What do you think it was causing? Certainly lust problems. There's no doubt about that. Hair, and I quote from one author, was an object of male lust. There's some kind of connotation of that if a woman looks at you and drops the hair. But it's more than just that. They were not thinking about the fact that many of these new styles were boundary pushing and tying to idolatry itself. And that was created there. What it was creating there were worshipers who were looking completely indistinguishable from many of those worshipers who were doing the pagan worship in the temples. They look no different. And that's the point. There was no more separation. Now do you see what Paul would be concerned about? Public worship in Corinth became a public show. Think about it. They came to worship. There's the hairstyles. The men have become now subject and controlled by what? The women. desire should public worship ever become a place where women become sex objects what a problem for desiring god and properly setting your affections right this is major disruption that's the context that's what's going on now what had essentially happened was these cultural trends were not only contributing to the profane worship but the corinthians were not considering something else and it's in that that great issue that paul raises here in first corinthians chapter 14 or 11 there are certain things that we cannot do as christians there are certain things that we cannot do because it disfigures and it assaults a certain kind of design that god put in place that's the issue that you have here is a clash when cultural norms assault god's norm that's the issue when you have idolatrous trends that are violating god's universal natural order to things and especially now their separateness as god's people now why does this matter so much well if i'm able um to look at more generally an application of this i'm going to see how important this passage is for us today and so are you i want everyone to look at verse two now i praise you brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as i delivered them to you he starts with a commendation there's a debate of whether that's sarcastic whatever the case there was a well-known body of tradition and it seemed that the corinthians knew it and received it then he says this in verse two but i want you to understand that the head of every man is christ and the head of a wife is her husband and the head of christ is god what essentially paul does is present a principle that the corinthians were not considering there is an authority structure in place there's a headship principle in place and paul is is doing here what he's doing in this section is he's taking us back to creation and he's taking us back to the creation norm to drive the apostles' concern so that we understand his concern. There was at creation what we call, and we hate the word hierarchy, we live in an egalitarian society, I understand that, but there was a functional hierarchy. In God's order, it's beautiful. In God's order, it's not oppressive. Society's oppressive to men and women. That's what this all shows. God's order's not. so there's an authority structure that we were all created in and fit in eve was taken from the rib of adam adam was formed by christ christ is the head what does it say here the head of christ is god meaning that he was sent by the father he does his will and the point of all this is there's a structure there are certain functions and roles appropriate to whether you are a man or whether you are a woman. Well, Paul wants to say is this. That needs to be maintained very clearly. If you look at verse 4, he gets into it. Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonors his head. Every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head. Since it's the same as if her head were shaven. For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head. For a man ought not to cover his head since he is the image and glory of God. He says this. Dear men, when you pray or you prophesy, your head should remain uncovered. Jews would put prayer shawls on. In fact, if you were walking around Corinth in those days, there was a well-known statue in Corinth, and they've uncovered this, of Augustus with a toga pulled up over his head to prepare a sacrifice for the gods and do prayer. They all saw it. One pastor wrote, The practice of men covering their heads in the context of prayer and prophecy was a common practice of Roman piety and widespread during the late Republic and early Empire. What Paul just said was, when a man covers his head, it's shameful. Why? Because there's something symbolic about his head. There's something about his head. What is it? Who is the man's head? Christ. To cover your head is to shame him. You're the image and the glory of God. When you cover that glory, when you cover that, you're covering and shielding that glory. How many people look at this and they say, oh, this is strange. You know, Paul, I think he's just speaking culturally here. And we're learning something here about distinctions. And I have to emphasize that. That's such the import of this passage. Distinctions, distinctions, distinctions. What are the distinctions? He says nature itself gives you a distinction. What's the nature? You all have a strong natural theology written in you. Nature tells you, not just culture, what's appropriate to the created order. That it's shameful for a man to have long hair. That's not the norm. Never has been. Why is that shameful? Because it blurs the distinction between a man and a woman. Don't be a Fabio. It's abnormal. Samson's not the norm. Don't throw that one at me. He's an exception. Well, that leads to the woman. Every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head. Who is her head? Her husband. Again, distinction. Four, that would be like shaving her head if a woman is not covered. Let her be shorn, but it's a shame for a woman to be shaved. Let her be covered. Here's what he just said. Imagine this. A woman comes in. She starts prophesying. She drops down the long, beautiful hair. The men are lusting. She's taking authority structure now. She's wearing her hair in a shameful way to the dishonor of her own husband. Paul says that's as bad as if she bicked it. Naturally, you know that when a woman bicks her head or shaves her head, something's really wrong. She's pushing boundaries. Who does it in our society? Sinead O'Connor, Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus. Why are they doing it? Because they're pushing, pushing, pushing boundaries. It's rebellion. It's drawing attention to them. It wants to make a statement. Now keep in mind, the whole thrust of this section is God's glory where? In worship. When a woman wears her hair in a shameful way, longing for attention, it's as bad as if she bicked it and that is dishonoring because she's taking from god his glory and assaulting her husband what then am i describing the complete mingling up of distinctions god made between men and women that's what i'm describing our society is pushing that on you the order of creation is driving paul here verse 7 man is the image and glory of god look at creation god created man to be the image bearer woman is the glory of man man is not from woman but woman from man nor was the man created for the woman but woman for the man distinction distinction distinction rolls rolls rolls you see what he's doing there's a complementary relationship every man has certain roles assigned to him and every woman has certain roles assigned to her and they're from god and it's beautiful now the punch of this is that if you were made to be an image bearer of somebody else i should say a woman's not the image bearer of man she's the image bearer both are image bearers of god but paul does say she's bearing his glory if there's a distinction there and you both men and women are image bearers of god but man of god's glory and woman of man's glory the distinction has to be maintained in other words let a man be a man and a woman be a woman now are you starting to feel how radical it is to say that in our culture i could have said that 50 years ago and it might not have affected you but you're starting to feel it that might have made no sense 50 years ago but it's making sense right now it's making sense right now the other night our president gave his address and i go up on the first article i read this is a historical dress do you know why it's a historical dress because the president has used a word that no other president had ever used in the history of a presidential address do you know what it was? Transgender. Transgender. That's what's being pushed on you. All distinctions in our society are being wiped out. And when a lesbian like Camille Paglia, I probably didn't pronounce her name right, can stand up and say, I just want to see a man be a man. That's why I listen to sports news. You know, Houston, we've got a problem. We live in a culture that's incessantly saying, express yourself. God says, control yourself. Now let me put this together for you. We're boundary pushers. We're always doing that stuff. And that says something about our hearts. What you look like does. That's where I get back to the statement, well, it's just about the heart, really? Well, when you do something with your style, when a woman shaves her head or hides her gender or does something that makes her indistinguishable as a Christian woman in boundary pushing in a flamboyant way that looks no different from pagans, she's assaulting God's authority structure. If she's married, she's assaulting her own husband. When a man is no longer acting or behaving or dressing like a man, that is boundary pushing and it's open rebellion to God's authority structure. When we wear something on our bodies or we tattoo them in ways that are tied to direct pagan symbols, that's not a denial of yourself. I've got to say that today. Doesn't mean you can't repent of that. But I've got to say, that's not a denial of yourself. It's a kind of taking of yourself and rebelling that you are a temple of the Holy Spirit. My grandpa would tell me when he was, when I was a kid, I was so amazed by that awesome tattoo and the Marine symbol. He was a Marine and he grabbed me one day and he said, I did that when I was drunk. Don't you ever do that. When something becomes common in our culture that boundary pushes beyond what is natural to us being men or women, or beyond what is natural to what is reverent to god culturally in our presentation of ourselves before him in worship we then are saying we don't really want to be under his authority and then you're assaulting him and i don't want anyone to do that so what paul is saying here tonight is style matters why because you're all divine image bearers and that means that god is going to use that as male and female for his glory not as a venue for you to be taking that glory for yourself, to blur distinctions, to push boundaries, but instead that you would take who you are in your creative design and glorify your Christ whose head over all. So outward presentation at the end of the day does say a lot about where the heart is. I'm not measuring hair lengths here. That's not what I'm doing. But we need to think about this. But when we come before God in worship, I think sometimes our attitude to worship is, boy, God should just be thankful I'm here today. Paul is saying, do you consider when you gather here, you're in the presence of God? And who does he mention to make this all the more potent? Angels. Women should cover because of the angels. Boys and girls, do you know what angels do in the presence of God? Remember Isaiah 6? They have six wings. I'll come to the burning bush next week. Two, they cover their feet because they're in holy ground. Two, they shield straight up, forming a firewall so God's glory doesn't get out and consume anyone. And two, they take and they cover their faces before God. Now, they're not sinful. And they're covering. And what Paul is saying here is we need to recognize that when we come before God, that is not licensed to be whatever you want to be and express yourself. Uh-uh. Contain yourself. Control yourself. It's a danger zone. That's Psalm 50. Forget you who forget God. Beware. I'll tear you to pieces when you come to worship. I'm not telling you tonight to wear a coat and tie, but I am telling you be appropriate to a submissive design that God gave to the submissive, being submissive in our lives to what is appropriate to us being men and women and do it with a concern for God's glory. And women, be conscious of your dress, that what are you trying to accomplish? Attention, men looking at you. There's a reason, Paul says, when a woman should adorn herself, what? modestly not with braided hair or costly clothing you see the hair issue again not with those things but that which is proper for a woman professing godliness because god is watching very carefully the inward and quiet spirit of a gentle spirit and a quiet heart which is precious in his sight paul closes this guess how he closes this is so fascinating to me look at um verse 16 if anyone's inclined to be contentious do you think paul thought someone's going to want to fight about this somebody out there is going to hear this and want to fight about this paul says you know what i'm not going to fight about this i don't want to fight about this but here's what you can do you can go look at all the churches in general and you can test your behavior and see if it really is what the churches of God demonstrate. And what you're going to find is when you're doing these things, you're pushing well beyond the design of what is proper to worship, what is proper to nature itself, and what is proper to the distinction that God made in setting you apart as his child of light. God is a God, 1 Corinthians 14, that loves order. And may that order that he assigned to us be something we delight in from His creative hand, especially as we demonstrate submission to it as to who we are, men and women, when we come to worship Him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, a challenging text tonight, and it's difficult when cultural trends dominate a culture and push boundaries to even begin to address them today, especially when the church world has all but accepted all of them. And we ask that we would be aware and first realize that when we come into your presence, we're before your faith. And that you made us and not we ourselves. We are your sheep, the sheep of your pasture formed by your hand. And that we're in the presence of angels in worship right now who are all around us. If only our eyes could see like Elisha's servant, we'd see angels of fire all around us right this minute but we're often so dull and so careless and we ask for forgiveness for that and we ask that we would take seriously in all submission and in honor and integrity of heart who we are as your people and come out and be separate from the world because you've said you'll be a father to us thank you for your love and your faithfulness in jesus name amen