The Glory Of God AM

00:01 Amen. Well, it's good to see each one here this morning. We are missing some folks due to the holiday weekend with traveling and so on. But we're glad for each one that's here this morning. You've been a little timid this morning. I kind of sensed it in the singing and in the sharing time, which there wasn't any. So I think we ought to say a robust Amen. 00:19 Amen. 00:20 Okay. Well, you're there and that's good. Because we need to let the redeemed... the Bible says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." And so I want to say this morning I'm redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, by the Lord Jesus Christ, being saved and being sanctified and filled with the Holy Spirit and rejoicing in the truth of God's Word and in the Christian life. 00:42 And I trust that's your testimony as well. I did think of an announcement this morning that needs to be made so we have no assumptions. And that is that next Sunday morning there will not be service here at the church. Now that's kind of a given. We kind of understand that for those of us that have been here for a long time. But in case you didn't get that understanding, 01:04 you can this morning. We will be meeting at the campground out there at Prairie Missionary... Prairie... Prairie View? Prairie. Yeah. Prairie. Prairie Missionary Campground. And we'll be having our service there. And so all are welcome to join us. And you may find that out on County Road 9. County Road 9. 01:25 All right. If you want to turn in your Bibles this morning to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 11, I want to share with you this morning about the glory of God in the headship veiling. And I want to remind you of a statement that one of my pastors made years ago. 01:45 Brother Clarence Garrigue was one of our pastors. And I remember him saying that the three issues... I think there were three... that the Mennonite church was dealing with at that time... and this is 30, 40 years ago... 02:01 were women in the ministry and divorce and remarriage and homosexuality was just coming into the churches. And I remember him saying on a number of occasions... I think I heard him say it... that all three of those issues are addressed with a proper understanding of 1 Corinthians 11. 02:22 And it is really a key to understanding gender roles. It is a key to understanding healthy authority structures. It is a key to understanding the relationship between men and women, husbands and wives. There are a lot of things that are rooted in 1 Corinthians 11. 02:42 And it really takes us back... and it's kind of an addendum or an add-on to the creation account in Genesis chapter 1 and 2 and 3 where God created men and women. And He created their roles. And He created them to be living together in harmony. Of course, sin messed all that up. 03:02 And since then we've had nothing but chaos and unrest in families and homes and in societies and in marriages and siblings and all kinds of things that are a negative thing. And the Gospel comes to repair that. The Gospel is to repair that. 03:21 And I think that the things that Brother Clarence said back in those days, 40 years ago, were issues. But there have been a couple of issues that have been added since then that are really troubling the church and even the conservative Anabaptist congregations. Such as the whole issue of abuse. 03:42 And abuse and sexual misuse of sexuality and homosexuality and gender confusion. And of course we still have divorce and remarriage and the roles of men and women in the church and in the community... or in the church and in the home are still major issues that our churches are dealing with. 04:02 I want you to think about these five... five issues and how this relates to 1 Corinthians 11. The roles of men and women. Women who have really biblically do a bad job of being women in order to prove their equality with men. 04:23 Now we see that in the culture around us. They do a bad job at being women so that they can be equal to men. And the Bible says here in 1 Corinthians 11 that there's equality at the cross. There is an image that is stamped... the image of God stamped upon males. 04:42 The image of God stamped upon females. However, they have different roles. One is leadership. The other is followership. And so men also who do a bad job at leading in either an attempt to keep the peace or abuse their role as leaders. 05:01 And so we have that issue that is facing the church still today. And I wonder, what would it be like? What would it be like if we could capture the glory of God in the perfect order? What healing and wholeness there would be in the families of our communities, 05:21 in the churches, in the relationships between men and women. If we could... men take responsibility for loving leadership in the home and in the church. And sisters... women find their primary fulfillment in the home and in raising children and nurturing their families. 05:39 And where children learn to obey and live in subjection to their parents and to actively engage in the church. What kind of changes would that bring in a world if that was understood? And then the second thing that we mention is the pain of abuse. 05:58 The pain of abuse. It's part of the human struggle. Ungodly men abusing and misusing those under their care. And we hear a lot about abuse today. 06:09 And one of the reasons there's been such a swing in kind of a hypersensitivity towards abuse is because there were so many abuse cases that were swept under the carpet, swept under the rug. 06:22 And so we have things coming to light where parents and specifically husbands in anger and harshness take advantage of the vulnerability of their wives and children for selfish purposes. 06:36 What would it be like if we could capture the truths of loving leadership coming under the authority of Jesus Christ, coming under the biblical model of fathers not provoking their children to anger and fathers loving their wives and so on? 06:55 What would it be like if the pain of sexual, emotional, and physical abuse are never experienced? We'd be looking at a nearly perfect world. Would we not? And then we have, of course, the situation with divorce and remarriage, which hasn't gotten better in the last 40 years. It's certainly gotten worse. 07:14 Where covenants are broken without even 07:19 good excuses, much less biblical excuses. Covenants being broken where covenant marriage is the exception rather than the norm. Seeing marriage as just an agreement that we enter into instead of as a covenant that binds us together. And where communities wink at the devastation of divorce and broken homes. 07:39 What would it be like if divorce was not an option and remarriage was unthinkable in the unfortunate case of a divorce? What would it be like if children were secure in the love of mom and dad and in the home environment? If there was never a word uttered about divorce or about separation? 07:58 If there was the security of growing up in a home where mom and dad love each other and where they strive to meet one another's needs in a godly way? And then, of course, there's homosexuality and gender confusion. Oh my, back 40 years ago it was just becoming more and more talked about. 08:18 But today we're living in societies where sodomy, same-sex relationships, and transgenderedism and every other form of sexual depravity has become mainstream. It has become mainstream. It's become part of the cultural norm. Just not many years ago, maybe 20 if that, 08:39 states all across the country were passing laws outlawing same-sex marriage and same-sex unions. And within a short time that has all toppled. And now it's become part of the mainstream in culture all around us. And what would it be like if homosexuality was actually valued, 09:00 sanctified, holy, honored, and respected? And men and women took their two distinct... as two distinct sexes took their clear masculine and feminine roles? Boy, we would be looking at near perfection. And that's the role that God has called us to fill. 09:20 It's all addressed here in seed form and in applications in 1 Corinthians 11. And then, of course, we have the misuse of sexuality in general where sexual abuse, rape, child molesting, pornography, incest among family members are daily front page news items. 09:40 Hardly a week goes by, but there isn't another abuse case scandal on the pages of the newspaper and in the communities. And it's no different... 09:50 they're not much different in our plain communities where much of that has been swept under the rug and where abuse and sexual abuse has been covered up and not brought to light and not dealt with as the sin that it is and the restoration that needs to happen. 10:06 What would it be like if sexual expression in marriage was based upon honor and respect and the marriage bed undefiled and those under our care were protected and kept safe and treasured and honored? What would that be like? Well, 1 Corinthians 11 really addresses the principles behind all those things. 10:29 The principles behind all those things. And so the Apostle Paul says, "Imitate Me just as I also imitate Christ." Now there's probably a gap there in your translation of the scripture between verse 1 and verse 2 because verse 1 kind of has an unfortunate chapter break there. 10:47 It kind of goes along with the 10:51 previous chapter. 10:52 And so we really start talking about this headship veiling issue and headship in verse 2 where he says, "Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember Me in all things and keep the traditions as I delivered them to you." Now the word traditions there is not like we think about the word traditions. 11:15 Where your family has a tradition, my family has a tradition, we have a tradition of Sunday fellowship dinners on the 5th Sunday of the month. Or we have a Christmas tradition where we go to grandma's house or grandma this house or that grandma's house. Or we do certain things at Christmas. And we're not talking about those kinds of traditions. 11:32 What we're talking about when he says traditions here is something declared. In this case, it is divine as reflected in apostolic teaching that is now being written down. And so we're not thinking about it in the sense, well, the covering is a Mennonite tradition or it's a church tradition. 11:51 No. It was an apostolic teaching that was declared and now is being written down. And it was common in all the churches. And verse 16 says, "We have no such custom." That is of being contentious. 12:05 And some translations translate that, "We have no other custom than what Paul has taught here in 1 Corinthians 11:1-16." It was standard operating procedure. It was standard practice in the early church. 12:21 And that was the tradition, the apostolic tradition. If you want some other scriptures where Paul talks about apostolic tradition, 2 Thessalonians 2:15 says, "Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions, apostolic proclamations, 12:43 the traditions which you were taught whether by word or our epistle." So whether it was orally taught or whether it was written down, this was orally taught and then it was written down and forever settled in heaven. 13:02 And so he talks about this tradition as having the authority of the pen and the voice of the apostles and the entire early church. Paul equates that term tradition with the authority of both verbal and written. 13:22 In fact, in 2 Thessalonians 3:6 he says, "But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 13:29 that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us." And so apostolic tradition was important in the early church while the scripture was being written down and being progressively revealed. 13:50 Now he says, as a proof of that, he says, "Just as I delivered to you, I delivered them to you. I have handed them down to you. 14:00 They are to be kept." He says, "I praise you, brethren, for doing so." And then he goes into the headship order in verse 3 and 4 and the response to that in verse 5, 6, and 7. 14:20 The headship order, verse 3, "But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ. 14:27 The head of woman is man and the head of Christ is God." Now some translations, I believe the ESV translates this as the head of the woman or the head of every wife is her husband or the head of... uses the terms husband and wife as opposed to the terms man and woman. 14:47 It can be translated either way. We do believe that this is primarily seen in the marriage relationship of husbands and wives, but it does refer to men and women. So the head of every man is Christ. The head of the woman is man. 15:06 The head of Christ is God. And therefore, verse 4, "Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered or veiled dishonors his head. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered or unveiled dishonors her head. 15:24 For that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. For if a woman is not covered or veiled, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved..." Let me insert there, it is. It still is. Even though you see more and more women that have shaved heads, it's still... 15:46 there's something about a woman who takes pleasure in her hair and who wants her hair to be beautiful and wants her hair to be there and doesn't want to be bald. You take a bald man who's in cancer treatment or something like that, he doesn't necessarily mind having his head exposed. 16:07 But you take a woman and going through chemotherapy or something and she'll put a hat on or she'll put a wig on or something like that because it is still an embarrassment for women to not have hair. And so it says, "Let her be covered. 16:24 Let her be covered." Now some will say that this headship order means that they are the source rather than the authority. Now what I mean by that is when we look at this and saying the head of Christ is God, the head of man is Christ, 16:42 and the head of the woman is the man, that they will look at that word head and believe that it means source. That God is the source of Christ. Christ is the source of man. Man is the source of woman. In other words, woman was taken out of man, out of his side, out of his rib. 17:03 But in doing a little study, according to biblical scholars in over 50 examples of ancient Greek literature, whenever it is used in Greek literature, even non-biblical or extra-biblical literature, whenever such a statement is made, it always means to be used in the sense of authority. And so we have here that the authority structure, 17:25 not just the origination of someone, the authority structure is what's being referred to as being head. Now we see here the word dishonors in verse 4. "Every man praying or prophesying with his head veiled or covered dishonors his head. His head, 17:44 which has just been defined in the verse before that, which is Christ. He dishonors Christ. And every woman that has her head unveiled when praying or prophesying..." By the way, praying, speaking to God about men and prophesying, speaking to men about God. 18:05 And so you have praying or prophesying, which should be a part of our actual daily practice. And so we talk here about it being a part of our daily activity and our daily practice. So he says, "We don't want to dishonor the head. 18:25 So if you're a woman that prays or prophesies speaks to God about men and speaks to men about God, your head should be covered or you dishonor or shame your husband, the man over whom has authority over you." Verse 10 says, 18:42 "For this reason ought a woman to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angel." Now the term symbol of authority, look at that very closely in your New King James translation or in your King James translation. 18:58 You will notice those translations do us a great service by taking the terms and the words that are not part of the original language, not part of the original Greek language and writing that are added to the text, the English text for readability. 19:20 And sometimes you can take those out, those words because they're not in the original. You can take them out and get a better sense of what the original is trying to tell us. So what we see here in verse 10, the words a symbol of are not in the original text. They are italicized. 19:40 So what you should be able to do to get a better understanding of the original thought is take a symbol of out and say, "For this reason the woman ought to have authority on her head." Not just a symbol of authority, but authority. 19:59 Or another way of translating it a little bit better might be a sign of authority. And so the idea of this being a symbol has been stressed among us. And then because we are not into symbols in 21st century America, we don't get... we think it can be easily discarded. 20:18 But when it's a sign or when it is actually authority on her head, then it takes on a little bit different meaning. 20:26 It takes on a more gravity, more weight. It's not just a symbol of authority, but it is a sign of authority or it is authority itself on her head. 20:44 Now that ought to in itself change and heighten the importance of this practice when it is seen as a sign of authority. By the way, what is the sign or the authority he's talking about? Is it the cloth? 21:04 Is it the piece of fabric that he's talking about? Or is it the covered head that he's talking about? That the covered head is the sign of authority, not the cloth on the covered head. And so that's a subtle difference, but it makes... 21:23 it has a huge implication as to how much you cover of your head. 21:28 If it is a symbol of authority, then a small silver dollar size token, give token to the practice just as long as it's a symbol is enough. If it is a sign of authority, 21:49 if it's the covered head that is the authority, then we really ought to cover the head. It should be covered and not just have a token approach to it. And so what we have here in the word covered is the word catacolipto. 22:11 You've heard this before. It has the idea cata, the prefix cata or cata means down. Colipto means to veil. Catacolipto means to cover the... 22:24 to cover wholly or to hide what is being hidden, the hair, the head, the veil hanging down from the head. That literally means to veil or hang down from the head. So verse 10, "A woman should wear a covering on her head to show that she is under authority. 22:45 A man should not wear a covering on his head to show that he is under authority." And maybe we remind ourselves this morning that authority is not being the boss. Authority is responsibility. Authority is responsibility. 23:06 There must be an equal amount of authority to go with every responsibility. And so when Adam is approached by God having been given a commandment, God starts with Adam and says, "Adam, what's happening here in your family?" He doesn't go to Eve first. He doesn't go to the serpent first. 23:26 He says, "Adam, I gave you authority and responsibility. Now you answer. Give an answer." And then he also gets to Eve. He also gets to the serpent. But you've heard me say it before, when God comes knocking on the door of the family, he goes to Dad first. He says, "Dad, what's happening? 23:48 What's going on? What have you done?" Now I want to spend a portion of time here this morning doing two things. Number one, I want to talk this thing about glory. And then I want to give some practical applications as it pertains to our congregation. 24:08 I want to take us a little bit deeper than even the principle of headship and the principle of leadership. And I want to take it to the principle and the truth undergirding all of that. And that is the concept of glory and shame. 24:31 Glory and shame. Now it is true that this passage is talking about male and female roles. It is true that this passage talks about headship and followership and responsibility. 24:49 And it is true that this passage talks about creation. It is true this passage talks about the angels. But there's something that's often overlooked in this passage, and that is the concept and the truth of glory and shame. Glory and shame. 25:09 Glory is referred to a number of times here in verse 4. Look at the text. He talks about dishonor. That would be the same thing as shaming. 25:22 In verse 5, he talks about dishonoring her head. That would be the idea of shaming. In verse 6, he uses the term shameful. In verse 7, he uses the term glory twice. And then over in verse 14, 25:44 he uses the term dishonor. And in verse 15, glory. There's something going on here. And I don't profess this morning, brothers and sisters, to understand it all. But there's something going on here that's deeply rooted in the context of the glory of God and shame. 26:08 I find it fascinating that he refers to creation and the creation order where headship was established. And he refers to that as being unashamed in the garden between the husband and wife. 26:28 That man and woman were naked, husband and wife were naked in the garden and were not ashamed, but reflected the glory of God in a pristine, unadulterated, beautiful sort of way. 26:50 And then when the fall happened, they became ashamed. 26:57 There's something going on here with these words of shame and glory. Shame and glory. Dishonor. The word in verse 14, shame means indignity, disgrace, dishonor, without honor. 27:13 Incidentally, yeah, verse 14 does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a shame to him. It is dishonor to him. It is... The word there can also be translated vile. For a man to have long hair is vile. Did you know that? 27:31 Do your word study in the Greek resources. It's just the same word, incidentally, that is used in Romans 1:26 where the scripture says that God gave them over to vile affections. Interesting. 27:51 That's why I say that the homosexual thing is rooted also here in 1 Corinthians 11. We get this right. We get a lot of stuff right. The deep meaning of shame and glory. And so he gave them over to vile affections to do those things which are against nature. 28:11 And so here in verse 14, he's saying, "Does not even nature teach you that a man should not have long hair?" Now how you integrate that with the Nazarite vow, which was a special provision in the Old Covenant, that's not really our topic right now. 28:30 But generally speaking, well, we don't have Nazarites today. Let's just put it that way. So guys, if you want to grow your hair long, we don't have Nazarites today. That was an Old Testament thing. Nazarite today is a spiritual separation from the world, which we all should be under. And so he says, 28:50 "This is about shame as opposed to glory." And so we have the word glory. This word in verse 15, "If a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her. For her hair is given to her for a covering." Now don't let that throw you. 29:08 That word covering there is a different Greek word than the word let her be covered earlier in the chapter. This is the hair paraboleon, which means to surround, to be surrounded by the hair. 29:20 It is a natural covering, which is nature's way of proving the authority of the artificial covering. He's using this as an example. Like nature requires a covering on a woman, so God requires a covering on a woman. 29:41 Different covering, different word. Do the word studies. Do the research. But her long hair is a glory. His long hair is a shame. Verse 7, "He is the glory of God. She is the glory of man." What's going on here? What does the word glory mean? 30:00 Well, the word glory is the Greek word doxa, which has the idea of one who shows the excellence of or being known or seen as one really is. 30:15 And so when it comes to the glory of kings, kings wanted to flaunt their glory and their possessions and their military powers. 30:26 When they would come back from wars and so on, they would flaunt their glory and put it out there so everybody could see how glorious the king was. He wanted to be seen for what he was and what he had accomplished. Man, in verse 7, it says that he is the glory of God. He shows what God is really like. 30:49 He exposes God's glory. He shows the excellency of God as in such a way as a king would have things that would show his excellency. The Bible also talks about the glory of the sun. 31:04 The glory of the sun would be to shine in its unmitigated, unhindered brightness. The glory of the sun. The glory of the moon is for the moon to be shown in its beauty and its glory without anything hiding it. 31:20 The glory of the stars would be to see them in their full strength of being stars. And the glory of God is to see God as he really is. And it is man that reveals that. Now I'm sorry to the feminists. We didn't write this. 31:39 God wrote it that man reflects. And this is no way a reflection on the sister because we're all made in the image of God. Amen? I think some of you need to stand up this morning and wake up. Let's stand. If I put you to sleep, I need to wake you up. 31:59 Go ahead and be seated, please. 32:03 And so we have man, verse 7, "For a man indeed ought not to cover his head since he is the image and glory of God. But woman is the glory of man." Now she's the image of God also. She bears the image of God like man does, but different. 32:25 And so we have equal access to Christ. We have equal access to God. We have equal access to prayer. We have equal access to salvation. We have equal access to all of the graces of the Christian life. Equal access to the Holy Spirit, but a different function, a different role. What is this talking about? 32:46 One is to reflect the glory of God. The other is to reflect the glory of man. It's just key to this passage. It's about glory and shame, honor and dishonor. Both are made in the image of God, but not in the same reflection of glory. 33:07 Man is the crowning glory of God's authoritative representative. So man represents the authority of Christ in a different way than woman does. And woman is the crowning glory as man's authoritative representative. 33:29 One commentary wrote it like this, "She was taken out of his side. Not made from the rude clay, but from clay already attempered by human life and heat. Not from any remote or uncommonly member of man's body, but from his heart, 33:51 the very seat of life. Therefore, she is his glory. She represents what is finest in him and most exquisite, what is highest and best. 34:06 She reflects the glory." In other words, I don't know how to put it in common language any more than just to say this. She makes man look good. She makes man look good. And I'm talking more than just pressing his clothes and making sure that he's got the crease in his slacks. 34:25 She makes him look good. She is the crowning pinnacle of the human race. And she reflects the glory of man in a way that you don't see when you look at masculinity. Masculinity reflects... It does that with the glory of God. 34:46 The glory of God. He reflects the authority of Christ. And he does that by coming under that authority. And she reflects the authority of man. And she does that by coming under authority and thereby exercising authority by being under authority. 35:09 That's a paradox. You see, one of the ways we have authority over the angels and over the unseen angelic world, both the angels and devils are watching. Some people think, well, these angels are just holy angels that watch as we worship. 35:29 I like to think that they're both angels, unholy and holy, that watch as we live. That watch as we live. And we have authority over those angels. We have authority over those demonic forces by being under authority. 35:50 Jesus praised the Centurions' faith when he said, "Jesus, I am a man under authority. And I say, go here and do this and do that." Why did he say, "I'm a man under authority?" Because he understood that the only way you have authority is to be under authority. Because authority is delegated. 36:12 Authority is not intrinsic in us. Authority is delegated from God. The authority of Christ was delegated to him by the Father. The authority of man is delegated to him by Christ. The authority of woman is delegated to her by the man. 36:32 And we only have authority by being under authority. All authority is delegated. So each of them comes under the covering of their delegated authority. He comes under Christ. She comes under her husband. And this represents a mutual dependence. 36:53 In verse 8, "For the man is not from woman, but woman from man." How did she show up? 37:04 She showed up by going into a deep sleep and God doing surgery and taking that rib, which was not just common dirt like we got made out of common dirt. She got made out of a living being that was made of common dirt. 37:27 And so she reflects his glory in a different way than he does. 37:37 While woman is the glory of man, she is also dependent on man. So verse 8, verse 9, "Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man." That doesn't mean she is his property. 37:51 That doesn't mean that she is his object to abuse or to mistreat. It means that she is his treasure to help him to become the man that God has created him to be. To help him become the man that God has created him to be. 38:13 Verse 11, "Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man in the Lord. For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman. But all things are from God." So lest men think that they're more special, let us remember that we're not. 38:32 We get our life from a woman just like she got her life from us. So there is a dependency. Now what does this have to do with glory? Why does the woman cover her head and her hair? 38:50 Because glory often in the scriptures is covered. Glory is covered. I went through and did some research on this whole subject of glory. And it may have been good to do a whole nother message. But let's just look at some scriptures here quickly. 39:11 Exodus chapter 16, "When the glory of God came down on the tabernacle. And when it came down on the temple, it was shrouded with clouds." I don't believe that the clouds were the glory. I believe that the clouds hid the glory. It shrouded the glory. 39:31 It was part of the glory. But you cannot see the full force of God's glory. In fact, not only did the clouds hide the glory, but God's hand hid the glory. You remember what happened with Moses? Moses said, "Show me your face." In other words, I want to see your glory. 39:53 And God said, "You cannot see my face, for no man shall see me and live." And the Lord said, "Here is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock." And when God passed by, he lifted his hand and Moses saw the the the the backside of God. And the glory was veiled by the hand. 40:16 Also the thing of the clouds. Exodus chapter 40, "The cloud covered the tabernacle meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." Number 16:42, "Now it happened when the congregation had gathered against Moses and Aaron, that they turned toward the tabernacle of meeting. And suddenly the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared." Incidentally, 40:37 the glory of the Lord is also covered by a rainbow. Ezekiel 1:28, "I saw as it were the appearance of fire with brightness all around, like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day." So it was appearance of the brightness all around it. 40:54 This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. So it was covered by clouds. It was covered by his hand. It was covered by Moses. Interestingly enough, Moses covered the glory of God for the people. There was a time when the people said, "Moses, we can't handle this anymore. 41:14 We're going to die if we hear God speak anymore. So you go and you tell us what God wants us to know, and then we'll do it." So it was veiled by Moses. And Moses signified that by wearing the veil as he observed a part of the glory of God. A residual effect of the glory of God. 41:34 It is veiled by angels. It is veiled by angels. So he drove out the man and placed the cherubim. This is Genesis chapter 3. The glory of God in the Garden of Eden was protected from sinful man by cherubim. 41:49 He shielded the glory. Isaiah 6:2, "The glory of God was shielded from man's observation. Above it stood seraphim. Each had six wings. 42:01 With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew." Ezekiel 11:23, "The glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain, which is on the east side of the city." And the cherubim were part of that operation. 42:21 Hebrews 9:5, "The very ark of the covenant, the mercy seat, was shielded and protected by the cherubim of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat." Hebrews 9:5. Then, of course, we have Christ coming, the glory of God. "And we beheld his glory, the glories of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 42:42 But his glory was veiled, veiled in flesh." We sing that song, "Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see. Hail the incarnate deity." Wasn't the full force of the glory of God visible to man? It was all there, but it was shrouded in mystery. 43:01 We got a little peek of it with James and John and Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration when they saw the glory of the heavenly bodies. But still, we've not seen it in its fullness. It's always been shrouded. What about in the New Testament? New Testament, the glory is shrouded by suffering. 43:23 Do you realize that? That we don't see the fullness of the glory of God by it being hidden through suffering. 43:31 Romans 5:2, "Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Romans 8:18, 43:43 "For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." It shall be. It isn't yet. 43:54 First Peter 1:11, "Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, who was in them, was indicating when he testified beforehand, the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow." Glory follows suffering. First Peter 4:13, "But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, 44:15 you may also be glad with exceeding joy." And by the way, the glory is going to be revealed. It's going to be revealed. Revelation 21 says, "But I saw no temple in it." That is the city which represents the New Jerusalem, which represents the church of Jesus Christ and its glory. "For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 44:35 The city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And all the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it." So the glory is going to be revealed. 44:55 Right now, the glory is still veiled. So what is the significance of the veiling in relation to the glory? The glory is veiled by the covering. Now you say, "Well, what about man's glory?" I mean, 45:14 if the woman's glory is supposed to be veiled, what about the man's glory? He's supposed to be unveiled. The man is covered by Christ. The man is covered by Christ. Christ, his glory is covered, covering man. The woman's glory is covered by the veiling. 45:35 I think if you look at it, and I'd be open to counsel on this whole concept because it's something that I'm grappling with. But there's more here than meets the eye when it comes to the whole thing of glory and honor, glory and honor. 45:50 And so my question for us this morning is, are we living our lives in such a way that we make Christ look good, and we make sisters our husbands look good? Glory. 46:09 Glory. 46:12 Coming under authority, men and women, reflecting the excellence of God in Christ. Reflecting the excellence of Christ's sacrificial service for those under our care. Not just a practice, but a lifestyle. Not just an ordinance, but a lifestyle. 46:32 You see, much damage has been, brothers and sisters. Much damage has been done through the years by men and women who promoted the practice, but denied it in their attitude and inconsistency. 46:45 Men who misused their authority and protection and responsibility and did not make Jesus look good. And women who do everything in their power to make their husbands look bad. Both are sinful. 47:04 Let us not lose the biblical practice or the principle, the reality. Now what does this have to do for us here at Living Water? What should this covering look like? What should this covering look like? 47:26 And we'll be having a meeting on the 15th of September to address that. 47:30 What is the practical outgrowth of this? Well, I think from this passage of scripture, we can assume certain things. 47:42 Number one, that it is a veiling, not a hat. And so when we come to a discussion on the styles of veiling, we're not looking for hats. We're not looking for bill caps. We're not looking for headbands. 48:05 We're looking for a veiling of sorts. It is clear that this is to cover the head and veil the long hair. We talked about that a little bit. Nature's way of indicating that she should have another covering. 48:24 So we're talking about a covered head and veiled hair. Not a hat, not something common or ordinary, but something that speaks to the sacredness of the glory of the truth that it represents. Someone has said it like this, that in communion, 48:43 we'd take unleavened bread, not common food. When we take communion, it is a recognized spiritual symbol. It is a recognized spiritual reality. It's not mashed potatoes and gravy. It's not meat and potatoes. It's not even vegetables. 49:03 It's bread and wine or juice. It's recognized. It's important what that symbolizes. In baptism, we don't consider a person baptized just because they took a bath or took a shower. 49:20 It is a symbolic, it is a spiritual exercise. And so it is with the veiling. It is a spiritual exercise. 49:32 And therefore, we do not believe that a bill cap or even a hat, a sister's wearing a hat, qualifies as a spiritual expression of the glory of this practice. 49:48 Another principle that we believe is that it should be clearly visible, not hidden. Make it visible. Make it obvious. The angels need to see it. We're testifying to them. The angels need to see it. 50:07 It needs to line up with our life, yes, but they need to see it. Both the unseen world of darkness and of light need to see it. The world around us should see it. His authority recognized by his uncovered head. Her authority recognized by her covered head. 50:24 Both angels and devils recognize this and must respect the authority of Christ through that Christian 50:35 when we are walking under the authority of Christ. And so it is to cover the head and the hair. 50:42 It is not a hat or a headband or some unspiritually significant article. It should be clearly visible and not hidden. And fourth, and this goes into some ecclesiology, I believe, and we believe as a leadership team, that the congregation, the local congregation, 51:04 has the authority given to us by Christ in Matthew 18 to determine what is and what is not 51:14 a legitimate expression of this practice. And one of the things that we as a congregation want to look at, and that is, what does my style of veiling communicate about my values and about our values as a congregation? 51:32 What trajectory or course of action does it set us on? And is this a good trajectory or a negative one? And so I'd like to issue a challenge that sisters ask and answer the question, 51:53 and brothers, you as well in your wives and your children, your daughters. Why do we wear the style that we wear? Why do we wear the veiling that we wear? Why do we wear the size that we wear? And what is it accomplishing what God intended it to accomplish? 52:13 We have adopted here at Living Water very limited styles, hanging veil, white covering. If we make a change from that, which we are looking at, asking about, if we are to make a change, does that strengthen the principle? 52:33 Does that help our cause, or does it hurt our cause? Does it strengthen conviction, or does it weaken conviction? 52:45 And why do we do it? Never a bad question to ask. Why do we do it, and what do we want out of it? One challenge I would put forth. We have, through the years, wrestled with this whole thing of size of veil. 53:06 And I hear different ones give different opinions, and some of them I understand. I understand that veils shrink. And so if you go to buy a veil based on what the one you just wore out, it may have shrunk, 53:26 and maybe you go to try to buy the same size as the shrunken one, and they continue to shrink. I understand that. I've heard that from sisters. I have a question, and this is my challenge. 53:40 Why, in a church our size, do we have to go to some other church and some other place to buy our veils? 53:52 Why does not someone at Living Water make veils? 53:58 I'd like to issue that as a challenge. 54:02 Veils that reflect who we are. Veils that reflect our values. Veils that reflect our understanding of scripture. Veils that we don't have to go to other churches to find and find the right pattern and the right this and the right that. And why wouldn't we? Why wouldn't someone take that challenge? And if somebody makes them, 54:24 why not one of our sisters? 54:28 Then the question is, if someone made it, would you buy it? Or would you take advantage of it? Maybe they shouldn't be sold. Maybe they should be just donated. Well, I don't like that style. I don't like what I don't like that. Yeah. We get into that. But anyway, 54:47 I'll just lay that out there for somebody to think about. So what I want us to do this morning is just reflect on the glory. Reflect on the glory of God. 55:00 Let's not reflect on the necessarily on all of the details. For a while, details are important. But for a while, let's bask in the glory and enjoy what God has given to us, 55:21 especially connecting this glory with the first part of the message where the world is so unglorious and so destructive and so vile. 55:35 Let's reflect and bask in the glory of God. Let's pray. Lord, I thank You for this opportunity this morning to preach Your word. I ask, Lord, that You will strengthen our convictions in being simple biblicists. 55:58 Simple biblicists. Saying, "This is what the Bible says. 56:05 Reflection of the heart of God and of the glory of the Lord. And we will obey." Being like the children of Israel when they got it right, saying, "All that the Lord has said, we will do. 56:19 We will obey." And so, Father, I pray that You will reveal Your glory to us 56:29 and through us. Oh, it's veiled. We see it through a glass. 2 Corinthians 3:16 says. But Lord, let us just keep anticipating the day when we see the glory of God full and majestic and pristine. 56:51 And until that time, let us keep pursuing the glory of God and the God of the glory. In Jesus' name. Amen. Shall we have a song? Just a chorus, a verse of song.