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All right, amen. Well, I'm sure you know, it's not the easiest chapter in the world to deal with. There's a lot of stuff in here, but we're gonna get through it. I titled this sermon Theological Landmines, Theological Landmines. And that is not to imply or say that in this chapter, there's anything of the sort like a theological landmine or anything that gives us trouble or that gives our enemies power over us. But really the theological landmines lie outside of the chapter. For example, it's talking about, you see the word head, you see the word coverings. We're gonna get into this here in a minute. The world here is head coverings and things of that nature. And you're like, oh, it must be in a hat. You have entire sections of Christianity, entire religions that teach and push, oh, well in the service of women, always have to have a hat or things of that nature. Those are landmines. Those are things that spiritually destroy people. Peter said that some of the things that Paul writes are very difficult to understand, they're very hard to understand. And some people wrestle with these things even to their own destruction. Okay, and this chapter is no shortage of that. I would say this is definitely one of the, one of the most controversial chapters that our church gets questioned with over time. But like I said, we'll get into this, what this stuff means and try to make some sense out of it. Real quickly, go to chapter seven. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter seven real fast, because what I wanna do is I wanna start off and make sure that we all remember where we're at in this epistle and what exactly is going on here. So real quickly, a couple of pages back, hopefully in your Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter number seven, look at verse number one. So Paul says this, he says, Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me. Okay, so again, and of course he goes into the first one, which is good for a man not to touch a woman. We covered that, we covered the marriage aspect a few weeks ago, but the idea here is what Paul says. He says, now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me. And so you're still in that response. You're still seeing Paul's response to the letter that the Corinthians had written him. So keep that in mind and go back to chapter number 11. So that's the context. So Paul is now addressing and has been for the last few weeks addressing these things that the Corinthians had had questions about. So with this, let's start here, verse number one. Chapter 11, verse number one, the Bible says, Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. I also am of Christ. And this comes right after Paul says that he becomes all thanks to all men, that he might save some, and we talked about that last Sunday, okay? So he's saying it is okay to follow him, and why is that? Well, because he's following Christ. He is an apostle, and he's telling the Corinthians, hey, I've set the example among you, like he's told so many other churches. Now look at verse number two. So after chapter, after chapter, after chapter of rebuke, and well-deserved rebuke, I might add, look at what he says now. He says, Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I delivered them unto you. And of course, you go back to chapter four, specifically verse 17, chapter number seven, verse 17. Go back and check those things out on your own time. That's what he's talking about there. But he is praising them, because they are keeping the ordinances, and they're trying to keep the order of the service the best that they can in their current state, their current mental state. And so Paul gives them a break here, and he says, hey, you know, I'm actually gonna praise you for this. You guys are actually doing good in this area. So it's not 100% just, oh, you guys are ate up, right? He does notice the good that they are doing, and he commends them for that, okay? But he's gonna get right back into some good rebuke here. Look at verse number three. He says, but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. And so we're gonna talk about this here, okay? So again, what the world does is they come in here, and they inject things. That's what they do. They take out their theological syringe, open up the Bible, and they just stick that needle right in there, squish it down, and they just pump whatever they feel necessary. That's how most people interpret the Bible. When they face the unknown, what do they do? Get that biblical syringe out of that unbiblical syringe, stick it in, and just pump whatever they can to help it make sense to them. That's not how we study the Bible. We move from the known to the unknown. That is how we study the Bible. That is how we answer questions on subjects that we do not know, okay? So say you're reading this here, and you're like, okay, well, what does this mean, you know, the head here, okay? Well, what this passage here is talking about is he's talking about head as in boss, or over, or supervisor, okay? So what he's saying here, and what you're gonna find in this chapter, is that we're dealing with two heads. We're dealing with a head as in boss, meaning obviously Christ is over us. He's over the man, and the man is over the woman. Okay, I'll break that down for you in a second. And what you're also gonna find is he's talking about your physical head, okay? Well, we'll get to that here in a second as well. And he's using the physical head as an illustration to prove a point about what he's teaching about the head. So let's look at this again. He says, but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ. Okay, so who's in charge of every man? Who's the boss? Well, it's Jesus Christ, okay? It's the Lord God. He says, and the head of the woman is the man. And this is where people flip out, and they don't like this. Just for some giggles, I went and looked at a new evangelical sermon to see how they would preach through this, because it's been a while since I've heard one of those. And it was hard to get through. I listened to about 15 minutes of it. And for the first 13 minutes, this guy is just apologizing. He's just apologizing and apologizing and apologizing, and just ensuring there is no difference between men and women. He's like, so I don't want you guys to think that. He's like, but I also don't want you guys to think that Paul was a chauvinist, because back in the day, back in these times here, men were over women, but now it's different. And in our culture, it's different, right? So he's just apologizing, making excuses, and straight up lying to his congregation, because this isn't popular. It's not popular in our culture today to say that the man is over the woman. Okay, but what does that mean? Is he talking about just in general, like any man can go up to anyone and be like, hey, you know, go make me something to eat. Hey, go get me a drink. You know, is that what he's talking about? Obviously not. That is not what he's talking about. Okay, what you're gonna see here, if you're really a good student of the Bible, is that order does not necessarily represent value. At least when it comes to things on the earth. And what I mean by that is that just because the man is the head of the house does not mean that he is of more value than the woman, okay? Now, obviously, that's what we read in the Bible. That is what he is talking about here. But what he's introducing or reintroducing to the Christians at Corinth is a bit of wisdom here, okay? For a household to run optimally, this is the order. Christ, who is the word of God, is over the man, and the man is over the woman. So the man, therefore, guess what? He is responsible for the spiritual state of the woman. So, what does that mean? Well, what that also means and what that tells us is that a woman should always have a man over her, right? So like in our family, I'm obviously over the wife, I'm over my daughters. Someday, my daughters will meet somebody that is good enough to take them from me and I will give him them, and then they're not my problem anymore. It's the husband. He will be over them, but Christ will be over him. Now, what if I was out of the picture here, okay? And there was no dad, something happens. Well, then hopefully, you know, an uncle would step in and be that role model or what have you. Now, sometimes we get questions and people will email them, and these are great questions, and they'll say, hey, you know, I've had this and this happen in my life. There's no man, it's just me, and I'm raising my kids by myself. Well, guess what? You still have the man Christ Jesus. Remember, Jesus is fully man, fully God. So remember the chain of command here. It's always Christ at the top. Then it's supposed to be the man and it's supposed to be the woman. This American or Western idea that, well, a household should be 50-50, meaning, you know, the husband and wife should just sit down and if the wife wants to basically run the show, the husband should just let her. If he does, he doesn't love her. Okay, that doesn't work. That doesn't work, okay? Hate to break it to you, this is the order. We've done sermons on this in the past, and it's not saying that a man is more valuable than a woman. There are plenty of women that make better choices, that have more, like we talked about this morning, more knowledge, understanding, wisdom than guys do, okay? This is simply teaching us God's order for the family. That's what it's saying. It's not saying, oh, guess what? Every man's above every woman. We've had people come in here with that attitude and we check them really quickly, okay? You cannot be bossing other people's wives around. And some of you are probably like, yeah, right, look, I'm telling you, it has happened in this church in the past. Okay, it does happen. It's not a very popular thing. People learn very quickly that that is not how we do business here and the rest seems to work itself out. So again, in this situation, again, hopefully, you know, it would be the dad or the husband over the woman, but, you know, sometimes that's just not possible. Now, let's move on here to verse number four. Now remember, okay, verse three defines for us what head he's talking about. He's talking about the boss. Okay, Christ is over all. The man is over the woman. Okay, so you understand that. We've got that order established already. Now look at verse four. He says this, every man praying or prophesying, what does it mean to prophesy? It means to preach, okay? Take the word of God and explain it to somebody, teach it, that's what it means. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head. Okay, again, people take the unbiblical syringe out, they stick it in there and they say, ah, we're supposed to be wearing covers when we pray. I've had this happen one time in this church. I had somebody that was gonna come visit on a Wednesday night and she texted or called and said, hey, I just wanna make sure that all the women have their head coverings on, right, because I'm gonna be putting mine on and that's what it says in 1 Corinthians 11. And it's the only time this has happened that we just shut that down real quick. Person still came, wasn't happy, of course, and bounced. But anyways, okay, what people say, this is how people read this, look at verse four. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head. So they'll say, so if you pray wearing a baseball hat or, you know, with your head covering that you're supposed to wear out of here or whatever, well, then you dishonor your head, you're dishonoring Christ, okay, is that what that says? Remember, if you don't know what this is saying, what do you do? You go from the known to the unknown. So what do we know so far? Well, look at verse three. But I would have you know that the head of every man, okay? So you know what the head of every man is? It's Christ, okay? You know that that word head there is in reference to boss, somebody over. Well, we just read the chapter, so what else do we know about covering or, yeah, being covered? Look down at verse 13. I'm sorry, look at verse 14. No, look at verse 13, sorry. Got you guys all over the place. Look at verse 13. It says, judge in yourselves. Is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Now look at verse 14. Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? Okay, so what do we know? Well, we know that head is referring to the boss or it's referring to your physical head, okay? Well, what about covering? Well, we know that it's explained if you compare verse 13 and 14 as hair. So here's what some people do. They say, okay, pal, and they read it like this. Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered, if the covering is hair, that means a man should have only no hair. It means he should just shave his head. So you're unbiblical because you have hair. And they'll say, see how silly that is? Talking about a hat, boy. That's what it's doing. It's talking about a hat. It's talking about a hat. It's not talking about a hat, okay? Here's the thing. Let me illustrate this, okay? Now you guys already know about looking at this. I did not draw this, okay? I did the rough draft. So I had my stick figures. You guys know how I do the stick figures, okay? And then someone came along and said, yeah, that's not gonna work. And that somebody was Miss Jessica. And she's right. This is way better, right? These gingerbread guys. All right, what do we have here? Well, we have the order that the Bible is teaching us here. Verse three. So I wrote three here because these three are one, like we talked about this morning. So this is Christ. He is what? The head of every man. And the man is the head of the woman, okay? So we've got that. We understand that. Now let's get into this covering bit before we move on because I just wanna get this out there, okay? So look at verse 14 again and let's talk about this. Says, does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have, and look at these next two words, long hair, it is a shame unto him. Now look back at verse 13. Remember that phrase, long hair. What is that? Well, look at verse 13. Judging yourselves, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? We're gonna hammer this home a bunch of different ways, okay? So Paul's simply saying, hey, does it seem logical? Does it seem right when you meet a woman or your women have short hair, okay? So keep that in mind. The covering that he's talking about here is hair, okay? So look at this gingerbread guy right here, okay? This hair right here is not really covering anything, is it? It's just kind of there. Now look at Mrs. Gingerbread, okay? Look, long hair, right? That's what it said in verse 13. Long hair is covering the ears, covering the nag. You see that? It's her covering. That's what this is talking about. Of course, the longer your hair, the more you're covered, okay? It's not talking about a hat. Now, back to verse four, okay? So we read that if the guy, if the man covers his head, what is he doing? If he has long hair, in other words, what is he doing? Well, he's basically dishonoring his head. He's making Christ look bad. So let's say this guy does the Seattle special here, you know, goes to a Nirvana concert. Well, they're not around anymore, but he's rocking out here, and he's like, you know what? I went down to Life Church, and I noticed the worship leader had long hair, and hey, we're in the New Testament, and you know, it's all good. I'm not gonna be like these fundies, these fundamental guys that wanna follow the Bible and have standards. You know, I think God's okay, you know? Burger King Baptist, right? Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, you best not upset us, right? Isn't that their mantra? Isn't that what they do? So this guy went down to that church, and now he's corrupted. Now look what he's doing, right? He's starting to cover his head. Oh, look, he's got bangs, right? Because that's cool, so as long as he can see. Remember, yeah, he's, look at this. Boy, he's all Burger King dub. He's got it his way, right? Isn't that what he is? Now look. You know what this does? This shames Christ. A lot of people say, oh, I can't believe that, you know, you would sit there and say something like that, and blah, blah, blah. Look, God spends half a chapter here talking about the length of your hair. And let me tell you, it really matters in today's day and age how we look. Why is that? Well, because unless you've been living under a rock, you know that the world is trying to blend the genders, trying to say that man can become woman, woman can become man. And of course, we want to be sanctified. We want to draw the line in the sand and say, no. Our women are gonna look as womanly, as feminine as possible, and our guys likewise will be as masculine as possible, okay? So back to the chapter here real quick. Let's again look at verse number four. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered. Remember, what do we know? We know that the covering is hair because that's what he says in verse 13 and 14. So every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head. Who's the head of the man? It is Christ. So him doing this, looking like the woman, dishonors Christ. It's wrong. It's not okay. It does not make him happy, okay? And so we don't want to live like that. So we tell him, hey, you need to stay away from that Burger King church. You don't tell God to hold the lettuce. You don't tell the pastor, don't upset us. Get yourself a haircut, all right? Let's see if we can repair this guy here. All I gotta do is just complete the circle. Might have went a little bit too high with this high and tight, but that's okay. That's what he deserves for getting stupid on us, right? So, there we go. All right, there. That's more like it, that's what I like. All right. So, one more time. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head, very clear. When you start with a known, then it's easier to get to the unknowns. Now we know what covered is. It is talking about hair. But there's another application here, okay? So let's say the man, the husband, he decides, you know what? I may not grow my hair out, but I'm kind of getting sick of this stuff, you know? What happens when he just stomps his ears, stops listening to the word of God, stops reading, you know, quenching the spirit like Paul told us not to do in Ephesians chapter four? Well, again, he's dishonoring his head. So the application here goes deep with that too, okay? What the man does, you know what? It doesn't just affect him, okay? This is why we always teach, guys, that being selfish is bad, because what this does is this affects the wife, which is also why the Bible says that if the man starts being bitter towards his wife, that his prayers are hindered, okay? This is wisdom here. This is the order that God has designed. This is what he desires to see in his family unit. So hopefully that kind of makes sense. So remember, as you're studying this chapter, you have the head as in the boss, or you have the head, the physical head, okay? And we know that the covering, physically speaking, is hair. That's what the Bible teaches us. So let's move on here. Verse number five, But every woman that prayeth, or prophesiseth, sieth with her head uncovered dishonereth her head, for she is even all one, as if she were shaven. Okay, you see that word, shaven, now. So, again, little Miss Gingerbread here, watched a couple of YouTube videos, and said, yeah, you know what? God doesn't care about the length of my hair. All he cares about is what's on the inside. It doesn't matter what's on the outside. And so she goes to the local salon. You know, the, I don't know what they call them. I call them barbers. What do they call a salon person? I don't know. The hairstylist, right? The hairstylist, she's like, you know what? You need to get caught up with the times, you know? Get that, what's that soccer player's name that's a commie? Anybody know? Rapinoe, what's her first name? Megan, Markle, Michael? Something, it don't matter, right? A dyke haircut. Now, we got a big problem, don't we? Is she covered any longer? I can see your ears, girl. Look at this, I can see your ears. I can see all this stuff here. It's not good. Let's look at verse five again. Okay, but every woman that prayeth or prophesiest with her head uncovered dishonereth her head, for that is even all one as if she were shaven, okay? So she dishonors the husband, which dishonors Christ, okay? So she is causing him to look bad because she is in rebellion. Now, what Paul's saying here is, look, if you're gonna play this game and try to be right in the middle here, well, it's still a little bit long, okay? And kind of look like a boy. He's like, you might as well just shave the whole thing off. Just go all the way. Don't be lukewarm, you know? Don't be in this middle ground here. Just cut it all off, right? Get the buzz cut. The, what's that singer? Sinead O'Connor, something like that, back in the 80s. Shaved her hair. Britney Spears, when the lithium got too strong and the mind control really went crazy on her and she shaved her head, right? You know, that's what I'm talking about. You don't want to do that, okay? So what she wants, and we might need to have somebody come up and repair this one, but repair her. She wants to be in obedience to God and have long hair. We'll read why also this is very important, okay? Not too bad. There is difference between male and female. Hopefully that makes sense there, okay? I love doing that. All right, all right. So we got this, okay? Verse five, but every woman that prayeth or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head. Who's her head? Well, does she dishonor her physical head? Yes, you'll see why in verse 13. But what about her head that God has given her, like her husband? Yes, she's dishonoring her husband, dishonoring her father, dishonoring her uncle, whoever her head is, dishonoring Christ, it goes up, okay? It doesn't just affect her. It affects everything. God doesn't like that. Look at verse six. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. So this is obviously very important here. See how God mentions this twice. It's like, look, if you don't want to be covered, cut it all off, 100% go all the way. Don't be playing this middle ground here. Okay, go all the way. He says, but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. So he's telling the Corinthians, hey guys, this is how it is. You know, don't be playing these games and trying to play the middle ground here and seeing how much you can get away with, right? Be covered, look feminine, be a woman. God created you a woman. Be proud of that, own up to that. You are just as valuable in Christ as the man. Remember, order does not always determine value. Just because the man is over the woman, the husband's over the wife, does not mean that he's more valuable. It's not what he's saying, okay? Keep that in mind. Verse number seven, 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. And of course, this points back to Genesis when you read the creation story that God said it is not good for man to be alone. He needs an help meet, meaning a help suitable for him. And it says that the woman was created for the man, okay? That is what Paul is also referring to here. Verse number eight, for the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Look, the devil loves to throw this out in society and say, ooh, come on, girl, you don't like, you don't really believe that, do you? That ain't right. You're just as strong. You're just as powerful. You're just as dominating as a man. In fact, you should allow men into women's locker rooms. In fact, you should allow women to, or men to fight women in mixed martial arts or boxing. You're bad, you can beat him, right? Of course, he knows that men and women are created differently and that that is a disaster, but he does not care. And the world has bought him off on that lie. So hard truth for people to understand, but this is what it is. And I'll say it again, order does not determine all the time value. Verse nine, neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. Look, there's no misunderstanding. There's no, oh, let's go back to the Greek and see what that says so I can apologize to my congregation for what the Bible says. Never make apologies for what the Bible says. You believe it, you read it, you preach it. God wrote it, God preserved it. It is what it is, okay? There ain't no need to make excuses. This is how it is. Verse 10, for this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. Now I'm gonna give you what I believe this verse says. This is very, very unique. This is very interesting here because it's like, wait a sec, where did angels get, how did angels just pop up in here? What in the world's going on, okay? Now what I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna show you what I've arrived to in my studies. You may agree, you may not agree, that's fine. At the end of the day, you are responsible for your own studies, okay? So keep that in mind. Now we're gonna come back and finish this chapter up here but I want you guys to go to 1 Timothy chapter number five. 1 Timothy chapter number five real quick. So, for this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. What in the world is that? And I'm not claiming to be super smart, I'm not claiming that my answer is right, but what do I always tell you guys? We go from the what? We go from the known to the unknown. And you know, it's hard for me to stand up here and definitively tell you, oh, I know for sure what this is, okay, I don't, but I can show you what we know. That I can show you. I can show you what we know and what I believe makes sense so that we can kind of internalize this verse here and see the application that Paul's giving the Corinthians. So it's talking about having power on the head of the woman. I'm gonna come back and read that verse again but I wanna take you through a quick journey here regarding angels. 1 Timothy chapter number five. Let's see here, look down. Okay. Look down on verse 17. Go to verse 17. So Paul's talking to Timothy here, he's giving Timothy some advice and he says this, he says, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine, okay? Verse 18, for the scripture saith, thou shall not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn and the laborer is worthy of his reward. Of course, we talked about that last week, I think. Verse 19, he says, against an elder, receive not an accusation but before two or three witnesses. Yeah, most people today, they toss those verses right out of the Bible. I don't like you so I don't have to. Verse 20, all them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear, okay? So we've got some wisdom here, we've got some protocol here regarding elders, regarding accusations against elders, we've got people that have done some pretty grievous sins and Paul saying, hey, make sure you rebuke them before all so that other people can learn, okay? Other people will learn. Then he says this in verse 21, he says, I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And now look at this here, and the elect angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality, okay? Notice that there. Let's look at that again. So he mentions these things to operate by, these things that we need to do inside of the church. We need to follow verse 17, not obviously all the verses prior, but 17, 18, 19, okay? This is all conduct inside of the local New Testament church. And then he says this, I charge thee. I charge thee, this is very serious, I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he says this, and the elect angels. Why would he say that? Well, because they are watching, they are involved in what you and I do on a daily basis, okay? So that's why he brings them up and says that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality. So we should not be respecters of persons, okay? That's what he's saying now. And he's saying, I charge thee before, obviously God, the Lord Jesus Christ, because God is always watching, we know that, but also the elect angels. And well, what are angels? Angels are ministering spirits, the Bible says. The Bible says that angels are ministers to them that inherit eternal life, okay? So leave your place there, go to Hebrews chapter number 12. So go forward in the New Testament, Hebrews chapter number 12. And let's look at verse number 22. So Paul kind of gives us a clue here in first Timothy chapter five, that the angels are watching. They are observing the conduct right inside of the church. Well, Hebrews chapter 12, look at verse 22 says, but ye are come unto Mount Sion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, okay? Talking about Hebrews, okay? We don't have time to get into this, but the writer here is basically saying, you know, once you are saved, you know, you are no longer, and he's specifically talking to the Hebrews and say, hey, look, guys, you're no longer part of the traditions and in the things that made up that system, but now you are part of this greater system, this new nation of God, the Israel of God, which is not made up of people of a certain ethnicity or geographical location, but made up of people that are saved, born again, that's it, okay? And so he says, but ye are come unto Mount Sion and unto every, or I'm sorry, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, okay, so that's the one that matters, the one up there, not the one over in the Middle East today, and to an innumerable company of angels, okay? So again, bringing up just like he did in Timothy, and I believe Paul wrote Hebrews, could be wrong, but hey, but you see the same ingredients here. See, God's watching and angels, okay? Now look at verse 23, to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, okay? What is that talking about? What I just said, the Israel of God, the Church of the Firstborn, Church of Christ, okay, which are written in heaven and to God, the judge of all and to the spirits of just men, made perfect, verse 24, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Again, another reference to the fact that the New Testament is the better testament, the better covenant, okay? So again, 1 Timothy 5, what do we have about angels? Well, Paul charges Timothy on how to conduct the church services and says, hey, not only is God watching, but so are the angels. Same thing here, Hebrews chapter 12. God is watching and also the innumerable company of angels. Now let's go to 1 Peter, so go forward again in your New Testament, 1 Peter chapter number one. 1 Peter chapter number one, and let's look at verse number 12, 1 Peter chapter one, verse number 12. So Peter says this, says unto whom? It was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister the things which were now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things, now don't miss this, which things the angels desire to look into. So what do you mean? Like don't angels like know like everything from front to back, like I'm not following here, okay? Well, Peter lets us know that angels desire to look in to these things concerning the gospel and the preaching of the gospel and things of that nature. Okay, so let's go to Ephesians chapter number three, and we'll be able to cement this down here. Ephesians chapter number three. Let's look, let's look at verse two. Ephesians chapter three, verse two, okay? But before we do, let's make sure we're all tracking. 1 Timothy five, okay, what does Paul say to Timothy? He's like, hey, don't forget, conduct matters, okay? Because I'm charging you before God and before the angels. Same thing in Hebrews 12. Then Peter lets us know that the angels desire to look into things surrounding the gospel. So that means what? Well, we know, right, we know that angels are ministering spirits, they are here to help the heirs of eternal life, which are the saved. So we've got all of that stuff here. Now this passage here will, I believe, definitely help you to cement that down. Look at verse two. So Paul telling the Ephesians, he says this, verse two. If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given me to you, word, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery as I wrote afore in few words. So the subject right here is the mystery, okay? Do you know what the mystery is? Do you know what this mystery is? This is very important and he wants to make sure that they understand it. Look at verse four. Whereby when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. So this is something we need to understand like Paul saying, verse five. Okay, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit. Verse six, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. So again, this mystery that Paul is talking about is what I've already mentioned. It's the fact that the Israel of God is no longer physical. It is no longer made up of people defined by an ethnicity or geographical location. It is made up of believers all over the world, Jew, Gentile. In Christ there is no difference between Jew or Gentile, male or female. We are all one in Christ Jesus. This is a mystery that Paul wants to make sure that we understand. Now to be honest with you guys, you guys already know this, most people don't get this today. Okay, most people in churches today, they're teaching, oh no, no, no, these guys over in the Middle East that hate Jesus Christ, they're the apple of God's eye, they can do no wrong and if you don't support Israel, you're going straight to hell. That's pretty much the attitude of a lot of people. It's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that the Israel of God is a mystery and it is now the blending of Gentiles, people coming together from all over the world to believe on Christ and make up the new Israel. That is what he's talking about, but something very interesting about that is gonna come up here. He says, whereof I was made minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. And of course, if you know about the Apostle Paul, before he got saved, what was he doing? Well, he was wreaking havoc on the church and he was endorsing people getting locked up and consented to the death of Stephen the deacon. And so he's saying, you know, hey, praise God I'm here. Verse eight, says unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ. Verse nine, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery. Okay, people say, oh, you're anti-Jew. It's like, no, I'm doing what Paul did here and explaining this mystery to people. This mystery to people is, hey, guess what? People that spit on the ground and call themselves Jews, you know what? They're the synagogue of Satan. That's what Jesus said in Revelation. Hey, they're not the apple of God's eye. That is not true. Paul preached that, Jesus preached that, all the apostles preached that. The whole New Testament is about that. Even people in the Old Testament, some of them kind of understood that and you can see that. Verse nine, he says, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world have not been, or I'm sorry, have been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ. Verse 10, to the intent that now, now this is where we're gonna get back on track with the angels, okay? So verse 10, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places. Now, what does that reference into? Okay, well, not humans, okay, angelic beings, but to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God, okay? Let me break this down for you. Hey, this is not easy stuff here, okay? This is not easy stuff. This can be very difficult. What this verse is saying here is that Paul is on a mission to not only preach the gospel, but to make sure that people know, hey, God's done with Old Testament Israel, done. They had their chance, they blew it. God knew they were gonna blow it. He ordained his church to do his work from the beginning. That's what it is, okay? There's no debating that. We're not an afterthought, okay? We're not like, oh, you know, God's not up in heaven like, oh, I really wish that the Jews would have behaved and that, you know, the Northern Kingdom of Israel would have behaved and I could have just used them for the, you know? No, he always knew what was gonna happen because he knows the end from the beginning. But what does this mean here? Verse 10, to the intent that now onto the principalities and powers in heavenly places. So the angelic realm, good and bad, okay? Good and bad, there's something that they have to know, okay? Now look at who reveals that information to them, okay? To the intent that now into the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church. Do you see that? By the church, the manifold wisdom of God. So God uses the church to display and demonstrate the manifold wisdom that he's given us. So the angels learn from what we do, from the wisdom, from us taking the word of God, like I talked about this morning, consuming knowledge, asking God for understanding and wisdom and getting that three in one completion of wisdom, okay? The angelic beings, they look into that, okay? Why is that? Because they are ministering spirits. They are designed and given to help us in life, okay? We don't have time to do this. Go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. We don't have time to get into this tonight, but if you were to go back and read the book of Daniel, okay, you're gonna come across a story to where Daniel is fasting and he is praying. He's gotten a vision and this vision is very concerning to him and he wants answers, okay? So he does what he does best. He starts to fast, he starts to pray. And from the moment he does that, his prayers are automatically heard in heaven and the angel Gabriel is dispatched to help him. However, there's a problem. Along the way, that angel runs into resistance. He runs into an individual who is described or named in the Bible as the Prince of Persia, which is what we would say a demon basically, a devil, okay? And so he's having to scrap this guy and then fight this guy while he's trying to get to Daniel to help him because they're ministering spirits, okay? Michael the archangel has to come down and actually help and get involved and basically put the issue into a position to where Gabriel could make it to Daniel, okay? It's just a little tiny glimpse that we get into the battle that takes place in the eternal that we don't get to physically see with our eyes, but we know exists. So with all that in mind, hopefully that makes sense. Look again at verse number 10. And I apologize for the depth of this, but I want you guys to know and understand where I'm coming from on this verse, okay? Verse 10, he says this. So back on track here, back to talking about the head coverings and things of that nature. So verse nine, Paul reiterates as neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man, okay? So going back to the order that God has established. Christ, the man and the woman, okay? That's wisdom, that is how God ordained it. These three are one body of Christ, okay? Verse 10, for this cause, okay? For what cause, what's the cause? This, Christ, the man, the woman. God's order for that cause of the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. What I believe he's saying here is that when she is willing to subject herself to this order here, okay? Everything that we've talked about here, her head gets that protection, that angelic power, okay? So what I'm trying to say here is I believe that what Paul's saying is that a disobedient wife, okay? A rebellious rooftop type wife can literally destroy the entire family, okay? Because angels, right, they want to help. They want to help. God wants to form a hedge of protection around us. But when we get our hedge trimmers out and we start cutting things down that we don't like, that don't make sense to us, that God has ordained, it makes the angel's job difficult to get involved and to help us in the matters that we need help in. That's what I believe this is talking about. I could be wrong. You have to study to show yourself approved unto God. There's my take on it, you know, take it or leave it. If you got questions after the service, feel free to come ask me. But that's where I'm leaving that. That's what I believe it is, and we're going to go from there. So let's get moving here, okay? Verse 11, he says, "'Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man and the Lord.'" So again, God is not a respecter of persons. Order does not determine value all the time. Verse 12, "'For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman, but all things of God.'" So he's just reiterating this fact here that just because you're a woman does not mean you're less valuable than a man. There's no such thing, okay? Verse 12, or 13. Okay, back on track here. He says, "'Judge in yourselves, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?'" Okay, what in the world does that mean? Look at it again. Judge in yourselves. So he's saying, hey, you guys need to judge in yourselves. You need to sit around and think about this. "'Is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?'" Meaning with her head, shaving, or, you know, a mohawk or, you know, extremely short hair. What does the word comely mean? Well, it means pleasant to look on or attractive. That's really what he's saying, okay? Is it attractive? Is it acceptable for a woman to do that, okay? And of course, it's a rhetorical question. The answer is no. Look at verse 14. "'Doth not even nature itself teach you?'" And this gets them all mad. This is gonna get us some hate. "'Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?'" Look, God's even ordained nature that he created to teach us lessons. And nature will even tell you that that's not okay, okay? So again, the world's saying, oh, I don't care what the Bible says. Well, you worship nature, atheist, right? Isn't that what you worship? You worship the creature more than the creator. Well, guess what? The creation even testifies against you and your rebellion. So eat that. Verse 15. "'But,' so on the contrary, "'but if a woman have long hair.'" Again, the covering, guys, is long hair, okay? When that hair grows out and it starts covering, you know, it starts covering, right? That's when it becomes the covering, okay? It's not saying that any bit of hair up here, oh, it's still covering. No, that's not what it's talking about, okay? When it becomes long, look at the verse again. "'But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a," what? Covering. All that to say this, God cares about hair length. That's what I'm saying. Now, I'm not the hair police, okay? I'm not gonna be, you know, and I get it, some people have some great questions and they wanna know, you know, how long, how short, look. Let me just, again, give you a good rule. "'Is it wise?'" That's all I'm gonna say, is it wise? Okay, I'm not gonna be like, oh, you know, we've had women come in here with hair above their ears. We don't kick them out. Hey, welcome, come sit down, learn, enjoy the service. Is what it is, okay? But I would say this, I think we all know, like when you see some of these women at the store and you're like, hmm, I mean, come on, if her hair's like mine, like Brother Evans or Josh or Kayden or anybody that's in here, it's like, ah. We all know, come on, you don't even need these verses to teach you that, like Paul said. You just know, okay? You just know that's, ugh. You can pretend to be all woke and liberal and all super tolerant all day long, but guess what? You know in your heart, guys, it's not right, okay? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair has given her for a covering. So, well, your wife's hair is above the shoulders, right? Get lost, I don't care. And don't come at me with length. I'm not the length police. I'm reading this chapter, I'm trying to teach it, okay? We don't wanna get legalistic about this and start making up rules, because there's a lot of people, a lot of women that we know and are soul winners and are great women of God that might have their hair right here, okay? Oh, that's short hair, she lost her covering. How do you know? Can you prove that to me? No, you can't, okay? End of story, end of rant. Verse 16, but if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. We're gonna come back and do a whole thing about that as well as what we're about to read next, okay? So that kinda ends the first section here, okay? Remember the title of the sermon, Theological Landmines, okay? How we study the Bible. When we don't know something, we move from the known to the unknown. Now what he's gonna do is he's gonna shift gears here and write a response to a question they probably had about the Lord's Supper. So he's gonna clear some of these things up. We're gonna read right through this. And the reason for that, I'm gonna make some comments and stuff as we go, like I have been doing. But every year when we have the Lord's Supper, I preach a full sermon on it in detail. It's pretty much the same one every year. I try to change it up a little bit, but we'll come back and we'll go again in depth over these verses, but we gotta get through this chapter. Verse 17, he says this. Now, in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not. So he praised them before because they were kinda following some of the ordinances. But this, what he's about to talk about, he says, I praise you not that you come together for the better, but for the worse, okay? So he's saying, hey, when you guys assemble for the Lord's Supper, you guys are coming together for the worst, for the absolute worst. Verse 18, for first of all, when you come together in the church, not talking about a building necessarily, the church is the congregation. A church is made up of the people, okay? Not the physical building. We might sometimes refer to this as the church real quick in conversation, but just as long as we all know that a building is not a church. The church is made up of the people, saved, born again, Bible-believing Christians. That's the church. He says, I hear that there be divisions among you and I partly believe it, okay? Again, divisions. What does God say in the Bible about divisions? People that cause divisions. People that wanna call you behind my back and say bad things. God hates that with a passion. God does not respect that. He does not honor that. That is God demonstrating to you that that is a very wicked person and that you should shun that individual is what he's saying. But look what he says next. For there must be also heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you, okay? So when you have people causing divisions, okay, and they're trying to get you to fight this person and this person to fight that person and you to turn against the pastor and so on and so forth, what you need to understand is that God has allowed that to come about to demonstrate that they're bad, okay? To demonstrate what is in their hearts and to demonstrate they're intense and he's also letting us know that those people are wrapped up in absolute heresy, things that are contrary to the word of God. Verse 19, he says this. For there must also be heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest or known among you. Verse 20 says when you come together, okay? So what's the subject again? He's talking about when you assemble as a church, when you come together therefore into one place. This is not to eat the Lord's Supper, okay? Now some people read this differently and I don't have a problem with that. That's their thing, okay? I believe what Paul's saying here is he's saying, hey Corinthians, when you guys come together, you're not eating the Lord's Supper. You're eating your own meal. You literally have a buffet going on here and it's blaspheming the Lord's Supper. That's what I believe he's saying. Let me show you why. He says in verse 21, for in eating everyone taketh before other his own supper and one is hungry and another is drunken, okay? So it's like this. Let's say in the break room we had the Lord's Supper set up. We've got the bread, we've got the juice, we've got everything ready to go and some people come in and they're like, whoa, boy, I'm hungry and they're just like, first come, first serve. Just start double fisting the bread and they're just like, ah, ah, ah, you know? And then another person's like, oh, no more bread? Thanks a lot, pal, and they just take all the juice. Fine, you're not getting anything to drink. And they just start chugging the juice, okay? Now is that orderly? Is that good manners? Is that wise? Is that good behavior? No. What is that? Again, verse 21. For in eating everyone taketh before other his own supper and one is hungry and another is drunken. Verse 22, look what he says. What? Have ye not houses to eat and drink in or despise ye the church of God and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. He's like, look, if you're hungry, don't you have a house? Don't you have a kitchen? Don't you have a nice oven that you can cook a turkey in or something? He's like, that's where that type of behavior belongs. If you're that hungry, go home and eat, okay? Verse 23. For I have received of the Lord, which also I delivered unto you. So he's telling, hey, we've already talked about this. I've already told you this. He says that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. When he had given thanks, he breaketh and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. So what Paul's doing here is he's demonstrating to the Corinthians the severity of observing the Lord's Supper, okay? This, you wanna talk about an ordinance, you wanna talk about a commandment in the Bible? Well, guess what? In the New Testament, one of the things that we are commanded that is very clear is to observe the Lord's Supper. And he's saying, understand the importance of this. When you do the Lord's Supper, you are doing this. Look at the end of verse 24. This do in remembrance of me. Now, if we set the Lord's Supper up and people are coming and just doing whatever they want, is that how we treat Christ? Just do whatever you want. Just put yourself before others. Oh, there's a big loaf of bread. I'm breaking it all for myself, I'm hungry. I'm sure the baker will bake more. I'm sure Ms. Jessica will make more. No, that's not right, that's awful. Verse 25. After the same manner, also he took the cup. And when he had supped, saying this cup is the New Testament in my blood, this do ye as oft as ye drink it. And again, look at that next phrase, in remembrance of me. Verse 26, he says, for as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. So that's the point of doing the Lord's Supper, okay? Is to show the Lord's death till he come. It's to do this in remembrance of him. That's the whole point of it. It's something that we are commanded to do and it has a purpose. It's not a free for all, okay? When we mess that up and we do that unworthily, hey, it causes issues. Look at verse 27. He says, wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Now, who in here thinks that they're worthy of their own accord for salvation? Aren't we all sinners? We're all sinners saved by grace through faith in Christ. So what this is not saying, and I'll get into this when we do the sermon on the Lord's Supper, the full meal deal. He's not saying if you sin this week, okay, don't take it. That's not what he's saying because guess what? The question is, do you have the new man or not? Can that new man sin? Yes or no? No. So I'm just gonna leave it at that for now, okay? But one of the things we definitely know that he's saying here is hey, if somebody comes and takes us unworthily, I mean, they don't have the new man. They are not saved, but they're just kinda coming to church. That's gonna cause a problem. It could cause them to die. And there's something else that could cause a believer to die in this too, and we'll take a look at that. Look at verse 28. All right, I'm sorry, verse 27 says, one more time, verse 27, wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Verse 28, but let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. So examine yourself. Are you saved? Is this being done orderly? Are you here doing this in order the way that the Lord told us to do it? Okay, verse 29, for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. Well, again, we're not Catholic here, okay? That bread does not become the literal body of Christ. That juice does not literally become his blood. That would violate the entire Old Testament and all the dietary laws that we have gone over in the past, and again, I'll bring this up in a few months, okay? But is a Christian gonna get damned to hell, yes or no? No, okay? So again, what is he saying here? He's saying, look, if somebody hasn't examined themselves and they're just like, oh, cool, free food, yeah, yeah, well, guess what? You could die, you could lose your life over doing that. Verse 30, he says, for this cause, many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. You see that word sleep there? Okay, what's that in reference to? Well, that's in reference to believers. So he's saying, hey, there are people here that are doing this unworthily in the sense that they're coming in and just putting others before themselves and just taking the bread and just making a mockery out of the Lord's Supper, and he says, this is why some of you are sickly, weak, and many sleep, meaning some people have done this and God apparently is telling us that there is such a thing in the Bible as sin unto death and abusing the Lord's Supper, making the mock of it, even being saved, could cause you to lose your physical life. That's why he says, and many sleep. Verse 31, we're getting close to being done. He says, for if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. So we can save a lot of pain and agony and we can have, you know, just honestly a more peaceful life if we just make better decisions and we just think about our actions. I go, well, what are we doing? Is this even biblical? Would God approve of us the way that we're doing this here? He's, we wouldn't be judged so harshly if we just think about what we're doing. Verse 32, he says, but when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world. So that's why God has been chastening people in the Corinthian churches that are saved because they've been taking this unworthily and the way that a believer takes it unworthily is by basically making a mock of this and saying, oh, you know, I know there's not gonna be enough for, you know, so-and-so when he comes to church tonight, but that's all good, I'm really hungry. You just take his portion, you just don't care and you just don't think about other people. Okay, God doesn't like that. So, you know, he doesn't want us to be condemned with the world so he's gonna make sure, again, what? That his church is obeying and demonstrating his manifold wisdom, okay? Very important, verse 33. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, okay, to eat what? He says, tarry one for another. So again, when ye come together, ye believers, church members, when you guys come together, it is okay for us to take communion as a church. That is what he is saying here, okay? Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another, wait for each other, okay? Don't be a jerk. And we've never had a problem with this. I'm just saying. Verse 34, and if any man hunger, they let him eat at home. See that? So if somebody's really hungry and they're just like, oh, look at that bread, okay? Eat at home. If you're that kind of guy, you're really hungry, eat before you come to the Lord's Supper because the Lord's Supper is not designed as a meal to get you full. It is to do in remembrance of him, okay? Last but not least, again, one more time, verse 34. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together, okay? The church comes together unto condemnation, and the rest will I set in order when I come. So hopefully that makes sense. Again, we will in a few months go back over the Lord's Supper a lot slower and kind of break it down a little bit more, but hopefully that is enough to get us a decent understanding of what Paul's trying to communicate to the Corinthians and why so many of them were weak and sick and dying. Okay, it's because they were disrespecting that ritual, and that's a bad thing to do. So with that being said, let's pray, and we'll have one more song, and then we'll be dismissed. Thank you so much, Lord, again, for allowing us to be able to gather here this evening. I just pray you bless the fellowship after the service, Lord, and that you'd watch over us as we go home and bring us again safely this week. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.