To Cover or Not to Cover Part 1: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 Now today he’s going to hit the topic of praying and prophesying with a head covering or uncovered. You know, do we pray and prophesy with our head covered or uncovered? Now some of you have a problem with that already. “What’s that idiot doing? That’s a woman thing.” That’s our problem: we have problems with things, and we start making doctrine out of the problems. And so he’s going to hit this issue. Now you’ll see on your screen, up in the upper left-hand corner, a woman of that day, a typical woman during Christ time, during the New Testament times, with a covering on her head, okay? On the lower right-hand corner you’re going to see a Jewish woman with a veil or covering on her head, and she’s got long hair and it covers all of her hair all the way down to the end. And then in the lower left-hand corner you’re going to see a couple of Christians in church praying with a veil over their head, because their church says women got to have a veil over your head to pray. Okay, now Paul’s going to hit this thing today. Don’t I look handsome up here with this scarf on me?

▶ 1:23 Okay, now Paul opens with this statement. He says, “Be you followers, imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.” Now it’s important that he introduces this subject this way, because when he comes to the conclusion you’re going to need this introductory subject. Okay, he says be followers of me as I follow Christ. In other words, we almost follow who? Christ. And people who follow Christ. Yes. My covering is slipping. I need [unclear]. Now let’s don’t get carried away.

▶ 2:16 In other words, we’re not to follow Muhammad, we’re not to follow Joseph Smith, we’re not to follow the Pope, we’re not to follow Billy Graham, we’re not to follow Oral Roberts or Joel Osteen or Rick Warren, or the emergent church or the seeker-friendly church or the Pentecostal church or the Baptist church or whatever. We are to follow who? Jesus Christ. And he’s hitting a very important issue before he gets into this subject. We get our eyes off Christ and we get our eyes on other things, and we have problems. Could that be an amen? And said, “I only do what I see Christ do. I only do what Jesus teach. You follow me as I follow Him, and if I don’t follow Jesus, don’t follow me,” is what he’s saying. Now Jesus did no sin.

▶ 3:07 Wow, that sure beats all these other guys I listed. Jesus only taught and lived by the Word of God. He taught the Scriptures; He didn’t teach other books. Remember, there were books there. Homer was there, Greek and Roman mythology books were there, Aristotle was there, Socrates was there, the Jewish book of traditions was there. He never taught any of that. He taught what? The Scriptures. He said follow me as I follow Christ. How many, you know, a preacher should be preaching the Scriptures, not their opinion or some church doctrine. See, he’s setting this thing up for a real good answer. Jesus always followed and did the will of the Father, always. You see, Jesus went to the synagogue every Saturday. I’ll [unclear]. This is how these women do that. There we go. Now I won’t fall off. Aren’t I cute? See, Jesus did the will of the Father. He went to the synagogue. He worked till He was 30 years old and went into the ministry. He actually worked; He was a carpenter. He actually held a job, just like the Bible tells us to. Jesus laid down His life and He picked it up again and lived again. Jesus said, “No greater love hath any man than he lays down his life for his friend.” Jesus said, “You are my friends if you do what I ask you to do.”

▶ 5:02 And we’re to lay down our life for our friend. Jesus, isn’t that right? See, follow Jesus. Forget these other people; follow Jesus. Jesus taught directly 14 apostles. He encountered them and sent them to teach His Word. And there is no record of any of these apostles that He directly taught, except Judas who was picked for that, there’s no record of these guys misusing church money, these guys committing sexual immorality, whether it was incest, homosexuality, adultery or fornication. No record; they didn’t do it. There’s no record of them using extortion because of the position in the church, getting people to do things for them and give them things. There’s no record of them committing idolatry. There’s no record of them complaining. There’s no record of them dividing. Are you there? See, when we follow Jesus we’ll all be on the same track.

▶ 6:10 See, there’s no record of them quitting. They didn’t give up; they didn’t have nervous breakdowns and all this stuff. They kept preaching and serving God all the days of their life till their hearts stopped or they were killed. They martyred and died, isn’t that right? They never needed a sabbatical to get their head together. These guys were powerful. That’s the kind of people Jesus makes. How many, you know, we need to be following Jesus, and we need to be following people that are following Jesus. And so this is very important. Now Paul then goes in to honor them for changing wrong beliefs and wrong behavior when he taught them proper Bible tradition, Bible rules, Bible truths.

▶ 7:03 And he says, “I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances,” the traditions, the customs, the rules, the teachings, “as I delivered them to you.” And as crude as this church was, with their division, their sexual immorality, their idolatry, their faith in men instead of the power of God, and not seeking the high prize of God, and the complaining when Paul would come and correct them and teach them, they would change, and he honored them for it. I mean, that’s a powerful thing. I mean, we should have that kind of heart. You know, we might have some errors, but goodness, when we hear truth, let’s change. See, he’s setting this up good for this interesting topic.

▶ 8:00 Then he goes and hits another subject, the chain of command. Before he gets into the topic, but before we get there, there are five traditions in the Bible, customs, and we want to hit those so you know what not to follow. In Mark 7:5, the tradition of the elders, the Sanhedrin, the Jewish civil leaders. They made up their own laws: you got to, if you’re going to eat, you got to have a ceremonial washing of the hands. See, traditions of the leaders. Some people will die for church leaders that make up their own rules, and they’re not in the Bible. Could that be true? That is true. In fact, we will take tradition over the Word of God, and it nullifies and neutralizes the Word of God.

▶ 9:07 The second area of traditions is in Mark 7:8, traditions of men, like the washing of pots and cups and the Sabbath day journey and many other things that you do. The tradition of men is not only in the church, but it’s also in the secular world. Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest any man spoil you.” The word “spoil” means capture you, like a bandit, you know. They come and they rob you and they capture, they overpower you and they take what you have. He says beware lest any man capture you through philosophy. They’re going to capture your mind. Philosophy is the way of life and values that you live by. They capture you through philosophy, they capture you through vain, fruitless deceit; they’re actually deceiving you, “and after the tradition of men,” you see, the rules, the customs of men, “after the rudiments,” the principles, “of this world and not after Christ.” And we got to be careful what rules we’re following. Could that be true? What customs? What traditions?

▶ 10:28 Now the third one, Mark 7:9, “You full well reject the commandment of God that you may keep your own tradition.” We’re not just happy with following the church leaders’ nonsense and people of the world; we come up with our own. “This is what I believe,” and it hurts us, it can destroy our life, and it robs us of the things of Christ. And then number four, Galatians 1:14, “I, Paul, profited in the Jewish religion above my equals in my own nation.” You know, we get in our little religion, whether it’s Baptist or Presbyterian or Lutheran or whatever, or Catholic, and man, we want to be, you know, the best in that group, and we do everything they say to try to, you know, be recognized. That’s the real Baptist, that’s the real Methodist, that’s the real Pentecostal, or whatever. Man, I’m “being more zealous of the traditions of my fathers,” religious fathers and also family fathers. You know, there’s people that follow the traditions of their family handed down, even if it goes against the Word of God.

▶ 12:00 And he says this is not the ordinances, the traditions I’m talking about. These are the ordinance and tradition that will take you away from truth, take you away from God, and weaken you. I want you to follow the real traditions. 2 Thessalonians 2:15, “Hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether by word,” or the Bible Scriptures, “or by our epistles.” Now in this verse he is declaring that the epistles written by Peter, Paul, John and James were Scripture. You understand that? Hallelujah. So when these people argue about the canonization of the Bible and all that, they’re arguing fruitlessly. Paul recognized these epistles as what? Scripture. Why? They got it straight from God; they got their doctrines from Jesus Christ, and the Bible tells us to follow the apostles’ doctrines and Christ’s doctrines, no one else.

▶ 13:10 Number two, in 2 Thessalonians 3:6, the second part of this number five tradition: “Withdraw from brothers that walk disorderly.” Well, how do we know they walk disorderly? Because they don’t walk after the tradition which he “received of us.” He’s not following us as we follow Christ. Got it? He’s coming up with his own man-made doctrines. And so that’s what he’s saying: don’t follow those other ordinances, those other customs, those other traditions; follow Bible, Jesus, apostle traditions.

▶ 13:58 Now verse 3, he comes up and he makes this powerful statement. He’s going to remind them of the chain of command, of the chain of leadership. Now you need to get this in your cranial vacuum. This is God’s chain of leadership. “The head of every man is” what? Jesus Christ. “The head of every woman is the,” and what’s the word for man there? Husband. Say it: husband. No man has authority over another woman. It’s husband. It’s Christ. Head is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is who? God.

▶ 14:53 These people that want to say Jesus only and all that: it plainly says Jesus is under the leadership, the authority, of who? God. When Stephen saw the heavens open, he saw Jesus standing on the right hand of the glory of who? God. See, the Godhead is plural, and there’s an order of authority, and if you follow here with me, Jesus is over everything. Didn’t He say, “All power in heaven and earth been given unto Me”? See, He’s not only the head of the man, He’s the head of everything, and as you follow to the right there, He’s the head of the angels. The angels have delegated authority. Those dotted lines are delegated authority over the church, and over Satan, coming down through the church, and over civil authorities, the husband, the wife and kids. They can only do what Jesus gives them permission to do. Amen.

▶ 16:07 And then you see that He is the direct authority over civil governments. Daniel says the Most High rules in the kingdoms of men and gives it to whomsoever He will. Satan is not ruling in the kingdoms of men; the Bible says who is? God Himself, the Most High. And a lot of people got this teaching all wrong. Secondly, He’s over the church. The Bible says He’s the head of the body, the church, doesn’t He? He’s the real pastor. Us preachers are just delegated, you know, blabbermouths. Really, Jesus is the real power, He’s the real Shepherd. And so when a pastor violates the customs, traditions and rules of Christ, we’re not to follow them, because our real leader is who? Jesus Christ. And then of course we see Him here over the husband, and He has direct authority over the wife. See, the wife has two heads: the husband is a delegated authority, but Jesus is their direct authority. And when a husband asks the wife to do something that violates the authority of Christ, she can’t do that, saying “I got to be submissive.” Are you there, church? Hallelujah. Yeah.

▶ 17:44 Now to show you that women knew that were married who their head was, who their leader was, remember Elizabeth: Zachariah and Elizabeth, who had John the Baptist. Mary came to visit Elizabeth, and Elizabeth looks at her and says, “Why is it that the mother of my Lord”? Now who was Mary? The mother of Jesus. See, Elizabeth knew who her Lord was, the real authority: “that the mother of my Lord should come to me.” All right, you got to understand, and you got to get this chain of command in you so we don’t get messed up here. All right, we come down to the kids. “Permit all children to come unto Me.”

▶ 18:35 And then you got Satan. He has authority over Satan. Satan can do nothing without Christ’s permission. The church has got to understand that Satan could not touch Job until God said, “Okay, you can do this, but you can’t do that,” and Satan went and did it. We understand that. Now Satan, and the church has delegated authority over Satan. He says He will put Satan under your feet. How long? Shortly. What are you letting him bother you for? Get him under there and step on him and keep him down and get moving. I hate these testimonies: “Satan’s been chasing me all week long.” Oh, who you serving? What do you mean? We have authority over that boy. Okay, so now we find the church has delegated authority over the family when they follow that church and we flow together to the good things of the Lord. And then Satan has delegated authority over civil government: when Jesus wants to straighten civil government out, He has delegated authority over the church. When the people do bad, and God can’t do anything bad, so He comes in and lets Satan do his bad stuff for Him. Okay, Satan has authority over the civil government. He has authority over the husband if the husband gets out of line. Remember Paul said deliver him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his soul might be saved. You’re looking at me like I’m talking Greek to you. Are you getting this? All right. I tell you, this guy Paul knows his stuff.

▶ 20:34 Our problem is we can’t sit still and listen to the Word of God, and we got to discipline ourself to listen to the Word of God. And then he can have delegated authority over the wife, and the church has delegated authority over the elements. Jesus has direct authority over the elements; that’s why He could say “Peace, be still” and the storm is still. That’s why He could heal the sick and do all these things, change the water to wine. And the church can, as Jesus gives us permission to do it. You can’t just go name it and claim it. That’s a bunch of Pentecostal baloney: name it, claim it, believe it, keep it. If it’s not in the will of the Father, ain’t nothing going to happen. Ain’t that true? He’s the one that’s got to do it, and He delegates it to be done, and then it works.

▶ 21:29 Hallelujah. Now he’s established these three things: follow Christ, the ordinances, the customs, the rules, the laws of Christ, and this chain of command, who’s the leader of who. Okay, and so all these people not only are under leadership, but they’re leaders. See, the wife is a leader also, as well as being led. The kids are under the husband and the wife. That make sense? They’re both leaders, and we’ll show you that more clearly. Now let me get my babushka back on; it keeps falling off up here. “Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head.” Yikes, and get this thing off of me.

▶ 22:29 “Dishonors his head,” disrespects his head. Oh my gosh, embarrasses his head. Now my head don’t feel embarrassed. And why don’t my head feel embarrassed? Because Paul just told us what head he was talking about: position of leadership. It’s got nothing to do with the head, although the Corinthian church is using the head. So let me get this off, because a man’s not supposed to do that. Hallelujah, praise God, that thing was hot. And then he says, “every woman.” And what’s the word there? Is it every woman or is it every wife? He’s talking about husband and wife. He’s not talking about single women at all. All through here it’s husband and wife; never talks about single women. And yet these churches interpret this thing that women got to wear something on their head. And we’re going to clear all this up for you. Paul’s going to clear all this up for us today, and he’s going to give us some good stuff to go along with it.

▶ 23:48 Okay, “every woman,” every wife, “that prays,” and every man, husband, “prays or prophesies with her head uncovered,” completely covered, covered, veiled, “dishonors her head.” Now who’s her head? Do you remember who her head was? Her husband and Jesus. Now let’s pretend I’m a woman, you know. Okay, I got a veil on me. Do you think Jesus pays any attention to that at all? I come in to pray, or I come in to edify the body of Christ by speaking a prophetic word that God gives me by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. You think Jesus cares where I got this on or not? No. He can care the least. Veils don’t mean anything to Him. If I don’t have it on, is that going to bother Him? He ain’t going to hear my prayer because I don’t have a covering? No. Come on, we know the Scriptures.

▶ 24:58 So who’s it really bothering? The husband. Who came up with this idea in the first place? The husband. You know, he wants that symbol of authority over his wife. “My wife is submissive unto me; she’s got the veil on, and if she doesn’t have it on, she’s disrespecting me, bringing embarrassment to me, a shame came to me.” Well, you created the embarrassment; you created the shame. Are you there, church? Okay, and then he goes on to say this statement. It says, “even if she were shaved.” Now does Jesus care if a woman’s baldheaded or not? No. Jesus looks at the heart; we look at the what? Outward. He cares what the heart condition is. I’ve met women that had very little hair, I mean fuzz, peach fuzz on their head. You think that bothers Christ? You ever seen a person that had to take chemotherapy, they’re baldheaded? You think that bothers Christ? No, it bothers the man. Why? He loves that woman with hair on her head. Are you there? Now, so it’s the husband, and he is dishonored because he set this whole thing up.

▶ 26:51 Now the first thing that Paul established here in these verses is women can pray and prophesy. Side, you got that? Oh, women got to keep silent in the church, right? Here Paul says women can what? Pray and prophesy. How you prophesy? With your mouth shut? Hallelujah. He’s establishing that women can be involved in the church. He’s establishing that, let me give you a little boost here: prophesying, instead of going to the prophets, “Thus saith the Lord,” I’m going to go to music and singing in 1 Chronicles 25:4.

▶ 27:50 Who, it says just before this, I didn’t have enough room on the screen, but David separated these people under the Lord who should what? What’s the word say? Prophesy. Now this prophecy word, prophecy, is the same as the other words that we prophesy and build up the church, except it is a word that says we sing and we play musical instruments by the inspiration, the anointing, of the Spirit. Wow. And we got to understand that not only “Thus saith the Lord,” people getting up, and we heard prophecies that edified this morning, but we can edify and prophesy with our instrument without song, and we can prophesy with instruments with song. He goes on to say God gave to Heman 14 sons and how many daughters? Three. And see, people feel, because God used women in a lot less proportion in the Bible than men, that women aren’t supposed to do anything, and they go back and they conjure up these fantasy ideas.

▶ 29:09 But he had how many daughters? Now what does it say? All these were for song in the house of the Lord. Was it just all 14 or all 17? Was it just the 14 sons or was it also the three daughters? Yeah, you’re pretty good at reading English. See, women could sing, they could prophesy in song, they could prophesy playing the cymbals and harps and the psaltery, a kind of like a guitar, it’s a stringed instrument, for the service of the house of the Lord. Where are they going to do this at? In the house of the Lord. We got to find, we got to understand.

▶ 30:00 Come on, there we go, that these two things he said is not backed up in Scripture, and you got to understand that Paul knows this, and you got to understand that when you read him you think he’s giving you Scripture and he’s not. What he’s doing, he’s trying to answer these men from their own ego, their own selfish importance of having some kind of demands on the wife that the Bible doesn’t have. Leviticus 10:6, Moses said to Aaron, this is Aaron’s sons Eleazar and Ithamar, and Aaron all got to not uncover their heads. Now Paul said it was a shame for a man to pray or prophesy with something on his head, or not on his head, I’m sorry, and here in the Bible they had to have what? Something on their head. It was a miter, it was a cap. Now you know Paul knows this. Is this helping you? Are you getting this now?

▶ 31:14 Not only that, we got the woman. She can’t be in the house of God praying and ministering to the Lord without something on her head, but here the priest shall set the woman before the Lord and uncover the woman’s what? Head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands. Here she is doing a sacrifice unto God, and her head is what? Uncovered. Oh my gosh, how can this be? See, Paul knows this stuff. Now, you know, Psalms 140 gives us the key: “Lord, You have covered my head in the day of battle.” What does that covering mean? Those shadow things, he’s trying to show us that we have got to have the Lord Jesus Christ and His authority covering us. Amen, and that’s our covering.

▶ 32:12 You know, where we got a hats, he’s got a hat here. My goodness, she’s in, this guy’s out, according to Paul. You know, he’s got a covering. I mean, I tell you, no lightning bolt struck him down or anything. Can you imagine that? And God loves, just like that. Thank you for wearing that hat today. Sometimes Tim has a hat on. Where’s, yeah, yeah, he has a hat on. Do you get it, folks? Now Paul sets up his ultimate answer using ego arguments. Ego is the conceit of self-importance, personal importance. “This is important to me, and when you agree with me it feeds my ego.”

▶ 33:02 “If the woman be not covered, let her be shaved; for it is a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven,” sheared like a sheep, “then let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, for as much as he is the image and glory,” and splendor, “of God, but the woman is the glory,” the splendor, the brightness, “of the man.” Now here we got a real problem. He just fed these guys’ ego. “Yeah, yeah, man, we were made directly by God. Hallelujah. Eve, yeah, yeah, God created man, and God created woman out of the man’s rib. Yeah, she’s a second-class citizen.” Boy, he’s really feeding her ego. Why? Because he’s going to pop that ego in a minute.