1 Corinthians: "Judge"

A slight change in the order that we mentioned. We're going to look at the frequent occurrence of the word judge and consider it. Chapter 4, verse number 3. With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by man's judgment.

Yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified but he that judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart.

Then shall every man have praise of God. Verse 8. Now or already you are full, already you are rich. Ye have reigned as kings without us and I would to God ye did reign that we might also reign with you.

Chapter 5, verse number 1. It is commonly or reported commonly there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles. That one should have his father's wife and ye are puffed up and have not rather mourn that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from you. For I verily as absent in body but present in spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that hath done this deed.

Verse 6. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.

Therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Verse 11. But now have I written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or railer or drunkard or an extortioner was such in one know not to eat.

For what have I to do to judge them that also that are without? Do you not judge them that are within but them that are without God judge you. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. Chapter 6. Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before saints? Do you not know that saints shall judge the world? And if the world should be judged by you are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know you not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life.

Verse number 5. I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you? No not one that shall be able to judge between his brothers. Look over if you will chapter 11 and verse 13.

Judging yourselves is a comedy that a woman pray to God uncovered. Now look down the chapter. Verse number 29.

He that eateth and drinketh unworthily. Now again to emphasize that does not mean that a person is worthy. It has to do with the manner in which they do it.

In an unworthy manner eateth and drinketh judgment. Our word again. Judgment to himself not discerning not judging the Lord's body.

For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged. But when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world.

Now God will bless the reading of these few portions. Strangely or amazingly enough at least on 31 occasions in this epistle Paul uses this word or its cognates it's the words that have it as its base the word judge. Judging, judgment, judge and a word translated discern as well as the same same word.

So judgment really occupies a tremendous part of the epistle and we're going to look at some of those and draw some lessons from them we hope in the moments we have before us. I want to look at chapter 4 very very briefly and over it I want to put this title premature judging. There was judging in chapter 4 that was premature.

It was not time yet for judging. Chapter 4. Chapter 5 in contrast was postponed judging. Judging they were postponing.

When you come to chapter 6 now in chapter 6 you have perverted judging prohibited judging if you will going to the world to have them judge what the assembly should be dealing with. When you come to some of these other sections I want to talk about providential judging judging that God is involved in providential judging and then we could bring together a number of places and look at permitted or permissible judging things that we are responsible to judge things that we are responsible to to deal with. So having that just as a broad overview let me come to one or two of these and just highlight them and then probably will take all of the time.

Premature judging. Paul says judge nothing before the time. It's nothing for me he says to be judged by you or by man's day man's judgment.

In other words they were judging him according to their own standards their own ideas and they were judging his motives and Paul says it's it's a light thing with me that really doesn't concern me but he says judge nothing before the time when the Lord shall come who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the heart and so on. So let me talk first of all then in this section about an unavoidable duet. It's amazing how often things travel together in the Word of God.

Unavoidable duets. Chapter 4 is one of those unavoidable duets. You know what it is? It's judging and reigning.

Judging and reigning. The moment I begin to judge I set myself up as a judge reigning over others and so Paul says already you are reigning as kings without us. This isn't the day for reigning and this isn't the time for judging.

Your calendar is all in error. A day is coming for reigning and a day is coming for judging. He says I wish it were a day of reigning.

My how different his circumstances would have been were it the day of reigning instead of the the off scouring of the earth and made a spectacle to men. Paul says I wish it were a day for reigning but it's not yet the day for reigning. An unavoidable duet.

That's why when James takes up the possibility of judging another, judging a brother, it speaks of how we have taken the place, usurped the place of the lawgiver and we become the ones who are putting ourselves above the law. Now you will understand the balance of this will work out. We're speaking about motives here in chapter 4. He's going to come to what they should judge in other chapters but in chapter 4 it's premature.

It's not the time for judging motives. We do not know the hidden things of the heart and so he tells us in chapter 4 of the danger of judging prematurely. An unavoidable duet but this chapter brings before us unknown details because there are things they had no way of knowing.

They had no way of knowing what was going on as far as Paul's motives and Paul's heart and he said a day is coming when the Lord is going to make manifest the counsels of the heart and all that which men cannot see, the burdens that have led to certain steps in service for God will all be made clear but he says there are unknowable details right now that you cannot know and cannot be privy to. He speaks of a coming day, a day of review. This section would emphasize for us that the judgment seat of Christ will be a time when motives are revealed.

Motives are revealed. We read already didn't we in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 earlier today when the material that we build into God's assembly is going to be tested. We could turn to 2nd Timothy where Paul speaks about a man striving for mastery yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully.

So I learned that my methods will be judged at the judgment seat of Christ. In Romans chapter 14 he is dealing with how brethren are treating each other and he reminds them who are thou the judges thy brother for we must all give account at the judgment seat of Christ each one of us. So it's there the manner in which I treat my brethren and if I turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 I learn there the solemn reality that God is going to turn me inside out.

We must all be made to appear in reality. That's a sobering thing isn't it? God is going to turn us inside out at the judgment seat of Christ. Do you ever have a, the men would know what I mean maybe their wives would too, do you ever have a nice-looking coat on the outside but the lining was ripped inside and accidentally one time you pull your arm through with a sleeve and the ripped, the lining that is all ripped is obvious to everyone you're kind of turned inside out and you're kind of embarrassed you know you look kind of shoddy look so nice on the outside but it's kind of all frayed on the inside.

It's the idea God's gonna turn us inside out. We must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the things done in the body. I'm gonna reveal our motives, gonna judge our materials, going to review our methods, going to look into the manner in which we treated each other and the sum of all of that is to be absolutely laid bare before the judgment seat of Christ.

Now Paul says that day hasn't come. Sobering thoughts but you see the remarkable thing is after saying all of that you know how Paul ends? Paul ends with the unexpected outcome. When all of that is reviewed, when all of that is looked at, you know what Paul says? Then shall every man have praise of God.

Imagine that. Imagine leaving the judgment seat of Christ, beginning eternity with the appreciation of Christ ringing in your soul forever. Then shall every man that he will find something in you, he will find something in me to appreciate, to praise.

Him praising me before ever I begin to praise him in heaven. Isn't that tremendous? Isn't that worth going in for? If anything else we have failed to say today about living for him doesn't stir you to think that my little life could somehow accumulate something that he would be able to actually appreciate from me for all eternity. Worth living for.

What a tremendous thing. But here they were judging prematurely. When you come to chapter 6 there is postponed judging.

I think it's remarkable these three chapters, chapter 4, chapter 5, and chapter 6. Because in chapter 4 they were judging what they shouldn't judge. In chapter 5 they weren't judging what they should have judged. And in chapter 6 they were judging it in the wrong place.

So you see how mixed up they were with their judgment. They were judging what they shouldn't judge. They were not judging what they were supposed to judge.

And then what they were supposed to judge they were doing it in the wrong place, doing it in courts of law, rather than before the brethren, rather than in the assembly. So here then was postponed judgment. There are many reasons why sometimes discipline is not carried out.

I would take it that at Corinth it was because of a spirit of enlightenment, a spirit of tolerance. Much of the spirit of our day is similar. And instead of judging it they were puffed up about it.

Many times it's supposedly out of a spirit of love and a spirit of consideration and so on. But really a loving thing you will usually find, and I think parents will find this echo in their own souls as they think of their children, most of the time the loving thing is the difficult thing to do. The easy way out, the easy way out with your children is not to display the kind of love that God wants you to show.

The easy way out at times in this issue of discipline is really not to love a person, not to really do what is for their very best. We cannot improve upon God's order. Don't think that somehow we can look at a situation and say well yes the Word of God says this, but circumstances and I think really the best thing is no, no.

If it's clear, if it's unmistakable, if it falls within the realm of the Word of God then we are not doing anyone a loving deed by failing to apply the Word of God to them. Never. We may call it love, we may call it kindness, but it is cruelty.

It is cruelty to fail to carry out the Word of God as we ought. So let me come then to two things I want to take up in the moments we have. I want to take up discipline of the offender and the deportment of the believers, the assembly.

What is the mandate for discipline? Why do we discipline? Well I think as we look at this chapter, 1 Corinthians chapter 5, we find at least three reasons for discipline being carried out. Scripture requires it, the holiness of God and the assembly demands it, restoration depends upon it, love necessitates it. We are given clear instruction here, but before I jump to that let me just help young believers especially to realize when we speak of discipline, 1 Corinthians chapter 5 is only one form of assembly discipline.

There are many modes of assembly discipline beginning Galatians chapter 6, ye which are spiritual restored, a man overtaken in a fault, a man something suddenly comes upon him, I would take it the background of Galatians would explain to us what that is, but he's to be restored in a very private, personal, quiet type of way and it is not a matter there of the discipline of the assembly being excommunication. Likewise when you come to Romans chapter 16, Paul speaks of those who are causing divisions to mark them and avoid them. That's not assembly putting someone away, it's just mark them, know who they are and just avoid them and so on.

When you come to 2 Thessalonians where Paul has given instructions about those who were not working but rather living literally as freeloaders off of the other believers, he says those who refuse to obey our word by this epistle, he says withdraw yourself from them, don't have social fellowship with them, don't support them in their delinquency, don't make it easy for them to lead that type of a lifestyle. He tells us as well in 1st Timothy 5 about the rebuke of an elder, a form of discipline. He tells us as well in Titus chapter 3 about the rejection of a heretic, I would take it that that is a person being put away, it may not be but I would take it it is.

And then of course the three occasions where there is someone who is clearly disciplined by being put out of the assembly, the moral evil that we have here in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 and all of the other moral issues that he takes up in this chapter. The doctrinal issue of 1st Timothy chapter 1, those who taught the resurrection was passed and I would take it the railer of Matthew 18 are all individuals who undergo the ultimate of discipline of being put away from God's assembly. Now every one of those disciplines is an assembly activity.

You don't sit back and say you know that person is walking in an unruly manner, I'm not going to have any fellowship with them because then I become the judge of that type of thing. It's an assembly issue. The assembly leads in that, that there are those who are walking in a disorderly way, dishonoring the testimony, bringing reproach upon the name of Christ.

Not the kind of activity that requires the assembly to put away but yet the social fellowship, the warmth of the assembly and its support of that person in there, all of that is withdrawn so the person realized this behavior cannot be supported, condoned by the assembly. It's not something again I carry out personally against another believer. It is something the assembly as a whole does under the leadership of the assembly for that person's good and that person's restoration.

But this chapter brings before us as well the motive, the motive for discipline. Let me just look at chapter 5 with you for a few moments, hopefully to help young believers. You will notice that he says in verse 6, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

So just obvious, point number one, the need for discipline is this, that sin left unchecked, sin left will lead to more sin in God's assembly. Now it may not be that particular sin but once we show a permissive attitude towards rebellion against God, once we saw a permissive tolerant attitude towards behavior, moral behavior especially that God condemns, we are fostering, we are developing, we are planting seeds for future rebellion, future dishonoring of God through acts such as these. So it may not be the specific sin that continues to spread but that assembly is going to know outbreaks of other forms of moral evil as a result of tolerance and as a result of a permissive attitude towards sin.

So we are first of all thwarting or stopping the spread of the leaven. But you will notice as well that they are to be a new lump, no leaven, an assembly marked by holy character, an assembly that takes character from God. So why is discipline carried out? Discipline is carried out as a testimony to the character of God, that God in his holy character and this public sin in its heinous nature cannot coexist.

So he says purge out, remove it, put away among yourselves that wicked person. But also as we learned from 1st Timothy and elsewhere, it is that which is needed to see that person restored to God. So we are giving testimony to God's holiness, we are thwarting the spread of sin and we are teaching by discipline that we might see that person restored to God first of all and restored to God's assembly.

But let me come to the deportment that I think is so vital. I want to talk about the burden on shepherds when it comes to discipline, the burden on shepherds. Now if you will just allow me, I'm going to suggest to you there is a burden as to how they sow, a burden as to how they seek, a burden as to how they serve, a burden as to how they shoulder and a burden as well as to how they save.

Now what do I mean by all that? Many times the seed of a person's restoration is sown by the way in which the discipline is carried out. Just want to get rid of you? Want to get even with you? So it's done in a callous, done in a vindictive type of manner. If I am sowing that kind of seed, it's unlikely I am going to reap the harvest of recovery.

I don't mean that we sympathize and weep over the person and feel sorry for them, that's not what I'm saying. It's a vast difference between godly fear, hatred of a sin, and yet an awareness of sowing seed with a view to seeing that person restored. So the way in which discipline is carried out by shepherds is a vital thing.

What about seeking? There are men that I know whose thinking is when a person is put away from the assembly, that's it, you sit back and you wait and you wait. And you just wait. And they've got to come crawling to you to ask to come back into God's assembly.

Turn with me very quickly just to two portions of the word of God to show by way of illustration if I can. Look at Matthew chapter 12. Look at verse number 11.

The Lord Jesus speaking in the synagogue in the presence of the man with the withered hand and he said unto them, what man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep? And if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will it not lay hold on it and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore is it lawful to do well on the Sabbath days? Now just keep that in mind. Turn to Luke chapter 14. Different story, different time, verse number 4. Jesus spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? And they held their peace.

And he took him, the man with the dropsy, and healed him and let him go and answered them saying, which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit and will not strictly pull him out on the Sabbath day? And they could not answer him again to these things. Any difference? Notice anything different in those portions? Oh, someone says, yeah, it's a sheep in Matthew and it's an ox or an ass in Luke. But other than that, it's, you sure? Sure it's the same? The Lord says in Luke, which one of you having an ox or an ass falling into a pit will not pull him out? Now, all you men are farmers.

I'm not. So I've never pulled an ox or an ass in my life. I'd hate to tell you the things I've pulled, but that's another story for another time.

But, uh, I've never pulled an ox or an ass in my life, but I think if I judge right, you could have a pretty long rope and you could be a pretty good distance. Don't have to get very close to them. You could be yards away and still give a good yank and pull.

And if you pulled, you wouldn't really care too much what hurt. In fact, the more that hurts on him, the better because you want it out. But he says, if you're dealing with a lamb, if you're dealing with a sheep, no point, no ropes.

He says, which of you having a sheep falling in the pit will not lift it out? Got to get pretty close to lift something, don't you? You've got to get near to them to lift them. You've got to get to where they are to lift them. You might get your clothes dirty.

You may not smell the best when you're done, but when it comes to dealing with sheep, it's hands on, nothing at a distance. I find throughout the word of God, this principle shepherds seek sheep. Now, I don't mean to imply that the moment a person is put away, everyone runs.

No, no. Takes godly discernment to know what the spirit of God is doing with that person at that moment in time. But you won't know it unless you have some contact with them.

You won't know it unless there's some communication. And so in the putting away, there is the sowing and there is the seeking. But there is also the serving.

Because I find when the Lord Jesus dealt with seven errant apostles, and I know they weren't under discipline, so please don't come to me and tell me, you know, you're all off because they weren't under discipline. But in John 21, when there are seven errant servants and they're going their own way and they go fishing and you know the story so well, he's on the other shore and he calls them and they come, they bring their load of fishes and they come to the to the shore and they find they're not only fish, but bread and fish already cooked and warmed and ready to go. Before ever he began to deal with Peter, you know what it says? He had them sit down and he served the Son of God.

Resurrection, glory, takes bread, takes fish and begins to move among seven apostles. Here, would you like more? What can I give you? How about some more fish for you? Are you full now? Can you picture it? Can you picture with wonder that the Son of God serving his disciples, feeding them before he began dealing with Peter? I learned from that a lesson that if I go with the hopes of restoring someone, let me go with the attitude of serving their needs, not setting them straight, not getting my pound of flesh to let them know, you know, I told you this was going to happen. Why didn't you listen? No, no.

Going to serve the needs of someone who needs to be restored. Wonderful thing how the Lord Jesus served them. And so not only do I go, not only am I aware of the need, how I sow and how I seek and how I serve, but Luke 15 reminds me there are some sheep that need to be put on shoulders and brought home.

Some sheep need to be shouldered for a long time. A lot of burden, a lot of nursing for some sheep, but they need it. Willing to do it? It's a heavy burden.

It's almost as though, you know, you hardly can leave them. But that's the cost of being a shepherd. That's the cost of care for the people of God.

I'm not suggesting you foster, that you create a dependency. That's far different, where people have to need you. That's not the idea.

But just there are some individuals who are wounded so badly from a fall that takes time, need to be carried, need to be on your shoulders for a long time before they can begin going on their own again. And so the deportment of shepherds is vital. What about the behavior of saints? This is a very, very important issue because there's a lot of confusion, I think, in the minds of many about how is an assembly to respond to someone being disciplined? Let me first of all suggest to you the first thing is submission.

Submission to the judgment of the assembly. What that means is if the assembly has acted in discipline, then it ill becomes me. And if you think of it, it serves no purpose for me to go and sympathize with a person who has been disciplined.

Now, ask yourself honestly, is my going and sympathizing with them and telling them that they have been wronged and that discipline has been accepted, is that really going to lead and help in their restoration? Is it? Do you really think it is? You may say, but they feel so badly and I think it was wrong. Is what you're doing going to help their restoration or is it going to drive them further into a spirit of bitterness and anger at what's been done? Hebrews 13 reminds us that one of the responsibilities of believers in an assembly is to submit, to willingly yield to those who are their leaders, their guides in all of these details. So the first thing I want to suggest to you is, is submission, even if you don't agree with the decision.

We'll come to that in a moment. But submission, you will notice as well the importance of supplication. You pray for those men who have to look into the details.

You don't want to know the details of some of the things they have to get into. You pray for them. You pray that God will give them wisdom, that God will give them discernment, that God will give them compassion, that God will give them balance.

You pray for the men that have to look into those issues and you pray for the person who was the offender, that God would bring about recovery and restoration. That's your responsibility. That's part of the behavior of the of the saints, to submit, to supplicate.

But let me suggest something else. Search your own heart. Paul says, you're puffed up at Corinth.

Could it be that the attitude, the attitude of the assembly made this sin so possible? We're enlightened. We're very liberal here. You know, we don't get upset about some of the things that Paul gets upset about.

So could it be that the attitude of the Corinthian saints made this sin possible? I find that when Israel came into the land against Jericho, Achan, you recall, goes up and takes those three things from Jericho and hides them in his tent. And he is presumptuous that he can sin and God will not judge. So he's marked by a spirit of presumption, spirit of pride.

I just turn one chapter and Israel is going up to fight against the city of Ai. And they say, you know, it's only a small city. You don't have to send everybody.

Just a few of us can handle that. We can take care of that ourselves. You know what happened.

They were defeated. But what I'm getting to is this. There was a spirit of pride in the people.

That spirit of pride broke out in Achan in a different way than it broke out in the rest. So whenever there is something so tragic as this in an assembly, we also search our own hearts, not saying we're guilty, not saying it's always the case, but it could be there's something about my attitude towards sin. Could be something about my attitude towards the world, my attitude towards self-reliance, a spirit I have brought into the assembly that is permeating the assembly that has made it possible for this sin to break out in a different way and someone else and leading to discipline.

So a searching of heart. Let me suggest also, I don't know any better way of putting it, silence. The more you spread what has happened, the harder it gets for a person to be restored.

The more other people and other it's not that we hush, hush, and this is some horrible secret. No, it's an assembly matter. Keep it in the assembly, especially if it's something you're not totally in agreement with.

Don't be calling elders elsewhere. Don't be calling preachers in other places of the country. Don't be rallying the troops behind your viewpoint.

It is rare, I have only heard it once, it is rare that a problem gets beyond a local assembly and becomes an issue of many assemblies. It is rare that person ever gets restored. You are doing a disservice to that person and to God's assembly by spreading the thing and by making people take sides and by polarizing the issue.

It is counterproductive to everyone involved in the issue. Keep it local. Keep it in the assembly.

Keep it where it began and don't spread it to everyone, even family. You may have to tell family, not something we are free to speak about and you'll just have to understand it's an issue of our own assembly and that's where it has to be left. Keep it in the assembly.

But let me mention one other thing, spiritual civility. What does that mean? The only thing I shouldn't do is eat a meal with this person. They can come over, we can do everything we want to do together, go places, do things together, but I just can't eat a meal.

That's not what the scripture means at all. What's he referring to in 1 Corinthians chapter 5? He has spoken about the Passover. He has immediately gone to the Feast of Unleavened Bread for the concept of holiness linked with salvation and now he says, with such in one know not to eat.

Know not to eat what? Know not to eat the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So what he is saying is fellowship with this person has been disrupted because of sin. So it's not a matter that we can do things together and go places together and just as long as we don't eat.

He is using that expression with such in one know not to eat to be embracive of the idea of partaking of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That you cannot have fellowship with this type of an individual until there has been repentance and restoration. So it's not a matter that here's the line as long as you don't eat together.

Now that doesn't mean, balance this please, that doesn't mean that if they're walking down the street I cross the street so I don't see them or don't shake their hand. Let me just ask you, what would be more likely to foster recovery? You ignoring a person who's under discipline and not even looking them in the eye, not smiling, not shaking, or going up to that person and saying, you know we miss you. We are praying every day, the whole assembly for your recovery and restoration.

I want you to know we love you and we are praying for God to restore you. Far more effective, far more Christ-like than my turning my eyes crossing the street, going the other way and making believe they don't exist. We're creatures of extremes.

Either we're there sympathizing and having a pity party with them or we're acting like they're dirt and they don't exist and we don't even want to look at them and touch them. No. Paul draws the line.

Christian fellowship has been disrupted, but spiritual civility never ends. We are civil. We are spiritually kind to people, letting them know that we're concerned with them, praying for their recovery, praying for their restoration, missing them in the assembly and long to see God at work in their lives.

Spiritual civility. Let me come quickly in closing, if I can. One minute I'll take providential judgment.

1 Corinthians chapter 4, he will judge. He will judge. 1 Corinthians chapter 5, he would have judged.

He says, Paul says to them, you should have mourned that God would have taken away that person. So if they had been in the right spiritual condition, God would have righted wrongs. Now let me come back to that for a moment.

If you think something is wrong in your assembly, if you think the brethren have gone too far or not gone far enough and you have spoken to them in a kind way, brought the word of God before them in a kind way, leave it there. It's God's assembly. The Lord will take care of righting things that are wrong.

Not for you to do. Not for you to become a vigilante committee of one and right the wrongs of the oversight. You can leave things with God.

It's his assembly. He's totally capable of righting the wrongs that are done. Paul says if you would have mourned and wept, God would have come in and judged and dealt with the situation that you were not dealing with, that the leaders were not dealing with.

So in chapter four, we're reminded he will judge. In chapter five, he can judge. In chapter 11, he did judge.

He says, for this cause, many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. If we would judge ourselves, we wouldn't be judged by the Lord. He did judge.

He came in into assembly. I find it insightful that he did not come in unilaterally when there was moral evil, but when they desecrated the remembrance of the Lord Jesus, he moved in unilaterally without being asked, without being besought, he moved in to right the wrong and take some away who are behaving in a way that was dishonoring to the remembrance of the Lord Jesus. So when it comes to this issue of judging, we should ever be mindful he will judge everything laid bare at the judgment seats, that he can judge when there are things in the assembly that we think are not in keeping with his mind, that are beyond our ability to write, and the solemn truth that he did judge.

Don't take lightly your place in God's assembly, young believer, or older one for that matter. It is a place marked by holiness, marked by the presence of God, and he is able. Now, time doesn't permit.

You can look at areas that were prohibited in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, and areas that are permitted, the discerning of gift and the discerning of the ministry and the discerning of the symbols. All of that is all linked with Paul's use of this word, judging, discerning, and so on. So may the Lord help us to appreciate something of the character of God's assembly, something of the truth committed to our hands for our generation, that we may bring honor and glory to him.

Now shall we speak to God in prayer? Our Father, we bow, and I pray for a fuller answer from him. I'm not going to ask him now, just putting him on the spot, but you can talk to him later. The question is, there is no head covering required for the men in 1 Corinthians 11.

Yet in the Old Testament, the priest and his sons all wore head coverings. Why the change from the Old Testament to the New? So in the Old Testament, the men, the priests as they functioned in the sanctuary, their heads were covered and the priestly sons had bonnets and the high priest had the mitre and the golden plate upon it. But yet when we come to the New Testament, all of that has changed, where the man's head is uncovered and the sister's head is covered.

Well, I think one reason, and there may be others that our brethren can give, one reason is there is an introduction of a new glory. It is the glory of Christ in his headship. And now that is afforded to the man.

In the Old Testament, the covered head of the priest and the covered head of his sons meant they were serving, ministering in subjection to God, and so their heads were covered as a sign of subjection. The covered head throughout Scripture, a sign of subjection. Their heads were covered as a sign of subjection to God.

Now in the New Testament, there is a new glory introduced, the glory of Christ in the local company of believers. And as a result, we now have this revelation that the head of every man is Christ. And as a result of this, this new glory, this new headship that has been introduced as a result of Calvary, as a result of this, there is now in the redemptive scheme an entirely new order where the man's head is uncovered and the sister's head is covered to give eloquent testimony to the respective headships and the glory of Christ in that sphere.

Now, as I said, I think our brother Smith could probably answer you better. And please, he delights in people besieging him at the end of meeting, lining up to ask questions, and it'll make his day worthwhile. He is valiantly and humbly born through this afternoon's ministry, so do afford him an opportunity.