Abolishing Anxiety, Part 15

Proverbs 12:25 says that anxiety in the heart of a man weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad. That's our verse that we've been looking at for, wow, a lot of weeks, ever since this whole COVID-19 thing came about. And so we're looking at how a good word makes the heart of a man glad.

And we have given you eight different principles up to this point to help you understand how it is you are to give honor and glory to our Lord and how you can rid yourself of anxiety. We have two more points we're going to cover for you next week and the week after to make it around ten points, but it really will help you understand how it is we eradicate those emotions that make us feel so anxious. And every one of us has them, and they come in different shapes and sizes, and they come from all different directions. But everyone in the room at times faces anxious thoughts. And what do you do with them? Well, we're helping you work through how it is you deal with that by making your heart glad based on what God's Word actually does say.

And so we've given you these eight principles, and we're looking at principle number eight. And under principle number eight, we've given you nine sub-points, all right? Nine sub-points. Put them up for me, would you please, Melody? There we go. We're giving you sub-points because we're going to radiate Christ in His glory. That is, we're going to reflect the righteous radiance of our Redeemer in everything that we do. And there are certain portions of scripture that specifically speak to the fact that if you do this or you do that, you give glory to God. You reflect His beauty. And that's what we have before you, that's what we have covered up to this point. And last week we left off with manifestation of our identity as salt and light. And I want to pick it up from there to help you understand exactly how it is we continue to give glory to God, how we continue to reflect the beauty of our Lord's character in and through our lives. And that is the next point, which is the adoration of His majesty.

The adoration of His majesty. "Whoso offereth praise," Psalm 50 verse number 23, "glorifieth me." We know that Philippians 2 says that God has given a name to a Son, His name is Jesus, and that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. It's all about the glory of the Father. It's all about the honoring of our God. And one day every knee will bow, every tongue will confess what you and I already know—that Jesus Christ is the Lord, that He is a ruler of the universe, that everything is subject to His control, that He is the Master, He is the King. And we bow before Him out of love and adoration, and that's what it means to radiate the glory of Christ. We bow in subjection to the ultimate King, the Lord Jesus Himself.

Over in Psalm 34, these words are recorded: Psalm 34 verse number one, "I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the Lord; the humble will hear it and rejoice. Oh magnify the Lord! Oh glorify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together!" That's what the people of God do. Then over in Psalm 35 verse number 27, "Let them shout for joy and rejoice who favor my vindication; and let them say continually, 'The Lord be glorified, who delights in the prosperity of His servant.'" And then over in Psalm 69—Psalm 69 verse number 30—these words are written: "I will praise the name of God with song and glorify Him with thanksgiving, and it will please the Lord better than an ox or a young bull with horns and hoofs." In other words, ritual without repentance, ritual without a right attitude, is not worship. Worship is a heart attitude that seeks to glorify and magnify His beautiful name based on who He is.

You know, at Christmas time we sing that song, "Oh come let us adore Him," and we wonder what it means to adore the King, what it means to adore His majesty. And I wish I had time to talk to you about this because it's so important. It all begins with an excitation to be with the King—that's where adoration begins. And you go all the way back to the birth of the King, and you realize what the shepherds did when they heard the great word about their Messiah, who was born in the city of David. "For unto you has been born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." And they were so excited to go in haste to see this word that was spoken to them, because there was an excitation to be with the King. If you're going to adore the King, you can't wait to be with the King.

And not only is there an excitation to be with the King, there was a proclamation about that King. Because when they came to the cave or to the grotto where Christ was laid, they began to proclaim all the things that the angel had spoken to them to Mary and Joseph. And not only is there a proclamation about the King, but there's a meditation upon that King. We want to meditate upon who He is. And that's why Mary would ponder all these things in her heart. The mother of our Lord would ponder all these things in her heart. There was a meditation upon everything that the shepherds said, because it was so overwhelming to give birth to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And you can go on and read through the scriptures and realize that whenever you worship the King, there's always a satisfaction with the King, right? When you adore the King, there's a satisfaction with Him. That was Simeon, because when Simeon received the King in his arms, what did he say? "It's over. I can die now, because that which I have longed for has now appeared, and now I can die," because Simeon was completely satisfied with the Savior.

And it goes on to talk about how there is a presentation to the King, because that's what the Magi did when the King was born. What do they do? They presented Him gifts. There was a presentation to the King of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, because when you recognize Him as King, you want to give Him all that's due Him. There's also appreciation for the King. "Thanks be unto God for His indescribable gift!" Oh, I wish I had time to preach all that for you. It's so important. But the adoration of His majesty—that's what it means to give glory to the King and honor His name.

The next point is this: a unification in the assembly. A unification in the assembly. Do you know that our unity and the ability to live in harmony gives glory to the Lord? Listen what it says in the book of Romans, the 15th chapter, the fifth verse. It says, "Now may the God who gives perseverance"—let's stop right there for a second. Isn't it good that God gives perseverance? Do you know the ability to endure and the ability to keep on keeping on is a gift from God? That's why the Reformers talk about the perseverance of the saints. What makes the perseverance of the saints so important is that it assures the fact that you know Christ. Why? How many times have you read in Scripture that those who continue in the faith shall be saved? Does that mean that my continuance saves me? No, but my continuance in the faith proves my salvation, because God grants perseverance to His own.

In other words, those who know Christ don't quit, don't give up. They persevere to the end with Christ because they are so committed to Him, and God has granted them the ability to persevere. That's why the perseverance of the saints is such a beautiful doctrine to study, because it helps you understand the beauty of what God does in the life of a believer. I don't persevere because I'm stronger than you. I don't persevere because I have this or that. No, I persevere only because it is a gift given to me by God, like salvation was a gift, like faith is a gift, like grace is a gift. Perseverance is a gift.

So the Bible says in Romans 15, "Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind," to think in unison. And then he says this, "with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Do you know that you glorify the Lord Jesus Christ when we come together in one accord, with one voice, with the same mind to put them on display? The unification of the assembly is so crucial, and we're unified in three ways, okay? Three ways: unified in doctrine, unified in distinctives, and unified in disposition. Okay, three words, very simply stated. Sometimes it takes a long time to unravel those things, but we're one in doctrine.

How do we know we're supposed to be one in doctrine? Well, First Corinthians chapter 1 verse number 10 says these words. First Corinthians 1 verse number 10—we'll start at verse number 9: "God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree"—Paul is writing to the Corinthian Church, and the Corinthian Church had a lot of issues because they would tend to bring everything from the world that they had learned and done into the church. So Paul would write to them about how to correct those things. But he wanted them to be all of the same mind. He wanted them to all agree, or in other words, say the same thing about the Christ and who He is—"that you all agree," in other words, that you speak the same thing, "and that there be no divisions among you, but that you may be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment"—that you may be mature internally, the same mind, and externally, judgment, discernment, calling things as they are.

So Paul is exhorting the Corinthian Church to be unified in their doctrine, what it is they believe. See, the church is not designed to be a smorgasbord of theology, so that when you come to the church you have some guys say this and maybe you believe that, another guy say this about the Christ and they believe that, somebody else say this about the Christ and you believe that, and you speak and choose what it is you want to believe. That's not the way it works. Christ speaks with one voice, and Christ has given to us His truth, His word, and His truth is true. And God gives us His word, we are to believe what He says. So when you come to the church, you come to the church because you believe in the doctrine that's held dear in scriptures, because doctrine determines everything else you do. Doctrine always determines your duty—how you live your life. What you believe about God determines how it is I live each and every day, right? If I believe that God is King, I will submit to His lordship. I will follow Him. I will serve Him. If I don't believe He's the King, if I don't believe He's Lord, well then I don't have to necessarily do what He says. He's made a lot of suggestions, but made no commands. But God never gives suggestions. He only gives commands.

So we begin to understand the theology surrendered around all that we believe. It's so important. So Paul is writing to the Corinthian Church, and if I had time I could go into great detail about this, but the fact of the matter is, he's talking about being one in doctrine: say the same thing about the Christ, everybody be unified about the Lord, everybody be unified about the gospel, everybody be unified about what the truth of Jesus Christ is. He wants the Corinthian Church to be that way, just like he wants our church to be like that as well.

So you're one in doctrine, but you're also one in distinctives, okay? Over in First Peter chapter 3, Peter says this: "To sum up, all of you be harmonious, all of you be unified, all of you be together, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted, humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead, for you are called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing." God says, or Peter says, that you are called to inherit a blessing that comes when you don't return evil for evil, insult for insult, but in reality you return good for evil. Because that is the distinctive of the believer when it comes to his relationship with other people. He's not vengeful. No, he returns good for evil, not evil for evil, not insult for insult. And if you're going to be harmonious, if you're going to be tender-hearted, then your responses to other people is a distinctive characteristic that helps others know that Christ is your Lord.

So you're one in doctrine, one in distinctives, and then one in disposition. That's in the book of Philippians, the book of Philippians. And there, excuse me, these words are spoken: Philippians chapter 2. "Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, first number one, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose, doing nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others." And then he goes on to talk about having this attitude, because this was the attitude that was in Christ when He took on the form of a servant and became a man and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, because that's how He ultimately was exalted as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And then he goes on and says these words in verse number 14: "Do all things without grumbling or disputing, so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain or toil in vain. But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me."

There's a certain disposition about the believer that makes him unique, that he is one who does not think selfishly but thinks selflessly. He truly wants to lift others up. He truly wants to minister to others. Paul says, "Make my joy complete, be of the same mind." See, that unification in the assembly is so important.

Now we can talk about that and everybody could say "Amen" to that. "Yeah, we ought to be unified in doctrine, unified in distinctives, unified in disposition. Yada yada yada." But how does that really manifest itself? How does it work itself out practically? Okay, I thought a lot about this over the last several days, and so I really prayed about how I'm going to give this to you. And I thought, "Well, this will give it to you the way I always give it to you, and just give it to you right and let the chips fall where they may fall," okay? Because understanding unity of doctrine—Paul says these words in Ephesians chapter 4 verse number 3 that I think are extremely important. He says, "I, the prisoner of the Lord," Ephesians 4 verse number 1, "implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being tolerant with one another." Have you ever noticed that we tend to be intolerant and not tolerant? We're intolerant with those who don't think like I think or believe what I believe. But Paul says, "I want you to show tolerance for one another in love, being diligent, being zealous, being eager to do what? To preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

Do you know we don't develop unity in the church? We only display unity in the church or destroy unity in the church. We can't develop unity because we're all one in Christ. John 17 verse number 22, Christ prayed that we'd all be one in Him as He is in the Father. That's a positional unity. Every one of us, if we're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, are one in Christ. We are one in God. We are one together because we're of the same body. That's our positional unity. But the practicality of that unity is a different story—how it manifests itself. So Paul says, "I want you to work hard. I want you to be diligent. I want you to be zealous to preserve that which you have positionally. I want you to preserve the practicality of that as it works itself out, as it manifests itself every day. I want you to be tolerant of one another. I want you to be humble, and I want you to deal with one another in a gentle kind of way so you can do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

That's a great exhortation, but how do we actually live that out? Okay, so let me say this. Six weeks ago, we gathered together for the first time in ten weeks. Remember that? Six weeks ago, and we were so excited to be together. It was just so wonderful that for the first time we're able to gather back together as a church. And people came, and people didn't know whether to hug or shake hands and what they were supposed to do. But it was just great to be together and to sing praises to the Lord God, and we were excited. The first—we were excited the second week. Oh man, it was so great. The second week was even better than the first week because more people came back and more people were excited and said, "Wow, this is great. You got to come!" So they came. Third week, and third week was more excited than the first two weeks. But then the fifth week came—the fourth week and the fifth week came—and all of a sudden the excitement began to simmer down, and people began to grumble and complain. And Paul says in Philippians 2, "Don't do that, because that's what the world does, and you got to appear as lights in the world."

But nonetheless, we began to complain—complain about the parking lot, parking every other space. That became a source of tension in people's lives. And then the whole taking of the temperature thing, you know. I mean, do we really have to do that? I mean, come on, seriously. Don't you think we know if we have a fever or not? And then the questions—they just keep coming and they keep coming. And again, that's the same questions every week. I got them all memorized. I can ask myself the questions. Why I keep asking me the questions? And then sitting far apart, six feet apart. You guys are six feet apart, by the way. Spread out with the Lord, okay? And, you know, I'm just joking. And so, why do we got to do that? Why are we going to sit six feet apart? Why can't we just gather together? And then the infamous mask rule—what do we do about that? Some people wear masks, others don't wear masks, but it became a source of tension instead of preserving the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. People began to complain, bellyache, grumble about all the things you got to do to come to church.

So I thought that it'd be good, because I'm talking about unity, to address at least one of these issues, okay? So I decided to address the mask issue because that seems to be paramount in the country. Right? So I'm going to address the mask issue with you. Let me say at the outset, whether you wear a mask or don't wear a mask, that's up to you. We have always purposed to treat you as adults in the church. You can make your own choice about a mask, and we are not the mask police, okay? God has not granted us that responsibility. So we're not going to walk around and say, "Put your mask on! Hey, don't let that thing drip below your nose! Put that mask on!" No, we don't do that. We're not the mask police. And there are reasons why we are not that. And so I want to talk to you about masks, and I don't necessarily want to talk to you about them from the medical position, okay? Because we can do that, and you and I can debate all we want about the medical aspects of wearing one, not wearing one, the kind of ones you wear, what the WHO says, and some are saying, "WHO's the WHO?" And some say, "That's a music group back in the 80s," and others say, "No, it's a World Health Organization." We don't know who WHO is, right? But the WHO says this, and the CDC says this, and the infamous Dr. Fauci, who's been wrong on almost everything except for one thing that I know of, and yet he becomes the world's renowned epidemiologist that begins to tell us what to do and what not to do. And all of a sudden we lock everything down because some epidemiologist says we need to do so. But that's for others to debate, not us, right? So we can debate about the medical issues surrounding masks, you know, and how long you wear one, and the longer you wear it, the more you touch it, the more you take it down, the worse, the more, the less effective it is. Yada yada yada. And I just keep coming back to the same old thing, and that is the origin of the virus came from a country where everybody was required to wear masks. Just think about that for a second, okay? Just try to wrap your mind around that one. But like I said, that's a topic for another discussion outside of church.

And then I could talk about it from the political angle, right? And my wife always gets on me when I start talking political things, because she says, "You know, honey, you're getting too political. Don't you want to go down that road?" And so you begin to talk about all the political aspects surrounding the mask, right? And why is it all these rules are coming about at this time? And the inconsistencies of our government are the only things that are consistent, okay? That's the—they're inconsistent from week to week, from month to month. They never say the same thing, and they're always changing their mind on this and that. And he's thinking, "What is it we do and how do we do this?" See? And you begin to think about all those things. And the political nature of the masks is a topic that can be discussed and can be discussed at great length, dependent upon how much you know about politics or how much you want to know about politics. All I know is that one man has said that everything that happens in an election year is all about the election. It began with the virus, moved to the lockdowns, it moved then to the riots, it moved then to the mandate on masks, now it's moved to schools, whether to open them or not open them. Everything that happens in an election year is all about the election. But that again is political in nature, and we don't necessarily want to go down that route. And so you just have to always be discerning, always need discernment. Remember we told you before that if you don't listen to the news, you're uninformed. If you listen to the news, you will be misinformed. So the only way to be informed is to be in the Word of the Lord and follow what God's Word says.

My time is fleeting. I will probably go long today, just as a warning. So I want to approach it from a biblical standpoint. Forget about the medical, forget about the political, because I'm not a doctor. I'm not an epidemiologist. I'm not a politician. I'm not running for Congress, although I should run for president. I'm not. So therefore, political issues are not my field of expertise, okay? But when it comes to the biblical issues, there are four key components, and I give them to you very quickly. One is charity, two is authority, three is sensitivity, and four is testimony. Okay? Four verses of scripture dealing with four issues in the church. One deals with charity, loving my brother. Matthew chapter 22: "Love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, and mind; love my neighbor as myself." And so the discussion comes that if I love my brother, I will wear a mask in my brother's presence. The question comes, is that true? Because if that's true, then the opposite must be true: if I don't wear a mask, I certainly don't love my brother. But is that true? Just because Governor Newsom wears a mask, does that mean he loves you or anybody in your grocery store or on your street or where they may be? Or do all those people love you because they're wearing a mask? You have to ask that question, because if you say, "In order to love your brother, you must wear a mask," you are also saying that if you don't wear a mask, you don't love your brother. And that's a very dangerous route to go. Are we more concerned about being seen as loving or actually loving our brother? Think about that for a second. Am I the kind of person that would wear a mask to church because I love my brother, but I would argue and bicker and bellyache with my wife all the way the church, not reconcile with her, and walk in with a mask on and say, "I love my brother"? Now, see, I wouldn't know you had an argument with your wife on the way to work—or with your children on, excuse me, on the way to church, or with your children on the way to church. I wouldn't know that, right? So all of a sudden, what? I know that you love me because you have a mask on? That's a question you got to ask, right? It doesn't mean that if I wear one or don't wear one determines my love for you. Please understand that, because there are so many other issues surrounding that. That's what is love? How is love best demonstrated? How do we know we love one another as Christ loved the church? How do we—how is that defined? How is that displayed? A lot of questions need to be asked and answered about loving my brother before you just go out and say, "You know what? You must not love your brother because you don't wear a mask in church." But there's much more I could say on that, but I won't. That is a charity issue.

Yeah, the other one is the testimony issue, okay? The testimony. You wear a mask as a Christian because you want to be a testimony. When I wear a mask in church—let me clarify everything I'm saying, we're talking about in the assembly, in church here, okay? We wear a mask in church to be a testimony to the community. Do you actually think that wearing a mask in church is going to be a valid testimony to the community? Ask that question, because you got to ask this: our world is fractured, our world is broken, our world is divided, our country is divided. Would it be better for us to come together with some people wearing masks and others not wearing masks and show how we can learn to agree to disagree agreeably, live in unity one with another, still fellowship one with another, and be a testimony to the world on how you can agree to disagree agreeably and still function together? Ask yourself that question. Our testimony is about proclaiming the gospel. Our testimony is about the cross and proclaiming the gospel about the fear of God to a world who does not fear God but fears death. What a greater testimony to be—not to wear masks so you can prove to them you don't fear death, because they are terribly frightened of death. It doesn't mean that you don't wear a mask to prove that. I'm not saying that. Please understand what I'm saying. I'm just trying to help you ask questions about an argument that you might read about in the paper or read about in some Christian book and say, "Okay, I'm going to do this, or I'm going to do that." But that's the testimony issue. What makes your church a testimony in the community? Masks, as we assemble together, does not guarantee we have an effective testimony in West Covina and around this area. But it could be beneficial, so I'll give you that.

So you go beyond charity, and you go beyond testimony to sensitivity. Romans 14, the weaker brother. That's always an argument that people use. "You got to be sensitive to the weaker brother." But you have to understand the context of Romans 14. Don't take something out of context to prove a point, so people will wear masks in your presence. Please don't do that, because that would say, "Listen, I'm wearing a mask so I don't offend my weaker brother." Well, that would mean that a person who doesn't wear a mask is the weaker brother, and the one who wears the mask is the stronger brother. But is that necessarily always true? No, because the guy not wearing a mask might be the stronger one, the more mature one, and the one wearing the mask might be the immature one and the weaker one. So you got to be careful about Romans 14 and how you apply that to the mask situation inside the church. You got to be very, very careful because you don't want to take scripture out of context to prove a point.

But those are all surface ones compared to the Romans 13 one: "Obey those who are in authority over you." Have you heard that one before? If you don't wear a mask in church, you've defied the governor. You're not obeying Romans chapter 13, therefore you've violated scripture. And how can you worship the Lord if you violate scripture willingly, because the governor said you got to wear a mask? That's a great question. You must understand governmental authority. You must understand ecclesiastical authority. And you must understand familial authority. Because guess what? Your founding fathers understood all three of those. They did. That's why we have what is called the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, which, by the way, every governor is sworn to obey and uphold. Everyone is, which includes the First Amendment, freedom of speech, the division between church and state. And God has given the church—this is what our founding fathers understood—God has given the church to the government to hold the government at bay. Did you know that? That's why at the rapture of the church, when the church is gone, government just does whatever they want to do. But the church holds the government at bay because the church says, "There's something of the people you cannot have, and that is the will of the people. You cannot have that." But they want that, so they will do all they can to obtain that. And when they can't do it, what do they say? "If you don't obey, we will kill you." See that? And so the church is designed to keep the government at bay.

Because when it comes to faith and practice—listen carefully what I'm going to tell you—when it comes to faith and practice, the government has no authority over the church. If Governor Newsom was to walk through those doors and come in here and say, "Don, put your mask on! Marilee, put your mask on! Lance, put your mask on!" I would respectfully say, "Paul, I know; Jesus, I know; but who are you?" That's what I would say, respectfully, of course. Why? Because whenever you mandate to someone about how they worship, you got to make sure it's in line with what God's Word says. That's why the elders in your church—leaders, your pastoral staff—got together and decided that we would recommend masks but not require masks. Because if I require you to wear a mask when you worship, I'm requiring something of you that is extra-biblical, not biblical. And I'm putting guidelines on you that God does not put on you. And if I do that, woe is me. I can't do that. God has given guidelines. What are those guidelines? You worship God in spirit and in truth. You come to Him with a broken and contrite heart, a consecrated heart, a cleansed heart, a committed heart, a converted heart. Because worship is from the inside out. You got to come to Him with a heart that's right before Him, because you can wear a mask and not have your heart right. But if you don't wear a mask, it doesn't mean your heart's right, because it all is internal, not external.

So we as elders say, "You got to wear a mask. You can't worship the Lord," because if we say that—I know my time is gone, so bear with me—if we say that, we are actually saying if you don't wear a mask, you are sinning. Okay? Follow this through. If I, or the elders, require you to wear a mask when you worship, okay? And you choose not to, and I say to you, "Don, you're sinning," I got to be willing to take two or three witnesses to him. If he doesn't put a mask on next week, if he comes back the third week, I got to take him before the elders to follow Matthew 18, right? Because he is sinning by not wearing a mask. And then if he doesn't wear a mask the third week, I got to bring him before the church, follow church discipline, and be able to say in front of you, "We are excommunicating Don from our church because he hasn't worn a mask. Therefore, we are treating him as an unbeliever because he didn't wear a mask." You see that? You see the fallacy in that? Who are we to say you're not a believer because you don't wear a mask? Because God never requires you to wear a mask to worship. So we can't do that. We want you to come. We want anybody to come who can come.

Listen, there's more than a hundred people in here. That's against the governor's orders. So what, are we wrong? You see? Can the governor—can this state—come into the church and say, "Enough is enough. You can't gather any more people in here. You got a hundred and one people. That one person's got to go. A hundred and ten? Up, they got to go outside." We decided not to do that. We started that way and we put some in the fellowship hall and streamed it in there. We thought, "That's ridiculous. This will stay home," right? So bring him in, bring him in, so we can worship the Lord together. You see?

I'm not even sure that if the government came back to us and said, "You know what? This virus is as it is, and so we got to lock down the churches again," I'm not so sure we would do that. We didn't know anything 16 weeks ago. We thought it was going to be as Governor Newsom said: "25 million Californians will be infected in eight weeks." That's what he said. He's cried wolf too many times, he really has. "25 million will be infected in eight weeks." Are you kidding me? That's what he said, though. So we thought, "Oh wow, it's serious." But you know what we realized? That through all the riots that took place starting June 4th into four weeks that followed, and all the governors who made the mandates about masks were marching in the riots, and the mayors, and taking out their mask and walking shoulder-to-shoulder and not physical distancing like they told us to do, and not wearing a mask they told us to do, and then kneeling without masks. We think, "Wait a minute. We've been played. We've been played by our own government." And that's when you've got to come back and step back and say, "Okay, the governor. Romans 13 is designed to obey the laws of the land, okay? The laws of the land have been handed down for 244 years that have not changed, right? And every governor that swears, that every mayor that swears, that every police officer that swears to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America, by law, is required to obey those laws. That's the law."

Now, can the governor declare a state of emergency? Yes, he has authority to do so. A state of emergency, which state, right? Declare a state of emergency, therefore they can enact certain rules or certain regulations. They're not laws, because laws in our country are designed to pass through legislation and pass a certain way. So they're requirements that they put out. They're mandates they may put out, but they're not laws, right? And so you have to ask the question: when does the governor or the mayor overstep their bounds and abuse that law? So let me ask you this question: if the President of the United States decided to declare a national state of emergency and postpone the elections until 2021, what do you think would happen? There would be so much upheaval and anarchy in our country you wouldn't be able to contain it. Why? Because he'd be abusing his power. And so God has designed the government structure to keep other ones in check. And the church, when it comes to faith and practice, is not bound by government laws. So when you gather to worship, there are requirements that God has ordained in His word that we follow and that we obey and that we submit ourselves to, because He's the King and we are citizens in His kingdom. We are not slaves to the Emperor of Rome. We are citizens of America, but we are better than that—citizens of a greater kingdom, the kingdom of God, who is our ruler, who has prescribed for us the order of worship and how we are to come together to worship.

He also says five times—and you only got to say it once for it to be true, right? But it's reiterated five times—ready for this: "Greet one another with a holy kiss." Five times it says that. It doesn't mean that we got to go up and kiss everybody that comes to the door. Now, you can do that, but that's not the requirement, okay? The point being is that there's a certain kind of familial intimacy that happens in the church setting, in the body of Christ. There's a certain kind of intimacy. There's a certain kind of respectability. There's a certain kind of relationship that's a family relationship that's involved in the church. That when we get together, right? When we get together, we are worshiping the King and we are gathering together and loving one another. And you know as well as I do that when you see me and you see my face and you see my whole face, you understand more of what I'm trying to say and how I'm saying it than my face is covered, right? It doesn't mean—listen, it doesn't mean you should not wear a mask. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that at all, because there are some who have pre-existing conditions. There are some who have health issues. There are some who are elderly. There are some who know that they should be wearing a mask, and that's great. Wear it, and wear it proudly. Don't be ashamed of it. But if we're going to tolerate one another, you tolerate also the ones who don't wear the mask. And if you'd rather someone wear a mask in your presence, say, "Excuse me, would you mind—would you mind putting on a mask? I have a health issue. I would just—I would appreciate if you put a mask on." And out of respect, we'd say, "Sure, we'll do that for you. Absolutely." What a way the body of Christ should operate, right? Being able to talk to one another on an intimate level, deal with issues with one another on a very deeper level than those outside the church. All that is very, very important. And I haven't told you half of what I wanted to say about all that.

But I say all that to help you understand—look, just because in the worship service the elders—oh, here's one. Would you obey a governmental authority over ecclesiastical authority? I think about this for a minute. I'm not saying we're the Pope. I'm the Pope and this is the Catholic Church and you do what we say. I'm not saying that. Listen carefully: would you rather obey a governor or a mayor who spent no time in prayer, does not—has no concern for your soul, has no concern for anything other than their political agenda? Or would you rather follow the leadership of your elders and your pastors who have prayed, sought scripture, discussed this issue over and over and over again ad nauseam, and come to a conclusion? "You know what? We're not going to require people to wear masks when they worship. We want them to be adults, and we want to treat them as adults, and let them worship the Lord in the way they want to worshipHim." And we prayed about that because we're concerned about everybody. And yet how quickly we are to say, "Well, the government said, the government said." Whatever happened to "My elders prayed, my elders care for my soul, my leadership is concerned about my spiritual development. They've really sought the scripture on this and sought the Lord's will on this, and this is what they came to"? But whatever happened to that? How easily we just push aside ecclesiastical authority and say, "And that's not important," and say, "Well, the government said." We got to be very careful about that because—and listen, if I said something to you like "Wear a mask," I would be abusing my responsibilities as your pastor. That's an abuse of power, and you'd have every right as a member of this church to call me on that—to require you to do something outside of scripture in order for you to worship in our assembly. That will go against the unification of our assembly and the opportunity for us to be together in honor of the Lord.

The last one I'm going to give it to you, because I can't give it to you next week: the persecution for our testimony. You know that glorifies the Lord. Remember in John 21 verse number 18: "Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself"—this is Christ talking to John, or to Peter, excuse me—"and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go." Now this Jesus said, signifying by what kind of death Peter would glorify God. And Jesus said to him, "Follow me." The Lord gave Peter a glimpse into the future that he was going to die. "So stretch forth his hands, you're going to be crucified." He was going to die. "Peter, you follow me. There's going to be persecution for your testimony. You're going to glorify the Lord in your death."

That time is coming. I believe that the church will be raptured out of here before things are completely haywire. If my theology is wrong, well, I'm in trouble. Well, I think of my theology as pretty accurate about the return of Christ. And yet, those who come to faith in the tribulation—Revelation 26—they'll be beheaded. They'll be killed for their testimony. Be great persecution. But through that death, it will glorify the Lord.

From the depth of my heart, I want our church to honor the Lord. Let there be glory in the church, both from this generation to the next, forever and ever. Amen. May we give glory to our King.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for today. We are grateful for a chance to be together. We love you and ask that you go before us, that we would live only for you and not for ourselves. In Jesus' name, amen.