I'm going to apologize from the start, we'll probably go a little bit longer than usual, but I hope you understand that this is, there's a lot more that I would have wanted to say, a lot more that went into the process of making this decision and a lot of more biblical principles that we could look in particular, but It's the shortness of time, but I hope this will be profitable for us here and for those at home. This is not me trying to convince anyone of anything or where they should be at this moment or coming next Sunday, but it is a biblical outlook on the situations that we are faced with as a church, as we are told by the government that we should close. Let's just come to the Lord in prayer once more. Heavenly and Almighty Father, I pray for your hand of help to be upon me as I try to convey some of the aspects that came into the process of making this decision, Lord. I pray that I would be able to present them in a manner that is glorifying to you and clear so that we all might understand. Lord, I pray for that it wouldn't just be a meditation upon a decision process making, a process of decision making, but it would be even a meditation for us to consider the things of your word and to consider how great a God we have. So Lord, I commit to you these things. May the words that come out of my mouth and the meditation that proceeds from my heart be acceptable before you. In Jesus Christ's name I pray, amen. Let me start off by telling you a story. It's the story of an ancient painter and a presumptuous shoemaker. And it's a story that's been handed down through the centuries. It's told as if it is a real story, and I do believe that it might be real. But it's a tale that is worth remembering for us today. Apelles was considered one of the greatest painters of his time. We don't have any painting, no paintings of him survived the centuries, but all his peers from his period of time said that he was the greatest of all. One historian tells a story of him that he used to, in his pursuit of perfection, he used to put the paintings outside of his balcony and hide themselves and listen to people as they went through and passed through the painting and would offer criticism on the painting. The flaws that he might have missed, all those suggestions for him were valuable. On one occasion, he displayed the painting and listened quietly to a shoemaker, pointing out the flaws in the sandal, saying, oh, there's one less loop than it should have. Peles immediately took the painting, corrected the mistake, and put it back again the next day. The next day, the shoemaker comes, and the shoemaker looks at the painting and feels very happy that his criticism was heard. And immediately, instead of keeping to his profession, the shoemaker started looking up and started making commentaries upon the leg. to which the painter said to him in Latin, ne su tor ultra crepidam, shoemaker, don't go beyond the shoe. And these words ultra crepidam were then anglicized to our language to mean ultra crepedarian. What is an ultra crepedarian? An ultra crepedarian is someone who Goes beyond the shoe. Is someone who offers an opinion about something that he's not an expert on. Is someone who is presumptuous and offers advice or opinions beyond his sphere of knowledge. Appeal is wanting the shoemaker not to go beyond the shoe. Not to be, purporting himself to be an expert on something that he isn't. And this is an important story for us to remember in our own lives. We are experts in some things, and we are certainly not experts on everything. I'm not an expert on this pandemic. I don't know what I should know. I'm not an epidemiologist. I'm not an economist. I don't know. I don't know how it started. I don't know where it's headed. I don't know if the government is doing what they should do or if they're doing less than they should or if they're doing more than they should. I have no knowledge and no expertise to discuss the details of this pandemic, the economic impact of another lockdown, the psychological dangers of the anxiety or the depressions caused by it. But I do have a responsibility as your pastor to love you and to desire and to seek to do what is best for you all. That is my profession, that is my shoemaking. James chapter three, verse one says, my brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. So this is what's been playing on my mind, and I know for a fact that with Peter as well, as your elders, it's not that we are conspiracy theorists or we are downplaying the severity of this virus, but as pastors, as elders, We have this responsibility to consider all things in light of what the Bible tells us, because if we don't look at the Bible, we don't have anything else. That is our shoe. Matthew 22 from verse 15 to verses to verse 22 we have recorded a situation i'll read it for you then the pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle him in this talk that is jesus And they sent to him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God in truth, nor do you care about anyone, nor for you do not regard the person of men. Tell us, therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, why do you test me, you hypocrites? Show me the tax money. So they brought him a denarius. And he said to them, whose image and inscription is this? They said to him, Caesar's. And he said to them, render therefore to Caesar things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And when they had heard these words, they marveled and left him and went their way. The first thing that influenced this decision was A part of this decision-making process is that Christ, not Caesar, Christ is the Lord of all. He is the true one head of the church. Ephesians 1.22, Ephesians 5.23, Colossians 1.18. He is the king of kings. He is sovereign over every human earthly authority. 1 Timothy 6.15, the book of Revelation 17.14, 19.16. And as His people, we are subject to His will and commands as revealed in Scripture. I won't dwell on this point because I think last Sunday we already dwelt on it for the morning sermon. So I would recommend you listen to it. We are subject to His will and commands as He revealed them to us in Scripture. While civil governance is vested with divine authority to rule the state, neither text that usually gets loved around in this situation, Romans 13, and we'll look at it in a minute, or 1 Peter 2, grants any civic rulers jurisdiction over the church. Yes, they have authority, given by God nonetheless, but they have no authority over the matters of the church. I do believe that God, and I believe this with the reformers, that God instituted three different institutions, three different jurisdictions of power, family, the state, and the church. And each institution is a sphere in its own that has very defined boundaries. The father's authority is limited to his own family. The elder's authority is limited to the church. It's delegated by Christ and limited to the ecclesiastical matters. And the government is specifically tasked with the oversight and protection of civic peace and the well-being within the boundaries of a nation or community. God has given these specific boundaries, this specific jurisdiction to each and every of these three spheres, and they should not go beyond it. God has not granted the civic authorities rule over the doctrine of the Church, the practice of the Church, nor the policy of the Church. Biblical teaching limits authority of each institution to its specific jurisdiction. Church does not have the right to meddle in the affairs of a family, individual family, nor have the right to meddle in the affairs of the state. Scripture, said in another way, in Scripture there has never existed the prerogative of civil government to order, to modify, or to forbid, or even to mandate worship. When, how, and how often the Church worships is not a question that's easier. is concerned with or should be concerned with. Caesar himself is subject to God. Jesus said this to Pontius Pilate. He said, you have no authority over me or you would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above. And because Christ is head of the church, Ecclesiasticals matters pertains to the kingdom of Christ, not Caesar's. Jesus drew a stark distinction between these two kingdoms in the passage that we just read. You give to Caesar what is Caesar's and you give to God what is God's. Our Lord himself always rendered to Caesar what was Caesar's, but he never gave to Caesar what was God's. what solely belong to God. So as pastors and as elders, we cannot hand over to earthly authorities any privilege or power that belongs solely to Christ as head of his church. Pastors and elders are the ones to whom Christ has given the duty and the right to exercise his spiritual authority in the church. 1 Peter 5, 1-4, Hebrews 13, 7, and verse 17. And scripture, and scripture alone defines how and whom they are to serve. They have no duty to follow orders from civil government attempting to regulate the worship or governance of the church. In fact, for us as pastors and as elders to allow government to dictate what is or isn't that we should do is sinful, is allowing them to overstep their boundaries. We would be in sin to allow them to do this unchallenged. The biblical order is clear. Christ is Lord over Caesar, not vice versa. Christ, not Caesar, is head of the church, whether Caesar likes it or not. Similarly, church does not in any sense rule over state. This is the other side of the coin. There are distinct kingdoms. Christ is sovereign over both of them. Neither church nor state has any higher authority than that of Christ himself, who declared, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, Matthew 28. History is full of painful reminders of governments overreaching their power, how easy it is for them, and how frequently they abuse them for evil purposes. Politicians manipulate statistics and the media. They cover up or camouflage inconvenient truths. So a discerning church is a church that cannot passively or automatically comply if the government orders a shutdown of congregational meetings, even if the reason given is a concern for public health and safety. And this is not only me saying it. The former Prime Minister, Theresa May, yesterday stated, and I quote, my concern is that the government making it illegal to conduct an act of worship with the best of intentions sets a precedent for a government with the worst of intentions. This is someone who is probably not a Christian, according to what we would deem to be a Christian saying. If we do this with the best of intentions now, for the better good, tomorrow the better good is going to change and shift. What will be our defence by then? Back in March, when we closed, I think we made it quite clear why we closed. I wrote to you at that time and I quote, it was our decision to suspend the services, not based on the recommendation of the government, which at the time was only recommended, this was before the lockdown, but on the principle of love for one another and for our community at large. The reason why I feel it is important for me to emphasize this is that we never closed to start because the government said so. We closed because we didn't know what was happening and we deemed it to be prudent to do so, not because government said so. But alas, this time we are not in the same situation, are we? We now understand the virus, transmits, how the virus transmits, and we understand how to mitigate those risks. The chief medical advisor of the government, when asked about this with regards to churches, he said, we have no good evidence, I quote him, we haven't got good evidence on the exact value of each intervention on R, on the number. He calls it a blunt instrument. It's a part of a package, our Prime Minister says. When asked about how much transmission do you think has taken place within places of worship, they said, we don't have good data to answer that with any degree of certainty. But yet, they felt that they had the power to close down churches and to forbid us from gathering. The government advisers claims the decision on churches is a part of a package, they say, measures which is expected to bring the rate of infection down, but that people should not attempt to pick apart how effective each individual intervention might be. And yet, here we are. According to the government, we're not essential. What we do is inconsequential, certainly for them, but not for us. Ask yourself, is it safer to be inside this building right now with the things we have in place, with masks on, or is it safer to go to Asda or to Tesco's? Why are garden centers allowed to be open? Why is Premier League football allowed to continue? Why are horse racing allowed to happen? And why are schools open? And we are not allowed to continue, and all those things are allowed to continue, but we are not allowed to worship our God. And then ask yourself, what is the God honoring attitude to have before this? To stop and to say, yeah, you're right. What is the attitude that God would want us to have? What is it that the Lord would have us do? As elders, we have no right, no authority, scripturally. In fact, we have a duty to keep those boundaries clearly defined. I'm not trying to bind the conscience of any. If you feel that you shouldn't come because you don't want to break the law, because you have a situation within the family that would make you stay home, stay home. We will try and provide as best as possible some kind of ministry of the word. But as elders, we have no rights. In fact, we have a duty to keep those boundaries clearly defined, come what may. One of the things that gets said is, but the Bible says that we should obey, Romans 13. So let me just, I would have wanted to address some of the other, some other objections, but let me address this one because I believe this one is the most important in this situation. Romans 13, 1-4 says, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Strong words and real words. I'm not going to argue that we should disobey. governing authorities wholesale or blanketly or blindly. But I think this does show us something. God is the one who has ordained them as authorities. The state has authority, but it's a delegated authority. It's not an autonomous authority that they can use at their whim. It is a God-given authority. Whether Boris Johnson or the Queen recognizes, they have authority because God gave it to them, not because they were elected or whatever they might think. The state is to be an agent of justice. The state is to restrain evil by punishing the wrongdoer. The state is to protect the good in society. When it does the reverse, it has no proper authority. When the state does the reverse, it has in fact usurped that authority and it has become lawless and tyrannical. The early Christians died because they would not obey the state in a civil matter. People often say that the early church was very compliant, they never disobeyed the government, they never showed any civil disobedience. If they say that, they do not know church history. Why were the Christians killed by the Roman Empire and thrown to the lions? From the Christian viewpoint, yes, it was a religious reason. But from the viewpoint of the Roman state, they weren't concerned if they worshiped Jesus or if they worshiped the Jewish God. They didn't care about it. They cared about one single civil thing in their mind. You can't believe anything. You can't even be an atheist. You could be an atheist in the Roman Empire. But you have to worship Caesar. You have to submit yourself to Caesar. You have to swore loyalty to the state. And the Christians said they would not worship Caesar. That they would not worship anybody or anything but the living God. thus to the Roman Empire, they were rebels, and they were disobeying the civil authorities. That is why they were thrown to the lions. And God's authority alone is supreme. It limits every form of human authority. When human authorities command us to disobey God, or they forbid us to do what God commands, Then we must reply with Peter and with John in Acts 5.29, we must obey God rather than men. When we sin against God, we cannot offer as an excuse that we were commanded to do so by a lawful authority. Can you imagine? coming before the Lord and say, oh, but so-and-so told me to do so. Well, we've seen that happen in Scripture, haven't we? Did that excuse the person who sinned? Did that excuse Adam for any particular reason? We've seen this even in recent history. The Nazis in the Nuremberg trials. But the government said we should do that. Were they excused? of their failings, they were only following orders. We follow Christ, we follow God. Jesus himself was submissive to his parents, he never sinned, but yet he did not follow them when his heavenly father called him elsewhere. Of course, it is almost too easy for us, isn't it, to defend something like this? It's probably an easy cop-out. When we simply disagree with an authority, we can just say, I don't agree with it, so I'll disobey. We can devise all kinds of reasons to disobey. But alas, as Christians, we have the will of God. set in paper for us. For us, God's will is limited to Scripture. That's why we need to rigorously look at what Scripture says. We need to be careful as we consider God's will from Scripture. The Bible never tells us that we should obey every single command of a civil authority. of a civil government. Paul says wisely, let every person be subject to the governing authorities. To be subject to a government in general does not mean that one always must obey every command of that government. An important principle here is that individual passages of Scripture should be interpreted in the light of the whole teaching of Scripture. There are several passages in which God clearly gave approval to His people who disobeyed government that was commanding them to carry out a sinful action. Therefore, the teaching of all scripture, when rightly understood, is that God tells his people to be subject to governing authorities, but that we have no obligation to obey them when the government commands us to sin. That is, to disobey something that God commands us in Scripture. No example in the Bible disproves this principle. God does not hold people responsible to obey the civil government when obedience would mean directly disobeying a command of God himself. And this is indicated in a number of passages. Just really quickly. In the early days of the Christian Church, Jesus had commanded the apostles to preach the gospel to all nations. The Jewish governing authority, the Sinaitans, arrested them, told them not to preach as I referred. What did they answer? We must obey God rather than man. This is a clear affirmation of this principle. Other passages, Daniel 3, King Nebuchadnezzar commanded the three Jewish men, Sadrach, Mezach, and Abednego, to bow down and worship a golden statue that he had erected. They refused. They said to him, we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. God showed his approval of their actions by rescuing them from the burning fiery furnace. When Pharaoh commanded the midwives to kill every newborn male baby, they disobeyed and God approved their disobedience. When it was against the law for anyone to come in the presence of King Ahasuerus, Hester disobeyed the law, risking her life to save her people, the Jews. Daniel likewise disobeyed the law that prohibited him from praying to God. He disobeyed the law. In addition, when King Herod commanded the wise men to return and tell him where the newborn king of the Jews was to be found, they were warned by an angel not to heed to this command, and they disobeyed Herod. and they departed to their own country by another way. We like so much to talk about our reformed heritage and how Calvinist we are. Listen to Calvin, but in that obedience which we have shown to be due to the authority of rulers, we are always to make this exception, that such obedience is never to lead us away from obedience to him to whose will the desires of all kings are to be subject. And how absurd would it be that in satisfying men you should incur the displeasure of him for whose sake you obey men themselves. The Lord, therefore, is the King of kings. If they command anything against him, let it go unesteemed. Before I move to my last point, quickly, Let me say this about intentions as well. We spoke a bit about the better reason or for good reasons. Intentions play no part here. Intentions play no part here. I know the government is doing their best. I pray for them and I encourage everyone to pray for them. They're doing their best to stop this virus, this deadly virus. But intentions have no play in this, no say in this. If you choose to close down, you choose to close down as a church, not because government said so. Intentions play no part in this. If you think with me, when Jesus was about to be killed, he was suffering persecution by the Jews, the Pharisees, the Sadducees. They wanted to kill him. They spent months plotting a way to kill him. And I'm not saying that we are being persecuted. But then he was brought before Pilate, Pontius Pilate. Pilate didn't care about Jesus. The last week, Jesus wasn't even on his mind, this carpenter from Nazareth. But this situation was brought to him. In fact, he was so bothered that he was even asking, what is truth? What is truth? But yet, unintentionally, out of ignorance, he failed. He committed persecution. He persecuted Christ. So even if the government has good intentions, they have no right. Even if this is not outright persecution, which it isn't, they have no right to tell us this. But I suppose the real question in everyone's mind is, okay, church is not supposed to close, but government is not closing churches. We are still functioning, we are still doing this over the internet. So let me say this about worship gatherings. Church is essential, but worship gatherings are essential as well. I suppose the real question is that why are church gatherings essential? because they are a command of God. That's what I wrote to you in my letter in March. It is a command of God that the church meets, Hebrews 10, 25. And now, the question is, God is commanding us one thing, the government is telling us another. By the very definition of the word church, word church means assembly. That is the literal meaning of the word in Greek, from where we get our word ecclesiastical. A non-assembling assembly is a contradiction of terms. We are commanded not to forsake the practice of meeting together, for a multitude of reasons that I won't go into right now. We have always supported, haven't we? We have always prayed for those underground churches in North Korea, in China, in Iran, in Iraq, saying, oh, they are so brave. They know they're going to probably die, but they gather together because they see the importance of it. We are so proud of our reformed heritage that we say that we're not like some of those other churches who don't establish any importance, they treat the gathered worship of the saints as if it's an entertainment venue. We see the importance of the gathered worship, but alas, we seem to have forgotten that, because now it's not important at all. It's a decision that is obvious. We should close, we should not gather for worship. Private devotion or online devotion, it's just the same thing. We can do it online. It's just as good as gathered worship. I could say so many things about this, but let me just point you to one of the Psalms. In Psalm 87, verse two, the Lord says that the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. The point that the Psalmist makes is that the Lord loves the public worship of his gathered people, the gates of Zion, where Zion is the mount where the temple was. With the gates of that temple, Jerusalem, the Lord loves He's gathered people more than the tents, more than the dwellings of Jacob, even more than their private worship as individuals or families. And since the death and the resurrection of Christ in the New Testament, the people of God are the living stones that comprise the temple of God. We are built upon Christ as the chief cornerstone. It's not because of this building. I don't care, we could gather outside. It doesn't matter to me the place or the walls. But gathered worship, worship gatherings are essential. We gather. because that is what we do as a church. That is in the name. There is no church if we don't gather. That's the reason why Paul wanted to go to Rome. He was writing them a letter, a marvelous letter, an inspired letter, but he wanted to be there with them because as Christians, we are made of blood and we are people of flesh and blood. Christianity is a flesh and blood religion. There's no, oh, we're spiritually gathering. There's nothing like that. When Christ, when God saves us, He saves us both soul and body. We are saved both soul and body. I realize that many of you will not be attending in the next four weeks, but whatever you do, whatever you do, I plead, I plead with you. Whatever the Lord has convicted you in your mind to do, whatever the Lord has convicted you in your mind to do in the next four weeks, I plead with you, don't think for a moment. Don't forsake for a moment this precious truth. Don't give in to the temptation of thinking that gathered worship is a secondary thing about being a church. Don't downplay it as being an optional of the Christian faith. I'm really sorry for going a little bit over time, but I'm literally finishing. David Clarkson, a Puritan, the one, the Puritan that succeeded John Owen, he wrote a sermon on this very Psalm, on this very verse of this Psalm. And I'm just gonna draw the headings of his points on the psalm. The Lord is more glorified by public worship than by private. This is based on Psalm 87 too. There is more, number two, there is more of the Lord's presence in public worship than in private. He is present with his people in the public worship in a special way, more effectually, more constantly, more intimately. God manifests himself more clearly in the public worship than in private. For example, in Revelation, Christ is manifested in the midst of the churches. There is more spiritual advantage in the use of public worship. Whatever spiritual benefit is to be found in private duties of worship, and much more may be expected from public worship when rightly used. Public worship is more edifying than private. In private you provide for your own good, but in public we encourage one another. We do good both to ourselves and to others. Public worship is better security against apostasy than private. If you only do private worship, you run the risk of backsliding into apostasy or heresy. Public worship refrains us from that. The Lord works his greatest works in public worship. ordinarily. Salvation, regeneration, are usually things that are accomplished publicly as the church gathers. I realize that some were saved in their own rooms or in their own private time, but many times, ordinarily, that's how people get saved. Public worship is the nearest resemblance that we have of heaven. Public worship is the most renowned servants of God have preferred public worship before private. The Lord did not withdraw from public ordinances. Jesus did not withdraw from public ordinances. Though they were corrupt, he attended them. Public worship was more precious to the apostles than their safety, their liberty, or their lives. Number 10, public worship is the best means for procuring the greatest mercies and preventing and removing the greatest judgments. Number 11, the precious blood of Christ is more interested in public worship. Private worship was required of and performed by Adam and his posterity, even in a sinless state, but the public preaching of the gospel and the administration of the ordinances have a necessary dependence on the death of Christ. Ultimately, this is to say, we don't come to public worship just to tick a religious box, just to go, done. There you go, I'm a good Christian now. I went to all my three weekly services. That's now why we come to worship. That's now why we gather. We come because we come to be inspired, to be instructed, to be encouraged, to be exhorted, to be admonished by the word, by one another, as we gather together. Church gatherings are essential. It's in them that way we get our own spiritual nourishment, through the preached word, through the one anothering, through the service to one another, to love each other. Trust me, this is not a decision that was made to prop oneself up. No one's clapping their hands. Oh, look, the pastors, the elders made a decision. Oh, that's really nice. Many of the pastors I know that I've came into contact with, they're shocked. Some others, they took the same decision, but most of them are... This is not a question, this is not to prop one up or to be seen to be standing on the top of the hill shouting at the fool of the lambs or something. This is a decision that was taken because we are convicted that the Bible tells us that we are not to allow Caesar to rule over the church. That is why we are not binding anyone's conscience to come. But there is where we stand with this. It's interesting that we were talking about Martin Luther this last week. Martin Luther, he was the one who made the stand on the Council of Worms. He was told to recant and he said he couldn't unless proven by scripture. He couldn't. He couldn't go against his own conscience. His conscience was bound by the word of God. And that's where we are, and that's where we should be, and that's where I want to be. Unless proven by scripture, I would rather be alone, preaching in a building, but still open, because we recognize the need for public worship to be done in an open setting, than to be allowing myself to go against my conscience, or allowing ourselves to go against our conscience. I'll talk in the first person here. It is not an easy decision. It's not a decision. It would be so much easier. It would be so much easier just to go, yeah, we'll close. Maybe one, maybe two of us would be very upset about it. Not much. We have rest for four weeks. Now, right now, as it stands, I know some of you may be upset. I know some of you may not agree. I love you the same, whether you come or not come on the worship services the next four weeks. But as it stands right now, the next four weeks, all meetings, I'm gonna be looking always through that door, dreading the thought that the police might come in. Because this is not an act of heroism. I really don't want any attention to be drawn to us. But this is nonetheless what the Lord, I believe, would have us do. At the end of the day, that was the thing that tipped us over. We were considering closing on Monday. we were considering even closing officially and saying if you want to come in no one's going to bother no one's going to forbid you from coming in but ultimately the question that that made us come to this conclusion was what would the lord want us to do what would the lord want us to do in this situation given the the conclusions we have reached regarding the this authority distinctions and this all of this Ultimately, yeah, the Lord would want us to honor him first, to put him first. And that's what we sought to do. And that's what I pray you will understand that we've tried to do. And if we're wrong, Again, we don't have a monopoly on wisdom. If we're wrong, I pray that the Lord would have mercy on us and that the Lord would not allow the church to come under any kind of dishonor for this decision that we've made. But nonetheless, it's the decision that we thought biblically we had to make as elders, as servants and slaves of the word. May God bless us and may God be merciful to us in the coming four weeks.