Dear congregation, I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Well, as we come to the Ministry of the Word this morning, I just want to remind you that last week we started a series on the Christian and COVID-19, where we're thinking through how the Christian is to think about various topics that have to do with and are connected to the pandemic that is now known as COVID-19. And last week, we broached the question, how are we to think about worship amidst the COVID-19 outbreak? And as you recall, I said that it's not as if the Bible gives us a specific reference to COVID-19. Of course, I don't think anybody expects that. But the Bible is sufficient for everything that has to do with life and godliness. And so the Bible does give us precedent and principle to know how we as 21st century Christians can think about something even as specific as COVID-19. And so last week I submitted to you two principles, principles and precedent that we can think about that would help us wrap our minds around how to think about COVID-19. So I just want to remind you of those by way of review this morning. The first precedent, very simply, that we found in 1 Chronicles 12, 32, is that we should be sons of Ishakar, who had understanding of the times and knew what Israel ought to do. Recall that I said it's not sufficient to simply know what the Bible says. We must, just as much as we exegete and interpret the Bible about what it says about X, We must just as much exegete our times. We must understand our times. We must research what is going on with COVID-19, how to think about it. And the challenge in this respect is that the information is changing every single day. There are so many unknowns, there are things that we don't understand. But we need to be sons of Ishaqar, have understanding of the times, and know what Israel ought to do. The second thing that we said last time, a second precedent if you want to put it that way, is that worship must be modified in exile. There are times in our lives when all things are not equal. And we looked very briefly at Hosea 14 to and we were talking about it in the context of the Jews going into exile for those 70 years in Babylon and recall that they looked at Hosea 14.2, where the prophet said, take away all iniquity, accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. Because they could not offer a sacrifice by the Levitical priesthood in Jerusalem, in the temple, which was now destroyed, now that they were in Babylon, what they did is they modified their worship, and now the fruit of their lips, their prayers, their worship, were a modification or a substitute for an actual sacrifice. So I want to unpack that a little bit more this morning in the ministry of the Word. Let me just give you a few more things to think about with respect to worship, okay? A few more things to think about with respect to worship as it is modified in this crisis of the COVID-19. And the first thing is this. Let me unpack this idea of modified worship. How do we think about our modified worship in spiritual exile? Now, in the New Covenant, The prescription or command for how we are to worship is that we worship corporately. It's very simple, at least simple in theory. Hebrews 10, 24 and 25 says, let us consider how we may stir one another up to love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another all the more as we see the day approaching. And in this time, as the government has told us, not just Christians, not just religious people, but all people who would gather normally, the government has told us we don't want you to gather in groups of 10 or more. We can't do that like the Jews in Babylon. We can't worship the way God has prescribed that we worship. Now, I know there may be a few of you throughout our congregation who have lingering doubts about what the government can and cannot do, and just keep in mind, just in a few moments in this video message, I'm going to address that topic. But for right now, let's think about our modified worship. When we can physically get together, and by the way, by the way, the church is not the church unless the church is gathered. The word for church in the Greek, ekklesia, literally means assembly. It's the same word that was used in the Hebrew when it talked about the congregation of Israel, kahal. It means a gathering, an assembly, a convocation. And so we really, in some respect, can't talk about the church as the church unless the church is gathered. It's seven o'clock. So what do we do? Well, what we've done, what many churches have done, is we have gathered together virtually. So some churches are live streaming. As many of you know, what we're doing is we're, I'm giving a video message and we're sending out YouTube videos and families are meeting together and they're singing together, they're reading scripture together, they're watching the pre-recorded video. And before I go any further, I just want to say none of those things are bad. That's fine. It's not wrong. It's not even sinful. But we do need to say this. And this is critically important. And by the way, this is critically relevant. It's in times like this that we need to think about how we define things like worship, corporate worship, when stuff like the COVID-19 outbreak happens and we're forced to rethink it, okay? We should always be uneasy with any form of virtual worship as we hanker for God to bring us back together for true biblical corporate worship. There's nothing wrong with virtual worship, but it's not the worship that God intended. Can I just say this? We are naturally social people, even you introverts out there. You are naturally, maybe not as much as those extroverts, but we are naturally social people. We need interaction with others. And God knows that. And listen, God has so baked social interaction into our worship that it's part of the warp and woof of what we do even when we worship God. to be surrounded by like-minded saints, lifting up our voices together as we have custom to do on Sunday morning and even Sunday evening, and our voices join together and sing things like, let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill, God's truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever. Beloved, that's priceless. And digital pixels can never compare with what we share together in corporate public worship. So, we have modified our worship for the time, as we have said, and we will continue to remind you of this. We see this as a temporary thing, and we will adjust as things go on. But this accommodation, this accommodation of a modified worship, it's incredibly important in these trying times. What you are going to be tempted to do, especially you men who are heads of the family, what you're going to be tempted to do is just kind of get lazy about this on Sunday. Maybe you don't do it at 10, you do it at 11, and the next Sunday you don't do it till 6, or you don't do it till 8, and then on the 4th or 5th Sunday, maybe you just don't do it at all. I'm not saying that any of you are doing that. I hope that none of you are, but just realize that that's a temptation. Let me just remind you. When the Apostle John was exiled on the island of Patmos in that first century, he says in Revelation 110, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. You know what that means? That means that the Apostle John, even by himself, saw it as important to worship. He worshiped by himself on the Lord's day. How much more should we as heads of family and heads of households lead our family in worship? So this is a time when heads of families, this is your moment to shine. I think of the heads of our families and our congregations as minute men. You are to be ready at any minute to take up the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, and lead your family in family worship. And you know, I'll just say this pastorally, I mean, if you've been here for any amount of time, You know that from the pulpit, not just from me, but from other pastors in this place, we make a big deal about things like family worship. We make a big deal about husbands being the heads of their households and how important and critical that is. And you know what, I thank God that we've been telling you that because now we come to a crisis where it's time for you to put into action the things that you've been hearing. So know that we as elders are praying for you men, as you lead your wife and your children in family worship, and let us see this time as a modification of worship until we can come together again. So that's the first thing, unpacking how our worship in spiritual exile is modified or different in this time. Let me ask a second question this morning. It's a question that I'm sure in the midst of all the bans and instructions from both the federal government and the state government that have been coming down to us and telling us that, in effect, we can't gather in groups of 10 or more. I'm sure you've had this question, is it ever legitimate for the government to ban the public gathering of Christians? Let me make a few observations, okay? And just to cut to the chase, the answer is yes, there are a set of circumstances, there is a time, and there is a legitimate place for the government doing that. But we need to unpack this a little bit more. So let me make a few observations under this head to kind of solidify that positive answer. Number one, let me say this, okay? Social distancing is a legitimate thing. Social distancing is a legitimate thing. I'm thinking, of course, of Leviticus 13 and 14, and that parallel passage in Numbers 5, where God instructed the covenant people of Israel, really the priests in Israel, to go out and find those who were leprous and basically separate them from the rest of the congregation. The people of Israel were to quarantine lepers? And why? Well, we see the purpose, you don't need to turn there, in Numbers 5, 3. In Numbers 5, 1 and 2, Moses tells the priests, you know, go find those who are leprous, and there's these elaborate instructions in Leviticus 13 and 14 for how to find leprosy, what it looks like, to what degree has it become a contagion that is dangerous and needs to be dealt with. But then, they say, if you do find cases of leprosy, quarantine them. Put them away from the rest of the assembly and don't let them worship with you. Why? Numbers 5, 3 tells us. You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile the camp in the midst of which I dwell. Beloved, that's not talking about a spiritual defiling. That's talking about a physically defiling. It's talking about containing a contagion that would physically affect in an adverse manner the rest of the people of Israel. So again, what am I doing here? I'm not saying that the Old Covenant said it, so we do. You know that's not the hermeneutic that we work with. What I am saying is there's precedent in the Bible in how God dealt with the people in the Old Covenant that can be, yes, in a modified way, applied to this situation. Now, in the situation of lepers, while it was only the leper who was quarantined to stop the spread, here's the thing. There are differences between leprosy in the Old Covenant and COVID-19 in the New Covenant. What are they? Well, leprosy was for the most part immediately detectable, whereas the symptoms of COVID-19 are not. Some people are asymptomatic, which is just a big word that means that they don't manifest any symptoms because the incubation period is 12 to 14 days. But during those 12 to 14 days, though they detect no symptoms in their body, they can spread that contagion to somebody else. Thus it seems, once again grabbing onto this precedent and seeking to apply it in our time, it seems more than reasonable to say, since it's possible that people could be infected without even knowing it, we need to quarantine to stop the spread, and that includes churches. And as I said in my email, I don't want to belabor a lot of these things, but we have vulnerable folk in our congregation. We have elderly who are susceptible to this virus. We have newborn babies, which, by the way, we praise God for, but newborn babies whose immune systems are weak and underdeveloped. We have people who deal with immune deficiency issues, and we have people who deal with respiratory issues. So I'll come back in a moment to the physical dimension of this, but I just want to say, when the government comes in and says, hey, we're looking out for the well-being and safety and health of our people, and we think that as a result, because of the specific profile of COVID-19, we need to quarantine, I just want to say biblically, that's a thing. Social distancing is a thing. As much as we don't like it, it's a thing. The second thing I want to do is I want you to turn to Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13, we're gonna look very briefly, verses one through seven. Again, the question that we're examining is, is it ever legitimate for the government to instruct Christians not to gather, and really for that matter, anybody under their care, as citizens in the civil kingdom? And I've said, number one, social distancing is a thing. We've looked at leprosy, Leviticus 13 and 14. But the second thing I wanna say under this hat is this. Christian citizens are to be the best citizens. Let me say that again. Christian citizens are to be the best citizens. Look in your Bibles with me in Romans 13. I'm gonna read 13, one through seven. So please listen carefully, this is the word of God. The Apostle Paul says let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant. for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this, you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. Thus far the reading of God's word. Now listen, I wanna state the obvious and then I wanna kind of flange out from there, okay? Government has been given their authority over all mankind by God himself. They have been given common grace to exercise this authority, and this authority, listen to me, please, it benefits not only Christians, when exercised correctly, whether or not you agree, when exercised correctly, it benefits all of humanity, okay? Now listen, here's the thing, please listen to me very carefully, all right? And know that I'm speaking to you as a shepherd. As Americans, our country, our culture, our character, we're all born out of rebellion against leaders who told us that we can't worship how we want, right? So we naturally, listen to me, we naturally have a chip on our shoulders, which by the way, I totally understand and get. But as a result of this chip on our shoulders, when the government says anything in the neighborhood of you can't worship, you can't get up. Anytime that happens, when we read something like Romans 13, the first thing we want to do is not kind of digest what it is saying about government and our subjection to it and how that applies to our context. The first thing we want to do is we want to jump to the exceptions. What are the exceptions? Okay, okay, I get it. Yes, Romans 13, fine, Paul. What are the exceptions? When do I not have to do this? And by the way, I'm not saying that looking for the exceptions is a bad thing, because there are exceptions, okay? But can I just do this, please? And maybe this is a little unconventional when dealing with Romans 13. I frankly don't care. Before we pass to the exceptions, let me give you three reasons why even this pandemic, in this pandemic, it's imperative that we obey and comply with the government here. And I want to say before I begin, I am not speaking primarily as a citizen of the United States of America. I'm speaking as a minister of the gospel with the authority of the Word of God, mainly here in Romans 13. I'm not a dupe and a lackey for the government. I'm speaking with the Word of God. So three reasons why we need to really consider how this command in Romans 13, these commands, applies to COVID-19. Number one, We need to obey the government and what they have laid down regarding social quarantining and social distancing and all those things. We need to obey the government because as Paul says in Romans 13, four and six, three different times, the government is servant of God. He is a servant of God. Now let me unpack that for a moment. Number one, I want you to realize, The government in Paul's time was certainly worse and morally worse off and religiously worse off than the present government that we experience today. I've talked about this time and time again. I'm not going to unpack that even more. The Caesar that Paul was under, you talk about religious persecution, it was ramped up in his time. You talk about abortion, it was worse. You talk about homosexuality, much more accepted in that time than our time. And yet, in Romans 13, under that government, Paul says submit to them. Now yes, there's exceptions, we'll get there in a second. But notice that he calls these officials servants or ministers three times. Two times in verse four, The word used for servant is the same word used for deacon in the church. The same word used for deacon in the New Testament. And in verse six, the word used for minister, he is a minister of God, is the verbalized form of the word from which we get liturgy. He's an orderer of society, just like we have an order of worship in liturgy. So in three different ways, well, two ways as deacon and another way as liturgeo, Paul is saying, look, The government is a servant of God. God can strike a straight blow with a crooked stick. He could use secular leaders to accomplish his secular purposes. And yes, God has secular purposes. Pharaoh, when Joseph interpreted his dreams and told him that there's going to be seven years of plenty and seven years of famine, Pharaoh, a secular leader who hated God, hated Yahweh at least, took Joseph's advice, took a fifth of the produce from all the people for seven years so that in the seven years of famine, people were taken care of. That was difficult and challenging for people. I mean, they had to give more taxes, more produce than they normally did. But God used Pharaoh to save a people. Another example of God using secular leaders is found in Isaiah 45.1, where Isaiah is prophesying about how Cyrus would come and take over the Babylonians and would be used by God to accomplish secular purposes, that in our minds are secular purposes, but in God's economy of things, it's his providence. And in Isaiah 45.1, the Lord through Isaiah says this he says this says the Lord to his anointed to Cyrus whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings to open doors before him that gates may not be closed you know that word anointed in the Hebrew it's the word Mashiach it's the same word that's used to describe Jesus the Messiah Now obviously Cyrus is not Messiah in the same way that Jesus is Messiah. Messiah's used different ways throughout the old covenant to talk about different leaders that the Lord had used, some believing and some not. The point is that the Lord uses even secular leaders to accomplish secular purposes, religious purposes, and a mixture of both, and we should not be surprised by that. As I said, God can strike a straight blow with a crooked stick. Abraham Kuyper said, there is not one square inch on this earth over which Christ does not declare mine. Christ is king over all, but let me hasten to add this. Our Reformed forefathers, especially John Calvin and especially Martin Luther, said that Christ rules over all creation in two different broad spheres. The kingdom of his right hand is the church, and the kingdom of his left hand is the civil government. And so, the kingdom of his right hand is ruled via special revelation, that is the Bible, and the kingdom of his left hand is ruled via natural revelation. So, when the government comes in, And they are looking out for your well-being. There is a sense in which you need to understand they are doing that under the auspices and authority of Jesus Christ Himself. We're not talking about salvation. I'm going to say something a little shocking. Jesus Christ even cares for the pagan and the Muslim and the unbelieving Jew on earth as he reigns as king. Maybe that's not so radical, because all that really is is common grace. Jesus wants to care for all his creatures. The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike. God provides money, food, energy, jobs, provision, opportunity for Christians and non-Christians. So one of the ways that Jesus exercises His rule over this earth in this now time is through the government to look out for the health, the safety, and the well-being of all humanity. That's a beautiful thing. That's a beautiful thing. So thirdly, verse 4, we should obey government because they are there for our good. They're there for our good. The only exception to this mandate is when that authority demands an obedience that contradicts the Christian's singular devotion to God. But here is where we need to be sons of Ishkar and ask the question, is that what the government is doing here? And let me give an emphatic answer. No. The government is not asking us to, all things being equal, violate a command or a precept of God. The government is seeking to protect the health of the citizens under their watch. They are not singling out religious organizations. In other words, they're not trying to stop the spread of Christianity, they're trying to stop the spread of a deadly virus. They are calling us to the second great commandment, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You see, love of neighbor means that we would not do anything to compromise, weaken, or endanger our neighbor. And that certainly includes our neighbor's physical health. Faithfulness today means full and unwavering compliance with all rightful orders seeking to control and stop the spread of COVID-19. So let me say this, and I said this in the email, but I just want to repeat it. If our decision to cancel service for a season has the Achilles heel of potentially granting too much power to the civil magistrate and acquiescing to some infringement of religious liberties, and by the way, we don't think that it is, then the decision to maintain service, despite the multiple health warnings, despite the collective wisdom of experts, and despite the rapidly increasing morbidity rates, has the Achilles heel of potentially breaking the sixth commandment, you shall not kill. We need to be very clear about what we're dealing with here. So again, I do not speak as some representative of the government here. I speak as a representative of the minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, who sanctioned and commissioned his apostle Paul to write the book of Romans, and in that book, Romans 13, and in that passage to say, look, the government is there for you, you're good. And if you can discern clearly that that's what they're trying to do, then you need to submit to them, okay? So let me ask thirdly this morning, And this is really a follow-up to point number two. But then what about the command to worship corporately then? What about Hebrews 10, 24, 25, which says, let us consider how we may stir one another up to love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing. Because I don't know if there's any of you in our congregation who would say this or take this line. But there are some in broader Christianity who do. To them, there's two clear dichotomies or two clear either-or options. You either obey government or you obey God. That's how they cast this decision. So I want to speak to that for a moment. Number one, and please listen to this, if you're making that argument, I just want to commend you. I want to commend you because you know what it tells me if you're making that argument? It tells me that you take Hebrews 10 24 25 seriously. God bless you. God bless you. Oh that we had more people in the broader church who took Hebrews 10 24 25 more seriously. Oh that we had more people in the church who didn't see coming to corporate worship on morning and evening or whenever the elders of that place call worship. Oh, that we had more people in the broader church who didn't see that as an option, as if worship is a salad bar, and you just, you know, if you want to, you take it, and if you don't, you don't. Worship, public worship, is not just a privilege. It's very much that, and I would say it's first and foremost that. The Lord's Day is the market day of the soul, and we have the exquisite opportunity to come together with the people of God two times in some congregations. in some congregations in Michigan three times, okay? To worship Him, to pray with God's people, it's a privilege. But you know what it also is? It's a command. So if you're taking this seriously, God bless you. Oh, that we had more people like that in the church. But now let me say this, secondly. Like many commands in the Bible, there are often exceptions. And when you think about exceptions, let me just put it this way, as a general hermeneutical rule. When you think about exceptions in the Bible, first off, you need to understand there are many, many, many commands in the Bible that have exceptions. And I know that as we fight the culture that is postmodern and wants to say there is no truth and it's just truth is whatever, you make it and you just make up your own rules for your own life. Life is a highway and you're the driver and you get to decide everything. All of that is hogwash. But I think that the propensity that we have is that we're always pushing back on that, that whenever a thinking Christian comes along and says, well, you need to nuance how you think about commands a little bit because sometimes there are commands that have exceptions. Like, do not divorce. There's exceptions for that. Okay? infidelity, abandonment. There's exceptions. There are legitimate reasons why a woman or a man would be justified in getting a divorce. I think that when we hear a thinking Christian come along and say that, we get our dukes up and we think, oh, you're trying to subjectivize the Word of God. No, we're not. We're not trying to subjectivize the Word of God. You know what we're doing? We're trying to take, listen to me, the whole counsel of the Word of God and piece it together and listen, apply it to the situation that is standing right before my eyeballs. That's what we're trying to do. And I think that liberty should be given to Christian brothers and sisters to do that. So let me give you an example. Sometimes when it comes to public worship, we're providentially hindered. And this is understandable. Our confession makes room for this. There are two broad categories or reasons why you wouldn't be able to make it to worship. Works of necessity and works of mercy. If you're coming to church on Sunday morning and your engine blows up, and it's 950, Are you going to just say, well, I'm going to leave my car on the side of the road and I'm going to hitchhike to church and I'm going to make it while my car is on the side of the 264 in flames? Come on. Nobody expects you to do that, okay? You need to call AAA or Kenny Ray or something. You need to get that thing towed. You've got to take care of that. Or you're sitting at home at 5.30 p.m. and you're getting ready to come back for the Vesper to pray with God's people, as you should, and your pipes burst and your basement starts flooding. You need to stay there. You're providentially hindered. That's an example of being providentially hindered. Let me cut to the chase. I think that the COVID-19 outbreak is an example of being providentially hindered, okay? When you're in a situation where coming to service might get you sick, okay? Or coming to service, you might die if you come to service. Beloved, with all due respect, how is that not being providentially hindered, okay? Can I give you one more example just to flesh this out a little bit? I'm not going to read through the whole passage, but in Matthew chapter 12, verses one through eight, Jesus, it's a very interesting passage. But it's actually a passage where Jesus and the disciples are walking through the grain fields on the Sabbath, right? And the disciples take some grain in their hands and they rub it together and they eat. They were hungry, okay? It's a work of necessity, right? They were hungry. And the Pharisees come and they say, you Sabbath breakers, you can't work on the Sabbath. Jesus, why do you let your disciples work on the Sabbath? Now, what does Jesus do? What does he do? Well, here's what he does. He reduces the Pharisees' objection to absurdity by asking a question, and that's what Jesus did a lot. But he tells the story of David fleeing from Saul in the wilderness. He comes to a place called Nob, and there's a priest there named Ahimelech, and David and his men are hungry. They're starving. They need food. So they come to the priest and they say, hey, do you have any bread? And the priest says, well, I don't have any common bread, which is bread that non-priests can eat. All I have is show bread, which you need to know, according to Leviticus 24, 5-9, that bread is only for the priests. It's a sin. It's unlawful for a commoner to eat it. David says, well, my men are hungry and they haven't been with any women, they're pure, you know, they're undefiled, so can we have it? So he gives it to them. And Jesus says, this is what Jesus says, listen, in Matthew 12, verse three and following, Jesus said to them, have you not read what David did when he was hungry? And those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests, That's what Jesus said. Now, is Jesus commending lawlessness? No, he's not. What is he saying? He's saying that there are legitimate times for you to make exceptions to these laws, okay? And this is where we need to be sons of Ishakar and not be block-headed fundamentalists that only see two dichotomous categories. It's either this or it's either that and there's no nuance and there's no qualification and there's no blending of the two together so that I can live in a COVID-19 world and still have a modified worship. No, beloved, we're not going to do that. And I don't want any of you to have a guilty conscience for not meeting corporately with the people of God on Sunday. I know that none of us like it. I don't like it. I can't stand it. It grieves my heart. The first Sunday that we had to worship by ourselves as a family and not with you as the people of God, my wife wept. She wept. And I'm sure that many of you wept. And I'm about to start weeping right now thinking about not being with you. I can't stand it. But at the same time, there's something else going on that forbids it. And so I don't want us to have this block-headed idea that we're acquiescing to the government and we're listening to Caesar rather than God. No, there's a hierarchy of commands and needs in God's Word. And even in this text, Jesus says, if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. And I hope there's nobody in our congregation this morning or ever right now during this COVID-19 time that is making anybody feel guilty about not being together. That's the last thing we need right now. What we need is compassion. What we need is understanding. What we need is wisdom. Our physical strength is needed to render physical or spiritual worship. You can't worship if you're physically sick. You certainly can't worship physically if you're dead. So we make exceptions. Let this famine of worship have its intended effect in our lives. Let us strengthen our resolve to be in the house of God together with the saints when we're able. Let us not forsake the assembling of saints when all things are equal. Let us press into the tower of refuge in Jesus Christ now more than any other time. The Lord would not have us be foolhardy and rush into danger without wisely thinking through how to approach it. But at the same time, we need to be ready to die. And there is no better way to be ready to die than to cling to the cross of Jesus Christ, which justifies us, sanctifies us, and will one day glorify us. And when we do, when we have this fearless attitude that says, on the one hand, I'm going to be wise, and I'm going to obey the government. But on the other hand, I'm going to say, If in this time the Lord decides to strike me with illness, if in this time the Lord decides to take my life, I'm going to be strong, and I'm going to, I hope, personify that dictum or that description of the Proverbs 31 woman that we find in verse 25 of Proverbs 31. Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. This is not a frivolous laugh. It's not a condescending laugh, nor a disrespectful laugh. You know what this is? It's a confident laugh. Beloved, we know where we're going. And no one or thing can take that away from us. We know how all of this ends. And guess what? Flash bulletin. COVID-19 is not going to bring in the eschaton. COVID-19 is not going to be the end of this present age. We know what the end of this present age looks like. The end of this present age looks like this. Jesus Christ comes bursting through the clouds, killing His enemies with the sword of His mouth, judging the living and the dead, ushering in the new heavens and the earth, vindicating His saints. That's what the end of this age looks like, beloved. So take heart, straighten up, and raise your heads because your redemption is drawing near. Our salvation, as Paul said, is nearer to us than when we first believed. So fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Amen. Would you pray with me this morning? Father God, we do thank you for your grace and your mercy and your love, and we pray that you, Father, would sustain us through this time. sustain us in our time of individual worship, family worship. Lord, we know it's modified, we know it's not the same, but I pray that specifically for Grace Covenant Church, what you would do is you would cause a greater hankering for corporate worship. I've heard so many saints in this place say it as I've had private conversations with them, that that first Sunday back, when we're able to come together and see each other and embrace each other and laugh and cry together, it is gonna be a glorious celebration. Father, we long for that day. We long for that day when we can be reunited. But even that day when we are reunited, we are longing for a greater day, the day when you will send your son from heaven to retrieve your saints. Until then, Father, give us grace, give us grit, and help us to be faithful witnesses in this place. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. People of God, I send you out with the benediction. May goodness and lovingkindness follow you all the days of your life. May his lovingkindness and truth continually preserve you, so that you can say, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Amen. You are dismissed.