In his sermon, Scott Brown discusses how wearing masks in church can hinder Christian fellowship. He begins by referencing Proverbs 3, emphasizing the importance of wisdom and understanding, and how God's ways are pleasant. Brown argues that government mandates, such as mask-wearing, can interfere with the relational and cultural aspects of church life. He presents six ways masks hinder fellowship: they obscure facial expressions, impede sincere greetings, constrain joyful singing, hinder teaching through songs, reduce the spread of joy, and create a sense of separation among congregants. Brown contrasts these effects with biblical commands for Christian interaction, urging believers to prioritize scriptural guidance over governmental directives. He acknowledges differing assumptions and opinions within the church regarding COVID-19 and mask-wearing, emphasizing the need for love and understanding among believers. Brown concludes by encouraging the congregation to seek wisdom from the Bible and trust God's guidance.

Efficient word of God to Proverbs chapter 3 Proverbs 3 find verse 13 Proverbs 3 13 Proverbs 3 13 This is a disclosure of wisdom in this great proverb. Proverbs 3.13. Happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver and her gain than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies and all the things you may desire cannot compare with her.

Length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand is our riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her and happy are all who retain her. Let's pray. Father we thank you for wisdom from heaven.

We thank you for the the goodnesses of your wisdom that you have given to us in your word. Pray that you would make us people of your word, not our own. Amen. This proverb is the flagship text for this message because I want to talk about the pleasantness of the ways of wisdom and the way that God has ordained wisdom to be manifested in the church of Jesus Christ. And I want to give you a contemporary illustration here of how we ought to think through our fellowship together, particularly as the state and municipal governments around the nation have been ordering churches to function in a certain way, when to meet, how to meet, and what to do when to meet.

I want to wrap this around the heading of preserving Christian culture in a time of government intervention, and I want to say that God's ways are always pleasant ways. The contemporary illustration is the proposition of masks, wearing masks in churches and times of Christian fellowship. Now, it's very important that we try to think christianly about all things when something comes across the transom that we try to filter it through the word of God. You know what does the word of God say about this? It's easy just to pop off with your feeling or your opinion but do the hard work like the Bereans did to examine the scriptures And you know this means that we are the kind of people who search the scripture and then believe that the scripture is sufficient to address the challenges that are upon us.

And of course the Word of God is designed to change us in the way that we think. God begins with the mind and the way that you think about life. The mind informs the heart, the heart controls the life. And Christians, the more that they wash their thinking in the water of the word of God, they begin thinking differently. And this actually begins right at conversion, where you say that you have made Jesus king and you've been born again.

Then your mind is being transformed. Paul talks about it in terms of the renewing of your mind, the transformation of the mind, and it's a work of God in salvation. And so I'm addressing what it means to think like a Christian in terms of our relationships and how we present ourselves to one another in the church. And I want to correlate it to this proposition about wearing masks in church. And when we get to the end of this, I'm going to open this up for questions.

I'm sure you'll have many questions. Here's one thing that I hope is plain. Your pastor is learning along with you. And I've been very grateful to learn from many of you on these things. So I think we're trying to navigate waters we've never navigated before.

So in those kind of conditions, you're always learning. And that's how I view myself. Now when we speak of relationships in the church and how we face off with one another. We've entered into the theological category of ecclesiology. And the ecclesiological subset here is relationships in the church.

Now, in the case of masks, we have to consider how we present ourselves to one another and what it means to be a member of the body of Christ, a diverse community, where when we come into the community of the saints our relational patterns really were meant to be altered. That's why there's so many one another's in the Bible. God wants to alter the way that we relate with one another. All our lives we've learned wrong ways of relating and God is so kind he comes and he reorders the way we relate with one another by giving us commands to do that. And I want us to consider the alteration of relational patterns, the flattening of appearances, and even what I would just call the veiling of individuality that a mask brings to us.

And one of the, to me, one of the worst parts of a mask is that it reduces everyone to a disease threat. That's what it does. You're saying, I'm diseased, you're diseased, stay away from me. And it reduces humanity into a bag of diseases in that sense. Last week, our governor said that refusing to wear masks, quote, infringes on the life and liberty of others.

He also said the refusal to wear a mask is selfish and then he chastised those who, quote, continue to defy basic decency and common sense by not wearing a mask. And then last week, that same week, Newsweek Magazine ran an article claiming that researchers have found that those who refuse to wear masks are narcissists and psychopaths. I'm not kidding. They further claim that people, these people who don't wear masks, they possess quote, dark qualities which quote, correlate with more crime, less compassion, and dangerous leadership qualities unquote. And in contrast of course the author is making it clear that wearing masks is a sign that you're compassionate and you're a loving human being.

So what about in the church? I, how should we evaluate government orders to wear masks in local church meetings? This is happening not here, but it is happening in other places. Is it a good thing that church meetings should be conformed to these orders? How far should churches go to comply?

What should we think about such trends? What kinds of freedom should there be in this whole question? Now, there are a couple of things, qualifications I want to bring here first. I'm not addressing what you should do when a business or an institution with authority tells you to wear a mask. That's a very different matter.

My personal view is if somebody owns a business and they tell you you have to wear a mask, you have to decide whether you're going to wear a mask or go shop somewhere else. Not a problem. I'm also not speaking to the person who is unusually vulnerable to disease. We have people like that and we have to be careful with them. I'm addressing what we should normally do with healthy people in church meetings to be faithful to the Word of God and to promote how the Bible describes Christian relationships in the church.

Now here's another caveat that I think is probably important. Your assumptions drive everything and so if you have different assumptions you would think differently about this than I do. I don't believe that COVID-19 is a true pandemic to the likes of the 1918 plague and the bubonic plagues of the 17th century. During those plagues, massive numbers of people were dying. If you go to the bubonic plague, you would have probably 10 to 20 people dead in our church alone if you took the death rate in London.

If you went back to the 1918 plague, you would probably have two to five people dead in this church This is just in our church not not considering the people that you know So death rates are have been different in different time different plagues and so a person in This matter of kovat 19 has to decide what they believe So what I'm gonna say is based on what I believe. Now everybody doesn't believe what I believe on this. So I think there's a little bit of freedom that one might consider if they don't believe the assumption that I'm taking. The Westminster Catechism, larger Catechism, question 135 on the sixth commandment speaks to this to some degree. The Sixth commandment of course is thou shall not kill.

And there are many implications to that commandment. We should be very careful to preserve the lives of those around us. We do not do things that kill people. And the authors of this question recognize that. Question 135, what are the duties required in the Sixth Commandment?

Answer, the duties required in the Sixth Commandment are all careful studies and lawful endeavors to preserve the life of ourselves. Now this catechism was written right around the time of the plagues of the 17th century in London and the authors say that there should be careful studies conducted to determine the danger of something. And these studies should be done regarding these endeavors to preserve life and the lives of ourselves and others by resisting all thoughts and purposes, subduing passions, avoiding occasions, temptations, and practices which tend to the unjust taking away the life of any. In other words, they're saying that one has to consider through studies whether this is a dangerous thing or not. Someone asked me last week what's the difference between a mask order and a seatbelt law.

One of the differences, one of the brothers in our church informed me of this, I thought it was a profitable way of thinking about it and that is that, well when it comes to seatbelts, it's really very clear, the studies will tell you exactly what will happen. You smash your face against the steering wheel or fly out of the car, there's a significant impact. So the studies have shown, you know, you always have to be careful with that phrase. Studies have shown. But the authors of the Westminster Catechism actually believe that studies are necessary.

So I'll give you four reasons why I to believe that that COVID-19 does not warrant the reactions and the shutdowns and the masks, particularly in the meetings of the church. Remember, I'm focusing on the meetings of the church here. And I'll just give you those four reasons. This is my qualification. This is my caveat.

And then I'll move into the rest of this. But first, the primary victims are the elderly with multiple comorbidities. The dangerous symptoms and Death are very rare among healthy individuals, particularly under 70 years old. If a person has health problems, all of us would say they should take all the precautions they need to take. But that's not the case with this, in my view.

Second, the government continues to give us what I'm just going to call our misleading numbers. They're reporting cases, they're reporting numerators rather than deaths which are denominators. And of course there are more cases. We've tested 60 million people and you're going to find more people. This virus is, this kind of virus has been in the population for 100 years.

So you're going to find viruses and coronaviruses all over the population. Question is are the people sick? And what we found is not very many are Sick very very few are sick And so the numbers are misleading I Would rather try to correlate with death rates the number the death rate numbers at the CDC is Presenting the way I understand it are very low They're in there in you know sort of the the range of a really bad respiratory illness. That's the way I understand it. Maybe that's not your assumption.

That's my assumption. Thirdly, there's enough first-hand evidence, I mean, people that I know that make me conclude that the positive tests as well as the death numbers aren't all that accurate and might be inflated. And there are difficulties with the tests. I think we should recognize that. Fourth, there's a significant weight of scientific information claiming that masks aren't very effective.

We don't have to go very far back. Only four months ago in the CDC and the Reverend Dr. Fauci was telling us don't wear masks, they're not effective. They're not. That's what we were being told.

Now we're being told you must wear one. And because of, you know, because of ocular transmission, you know, you should put goggles on. What's next? I don't know. So those are my four reasons why I dismissed this as a plague, a classic plague, the plagues I've read about, the plagues that I've read books about over the last six months.

So, that's because I don't believe that church life should be altered hardly at all to promote wearing masks. And you know, is it possible that the politicians are exaggerating the threat? Is that a possibility? You know, are the infection numbers inflated? Are the tests reliable?

Are there political motives behind the fear? Is the death toll accurate or not? These are important questions. So I've tried to study those things. I'm not claiming to absolutely be the final word on this matter, but I'm just giving you my opinion.

I'm, what I'm getting ready to say is actually based on these assumptions, so I wanted you to understand that. Now there's another assumption that I have, and that is that, and I think we all embrace this, that only God has authority to design church life. That no government and no cultural trend has jurisdiction over the activities that take place in local churches. They do not have authority to dictate church life. They do not have a place at the table to determine the structure, the teaching, the relationships, the government, the experiences, the apparel, or the healthcare choices of a church.

And At the at the same time there are particular things that scripture Requires true Christians to do and they my view is that they should keep doing them out of faithfulness to God So here's my proposition Those who are wearing masks in the church possibly have forgotten that there are certain things that Christians must do when they're together. There's a relational fabric of local churches. So whatever your opinion is, I want to give you six ways that at minimum, at minimum, they hinder Christian fellowship and they hinder Christian culture. I use the word hinder. I don't think it destroys, I don't think they destroy it, but I think they hinder it.

That's my opinion. So I want to give you these six reasons. First, Christians are commanded to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. That's Romans 12-15 and one of the ways we do this is that we actually see the looks on one another's faces because for most of us for most of the time a merry heart makes a cheerful countenance. That's in Proverbs 15, 13.

John Gill stated that, quote, the face is the index of the heart. But behind the mask we don't know if you're frowning or whether you're smiling. We don't know if you're glad or sad. As a result, it's more difficult for us to detect how you're doing and how we ought to love you with Christian sensitivity. Does a mask help or hinder your understanding of what's happening in the life of your brother or your sister?

That's the question that I'm asking. Does it help or hinder it? Number two, Christians are called to greet one another with a holy kiss. I've quoted this numerous times before. This is Romans 16, verse 16, and several other places.

There are four or five places in the New Testament that this command exists. It's a figure of speech for sincere, face-to-face, close-up, friendly, open interaction. And it seems to me from the mask mandates and the social distancing mandates that they actually run crosswise with this figure of speech of greeting one another with a holy kiss in Christian fellowship. So the question is does a mask facilitate this or does it militate against it? Third, the third reason.

Christians are called to sing out, literally shouting out, make a joyful shout to the Lord all you land serve the Lord with gladness come before his presence with singing that's Psalm 100 verses 1 & 2 Psalm 47 1 oh clap your hands all you people shout to God with a voice of triumph. So church is the place where we're commanded to shout out the praises of the Lord and sing out with all of our hearts. We also speak to one another too. You know, we're talking to each other personally. I was in Lowe's yesterday and the lady was behind the shield and I think it was three times.

I said Say what? Because I couldn't understand what she was saying. I had no idea what she was saying because obviously her speech was being muffled. So does a mask unleash or does a mask constrain shouting out to the Lord in song? Number four, God commands us to sing to one another, teaching one another.

So there's this directional factor in singing. We've talked about this before where we're actually, some songs are written in the first person's, one person speaking to another. Some songs are written, all of us are speaking to one another together. And In Colossians 3.16, God commands us to be teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord grace is joy singing with joy joyful singing is that Helped or hindered can you most effectively and boldly perform this function with your voice, with a mask on. Number five.

The church is designed by God to be a happy place of spreading joy. Proverbs 17 22 says a cheerful heart is good medicine. You know, most of us need a little bit of that medicine pretty regularly. One of the great things about being in a church is you have someone who is so cheerful and so helpful and they actually smile at you. You know, it's funny going out and about in stores, I found myself just wanting to smile at that person, because I can't tell whether they're smiling at all, but that's been my reaction.

And Paul reminded the Corinthian Church that by the Apostles physical presence they were quote fellow workers for their joy. We are fellow workers for one another's joy And you know Philemon spread consolation and love and great joy that's in Philemon 6. And it was really a matter of corporate health that I think Psalm 144 verses verse 15 speaks to. Happy is that people whose God is the Lord. This happiness is meant to be infectious in a physical relational spiritual community.

So can you most effectively spread the happiness of Jesus from your countenance with a mask on? Number six, the church is a unified body. One of the problems with masks is that they separate people. They hinder communication. They actually hide portions of the real person, a significant portion of the real person.

And they hide. Now it's very interesting that the Biblical Greek word for hypocrite, huppacritas, is a word picture for a person behind the mask. That's literally what that word means. It, it, It depicts an actor on a stage pretending to be someone else. Now even though the purpose of the mask currently is to constrain a virus, it's not designed to promote hypocrisy.

That's not the design. The reality is though masks create distance and they enhance boundaries between people. But on the other hand God unifies. He draws people near one another in local fellowship. He designed local churches so that people would affect one another in person, up close, face to face with their joyful countenances.

And he calls his people to know the joyful sound, to feel it and demonstrate it with one another. And so the question is does a mask enhance the ability to make a joyful noise or constrain it. Now, in 2 Corinthians 3, 18, we learn that the Christian is a lamp of the glory of Jesus Christ. And his glory shines by beholding him with unveiled face." And as we, the whole logic of 1st Corinthians 3 is that as we behold the glory of the Lord, we actually become mirrors of his glory. And of course that manifests itself in different ways, not just on the face, but that's one way that it manifests itself.

And so is it possible that this glory is observable on the face? Is that possible? I've always thought it was. We reflect Christ in many ways. We reflect him in our words, in our thoughts, and even through our faces.

And in that passage, we're told that we're not like Moses who had a veil on his face. And he's not talking about a medical mask, that's for sure. It's different. But then in the next chapter in 2 Corinthians 4, Paul expands on this reality and he says that we mirror his glory that quote, the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. That's 2nd Corinthians 414.

It's the Lord who shines through. Why? He answers the question. That the life of Jesus might be manifested in your body the life of Jesus is actually manifested in your body and the way you carry it all of all of this so that he says grace having spread through the many may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. So you behold the face of Jesus, you reflect his glory, and thanksgiving abounds through your life.

That's the whole logic of that section. But it is the spiritual life of Jesus working in you, but it spreads and it causes thanksgiving all around. It's the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And I know the face is only one way that you manifest that glory, but the countenance is definitely one of the ways that the beauty of Jesus Christ is demonstrated. You know, you've heard of a sour puss.

You know, when someone looks that way, it usually means that you should go talk to them and see how they're doing, see why. Why is their countenance fallen? When your children do that you ask them about it, why is your countenance fallen? It's a real thing. Christians don't relate to one another as if they're a diseased bag of contagious killing cells.

That's not how Christians relate to each other. And I think we have to ask, you know, why did the government and the CDC tell us masks weren't helpful just a few months ago? I was listening to an Irish politician who was speaking about this matter. It was very impassioned speech. I'll read it.

It's riveting. But also think, think about the fact that at the very height of this alleged pandemic back in April there was no talk of Compulsory masks in all of May when the figures were the figures were dying away to nothing in other words people weren't dying There was no talk of compulsory masks in June when there were no cases virtually at all. He's talking about Ireland There was no talk of compulsory masks. In June when there were no cases virtually at all, he's talking about Ireland, there was no talk of compulsory masks. Now when it's all but disappearing, it's gone, it's gone, and they're now bringing in compulsory masks.

And the reason for that is that they need visible evidence of terror. They need to create visibility of the terror that they want to inculcate in the people. And that's why This is so important to them. These are really sinister people that we're dealing with now. These are people that we'd previously talk about as people of our own kind, these politicians who we have to start thinking about now as alien beings, as hostile beings to the Irish people.

They are the enemies of the Irish people. Clearly, that's their intent. Because the mask is a way of denying the very human face of the person. It is a way of taking away the individual, unique humanity of each person and turning us all into zombies and restoring us to a sort of animal state so that no longer will we look at each other coming down the street as Tom or Mick or Mary, my friend, my sister, my brother, but instead as a festering mass of bacteria and viruses, which is a danger to my health. Oh, I have to get away.

This is what they're turning the human person into. What they are implementing, this kind of thing behind it, is to destroy the spirit of the human person, the individuality, the personality, the conscience, the character of the human person. This is what this project is all about. He certainly was wound up. But you have to ask how much truth is there in it.

And I'm just asking us to do that. Here's some questions. For those who are not following the government mask orders or for those who are just complying with the social pressures or the orders to wear masks. First of all, are we loving our brethren who have different opinions on this matter? I think that's really important.

We come to all kinds of different conclusions based on our reading and our relationships, and we're very affected by that. But I just want to encourage us to love our brethren and have different opinions about it. My guess is most people here have pretty strong opinions about it. But it's essential that we love our brethren in matters like this. Second, are we to learn to love our neighbors from our government officials or from the Word of God?

Is your governor the teacher of righteousness? Is he the health care professional that your family must submit to, is he? Are the government officials the wisest people to tell the church what to do? In Luke 640, you know, Jesus says a student when he's fully trained becomes like his teacher, but who is teaching you what love looks like? Thirdly, if you wear a mask, are you depriving your brothers and sisters of the relational blessings of church life that God has designed?

And are you doing your part to spread the joy of the Lord without your mask on? So here's the bottom line. You know my assumptions. You may disagree with them. But if you feel like you need to wear a mask, you should absolutely feel free to do so.

And I don't think we should divide with brethren over a matter like this. And I'm certainly willing to concede that wearing a mask is appropriate in times of extreme danger from a plague. I would, I think that I would say something different if our people were dying, if thousands of people were dying, hundreds of thousands of all kinds, but the statistics are very low. So I fully embrace the idea that if someone is vulnerable, they should be very careful. They shouldn't be criticized, particularly for wearing a mask.

So more than anything, I'm concerned about how people are beginning to relate to one another as a diseased bag of cells. Rather we should hear the Word of God. What do we do with sickness? I really think the Word of God tells us how to deal with sickness and we should trust that and rest our hope there and believe that God's Word is sufficient for the relationships that we have in the church. You know, this sermon is by no means an order to everyone in this church.

I'm just giving you my thoughts about Christian fellowship and the way that God regulates relationships in the church. I think Proverbs three speaks to it. His ways are pleasant ways. All his paths are peace. And finding our way through this world with the word of God is the best thing you can ever do.

I'll close with Joshua 1 8 this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate on it day and night that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success have I not commanded you be strong and courageous do not tremble or be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go let's pray father we pray that you would you would come and give us all understanding, but more than anything, a great heart to seek you with all of our hearts and to find your word to be the greatest guiding tool in our lives. Amen.