Rendering Caesar Unto God

Rural Church Podcast 2.0

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Welcome to the Ruled Church Podcast. This is my beloved son, with whom

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I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas?

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You see that one in Pechote, Mexico? Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it.

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The church is not a democracy. It's a monarchy. Christ is king. You can't be

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Christian without a local church. You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the

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Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible -believing church, and spend your life serving

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Jesus in a local, visible congregation. The Ruled Church Podcast. I am your co -host,

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Allen Nelson. In today's episode, you will hear from Pastor Jacob Graham, one of the pastors of Trinity Bible Chapel in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

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He will be expositing Matthew 22, 15 through 22, the passage where Jesus talks about,

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Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's. A fantastic message, one that you need to hear, encourage you, challenge you, convict you, equip you.

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Pastor Reom preached this message in March of 2024 when he came down to do a conference for our local association.

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I tell you, my esteem of brothers goes through the roof when they'll leave what they're doing to come to a small place and preach.

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We've had this happen over the years with Tom Askell coming here, and James White, and Jonathan Murdock, and Randall Easter, and now

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Pastor Reom, Mike Stone. Just trying to think of all the brothers who have dropped what they're doing to come and be with us.

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We're grateful for that. Now, listen to this message from Pastor Reom. Get a

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Bible out if you've got one. It's a masterful job. Consider what he has to say and apply it.

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To God be the glory. Here we go. We didn't choose to be born in this hour. We didn't choose to be born in this time.

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God has put us in this time, but we must choose to be faithful. So let me read from Matthew chapter 22, verses 15 through 22, and then we'll have a word of prayer.

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Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words, and they sent their disciples to him, along with the

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Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.

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Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

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But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?

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Show me the coin for the tax. They brought him a denarius. Jesus said to them,

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Whose likeness and inscription is this? They said, Caesar's. Then he said to them,

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And therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are

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God's. When they heard it, they marveled, and they left him and went away.

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Let's have a prayer together. Father, help us to honor our Lord Christ as his word is preached this morning.

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In the hearing and preaching of your word, we pray for your special anointing. We pray your favor would shine upon us, dear

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God in heaven. I do pray and we pray for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ in the southern part of the

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United States, particularly the state of Arkansas, that this church that you have appointed for this hour would remain increasingly faithful and humble as we face this rising darkness and tyranny that is before us at this present hour.

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Would you use what is said this morning to encourage and strengthen your people, and I pray that it would have an effect such that the kingdom of God would be upbuilt, that the forces of Antichrist would be destroyed, and that our

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Lord Jesus would be brought great honor and glory. And it's in his name we pray. Amen.

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What I want to do this morning as I look at Matthew chapter 22, verses 15 through 22, is

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I want to assert that Christ is Lord of all. I believe this text is teaching us, but I'm going to take a while to get there.

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Christ is Lord of all. Christ is Lord of the church where he is to be worshipped, among whom he is to be worshipped, and Christ is

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Lord of the state, Caesar. He's Lord of all. He's Lord of both of those spheres, and both of those spheres are mentioned in this text and noted in this text, and I'm here to assert to you this morning that this text is telling us that Christ is

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Lord of all. His supremacy, he claims supremacy over the church, among whom he is to be worshipped and honored, and also over the state, among whom he is to be worshipped and honored.

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There are two different institutions that serve two different purposes. We know this. I'll talk about that a little later in the day.

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But for this moment, I want to assert his supremacy over both. In order to do that,

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I want to provide for you some context of this particular passage. This passage needs to be read in context, and it needs to be read in the context of a people who weren't rendering anything unto

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God. Did you hear me? That's who he's speaking with.

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Jesus is speaking to people who were giving God nothing.

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To be frank with you, they weren't even giving God the worship that was due him in his temple.

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He's in the temple. I'll remind you. And how do I know they were giving God nothing? Well, I know they were giving

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God nothing because a chapter earlier in chapter 21, Jesus cleansed the temple because the people of the temple were welcoming the money into the temple, but they were driving out the children who were worshiping

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Jesus Christ. Do you remember? You had those greedy coin changers in the temple who were welcomed there by the temple authorities to make money in Matthew chapter 21.

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And then the children start to sing Hosanna unto the Lord. And what do the Pharisees do? The Pharisees are okay with the people changing money into the temple, in the temple, but they're not okay with the children singing praises unto the

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Lord Jesus. So these were a people who were rendering nothing unto God. Don't kid yourselves.

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These were a people, by the way, who were cursed of God because they were rendering nothing unto

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God. How do I know they were cursed of God? Well, because in the cursing of the fig tree, which happened right after the cleansing of the temple in Matthew chapter 21, which immediately precedes this text, that fig tree very clearly represents

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Israel who had rejected God by not allowing Christ to be worshipped in the temple.

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So these were a people who were giving nothing unto God, and because they were giving nothing unto God, especially His worship, they were a people who were finding themselves under the curse of God.

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And then we get to Matthew chapter 21, and in Matthew chapter 21 at the end of it, sorry, we get to the end of Matthew chapter 21, we have a series of instances whereby

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Jesus' authority is questioned by the temple authorities. And then

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He closes that section after He was not allowed to be worshipped in the temple, after He cleansed the temple, after He cursed the fig tree as representation of God's curse upon Israel for rejecting their king,

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God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, after they question the authority of Jesus Christ, at the end of Matthew chapter 21,

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Jesus tells this parable of the disobedient tenants in the vineyard. They don't give the vineyard unto

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God. They want to keep it for themselves. So what am

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I saying here? I'm saying by the time we get to this text in Matthew chapter 22, verses 15 through 22, it is incontestable

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It is absolutely definite that these temple authorities and these religious leaders gave nothing to God.

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Zero. Not even His worship. Not even His worship. And I suspect by the way they couch this little question that they pose to Jesus, that it reveals, and I know by what is going on in this little story, that it reveals the inclination of the hearts of these

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Pharisaical and Herodian leaders and it is an inclination of the heart that is more loyal to Caesar than it is to God.

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And I'll show you that in the text. I think that's the point of this parable or this story, not parable, this story. It actually happened.

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These people were more loyal to Caesar than Jesus. But even if you don't agree with me on that, even if you don't agree with me on that, you have to absolutely, it is incontestable, you cannot contest that these people were devoid of any true spirituality, any true religion.

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They were God haters. They did not welcome the worship of God in their temple and they loved money.

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Now, because one of the reasons I'm here is to talk to you, or is because of my own experience of dealing with the government a few years ago,

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I want to make a point. I live in a community about 500 ,000, 600 ,000 people and our community used to be up until about 30 years ago be known as the

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Bible Belt of Ontario, just like you're the Bible Belt. We were the Bible Belt. We're not anymore. And there are dozens of churches in our community.

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There was a few, like maybe two or three small churches that secretly remained open in our community, two or three.

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We were the only church that received the scorn of the state and we were the only sizable congregation that remained open within our community.

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But I found out later that there was maybe two or three little country churches that were able to secretly meet.

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And the reason so many churches remain closed is for two things, two reasons.

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The same reasons that are evident in this text. Number one, they don't think

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Jesus deserves his worship of the gathered people. And number two, they love money.

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They don't want fines. Those two reasons, and you see that right here. What was wrong with these people?

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They didn't want Jesus worshipped. And two, they love money.

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So just let that, chew on that for a little bit as I work through this sermon. In this text,

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Christ establishes his supremacy not only over his worship, but also over Caesar.

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Now I'm going to give you three points in how I outline this. How much time do I have? Do I have like 40 minutes or an hour?

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What's up to me? It's dangerous. That's dangerous, brother.

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Okay. I'm going to give you three points this morning to outline this text. It pivots on three points. Number one, we see number one, the plot against Jesus Christ.

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Number two, we see the reply of Jesus Christ. He gives a reply to these scoundrels who are plotting against him.

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And number three, we see the supremacy of Christ. So I hope you got that. If you want to follow along, the plot against Christ, the reply of Christ, the supremacy of Christ.

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So I'm going to start with this plot against Jesus Christ. The plot against Jesus Christ.

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And here's what we see. We have a pharisaical attempt to catch Jesus in verse 15.

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So I'm going to walk through the text so that I can get to some application as I talk about the plot against Jesus.

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So verse 15, we have this pharisaical plot against Christ. Then the

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Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in words. You can't argue with that. It was a plot. They're trying to get him.

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The Pharisees are the leaders. They're the legalists. They're the self -righteous. They're the enforcers of religious traditions.

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They are the ones who attempt to interpret God's laws but have over and over again in the

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Gospel of Matthew proven themselves inept at doing so. They're incompetent interpreters of God's law, but they've tried hard.

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They're try -hards, but they don't do it. But what they have done in the

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Gospel of Matthew up until now is they've equated the traditions of man with the law of God. In fact, the traditions of man override the law of God in their eyes.

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And then we've seen this over again in Matthew. But they're plotting. And the word they're plotting should ring a bell to you if you're familiar with Psalm 2 because Psalm 2, verse 1 says, why do the nations rage and the peoples what?

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Plot in vain. They're plotting against Jesus. And what they're trying to do is it says in verse 15 of Matthew 22, they're trying to entangle him, to get him to say something that gets himself into trouble.

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And we'll see how that plays out in a moment. And the Pharisees, who are these religious leaders, they're the traditionalists, but they are inept in their ability to interpret

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Scripture, they've aligned themselves with the Herodians in verse 16. So verse 16 says, and they went and they sent their disciples to him along with the

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Herodians. Now, who are the Herodians? Well, the Pharisees sent their seminary students, their proteges to Jesus.

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And they also sent the Herodians. Now, the Herodians were a political group and they were supportive of the house of Herod and they were in favor of the

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Roman occupation of Jerusalem. So you have the Pharisees who are claiming not to be, at least to their people, not to be in favor of the

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Roman occupation of Jerusalem because Jerusalem is occupied by Roman this time. And then you have the

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Herodians who are in favor of the Roman occupation of Jerusalem that are now friends, plotting together to take out

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Christ. Two opposing parties come together to plot against Jesus Christ.

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Remember I talked about Psalm 2? Well, Psalm 2 verse 2 says, The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers of the earth take counsel together against the

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Lord and against his anointed. So you have this idea that enemy forces are coming together because they so hate

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Jesus. Have you ever wondered why it is that on the political left, the feminist movement, the

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LGBT movement, and the Islamic movement are okay working together?

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Why is that? There's nothing... I mean, feminists are supposed to be pro -women and now

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LGBT are putting men in women's sports to destroy women's sports. How are the feminists pro -women?

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And then you have Muslims who are absolutely barbaric in their treatment of women and they throw homosexuals off buildings without a trial in the

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Middle East. How is it that these people are coming together? They're coming together for one purpose.

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They hate Christ and they hate the fruit that his kingdom produces, which is freedom.

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That's why they've come together on the political left. And that's what's happening here. They hate

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Christ. Hate him. The beast and the whore of Babylon come together to conspire against our

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Lord Jesus. The whore of Babylon. You know, the Bible describes the church as the bride of Christ.

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Well, the fake church is a whore who prostitutes herself to the state.

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And the beast is the state. And so you have this whore who's prostituting herself to the beast.

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And that's what's going on in this text. You have these religious leaders who are prostituting themselves to the state. And they come with flattery, insincere flattery, verse 16.

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And they sent the disciples to him along with the Herodian saints. This is all a plot against Jesus. That's my first point, right? Saying, teacher, we know that you...

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You see how nice they are? Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully and you do not care about anyone's opinion for you are not swayed by appearances.

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They're nice and they're acknowledging that he's not nice. He doesn't care about anyone's opinion. Right? But they're coming with flattery.

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And this isn't a compliment. They're essentially saying that he's a clear communicator who has integrity.

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And J .C. Ryle commented on this. You know, J .C. Ryle, he said, it becomes all professing

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Christians to be much on their guard against flattery. Jesus is being flattered here.

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We mistake greatly if we suppose that persecution and hard usage are the only weapons in Satan's army.

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Satan won't just use persecution. He'll use flattery. And so they're coming with flattery here.

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You know, so what's flattery? Well, that church has cultural capital. We like them.

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They're friendly with the powers that be. They're tolerant and inclusive.

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I love to hear those words. Right? So many do. Jesus doesn't care. He's just a straight shooter and that's a virtue.

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So in their plot, I'm talking about the plot against Jesus, in their plot against Jesus, they employ flattery.

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Now, Psalm 55 verse 21 talks about flattery. It says, His speech was as smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart.

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His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. That's flattery. Right? It's cozying up to you to be your friend so you can put a tomahawk in the back of your head.

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Flattery. And their plot entails an unholy alliance, flattery, and to top it off, the cherry on top, a trick question.

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Verse 17. Here's the trick question. The plot against Jesus. The trick question. Tell us then, being you're so wonderful,

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Jesus, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

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So this is the trick question. And I need to offer you some background to explain what's going on and why this is a trick question.

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I need to give you some background to explain this. And this is referring, the tax of Caesar is referring to a head tax, a set price to be paid to Rome by every idol.

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Now, just so you know, the residents of Jerusalem considered a regular head tax to be tyrannical.

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We're not talking about property tax. We're not talking about income tax. We're not talking about income tax municipally, state, federally.

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We're not talking about being forced at gunpoint to do tax returns every year that you don't understand. We're talking about a tax man coming up to you and saying, give me the head tax.

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They thought that was tyrannical. Just keep that in mind. Right? And a lot of the

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Jews, they hated this head tax that Rome was imposing upon them. It was a foreign tax. It was a reminder to them of Roman occupation.

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The Old Testament had already prescribed their own tax system. This wasn't it. They'd already paid that tax to that tax system.

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And the head tax had to be paid with a Roman coin. The Roman coin was a denarius.

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It was a silver coin. And on that Roman coin, it had an image of the bust of Tiberius Caesar in Olympian nakedness with the laurel wreath as a sign of his divinity.

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So they had to give this tax to the Roman government. And on one side of the coin, it had

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Tiberius Caesar naked being proclaimed as God. So it was idolatrous.

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The second commandment violation on the coin. And then beyond that, on the other side of the coin, it had the emperor's mother,

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Julia Augusta, sitting on the throne of the gods, holding the

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Olympian scepter in her right hand and in her left, the olive branch to signify that she was the earthly incarnation of the heavenly peace.

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Both sides of the coin were blasphemous and idolatrous. And not just blasphemous and idolatrous, but tyrannical because it was proclaiming that the head of state was

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God. Caesar was proclaiming godhood by this coin. So don't forget that.

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This is a little foretaste of what's to come in the sermon. As Jesus tells them to render unto

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God what is God's, the Romans had no concept of that because Caesar was God. And that coin's proclaimed it.

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And so it's a controversial tax for many reasons, political and religious controversy associated with this tax.

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If Jesus says, no, you shouldn't pay your tax to Caesar, it's now treason against Rome and the

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Herodians will report him as an insurrectionist. And the Herodians are there. If Jesus says, yes, pay the tax to Caesar, the

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Jewish nationalists will turn on him as a traitor, trying to suck him in one direction or the other.

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No, it's, you shouldn't pay that tax. You're now a criminal of Rome. Yes, you should pay that tax.

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You're now a criminal of the Jews. So you got nowhere to go. He's up against, between a rock and a hard place.

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Jesus says, isn't this plot is being unhatched. This is the plot of Christ.

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Against Christ. It's an unholy alliance combined with flattery.

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And as they bring together this unholy alliance between the Pharisees and the Herodians, and then they flatter

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Jesus. They basically throw him this hot potato political question and say, hey, Jesus, catch this.

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Let's see what he does. The plot against Christ. So let's look at the reply of Christ.

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Talked about the plot. Let's look at the reply that Jesus gives them.

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Instead of playing into their petty game of flattery, he calls them out directly.

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So he won't play into this game. You know how people are, eh? Like if you have a, if someone says something nice about you, you're obligated culturally to say something nice about them.

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It's usually the way it works. Why don't you look nice today? Why, thank you. You look lovely also, right?

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These niceties that come out amongst cultured people. Well, Jesus doesn't play into that game.

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They have certainly complimented him, but he does not, he does not follow suit.

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He does not reply in kind. Verse 18, but Jesus, aware of their malice, said...

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Remember, they just flattered him. Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Like, you understand what the hypocrites were.

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Hypocrites were actors, and this isn't the first or the last time that Jesus calls them hypocrites.

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A hypocrite was an actor. They were fakes. They were empty suits, and the word definitely was beyond the bounds of polite and civil discourse.

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So, and by the way, if you read the old books, like not so much in our new books, but, and you can see why if you look at Hollywood, there has always been an association between acting and loose living.

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Always. And it was no different in Jesus' day. Like, those who were actors were perceived to be effeminate, sexually immoral.

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It's like this debased class of people that those who have conservative values would have said,

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I'll keep my distance. And Jesus turns on these people, and he says, you're hypocrites, you're actors.

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So he's, this is, I believe that this goes deeper than just saying they're fakes. I believe he's saying they're fakes, but I think there's some, there's some baggage to this term that he's kind of throwing at them, which is consistent with what he's told us in other parts about the

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Pharisees and their immorality. But regardless, he doesn't reply with flattery.

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He doesn't reply in kind. He simply speaks, he cuts right through the nonsense, and he asks them for a coin.

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And they bring him one in verse 19. It's phenomenal what they do. So he says, show me the coin for the tax.

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And they brought him a denarius. Now, let's talk about the coin for a moment.

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The coin, as we learned under my first point, was a reminder of the

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Roman occupation. The Jews hated the tax. It had to be paid to the

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Roman government, the tax. And it had a picture on this particular coin that the religious leaders were carrying around.

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It had a picture of the bust of Tiberius Caesar naked with a laurel wreath as a sign of his divinity on one side of the coin.

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And on the other side of the coin, it had the emperor's mother, Julia Augusta, sitting on the throne of the gods, holding the

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Olympian scepter in her right hand and in her left, the olive branch to signify that she was the earthly incarnation of the heavenly peace.

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So it's phenomenal if you just take a minute to think about what's going on. Jesus is in the temple.

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The religious leaders are with him. They ask him this hot question. And they all know this is idolatrous.

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They all know you're not allowed to have idols in the temple. And Jesus says, show me a coin. And they're able to reach in their pocket and say, oh, here you go.

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Their hands are caught now in the cookie jar. So anyway, they produce the coin.

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He asks them for the coin. On one side of the coin, it says,

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Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Augustus. The blasphemy is worse than I originally said, actually.

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So it's declaring that Tiberius Caesar is the son of God.

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They are okay carrying around coins in the temple that herald Tiberius Caesar is the son of God, but they are not okay with children declaring that Jesus is the son of God through their song in the temple.

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Wow. This is just phenomenal what happens here.

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They brought him the coin. And it goes on.

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We have this tax that was a constant reminder that they were under Roman occupation and subjection of the government.

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We have this political hot potato question that is posed. The suspicion surrounding

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Jesus was so severe that he was creating an insurrection with his disciples.

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This is an important point historically to keep in mind. In AD 6, after the

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Roman occupation, six years after the birth of Christ, there was a tax revolt. The Jews revolted against this taxation system that's being brought up here.

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The tax revolt was led by a man named Judas of Galilee.

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And here's Jesus of Galilee now in the temple being asked a question about taxation.

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So you can see how Jesus ending up in Jerusalem being asked a question about taxation in front of the

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Herodians is going to raise the hackles of the Herodians because they're suspicious of Galileans.

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And they know that Jesus is this bright upstart who has a following from Galilee. So there's a lot of combustible fumes in the room is what

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I'm trying to say here. Christ was a Galilean likely created more suspicion from the

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Herodians. So Jesus asks them for a coin. Now note, who doesn't have idolatrous coins in the temple?

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Who doesn't have them? Jesus doesn't. He doesn't have idolatry in the temple.

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Note, who does have idolatrous coins in the temple? The people asking the question have idolatry in the temple.

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Likely the Pharisees. And the Pharisees were allowing the exchange of coins in the temple by the way.

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We know that from earlier Matthew. They turned the temple.

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Now this is insightful. This is exposing them. Why did Jesus not have coins in the temple but these religious leaders had coins in the temple?

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Well they turned, we already know this. They turned the temple into a den of thieves. The temple had already given itself to Caesar.

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Caesar already had supremacy over the temple. And by producing this coin they were showing their loyalty.

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They'd rejected the worship of Christ in the temple and they'd invited the idolatry of Caesar into the temple.

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Don't worship the Son of God in the temple but bring in the idols that declare that Tiberius Caesar is the son of the divine

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Augustus into the temple. This is astounding when you just pause and think about what's going on here.

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They turned the temple into a den of thieves with money changers that Jesus drove out. Who are the idolaters now?

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Who are the idolaters now? This is Christ's reply to them. His reply is, show me a coin.

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They produced the coin. By them producing the coin they're producing bona fide evidence that they're idolatrous.

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They're second commandment violators in the temple. Who's the idolater?

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That they were quicker to produce an idolatrous coin than they were to produce prayer and worship in the temple tells us exactly what we need to know about these people.

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No, no, no. Don't worship the Son of God in the temple. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I have idolatry right here.

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See Jesus' answer? This is His reply to them.

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Okay, so now some of you might have been told that the Pharisees kept the law. That was their problem. No, they thought they kept the law.

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That was the problem. But they didn't keep the law. They were law breakers. They were hypocrites.

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They put their traditions above the law. And that's the reply. So what did

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I say? I had three points. First point was on the plot against Christ. The second point was the reply of Christ.

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I just talked about the reply of Christ. My third and final point is on the supremacy of Christ. So let's talk about the supremacy of Christ in this moment now.

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They had this plot to trip up Jesus. He replies and he asks the question in verse 20 to catch them red -handed.

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After they produced the coin, he asked the question. Now we're going to talk about His supremacy. Verse 20,

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And Jesus said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this? And they answered.

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Verse 21, They said, Of course, Caesar's. They're admitting guilt at this point.

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Caesar's. And he answers their original question now at the end of verse 21. They said

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Caesar's. Then he said to them, Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are

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God's. He answers their question. Now so many missed the text. You know how many people missed this?

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By assuming that this is primarily about taxation. Are you kidding me?

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This is primarily about the supremacy of Jesus Christ and the priority of Christian worship.

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The worship of Christ belongs in the temple and idols to the government do not.

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Remember the context? On page... Remember the context? Under my first point, we had the cleansing of the temple.

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We have the cursing of the fig tree. We have Christ's authority questioned. And then we have the disobedient tenants in the vineyard.

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And it all basically starts the climax at this point. Now we see what he's really talking about.

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Look. If this is a text about taxation.

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This is a text about your responsibility to give your taxes to your government. The only reason you're supposed to give your taxes to the government is because Christ gives the government the authority to tax you.

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In this moment, Jesus is putting himself above Caesar. Render by the way.

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Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar and render unto God the things that are God. It's the same verb that you find in chapter 21, verse 41, in the parable of the tenants which

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I just mentioned. In 21, verse 41, it says,

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They said to him, he will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.

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Okay. Give him the fruits. Same verb there that is used here to render unto

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Caesar. Doesn't translate the same way in the ESV. But it's the same verb. So in this statement,

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Jesus is going back to the statement of the tenants which was an indictment against the

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Pharisees who were not rendering unto God what is God's. So in the parable, these guys who weren't rendering unto

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God what are God's were killed so that he could make way for people who actually give something to God.

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The emphasis in this is not your duty to the government. Your emphasis in this is your duty to Christ.

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Your duty to Christ. And so many come to this and they think the emphasis is on our duty to the government.

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That's so wrong. How could you come to this and think the emphasis on the government when

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Christ is so much greater than the government? You just know that he is from all of what

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Scripture tells us about him. And if Caesar, as I already said, if Caesar has the right to tax you, it's only because Christ says he does right here and therefore

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Christ by the virtue of the fact that he gives Caesar the prerogative of taxation is greater than Caesar.

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And that tells us that if there are limits on what Caesar can take from you, those limits have been defined clearly by Christ.

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So for example, in the Old Testament when King Ahab wanted Naboth's vineyard and Naboth resisted and then

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Jezebel had it stolen from him, who was wrong in that? Was Naboth wrong for resisting? No.

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The government was wrong for taking more than you owe them. And by the way, if you look at the

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Old Testament and you look at their taxation system, you see very clearly what it is that the citizens owe the government.

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You owe them about 10 % for police force, judicial type stuff, military, 10 % of not your gross, of your net.

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Okay, so net increase on your produce. 10 % goes to the government for military, courts, police, social programs.

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10 % is to be used by you for festivities with your family, feasting.

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That's commanded. And then about 3 % is to be used for the relief of poverty.

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That's it. 23 % in the Old Testament system. And 10%, you know, part of that 23%, almost half of that 23 % is going towards your own feasting with your family as you decide how to do it.

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Now how, I mean, do you think this Bible law makes sense? And so the insinuation is that once you start encroaching beyond that, now you're being subjected to a tyrannical

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Caesar. Like, I believe

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I live under an unjust taxation system. Do you think you do? Right?

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So if Christ is greater than Caesar, which he is, then Christ can tell Caesar that he has the prerogative of the tax, but if Caesar starts to take more than Caesar is owed, then now

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Caesar's a thief. But let's move on from that. Let's move on from that because I think there's some more obvious points in here than that.

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Look at what Jesus says in verse 21. They said, Caesar's, then he said to them, then render to Caesar the things that are

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Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. Now let me ask you a question. What are God's? What's God's? What's God's?

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Well, Psalm 24 verse 1 says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Everything is

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God's. Even the coin that they were holding in their hand was

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God's. Even the throne that Caesar sits on is God's.

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Even the territory that Caesar rules over is God's. Even Caesar himself is

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God's. So Caesar should render unto God himself.

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This is way more than this is a call to give your taxes to Caesar. This is a call for Caesar to submit to the supremacy of Jesus Christ.

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The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Look, is Christ the King of Kings and the

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Lord of Lords or not? So what's that tell us about Caesar? That means that Caesar is subject to Jesus Christ.

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Render unto God the things that are God's. This isn't, look, when

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Jesus said, render unto God the things that are God's, he's not talking about this little sweet spot in your heart where only

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Jesus lives. Yeah, he's talking about your heart, but he's also talking about your church, which if your church is compliant with an abusive state, is now a church that's being rendered unto

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God or under Caesar rather. But he's not even just talking about your church and keeping your religion in your church.

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He's talking about your elected officials. He's talking about your parks. He's talking about your schools. He's talking about your military.

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He's talking about your police force. He's talking about your president. He's talking about your doctors. This, this is a statement that everything that your eyes can see must be given to God way more than it's a statement about taxation and what you owe the government.

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Now, is there a call to give government taxes? Yes, it's, it's clear.

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Romans 13 talks about that also. We can talk about that later. I've talked about what fairness and taxation might look like.

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You follow the old testament pattern, but if you give taxes to the government as a

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Christian, the only reason you're giving them to the government is not because Joe Biden is

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Lord and Savior of your life, but because Jesus who is Lord and Savior told you to give taxes to him because Jesus is superior.

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And by the way, one more, one more thing here is I give you, I've got a few more things, but this is like the one more thing in this list anyway.

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I don't know if your pastor does that too, but, but listen to this. By saying something does not belong to Caesar, which

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Jesus is in this text. He's saying, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar and to God the things that are

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God's. That means there's some things that belong to God that don't belong to Caesar. By saying something does not belong to Caesar, Jesus was putting

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Caesar in his place thereby contradicting the claims of Caesar even as those claims were inscribed on the coin that the

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Pharisees were holding. In other words, Tiberius Caesar Augustus is not son of the divine

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Augustus, which the coin said that he is. He's, he's going after Roman religion just as much as he's going after fake, hypocritical, first century

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Jewish religion that rejected Jesus Christ. He's going after both. Both have to bow to him.

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The Jews and the Romans. This text is about the hypocritical idolatry of the

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Pharisees and the supremacy of Christ over all things including Caesar and especially Christ's own temple.

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I've heard people say that this text is a brilliant political answer by Jesus to duck out of a political bomb.

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It's not that. And I wonder if the reason people say that are so quick to say that is because they're so wanting to justify their sly political ways and they have an overly exalted view of the government and an under exalted view and anemic view of Jesus Christ.

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This is not a sly political answer to get out of something. Get out of a hot potato question as if Jesus would try to do that.

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This is a very, very good way of saying that there's a whole lot of things that don't belong to Caesar.

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And by the way, you Pharisees, you're a bunch of hypocrites and you Herodians, you might think that Caesar is

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God and son of the exalted Augustus, but he ain't. That's what this says.

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I've heard other people say and I've thought it before that this is primarily about taxation. Well, again, there is some mention of taxation in here, but if you owe

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Caesar any money, it's only because Jesus said you have to give it to him. This is about the supremacy of God over all things including

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Caesar and civil government. Now, look at their reaction. This is important as I bring this home now.

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Verse 22. What's my point? My point is that Jesus is supreme over all things.

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I hope you're gathering that, including Caesar. That's what I've been saying through this sermon so far.

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Now look at their reaction. When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away. They marveled.

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Just pay attention to me for a minute. You know that there's been multiple times in the Gospel of Matthew when they marveled over Jesus?

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In chapter 8, verse 27, they marveled because Jesus had supremacy over the storm.

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Calm the storm, they marveled. He had supremacy over the storm. In chapter 9, verse 8, they marveled because he had supremacy over health.

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He healed a paralytic man. And they marveled. They marveled at Jesus.

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Two instances of his asserted supremacy. In chapter 9, verse 33, they marveled because he cast demons out.

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They marveled over his supremacy over the spiritual. And in chapter 9, verse 20, they marveled over his power to wither the fig tree.

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They marveled over his supremacy over the natural. So in chapter 8, they marveled over his supremacy over the storm.

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In chapter 9, they marveled over his supremacy over the human body as he heals a paralytic.

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In chapter 9, they also marveled over his supremacy over the spiritual as he cast out demons. In chapter 21, they marveled over his supremacy over the fig tree as he withers the fig tree.

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And then here, they marvel again. What are they marveling over? Well, just like every other time, they're marveling over his supremacy. They're marveling over the fact that he has supremacy over Caesar himself.

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He's claiming supremacy over Caesar. This really would raise the hackles of the

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Romans just as much as it did the Pharisees. Here, they marvel at his power to answer a political question in asserting or by asserting

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God's power and supremacy over all of life, whether political or religious. You know what?

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Many things don't belong to Caesar. So Jesus says, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar and unto God the things that are

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God's. Many things don't belong to Caesar. But what does belong to Caesar only belongs to Caesar because Christ entrusted it to him.

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Everything belongs to Christ. Everything belongs to Jesus, especially worship.

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Caesar ought not touch worship. The minute Caesar starts to meddle with the worship of the church of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, Caesar is now overreaching. The temple was devoid of worship but full of Caesar's idols on Caesar's coins.

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In one sense, they had already handed their church over to Caesar without knowing it.

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And what we've dealt with as a church over these last few years, and I think you're seeing it, is a church that is more comfortable with the supremacy of Caesar than the supremacy of Jesus Christ.

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They're more at home under Caesar's lordship than they are at home under Christ's lordship. The church is.

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That's a sign of an apostate church. A church that is more comfortable taking

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Caesar's orders than Christ's orders. More willing to receive Caesar's rules in the temple than Jesus' rules in the temple.

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Refusing to render unto Christ his worship while congratulating themselves for rendering unto

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Caesar what is already Christ's. Now look, let me close by asking some questions.

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Have you rendered everything unto Christ? Your home? I'll tell you this.

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Every one of our elders, and we were going through what we did in 2020 and 21, every one of our elders had to have a talk with his wife and say, we are facing so many fines that we may have to sell our homes.

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Every one of them. And we may have to start over in an economy where housing prices are inflated in a way they've never been inflated.

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Every one of our elders had to do that. But you know what we all decided in our hearts?

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That Jesus is worth it. His worship is worth it. Have you rendered unto

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Jesus your prayers? I mean, do you pray to him? You ought to pray to him.

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I think basically you ought to pray to him. Do you pray to him in the morning and in the evening and with your family and before you eat?

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Do you pray to him? Will you render your prayers unto Jesus? If you won't render your prayers unto

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Jesus, you won't render the hard stuff unto Jesus. Are you willing to render your reputation unto

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Jesus? Is he worth your reputation? Have you rendered that unto

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Jesus? How about your money? Have you come to the point in your life where you are so marveling the lordship and supremacy of Jesus Christ where everything is rendered unto him and there's not a part of your life where if he touches you're like, no.

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Have you rendered it all to Jesus? The church belongs to Jesus.

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The state belongs to Jesus. They're different. They have different functions but they both belong to Jesus.

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But what I really want to drive home to you today is not just the theory of those two issues, church and state.

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I want to drive home to you today that you belong to Jesus. And I'm asking you the question this morning.

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Have you rendered yourself unto Jesus? You, personally.

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Have you kissed the son of God? Will you render your worship unto

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Jesus as an expression of the fact that you have already rendered yourself unto Jesus? This Jesus who is so worthy because he shed his blood for sinners like you and me who love to hold on to our own little treasures in our hearts but then calls us to repent and offers us free grace and dying love.

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This precious Jesus who is worthy. Have you rendered yourself unto him?

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Because he deserves it. He is worthy and he deserves it all.

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If you really believe the church is the building, the church is the house, the church is what

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God's doing. This is his work. If we really believe what Ephesians says, we are the poimos, the masterpiece of God.