Come back to Matthew 17. Matthew 17. The title of the
lesson or the message is living in reality. Living in reality. Most people do not live in reality. They live in their own world.
They live for the moment. They live for the most part with
blinders on. If people lived in reality, they
would have a much greater interest in their souls instead of what
are we going to eat Drink and wear. Our Lord said that's the
things, or these are the things the Gentiles seek after. This
temporal life. That's all they're interested
in, this temporal life. Are we gonna eat, drink, wear?
You know, when I retire, I wanna retire, you know, in a good way
where I can just travel and do all. That's not living in reality. If people would live in reality,
they would be more concerned about eternal matters more than
temporal matters. That's what I want us to look
at this morning. Now, this is the third time our Lord spoke
of His death, His sufferings, His death, His resurrection,
And He's preparing them for that hour that's coming, that hour
of hours. Father, the hour has come, the
hour for which all hours were made has come. And He's preparing them for it.
And they are sorrowful, exceeding, it says, exceeding sorrowful.
And I can understand, they've been following Him, been with
Him, and listening to Him, and they love Him. And they're gonna
have to watch Him die. He's telling them, I'm gonna
die. But I'm also gonna be resurrected, I'm coming back. I'm coming back. The first reality that I want
us to as believers look at and live in. I want us to live, I
want to live in this reality at all times. The reality of
His person. Jesus Christ is very real. He is very real. The Son of Man, He calls Himself
here. There is such a man called the
Son of Man. And His name is Jesus Christ.
Though He was and is God, very God, He's a very real man in
every way except for sin. He knew no sin. He became bone of our bone and
flesh of our flesh. He took, He partook of our nature
of flesh and blood. He felt everything we feel. hunger, thirst, weariness. He wept. He wept. He wept over Jerusalem. Whenever
Martha and Mary came to Him about their brother Lazarus, it says,
He wept. He wept. He felt their pain.
He felt it. The Scripture says, He was tempted
in all points as we are, yet without sin. without sinning,
without giving into it. He was tried, that's what it's
saying. He was tried in every way that you and I are tried.
I can't comprehend the fullness of that statement. But he was
tried. You ever think, well, he cannot
identify with me in this. I tell you this, whatever this
is, he can identify with you. He was tempted, He was tried
in every point as we are, yet without sin. Now, our Lord always kept His
sufferings, His death, and His resurrection in the forefront. He always kept it in the forefront.
And we must do the same. It's always Christ and Him crucified. Everything that we learn spiritually,
we learn through Christ and Him crucified. We don't learn it
just through Christ. It's Christ and Him crucified. It's always in His substitutionary
character that we learn every doctrine, that we learn every
truth. It's always Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. That's why Paul said to the Corinthians,
I'm determined not to know anything among you, not that he's saying
he wasn't interested in them, but I'm determined not to know
anything among you except this, Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Let's talk about Him. Let's talk about Him. Everything God has to teach us
is through Jesus Christ, His person and His work. Everything
God has to teach us. Now, when He speaks of His suffering, He's speaking of having to suffer
at the hands of men, Satan, But most of all, most of all, suffering
at the hands of God's justice. Now I know, I know this human
race does not think much of God's law, but He does. He does. God is a just God. He will not
break His law. He will not do anything in an
unjust way. And our Lord, as a man, kept
God's law that you and I could not keep, would not keep. We're
not gonna keep God's law as He demands it to be kept. He honored the law, He magnified
the law, the scripture says, and made it honorable. And we did in Him. That's charged
to us. We kept God's law and made it
honorable in Jesus Christ. We did that. Also here, the reason the Son
of Man must suffer is that the same nature that broke God's
law must be the same nature that satisfies it. An animal didn't
break God's law. A man did. Adam. Adam. An animal, the death of
an animal, the blood being shed of an animal cannot put away
the sins of a man's soul. Only the death of a man, the God-man, can sin be put away. And no other way. No other way. Repentance doesn't put away sin.
You can cry all you want. You could weep and I mean really
truly mourn all you want over sin and it won't put it away.
You can believe God, you can believe God as much as you can
believe God and it won't put sin away. There's only one thing
that will put sin away, the blood of Jesus Christ. And that blood was extracted
by death, he had to die. And that brings me to the reality
of his death. The man, Jesus Christ, really
died under the wrath of God for sin. Sit down sometime when you're
at home by yourself and think about that. Think about that. His soul, it says, was made an
offering for sin. My sin. Your sin. The sins of
all his elect. His soul was made an offering
for sin. He bore our sins in His body
on the tree. God dealt with our sins in Jesus
Christ. When I look at the cross, what
does it say about me? When I look at what God did to
His Son, what He had to suffer in order for me to be saved,
what does that say about me? Well, it says this, you're no
good. None good, no, not one. That's
surely me. That's surely me. For such a
person to die such a death, how wretched must I be? How wretched
must I be? He bore our sins in His body
on the tree. He was made to be sin for us
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus Christ died
for all the sins of all the elect. Because of me, and because of
you, and because of God's love to us in Christ, the Son of Man
had to die. You know, I'm going to experience,
unless the Lord comes back and you, we are going to experience
what it is to die, but we're not going to experience death.
Scripture says that Christ tasted death for every man, that is,
everyone whom He represented. He tasted real death. The only thing we're going to
taste is dying. This body, this body dying and
it's going to be laid in the grave, it's going to go back
to dust, but we're going to go be with the Lord. We will not
taste death. We won't know what that is. He
knows what death is. He tasted it. He tasted it. Because of me and because of
you and because of God's love to us, Jesus Christ had to die. A man had to die. Executed. A man had to be executed. The
Son of Man in my place for me to live. That's amazing. That's
also good news. It's good news because now I
can live. I can live God to be a just God and have something
to do with somebody like me. And then we live in the reality
of his salvation. Did his death accomplish what it was purposed to accomplish?
Absolutely. Our Lord did not die and then
leave the end result to us. It accomplished the salvation.
It accomplished the purpose for which it was done. It accomplished the salvation
of everyone for whom He died. They shall be saved. They shall
be saved. And the fact that you believe
the gospel, You believe with all your heart. You're like at
UNIC, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Like Peter
said, thou art to Christ, the son of the living God. I believe
that. You believe that because God
loved you, chose you, gave you to his son, and then in time
gave you a new birth. And you're his. And you're his. His death accomplished the satisfaction
of God's justice. Now God could be a just God and
have something to do with people like me and you. Every believer is accepted, as
scripture says in Ephesians 1, accepted in the beloved. You know, Jesus Christ, he didn't
just make me acceptable. He made me accepted, received. God has received. God the Father
has received me. He's received you, you who believe,
in Christ. He's received us. He's received
us. And just as sure as Jesus Christ
rose from the dead, so shall we. So shall we. That's good news. You know, that
takes the sting out of death. That takes the sting out of dying.
You know that you're just gonna go from here to there. You're
gonna go, faith is gonna give way to sight. Someday faith is
gonna give way to sight. Someday, instead of coming here,
on Sunday and then on Thursday nights, you're gonna be in His
presence forever, beholding His face and worshiping Him with
perfect worship. And the things that goes on out
here in life and all the ups and downs and the sin and all
is gone. It's gone. For the first time, we will render
perfect worship to the Lord Jesus Christ. and we'll behold him,
look into his face. Now let me give you a few other
realities. Those are the realities that we ought to live in every
day, every day. His person, his work, where he
is now, seated at God's right hand. I want us to live with
this day by day, day by day. But here's some other realities
that we need to consider just to hear for a few minutes. The
reality of His presence. Believers are never out of His
presence. Look at verse 25. This caught
my attention. Look at verse 24. When they were
come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to
Peter, and said, does not your master pay tribute? And he said,
yes. He didn't even, he just said,
yes. Yes, he pays tribute. Whether this is a temple tax
or the Roman tax, it doesn't say, but it's probably both. Yes, he pays it. And when he
was coming to the house, Jesus prevented him, that word in that
time meant went before him. He stopped him. saying, what
thinkest thou, Simon, of whom do the kings of the earth take
custom or tribute, of their own children or of the strangers?
But now listen, Peter was out there talking to those people.
The Lord wasn't out there, he was over in the house, but he
heard that conversation. He heard that conversation going
on. We're never out of his presence. And when Peter walked in the
house, he stopped Peter. He said, Peter, let me ask you
a question here. He heard that conversation going
on. As Hagar said, thou God seest
me. It says in Psalm 139, seven,
whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I flee from
thy presence? We are never out of His presence. In Jeremiah 23-24, Can any hide
himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the
Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth?
saith the Lord. We need to realize that at all
times We live in the immediate presence of the Lord Jesus Christ
at all times. We are never alone. Every thought,
every word, every action is in His presence. We are never out
of His presence. You know, whenever He comes back,
it says He's coming back with what? Ten thousands of His saints,
they're coming with Him, never separated from Him, never separated
from Him ever again. And then we need to live in the
reality of His power. You know, our Lord said in one
place, all power is given to me in heaven and earth. And we
see it here in these verses. Now, Jesus prevented him saying,
what thinkest thou, Simon, of whom do the kings of the earth
take custom or tribute, taxes, of their own children or of the
strangers? There's another complete message here. Lord willing, I
may bring it next time. But here Peter said unto him
of strangers, they don't tax their children, the kings don't
tax their children. Jesus said unto him, then are
the children free. then are the children free, notwithstanding,
lest we should offend them. Our Lord never purposely offended
anyone. The gospel we preach is offensive. It's offensive and it's offensive
enough. And I don't have to be offensive myself. And he said
here, lest we offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast a hook and take up the
fish that first comes up. Don't just catch a bunch of fish
and keep looking in their mouth, see if it's got a coin in it. He said, the first one comes
up. And I thought, well, first of
all, the Lord had to move that fish. This is His power over
creation. He had to move that fish to pick up a coin that somebody
dropped. in the ocean or in the sea there.
Somebody dropped a coin in there and that fish picked it up. And
the Lord says to Peter, now you go and the first one you catch,
you open his mouth and you take out the coin. This is his power. This is the power of our Lord.
And when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece
of money, that take, and give unto them for me and thee." Not
only did the fish pick up the money, but it was exactly what
they needed. It was the exact amount of money
they needed. This is fascinating to me. It's
fascinating because the Lord is His control over creation,
His control over the animals, His control over the fish of
the sea and the birds of the air. This is our Lord. Our Lord. The first one you catch,
you open his mouth and you take the coin. Our Lord is able to
make all things work for our good. Our Lord is able to supply
all that we need when we need it. Instead of not paying the
taxes, he said, I'm gonna send you down to the sea and the first
fish you catch, you take the coin and you go pay the tribute
tax. And it was exact, and it was,
listen, he didn't catch, he didn't go down to the sea and get a
bag of money. He didn't get a bag of money. He's went out and got
exactly what was needed for the hour. And if you and I could
learn to just trust God to provide for the hour, He provided exactly
what he needed for that time. And then last of all, notice
the oneness of our Lord here with his people. When Peter caught
the fish, there was only one piece of coin in its mouth. It's not a money-making adventure.
Not in it for the money, but notice here, he had one piece
of coin. He didn't say, Peter, there'll
be two pieces of coins in its mouth, one for you to pay your
taxes and one for me to pay mine. He said, there's one piece and
it'll take care of both of us. It'll take care of both. Our Lord not only paid tribute
for himself, but he also paid the taxes, the tribute money
for Peter. He also paid them. Listen, here's
the mess, here's the point. Our debt became his and his payment
became ours. It became ours. And because of his payment and
because of whose children, listen, we are. We are the king's children. Think about that. You go looking
at your ancestry, you know, your family tree. I don't care. Honestly, I mean, it's interesting. I have to say it's interesting,
but I really don't care about my earthly family tree. But there
is one family tree that I'm interested in. He is the tree of life. The tree of life. Scripture says you shall be called
trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. I want to be found
in that tree, that tree. I know this earthly ancestry, it's going down. It's a mess. If it would really, really bring
out what's in the family trees, we'd be more embarrassed than
we would be anything else. If it really bring out what's
in that family tree. If God made it known, if God made it known
what's in the hearts and minds of the family tree, this earthly
family tree, it'd be embarrassing. It won't really be embarrassing
if He made mine known, my mind and my heart. But He says here, of who you are, you are the king's
children, you're free. You are free. But nevertheless, lest we offend
them, our Lord never purposely offended. He never took advantage
of a situation. He said, pay your taxes, take
care of it. These are realities that I want to live in. I don't
want to just pass the day. I don't want to just go through
life and then one day I look in the
mirror and I'm old and I'm ready to die and I don't know who God
is. I've given no attention to the
worship of Jesus Christ. I don't want to live like that.
I don't want a life like that. I don't want to be so consumed
and caught up with this life that my mind and heart is not
set on things above. And I want the same thing for
you. Because no matter what we do, where we work, how successful
we are, it all comes down. It all comes down. I said this
to my mother. A week or so ago, we were talking. I said, the
only thing that matters when this is over is our relationship
to Jesus Christ. Nothing else matters. I said,
nothing else matters. It doesn't matter if I've been
a good father or my mom was a good mother, a good wife. That doesn't
come into account. What matters is my relationship
to Jesus Christ. That's what matters. That's what
matters. All right.