So we're in Luke 20. Verses 19-26. As we've been going
through this chapter, these Scriptures are all linked together. They're
all part of a whole in the delivery of the Gospel. and not just separate
things where Jesus is reacting to external circumstances. It's all part of the grace of
God. And one of the chief scriptures
that we looked at in our last lesson was that Everyone was
gathered together, all these ones that previously, the Herodians,
the Romans, the Jews, the elders, the scribes, the Pharisees, all
these were gathered together that normally didn't want much
to do with each other. They were all gathered together
to do what thy council before determined to be done. that word gathered means that
there was an external force that caused them to do what they did
according to the eternal purposes of God. And that's what tells
us in Acts chapter 2 and chapter 4 that the determinate counsel
and foreknowledge of God was integral in these people all
coming together to accomplish the redemption of the church,
even though they meant it for bad things, like what Joseph
said, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good to
save much people alive. And so each one of these blocks
of Scripture that we've been looking to, they're all linked
together and they all deliver a message to the church that's
valuable to us and helps us in every way. So today, we're going
to do part two of render unto Caesar the things that be Caesar
and unto God the things that be God's. And today's lesson
mostly, we covered last week, render unto Caesar, and we delved
into the taxation system that was in place and how they all
hated it. And Jesus said, They asked him
they were trying to trick him into saying something that would
get him arrested and Taken to the Roman government for insurrection
Who had the power to execute him because the Jews? Had lost
the power of capital punishment under the Roman rule so they
were going to get the Romans to do it for them, but they needed
him to say something that would be a crime to the Romans and
religious stuff they didn't care about but telling a million Jews
that were there for the Passover, don't pay taxes to Caesar. That
would do it. That would step across the line.
And so that's what they were hoping to trick him into. So
here we are in Luke chapter 20, verse 19. And the chief priests
and the scribes, the same hour sought to lay hands on him. And
they feared the people, for they perceived that he had spoken
this parable against them. And they watched him and sent
forth spies, which should feign themselves just men." Boy, there's
just a lot of that going around where people are just pretending
to be just men. And that they might take hold
of his words so that they might deliver him unto the power and
authority of the governor. And they ask him, saying, Master,
we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, and neither
acceptest thou the person of any, but you teach the way of
God truly. And here comes the dagger. Is it lawful for us to give tribute
unto Caesar or no? Boy, we're waiting for the answer.
We're waiting for him to say, nope, you shouldn't pay tribute
to Caesar because he's a false god. He's a false everything. And they'd say, gotcha. But he
perceived their craftiness. Not only did he just see through
it, But these people were gathered together to do what before had
been determined to be done. He perceived their craftiness
and said unto them, why tempt you me? Show me a penny. Whose image and superscription
hath it? And we talked about that last
time, the little coins, they had a picture of Caesar on one
side and on the other side it would have a little saying. Tiberius Caesar has said the
divine son of Augustus, and Augustus said son of God on his. And so they thought, ooh, these
are prime examples of idols that we're not supposed to worship
and have anything to do with. Whose superscription hath it?
And they said Caesar's. And he said unto them, Render
therefore unto Caesars the things which be Caesar's, and unto God
the things which be God's. And they could not take hold
of his words before the people. And they marveled at his answer
and held their peace." You know, that's just a picture of the
gospel. Unless the Lord shines the light in it, you can't take
hold of it. You just can't get it. And that's just a valuable thing
for us to keep in mind and remember what it said in Thessalonians.
We thank God. we know your election because
the gospel came to you not in word only, but in power and in
the Holy Spirit. It has to have that combination.
It has to be mixed with that combination for you to be able
to grasp it, to take hold of it. So last week we dealt on
kind of the worldly portion of things. And today we're going
to be looking at the second part of that, which is render unto
God the things which be God's. And this text directs our attention
to the kind of the dichotomy of the life of Christians then
and now. And there's nothing new. It's always been that way
and it'll always be that way till the Lord comes back. And
we always have to remember and acknowledge that all things are
of God and belong to God. He created all things for His
purpose and for His pleasure. They were and are created. And
we read those scriptures from Acts that said it was all according
to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God and His
purposes and things. And it's all for the redemption
of the church. The church is his peculiar treasure,
the scriptures tell us. And that word peculiar doesn't
mean we got an extra ear and an eye in the middle of our forehead
or some weird thing about us. That word peculiar means a purchased
item, a purchased treasure, a purchased possession. It means we've been
bought. We've been paid for. His peculiar
treasure is created by Him, bought by Him, and therefore He is due
all the honor and praise and glory for all things concerning
the church, concerning His elect, concerning His sheep. In Psalm
100, verses 3 and 4, if we quickly turn to Psalm 100, verse 3, Know ye the Lord, that he is
God. It is he that hath made us, and
not we ourselves. We are his people, and the sheep
of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,
and into his courts with praise, and be thankful unto him, and
bless his name." In religion, it's Well, we know that He created
things, but we have the ability to kind of create ourselves in
salvation. We have the ability to do certain
things that we couldn't do in our natural creation. So why
would we think that we can do them in our spiritual creation? He is the God and He is He that
made us and not we ourselves. So back to our text in Luke 20,
25, therefore, this word, he said, whose superscription is
on that coin? And they said, Caesar's. And
he says, OK, well, therefore, And he makes this division, this
spiritual dichotomy as it were. This therefore was the link to
that previous verse which identified the ownership and markings of
the penny. That denarius was a Roman coin. It belonged to the Romans. They
minted it. People had the use of it. but
it belonged to the Romans. And he says, show me that penny
and that denarius. And they said, it's Caesar's
picture on there. And he says, okay, therefore,
you render the things unto Caesar that belong to Caesar. The coin was of the earth, of
the world, and thus it could only have reference to that world. And it could really not have
any spiritual connection. The coinage of the kingdom of
God is different. The coinage of the kingdom of
God is spiritual. It's not physical money. And
as the image of Caesar identified ownership, conversely, the church
is also identified by the markings of God. He has his stamp on us. And we understand that nothing
in this world can buy what we have freely been given by God
in grace and salvation. And that's part of the message
that we always have to kind of view things in this, well, we're
in the world, but we're not of the world. And the spiritual
world and the fleshly world are two different things. Things of the flesh are of the
flesh and things of the Spirit are of the Spirit. They can't really be mixed. In
Isaiah chapter 55 verse 1, Isaiah by the Spirit wrote, Ho, everyone
that thirsteth. Come to the waters, and he that
hath no money." There's no money from this world that we can bring
and obtain these waters. He that hath no money, come ye,
buy and eat. Come and buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness." You know, we spend money on I just hate to think of how much
money I contributed to mission fields that were just bogus. It gripes me to this very day. Why do you spend money on that
which is not bread? We spent money on things that
weren't worthwhile. He says, therefore, render unto
Caesars the things which be Caesar's, there in verse 25, and unto God
the things that be God's in verse 25 also. And so Jesus brings
out there's two distinct and separate worlds in which the
child of God is a partaker. That's an important thing for
us to always remember. In Hebrews chapter 2, if you
turn over to Hebrews chapter 2 for just a second, it says
in verse 14, Hebrews 2, 14, for as much then As the children are partakers
of flesh and blood, He himself likewise took part of the same,
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is, the devil." So we have to remember always that they
were children. We were children that belonged
to God from eternity in eternity. And we were children first and
partakers second. And he said, likewise, Christ,
himself likewise took part of the same. He had an existence
in glory before and then likewise he became a partaker of flesh
and blood. In the fullness of time God sent
forth a son made of a woman and became a tabernacle with us in
flesh. And So it's always proper for
us to keep in perspective about our existence in this world and
not to get too caught up in the issues which plague this world
because of sin and the fall. There's just everything in this
world is, boy, every day you just think, well, it can't get
any worse than it was today. And then the next day you say,
well, it managed to do that. The bottom of that barrel has
no bottom. You can always dig deeper and
come up with more bad stuff. But you know, when Jesus was
on the earth, He was promoting the gospel.
He did a lot of miracles and things, but they were just to
show who He was and to demonstrate various aspects of the gospel.
The lame walk, those that have no power, of their own. The deaf
hear, those that couldn't hear the gospel with their fleshly
ears. The blind see, those that couldn't
see the gospel are given eyes to see. The lepers are healed,
those that have that thing that caused death back then. And it was just like the world
now. The leprosy just kept getting
worse. and worse and worse and it just
kept nibbling away at your exterior parts until it just ate you all
up and then you died. A horrible death. What a picture
of sin. There's just no end to the awfulness
that it causes. And he healed that, but it was
just a, you know those people that he healed? Even if they
experienced the new birth, their body was still doomed to getting
old and being affected by the things that we're all affected
by. There's all kinds of things that impact us as we get older. We were just laughing about it
this morning, and someone mentioned earlier that they injured themselves,
and we don't snap back as quickly as we we once did, and I don't
see as good as I once did, and I can't bend over as good as
I once did, and I've had to have all kinds of surgeries to fix
stuff that broke and malfunctions, and I have to take pills every
day because my blood pressure's too high. on and on and on and
on it goes, you know. And so even though Jesus healed
a lot of those people of their physical things, that wasn't
the point of it. The point of it was the spiritual
application of it. And that's the part that lasts.
That's the part that doesn't disintegrate. And so we can't
get too caught up. And boy, we're in this world
and it's just so easy for us to gets so absorbed in the things
of this world that we kind of lose track of where we really
are from and who we really are. We have to remember that the
world is totally impacted by sin and the curse of the fall,
and it's not going to improve in this life. But it's always
acting in complete accordance with the determinate counsel
and foreknowledge of God. Everything that happens, every
action, everything in this world is according to His purpose. This morning we were commenting
in the office about sermon audio and we've had I can't remember
exactly. When I was looking the other
day, it was like 700 people have listened to our messages on Sermon
Audio, and almost a half of those are in Cambodia, if you can believe
that. And another amount was in Singapore. more than in the United States.
So, you know, all things are sermon audio created and working
just for the furtherance of the gospel. And so for the church,
our activities in this world are dictated by the perfect will
of God to accomplish His purpose. And His purpose is always the
redemption of the church, bringing in all the sheep. to gather together
in one all things in Christ, whether they be in heaven or
in earth. You can read that there in Ephesians. So we always have to kind of
keep that in mind, and we always have to acknowledge that God
is the driving force behind everything, and most especially in the redemption
of the church, in the salvation of His sheep, in the salvation
of His people. Ephesians 2 through 10, we read,
if you want to turn in your Bibles there to Ephesians 2. And sometimes we just read stuff
and we just kind of gloss over it. Norm's always talking about
that in Numbers. Well, I just speed read it just to get through
it so I could say, well, I read that. And sometimes we read Scriptures
and we think we know all about it and we think we know so well
that we don't really have to pay any attention to it. But
you know, God always, He's like this onion that you can just
keep peeling back the layers and more layers. Underneath that's
another layer, and there's no end to the depth and wisdom of
God. So in Ephesians 2, verse 8, it
says, Are you saved through faith? And that, not of yourselves.
That's pretty plain. That seems like it's pretty self-explanatory,
as Dr. Hocker always says. We don't
need to comment on that. I mean, anybody could understand
that. It's the gift of God, not of
yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works. lest any man should boast." Because
that's what we would do. If we had any part of it, we
would boast about it. Well, like that publican in the
Pharisee. I tithe of all that I have. I do this. I do that. And I pray
three times a day. And I fast twice a week. And he boasts on all the things
that he does that he thinks makes him righteous. And that publican
just says, smote on his breast and said, Lord, apply the atonement
to me, the sinner. Because that's what I am, the
sinner. And I have no works. I don't
have any works. I have nothing. Not of works,
lest any man should boast." And then verse 10 is, I think, is
the part that gets glossed over quite a bit. He says, four, not
of works, lest any man should boast. Four, and it relates us
right back to what it has just said in 2, 8, and 9. We are His
workmanship. not of our works of ourselves.
We're God's workmanship. Our salvation is God's workmanship. It's not a works which we have
done. We are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. And so we want to note that the
good works here is in believing in the finished work of Christ
or contrasted to the bad works. not of works, works of free will,
works of salvation by merit, or good works, keeping the law,
all which originate in the old nature. That's the bad. The flip side is we are His workmanship
created in Christ Jesus under good works. And the good works,
He's foreordained that we should walk in them. always recognizing
that we're just passing through. We are not of this world. We are just passing through,
and the purpose of our being here is the purpose of God in
gathering all things together in Christ. Our part is the furthering
of the gospel, for that is what God has ordained. That's Otherwise,
there's not much purpose in us being here. The people that in
the genealogies, we'll use my mom and dad for example. My mom
and dad, I never ever saw them in a church except in 1974 when
we got married. They came and for 20 minutes
we were in the Odell Baptist Church and had our ceremony. And then they said, well, we
have another thing coming on at five, so you guys need to
get out. So we all, we had our little thing in the basement
and then we left. And so other than that, I don't
remember ever seeing them in an assembly where the gospel
is preached, not one time. They were doing what God had
ordained that they should do, and the Bible is full of that.
You know, we see people that were in the lineage of Christ
that you wouldn't suspect. So we always have to recognize
that we're just passing through, and our purpose is the purpose
of God. You know, he said in Corinthians
that after the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not
God. They can't know God by human wisdom, thought, education. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And we can only believe
according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought
in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. You've not chosen
me, it says in John 15, 16. But I have chosen you and ordained
you. That means He's placed you or
appointed you that you should go forth and bring forth fruit
and that your fruit should remain. And whatsoever you shall ask
of the Father in my name, He may give it you. So that fruit
is is the things of the gospel. They went forth. He said, go
forth and preach the gospel to every nation, to everybody, even
the ones you don't like. You remember Jonah. God says, I want you to go preach
the gospel to them Ninevites. And he goes, not the Ninevites. I hate the Ninevites. They are
awful people. God says, well, That's what I
want you to do. I want you to go and preach to
them." And he wouldn't have done that of his own accord, but God
kind of made him do it. He had ordained that he would
go to the Ninevites, and after he spent three days in misery,
which pictured part of the gospel, He went to Nineveh and preached
the gospel according to God's purpose, and the results were
according to God's purpose. Not according to what Jonah wanted
or liked or supposed, but according to God's purpose. the Gentiles. You know, they
went first to the Jews with the gospel and they didn't want anything
to do with it. Most of them, not, we can't say
all of them because certain of them we have record of that Nicodemus,
for example, who came to Jesus by night and others that, Saul
of Tarsus that were Pharisees of the Pharisees and Jews that
the Lord had mercy on. But when they were preaching
the gospel in Acts chapter 13, the Jews went, bleh, we don't
want anything to do with that. It does away with all our free
will. It does away with all our works. It does away with our
keeping of the law. It does away with our tithing, etc., etc.,
etc., and we lose power over the people. But the Gentiles
said, oh, we'd like to hear more about that. And so they preached
the gospel to them. And in Acts 13, 48, it says,
when the Gentiles heard this, the gospel, They were glad. And they glorified the word of
the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
Religion always flips that around. They have dyslexia when they
read that verse. But it really says as many as
were appointed, as were ordained to eternal life believed. And
they didn't know who those were ahead of time. Otherwise, they
would have said, you, you, and you stay here, and the rest of
you are excused. They preached the gospel to everybody
in the crowd, and as many as were ordained to eternal life
believed. And there was like 3,000 souls
added to the church that day. What an amazing thing. We can
just hardly identify with that today. That's a big crowd. In the Old
Testaments, the saints knew the same thing. They were just passing
through, but they preached the gospel as they were passing through.
Hebrews 11, verse 13, in Hebrews 11, that great faith chapter, Said, these all died in faith,
not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off
and were persuaded of them, they believed them. They believed
according to His mighty power. They were persuaded of them and
embraced them. What a wonderful word. Saved
me from my sins. Died in my place. They read those
Old Testament verses in Psalms. My mouth is so dried up it's
like a potsherd. I'm hanging here. My bones are
all out of joint from hanging here on this cross. surrounded
by dogs, all those things. Isaiah, the Lord hath laid on
Him the iniquity of us all. These Old Testament saints heard
those things and embraced them and confessed that There are strangers and
pilgrims on the earth. Isn't that an interesting thing
that they put there? We're just strangers and pilgrims
on the earth. partakers of this world, partakers
of flesh and bone. Jesus said that we're in the
world, but we're not of the world. In John chapter 17, I pray for
them, those whom God had given him in the covenant of grace.
I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou has given me, for they are thine. Boy,
if they just played that at the beginning of a lot of these commercials
you see on TV for religion, That would be something, wouldn't
it? I pray not for the world. I pray for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine
are mine, and I'm glorified in them, and now I am no more in
the world, but these are in the world. And I come to thee, Holy
Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given
me, that they may be one as we are. And while I was with them
in the world, and he's kind of speaking in the past tense here,
but he hasn't, he's still with them. But while I was with them
in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest
me I've kept. Kept by the power of God it tells
us in the scripture I've kept and none of them is lost but
the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled
and now Come I to thee and these things I speak in the world That
they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them
thy word and They embraced it. This is what said in Hebrews
I've given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because
they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." If
you just let that sink in a little bit, they are not of the world. They are not a product of the
world. We may be in the world in this old tabernacle. And what Paul wrote in Corinthians,
if this fleshly tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building
of God not made with hands. And he goes on to tell wonderful
things. Here we are in verse 14 of John
17. I've given them thy word, and the world hated them because
they're not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray
not that thou should take them out of the world, but that thou
should keep them from the evil. What kind of evil is the old
evil of works? You know, in coming up in Luke,
he says, you know, you're going to you that are born again, your
parents are going to be against you, your friends are going to
be against you. They're going to take you and lock some of
you up. Some of you they're going to
kill. But he says, but not a hair of your head is going to be harmed.
So we have that dichotomy part, and we always have to look at
it in that way. I pray that thou shouldn't take
them out of the world, but should keep them from the evil. They
are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. What a
statement, what a thing for us to keep in mind here that as
we get so tangled up in the things of this world, We lose track
sometimes that we're just visitors here. We're just passing through,
and while we're passing through, we have a duty to proclaim the
gospel and to show forth the praises of Him that hath called
us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Peter, in his instructions,
and he is quoting the same passage that Jesus declared in Luke 20,
verse 17 about the stone that the builders rejected, and that's
now the foundation stone. He says in 1 Peter 2, verse 7,
"'Unto you, therefore, which believe.'" He's precious. Precious because of the good
news that He died for our sins and put them away forever. But
unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders
disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. A stone
of stumbling and a rock of a fence, even to them which stumble at
the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed."
They were ordained to that. They were appointed to that.
Isn't that a powerful statement there? To us, it's this dichotomy. To us, He's precious. To them,
they're disobedient. To them, they don't want it. They hate anybody that brings
it to their attention. They don't have any desire for
it. They stop up their ears. And
the Old Testament said they stopped up their ears because we don't
want to hear that gospel. But he says, but in v. 9 of 1
Peter, In relation to those that were
disobedient and stumble at the word and they were appointed
to that, but you are a chosen, a selected, an elect generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, and again
that means a purchased possession. you should show forth the praises
of him who called you out of darkness in his marvelous light."
And that, my friends, is rendering unto God the things that be God's,
showing forth, hey, I didn't do this. Why aren't you flipping
out about all the stuff that's going on in the world? Well,
I'm just passing through. My job is to show forth the praises
of Him that made me like you. I used to be like that, but now
I'm not. And it's all because of the grace
of God. Rendering to God the things that
be God's. Verse 10 of 2 Peter 2, which in time past, we're
not a people. You were just as others, but
are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but have
now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you. And again, he brings up this,
I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims. Always remember that
you're strangers and pilgrims. Abstain from fleshly lusts which
war against the soul. Not just, well, don't read that
magazine or don't go to this place and play cards or don't
do this or don't do that. Those things that are anti-God,
things that are anti-Christ, things that are anti-grace, those
things war with the soul. We were talking this morning
about Paul and his frustration with the Galatians. I just gave
you the gospel and already you tried to change it, added things
to it. You turn to another gospel that's
not even another gospel. It's a homogenized ineffectual
mess that you created here that doesn't have any power and it
won't work. Because you're taking away from
God the things that be God's and assigning it to those people
that you say, well, if you want to be saved, you must do this
work of being circumcised, or you must be baptized, or you
must be this, or you must be that, or you keep the law, or
all those things that those works that we've talked about over
and over and over again. They war against the soul. And
there's no satisfaction in that at all. You know, the Old Testament
record from the New Testament references, the New Testament
is just about 99.9% all just quoting the Old Testament. Psalm 39, 12 says, Hear my prayer,
O Lord, and give ear unto my cry. Hold not thy peace at my
tears, for I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner. I'm down
here in this world, and I'm a stranger and a sojourner, as all my fathers
were. Strangers. They all admitted
that they were strangers and pilgrims in this world. Psalm
119, 54, Thy statues have been my song in the house of my pilgrimage. This world that I'm in is just
my house of my pilgrimage, my traveling. So the things to consider
here, and we're just about out of time, but You know, the king
and rulers under which we abide in this world have been and are
ordained of God, just as they were in Jesus' time, and before
that, and in all time. Paul wrote in Romans 13, let
every soul be subject to the higher powers, for there's no
power but of God, and the powers that be are ordained of God. In Colossians 1.16, For by Him
were all things created that are in heaven and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities, powers. All things were created by Him
and for Him. So God isn't just a random person
that created things in the beginning and then just like an ant farm
watching how it develops. And saying, oh, that's interesting. He created all things. He creates
everything for him and by him. and for his purpose. And the
perspective that things in this world are somewhat random, that
God only participates in certain instances and that denies his
sovereign will and operations and promotes the erroneous concept
of the intrinsic goodness of man and ability and the cause
of free will. Because that's what religion
tells us. Well you're just, we used to make fun of this all
the time, but he's just mostly dead. There's a spark in him, and if
we can just fan that spark, we can bring him back to life. But
the Scripture says we're clean dead. Dead in trespasses and
sin. Dead as old Lazarus. There was
no spark in Lazarus, and that's why Jesus let him lay there for
four days. They said, don't roll that stone
back it's going to be bad if you do." He wanted to make sure that everybody
understood the concept of death and him being raised to newness
of life. So that was on purpose. We're in a foreign land and we're
obliged to operate and comply with the rules of the land or
the world in which we presently are. You know this basketball
gal, world basketball team She went over to a foreign
land and tried to get away with stuff that they wouldn't even
wink at here in the United States, but it was against the law there
in that land in which she went. And she got thrown in the prison
there and just now got out here a couple weeks ago. And they
had to swap a spy for a Russian spy. They had to trade for her
to get her back in the United States because she was in a different
world. She was in a different land and
she did not She didn't comply with the rules there, but we're
in a foreign land and we're obliged to operate and comply with the
rules of the land or world in which we are and as so much as
possible, as long as we're not contradicting God. You know,
they ran into that in Daniel. They said, hey, you know what,
we need to get those guys, so another tricky thing by the unbelievers. Let's say something that we know
that they won't comply with, and that gives us an excuse to
have them executed. let's get them to let's say on
this certain day everybody's got to fall when they hear this
music they got to all fall down and worship this god that we
built here and they said you know what we're not going to
do that we're not going to worship we're we're your slaves We'll
wash your pots and sew your clothes and sweep out your palace and
do whatever menial work that we have to do while we're your
slaves here, but we are not going to worship your God. Oh, King,
we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which
thou has set up." And Peter and them in Acts 4,
They brought them forward and they said, we don't want you
speaking or preaching in the name of Jesus anymore. And they said, whether it be
right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than to
God, judge ye. But we're going to keep declaring
the gospel. And you can kill us if you want
to, if you can. If God is through with us and
it's in His purpose, then have at it. But we're not going to
stop declaring the gospel. So we need to render, therefore,
to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to
whom custom, fear to whom fear, and honor to whom honor. That's
from Romans 13, 7. And not get caught up in trying
to lay for ourselves treasures in this world where moth and
rust doth corrupt. And always remember that we're
pilgrims and sojourners in this world. And what are we to render
to God? Be not conformed to this world,
Romans 12, 2. Be transformed by the renewing
of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
perfect will of God. And you know that whole 12th
chapter of Romans, he kind of goes on and says, here's what
you have to kind of worry about because it's real easy for you
to get puffed up. knowing what you know. Don't
do that. Render unto God the things that
be God's. And that means to give way, to recognize and assent
to a truth, a fact, or a debt. That means to acknowledge something.
And we have to acknowledge that unto God belong the issues of
death, that salvation is of the Lord. Jonah 2.9. He is our God, and He is the
God of salvation, and unto God belong the issues from death.
Psalm 68, 20. So we have to render to God all the praise, all the
thanks, and all the credit for our salvation, and not from works
of righteousness, which we have done. Not of him that willeth,
not of him that runneth. When we ascribe salvation to
worldly things like, well, I filled out this form or I said this
prayer that the guy told me to repeat after me on TV. When we
ascribe salvation to our free will, our works, our keeping
any supposedly fraction of the law, we're really rendering into
Caesar the things which don't belong to him or his realm. So Romans 9.16, it's not of him
that willeth nor him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy. And
we need to declare that clearly and declare the Gospel. And when
we go declaring the good news, well, the good news is that my
sins have been paid for. For whom he did for an old name
he predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son. That
coin had been, that piece of metal had been conformed to have
the image of Caesar on it. And it was of the world. we're
conformed to the image of His Son. And He predestinated us
to that. That He might be the firstborn
among many brethrens. And so we're stamped with the
image of our Savior. Be free in that. And I'm running
late here, so next time we'll talk about the resurrection from
the remainder of Luke here. So, be free. Thanks for your
attention.