Well, good morning. If you would
open your Bibles with me to Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12. Before we begin
looking to God's word, let's bow before him in prayer. Our father, we've gathered here
this morning in the precious name of your son to worship you. And Father, I pray that you would
give each of us here this morning a true spirit of worship. That you would enable us to fall
at the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to like the leper
of old, to worship him. Whether he does anything for
us or not, Father, enable us to worship, to come before you
as helpless, hopeless sinners. begging for your undeserved mercy
and grace. Father, be with us as we open
your word. No man sufficient for these things,
to look into them, to understand them, to preach them, to hear
them and believe them. No man sufficient. Father, enable
us to hear and to believe this morning. Cause your gospel to
go forth in the power of your spirit. And Father, we thank
you. We thank you for all things.
We thank you that you're God above, always ruling and reigning
in every event in this creation. It's all according to your eternal
purpose, will, and grace, and it's just unfolding before our
eyes. We thank you that you're God. We thank you for your mercy. We thank you for your grace.
We thank you for your wisdom in sending a savior who enables
you to be both just and merciful to sinful men and women such
as we are. Oh, how we thank you. We thank
you for giving us a place where we can meet together with your
people and to worship, to have your gospel preached, to meet
together in peace and love and unity. Father, we thank you. And we thank you for all the
material blessings of this life, how richly, richly that you've
blessed us. Father, we pray that you would
deliver us from selfishness, that you in greediness, and that
you would give us both an open heart and open hand in all the
things that you've given to us. And Father, we pray for your
people that you have seen fit to bring into the time of trouble
and trial. Father, we pray that you would
comfort, that you deliver. We pray a special blessing. And
our brother, Rick Dillon, his father passed away this morning.
Father, we pray that you be with Rick in a very special way. Comfort
his heart as only you can. Be with him and be with that
whole family, Father. We hold him up to thee. Now,
Father, we give thanks and ask again that as we look into your
word, you'd bless us. For it's in Christ's name. For
his sake, we pray. Amen. Now, I've titled our lesson
this morning, Render What Is Due. Our text begins in Mark
12 verse 13. And they sent unto him certain
of the Pharisees and of the Herodians to catch him in his words. Now
the Herodians, I know they came with the Pharisees, but the Herodians
are not a religious group. The Herodians are a political
group. They support the rule of King
Herod over Judea. They support the rule of Rome
over all the lands that they have conquered, particularly
over Israel. I guess they figured they're
going to follow the path of least resistance. It didn't look like
Rome could be defeated militarily, so let's just support their rule
and move on. And the Herodians and the Pharisees,
now they hated each other. Because what was one of the biggest
probably desire of the Pharisees is to be set free from the rule
of Rome. I mean, that just grated on them
worse than anything to be under Roman rule. And they would do
anything that they could to get out from under Roman rule. The
Herodians are saying, we support the Roman rule. I mean, they
just got totally opposite agendas. They hate each other. But here
they united. They united, and you know how
they united? In their hatred of Jesus of Nazareth. They easily united in that way. And they united against him because
of the message of sovereign grace. The message of sovereign grace
that he just preached that we looked at last week. So they
came trying to trick the Lord, trying to catch him in his word,
trick him. And the word used is like a lure, like a fisherman
uses a lure to catch, they're trying to catch the Lord and
deceive him. And look what they say, verse
14. And when they were come, they
say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true and carest
for no man, for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest
the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to give tribute
to Caesar or no? Shall we give or shall we not
give? Now these men, I guess this is
a good way to get a human being on your side is use flattery,
right? But their flattery is so hypocritical. They're just
trying to You know, if they can puff the Lord up, you know, and
kind of get Him off guard because they've puffed Him up. They say,
now, Master, we know that thou art true. We know what you preach
and what you teach is true. Oh, there's no arguing, Master.
You know, what you preach is true. And when they say that
you care for no man, the Lord cared for people, didn't He?
More than anybody that's ever lived, He cared for people. Well,
what they're saying is you don't tell people what they want to
hear. I mean, if they want to hear something different, what
you believe, you don't do that. You tell them what's true anyway.
You won't change your message depending on who's there. You
see somebody there, say, oh, they don't believe this. Well,
I won't preach that. I won't say that this time. No, the Lord
had the same message always, no matter who was there. What
they said is true, isn't it? What the Lord preached was true.
He wouldn't change his message depending on who was there. He
did teach the way of God in truth always, didn't he? What they
said was true, but it was so insincere. It's just awful. And how they were trying to just
hypocritically use this flattery to soften the Lord to try to
catch him off guard. And here they come again. How
many times do the Pharisees do this? They come with a question.
And they think, we got the Lord this time. We got Jesus this
time. No matter what he answers, we got him. He's going to be
in trouble no matter how he answers this question. They said, should
we be paying taxes to Caesar or no? And they thought we got
him. Because if he answers yes, we should be paying taxes to
Caesar, while the common people they're gonna quit following
him. They're not gonna like to hear that. These taxes that Rome
imposed on them were unjust and too high. They're not gonna support
that. If the Lord said, you pay these
unjust taxes, no matter what, the common people are gonna quit
following him. And if he said no, no, you shouldn't pay taxes
to Caesar at all. then the Romans are gonna do
their dirty work for him, aren't they? Rome's not gonna allow
you to go around teaching, no, you don't pay taxes. I mean,
it's very important for them to collect taxes from all the
areas that they conquered. If the Lord was teaching, don't
you pay taxes to Rome, well, the Romans are gonna come and
kill him and then the Herodians and the Pharisee, neither one
have to worry about him anymore. But I want you to look at the
Lord's wisdom in his answer. I love how he handles them. Shall
we give in verse 15 or shall we not give? But he knowing their
hypocrisy, the Lord knows the hearts of men and the thoughts
of men, he knew their hypocrisy. And he said unto them, why tempt
ye me? Bring me a penny, a Roman coin, that I may see it. And
they brought it and he saith unto them, whose is this image
and superscription? And they say unto him, Caesar's.
And Jesus answering said unto them, render to Caesar the things
that are Caesar's. and to God the things that are
God. And they marveled at him. They never dreamed he'd come
up with an answer like that, did they? Now there are three
things that I see here that the Lord is clearly teaching us in
his answer. Render to Caesar the things that
are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God. Number one,
the Lord's teaching this. Believers are to be good citizens. of whatever country, whatever
state, whatever precinct that you're a part of, believers are
to be good citizens. You know, just because you're
a believer, just because you're a follower, a believer of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and that your citizenship is in heaven, that
does not mean that you don't have to answer to earthly authority. You do. Believers do have to
answer to earthly authority, and we should be good citizens
about it. The issue that the Pharisees
and Herodians bring up here to the Lord are taxes. Now do you
think the taxes that they were talking about, the taxes that
Rome was imposing on Israel, do you reckon that was a fair
tax? Do you reckon it was a good tax? Of course it wasn't. Of course it wasn't. The tax
rate was too high. And the Romans, remember, they
would go out and hire Jews, publicans is what they were called, to
collect taxes for the Romans. Well, whatever the tax rate was,
the publicans charged more than that. And then they skimmed off
the top. So not only is the tax rate too
high to start with, the publicans are cheating them. And those
taxes are going to support a corrupt government, a government that
the Jews in their You know, whatever you think
about them in salvation, what they got from the law was a certain
sense of right and wrong, right? This was a corrupt government
that they could not support almost anything that government was
doing. The way that they do things, the way that society did things,
the Jews just could not support that. It just went against everything
that they believed was right and wrong. Of course the tax
was unjust. But the Lord Jesus said, pay
it. Be a good citizen and pay your
taxes. And our Lord always paid his
taxes, always. Even if he had to send Peter
to get the tax money out of the mouth of a fish, he always paid
his taxes. And he never griped about it.
He just did not involve himself in the political operations and
the political issues of the day. And that's what we're taught
to do. Look at Romans chapter 13. We're taught this several
places in scripture, but let's look at two of them. Romans chapter
13. Verse one, let every soul be
subject unto the higher powers. Whatever power that is, if it's
the power of government, The federal government, the state
government, the police officers that we come in contact with,
whatever power it is, let every soul be subject to the higher
powers. For there is no power but of
God. The powers that be are ordained
of God. Whoever it is that's in power
and authority over us, God put him there. This is God's person
for that position. So verse two, whosoever therefore
resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And they
that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers
are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Wilt thou then not
be afraid of the power? Do you not want to be afraid
of the authority and power over you? Well then do that which
is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. He's a minister
of God. Now we need to remember that
when there's people in authority over us, we do not like, we do
not agree with, he's the minister of God. God put him there, and
he's a minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that
which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain,
for he's the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon
him that doeth evil. Wherefore, ye must these be subject,
not only for wrath, not only to avoid their wrath, But for
conscience sake, for your conscience before God, you'd be subject
to these higher powers just because you know what's right for your
conscience sake. For this cause, pay ye tribute also. For this
cause, pay your taxes. This government, these people
in authority, they gotta be supported. You pay your taxes for they're
God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render
therefore to all their dues. Tribute, taxes, to whom tribute
is due. Custom, to whom custom. Fear,
to whom fear. Honor, to whom honor. Owe no
man anything but to love one another. For he that loveth another
hath fulfilled the law. Pay what's due, not just your
taxes, but someone's earned honor, someone's earned thanks, someone's
earned praise. Give it to them. Give it to them.
And you be sure you don't owe this to anybody. You love them.
You love them. Now look over 1 Timothy 2. Paul
goes a little bit further here in 1 Timothy than he did in Romans. Not only do you just obey. You obey the authorities, they're
over. But more than that, more than outwardly obeying, Paul
says pray for them. Oh, now we're talking about a
heart issue, aren't we? Now we're talking about an attitude in
the heart. You pray for them. 1 Timothy 2 verse one. Am I in the right place? Oh,
no, I'm not. I'm in Second Timothy. Hang on
a minute. There we go. Paul says, I exhort, therefore,
that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving
of thanks be made for all men. And then look who he says specifically,
for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead
a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For
this is good. and acceptable in the sight of
God, our Savior. Now, Paul says here, Timothy,
you teach people this, you pray for the kings, the rulers in
authority over us. Even if you disagree with them
now, you pray for them. Pray that the Lord turn their
heart to good. Pray that the Lord give them wisdom that they
don't have. Pray that the Lord enable them to rule for our good,
for peace. Peace is always better than war,
isn't it? For peace. Pray for them, that Lord give
them wisdom, and particularly in this country, to protect our
freedoms, that we can keep worshiping together here in peace. You don't
have to try to hide your car somewhere and worry somebody's
gonna see you here worshiping and they're gonna get arrested
when you leave the building, or somebody's gonna rush in here
and arrest us all for being here to worship. Pray that Lord give
our leaders wisdom that we can keep worshiping together in peace.
Now let me say this. I remind you, being in the kingdom
of God does not remove your earthly responsibilities. We all have
responsibilities in this life, and scripture's plain, you take
care of them. You do them to the best of your ability. We
all have civic responsibilities, don't we? In our society, we
have civic responsibilities. And a believer is to be a good
citizen in every way. Don't ever let anybody say that
you're not a good citizen of this country, of our state, of
our whatever. Be a good citizen. Go vote. Go do the things that we do in
our society. But listen, let me tell you now.
Don't get fixated on earthly governments. Don't get fixated
on them. I mean, what a great danger that
that is. Our Lord said, you render unto
Caesar what's due. You render unto the government
what's right. And don't give them more than
that. And I'm not just talking now about paying your taxes.
Don't give them more of your time and your emotional energy
than they're due. I mean, they're not due really
much emotional energy whatsoever. I mean, take your time to vote
and be an informed voter and do these things. But don't give
Caesar too much emotional energy. Let them govern the affairs of
the world. God put them in that position
to govern the affairs of the world so you don't have to. And
we can spend our time seeking the Lord. We can spend our time
worshiping God. We can spend our time learning
what they said that the Lord taught here, the way of God in
truth, that we can learn that. And we can worship the Lord together.
Let's spend our time doing that. This is a real problem that I
see in our day. I catch myself sounding like
a grouchy old man a lot. things that I remember old gray
headed preacher saying when I was a little boy, but this is something
that is a great danger. I see it and it troubles me so
much and I hope we can learn this. The church is not political. The church is not political at
all. It's spiritual. At least in my lifetime and in
recent memories. When did the church, become,
and I'm not talking about believers now, I'm talking about what people
in the world call the church, the Baptist church. When did that become political? Jerry Falwell. Jerry Falwell
made the church a political thing. Now, don't follow his example. I mean, whatever it is Jerry
Falwell did, do the opposite and you'll be a whole lot closer
to being right. Now, take care of your civic
responsibilities, but don't give them more time and energy. Don't waste it on them. Just
don't waste it on them. The Lord take care of that. We
all have family responsibilities. Husbands, be good husbands. Let it be said of us who believe
the gospel and trust Christ that we're good husbands. We're good
leaders. We love our wives. We love our children. We lead
them in worship. We lead them in doing things
that are right. Be good husbands. Wives, be good
wives. I mean, be good ones. Be good
parents. You mothers and fathers, be good
parents. I mean, strive for it. Strive
to just constantly pray and ask the Lord to give you wisdom and
energy. I don't know if y'all know this,
I don't think I've ever mentioned it, but I've got a two-year-old
grandson and we talked to our daughter and his mama and there
are times that kid wears her out. You've got to pray for energy,
pray for wisdom, be a good parent to lead your home, to lead you
to always be able to have the respect of your children, to
lead them to Christ, to point them to Christ. Be good children. I mean, listen, this is important. These family responsibilities
we have to one another are so important. Pray that God lets
you do it well so that we can worship together. There's nothing
better than a family worshiping together. You know, we all got
to go to work. You got to go to work. You know
what scripture says about getting up and going to work in the morning?
Be obedient to your boss. Not just the good ones, but the
bad ones too. That's what scripture says. We should always strive
to be the best employee in the place. Nobody should ever be
able to accuse us of being slothful and lazy and doing our job just
halfway, but that we always do it to the best of our abilities.
People should know that about us. There's just no question
that this is one of the things that the Lord's teaching. You
render to Caesar, you render to earthly powers, whether it's
on the job or on the street or in the home, in the church, wherever
it is, you be sure you be obedient and do it good. Whatever it is that your responsibility
is and all these different earthly relationships, do it good. Do
it to the best of your ability. No question that's what the Lord's
teaching. Second, the Lord's teaching us this. He says, you
render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, but you render
unto God the things that are God's. Now, what things are we
to render to God? Everything he's due, everything
he deserves. You know what we owe to God?
Perfect obedience to his law. I mean, not only does he say
we owe him that, but why would you not want to be obedient to
God's law? It's holy and good. We owe God
perfect obedience. We owe God love. To love him
with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our
might, we owe him our love. He's been so good, we owe him
our love. We owe him perfect faith and
perfect trust. I thought of this, what does
perfect trust in God look like? It looks like somebody that no
matter how the situation is going, that seems against them or seems
to hurt them, they never grumble, they never murmur, they never
complain. Perfect trust says, the Lord's
doing this, so it's right. And even if it hurts me physically
or emotionally, I'm happy about it. That's perfect trust. You
ever done that? Not one time in our lives have
we. Not one nanosecond of our lives have any of us done that.
The only human being who ever lived to render perfect obedience
to the law was the Lord Jesus. He obeyed the law so perfectly
he honored it and magnified it. The only one who ever loved God
with all of his heart, with all of his soul, with all of his
might was the Lord Jesus. He loved his father so much he
was willing to humiliate himself to be made a man, to obey God's
law, and to suffer and die, to put the sin of his people away
so that his father would be glorified. He loved his father so much he
promised his father in that great covenant of grace that he would
do everything that it took to save his sinful people from their
sin. He loved his father so much, he would not lie to him. He came
and did what he promised his father he'd do, because he loved
him. The only one who ever had perfect faith and perfect trust
in God was the Lord Jesus. Even when he was suffering and
dying in agony of body, you and I cannot understand. And suffering of soul, we never,
it's impossible for us to understand the suffering of his soul when
he made his soul an offering to God. As he hung there in that
agony, he did it in perfect faith. He believed his father. His father
is gonna accept his sacrifice. His father is gonna take that
sacrifice and say, all of your people are righteous. I'm gonna
accept them into my presence. He trusted his father that when
this suffering was over, salvation would be complete, and three
days later, he's gonna raise him from the dead. He loved his
father so much, he trusted him. He was willing to die knowing
his father would raise him from the dead. That's perfect faith. Look at Psalm 116. Only the Lord
Jesus ever did those things, rendered perfect obedience and
love and trust and faith. And the only way that you and
I can ever do those things is by faith in Christ, by trusting
Christ. Let me show you that. Psalm 116
verse 12. What shall I render unto the
Lord for all of his benefits toward me? I'll take the cup
of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I'll pay my
vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all of his people.
Now that verse 14, That has to be the Lord Jesus speaking, doesn't
it? Because he's the only one who
ever made a vow to his father in the covenant of grace and
did what he promised to do. How many times have we and other
people, you know, I always heard this illustration growing up
being in the foxhole. And I reckon it's true. People,
you know, men would say, Lord, if you get me out of this, if
you keep me out of this alive, why I'll do this and this and
this, I'll never cuss, I'll never drink, I'll never smoke, I'll
just never miss a church service. All these things they promised
God, if God would just get them out of this mess. You and I have
done the same thing. And never one time have we kept
that vow. Not one time ever. But Christ
did. He kept his vow to his Father.
And that's our salvation, isn't it? That Christ made us righteous,
that Christ put our sin away, that Christ, it's all of our
salvation is who he is and what he has done, not what we've done.
Well, faith takes the cup of salvation. Faith reaches out. God's not gonna, you know, use
a screwdriver and plumber's helper to pry your mouth open and jam
salvation in you and make you drink it. No, we take the cup. The hand of faith reaches out
and takes the cup of salvation. It's by faith. I trust Christ. Faith is the only way we can
please God. Faith in Christ. Without faith
in Christ, without trusting Him to be all of our salvation, it
is impossible to please God. So the Lord's teaching that.
We're to render to God the things that are God. The one who ever
did it was the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only way we can please
God is by trusting Christ. But here's the third thing that
the Lord's teaching. There are some things that we
can and we should render to God. Now, I know we can't render these
things perfectly, because we can't do anything perfectly,
but that should not stop us from rendering these things to God,
at least the best that we can. We owe God. We should render
to Him faith, shouldn't we? We should believe Him. We should
trust Him. Why wouldn't we believe Him?
He is truth. Why wouldn't we trust Him? The
Lord's worthy to be trusted. He is everything He's ever promised,
He's done. He's worthy to be trusted. And
everything He does, whether I understand it or not, whether it's what
I say is a painful thing to me or a blessing to me, whatever
it is, Everything God does to me in my life and in the world
around me, everything he's ever done is right and best for me. I ought to trust him. I ought
to trust him. When I find myself grumbling
and murmuring and complaining, I ought to catch myself and stop
it. And trust him. I wish I could act like all the
time what I really believe in my heart. I trust him. We should
render to God love. We should love him. Why wouldn't
we love him who first loved us? Why wouldn't we? He showed his
love to his people by sending his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. That's what we preach here every
Sunday and Wednesday in some form or fashion about the sacrifice
of Christ. He loved his people so much he
slaughtered his son to put away the sin of his people. Now I
ask you, why wouldn't we love him? Why wouldn't we? we should
render to the Lord worship. Now the Lord's worthy to be worshiped.
And one of the best examples of worship that I can think of
in scripture is that leper that came to our Lord. After our Lord
preached that sermon on the mount, the leper came to him, and scripture
says he worshiped him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. And there he stayed, full of
leprosy still, at the feet of the Savior. This man was not
going to worship the Lord because the Lord did something for him.
He worshiped the Lord when he didn't know if the Lord would
do anything for him or not. And if the Lord healed him, if
he didn't heal him, he still worshiped. Because worship is
being found at the feet of Christ completely given over to his
will for me. Worship is being found at the
feet of Christ, begging him for mercy. That the best way to worship
God is begging for mercy, begging for grace, begging to wash me
in the blood of Christ. That's worship. We ought to render
to the Lord praise. Listen to these verses. Psalm
18, verse three. David says, I will call upon
the Lord who's worthy to be praised. That's why we ought to render
to him praise, worthy to be praised. Psalm 145 verse three says, great
is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He's worthy to be praised
and he's worthy to be praised as greatly as we possibly can
do it. I mean, everything about our
God is worthy to be praised. His wisdom in salvation that
by the obedience and sacrifice of his son, the father exalted
his justice. and his mercy at the same time.
Oh, he's worth, nobody else could ever come up with that. God's,
he's worthy to be praised for his salvation. Christ saves sinners. Oh, he's, he's worthy to be praised. His grace, his mercy, that he
would be gracious to sinners. My goodness, he's worthy to be
praised for that. That God has the capacity to
love sinners. He's worthy to be praised. The
psalmist said, or then here's the other thing, he's worthy
to render unto him thanksgiving. I tell you the hallmark of every
believer, people that know us out in the world, this is something
that should stand out to them. We're thankful people. And why
wouldn't we be thankful? Everything we have physically,
materially, didn't God give it to us? He gave it to us even
though we didn't deserve it. And spiritually, he's given us
everything. David said, oh, give thanks unto
the Lord for he's good. For his mercy endureth forever. Paul told the church at Thessalonica,
in everything give thanks. For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. It's God's will that we be a
thankful people. David said, Psalm 95 verse two,
let us come before his presence with thanksgiving. Come to him
in thanksgiving. And we won't take the time to
read these scriptures, because I'll cover them in the message. But do you know what the saints
in glory are doing right now at this very second? They're
rendering unto God. what he's worthy of, all praise
and glory and honor and riches and wisdom and strength. We'll
read it. But that's what they're doing
right now. By God's grace, I really do expect,
not because of me, not because of anything I've ever done, but
because of the Lord Jesus Christ. Chris, I really do expect one
day to awaken glory in the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I really
do. I believe Christ, I trust him, I believe that. Well, if
that's what I'm gonna be doing eternally, I wanna start learning
the words right now, don't you? That's what the Lord's teaching,
render unto God the things that are God's. All right, I hope
that'll be a helpful and a blessing to you.