Okay, now today we're going to
take a look at a very interesting portion of scripture from Luke
chapter 20 from verse 19 down through verse 26 of Luke 20 verse
19 down through verse 26. I'm taking the title for the
message from what is said in verse 25. The title of the message
will be, Render unto God the things which are God's. Render
unto God the things which are God's. Let's read verse 25 one
more time. Luke 20, verse 25, He said unto
them, now He's talking to those most self-righteous Pharisees
who came not out of an interest in the gospel of God, they came
to destroy him. But he said unto them, ye render
therefore unto Caesar the things which are his, Caesar's, ye render
unto the Roman government, of which the Roman government had
dominion over all of Palestine and most of the civilized world
in that day. And then you render unto God
the things which belong to God. Now it is always right and it's
always proper And it's always appropriate to honor, worship,
and extol our great sovereign God and our holy God in all things. You cannot give God too much
honor. You cannot give God too much
glory. I'd like to be guilty of doing
that. Well, you just gave Him too much glory. You gave Him
too much honor and salvation. You can't overdo this thing.
God is rightfully to be honored and extolled in all things. For of Him and through Him and
to Him are all things to whom be glory, both now and forever. And then that last word of that
verse says, Amen. So be it. Of Him, and through
Him, and to Him are all things. Render unto God, therefore, all
things which belong to God. We can say with David, Bless
the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His
holy name. It is right to set the Lord Jesus
Christ apart in our heart and worship Him as God our Savior. And that's who He is. To the
believer, the Lord Jesus Christ is not something, He is everything
in salvation. We read in Colossians 3 verse
11 that Christ is all and in all. Knowing that He alone has
accomplished all of our salvation, knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ
alone has accomplished our salvation, He therefore is worthy of our
total commitment and sole devotion unto Him now and forever. That will be the occupation of
eternal glory, will it not be? Unto Him who loved us and washed
us from our sin in His own blood, to Him be all the honor, glory,
blessing, and power. And that new song that they sung
that day that's recorded in the Revelation 5, Revelation chapter
5, verse 9 down through verse 12. Remember, worthy is the Lamb
that was slain to receive all honor. glory, power, and blessing
both now and forever and ever. He is worthy of our worship. Now, let's go back for just a
moment. Remember the Lord had given the
parable of the vineyard, and how the husbandmen had the care
of the vineyard, but they mistreated and stoned the servants that
were sent from the Lord to them. And that's a picture of God sending
those prophets, the prophets of God, and how Israel of old
mistreated them, and stoned them, and imprisoned them, and killed
many of them. And finally, in the parable,
the Lord of the vineyards sent his beloved son. And that is
a picture and a parable speaking of the coming of the blessed
Savior Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. And they said, these
wicked husbandmen, they said, come, let us kill him and take
the inheritance. And they did exactly what they
said they would do. They did cast out the Son of
God. They took Him outside the city,
out there to that hill called Golgotha. where so many had been
crucified, remember it's called the place of the skull, and they
hung him up on a tree, nailed him to the tree, and there he
died for our sin according to the Scripture. Now, the Lord
in this parable in verse 15 and 16 asks this revealing question,
Verse 15, so they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.
Now, the Lord asked this question, what therefore shall the Lord
of the vineyard do unto them? Now, what do they deserve? I
mean, they killed the son. What do they deserve? Well, the
wages of sin is death. He shall come and destroy these
wicked men and shall give the vineyard, the blessing of the
gospel to others. And when they heard it, they
said, God forbid. And he beheld them and said,
and he quotes the scripture here from Psalm 118. What is this
then that is written? The stone which the builders
rejected. The builders here are the Pharisees,
the Jews. They rejected the stone that
God has laid. The same is the head of the corner.
He is the chief cornerstone. Whosoever shall fall upon that
stone shall be broken. Remember we talked about that
last week. Falling upon this stone, this
foundation of Christ in Him crucified, shall be broken. He is neither
of a broken heart. He saith it such as be of a contrite
spirit. Whosoever believeth on the Son
hath life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life. You remember the rest of it?
But the wrath of God abides upon him. Whomsoever shall fall upon
that stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall,
it will grind him to powder. Now, verse 19. The chief priests
and the scribes, the same hour, The same hour. They didn't have
to think about this very long. They perceived that the Lord
was talking about them. Well, they were right. Because
the Lord was talking about them. And the chief priests and the
scribes, and this includes the Herodians and the Pharisees,
and the scribes and the Sadducees, the same hour, They sought to
lay hands on Him. Now, it's a good thing to lay
hold of eternal life. It's a good thing to lay hold
of Christ by faith. But they sought to lay hands
upon Him in a malicious way, in a wicked way. They sought
to lay hands on Him to end His ministry and to end His life. But at this time, they couldn't.
They feared the people. They perceived that He has spoken
this parable against them, and they were exactly right. So,
verse 20. All these enemies of God, they
rallied together, and they pulled together, these who were enemies
to themselves, to one another, that is, the Pharisees hated
the Herodians, and the Herodians hated the Pharisees and the scribes.
The Herodians were the secular Jews who followed Herod, the
governor of Rome, and the Pharisees hated the Herodians, but they
all ganged up together, they all pulled together, they all
rallied their forces together against the Lord Jesus Christ.
Does that sound familiar? Turn to the book of Acts chapter
4. The book of Acts chapter 4, remember?
The kings of the earth, verse 26. Acts 4, verse 26. The kings of the earth stood
up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against His Christ, for betrothed against the Holy Child Jesus,
whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate. You
know, they hated each other. With the Gentiles and the people
of Israel, you know, they hated each other. And the Israelites
hated the Roman government, but they were gathered together for
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done." You see, God is in charge of all things, even
the rebellion of wicked men. Their plan of attack, they sent
these spies, verse 20, They watched Him. They watched Him. You know what's interesting in
Matthew, I believe it is 27 or 28, when they crucified the Lord
up on that hill, it says that they sat down and they watched
Him there. How gruesome is that? They delighted
in His death. And here they watched Him. They
watched Him. That's a good thing to look to
the Lord Jesus Christ, is it not? He said, look unto me and
be ye saved. But this watch was one here of
despising him. And they sent forth spies. These are undercover disciples. This was the CIA of their day,
the CAI, which should feign themselves or pretend they were believers
and just men, that they might take hold of his word, so that
they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor."
Now look at verse 21, they ask him, saying, Master, we know. Here are some things we know.
And remember now, these are people who are hypocrites. They're acting
like they are disciples. We know that what you say is
right, what you teach is right. We know that you don't accept
any man's person. He's talking about you don't
accept the opinion of other men, the opinion of other men do not
bother you. And what you teach, you teach
the way of God truly, the way of God. You teach the way of
God. What is that? What is the way of God? Christ
is the way of God. He's the way of salvation. These
false and fake disciples, the words they used were not spoken
in sincerity, but they were spoken in malice and spoken with hatred. And what they said was true,
but they did not believe what they said. Remember, Nicodemus
said to the Lord, Nicodemus, the Pharisee, the ruler of the
Jews, the same came to the Lord by night and said unto him, Master,
Rabbi, we know you are a teacher come from God, for no man can
do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. The psalmist
David said, the words of their mouth were smoother than butter,
but war was in their heart, softer than oil, but were drawn with
swords. The words they speak here, and
what they say is in truth, but the words are spoken in malice. Now let's look at those three
things they say. We know what you teach is right. and true. Could the Lord our
God speak anything else but the truth? It is impossible for God
to lie. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ?
He is God manifest in the flesh. Therefore everything He speaks
we should believe because He is the true and living God. His word you hold in your hand,
you can believe every word of it. It is true. It is to be believed. What they
said next was also true. Neither do you accept the person
of any man. You see that in verse 21. The Lord Jesus Christ in his
doctrine and his action was not and is not influenced by the
will of men, by what men think of him, or what men said of him,
shall not the judge of all the earth do right. The Lord our
God is beyond the intimidation of men, he's unimpressed by their
power, and he's unimpressed by the influence of any man. He
is the King of Kings. You see, the King's heart It
includes the powers that be that are ordained of God. The king's
heart is in the hands of the Lord, and he turns them whether
so ever he will. Our president, our governor,
our judges, our officers, our county people, they're under
the authority of God, and he manipulates and controls them
for his own purpose. The third thing they said, the
Lord Jesus Christ, only teaches the way of truth, but teaches
thou the way of God truly. The Lord Jesus Christ as the
prophet, remember, son of God, He could do nothing else but
speak what God gave Him to do. In fact, He said on one occasion,
the words I speak unto you, remember, He said they're not mine, but
the word the Father hath given to me, those are the words I
speak unto you. And in doing so is the fulfilling
of the prophecy in Deuteronomy 18, 18, where we read, I will
raise him up a prophet, a prophet from among the brethren like
unto thee, and will put my word in his mouth, and he shall speak
unto them all that I shall command him. The Lord said, I am the
way, I am the truth, I am the light, but thou teachest the
way of God truly. And he is the truth, and he speaks
the truth, and he preaches the truth. Now, they've been plotting
and planning for this last hour to ask him this question, verse
22. Is it right, is it lawful for
us, being Jews, to give tribute taxes, honor unto Caesar, is
it right or no? Yes or no? You answer that question,
yes or no? After they tried to act like
they believed the Lord, they had this question to trap Him,
to ensnare Him, to humiliate Him, and to embarrass Him. That's
what it was all about. Now, should we pay tax to the
Roman government? Should we honor the law of Rome? Their question was designed to
make him answer yes or no, but the Lord was far too wise to
be entrapped by their wicked design. They did this on many
occasions. If he would have said yes, give
and pay your tax, the religious Pharisees would have accused
him of being a traitor against the Jews, right? Do you know
they accused him of that anyway? Look over here at Luke 23. We're
going to see this. They accused him of being a traitor
anyway. Look at Luke 23 verse 1. And
the whole multitude of them arose and led him unto Pilate. And
they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting
the nation, forbidding to give tribute to Caesar. Now, he didn't
say that. You see, these men are liars.
Remember, they're feigned. They're fake disciples. saying
that he himself is a king. And Pilate asked him, saying,
art thou a king of the Jews? And he answered him and said,
oh, you said it. Yeah, I'm the king. I am the king of the Jews, king
of kings. So if he would have said yes,
give and pay your tax, the religious Pharisees would have accused
him of being a traitor to the Jews. But if he would have said
no, then the secular Herodians who were there, as it says in
Matthew and in Mark, would accuse him of being a rebel against
Rome. If he would have been silent
on the issue, they would both have accused him of being a coward.
Wouldn't they? Sure they would have. We as a
gospel-believing church must not allow ourselves to be taken
up with the political wranglings and worldly strife. I never bring
into this pulpit political issues. Have you noticed that? It does
not matter one whit to me who you vote for or how you vote.
That's your business, not mine. And I'm not the first. I'm not
going to tell you how to exercise your constitutional privilege
to vote. But here's the thing. As a gospel-believing
church, we must not allow ourselves to be taken up with political
wranglings and worldly strife. We cannot be too careful about
these things. Our business is to declare the
gospel of Christ. And the sovereign Lord who rules
over all things, He told His church to go into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature, not to try to straighten
out political issues. That's not my business. Now, if you want to go out there
and you partake, you want to personally be involved in the
political process, have at it. I've got no problem with you
being and doing that, but as a church, as a ministry, as a
leader of this ministry, my business and our business here is to preach
the gospel. I charge thee before God and
the Lord Jesus Christ to preach the gospel. Our Lord said this,
my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight. You see, we preach the Kingdom
of God, the Kingdom of God. Now, we see the marvelous wisdom
by which the Lord shows His answers to the enemies of the Gospel.
It says in Matthew 22, 18, about this same situation, the Lord
perceived their wickedness and said, why do you tempt me, you
hypocrites? Look at verse 23, He perceived
their craftiness, their wickedness, and He said to them, Why do you
come to me and try to prove me? As the sovereign Lord of all
things, He knows the hearts, motives, plans, and ambitions
of all men. He knows your heart, your thoughts. You remember in John 2, 25 where
we read, He needed not that any man should testify of man, for
He knew what was in man. He knows our heart. Let me read
another Scripture. For there is not a word in my
tongue, but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it all together. Psalm
139. He knows your heart. He knows
your mind, your thoughts. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in His sight. All things are naked and open
unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. He knew their
motive. He knew their heart. He saw right
through them. Now notice what he says here,
you bring me, is it lawful right to give tribute to Caesar? He
perceived their wickedness, and he said, why do you tempt me?
Then verse 24 he says, show me a penny. Show me a penny, whose
inscription, whose image, superscription, hath it? And they said, Caesar's,
Caesar's. They brought this coin, and out
of their own mouth, They made this confession. The Lord asked
whose image is on it, and they were forced to answer because
they were under the dominion of Rome, whether they liked it
or not, and then he said, you render unto Caesar the things
which are under his authority. Now our Lord as a man and a citizen
of Judea paid taxes. He did so in a most unusual way,
you remember? Turn over here to Matthew 17.
Our Lord, as a citizen of the tribe of Judah, the Lion of the
tribe of Judah, if you look over here at Matthew 17. Matthew 17.
Look at verse 24. Matthew 17, 24. And when they
were come to Capernaum, They that received tribute money
came to Peter and said, Doth not your master pay tribute?
And he said, Yeah, yeah he does. And when he was coming to the
house, the Lord prevented him saying, or preceded him saying,
What thinkest thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth
take custom and tribute? Of their own children or of strangers? And Peter said unto him, Of strangers. And the Lord said unto him, Then
are the children free? Verse 27. Notwithstanding, lest
we should offend them, go thou to the sea, cast a hook, This
is a bare hook. He didn't say bait the hook,
he just cast the hook. And take up the fish that first
cometh up, and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt
find a piece of money that take and give unto them for me and
thee. The Lord did pay taxes. And he
did so in a supernatural way. Now, what that fish was doing
with that money in his mouth? He must have been so hungry.
That fish, he'd just eaten anything that came along. And Peter found
some money in his mouth. Now, believers ought to make
and be good, obedient, loyal citizens to their country. There's
nothing wrong with being patriotic. I'm all for, when they play the
national anthem, I'm all in on standing with my hand over my
heart and paying tribute to this nation, tribute to whom tribute
is due. And those who choose to disrespect
this country, shame on them. They ought to leave. They ought
to move to China. They ought to move to Russia,
somewhere else. Believers ought to make and be
good, obedient, loyal citizens, obeying the laws of the land
as long as they do not violate the Word of God, right? If laws
are passed forbidding the preaching of the Gospel and public assembly,
then we must like Daniel and the three Hebrew children, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, disobeyed the king. They were under the
rule of Babylonian king, but would not give up worship to
the true and living God and bow down and worship an idol. Now,
when this government of ours passes laws that say you must
bow down to an idol, that you must not preach the gospel anymore,
that we must not gather in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
now I'm going to rebel. I'll be the first in line. But
as long as the laws of our country do not violate the laws of the
Book of God, are not in opposition to the Word of God, then we'll
get along okay. In all things, the final authority
is the Word of the Lord, not the Supreme Court. I don't know
what the Supreme Court sometimes, they're not so supreme. Some
of the decisions they make are terrible decisions, but that
too is under the control of God. That too was under the absolute
control of God. When the early church was straightly
commanded not to preach the gospel anymore, you remember, they beat
them and said, do not mention His name one more time. They
filled Jerusalem with the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
then Peter said this, we ought to obey God rather than man.
We are instructed in 1 Timothy chapter 2, we're instructed to
pray for our leaders. Let's turn and read that one
more time. Let's find 1 Timothy chapter
2 verse 1. We're to pray for our leaders,
we're to pray for our president, we're to pray for our governor.
I exhort thee therefore, verse 1, first of all that supplications
and prayers and intercession and giving thanks be made for
all men, for kings, for all that are in authority, that we may
lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Remember we read from Romans
13, we are instructed to be in subjection unto the powers that
be of God. John Gill, the old preacher from
the 1700s said, Subjection to civil authority is not inconsistent
with reverence and fear to God. If you'll read one more scripture
with me, if you'll find 1 Peter, I believe it's chapter 2 verse
13. 1 Peter 2 verse 13, Submit yourselves
to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be
king or supreme, or in the governors, as unto them that are sent by
him, for the punishment of evildoers, for the praise of them that do
well. For this is the will of God, that with well-doing you
may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, as free and not
using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as a servant
of God. Honor all men, love the brotherhood,
fear God, honor the king. We ought to honor our president.
Now, his personality is a little bit rough. I don't like his personality,
but he is the president. I respect the office. He is the
president of the United States by the decree of God. Now, if you're a believer, you've
got to bow to that. You've got to bow to that. Second thing,
the Lord gives us what every believer must do. Now the second
part of this, verse 25, you render unto God the things that belong
to God. Do you see that? Render unto
God the things that belong to God. This commandment, now this
is not a suggestion. The Lord, our God, doesn't make
suggestions for His people. This is His commandment, render
to God the things that are God. This commandment is given to
all men, but especially to those who find all their salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to give unto our great
God and Savior all reverence, holy and reverent is His name.
Don't ever call any man Reverend Smith or Reverend Jones. Because
holy and reverent is His name. We give all reverence to God
Almighty. We give all respect due unto
His holy name. We admire Him, worship Him, and
give Him glory that's due His name. Salvation and all spiritual
blessings find their origin, their beginning, only in the
Lord. All thanksgiving and praise is
due unto His name. The psalmist said, Not unto us,
O Lord, but unto Thy name do we give glory and honor for Thy
mercy and for Thy truth's sake. All worship is due unto His name. The Father seeketh such to worship
Him in spirit and in truth. All glory for His salvation by
the free and sovereign grace of God belongs to Him alone. To Him alone. Render unto God
the things that are God's. That is, all things are His,
in creation, providence, and salvation. All things belong
to God. We read in Psalm 24, remember? The earth is the Lord's, and
the fullness thereof, the world, and they that dwell therein. But especially all who believe
in the gospel, we owe everything that we are, everything we have,
everything we know, everything we've been taught, we owe all
things unto Him. Render unto God all things, for
all things belong unto Him. Now, I want to close the message
by having you turn to these three references, and let's read these
together. And I want to emphasize this
word, all things. Turn to Romans 8, first of all.
Render unto God all things that belong to God in providence,
in creation, and in salvation. Romans 8, 28, and we know that
all things, what's that word? And we know that most things
work together for good. All things work together for
good to them who love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, Who can be against us? He that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also, free to give us all things? Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God the elect? It is God that
justifies. Who is he that condemneth it
as Christ that died, yea, rather that it is risen again, who is
even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for
us? All things are of God in the
realm of salvation and in providence. Let's turn to another one. Find 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians
chapter 5, verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
2 Corinthians 5, 17, he is a new creature. Old things are passed
away. Behold, all things have become
new. Verse 18, and all things are
of God. Render unto God the things that
are of God. All things are of God, who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and given to us the ministry
of reconciliation, to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and
hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation, Now then,
we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him." All things are of God. We are made righteous
before him, because all things in salvation belong to God. Let's turn to one more, find
Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11. Ephesians chapter 1, in whom
also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory."
Who first trusted Christ? Who first trusted Christ? That
goes all the way back to the eternal covenant of grace. God
trusted the Lord Jesus Christ for all of our salvation. Now,
let's wind this up. Go back to Luke 20. I heard what he said. Look at
verse 26. And they could not take hold
of his words before the people. They just couldn't get it. And
they marveled at his answer, but they held their peace. They
did not answer one word. They marveled at him, but they
never submitted to him. They never believed Him, they
never trusted Him as God our Savior. The same thing happens
today, frequently, when the gospel of God's grace is preached, with
the power and blessing of God upon it, men may be impressed
for a while, but they never are brought to trust the Lord Jesus
Christ for all of their salvation. They're never brought to Christ
in saving faith. My prayer for us, may we not
only marvel at His glorious person, but may God give us grace to
believe the gospel, to receive Him as everything in salvation,
to trust Him for all righteousness and for all our salvation. Now don't turn to this, just
let me read it to you because everyone's familiar with Psalm
2. Psalm 2 ends with this warning. Serve the Lord with fear, rejoice
with trembling, kiss the Son lest He be angry, and you perish
from the way when His wrath is kindled but a little bit. But
blessed are they that put their trust in Him. May God give us
grace to trust Him. And render, if you do, you render
all things are of God.