Here's the wild thing Remember those who requested
prayer seek the Lord's help for them Good news on Malcolm's brother's
wife. They thought she had cancer,
but she doesn't and that's good. That's that's good news She's
still having some physical problem, but they're not sure what it
is yet Tracy right had a colonoscopy and an endoscopy and they didn't
find cancer anywhere else. So they're starting her chemotherapy
pretty soon. And Kathy Robinson's doing better,
feeling better, getting her strength back after what she had to go
through with those radioactive pellets. Remember her in your
prayers too. Seek the Lord's help for them
and the others who requested prayer. Let's begin our worship
service this morning. Hymn number 256. It is well with
my soul. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Thou hast taught me to say, It
is well, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come, Let this blest assurance control That
Christ hath regarded my helpless estate And hath shed his own
blood for my soul ♪ It is well with my soul ♪ It is well, it
is well with my soul ♪ My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious
thought My sin not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross
and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. And Lord, they say, ♪ The clouds be rolled back as
a scroll ♪ The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend ♪
Even so it is well with my soul ♪ It is well ♪ With my soul ♪ It is well, it
is well ♪ With my soul After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 186, The Church's One Foundation. If you
have your Bibles, turn with me to the gospel according to Matthew
chapter 17. Beginning with verse 22, we take
our Texas point in verse 24 through 27. Our Lord informs His disciples
once again of His impending crucifixion. It says, While they abode in
Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of Man shall be betrayed
unto the hands of men. They shall kill Him, and the
third day He shall be raised again. And they were exceeding
sorry. When they were come to Capernaum,
they received tribute money. They that received tribute money
came to Peter and said, Did not your master pay tribute? And
he said, Yes. And when he was coming to the
house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? Of
whom do the kings of the earth take custom of tribute? Of their
own children or strangers? And Peter said unto him, strangers. Jesus said unto him, Then are
the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should
offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up
a 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. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven,
most blessed Lord and Savior, King of kings and Lord of lords,
a great shepherd, a great prophet, our elder brother and friend.
It is in that name that we come into your presence to come boldly
to the throne of grace to speak to you concerning our desires
and the desires of our heart. We pray for those who are sick.
Those who are going through physical trials, we're glad for the good
news of Ronald's wife not having cancer. Continue to pray for
Kathy and Dee Parks as he's still suffering with his cancer and
his family. Pray for Tracy Wright as she's
getting ready for this chemotherapy. For the others who mentioned
prayer, pray for Sister Loretta as she's waiting to hear from
doctors. We ask the Lord you'd be pleased to heal them. Lord, we ask for ourselves this
hour that you might be pleased to get glory and honor for yourself. Diminish us and exalt yourself. Cause us to see our savior high
and lifted up. Having finished the work of salvation,
having secured salvation for his people by his blood sacrifice
to you, which satisfied your laws, demands, and justice, propitiated
you and appeased you toward your children, so much so that you
remember their sin no more. We thank you that you have made
Christ to be unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. We know that for the believer
he is all and in all. Help us now to worship you. You
deserve to be worshiped, for you're God and there is none
beside you. There's none like unto you. You declare the end
from the beginning. You speak it, and it shall be
done. All your purpose shall be finished, and you shall do
all your pleasure. Help us, Lord, now to remember
who you are and what we are. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Number 186. The church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ her Lord. She is his new creation by water
and blood. and sought her to be his holy
bride with his own bloody body. Her charter of salvation, one
word, one faith, one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes
one holy food. And to one hope she presses,
with every grace endued. Mid toil and tribulation, and
tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with a vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blessed. And the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest. Yet she honored that union with
God the three in one. And mystics swear ♪ Once and holy ♪ Lord, give us
grace and weep ♪ Like then the meek and lowly ♪ On high may
dwell with thee Let Stephen stand to receive the altar this morning,
please. Let us pray. Father, again, we
approach in the name of Jesus Christ. The only name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. The unspeakable gift
that you have given to your children and with them freely given them
all things. We have nothing save what you have given us. What
we can call our own is worthy of death and hell. But you have
given us all things in Christ. You made us your children, adopted
us, predestinated us to the adoption by Jesus Christ unto himself.
He caused us to have faith, given it to us, and given us in this
faith a heart of belief as we look at the Word. As we render
unto Thee that which You have given us, let us do so with thanksgiving. We pray in Christ's name, amen. Yeah. you you I invite your attention back
to Matthew chapter 17. This is one of the Lord's miracles. He
and the disciples have come to Capernaum. In Matthew chapter
9 and verse 1, this place is called Christ's own city. And
where Peter made his home according to Matthew chapter 8 and verse
14. So Peter and the Lord are considered
residents of this city And that is why this man came to collect
tribute from them. This time Peter was approached
by a man who collected tribute money. Now the money was collected
not for taxes, not for taxes of Rome, as our Lord dealt with
in Matthew 22 when he said, Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's
and unto me that which is mine. Nor was this the atonement money
paid for every man in Israel when Israel was numbered. which
signified that where atonement was not made, a person was not
counted among the people, which speaks of particular redemption.
This was tribute money given for the support and maintenance
of the temple for repairs and so forth. And it was a custom
and over the years it had changed. It started probably in one of
the early kings rain to repair some things in
the temple. I can't remember the name of
the king, I had it on the tip of my tongue, but the older I
get, the tongue doesn't work that good anymore to hold in
thoughts. So, anyway, that was when it started and it started
as a reasonable thing. It was a custom, not a law. It
was not in the law of Moses. and over the years it had changed
from being a voluntary act to become a tradition, which to
many Jews was the same thing as being a law. Our Lord in Matthew
12 rebuked the Pharisees for teaching their traditions as
if they were the doctrine of God. However, this was not a
useless tradition because it did maintain the Temple and kept
it in good repair. The man who approached Peter
asked if Christ had paid his tribute probably asking Peter
because he did not know if Christ had been a resident of Capernaum,
which you had to be for twelve months in order for the tribute
to be required. Peter, however, was known to
be a resident of that city and that is probably why he was approached. Our Lord asked Peter after this
man has left, He said, When the kings of the earth collect tribute,
do they collect it from the royal family Or do they collect it
from the subjects or servants of the kingdom? That was the
question he asked. Because Peter said, this guy
wants tribute. And our Lord said, well, let
me ask you this. Do the king's family pay tribute?
Or do the people in the realm, the subjects of the king, pay
tribute? And Peter answered, the king, they said the king
collects his subjects, his tribute from subjects, not his family.
Our Lord says that the families, the children of the King, then
are free. Is that right? If they don't have to pay tribute,
then they must be free. Free from paying tribute. Now
by saying this, our Lord was declaring who He is. That's what
it was all about. His words hold a two-fold meaning.
First, as the son of David, He's part of the royal family and
therefore is not required to pay tribute. He's the King. Secondly,
as the Son of God, and King of Kings, and Great High Priest,
and Head of the Temple, which is Himself, and the Church, in truth, tribute should be paid
to Him, because He is the Temple, and the Church is the Temple.
Thus, if He pays tribute, it will be a voluntary act, wherein
He may not be accused of breaking the law, and I think that�s why
He said, �Well, this would probably offend Him if we don�t.� we'll
go ahead and pay the tribute." Declaring his right to pay, or
not to pay the tribute, he nonetheless does not desire to make it an
issue, unless we offend. He does not wish to be needlessly
offending this fellow, so he directs Peter to go down to the
sea, to the coast, and cast in a hook. And he tells Peter, when he brings
in the fish, the first fish you catch, reach in his mouth, and
you're going to find a coin, and that you pay tribute for
me and thee. And Peter does so, and behold,
there was a coin in the mouth of a fish. This is nothing short of miraculous,
but as with all miracles, they teach common and reasonable lessons.
Oftentimes we spend time observing the miraculous at the expense
of what the wondrous things teach, because every one of the miracles
has another story. There are several things taught
for our benefit in this passage. When our Lord said, let's don't
offend him, now he was king. He could have said, I'm not paying
the tribute and been right to do so, but he said, let's don't
offend him. And there's a lesson there for us. It is important
for the believer to use the Scripture with care. Sometimes in a desire
to be right and prove some point, a believer will be guilty of
trying to express one part of the Scripture to prove another
part of the Scripture. There are obvious examples of
this in religion. Some men who are believers endeavor to use
the law in an unlawful manner. as a rule or a guide to the believer.
They don't believe they're justified by it, but they think there's
still some part it plays in their lives, and they live a miserable
life because of it. The law belongs to the old covenant,
not the new covenant, but some can't seem to separate the two.
Many believers who are trusting wholly in the merits of Christ
for salvation endeavor to be good and moral people, often
err by applying to the law as a means of accomplishing that
goal, and it never works. When you go to the law, you're
entering into sin. Simple as that. Plain as that. The strength of the law is sin,
saith the scripture. Simon Peter fell into this error
as well as did Barnas at Antioch. It can happen because human logic
does not jive with faith. It never will. And sadly, sometimes
human logic wins the battles concerning righteousness. Others have asserted that the
disciples were not really saved, because they did not have a full
understanding of the gospel. I have heard people argue that
argument. They know that the gospel must
be believed. It says that throughout the New
Testament epistles. And the gospel is defined in
what it is, and it must be believed, and that is true. And they say
because the disciples did not have that knowledge at this time,
that they weren't saved. Those who say this use the truth
that a person must believe the gospel as it's revealed in Scripture
to be saved. Well, this is true, but it must
be remembered that when the disciples walked with the Lord Jesus Christ,
the New Testament had not been yet written. So what is ours
by God's grace, the full revelation of Christ, was not yet theirs.
They didn't know about what Christ's death was going to do. We just
read that He told them, I'm going to Jerusalem, they're going to
kill me. I'm going to raise again the third day. And it says they
were sorry. They were sorry. So they didn't
understand. The times of Scripture are important because it is a
progressive revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said
to His disciples in John chapter 16, In John chapter 16, verses 12
and 13, he said, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you
cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of
truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth, for he shall
not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he
speak, and he will show you things to come. When did they find out
about this? When did these things begin to be revealed? On Pentecost.
When the Holy Spirit came and Peter stood up and said, ìThis
is the name of Jesus whom you crucified. God has made both
Lord and Christ.î And all the Old Testament was about him and
he quoted Old Testament passage after Old Testament passage and
showed them that the Bible was about Jesus Christ. But they
didnít know that then. They didnít know that then. The
Old Covenant was visible and physical. It was conditional
and basically said that if a man under that covenant would physically
obey God, they would receive natural or temporal blessings.
And that covenant was not by faith, it was by sight. The law
was written on stone. That's the only word of God that's
written on stone. Moses' words, words of Jeremiah,
Daniel, Ezekiel, all the minor prophets, all the New Testament
was written on scrolls. written on papyrus. But the law
was written on stone. Why? Because you can only break
it, you can't bend it. You can only break it. The law
was written on stone and that means it's outside of you. Outside
the adherent to the law, as a watcher, a reminder of what men do wrong. For the law was added because
of transgression. The time of Christ was a time of transition.
a mixture, if you will, of faith and sight. These two were employed. Not only was the Word proclaimed,
but the Kingdom, the sovereign rule of Christ was asserted,
and belief and faith was required. These truths, however, were accompanied
by signs and wonders during this time, which served as credentials
to the men who preached the message. That was what they were there
for. Now, once the book was fully written, we didn't need those
things anymore, because sight's not involved in the believer's
life. We walk by faith and not by sight. Then came the times
of the apostles, and after Pentecost, when the world was finished,
sight was gone. All things visible were discarded,
and the child of God walked by faith and not by sight. And this
is the time we live in. This is our time. Thus, no credentials
are needed or given. In fact, they're forbidden. Faith
rests wholly upon the Word of God. It's that simple. We don't have anything but that.
Don't look around, try to figure out somebody whether or not they're
saved or not, whether or not God's working on them or ain't. Don't do that. Why? Because it's
not permitted. What do we have in this world?
And we have the very best thing, is the Word of God. And a believer just simply believes
it. Now, he can't explain it all. He can't explain most of
it. He doesn't try to apply human
logic to it. He says, God said it, and that's it. That's enough. I believe it. Now, if you don't
believe it, God still said it, and still so. But thank God,
if He's given you faith to believe His Word, that's what you rest
on. Nothing else. That's the hard part of being
a child of God. We live by the Word. The law
is often called, the Word of God is often called the law.
It's written in the hearts and minds of the believer upon regeneration,
and he or she has no use for any outward evidence as to verify
or the verity of the Word. No credentials are needed. And
I said all that to point to the fact that our Lord, who is the
Temple, and His Church is the Temple, is a fact that might
be used by our Lord to utterly discount the physical Temple
that was in Jerusalem, saying, I'm not going to pay tribute
to it. I'm the Temple. Didn't He say that to the Pharisees
in John 3? Tear this Temple down and I'll
raise it up again the third day. He's the temple. He's the head
of the church. His body is the temple. Now he
could utterly discount doing that. Why did he even bother
to give tribute to a thing that would soon pass away? Soon be
destroyed. Even fulfilled in his mystical
body with him as the head. Why didn't he just discard this
whole idea? It wasn't time. it wasn't time
the offense would come would come and he would pay for it
at the hands of the temple worshippers but his hour was not yet come
the hour that he spoke in verse 22 and 23 says I'm going to Jerusalem
I'm gonna be killed and be raised again the third day they were
sorry that time hadn't come yet it's still days away And so with
the time being, what does he do? Pays tribute. Pays tribute. Take care that you do not try
to press the fact of the full revelation of Christ upon a time
when He was not fully revealed. They walked with Jesus Christ,
but they didn't know who He was,
not fully. When Peter, when the Lord was
hung on the cross and Peter left. He said, I'm quitting this business. I'm going back into fishing business.
I'm done with this. This is a nice three years. But
I'm over it. The disciples on the road to
Emmaus, they were walking sorrowful because it hadn't worked out
like they thought it would. The time was not yet come. Notwithstanding, lest we should
offend them, he said, let's pay the tribute. It was a wise thing
to pick your battles. Always wise to pick your battles
lest you become a soldier who lives for war, not peace. Sometimes
the sight of your back and the dust of your feet as you walk
away are the most effective testimony and rebuke you can have. Use
the scriptures with care, not a book of mottos. It's about
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Secondly, Christ is the Sovereign
King over all His creation. He is King, His Kingdom is all
that He reigns over, and all His creatures are His subjects
and serve Him according to His purpose. There is no unemployment
in the economy of God. None. Everybody has got a job.
What about those who hate Him? They have got a job, and they
are doing it. They are doing it. Our Lord taught Peter an important
lesson here. First, he taught Simon Peter
that he was a member of the royal family. He said, I'm a member
of the royal family. King don't have to pay his dues.
He didn't have to pay tribute. Secondly, he taught Peter that
even the fishes of the surface are the most high. Even the fishes
of the sea. I know they don't pay any attention
to me. When I go fishing, most of them swim by my bait and don't
bite it. And sometimes I went fishing
up in Kentucky a while back, went crappie fishing. I think
they might call them crappies up there. We call them crappie
down here, but went crappie fishing. And a guy who was a better fisher
than me caught 10 that day, and I caught four, and I was tickled
to death. I would have been tickled to death with one. I loved to
fish, and I liked to catch fish. But I wasn't much of a fisherman
that day compared to the other guy. Fish don't listen to me. Now I think about those trouts
in those streams over there. Those doe bellies and those natural
trouts. They're God's trouts. He controls
the fish of the sea. One fish among all the fishes
of the sea was used of Christ to pay a tribute. One fish. Think about that. It's useless
to try to figure this out. Don't try as some to designate
that the coin was miraculously created in the mouth of the fish.
Or somehow the coin laid at the bottom in some shipwreck and
was scooped up by the fish while he was bottom feeding. Was tossed
as a coin into the sea as a big wishing well. This was a miracle. Flat out. At the appointed time,
this fish according to the purpose and predestination of the master,
bit the appointed hook that was cast by the appointed man at
the appointed time, and showed up with the exact legal tender
to pay the toll. That's a miracle. Why? Because Christ is King. He's King, and tribute is exacted
upon the subject, and not the children. The fish was the subject,
He paid the tribute. He paid the tribute. Peter would
later in his epistle call the believers a royal priesthood. I believe there's also an intimation
that the children of the king are not required to pay tribute
to any temple but Christ. And that tribute is the thanksgiving
from our heart and praise upon our lips. That's the sacrifice
we offer to God. Thirdly, our Lord teaches the
lesson that He's God. He's the God of means. Now, the
fact that of His sovereignty is often used to teach that He
does not need means. Well, He doesn't need them. But
men say, well, He doesn't need them, therefore He does not use
them. That's not true. He doesn't need them, but He
uses them. That's an error for trying to
apply human logic to spiritual truth. Could He have made a coin
materialize in His hand? He spoke and the worlds existed.
You think it would be hard not to make a coin pop into his hand?
Of course he could have. He's God. But he didn't. Why? Because he and his sovereign
majesty, not out of any need, but according to his divine scheme
and purpose, uses means to teach people that which they need to
know. If he can use a fish to pay a
dun, he can use a sinner to preach the gospel. and fix it as the
only means whereby his elect are brought to faith. A wonder
of wonders. Does he need men? No. He said in his word that he is
hungry. He wouldn't ask his people for bread. No, it pleased the
Lord to use means. It pleases the Lord by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And it's all for the
glory of His grace. That's the purpose of it all.
Why am I here? I shouldn't be doing this. Somebody
more qualified, somebody else should be doing this. I shouldn't
be doing this. Why am I doing this? Because
when people look at me, ultimately they're going to have to say,
it must be by grace. it can't be my merit. It is all
for the purpose of His grace. Not many wise are chosen. The
foolish things of the world, the weak things of the world,
the things that are not, that means the nothings of this world,
God uses to confound the things that are mighty and the things
that are wise. The wise are confounded, the mighty are chagrined, Some
things are made nothings when they try to rationalize that
God would take a ruined, vile sinner, unlearned, unlettered,
and unfit, and fill his mouth with not only the currency of
faith, but the unsearchable riches of Christ as a TRIBUTE to His
grace and the means of salvation of His hearers. What a thing!
Christ, in His sovereign majesty and grace, uses the meagerest
of things to accomplish the greatest of things. Be thankful! Be filled with gratitude that
of all the fish in the sea, He sent His hook in your mouth. And when you were brought to
the shore of Immanuel's land, your mouth was filled with the
gold of the gospel, the gospel of His grace, that singular medium
of exchange that He has sent forth, that alone plays tribute
to the King of glory. Finally, our Lord teaches that
the payment of the tribute is His doing. not his children's. We owe no tribute to the temple.
We owe no tribute to the old covenant, the law. Christ has
paid all. He fulfilled the law in every
jot and tittle, paid the last farthing, met every requirement
for the righteousness before a holy God, and being made perfect
through the things he suffered, paying the final and efficacious
tribute and imputed righteousness to his people, he paid the tribute
to God. Paid it all. That's why we're
going to celebrate with the Lord's table today. With his body and his butt, he
paid tribute to God. And he did it, he said, for me
and thee. For me and thee. Let's receive
the Lord's table. Fred, would you help me serve
today and stand? The Lord's Table was instituted
by the Lord. At the Passover, what Jesus said
to his disciples, I've been looking forward to taking this Passover
with you. It's the last Passover, the first Lord's Table. He took
the elements of the Passover feast, which are unleavened bread
and wine. And he took the bread and break it and said, this is
my body, broken for you. He took the wine and said, this
wine is the New Testament or New Covenant in my blood. As
often as you drink it, do it in remembrance of me. it's just
for believers. Can an unbeliever take the table?
Of course they can. They do it at their own trouble
according to Scripture. But Paul said many sleep because
they do that. Are anybody worthy to take this
table? No. Can you take it worthily? Yes,
if you take it as a sinner saved by grace. So examine yourself
upon what basis? Whether you be in the faith.
And if so, you can take this table. It's a time of rejoicing
for the child of God. For in this world that's full
of troubles, we can gather together as children of God, having one
Father, one Lord over all, one faith, one baptism. We can be
together. We have brothers here from Kingsport.
That's our mothers and fathers in Kingsport. to our friends
and brothers in Kingsport. We're a family. God has made
us so by the blood of Jesus Christ. And so we get to come together
as the world goes separate, each seeking his own way. The children
of God gather together and say it with one voice, We're going
to commemorate the death of Jesus Christ in this simple and plain
service which He has ordained. He gave three ordinances to the
church. The Lord's Table, Baptism, and the Preaching of the Gospel.
These are the three ordinances of the church. Each one of them
say the same thing. Christ did Him crucify. Christ
did Him crucify. So as we receive this table,
let us do so with thanksgiving in our hearts. Before we do,
let's ask the Lord to bless us. Father, bless this time as we
take this table, as brothers and sisters in Christ, being
one family, we can take this table and commemorate the death
of our Lord Jesus Christ that made us a family, that brought
us into fellowship with God, that caused us to be reconciled
to Him by the blood of the cross. We thank you, Father, for such
an opportunity as children of God. to remember and commemorate
what you've done for us. Thank you, Father in Christ. The night I was betrayed, he
took bread, unleavened bread. Unleavened because leaven represented
sin. He said, beware the leaven of
the Pharisees. Hypocrisy, self-righteousness. This is pure bread. Traveling
bread. Called hasty bread. Kind of like
hard tack that the cowboys used to use. You could store it forever
and it wouldn't go bad. It never goes bad. Doesn't have any yeast
in it. No leaven. It represents His
perfect body, which always He yielded His members to righteousness
for God. It's perfect for the things He
suffered. He gave His body to be misused and abused, to even
bear the weight of God's wrath, to be broken for folks like us. This is my
body broken for you. As often as you do it, do it
in remembrance of me. On the same night he took the
cup. After he had blessed it. He said this cup is the New Testament,
the New Covenant in my blood. They didn't know anything about
the New Covenant. They were still in transition
period. One John the Baptist had one foot in the Old Testament
and one foot in the New. He was the last Old Testament
prophet, the first Old New Testament preacher. They didn't know anything
about the new covenant. But he said, this is, that night,
he said, this is the new covenant in my blood. What's he talking
about? Talking about the covenant of grace, covenant of mercy,
wherein the obedience to that covenant was done by one person,
the Lord Jesus Christ, to the benefit of all his elect. this
is the new covenant in my blood as often as you eat this bread
and drink this cup you do show forth my death until i come again
do this in remembrance of me and the scriptures say that they
stood and they sang a hymn and he went out to be betrayed What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Well, y'all are from Kingsport.
I know them Kentucky people. They're fine people. He told me one time, he said,
a person needs 12 hugs a day. Every day. Needs at least 12
hugs to survive. We hug a lot here. Hug each other. Tell each other
you love each other. If you don't want to hug them,
fist bump, elbow strike, whatever you want to do. God bless you.