Alright, for this evening, let's
turn to Matthew chapter 17. Matthew chapter 17. I try to think often on the names
of our Lord. So I tried to take a nap this
evening, and right about the time I fell asleep, or started
to fall asleep, I thought about the names of my Lord. And that's
our defense. If we want to win an argument
with somebody, We just declare His name. That's all we've got
to do. We have Jehovah Mckittish, the
Lord who sanctifies you. Well, you've got justification
and sanctification confused. Man's got to sanctify himself.
That's the Lord's name. He sanctifies you. Jehovah Nissi,
my banner, my victory. It's the only flag that we wave
like a God-on bearer. No flags for the units. He's
our victory. Jehovah-Rei-Ha, Lord's my shepherd. He guides us. Jehovah-Rei-Fa,
the Lord that heals. I was wounded in sin, dead. He healed me. Jehovah Sabaoth,
the Lord of Hosts. Jehovah Shalom, the Lord is Peace. Jehovah Sitkenu, the Lord our
Righteousness. And I was thinking of this last
week and a half, I've just had this message burning in me, and
I thought of Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide. What will
the Lord provide? No. The Lord will provide everything
that we have and need temporally on this earth, physically. What
we have here, the Lord gave it to us. And likewise spiritually,
anything in our heart, anything in His sight, anything in the
law, anything spiritually that's required, Jehovah Jireh. He'll
provide it. He'll provide it. So I was thinking
this last week about the situation our nation's in during this pandemic,
and I began to worry. I worried if the Lord's work
here may be ending. I worried if the Lord's work
in other places may be ending. How is the Lord going to sustain
His gospel work in this generation? Throughout the globe, I started
worrying. But I was brought to remember, I cannot sustain this
work. You cannot sustain this work. Neither one of us can. The Lord
God Almighty sustains His Word. He sustains His work. He sustains
the hearts of them that hear it. He sustains all. And that's not demeaning to a
believer, is it? That's reassuring. That's comfort. And I began to consider the trial
that the saints went through in Egypt. The Lord took them
and put them in Egypt for 400 years under Pharaoh's They were
slaves. That's at least eight generations
that was born into slavery. They knew no different. And it
wasn't something gentle. They had a hard time. That was
rough. But that was hard on the Lord's people in that time. He
had saints in that physical Israel. But we're far removed from that
story, aren't we? That's something we learn in
a history book. And we can quote, we can talk about, but we have
no emotional connection to that story. It was a couple thousand
years ago. That doesn't touch me. What's
a more recent event we can look at and be comforted that our
Lord rules and reigns in all things? More especially, something
recent we can look at that He preserves His gospel. Many of
you all probably don't know this, but during the Cold War, There
was a man, somehow, that heard the gospel. The Lord saved a
man in Russia, USSR then, Soviet Union. And he was behind that
iron curtain. That was not a pleasant place
to live. I wouldn't immigrate there, would you? But he had
some of Brother Bill Clark from England. Some of his messages
and some of Henry Mahan's messages. And he got them translated somehow.
He got some bulletin articles and tracts and got those translated
into Russian and he started handing them out. And people wanted to
hear that. The Lord saved some people through
that. And they wanted to hear that... They wanted to hear that good
news. They had a desire. They sought him. But as that
grew, that desire grew, he didn't have a way of getting around.
Whoa, what are we going to do? It's over. A man here in the
United States, during a cold war, paid cash money for a van
for that man in Moscow. Sent him a van. Said he needed
something to spread the gospel and give it to him. He sent him
the money or the van, I don't know how it happened, but he
got transportation, somebody provided for him. And that man
drove around the suburbs of Moscow handing out tapes to Brother
Henry and Brother Bill. Isn't that something? Whenever
we consider Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin,
whoever, they cannot suppress the word of grace purposed by
our Master. Sheriff can't do it, Newsom can't
do it, Trump can't do it. I worry. Lord don't. Lord sustains
His gospel. Our Lord provides all things
in this earth and our souls, provides all things to salvation
and He provides all things for eternity. Jehovah-Jireh. While
I was considering these things, I read this text. Matthew 17,
we'll begin in verse 24. And when they were come to Capernaum,
They that received tribute money came to Peter and said, Doth
not your master pay tribute? He saith, Yes. And when he was
come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou,
Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth
take custom or tribute, of their own children or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers.
Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. That's the
title of my message, Then are the children free. Verse 27,
Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go out to the sea
and cast a hook, and take up the fish that cometh up first. And when thou hast opened his
mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money, that take and give
unto them for me and thee." For me and thee. Now this tribute
money, this wasn't a tax for Rome under Caesar. This was a
temple tax. And what these collectors were
speaking of was for the Jews only. They were required to do
this. I didn't write this down, but I think I need to touch on
it. There are so many things we do in this world in religion
and in our daily walk. We have no idea why we do it.
It's just a tradition. I was talking to some of the
men here that was in the military. They give 110% Why do we have
to give 110%? Why not 125%? Well, I'll tell
you why. There was 12 tribes in Israel,
weren't there? The tribe of Levi, those were
the priests. They didn't pay tithes. So take
a tenth from 11 tribes. How much is that? 110%. Now that's
a funny little note. Now we know where that came from.
But everything that's provided by the Lord for His people, for
His work, there's more than enough. There's more than enough. But
this tribute money began in Exodus. I'll be real quick about this.
There was a shekel of the sanctuary. Every male child of Israel, they
were numbered. They had numbers then. Every
male child over the age of 20 had to provide a shekel of the
sanctuary as a ransom for his soul. That's how the Lord worded
it. And it had to be perfect, like
it was straight from the U.S. Mint. It couldn't be worn down
in your pocket. It was real silver then. It couldn't
have little pieces shaved off. It had to be whole. It had to
be perfect. And that was the ransom for our
soul. What was one thing that was whole
and perfect and ransom for our soul? Does that put it in remembrance?
They took all those and they melted them down into talons.
It was a unit of weight. And each talon was a socket and
a floor of the temple. And so that way every time they
walked in, they took those big posts and slid them in those
sockets inside of those big old hunks of silver. And that held
up the sides, held up the sides of the tabernacle. So there wasn't
a nail in it. You never heard a man sawing. You never heard a man swinging
a hammer. The Lord built that place. And whenever you walked
in, all those talons, those shekels of the saints were melted down,
made that floor in the tabernacle, you were standing on the completed
redemptive work of Christ for His people." Now, is that a reminder? We're removed from that by a
couple thousand years. We don't know those things. But
the Lord gives us things we can't see. He gives us this story. They came for that tribute money.
And so these temple tithe collectors, what we call them nowadays, they
came and they asked Peter, does your master pay tribute? And Peter quickly replied, didn't
he? Yes, he does. And he'd been walking
with Christ for a while now. It's been a few years. He knew. He'd apparently seen him pay
this before. He had to answer for it. Yes, definitely he does.
But here our Savior is going to teach Peter something. He's
going to show those hateful collectors something. And we can learn from
this as well. We're going to learn from this.
Verse 25, He saith, Yes, and when he was come unto the house,
Jesus prevented him. He stopped him at the door and
let him speak, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings
of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children or of strangers? Now notice here, Peter was outside.
He wasn't with the Lord. He was out of the house where
the Lord was. And he didn't pay that money immediately. They
said, Does your master pay tribute? He didn't reach in his pocket
and give him whatever that tribute amount was, did he? He came to
Jesus. Came to where Christ was. And
what Peter needed was provided. He came to. Isn't that a lovely
picture? We walk around this world, we're always wanting.
We're always needing something. We think we need something. We
don't know the difference between wanting and needs. But when we come here
to the Lord's house, reminded of Him, everything is provided.
We don't want nothing, we don't need nothing. All our needs are
met, Christ pays it all. But Peter talks to these men
and he answers them, yes, my master pays tribute. And when
he went into the house where Christ was, before Peter could
announce why they was there, before those men could argue
their case, that they wanted tribute money, why they come,
to ask them questions, Christ spoke before any of them could
speak. And he asked his question. What
thinkest thou, Simon? Now have you ever noticed in
the scriptures, the Lord doesn't call Peter, Peter. He changes
his name to Peter. Your name's Peter now. You're
the rock. But he never called him that.
That's the same with all his apostles. We looked at this the
other day. He called them little children. He didn't say, well
this is the apostle John. He said, come here, this is one
of my little children, John. We should appreciate that. The Lord
never lets us get puffed up. He never lets us get above our
raising. He keeps us as little children, reminding us that we're
dependent on His power, on His mercy, on His grace and all things.
But He asked him, What thinkest thou, Simon? Now, our Lord knew
what Peter was thinking. That was a rhetorical question.
He didn't let Peter answer immediately. I think I know what he was thinking.
I can't stand the government meddling in our business. I can't
stand paying taxes. Oh, I hate it. That's what I
think. In the business I had before
I was called here, I paid a lot of taxes. We started finding
deductions on everything that wasn't nailed down and anything
that was nailed down. If it rolled or didn't move,
we tried to deduct it. I didn't want to pay them taxes.
I worked so hard for that money, I sweat. Daddy came home bleeding
a bunch of times from work, didn't I? I bled for that money, and
I didn't want to see it go to corrupt government. that supported
people that wouldn't work for themselves. They supported the
killing of babies, and on, and on, and on. I didn't want my
money, my hard-earned money, I didn't want it going to them.
And I murmured, I complained, I gropped. But whose government
is it? Who truly rules this nation and
all nations? Who's the king? Romans 13.1 says,
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there
is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained
of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth
the power resisteth the ordinance of God. Now me getting mad at
those taxes I had to pay was not me being mad at corrupt politicians. It was me being angry with God
who put those men there and who moves their hearts. That's what
it boils down to. Somebody can get mad and say,
I don't like to think of it that way. The Lord thinks of it that
way. That's what He said. But what a blessing it is if
we must pay a lot of taxes. It means you made a lot of money.
Think about our brethren down in Papua New Guinea. Think about
our brothers and sisters Christ died for down in the Yucatan.
under the jungles of Mexico, if they made in a year what we
pay in property taxes here in California, they would live like
kings. And we complain about it. Isn't that something? But
I can fully understand why so many men and women are so fervent
about changing this world. I get it. I can understand that. If I didn't believe on Christ,
if I didn't have eternal hope and being in glory with Him,
if this world was all that I had, I'd start with education. I'd
do some education reform. I'd do some welfare reform. Then
I'd work on the environment. And this is it. This is all I
got. I want my children and my grandchildren to have it better
than I had it. That's what I'd work at. That's what I'd push
for. I'd push better the economy. I'd fight for the rights of the
social injustices and the physical injustices. I would fight for
those things. I'd want this world to be better.
I would passionately fight for the causes that make it better
for my lineage. But we have a sovereign God. He is ruling and reigning in
all things. He controls where every grain
of sand is out there on La Jolla Beach. You go down to the ocean,
we'll go walk up and down and take your shoes off. Wiggle your
toes in real good. Every grain of sand that moved
underneath you, the Lord put it there. That's crazy, isn't
it? You little ones. Can you imagine that? Somebody
controlling every grain of sand in the ocean? But we complain and murmur about
the things around me, and I bring reproach on the Lord when I do
that. When I murmur, and I complain, and I gripe, and I'm... That's
me. I'm not talking to you, I'm talking
to me. When I'm against everything around
me, what I'm saying is, I don't believe God reigns, and I don't
think what He's doing's right, and I think my way's better.
That's what my heart's saying. How did our master handle false
accusations? How did he handle persecution?
The prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 50, the Lord God hath opened
mine ear and I was not rebellious, neither turned way back. I gave
my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off
the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Because the
Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore
have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be
ashamed." That's our Master speaking. Christ is speaking there. I pray
I'd be given the grace to set my jaw like a flint. You can
strike a match on it. Oh, I wish I could be that set
looking to Him, trusting the Father, loving my brethren. He
trusted him completely. And consider this. We look at
Peter here. Peter fully knew that this tribute
money was going to support false religion. Peter knew this tribute money
was not going to a faithful pulpit. He knew that, didn't he? If Christ
were here with us today, if he was here with us and that Catholic
church up the road came down the road and said, pay us tribute.
That's the law of the land. You've got pests. I'd be like
Peter whenever they come to get the Lord. I'd pull my sword out
and I'd take somebody's ear off. It's fighting words. I'm going
to fight for it. Would you be that way? I'd get
massed. Our Lord didn't. Look here at
verse 25, Matthew 17, 25. He saith 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 customer tribute?
Of their own children or of strangers?" Now here's a great picture of
Christ's condescension. Here's the humbleness of His
Spirit and the faith He had in the Father. He came to this earth
and He paid tribute. I was studying that for a week
and a half and my heart overflowed. It broke and it was rejoicing
at the same time. He owned the land they were standing
on. He owned the clothes on their back. He owned their bodies.
He owned the breath that was in their lungs. He owned everything
that tribute came from. They said, pay his tribute. He
said, alright. They should have paid him tribute. The earth is
the Lord and the fullness thereof. Christ should receive tribute
of everyone there, but what happened? Almighty God in human flesh submitted
to the law of the land. Seems like I'm beating that up,
don't it? Think about this, though. Everything that our Lord encountered
on this earth was unfair. Everything He went through was
unjust. It was unreasonable. Everything the world did to the
apostles was not right. That was unfair. But what did
they do? They submitted. Why? Why did
the Lord submit? Because we live here. I'm required
to live... Romans 13 ain't a joke. I'm required
to live perfectly before the Lord on this earth. I can't do
it. My Redeemer can. He came to live
perfectly. He was the only man that ever
walked this earth that had a right to complain. But he opened not his mouth,
the scriptures say. He made the law. He shouldn't
have to be subject to it. But he made himself under the
law. What does the king take a tribute
from? His own children or strangers? Peter saith unto him of strangers.
Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free, notwithstanding,
lest we should offend. Here's the king of kings paying
tribute. He who was rich became poor.
He who was judged was made under the law. He that was the son
was put under tutors. You saw that in Galatians, didn't
you? Christ was a boy sitting under
those tutors, those scribes and those Pharisees in the temple,
listening to them preach. Do you think He could have pricked
apart their messages? Do you think He could have publicly
shamed them? He was sitting there listening to them butcher His
law that He came to fulfill, and they butchered the pictures
of Him. that He moved those men of old to write of Him. The prophets
in the Old Testament wrote of Him. But He sat under those faulty,
fallible men. And we must sit under imperfect
men too. Christ is our covenant Head and
He came to pay all that we owe to God and to man. What's that mean? That's both
tablets of the law. The Ten Commandments, the first
five are to the Lord. He fulfilled them, He satisfied
the Lord. Second fives to men. He satisfied those too. He fulfilled
it all. What an example of faith, patience,
and submission. The only one who ever had the
right to complain never did. The only one who could have changed
the social order of things. There's a lot of stuff I want
to change in this earth. The one who can Change them. I can get mad and I'm going to
end up with a shiny pair of bracelets in county jail. The one who could
change them didn't. Why not? Why didn't the Lord
come here and make this world perfect? Why didn't He come here
and stop them? Back in those days, they threw
babies off cliffs. Why didn't He stop that? He said, My kingdom's
not of this earth. My kingdom's of heaven. Should
I be concerned about things on this earth? My kingdom's not
of this earth. I'm joining hands with Him. That's
my kingdom. It's already perfect. I don't
have to do nothing. Now the children of the King
are free, but they are not to offend. We're free from all these
laws, but we're still not to offend. How do we become a free
child of the King? We're born of God. We're adopted
of the Lord. We're made children of God by
the Spirit of God. That's how we become those free
children. Turn over to Galatians 3. We looked at this a few months
ago, but we'll be reminded of it. Galatians 3 verse 22. Galatians 3.22 But the scriptures
hath concluded all under sin. Every human born on this earth
was under the law of God and each one of us are guilty. The
law does not commend, the law condemns. But the scriptures
hath concluded that all are under sin that the promise, the covenant
that the Lord made that he will be our God and we will be his
people. by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
But before faith came, We were kept under the law, shut up unto
the faith which should afterwards be revealed. We saw that schoolmaster
before I was a hired servant, and his sole job was to take
those children of the wealthy man to and from school, take
them to and from the teacher. They took in the children of
the king to the teacher. That's what the schoolmaster
did. Who does the law, our schoolmaster, bring the free children of the
King to? Look here at verse 24, Galatians
3, 24. For the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
But after that faith has come, we are no longer under the schoolmaster.
Now we're the children of God. We're free from the law. Verse
26, For ye are the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. To the king, children are born. They don't know what they're
supposed to know. The law brings them to that great teacher, to
Christ, and we learn. We're taught of God. We know
we're freed from that law because of our Redeemer, and now we know
we're children. Like we saw this morning, we
have assurance. We know Him, don't we? Any person that's given
an understanding of what God's holy law really requires. I mean,
if you put that in real world application today, if you understand
that, you love the sound of that. That's good news, to be freed
from that law. But though we are free from the law, notwithstanding,
we should be without offense. God's children are freed from
sin, we're freed from the law, we're freed from captivity, freed
from ignorance. We know Christ, we know all things. Free from
ignorance. Free from superstition. And the
scripture superstition means overly religious. We're freed
from that. And we're freed from death. The
child of God is made free through Christ. Turn over to Romans 13.
Romans 13, we'll look in verse 6. I'm sorry, Romans 13 verse 5.
We'll start in verse 5. Wherefore, ye must needs be subject
not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake, like obedient
children. We used to be children of wrath,
even as others, Scriptures say. Children of murmuring, children
who always complain, children that were angry at everything
around us. Now we're servants, we're meek,
we're humble. Those children of wrath, mad
at everything, who were they really mad at? God. But we're no longer children
of wrath. Our teacher was effective. We're still learning through
this life though. The Lord doesn't save us one day and all of a
sudden we're perfect. We're still in this flesh, we're still in
this body of sin. Verse six, Romans 13, six. For
this cause pay ye tribute also, for they are God's ministers,
his servants, attending continually upon this very thing. My boss
is mean to me. Can't stand my boss, he's a tyrant.
Who put him there? Who gave you that job? We need
to continually attend upon these very things, don't we? Verse
7, render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute
is due, custom to whom custom is due, fear to whom fear is
due. Up here in verse 4 it says they
carry that sword and it ain't in vain. You go out and drink
a bunch of beer and drive up down that road, you're going
to find out what the local sheriff's sword is like. It's not in vain. He put them there. Honor to whom
honor, verse 8, no man anything but to love one another. For
he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. We saw this morning,
if we love our brethren, that's because the love of Christ is
in us and we've already fulfilled that law. It's complete. Our
Master said, be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is. Told
us to pray for our enemies. Don't rebel. Don't fight against
them. Submit and be happy in the Lord. He careth for you.
Our Lord works all things for His glory and our good. You remember
Joseph and Mary? You men listen to me. I want
you to put yourself in Joseph's shoes. You have a pregnant wife
with your first child. There's a tyrannical dictator,
Herod, running the country. And he decides he wants to have
a census. Make people pay some taxes. Everybody
needs to go to the place that it's born. He needs a bigger
boat. He's got a social cause he wants
to push, some evil cause, whatever it is. And now you and your wife,
your wife's six months pregnant. You gotta make a three month
journey to get back home. So this wicked man can do some
type of injustice. How would you feel? I would have
withstood the whole way. I would have gropped and complained
and kicked dirt the whole way. But notwithstanding, as our Lord
says, they went to Bethlehem. Why would they have to go there?
That's where our Savior must be born. Back to our text. I'll try to
hurry it up. We are free, children of the
kings, we don't have to pay taxes. Matthew 17, verse 27. All those things don't apply
to us, but not with sanding, lest we should offend them, go
out into the sea." There's so much here. I'll try to keep it
brief. What's that sea a picture of?
The unseen riches of the Lord. We also see the wrath of the
Lord in those waves, but once you get underneath there, there's
no storms. Nothing bothers you. And there's
nothing but life and riches. It says, oh, the depths, both
of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. Go out to the sea, he
tells him, and cast a hook. Peter, did he tell him, go dig
up some earthworms? Did he say, get you a rooster
tail? Put you a spinner bait on there? He said, cast a hook.
Jerry, when we go fishing, do we put bait on the hook? Yeah,
that's how you catch fish, isn't it? That's a good picture for
modern religion in these days. They want to be fishers of men
and they bait those hooks. Whatever they can put on there.
We cast a hook. And take the fish that first cometh up. Render
the first fruits unto the Lord. I need that! I need that fish. Render the first fruits unto
the Lord. Watch what happens. And when thou hast opened his
mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money that take and give unto
them for me and thee." One piece of money. One payment is needed. One required payment. Take it
and give it for me and thee. Our Lord came as the God-man
to do something for Himself, for His namesake and for me. Man cannot pay the tribute that
God requires. Christ came and kept the law
for himself and for me and for his people and for you. Christ
provided all our needs on this earth, all of our spiritual needs. We have never contributed anything. That president used to say, I
didn't build that. I'm bad for that. If we have a job, He gave
it. If we have hands to work with,
He made them and He puts energy in them. If we eat a chicken,
I was thinking about this the other day, if we eat a chicken,
whether it was a chicken or an egg, the Lord created a chicken
in the beginning of the world and He sustained chickens all
through that lineage and through diseases and through pestilence
and through forest fires and everything so I could have a
chicken on my table. gave me the money to buy it.
Physically, in this world, we may see that we won't be able
to pay the tribute. There's going to be times, I've
experienced this, and I know I will more the longer I live.
How are we going to make ends meet? How am I going to pay that
bill? Go to the Lord. Go to His house. Much more importantly,
spiritually, we may feel completely bankrupt. which our Lord tells us to do.
Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Cast all your care
on Him. Don't bring anything with you.
Cast a bare, naked hook into His depths of mercy and you'll
find everything that's needed. Everything. I hope that's a blessing
to you. Let's pray together.