Turn back to Matthew chapter
17. Matthew chapter 17. There's some good food in these
verses for us. I really didn't know exactly
how to title the message. I titled it, We Live in His Presence.
We Live in His Presence. It struck me how that Peter,
after talking to these men who were asking for tribute, and Peter answered, and he said,
yes, my master pays tribute. Well, he didn't really know.
When he said that, well, yes, he pays it. Then he said, I'm
going to go find out. But you know, Peter, he just, but anyway,
when he, when he, enters the house, the Lord stopped him and
told him about that conversation. Gave him the answer to it. He heard that whole conversation. And it struck me, it just struck
me when I read that, how the Lord hears our conversations. Every word
comes out of our mouth. Every thought. Not a thought
can be withheld from Him. I'll show you this here in the
Scriptures here in a little bit. But what I want us to look at
this morning here is realities. Realities. Living in reality. Now this is the third time our
Lord speaks of His death and of His resurrection. This is
the third time. He's preparing them for that
hour of hours. When he's going to suffer, he's
going to be rejected, even they are going to leave him, and he's
going to be put to death. He said killed. Be killed. And it caused him great sorrow
after he told him three times. It still caused great sorrow
because they never, they hadn't yet grasped what's going on here. But the good news is still this. On the third day, He said, the
Son of Man is going to go to Jerusalem. He's going to be delivered. He's going to be betrayed. On
the third day, He shall rise. That's the good news of the Gospel.
He lived, He died, and He lives. He's raised the third day. Abraham
saw this. He said, Abraham saw my day.
And he was glad. You remember when he was going
to offer up Isaac? It says he received Isaac in like figure,
being raised from the dead. So when Abraham went to offer
up Isaac, he did it knowing that Isaac was going to be raised
again. He received him in a like figure. Well, of course, you
know the story. He didn't have to do that. But here, our Lord
talks of His death and His resurrection. And I want us to look at some
realities this morning. First of all, the first reality
is this, of his person, of his person. He says, the son of man,
the son of man. There is truly, truly such a
man. There's truly such a person right
now seated at God's right hand. Though he was and is God in every
way. In every way. Yet, he was a real
man. He was a real man. Bone of our
bone. Flesh of our flesh. He felt everything
that a human being feels. He was real. Except for sin.
He knew no sin. He hungered. He knows what it
is to be hungry. He knows what it is to be thirsty.
This man knows what it is to be weary. He knows what it is
to be that way. He knows what it is to be tempted.
And this says in all points. Tried in all points, yet without
sin. This man, God man, yes, but a
man. Yes, a real man with a real soul. Someone said, I read this one
time, he was as much man as if he were not God, as much God
as if he were not a man, yet these two was Jesus Christ. He
felt everything we feel. And He suffered. He suffered. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And our Lord always kept His
sufferings and death at the forefront of His ministry. He never lost
sight of what He came to do. Satan tried to distract Him.
Satan tried to tempt Him into wilderness to throw Him off course.
Men tried. He never lost sight of what he
came to do. He came to suffer. He came to
die. He never lost sight of that.
And it was always at the forefront of his ministry. And it's to
be at the forefront of our ministry. Christ crucified is our message. He is our message. And this man,
he says, must go to Jerusalem and be betrayed into the hands
of men. Wicked men. God hating rebels. He's going to be betrayed into
their hands. He knew. He knew what was laying ahead
for him. He knew what lay ahead for him.
Would you want to know that? Would you want to know what's
going to happen to you tomorrow? Would you want to know the hour of
your death? Would you want to know the way you're going to die?
No, I don't. You don't either. You don't want
to know what tomorrow brings. We're going to leave it in His
hands. Because I tell you this. If tomorrow brings a good day,
we'll be happy. If tomorrow brings something that's tragic, we'll
never get past it. We'll just be dreading that day
all until it comes. I don't want to know that day.
He knew everything. He knew everything. As a man,
listen, as God, He knew all things. As a man, He learned all things.
And He learned what lay ahead. He knew what was going to happen
to Him at Jerusalem. But he's a man. He's a man. He's a real man. And it had to
be a real man. It had to be. It was a real man
that broke God's law. An animal didn't break God's
law. A bull or a goat or a sheep, they didn't break God's law.
A real man broke God's law. The same nature. This sin must
be the same nature that's punished for sin. It has to be the same
nature that brings satisfaction. It's the only way it can be.
And then we must live in the reality of His death. His death
on the cross was real. It happened 2,000 years ago,
but I tell you what, when John went to the third heaven, you
know what he saw? A lamb as though it had been
slain. As if it had just happened. As
if it had just happened. This man, this Son of Man here,
really died under the wrath of God for sin. He really endured
and suffered the punishment of our hell. He suffered what I
should have suffered. I can't even imagine that. I
can't imagine hell. I can't imagine the sufferings
of that place. I can't imagine the sufferings of God's wrath.
But this man, this man endured that. He suffered that, that
you and I might go free. You and I who believe the gospel.
It says His soul, His very being, that's what a soul is, a man's
very being, was made an offering for sin over in Isaiah 53. He bore our sins in His body
on the tree. He died for all the sins of all
the elect of God. All of them were laid upon this
man. And he bore him and he put him
away. And because of me, because of
me, this man's put to death. I am the cause of this man's
death. Now, I know the moving cause
is the love of God. He gave his son. God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son. But I'm telling
you, in a real sense, I'm the cause of this man's death. I
had to sit down and I had to think about that for a while. If you was the cause of someone's
death right now, how much would it trouble you? How much would
it trouble you? I remember a few years ago, some
of you know this, Jeremy had hit a girl. She tried to get
away from the dog, and she jumped in front of the car, and she
hit the windshield, and she went into a coma, and we thought she
was going to die. And he had come home from school,
and he would just hit the floor crying. Scared death, hit the
floor crying, because scared death, this girl's going to die.
And I hit her with my car, you know, I'm the cause of it. And
he felt that. I'm the cause of this man's death.
Look over in Acts, over in the book of Acts, chapter 2. Over in Acts, chapter 2. Look
at this. In Acts chapter 2, verse 36,
Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God
hath made that same Jesus whom you have crucified, whom you
killed, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they
were pricked in their hearts. They were pricked in their...
We put the death, the Son of God. We murdered the Son of God. We are the cause of His death.
It says they were pricked in their hearts. And He said to
Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall
we do? We are guilty of this man's death. What shall we do? And Peter said, repent and be
baptized. Every one of you in the name
of that man you just put to death. Jesus Christ. For the remission
of sins. And you shall receive the gift
of the Holy Ghost. Even though I caused his death
by my sins, the Father gave him, the Father ordained this out
of love to his people to redeem us. Yet I am the cause of it
too. In a real sense, I'm the cause of it because of my sins.
But because of his death, I live now. He said, because I live,
you shall live also. But he had to die. This man had
to die in order for me to live, in order for you to live. was
that one of the high priests stood up that year and said,
one man has to die that the whole nation perish not. This man has
to die that you and I might live. This is real. Live in the reality
of it. Live with it. And then we have
here the reality of his resurrection. When he told the disciples, That
the Son of Man, and they knew who He was talking about. They
knew who He was talking about. He was talking about Himself.
He was going to go to Jerusalem and be killed. And that was a
great sorrow. But here's the good news of the
Gospel. He died, yes, but He's not dead. He's not dead. Peter said to
those men, God hath raised that same Jesus, made Him both Lord
and Christ. He's both Lord and Savior. Just
as sure as He was put to death in the flesh, He was quickened
by the Spirit. Death could not hold Him. It
was not possible, the Scripture says, that death should hold
Him. There was no more claims that it had on Him. He put away
sin. Death couldn't hold Him. The
law had no charges against Him now. He has no charge against
any of his elect. That's why he was delivered for
our offenses and raised again for our justification. He's not
dead now. He's alive forevermore. Right
now, this man is seated at God's right hand,
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. Right now,
in the flesh, he said, touch me, a spirit has not flesh and
bones. In the flesh. Right now, there
is a man seated at God's right hand, a place of honor, a place
of power. He's seated there, ruling and
reigning over all things. Right now. He raised again from the dead. On the third day, just as he
said, he rose from the grave victorious. He rose from the
grave a mighty conqueror. The mighty conqueror. Let me
show you over here in Ephesians chapter 4. In Ephesians chapter 4, it says in verse 8, Wherefore he
saith, When he ascended up on high, Who ascended? The Lord
Jesus Christ, this man. He led captivity captive, and
he gave gifts unto men. Now that He ascended, what is
it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of
the earth? He died. He was buried. But now He that
descended is the same also. It's the same person. It's the
same person that ascended up far above all heavens that He
might fill all things. He's alive. We need to live in the reality of
that every day. Not just these times, not when
we just come together, but I mean every day. Live in the reality
of that. His death was the death of death.
And now that he lives, you shall live also. He said, because I
live, you shall live also. And just as sure as he rose from
the dead, all those who believe in him shall rise also. Look
over in 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians. This is used at a lot of funerals.
I've used it at several funeral services. Because it's comforting. Comforting one another with these
words. That's what it says. Over here in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4, listen, verse 13. But I would
not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which
are asleep. that you sorrow not even as others which have no
hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even
so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For
this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, we have this by
the word of God, that we which are alive and remain unto the
coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, And
the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive
and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. Everyone for whom he died shall
be raised first spiritually in the new birth. And then secondly,
their bodies will be raised from the grave. open up. And just as He came out of the
grave, they are going to come out of the grave. Every last
one of them. Every one of them. And then we
need to live in the reality, and this is the one that caught
my attention, the reality of His presence. We're never alone. I'm telling you, we are never
alone. We are never out of His presence. Let's go back here. Let's go
back here in this chapter. In verse 24, when they were come
to Capernaum, they that received tribute money. Now, that's over
in the Old Testament, over in Exodus. You can find that over
in Exodus 30. I won't go over there right now,
but it's Exodus 30, verses 12 through 14. This was instituted. This was called ransom. If you
go over there, you'll find this called ransom money. It was a
ransom money for a man's soul. And what it was used for, it
was used to take care of the temple, the tabernacle, then
the temple and the services. And there was a half a shekel,
I believe it was, that was put on this. Well, they made it into
a custom and kept it. It's like the toll booth on West
Virginia Turnpike. That was supposed to have been
taken off years ago. But the money was so good from it, no
way. And that's what happened here.
This was just for a time. It wasn't supposed to be a perpetual
thing. And it was also a free will thing. It was to give freely. Each man
was to give freely above the age of 20 years of age. They
were supposed to give this, but they were to give it freely.
And it was only supposed to be for that particular time. Well,
of course, they, you know, the money was just too good to give
up. So they turned it into a custom and they kept it. And so that's
the story behind that. So they come and they ask Peter,
because this is not a Roman tax. This is not a tax from Rome that
gets paid to Rome. This gets paid from the Jewish
people to the temple. And so they said, does not your
master pay tribute, ransom? Boy, does he ever. Yeah, he came
to pay the ransom price, all right. They called a tribute
then at this time. And Peter said, yes. And he said
yes, not knowing exactly whether he was going to do this or not. And when he was coming to the
house, he was going to ask the Lord Jesus. He was going to ask
Him about this. And the Lord prevented him. He
stopped him. Didn't allow him to say a word.
And he said, What thinkest thou, Simon, of whom do the kings of
the earth take custom or tribute, of their children or strangers?
So he heard the whole conversation and he was not there with him.
He was not physically standing there by him. He heard the whole
conversation going on with Peter and these people collecting their
tribute. And I'm telling you, we are never out of his presence.
And we need to live, we ought to live and need to live with
this reality that the Lord is always with us. Moses said to
the children of Israel, the Lord doth hear your murmuring. He hears our prayers, but he
also hears our murmuring too. The Lord heard that conversation
between Peter and those men. Hagar, she said, thou God seest
me. out there with Ishmael that got
kicked out. She's out there crying. The child's
going to die of thirst. She puts him over off at a distance.
She didn't want to watch him die. She was over at a distance. And the Lord came to her and
showed her the water. And she said, Thou, God, seest
me. Thou, God, seest me at all times. Remember that. At all times He sees us. Look over in Psalm 139. Very familiar psalm. Psalm 139. I have written, Henry
preached from this one time, I have written by this, the observed
and the observer. Look in verse 7. Whither shall
I go from thy spirit? Whither or whither shall I flee
from thy presence? Where can I go that God is not? If I ascend up into heaven, thou
art there. If I make my bed in hell or in
the grave, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall
thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say,
Surely the darkness shall cover me, Even the night shall be light
about me. Can any hide himself from God?
Says the Lord in Isaiah. Can any hide himself from God?
He says, Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night
shineth as the day. The darkness and the light are
both alike to thee. Whither can I flee from thy presence? Nowhere. Nowhere. There's not a thought. that can
be withheld from him. There's not a word that he does
not hear me speak. There's not an action that he
does not see. And not just us, but I mean the
whole world over. Every human being. So David said,
he said, this kind of knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's
just beyond me, beyond my grasp. And we need to realize this at
all times, at all times. We need to live in the immediate
presence of God Almighty. We live in His presence. David said this in Psalm 51.
Against thee, this is after he committed adultery. Against thee
and thee only have I sinned and done this evil. Where? In thy sight. With you looking
on. He said, David realized this.
David said, I realized that I did this, God, in Your face. He said, I realized it with You
looking on. Live with that. You need to live
with that reality. Never think you're alone. You're
not. Not ever. And then we need to
live in the reality of His power. Not only His presence, but His
power. Our Lord said in one place, all power belongs to me in heaven
and earth. All power. Now I want you to
notice, go back here to chapter 17. Peter said unto him, he said
strangers, you know, Jesus said unto him, then are the children
free. Notwithstanding, notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go
thou to the sea, cast a hook, and take up the fish that first
comes up, And when you've opened His mouth, there'll be some money
in it. There'll be a piece of money.
That take, give it for me and you. Here's His power. We see His presence, His omnipresence. Now we can see His power. His
power. He controls all things. Even the fish of the sea. Turn
over to Psalm 80. This is our Lord now. This is
that man. This is that man. He's got to
go to Jerusalem. Over here in Psalm. Chapter eight. Takes me just a little longer
since I've got this new Bible. Psalm eight. Look in verse six
and eight. Thou madest him, that is, this
man, the son of man, to have dominion over the works of thy
hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet." And then it
lists here, he says, all sheep, oxen, and the beasts of the field,
the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passes
through the pass of the seas. All of them are under the dominion
of this man. And he says, Peter, go down to
the sea, throw a hook in. You're going to catch a fish,
and it's going to be the first one. And the first one that takes
the hook, the first one you pull up, you open its mouth and you
take out the coin. There's His power. His power
over all things. If we would live in the reality
of this, it would give us more courage to do the things we do.
His power over all things. And we may safely serve Him who
has the power to make all things work together for our good. None
can resist His power, not even a fish. Here's probably what
happened. Somebody's out fishing. Paul
was telling me this, Paul Mahan. They were out fishing. They was
out floating the New River. And they had put their money
in this thing they thought was safe. They put everything in
there they thought was safe. Well, they turned over. Everything
went down. Keys and all. Everything went
down. Somebody was probably fishing one day and then flipped over. They've lost some of their money.
And they're like, oh man, we lost our money. And a fish comes
along. And this fish picks up that piece
of coin. And this fish holds that coin until Peter comes along
and catches it. That's how minutely God controls
all things. That's how minutely the Lord
Jesus Christ controls all things. That's how minutely this man
controls all things. He's got the power to do it.
And then last of all, his willingness not to offend. Not to offend. You know, we live in a country
that's just... I mean, it's built on my rights My rights. You know, I have the right to
this. I don't care if all of you go
to hell. I have the right to this. That's the attitude now, especially
nowadays. But our Lord shows His willingness
here not to offend over things that don't matter, even if it
costs you some money. If it's not a gospel issue, if
it's not God's right, if it's just my right, pay it. Don't
offend. Don't offend. He said to Peter,
he asked Peter, he said, who do the kings of the earth tax,
their children or strangers or just the other common people
in the kingdom? He said, well, they don't tax
the children. He said, well, then are the children free? And
he's saying to this, Peter, you're free from this. Peter, you don't
owe this tax. I'm the king and you're a child
of the king. You are sons and daughters of
the king. You're not under law. You're not under this custom.
You're not under this. But lest we should offend them,
we're going to go ahead and pay it. Boy, what a lesson for us. What a lesson. Then are the children
free, but lest we should offend, let's go ahead and pay. Our Lord
never put a stumbling block in the path of sinners when it wasn't
necessary. He did not unnecessarily put
stumbling blocks in anybody's way. And He's teaching us to
forego our rights Our right to keep from offending lost men
and women. Paul said that he endured all
things for the elect's sake. Paul had the right to take money.
He had the right to take money from the churches to live on,
but he worked with his hands and made tents. He said, I have
the power to do this. We just saw that in a lesson
here in Corinthians, I think it's chapter 9. I have the power
to do this, but I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to tell
you. He suffered all things for the
elect's sake. You know, the gospel we preach is offensive enough.
We don't have to add to it. It's offensive enough to human
nature. Now, I want us to look at this
last thing here. I want you to notice how the Lord paid the
ransom money. That's what it is. Go back over
in Exodus chapter 30. It's ransom money. And our Lord
paid the ransom money that we might go free, that we might
not be obligated. He willingly laid down His life
for us. Did you notice when Peter went
and did what the Lord said, he obeyed, he caught this fish,
how many pieces of silver was in that fish's mouth? There was not two, one for Peter
and one for the Lord. There was one, one price. There
was one price paid, and our Lord paid it. There was one price
for redemption, and our Lord paid it. There was one price
for ransom, and our Lord paid it. When Peter caught this fish,
he brought it up, and there was one piece in its mouth. The Lord
told there would be one piece. He not only willingly paid tribute,
But he willingly paid Peter's tribute also. And here it is. Our debts became
his. He's the king. But the king,
the king of glory, freely took our debt and paid it. Paid the
ransom price. He did it. And his payment, his
payment, he said, Peter, you give this to them for me and
you. He paid it, and He paid it for
us. His payment is ours. His payment to God's law, God's
justice, is our payment. He paid it for us. He paid the
sin debt for us. By His one sacrifice, all for
whom He died are now free. Then are the children free. The
law has no claims on you. It has no claims on you. Then
are the children free. Are we children by faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ? Yes. Yes. The law has no claims
on us. However, let us not offend needlessly.
If it's something that doesn't matter, let it go. Let it go. That's what our Lord's teaching.
Give up your rights. We don't give up God's rights.
Give up your rights. That's what He's teaching Peter
and us. Give them up. You're free. You're free. But don't offend people purposely.
Okay, Mike.