Please pay attention now, people of God. What you're about to hear is the very Word of God. Luke chapter 20, beginning at verse 19. This is the Word of God. And the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on him, but they feared the people, for they knew he had spoken this parable against them. So they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they might seize on his words in order to deliver him to the power and the authority of the governor. Then they asked him, saying, Teacher, we know that you say and teach rightly, and you do not show personal favoritism, but teach the way of God and truth. Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But he perceived their craftiness and said to them, why do you test me? Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have? They answered and said, Caesar's. And he said to them, render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. but they could not catch him in his words in the presence of the people, and they marveled at his answer and kept silent. This is the word of God, amen. As your pastor congregation, it is my joy to see you grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is my desire, this is my prayer for you, that you would continue to love the Word of God, the Word of Christ, and thereby love and worship the Christ of the Word. This is the way we know our Jesus. The more we know His Word, the more we get to know our Savior and love Him and cherish Him and adore Him. And for that reason, I'm excited that we have recently started to have more intentional times of questions and answers in our Christian education time. I love to hear your questions because I know your desire. Your desire is not to trap me or trip me or stump me. Your desire is to learn and grow and understand the Word of God better. So when you ask me a question, I'm excited because I know that you love the Lord Jesus Christ, and you want to grow in your Christian pilgrimage. Praise the Lord! Questions and answers are wonderful, and I'm excited for us to do that even more consistently. However, Some people ask questions, not in order to learn and grow. Some people ask questions with an agenda, in order to harm, and not in order to be helped. And this is what we see here in our sermon text. The chief priests and the scribes sent spies to Jesus. Their agenda was to get rid of Jesus, to harm him, to destroy him. And what do they do? They send spies who would ask Jesus questions. And behind their questions, they were hiding their wickedness. They were not interested in finding answers to questions in order to know the word of God. They wanted to trap Jesus. catch him saying something that they can use against him to accuse him, have him arrested and remove him from the scene. That's what these questioners wanted. We see one such question in our sermon text this morning. This question is about taxes. Should we pay taxes to Caesar or not? And then we'll look at another question next Lord's Day when the Sadducees, who don't even believe in the resurrection, come to Jesus with this theological question with the intent to trap Him, corner Him. Our Lord Jesus, however, being truly God and truly man, reveals His wisdom and His divine authority in His answers to those questions. And through His answers that He gives, He calls sinners to Himself. He calls sinners to repent and cast themselves at the mercy of Christ that they might be saved. Hallelujah, what a Savior! These questioners wanted to harm Jesus and yet Jesus in his mercy still proclaims the gospel to them and calls them to take refuge in him. and have eternal life. Jesus is Lord, the only Redeemer of God's elect, and blessed are those who take refuge in Him. The theme of our sermon this morning is this. The triune God calls you this morning, through His word, to worship Him alone and to live under the Lordship of Christ, because Jesus is Lord, not Caesar. The triune God calls you this morning to worship Him alone and live your lives under the Lordship of Christ because He is Lord, not Caesar. As we consider that main idea, we'll look at four points to study this text. Three points, actually. Firstly, the hypocrisy of men, secondly, the wisdom of God, and thirdly, the lordship of Christ. The hypocrisy of men, the wisdom of God, and the lordship of Christ. So firstly, the hypocrisy of men. Let's look at verse 19 that connects our sermon text with the previous passage. Look at verse 19. And the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay their hands on him. But they couldn't, because they feared the people. For they knew He had spoken this parable against them. What parable? Now remember, last Lord's Day, we studied the parable of the wicked tenants, right? These wicked tenants who murder the son of the landowner. And that parable was given against these leaders of Israel, and they understood that. They understood that they're the ones who represent those tenant farmers who were supposed to be laborers in the vineyard, but instead of taking care of the vineyard, they wanted to illegally take possession of the vineyard. And when the landowner sent servants, they beat those servants and put them away. And when the landowner said, I'm going to send my beloved son, those tenant farmers said, there is the son. He's the heir. All of this belongs to him. Let's kill him. And then this vineyard will be ours. How wicked, how evil. But this is what the shepherds of Israel were doing. God sent prophets. They persecuted the prophets. They killed the prophets, murdered the prophets. And finally, God, who was so merciful and so patient, Instead of destroying those wicked leaders, God sent his beloved son. And what did they do with his son? They wanted to kill him instead of submitting to his authority. And so the scribes and the elders understood this parable was about them. And what was their response? Again, not one of humility, but they wanted to lay their hands on him and get rid of him. How tragic. The spiritual leaders of Israel were the hired laborers in the Lord's vineyard, but they had abandoned their calling and they had become corrupt. Instead of upholding and preaching the word of God, They were preaching and upholding and imposing upon people traditions made by men, traditions of the elders. They had rejected the gospel. They had rejected the religion of the Old Testament that says that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone. They had created an apostate form of Judaism. a works-righteousness system that teaches justification not by faith, like Abraham was justified, but justification by our works of the law. And the Pharisees prided themselves on their keeping of the law, but their hearts were filled with wickedness. Jesus said about them, you sing praises with your lips, but your hearts are far from me. This is the shallowness and the deception of false religion. False religions can only look pretty on the outside, but on the inside it's filled with dead men's bones, like a beautifully decorated tomb on the outside. There's no power, there is no transformation, there is no worship. True worship looks to Jesus. And if you reject Jesus, you don't worship God. If you reject Jesus, your religion is not the true religion, but a false religion that belongs to the devil. We cannot save ourselves by our law-keeping. We cannot help ourselves. Our help is in the name of the Lord. Salvation belongs to the Lord. That's the message of the Old Testament. but they rejected it. They didn't want the grace of God. They didn't want the Messiah. They wanted to promote their spiritual empire. And when Jesus showed up and revealed their hypocrisy and called people to true repentance and faith in him, they didn't like it. They saw their false spiritual empire crumbling before their eyes, and they wanted to murder the Messiah. But Jesus came into the world to save sinners. You see, their problem was not a lack of evidence. They had all the evidence that they needed. The works of Jesus, the works that He performed, the healing of the sick, the giving of the sight to the blind, the deliverance of people from demon possession, the raising of the dead, the proclamation of the news of liberty to those who are captive, all of those works authenticate the messianic identity of Jesus. They had all the information. Their problem was not intellectual. Their problem was moral. Their problem was the hardness of their hearts. The claims that Jesus made about himself, there was no confusion that he claimed to be the Messiah and he claimed to be God. You know, if you're sharing the gospel with someone and they tell you, Jesus never claimed to be God. I mean, he said he was a great teacher, but he never really claimed to be God. He never said, I am God. Where does he say that? Point them to John 8, verse 58. Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. Quote John 8, 58 to people. Tell them Jesus claimed to be Jehovah. He is God. And when you examine the claims of Jesus, you can't dismiss him as a good moral teacher. He didn't leave that option for us. He was either a liar, or he was a lunatic, or he is the Lord of glory. Jesus is so compelling, isn't He? And He calls us to trust in Him, abandon works righteousness, abandon our merits and our false religion, and take refuge in Him. For in Him alone we have salvation and the forgiveness of our sins. All that to say, people of God, that in verse 19, when the chief priests and the scribes sought to lay their hands on Jesus and kill him, they were rebelling against God. They were doing great wickedness. They had abandoned the Word of God. Instead of repenting and humbling themselves under the mighty hand of God and trusting in Christ alone for salvation, they were seeking a way to get Jesus arrested so that they could get rid of Him. And so they came up with a plan. They came up with a strategy, and their strategy was Q and A. Let's do a question and answer session with Jesus. Let's send some spies to get him to say something that would get him in trouble so that we could accuse him either of being a heretic or of being an insurrectionist. Let's just get rid of him somehow. And so look at verse 20. And so they watched him and they sent spies who pretended to be righteous that they might seize on his words in order to deliver him to the power and the authority of the governor. Children, pride is so destructive, right? It makes people blind and foolish. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. The religious elite were so filled with animosity and hatred toward Jesus, and they were so driven by pride to maintain their empire, that they sent spies who pretended to be godly people, but in their hearts, they were filled with all kinds of evil and wickedness. They were wolves in sheep's clothing. They were hiding their wickedness behind the cloak of questions. Today's question will have political implications. Next Lord's Day's question will have theological implications. Again, they ask these questions not in order to grow in their understanding of the Word of God, but in order to harm Jesus. Now, kids, before they ask their question, notice how they try to flatter Jesus, butter Him up, saying nice things about Him. They didn't mean any of it, but they were flattering with their words. Look at verse 21. Then they asked Jesus, saying, Teacher, We know that you say and teach rightly. You do not show personal favoritism, but you always teach the way of God and truth. This is called flattery, children, because flattery is saying something in order to please someone that you don't even mean. You just want to get something out of that person. You don't mean anything you said. You just say nice things. in order to get something for your personal gain. Now, even though it was flattery and they didn't believe anything that they said about Jesus, nonetheless, what they did say about Jesus is true, right? It is true. Jesus does say and teach rightly. He does not show personal favoritism, but he always teaches the way of God and truth. That is true. In fact, Jesus Christ is the prophet, the prophet par excellence, the prophet that Moses prophesied and spoke about. In Deuteronomy 18 verse 15, here's what Moses says. The Lord your God would raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear. This prophet whose coming was prophesied by Moses is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Jesus is our prophet, priest, and king. And Jesus reveals the Father to us, right? He exegetes the Father. He declares the Father. John 1 18, no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. And so, yes, even though these spies were making this statement without sincerity, what they said about Jesus is true. Jesus proclaims the Word of God to us. In fact, not only does He speak the truth about God, He is the truth, right? Not only does He show us the way to God, He is the way. John 14, six. I am the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus said, no man comes to the Father except through me. Jesus is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. There is no other Savior but Christ. And Christ is our prophet through his word and spirit reveals to us God's word concerning our salvation. Yes, Jesus is truth. And now they proceeded to ask their question to Jesus. And they thought this was a trick question to get him. Here's the question, verse 22. Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Now this is how they were thinking in terms of being a trick question. If the Lord Jesus simply answered, yes, it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, he would be branded as a traitor to the Jewish nation and as a companion of the tax collectors who are supporting the Roman Empire and their oppression on the people of God. If he had said, no, don't pay your taxes, They would accuse him of insurrection against Rome, and they would have him arrested by the Roman soldiers. And if he simply said, I don't know, I'm not sure, then he would lose his credibility before the people as the truth itself. He claimed to be the truth, right? And for him to say, I don't know, would have him lose his popularity, his credibility with the people. And so they thought they had cornered Jesus. They had presented Jesus with an inescapable dilemma. Gotcha, Jesus. Look at verse 23. But he, Jesus, perceived their craftiness, their hypocrisy, and said to them, why do you test me? This is amazing. Who could know the motive of someone's heart? Who could know what is in someone's heart? I could only hear your words. I do not know what's in your heart. And yet Jesus knew what was in their hearts, right? Kids, this verse is teaching us that Jesus is God. Nothing can be hidden from Jesus. He saw right through their insincerity and their question and exposed the deepest motive of their hearts. Christ knew what they were thinking, what was in their wicked heart. Only God can know what is in someone's heart. Only God can know all things. And we believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is truly God and truly man. As touching is his human nature, his knowledge is limited. He doesn't know all things as touching his human nature. But in his deity as God, he's omniscient, and he knows all things. Nothing can be hidden from Christ, but all things are exposed and laid bare before the eyes of the one to whom one day we will give account. We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Nothing will remain hidden from him. They thought they had trapped Jesus or left Him speechless, but the Lord Jesus Christ now gives such a wise and penetrating answer that calls all of us to repent and trust in Him. And that's because Jesus Christ is the very wisdom of God. Colossians 2 verse 3 says that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The Lord now speaks and answers their question with divine authority and wisdom, and that brings us to our second point, the wisdom of God. Hear the answer of our Lord, verse 24. Show me a denarius. Now, children, denarius is a coin. Whose image and inscription does it have? And they answered and said, Caesar's. Verse 25, and he said to them, render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, like this coin with his image on it, and unto God the things that are God's. Now, the word render means to give back something that is owed. That's what the word render means. Such a profound answer, isn't it? Such words of wisdom. No man ever spoke like this man. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, including paying your taxes. Yes, the civil government has the right to collect taxes to sustain itself because it is ordained by God for our well-being and safety. And God's word commands you to be law-abiding citizens, including paying your taxes. That is your duty before the Lord. Listen to what the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 13 under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority, resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, But to evil, do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same, for he is God's minister to you for good. Can we just stop there? Think about it. He's God's minister. Have you ever thought of the IRS officials as God's ministers? But that's what Romans 13 is saying. God appointed them. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore, you must be subject, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake, for because of this, you also pay taxes. For they are God's ministers, attending continually to this very thing. Render, therefore, to all their due, taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. So we as Christians are called to pay our taxes because we understand that the civil magistrates are appointed by God. They exist under the law of God. So we respect them. And in our respect toward the civil magistrates, we're submitting to the higher authority, namely God's, who has appointed people in power. The American president, for example, is not autonomous. God put him there. And he is accountable to King Jesus. And one day, he'll have to stand before King Jesus and give account of how he used his calling. All civil magistrates are under the law of God. Therefore, we're called to respect and submit to them. However, and I want you to listen to me very carefully, When the civil government commands us to do something that God's word forbids, or forbids us from doing something that God's word commands, the civil government must be disobeyed in that instance. It's one thing to pay our taxes to Caesar. It's another thing to be asked to say, Caesar is Lord. We must declare to Caesar, you are not Lord, Jesus is Lord, right? When Caesar begins to demand worship, he must be disobeyed, and he must be rejected, because we swear allegiance to King Jesus. Let me give you an example from our recent lives, from the recent lives of our children. It's hard to imagine it happened in our lives in the West. But when the government begins to regulate or limit worship, the civil government has overstepped its balance. If the government says to you, you're no longer allowed to gather for worship, you can't go to church, whatever the reason may be, We are obligated, as Christians, to disobey the civil magistrates, because we live under the lordship of Jesus Christ, and he commands us to worship him, right? He calls us to worship him. Worship is not a suggestion, it's a command, and we must obey. Yes, your taxes belong to the IRS, but your worship belongs to God and to God alone. We must say with the apostles in Acts 5.29, we ought to obey God rather than men. And so as Christians, We respect the civil magistrates. We submit to them insofar as they don't ask us to do something that's contrary to the word of God. And when we disobey, like Christians are doing in China right now. You understand that, right? You understand that? In China, it is illegal to gather as Christians. And they must disobey. their tyrannical government, because it's none of the government's business to regulate worship. But when we do that as Christians, I want you to know this, we must do that respectfully and peacefully. We're not troublemakers. We're not revolutionists, or we don't engage in revolution. We are people of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we love even our enemies. And we bless those who curse us. And we pray for those who despitefully treat us. We love our enemies. But when it comes to worship, God tells us to worship Him, and we must obey. That's why the book of Hebrews says, let us not abandon the gathering of ourselves, right? Not the... onlining of ourselves or meeting on Zoom, let us not abandon the gathering, the congregating of ourselves, as is the habit of some. But let us do that all the more, especially as we see the day drawing near. Gathering as Christians is not a suggestion, and it's not something that the government controls. The Word of God calls us to come into the courts of the Lord and worship Him. Give Him worship that is due His name. You see how the answer of Jesus here is a call to live a life of submission to the Lordship of Christ. Render to Caesar the things that rightly belongs to Caesar. When you drive, make sure you're respecting the laws. When you live, when you pay your taxes, when you go buy something, make sure you're abiding by the laws of the land, because that rightly belongs to the civil government. But make sure that you render unto God the things that are God's. And that brings us to our brief final point, the lordship of Christ. And so think with me. Think with me for a moment. What is our Lord Jesus teaching here when he says, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's? Now, let's think of a coin, right? Let's think of this denarius. Even in our coin, in our land, we have the inscription, right? The image of maybe a past, a former president, or something like that, a political figure. The coin belonged to Caesar, right? Why? Because the coin bore the image and the inscription of Caesar, correct? What has God's image and therefore belongs to him? What bears the image of God and therefore belongs to him rightly? Answer, you and me. We are created in the image of God, right? Just as the coin that has the inscription in the image of Caesar belongs to Caesar, you, your bodies, your souls belong to your creator who made you, amen? What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. This is why you were created, not for yourselves, but for the glory of God. God created you for Him, for His glory. You are made for worship. And your heart will remain restless until it finds rest in God. Adam was created in the image of God, and we as his children bear the image of God from conception. But when Adam sinned, right, when Adam fell, we, his posterity, also sinned with Adam, and we fell with him in that first transgression. And here's what the fall has done. The fall of humanity has marred and distorted the image of God in us, but it has not removed the image of God, right? So that unbelievers are also created in the image of God. The image of God in man provides the basis for the sanctity of human life. We believe that unborn children are just as valuable as children that are outside the womb because they bear the image of God in them. Because of sin, the image of God is distorted, but it is not lost. We belong to our creator. The problem is that sin has separated us from God. By nature, we are rebels. We're in a state of enmity with God. And even though we bear the image of God like a denarius bore the image of Caesar, because of our sins, we cannot enjoy God. We cannot have him as God because we are separated from him. That's our problem. We are sinners. And the soul that sins, it shall die. The wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. That's the good news of the gospel. The image of God that was marred by sin is restored in Christ. Hallelujah. Jesus restores the image of God. He reconciles us to God. He brings us to God so that we're no longer His enemies. But now we are in a reconciled relationship of peace with Him. Having been justified by faith in Jesus Christ, we have peace with God. Romans 5 verse 1. Jesus brings us to God. Colossians 3.10 says, and you have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him who created you. 2 Corinthians 5.17, therefore, if any man is in Christ, he's what? A new creation. Yes, the image of God was distorted by sin. But if you are in Christ, you are recreated in Him. You are a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Jesus is our justification. He is our sanctification. He is our righteousness. And only through Jesus we can do that for which we were created. namely to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Only through Jesus we can render unto God the things that are God's. And so Jesus is calling you to live under His Lordship. Your body, your heart, your mind, your thoughts belong to Jesus. You are not your own, right? 1 Corinthians 6, Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? You were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Romans 12, one, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present what? Your bodies as a living sacrifice. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice unto God, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. You are not autonomous. You are not independent. You are creatures living under the authority of the creator of the heavens and the earth. And you can only know him through Jesus Christ, through a reconciled relationship with him. Live under the lordship of Christ. Glorify God in your thoughts. Glorify God behind closed doors. For you always stand in the presence of God. He's always watching you. Glorify God in your thoughts. Philippians 4, 8, finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, if there is anything praiseworthy, think about and meditate on those things. Your thoughts belong to God. Honor Him. Worship belongs to God, amen? Worship belongs to God, not to idols, not to the government, not to a sport. Worship belongs to God. Render acceptable worship unto Him according to His word. The first day of the week belongs to God. Now, all days belong to God, right? But the first day of the week belongs to Him in a special way. This is the Lord's day. the day that Jesus rose again from the dead, and you are commanded to sanctify the Lord's Day, not treat it like an ordinary day, but gather with God's people to worship Him, and then to encourage one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. The Lord's Day belongs to God. Just two more applications, husbands and wives. Your marriage bed belongs to God. It is a sacred place. God had united you in the union of marriage. The marriage bed belongs to God. Hebrews 13 verse four, marriage is honorable among all in the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers, God will judge. Single men, single women, you belong to God. Flee from sexual immorality and honor God with your lives. This passage is all about the rule of Christ in our lives. As we confess in the Heidelberg Catechism, we belong in body and in soul, in life and in death to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. We are His. We are His happy slaves. And He has made us the children of God, sons and daughters of God Almighty, so that Christ is our brother. And we are part of the family of God. Jesus commands total and complete surrender. And when you sin, which you will, Even today, when you go home or during church, when you sin, confess your sins to God and run to Jesus, and He will restore you so that you can continue to walk as pilgrims in this barren land, longing for the city whose builder is God. And finally, if there are any unbelievers here, God calls you to repent and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. Congregation, give unto God glory and honor. Do his name because he is worthy, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the triune Jehovah. Look at verse 26. And they could not catch him in his words. In the presence of the people, they had no words. But they marveled at his answer, and they kept silent. The claims of God on you are absolute. When Caesar competes with God for your loyalty, When culture, when your hobby competes with God for your loyalty, God gets your loyalty because He alone is worthy of worship and praise and supreme allegiance. Let no one and nothing compete for your loyalty. Whatever it is, throw it away. If it's a computer screen that's causing you to live in a rebellion against God, break that computer. Get away from it and live lives of submission to the Lord your God, who has called you The worship of the triune God must always be first. Live your lives, Koram Deo, before the face of God, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.