Welcome to another message from God's inspired Holy Word. We're studying the Gospel of Matthew, and we're in the 22nd chapter. Our last message was 22, 1 through 14. We're going to go read that because it has so much to do with our lesson today. The Bible, these messages, we have chapters, but the chapters are not inspired. Even the verses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 are not inspired. The writing itself is inspired. So sometimes we need to go back and just see what is going on for the next few verses. I've titled this message, Rude Behavior. Rude Behavior. Rude Behavior. And we're going to read it from the Amplified Bible for the first 14 verses and then we're going to go into the Greek and go on from there. And again Jesus spoke to them in parables and parisons and stories and used to illustrate and explain a saying. The king of my parents was like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son and sent his servants to summon those who had been invited to the wedding banquet but they refused to come. Now this was extremely rude behavior and the rude behavior in a real kingdom on earth would possibly have cause them their lives, this rude behavior. Again, he sent other servants saying, tell those who are invited, behold, I have prepared my banquet, my bullets and my fat calves are killed and everything is prepared and come to the wedding feast. Now, as I said in the last message, Jesus is talking about Israel, national Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel, reprobate Israel. They had denied the faith, even though they were very religious. The king here that he's talking about is his father, and he is the son. And it is his wedding, that wedding with his church as his bride, and the guests of the wedding are those that could be invited. Israel shirked her responsibility and shirked her privileges. and they were great. But they were not concerned and paid no attention. They ignored and made light of the summons, treating it with contempt. This summons could be a death sentence. And they went away, one to his farm and another to his business. And while the other seized his servants and treated them shapely and put them to death. There's talking about the Old Testament prophets and now the final prophet. Jesus Christ, the final Son and Prophet. Hearing this, the king was infuriated and sent his soldiers, put those murderers to death and burned their city. When a king had different provinces in his kingdom, and if he invited all of his what we call sub-rulers, too, and that's who they were. These were the invited guests. These were the Jews. These were, and really he's talking about the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Scribes and the Levites and the priests. That's who he's talking about. The privileged. The privileged leaders that were shirking and defying the King of Heaven. And he said to his servants, the wedding feast is prepared, but those invited were not worthy. Israel was not worthy. So go to the thoroughfares, where they leave the city, where the main roads, and those from the country in, and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. That's us. That's you and me. We're Gentiles. And those servants went out on the crossroads and got together as many as they found, both bad and good, and so the room in which the wedding feast was held was filled with guests. But when the king came to view the guests, he looked intently at a man there who had no wedding garment on. He was insulting. He was insulting the king. He was insulting the host. Now, these are the old ones. Now, as I said yesterday, before we go on to our new lesson, we have to review the old one. You have to go through the known to get into the unknown. These people, he's talking about the wedding feast that's going to be in heaven. You're not going to get there unless you've been born again. You're not going to be invited as a guest. You're not going to be a servant unless you've been saved. That's the first thing. And if you want to give your life for the Lord Jesus Christ and everything that you ever do in your life, you could possibly be part of that bride. That's a special position forever. And he said, friend, how do you come here without putting on the appropriate wedding garment? And he was speechless and muzzled and gagged. He didn't know what to say. Then the king said to the attendants to tie him hand and foot and throw him into the darkness outside and there will be weeping and grinding and gnashing the teeth. Now, we have a wedding feast here. It is a big, like a, what we call a Spanish courtyard, or a, literally, a Middle East courtyard. And there's fountains and everything inside of the courtyard, and the house is the main part of that courtyard, or at the end of the courtyard. And then outside, there's light. It's lighted all over with lights. But outside, outside are dogs and coyotes and wolves. And out there, as people will come across a piece of meat or food that is tainted or whatever, they throw it over the wall and you'll hear gnashing and growling and fighting outside. And that's those outside. They're not in the wedding feast. They're outsiders. King said to attend his time, hand and foot, and throw him into outer darkness, and there will be weeping and growling and gnashing of teeth. Verse number 14, for many are called and invited and summoned, but few are the elect and chosen. Few are the elect and chosen. Jesus Christ, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God provided 1 John 2 and 2. Jesus is our propitiation, and not only for propitiation for us only, but for the whole world. Jesus Christ died for all, but it's only efficacious to those who believe. Now let's go into the next parable of life, so to speak. we have rude behavior again, continuous rude behavior by these people that were the privileged and the elite. They were the ones that were called, they were the called, they were the administrators of God's kingdom and yet they shirked, defied, they shirked their administration, their duties and defied the King of Glory. And having gone, the Pharisees, they took counsel. They took counsel. They had a meeting. And this meeting was like gorillas in the forest. like what we call the outlaw gangs in the cave. Jesus called them a den of thieves. Their den they met as outlaws. They met as rude guests at the wedding. They met as defiant ones. And they took, so as him, they might entrap and ensnare in speech, somehow, in what he said. They're going to try to ensnare him and trap him. Verse number 16. Kai apo stelusen, auto pus mathetas, auto, auto, meta, pon, hedro, enon, legontes, dedoskele, oegamen, hote, aletheis, e kai tein hodon tu theo en alithia didosces kai u melei si peri udanos u gar blepes eis prosopon ansopon long verse and they sit with authority now here we have the Pharisees we have the Sadducees which are always enemies And then we have the Levites, and we have the Herodians, which are not even Jews in all reality. And they sent to him the disciples of them. These are the Pharisees now. With the Herodians, all of them ganged up. Enemies make strange bedfellows. Enemies make strange bedfellows. All these people were enemies. but they had one enemy that they hated more than each other. Now, in the Middle East, forever, we've had murderous fighting among the, what we call the Arabs, the Arab race. Killing each other, killing each other, killing each other all the time, killing, killing, killing. But one thing they can agree on, that they hate Israel worse than they hate each other. And they'll go join forces. for a while when they try to find Israel. The Herodian saying, Teacher, we know that truthful you are, and the way of God in truth you teach. Liars. They're lying through their teeth. And not it concerns you concerning no one. In other words, you're impartial. not, for not you see in the face of men." In other words, the Bible says that God is not a respecter of persons. Jesus wasn't a respecter of persons. He was a just man. He couldn't be bribed. He couldn't be coerced in any way. false flattery. They tried to treat Jesus like a simpleton, like a dummy. But he wasn't no dummy, he wasn't no simpleton. And he could see through them. The theological schools, the Pharisees, those that believed in the resurrection, the Sadducees did not. They were totally opposite. The Sadducees were nothing more than atheist Jews. Then we have the Rhodians, we have the Saqqari. We have all of these different sects, but yet they're lined up for one purpose, to kill the King of Glory. Verse number 17. Epe un hemen ti sui doke achesten dune kenul thysery, hey, ooh. You tell therefore to us what seems lawful and permitted. That means out of it, right there, permitted. That little X, estin. To give tribute to Caesar or no. Should we give tribute to Caesar or not? Now let's see what Jesus says to these rats with rude behavior. Rude. Treating him like he's a simpleton, like he's a dummy. He's no dummy. This is the God of Glory they're messing with. Nus Dei Hoesus. Tein Ponerion Auton. Epentime Parasete. Hypocrite. But having known Jesus, The wickedness, the twistedness. This is practice, evil and malice. The word pornography comes from this. Prostitution, spiritual fornicators. The wickedness of them. He said, why do you tempt me, hypocrites? You know, the Bible said, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Well, they were. And he called them, he called them actors. They were part of the Actors Guild. They were hypocrites. The word hypocrite, it means a actor. In the Greek theater and the Roman theater, one man, one person played three parts many times. And he would just take a mask and put it over his face and he would speak in a different tones and act like it was a different person. And that's what we call a hypocrite, an actor. Brother Madden, one of my teachers at one time, I'll never forget it. I was in school, seminary. Brother Madden was my New Testament survey teacher. And his brother-in-law, not brother-in-law, but father-in-law came to see him. And he was, you know, they lived in Anaheim. And his father-in-law wanted to go see John Wayne's house and different movie star places and everything like that. Anyway, Brother Madden, he's going to say, Brother Hollingworth, brother, I don't know why you want to go see these liars. All John Wayne is is a liar. He's acting like he's something that he isn't. That's the word hypocrite right there. There are hypocrites. But he said, I'll do whatever you want me to do because I'll be a good guest or a good host, that is, to my guests. epidesate moi to nomismo tu che nun hoi dei prosse negcan a to denerio he said you point out to me and you show to me the money the nomisma the money the coin that's a late word there that word actually is a latin word nomisma the coinage of the poll tax. Now Tiberius Caesar is on that poll tax. By the way, Tiberius Caesar was Pontius Pilate's father-in-law. He was married to one of his daughters by a concubine. The poll tax, the quinoa Then once they brought to him a denario, 18 cents in silver, one day's wages. Tidarius Caesar was on that coin, one day's wages. 2220, kai legei autois tenos, hei eikon haute kei hei epigrafe. And he says to them, of whom the image is this, and the writing, the inscription upon it, the writing upon the coin. And they say to him, Then he says to them, you give back, therefore, the things to Caesar, belonging to Caesar, and the things belonging to God. Belonging to God, the God. Verse number 22. Cai acusantes ethamoson. Cai aphantes apto apelton. And having heard this, they marveled. The word marvel there means they were scared, they were amazed, and they were in trauma. They were traumatized. And they left Him. And they went away. Now let's read this, the last of this in the Amplified Bible. We got all these games. the liars gangs, the actors guild. Verse number 15, then the Pharisees went and consulted and plotted together how they might entangle Jesus in his speaking, in his speeches. And they sent their disciples along with Herodians saying, teacher, we know that you are sincere in what you profess to be and that you teach the way of God truthfully. regardless of consequences, being afraid of no man, for you are impartial and do not regard either the person or the position of any one. Tell us, then, what you think about this, these people with rude behavior now. Is it lawful to pay tribute levied on individuals and to be paid yearly to Caesar or not? And Jesus, aware of their malicious plot, asked, why do you put me to the test and try to entrap me, you pretenders, you hypocrites, you liars? Show me the money for the tribute. And they brought to him a denarius, a day's wages in silver. And Jesus said to them, by the way, that was 18 cents. How much is a day's wages now? That's what we call inflation. And Jesus said to them, whose likeness and title are these? And they said, Caesar's. And he said to them, pay therefore to Caesar the things that are due to Caesar, and pay to God the things that are due to God. And when they heard it, they were amazed and marveled and traumatized, and they left him and departed. And now we have more rats coming, more rats coming. the continued story of rude behavior and dishonesty, perversion, and rude behavior. Our Heavenly Father, we send this message out. I pray, Father, that you touch each and every one out there with it. I pray that you feed my students all over the world. I pray for all of them. I pray for one of them from the East Coast to the West. all the way from California to New York and Pennsylvania. Pray for Nancy that you watch over her in Pennsylvania. Donald Reward and his family in Wales. All those in the Midwest, New York. I pray for those in New Zealand. I pray for those in Australia, China, Japan, Korea. I pray for those behind the iron curtains of the Islamic Iron Fist. Father, I pray that you touch each and every one of their hearts. I pray, Father, that you instill in them the desire to give more to your work. I pray that you use them for your honor and glory. Help them to witness to those, help them to live sometimes with unsafe family members. Help them in their, what we might call the golden years, and the youth also. Give us wisdom that we need and help us to honor and glorify you. And help keep our website up. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.