Ironically, God's conquering lion was a slaughtered lamb. But we saw that not only was there irony, there was also parody. And the concept of parody was that Satan is a counterfeiter of God's ideas, God's offices, God's strategies. And so we went through a study of precious remedies against Satan's tactics or powerful strategies against Satan's devices. And we saw that Satan ultimately would like to have his own Trinity. That's one side of your double-sided handout from our study last week. He would like to have his own Trinity, which appears in Revelation 13 as Satan the first beast, and the second beast. So we'll begin in Revelation 13 today. We can read that text together as we will review sort of this overview of the Trinity and its warfare against the unholy Trinity. And today, more particularly, since we've studied the precious remedies against Satan's devices, Satan is the father figure of the unholy Trinity. We will now consider and take a closer look at Christ versus the Antichrist. Now, just to prepare you for our future studies, we will have a study coming up on the doctrine of Christ versus the Antichrist. That is the man of sin that you've heard about from 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, who exalts himself above every god or every so-called god and takes his seat in the temple of God in the final moments before Christ returns. and presents himself as a God and whom Christ destroys with the breath of His mouth, that is, by His Spirit, by His Word. He destroys him when Christ returns. That is the final Antichrist, singular. What we've been studying in Revelation 13 is an Antichrist system, plural. And so we saw that there were essentially two different streams of Satan's tactics. One of them is a political beast, and one of them is a religious beast. So we'll now hear about this first enemy in Revelation 13. We're focusing on the first beast that Christ will wage war against. So Revelation 13, beginning in verse 1, John says, And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death, And his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon, which gave power unto the beast. And they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast, and who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth, speaking great things and blasphemies. Power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And He opened His mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto Him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And power was given Him over all kindreds and tongues and nations. All that dwell upon the earth shall worship Him whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. Amen. I'd like to read two more verses because there is a second beast that supports the first beast. And this is what John sees next in verse 11. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth. And he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. Amen. Let's bow our hearts together in prayer. We'll ask for God's blessing on our study this morning. Heavenly Father, we come before you in thanksgiving, Lord, for your mercy endures forever. We thank you, God, for your wise and sovereign plan and your ultimate sovereign power, for wisdom and might belong to you, Father. You are the one who sets up kings and establishes kingdoms, and you are the one who takes kings away. and tears kingdoms down. We thank you that you have shown your people that you have given to us and to your Christ a kingdom that endures forever and will never experience the change and the failures of these kingdoms that we have to endure in this world. You've given us an everlasting kingdom and a perfect kingdom and a kingdom that already has its in breaking into this world through your church, through the body of Christ because of his victory. Help us to understand what it means and the privileges that we have to be part of this everlasting kingdom now and what it will ultimately mean when Christ perfects this kingdom when he returns. Help us to take comfort and take refuge in Christ and to understand there is only one safe place to be when all the kingdoms of this world are shattered and scattered like chaff and where there will no longer be any place for them in eternity. that the only place that is safe for us is to find refuge under the wings of the Davidic king father, and to be safe in Christ when he returns. So help us now, Lord, to understand our responsibilities, rights, and privileges as members of this kingdom. And if anyone is not, Lord, pray that you would open our eyes, cause us to be born again, and give us membership in this heavenly kingdom in Christ. Please forgive us our sins, we pray for your glory in Jesus' name, amen. So as we begin here, you notice the image that we have of the servant of Satan is this first beast coming up out of the water. We reviewed last week that all this language, the pictures that we have for this beast come from the book of Daniel, the lion, the leopard, the bear, and so forth. And we saw that these were political kingdoms. So in a nutshell, if you were to describe the first beast is politics. The second beast is religion. And I've seen many people utterly shocked to hear that the way the Bible describes this beast, this servant of Satan, is that it is religion. It's a religious beast that serves Satan. And we saw last week that it presents itself looking like a lamb. That means it is a religious system that tries to look like Christ or it looks like Jesus, but it speaks like a dragon. Its words are doctrines of Satan. And so we saw this foundation in the seven churches, Revelation 2 and 3, that twice we are warned about this institution called a synagogue of Satan. That is a religious institution that serves Satan. This can happen both in a Jewish context as well as in a Christian context. In fact, there are many different fulfillments of this second beast. for any religious system that ultimately serves Satan rather than Christ. But this week we're not going to look so much at how the religious beast supports the first beast, but we're going to zoom in on this first beast and take a look. So you may turn over your second or your double-sided outline, and we're looking at these two columns here that compare Christ versus the anti-Christ system. which is the revelation of Jesus Christ, and then you have the parody or the irony of the Antichrist. Now, most of these parallels come from this chapter here in Revelation 13 that we've just read. What I want to establish for us, there are many, many lines of evidence that confirm that this beast is a parody of Christ. It presents itself as Lord, and it presents itself like a God of this world. And we saw that it was not enough for Satan to disturb the world, or to deceive the world, or to damage the world. What Satan ultimately wants is to be worshipped. That's what he wants. And so he establishes a system because he wants to exalt himself to be like God. The very first lie that we heard in the garden was trying to exalt things that are not God to be like God. So we can fall into this trap if we're not careful. We have to see the revelation of Christ clearly for all that he is. Be satisfied in him compared to what is presented to this world like a God. So look at the top left column. Christ is the image of God. He is begotten by the Father. This is all throughout your scriptures. Christ is the icon of God. He is God's revelation. And so we see that the beast presents himself as an image of Satan, essentially. He reflects Satan's image and his character. And if you remember in Revelation 12, what we saw was a war of the words. Does anyone remember the images from Satan's warfare in Revelation 12? How did Satan attack the earth? What was that image in Revelation 12? How did Satan propagate his teachings in Revelation 12? Does anyone remember? It was a flood. It was a flood and it was a flood that was coming out of his mouth, which means it's his deceptive speech. It's his lies. It's his oppression and his persecution that turns the kingdoms of this world to persecute believers. And so it's oppression and lies from his mouth. So what we see is that the beast operates in Satan's image. If Satan is the father figure of this Trinity, then what we see is like father, like son in the unholy Trinity. What does the beast do since he is the image of Satan? Well, first of all, he wants to be worshiped like Satan. You see this in 13, four, they worship the dragon, which gave power to the beast, like father, and then like son, and they worship the bees. And they said, who is like the bees, but look at verse five. Satan had a flood coming out of his mouth, and so what is given to the beast? There was given unto the beast a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. Verse 6, And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and to blaspheme his tabernacle, and to blaspheme those that dwell in heaven. Now, in the book of Revelation, who is, I should have said what is, I'm sort of tipping my hand now, who is God's tabernacle? It's you. It's you and I. The church is His temple. The church is His tabernacle. This tabernacle is described as those who dwell in heaven. You only have two kinds of citizenship in Revelation. You either are citizens of heaven, or you are what they call the earth dwellers who only inhabit this world. This world is passing away. The earth dwellers have no permanent everlasting life or citizenship in heaven. So this tabernacle that they blaspheme in verse 6 is described as heaven's citizens, the heaven dwellers over against the earth dwellers. What that means Beloved, and you have seen this in your own lives, is that there will be a systemic kind of opposition from the people of this world because they're citizens of this world over and against the citizens of heaven. What does that mean? They will slander God's tabernacle. What does that mean? They slander God's church. They slander God's people. Do we not see this in our own culture? Do we not see a flood every time a television, a radio, the internet has opened up to anything secular? Is there not a flood? of slander and criticism against God and against His people, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Now, if you're a mature believer and you understand the Book of Revelation, you will not be surprised by that, because God has shown us Satan is unleashing this flood, and His servant, which is basically the kingdoms of this world, are opening their mouths in blasphemies to blaspheme God's people. So, this is the fundamental conflict. There was a war of the words in Revelation 12, there's a war of the words in Revelation 13. And so we see, look at the next parallel in the outline with me, Christ is presented in Revelation with many crowns. And so what do we see when the beast emerges from the sea in 13.1? He has seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns are what in 13.1? 10 crowns. So what we have is a crown conflict here between Christ and the Antichrist. There is a struggle for kingship here between the kingdoms of this world and the earth dwellers, and the kingdom of heaven and the heaven dwellers. Christ has many crowns, the beast has 10 crowns. Look down lower, the next point. Christ has holy names written upon him when he comes back riding the white horse in judgment in Revelation 19. And if we were to turn to Revelation 17, the beast also appears covered in blasphemous names. He is a counterfeit of Christ and his holy names and the blasphemous names of the beast. Now, what is written upon Christ when he returns in Revelation 19? Does anyone remember? When he comes back. riding the white horse, what's written upon him, upon his thigh. Anyone remember? King of kings and Lord of lords. Yes, sir. King of kings and Lord of lords. So we have a crisis and a conflict here. If we have kingdoms on earth and kings on earth that are exalting themselves to be worshiped by the world. And you have a Messiah who says, no, no, no. I am the King of Kings and I am the Lord of Lords. So what we have here is what I describe as the Kyrios controversy. Does anyone remember from last week what that Greek word means? Kyrios. Very, very important. There's only one Greek word that you know. This is a good one to know. Does anyone remember? Kyrios. Kyrios. Someone knows it. Lord. Thank you, Martha. Kyrios means Lord. That's the idea. So the crisis for Christian believers in the first century was that the emperors or Caesars of Rome had exalted themselves more and more. They had coins printed after they died that was calling the earlier emperors gods. And then eventually, during their own lifetime, the emperors began to be called gods or to be called lords by the Roman Empire. This was especially especially bad during the reign of Nero and during the reign of Domitian, which were the most violent persecutors of Christians during the first century. So we see the beast start to show its fangs. We see the horns start to come out with emperors like Nero and Domitian. We'll look at some historical examples next week. But for now, what we need to know is that these beasts were persecuting Christians more and more. Sometimes believers were being put to death, like Antipas who died. for his faithful witness in the seven churches in Revelation 2. The beast was bearing its fangs and Caesar more and more wanted to be called Lord. He wanted to say all the Roman Empire should now say Caesar is Curios, Caesar is Lord. So what's the problem? If you're a believer in the Christian church, and you hear the testimony, the central confession was that, but for us, there is one God, the Father, and for us, there is one Kyrios, there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. If we have one Lord, Jesus Christ, and Caesar wants to be called Lord, well, I can render to Caesar everything that is Caesar's. But I cannot call Caesar Lord, because Caesar is not my Lord. Christ is Lord. So today I want us to consider that these are not vague ideas in Revelation 13, when we think about the political beast and what it was trying to do, or the religious beast. This is not just tucked away in a corner, as it were in the book of Revelation. This is everywhere in the New Testament. If you really understand the battle that Christ was fighting. Some have said that the New Testament is the story of Jesus Christ versus religion. The story of Jesus Christ versus religion. Now, for those of you who are careful, you know religion is not an all bad term. True religion and undefiled religion is this, to visit the orphans and widows, keep ourselves unstained from the world. James talks about this, right? The brother of Christ tells us that. But there is a false religion in the New Testament, and in a very real sense, we can say that it was religion that crucified Christ. And in another sense, we can actually say it was politics that crucified Christ. You know that Christ was crucified between two thieves, but if you think carefully, right outside those two thieves, you go a little bit wider, you broaden your horizon, expand your peripheral vision, and what was outside of those two thieves there? On one hand, outside of Christ's crucifix was politics, And on the other hand was religion. There is a crucifix between two beasts at the end of the Gospels, because politics and religion is what crucified Christ. Perhaps it's no coincidence that even in secular culture, people will tell you, you know, the one thing that you really shouldn't talk about with your new friends at the dinner party, the one thing you really shouldn't bring up with your boss will be politics and religion. Why is that? It's not a coincidence. Because this is where we find where people's deepest allegiance lies. When you talk about religion, you're talking about their God, their highest authority. When you talk about politics, if someone's an atheist or an agnostic, typically their political views are their religious views, because they claim not to have a God, but therefore Caesar, or whoever the current reigning president, supreme leader, prime minister is, that is their highest authority. Christ was crucified between politics and religion. What do I mean? What I mean is that Christ was sentenced to death by Israel's religious leaders. It was the chief priests, the scribes, the elders of Israel, the Sanhedrin, the religious council of Israel that sentenced him to death. Now the problem for Israel's religious leaders when they wanted to crucify Christ was that they didn't have authority to stone him to death. Under Old Testament law, he would have been stoned to death. They couldn't do it. Why not? Israel was under house arrest from the Roman government, and one of the few things that Israel could certainly not do, although they could practice much of their other religious beliefs, they could not exercise the death penalty because that was for Rome alone. Rome held the sword. So, what we had was a religious beast passing Christ off into the hands of the political beast, where Christ is crucified on a Roman cross. So you have the religious beast and the political beast working together when Christ is sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate. And the political beast bears its fangs and shakes hands with the religious beast when Christ is crucified there. So this is not a peripheral issue just in Revelation 13. This is everywhere in the Gospels. This is Jesus teaching an ethic to his disciples, which means this is something we need to listen to very carefully. if we are indeed His disciples. So, this is what I call New Testament Lordship Ethics. Lordship Ethics. Please turn with me to Matthew, chapter 5. I want us to see the teaching there in the Sermon on the Mount. Several very relevant passages we could look at. Matthew 5, we'll see another one in the Sermon on the Mount, and Matthew 6 shortly afterward. I may ask someone who could read Matthew 5, 41 for us. In fact, we could start off, someone who would like to read from Matthew 5, 39 up to 5, 42. Verse 39 to 42, please. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn thou not away. Yes, thank you. So here in this passage, we have many, many practical applications. A lot of ideas might spring to your mind about how, you know, in your friendships, in your marriage, in your work relationships, you should turn the other cheek. You shouldn't return evil for evil. So, these are some ideas we can apply to many different areas of life. We should be charitable when someone asks of you. You should allow him to take. You should let them borrow. Don't turn them away, right? These are teachings of Christ about charity and love and forgiveness. But actually, the shadow of Caesar is right here. The shadow of the empire is very clearly here behind these verses. Because what He's talking about is not just in relationships, although that does apply. This also applies to imperial oppression. If someone would take away your property, Christ is saying, someone wants to take away your cloak, offer them your tunic as well. Someone wants to wrongfully exploit you and take away your property, He's saying, turn the other cheek. Very, very difficult for us to do if we believe so strongly in property rights as is good and just and right. It's very difficult for us to reconcile that Christ says when you're defrauded, sometimes you're just defrauded. Christ turned the other cheek, right? He turned the other cheek to Rome, even to the point that he was crucified. They only took away his garments after he was crucified and cast their lots among them for his clothing. So there are big ideas here. But specifically, more specifically, I'm thinking of verse 41. What is the imperial context here for verse 41? What does this have to do with the empire? When he says, if someone compels you to go a mile, Go with Him 2 miles. What does this have to do with Rome? They could force people. Exactly, the Roman centurions, you're absolutely right. They could force people to go a mile and carry burdens with them. You remember when Christ is going to the cross. And they see Simon the Cyrenian, right? They could compel someone to pick up burdens and carry it along the way. So this was the kind of authority that Roman centurions had. These are Roman officers, and particularly the people who would feel this kind of pressure from Rome would often be those who were not free citizens of the Roman Empire. In other words, many of Jesus' Jewish disciples may not have been full or free citizens of the Roman Empire. So, a Roman centurion sees this lowly Jewish citizen on the roadside, This Roman centurion has some work to do with his squadron, and he says, you, pick up this pack, pick up this gear, I want you to carry this a mile down the road. And he could legally compel them to work to carry this gear for a mile up to the next city, and help out the squadron. And so quite honestly, they were being exploited, right? They're being exploited to work. You want to haul something a mile, guess what? You have to walk a mile back. And it's not going to be a quick mile when you're hauling all this gear for the first mile and you're tired on the second mile. So this idea of going the extra mile is not just a general historical idea of just be really nice, you know, be really nice. That's not the message. The message was people were being exploited, and if the government was putting pressure on people, this is Christ's message to His disciples. This is where we need to be careful. We realize that there are satanic influences in the world. We realize that these governments can operate in beastly ways. But what Jesus was teaching was you can render to Caesar what is Caesar's to such an extent that even if they're only legally required or allowed to let you carry this weight for one mile, you could tell the centurion, you know what? I'm a disciple of Christ. I'm not like the other members or non-members of the Roman Empire. I'll go with you two miles. I'll be the best citizen that Rome can find. And I can render to Caesar everything Caesar asks and double. But there's only a few things that I can't give to Caesar. One of them is my worship. The other thing that we will never do is we will never stop worshiping our God. even if Caesar orders that we will not worship our God. So you see how radical it is for Christ, who knows He's going to die on a Roman crucifix, to say to His disciples, I know they can only legally ask you to go one mile, but you, you are different. You are not a citizen of Rome. You're a citizen of my kingdom. And the citizens of my kingdom should be the best citizens that Rome can find. You can go two miles, but you can never worship Caesar. That's the idea here. So, of course, in Matthew 6, 24, I'll read this. The central controversy then is when Caesar asks to be called Lord. Now there is perhaps here another little echo of Caesar's authority here, because the issue in Matthew 6, 24 is about money and whose image and superscription was printed on all the coins, whose image was on all the money in the Roman Empire. It was Caesar. It was Caesar's image, Caesar's authority. This is Caesar's money. So I think there's another little hint here. When Christ says, No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other. You know this verse to say, You cannot serve God and money, which is what Mammon means. You can't serve God and money. And yes, there's an idea of idolatry, of wealth there and things of that nature. But I think also when we have the exhortation to render to Caesar, what is Caesar's? Caesar's icon was the one on the money. And what he's saying, much like the mark of the beast in Revelation 13, we'll take a deeper look at that in the future. But much like the Mark of the Beast, you can't have so much allegiance to Rome and the money and the wealth of this world that Caesar and this world's money and his economic system becomes your God and your religion. You can't serve two masters. You can't serve the empire's money or Caesar. you must serve God. That's the idea here. No man can serve two masters. One other thought as we think about this, because you feel there's quite a tension here when we realize that there are satanic influences all throughout the world, both in political systems and religious systems. The temptation can be to flee or fear or resist or fight. But what Jesus taught, John 18, 36, is that his kingdom is not of this world. Otherwise, His servants would fight. What's the message there? No one's going to be picking up a sword to battle with Rome, if they're one of Jesus' real disciples, because God has empowered Rome with the power of the sword. Rome has a sword that God has ordained to punish evil. And when the beast is not bearing its fangs, and when the horns don't come out completely, when it's not in its full-blown antichrist oppression, it can operate in a way that reflects some of God's justice. So the powers that be, human governments, are established by God. But God's kingdom is not of this world. So we're not taking up a sword to fight with Rome. We pray that Rome stays in line with God's policies and reflects God's laws. So why? So that we can live peaceful lives. We pray for rulers, so that we don't have to have any kind of resistance, whether it be by speech or anything else, because otherwise... We realize that we don't fight a physical battle. We are in a spiritual warfare. Our kingdom is spiritual. We fight a spiritual warfare. We are not resisting Rome physically, and we never will, because the message in Revelation is quite clear. If Rome gives you violent persecution, you give your life for Christ. You don't pick up a sword and kill Rome, even if Rome is ready to kill you for the gospel. That's why Christians were dying shortly after the book of Revelation was written, because they were fulfilling what John told them to fulfill. They did not love their lives even to the point of death. Some other ideas here. This will prepare us for our historical study next week. But I want us to really understand the gravity of Jesus' kingship in the New Testament. The central question that we're going to be thinking about this week and next is a question of allegiance to Christ or to Caesar. Again, this is the Kyrios controversy. Is Caesar Lord or is Jesus Lord? At the beginning of the Gospels, Why was Herod so terrified of Jesus' birth? Got a little infant being born in the district of this governor, right? Why was Herod terrified when he heard that Jesus was born? Remember, the Magi came from the East. They bring this message. There was a prophecy about this promised child. Why was Herod so concerned? Anyone remember? What's special about this child? King is the issue. King of the Jews is the problem for Herod. Now he is a special promised child for many reasons. You can think about Old Testament prophecies, you can think about all the offices of the Messiah, prophet, priest, and what's the one Herod was worried about? prophet, priest, and king. Herod's not worried about Old Testament promises. Herod's worried that there's a rival king that's being born in his province. And there's an even stronger challenge to Rome, because remember, it's political and religious. There's a political beast and a religious beast. There's a problem because this king of the Jews has a religious following. So there's a rival empire and a rival religion over against Caesar and Herod and all of his rulers. Now, we've been talking about irony in Revelation, and you see this irony in the Gospels as well. If you want to hear one of the greatest ironies in the Gospels, It is that you have these lowly Gentile outsiders from the East that come from far, far away in distant lands to bow down and worship the Christ child. And what do they say in Matthew 2, 2? Where is the one that is born the King of the Jews? But what was the opinion of the Jewish people? At the end, John 19, 15. What was Israel's opinion about this Jewish king? What did Israel say? One of the most shocking statements in the entire Bible is when the people of Israel frame their lips at the foot of the cross to say, we have no king but Caesar, is what they say. And their allegiance is to the King of this world. And what was the superscription right above Jesus' head when He dies on that cross? King of the Jews. king of the Jews. So, the Gentiles come from afar. This is a foreshadowing of you and I, by the way, in the largely Gentile but also Jewish church here in these last days in which we live. We come from far away distant lands and humble circumstances to worship the king of the Jews, while there's this partial hardening on the Israelites, who said in the first century, we have no king but Caesar. And you can put it right in front of our faces, King of the Jews. But they wouldn't worship Him. And that was the only charge that was against Him officially above His head, was King of the Jews. So this is the pattern for holy war for the church. Jesus has an ironic kingship, and we're given an ironic holy war in the book of Revelation. They twisted together the crown of thorns, and when God's true King, He is the real King of the Jews, He is the promised Messiah and King, when He is ready to ascend to His throne, He is first humiliated in His state of humiliation with the crown of thorns. He has an ironic kingship. on His way to the throne. And so that is the pattern for us as God's people, is that we engage in ironic holy war. We're in this spiritual holy war that we now conquer Satan, the beast, the second beast, through words, through a spiritual warfare, through our testimony about Jesus Christ. And verse 11 of Revelation 12, they did not love their lives even to the point of death. So what we do is we follow this ironic king in a spiritual war, Revelation 14, 4. We follow the Lamb wherever He goes. It is truly a spiritual war for us. Let's turn to Romans 13, and this will be our last section for today. As we prepare to take a closer look at the Caesars next week over against Christ, Romans 13. And I would ask someone who could read Romans 13, 1-7 for us. Nice and loud when you get there. Romans 13, 1-7. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid. For he beareth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For this cause pay ye tribute also, for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Amen. Amen. So if you listen carefully to this passage, you hear this word damnation in verse 2. More literally, that is the word for condemnation. You would certainly be under the judgment and displeasure of God in this circumstance. But I think it's quite clear. This is fairly obvious. You do not want to find yourself in a situation where you're flirting with what the King James Translation calls damnation, which would be to resist Rome physically, to resist the empire of this world. And essentially, to fight as though your kingdom was of this world, which it's not. So what we have here is quite clearly, Paul is building on the teachings of Christ. You hear this statement in verse 7, which is very clearly echoing Jesus' teachings. You hear this word, render, in verse 7. Render, tribute to whom tribute. Render custom to whom custom. Honor to whom? Honor. Fear to whom? Fear. What does Paul say? Render to Caesar. What is Caesar's? The very thing that Jesus taught. So it's quite clear, once again, that if anything, as many pastors and many divines throughout church history have constantly reminded the church Christians should be the best citizens in the empire. If you want to see a model citizen, we should be able to look to the Christians who should have the best reputation. of serving and rendering to Caesar. What is Caesar's? We should honor Caesar maximally within his boundaries, and we should honor God maximally because we realize that God has installed Caesar to his office and given him these rights and authorities. The powers that be are ordained by God. Verse 1. So I call this section, we are called to honor the king. Peter tells us this as well, but this means both the high king and the low king. I realize there's a tension there because the king can act in a beastly way. So what we do is we pray that the kings are peaceful, because when the kings are peaceful, we can live peaceful lives. When the king oversteps his boundaries, we can say to Caesar, this far and no further. I can render everything to Caesar, but in our final thoughts here, there are two things that Caesar can never do. This is boundary marker number one. Caesar can never stop us from worshiping our God. Never. You can think of many applications in our day and age about government decrees that people cannot gather in the church. When we have God telling us, do not stop gathering together in the book of Hebrews. Now, obviously, we have to be intelligent. If you're, you know, got this leprosy crawling over your body and you have fingertips falling off and you realize that walking into the building is going to give someone else leprosy and make them die, be wise, be prudent, apply Christian wisdom. But in the general decree, when Caesar says, you cannot gather, we are ready to say, my God says we must gather. because we must render to God what is God. Caesar cannot stop us from worshiping our God. More on that next week. That is probably the most common way that the kingdoms of this world impose their will on the church. But in an even worse form, sometimes the empire goes further throughout history. And in the last day, this is what Caesar will do. Whoever that Caesar may be, whatever that government may look like. This is the second and last boundary marker. Caesar can not only never stop us from worshipping God, Caesar must never be worshipped as God. And that's when Caesar goes the furthest. That's what we see in Revelation 13 in the ultimate sense. The beast is being worshipped. And so the final Antichrist, when we deal with our doctrine of Antichrist, is that man of sin who takes his seat in the temple of God and presents himself as God and exalts himself above every God and every so-called God. And what he will be doing is not only saying, stop worshiping, but he will say, start worshiping. Caesar. And that is when Christ will return to destroy that Antichrist on the last day when Caesar has gone too far. Well, let's stop there for this week and let's bow our hearts in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for these deep and practical lessons, not just for the final moment of history for the church right before Christ returns, but for all of us now in these last days in which we live. Whatever Caesar may rise and whatever Caesar may fall, whatever kingdom or empire may rise or fall, help us to remember that we are members of a heavenly citizenship and a heavenly kingdom, and that you have quite clearly ordered us to render everything to Caesar that is Caesar's. But you have also taught us that there are clear limits to what Caesar can impose on or what Caesar can ask for. So help us to be wise, Father. Help us to realize that when Caesar asks us, or even if Caesar would exploit us, God forbid, we pray that you would help it not to happen. But when it does happen, Lord, that we can actually go the second mile, because that's what Christ has clearly called us to do. But in other circumstances, help us not to be like those naive and senseless people who claim that they are disciples of Christ, but would stop worshiping their God when Caesar says stop. Or who would even be caught up in a world system that would exalt Caesar in the place of God. in that anti-Christ system. Please give us discernment, Father. Please forgive us our sins. Please guide your church. We pray that you would bless our worship and fellowship. Again, for the rest of this day, we pray these things for your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.