 What we're going to look at today is found in Matthew 22, verses 15 through 22. And it's really a message that relates to Caesar and the believer. And so let me begin reading to you here in Matthew 22 at verse 15, and we'll get into our study. I'll read to verse 22, and we'll get into our study this morning, Caesar and the believer. Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle him in his talk, and they sent to him their disciples with a Herodian saying, Teacher we know that you are true and teach the way of God in truth, nor do you care about anyone, for you do not regard the person of men. Tell us therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, Why do you test me, you hypocrites? Show me the tax money. So they brought him a denarius. And he said to them, Whose image and inscription is this? They said to him, Caesars. He said to them, Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. When they heard these words, they marveled and left him and went their way. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar and to God the things that are God's. Caesar and the believer. As we look at this particular portion of scripture, Jesus has just completed giving a series of parables. He gave three parables, and we've looked at these together. The first two parables were directed towards the religious leadership of the nation of Israel. We saw the parable of the fig tree, and how that fig tree had immediately withered. We also looked at the parable of the wedding feast. And those parables were intended to reveal that unbelieving Israel was being judged. The third parable that we looked at was directed at unbelieving Israel in general, the parable of that wedding feast. He spoke of a king inviting subjects to a wedding feast only to be rejected. And this was because someone tried to enter the feast wearing his own righteousness. This wedding garment represented the proper attire required for entrance. A garment would have been provided as we looked at this together. It would have been provided for the person who wanted to attend, but that person intended to come in on their own righteousness. And we looked at that together. Everybody was invited, not all accepted the invitation, thus they were rejected. Without God's righteousness, man cannot enter into heaven, it was what we saw with the parable of the wedding feast. So Jesus was warning them, and he was at the same time inviting them. And so what we see in response to this series of parables that Jesus is giving, what we see is retaliation instead of repentance. They're enraged. They're so enraged they wanted to have him arrested immediately. Mark tells us in chapter 12 verse 12 that they sought to lay hands on him, but feared the multitude, for they knew he had spoken the parable against them, so they left him and went away. Jesus was resented by the religious leadership because he exposed their pride, their hypocrisy, their self-righteousness, their lack of compassion. Also they envied his popularity. They were enraged by his disdain concerning the way they obtained religious authority, and he had publicly humiliated them there in the temple. And he's revealing to them that they are hypocritical rebels against God himself. And so now they're responding. So instead of taking his words to heart, they determine all the more to resist him. Instead of being convicted for their sins, instead they resist his words. In the following verses, they ask Jesus a series of three questions, and the three questions are related to paying taxes, the resurrection, and the greatest command. And so what we're going to do today is we're going to look at the first question, the question concerning paying taxes. And so here in verse 15, 15 through 17, it says this. The Pharisees went, plotted how they might entangle him in his talk, and they sent to him their disciples with a Herodian saying, Teacher, we know that you are true, teach the way of God in truth, nor do you care about anyone, for you do not regard the person of man, tell us therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? And so what we see verse 15 is we see their motives. Notice it says they plotted how they might entangle him. To entangle means to ensnare or entrap. The word entangle was normally used in reference to trapping a bird. And so what this is speaking about is they're trying to elicit from Jesus a remark that can be turned into an accusation against him. They don't want to take direct action because they're afraid of the people. So instead of a direct attack, they sent their disciples to him and they were spies. They tried to blend in as they questioned him. You see for them it would be easier to get room to move against him rather than them having a full assault against him. In Luke chapter 20 verse 20 it says keeping a close watch on him they sent spies who pretended to be honest. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. So they wanted to keep themselves from having to do that. They wanted to bring Rome in and that's why they're doing this particular thing. They're trying to blend in but they were recognized for who they were. It could have been their clothing. It could have been their youth. It could have been that they were known by Jesus but he knew who they were. You see the Pharisees had a reputation for spirituality but the Herodians which is interesting because it says they sent him their disciples with the Herodians. The Herodians were known for their worldliness. Normally these two groups would be in opposition to one another. They were hostile to one another. Because the Herodians were a politically minded group of Jews who were loyal to Herodatibus and it was Herodatibus who had imprisoned and murdered John the Baptist. And we know that Herod desired to kill Jesus because in Luke 13 31 it says some Pharisees came to him and said get away from here for Herod wants to kill you. Herod had great allegiance to Rome because Rome had granted him power and there being part of this trap would add credibility to the charge that they were plotting against Christ and they actually believed that they can entrap him. Proverbs 16 5 says everyone who is proud and hard is an abomination to the Lord. Though they join forces none will go unpunished. And so they begin. Notice verse 16 we know that you are true and teach the way of God in truth. You say nor do you care about anyone. You don't care about anybody's influence. You are not a respecter of persons is what they're saying. Now they begin by referring to him as teacher. When they come and speak to him and say teacher we know that word teacher is a title that was reserved for rabbis who had distinguished themselves in their service to God and to their disciples. So they're using flattery with the hope of appealing to his vanity. They're trying to set a trap for him. Proverbs 29 5 says whoever flatters his neighbor is spreading a net for his feet. And because they sought honor from men they naturally assumed that Jesus did too. They done this before we saw it in Matthew 12 38 where it said some of the scribes and Pharisees answered saying teacher we want to see a sign from you. So they're attempting to appeal to his pride in order to disarm him. Notice what they say to him. First they say you are true. You teach the way of God in truth. In other words you have a reputation for integrity. You do not add nor do you take away from God's word. Second you do not regard the person of men. You're not swayed by threats. You're not swayed by argument. You stand your ground. You are faithful to your convictions. You are impartial in your judgments. And so they begin that way and then they say in verse 17 therefore what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? And so now they lay the trap before him. In order to understand how this came about we need to know that this was a common argument. You see the Herodians supported the tax but the Pharisees rejected it. Their question is is it lawful to pay taxes? Now the tax they're speaking about is called the poll tax. It was a yearly tax that was used to support the Roman troops in Israel. It consisted of a land tax of one-tenth of the grain, one-fifth of the wine and oil, and one percent income tax on wage earners. And it was the most hated tax because you were paying for invading armies to remain in your own land. And hatred for this tax actually had sparked a revolt in AD 6. When you read Acts 5 in verse 37 it says Gamaliel, a leader of the Sanhedrin, said at the time of the census there was Judas of Galilee. He got some people to follow him but he was killed too and all his followers were scattered. He was referring to a revolt that had occurred because of this tax. The Jews hated the tax. So for the Pharisees it was a perfect question. Because listen, if he says pay it, he alienates the Jewish population and they reject him. If he says don't pay it, he's accused of rebellion against Rome and thus can be arrested for sedition. Somebody said the enemies of Christ would be thought desirous to know their duty when really they hoped that whatever side he took of the question they might find occasion to accuse him. Everything is more likely to ensnare the followers of Christ than bringing them to meddle with disputes about worldly politics. Jesus avoided the snare by referring to the submission they had already made as a nation and all who heard him marveled at the great wisdom of his answer. You see verse 18 tells us Jesus perceived their wickedness. In other words he saw right through them. Proverbs tells us surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. So we ask the question of verse 18, why do you test me you hypocrites? Jesus according to Mark 12.15 knew their hypocrisy and then in verse 19 he says, show me the tax money. So they brought him a denarius. Interestingly they apparently didn't have the coin on them. They had to go out and get one and they brought him a denarius. The denarius was the only coin acceptable for this tax and now Jesus asked the question whose image and inscription is this and they said to him Caesar's. He said to them render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. We'll develop this a little bit and then look for some application. It's interesting here even in the question and this was when I was studying this portion preparing for the study I found this interesting enough to repeat to you. When you look at taxes in Israel and remember when Jesus had just gone into the temple and had overturned the money changers. You remember the money changers were there because people bringing in foreign money coming from different lands into Israel to pay their temple maintenance tax when they came in with foreign money foreign currency they had to exchange that foreign currency in order to have shekels or Jewish form of money in order to pay the temple tax but when it came to the poll tax the poll tax was a tax that was paid in the Roman money and even in what is taking place here you see that some things belong to God and some things belong to man. Even in the pain of the tax underlying that is the fact that the temple maintenance tax was paid in shekels but the poll tax was paid in Roman denarius and so you're going to see even in the question and even in the system of paying their taxes there is actually rendering unto Caesar the things that were Caesar's and unto God the things that belong to God and that's why Jesus begins to ask the question when he says whose image and inscription is this and they answer to him Caesar. Now perhaps they think he's going to denounce Caesar therefore they can make an accusation but his answer in verse 21 render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar and to God the things that belong to him that is something that really is going to catch them. Now I want to look at this with you for a moment rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that belong to God. When you looked at the Roman denarius on one side was an engraving of the emperor on the other an engraving of Caesar sitting on a throne in priestly robes being designated the high priest. The coin had Caesar's image with the inscription God to the Jews treating an emperor as a God was idolatry just using the coin itself might constitute idolatry in Jewish law and thus was forbidden to use the coin to pay taxes to the same Caesar was even worse. When you look at the question and you look at the answer we need to remember that government is one of the first three institutions established by God along with church and marriage and in Romans 13 in verse 1 Paul said this he said everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which God has established the authorities that exist have been established he said by God. Government is intended to keep order and to be a benefit to those who are being governed and for this reason it is to be submitted to in 1 Peter 2 13 through 15 submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men whether to the king as a supreme authority or to governors who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right for it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. So ordinarily a believer recognizes the legitimacy of human government and that's because we understand human nature as well as we understand proper moral authority and so that causes us to obey the law because of conscience sake not fear alone. In Romans 13 again verses 5 through 7 Paul said it is necessary to submit to the authorities not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience this is also why you pay taxes for the authorities are God's servants who give their full time to governing give everyone what you owe him if you owe taxes pay taxes if revenue then revenue if respect then respect if honor then honor. So and I want to develop this with you to honor God does not mean that we dishonor in this case the emperor it is perfectly legitimate to pay Caesar because the taxes under his domain it is proper to pay taxes taxes should be used in our use to build roads to ensure police to order society and thus you pay your rightful share and so when he's being asked should we or should we not pay taxes many of them not wanting to he said you rendered to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar but he goes on to say and this is where I want to develop this a little bit further with you in verse 21 and to God the things that belong to God so here we go you pay your taxes to Caesar but you reserve your worship for God I always have people who want to know when can you rebel I don't think that stop sign should make me stop I mean when do we rebel because there are people who really will talk and I want to talk to you a little bit about that right now when do we resist rendered to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar and to God the things that belong to God when man's command comes into conflict with God's command you choose God all the way back in the book of Exodus remember in Exodus chapter 3 verses 15 through 17 the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives whose names were ship raw and poor when you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool if it is a boy kill him but if it is a girl let her live the midwives however feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do they let the boys live when God's command and man's command come into conflict you obey God in the case of Moses that's how he was able to survive the slaughter of the children in the book of Daniel there was a decree that was made that people were to worship a golden image but in Daniel 3 Shadrach Meshach and Abednego refused to do so and paid a penalty for that in chapter 6 of the book of Daniel a law was passed forbidding people to pray to anyone but the king but Daniel 6 verse 10 says when Daniel knew that the writing was signed he went home and in his upper room with his windows open toward Jerusalem he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as was his custom since early days when man's law violates God's law you obey God rather than men you render into Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God those things that belong to him there is a time when it is morally superior to refuse a law than to obey it and again when man's law violates God's clear commands we obey God I'll get do you mind if I get personal no pastor get personal okay if the law ever tells me that I am supposed to do something that violates my understanding of the word of God I'm going to disobey the law I'm just telling you up front if they say you need to perform weddings that are not appropriate I'm going to say no I'm not going to do that I'm going to obey God rather than men I've done that from the beginning early in our ministry we were given an opportunity to go and to bring Bibles into communist China and I had people in this church who couldn't understand why why would you violate the law of China by bringing in Bibles and we brought Bibles in suitcases and we gave it to the underground church why did you do that because sometimes they had one Bible they had one Bible for all these churches and what the pastor would do is a pastor would cut out a portion of scripture he actually divided the Bible up and would hand it to parishioners and different members and he'd say I'm going to be using teaching out of this text can you bring the text to me and that they'd have to bring the the scriptures to the pastor so he could use it as he prepared to study because they didn't have any Bible and sometimes you had one Bible for several thousand members and so we were bringing in Bibles and I had people saying why did you do that I did that because it is better to obey God rather than men they need the word of God to set them free and that's why we do this we're going to bring the word of God in we are we are aware of the fact that there are places that want to keep the gospel from going out I was speaking just this last week to a pastor who because he had gone for specialized training he's from a communist country and because he had gone for specialized training to be one of the elite leaders of the Communist Party in his country he had gone to another country to be taught his mother being a very high-ranking communist official was upset because while he was in this foreign country he had encountered a man whom he knew was different but didn't know what was different about him and so he watched him and as he was watching this young man the young man was jumped and beat up by several people and so this young man and I'll leave him unnamed went and spoke to the other young man who had just been assaulted and said why why did they beat you the way they did and the young man said because I'm a Christian and it causes this man who is one of the top students he went to what would be equivalent to one of our our highest universities like an MIT he was he was way up there because he was being groomed for this position and was going to be a leader in the future in the Communist Party when he heard this man he began to share with them and when he found that the man was a Christian he was he was wondering why did you allow this to take place and the guy shared the gospel and this young man who had seen the Christian get beaten committed his heart to Christ when he committed his heart to Christ his mother who was a very high ranking official discovered her son to have become a Christian she ordered him to have shock treatment in a psychiatric institution that damaged him so badly that his hands were actually frozen into like like Eagles claws his muscles and spasms they were trying to destroy a portion of his brain to lose the memory of committing himself to Christ and I spoke to him for some time he's a pastor pastor in a church loves the Lord serves Jesus Christ because he said you know what they couldn't erase the conversion of Christ in my soul and I'm serving Jesus and not only was his mother responsible for him going through shock treatment but he led his mother to Christ before she died see there's a there's a power in resisting when you obey God rather than men and we need to we need to I'm not saying that we need to get angry I'm not saying that we need to go out and and and do do mindless acts of violence it's just a time when the scripture says we ought to obey God rather than men and that's what we do and Jesus is saying listen there are things that you owe to the government pay your taxes but when the government violates what God clearly says you obey God rather than men because we give to God the things that belong to him now that means I give to him everything I give to him my hands that I might serve him I give to him my head that I might have the mind of Christ I give to him my heart that I might follow and obey him I give him everything because everything belongs to him the law of the land says that abortion is legal and the woman some of you are too young to even know this so I'm going to bring it up some of you have grown up with freedom of abortion in the United States and whatever is legal in the United States for many people is also moral because the way that Americans think is if it's a law then it's also right that's how Americans think Norma though her name was Norma McCorvey but you might know her if you studied in your history class you might know her as Jane Rowe in the Roe vs. Wade decision she just died and she is known for the woman whose case was brought that legalized abortion to see where it is now back in I believe 1973 there have been more abortions in the United States since Roe v. Wade was passed so many abortions that you actually if you combine the amount of abortions that have occurred it is equivalent to and and more than the combined population of Texas and California that's how many have died over the years since that was passed but not too many people are aware of the fact that Norma had the baby that she was pregnant with when she brought the case not too many people are aware of the fact that she claimed to rape as the reason for permission for abortion when in fact she hadn't been raped it was an accusation of gang rape that was used brought into the court system not too many people know the fact that she never even attended any of the the trial none of it she just was the one that they use as a test case to get Roe v. Wade passed but what happened with Norma is she was working in a clinic and a seven-year-old little girl was with her mom and some people were in front of the clinic encouraging people not to get abortions and giving them a better way and the seven-year-old little girl befriended Norma McCorvey and when the seven-year-old little girl befriended her she used to walk up to her and she would hug her and say hi how are you it did something within Norma and Norma finally the little girl said would you come and come to church with us and Norma went to church and Norma who was at that time living a lesbian lifestyle Norma went to that church got saved and began to be a very vocal advocate for pro-life we in the church are pro-life we want to see that that that God is honored we want to take we see we take care of some of the women in our fellowship many women in in in this fellowship have gone through the pain of an abortion we have never been those who judge them we don't judge them because we realize that people make decisions that that are that they carry with the rest of their life but we are very pro-life that's why we have a pro-life ministry here and that's why we've had them over the years and though the law says that abortion is legal God says it's not morally right so where where where you have Caesar and you have God Jesus is just making it clear you render into Caesar the things that belong to him the jurisdiction of Caesar which includes taxes because taxes go to fund the various civic things that are necessary but when it comes to a conflict between God and man obey God rather than man and as he's speaking now they don't have a way they don't have a way to make accusation because what he said was absolutely right of course one other thing about this verse here I got drafted to go into the military in 1970 but then I got saved and I had a moral kind of a dilemma I don't I I want to be one who brings life and and I don't want to necessarily be one who brings death and in the military to me in 1970 remember the Vietnam War was still going on and there was so much conflict and so many marches and so many things I was thinking can I in good conscience go into the military and so what I did is I was watching a movie it was of all things Sergeant York and I was watching this movie called Sergeant York when he was to go in the military and in the movie they dramatize him as going off and spending time with the Lord and he read and this scripture was read out loud in that movie render therefore into Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are God and he made a choice to go into the military and do you know that when I watched that movie I saw that as my answer and that's what motivated me because I didn't know whether I was a conscientious objector or not I was a brand-new believer and so this scripture here actually was used by the Lord taught to me really through the a real life experience in Alvin Alvin York to go into the military and that's why I went into the military is because I wanted to render to Caesar the things that were Caesars and that's what we choose to do God has everything and God owns everything everything belongs to him I give to him my head my heart I give to him my hands and I serve him but at the same time living here in the United States under human government I rendered to the human government the things that are necessary so I pay my taxes I don't want to pay him a penny more but I pay my taxes because that's what we ought to do now as this happens verse 22 when they heard these words they marveled and left him and went their way their response was they were unable to trap him they were astonished by his answer and Luke tells us the result was in Luke 20 verse 26 they became silent they had nothing else that they could say the way that Jesus responded silenced them they marveled left him and they went their way