Verse by Verse Matthew 17:7-24

[0:00] Are you waiting up for a sound check? Keep waiting. All right, Matthew 17, we got into this, what they call the Mount of Transfiguration at the beginning of this chapter and saw some interesting thoughts there about the timing of it.

[0:19] Why is it after six days? Luke says it's about an eight days, and so we ran some scripture and saw that there's a whole lot more going on than just an off-the-wall mention of the days there.

[0:32] There's something deeper to that. It seems as if it's a complete overview of scripture, God's timing for everything, and as we saw in Peter, a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day.

[0:48] And so there's references we ran back in Hosea, in Luke, in John, and just saw that these days just show up, two days here, two days there, and what is the reference?

[1:00] And so there's something going on there. We saw that he took him up into a high mountain. That was on purpose. He's transfigured. His face shined as the sun. That was all a picture, and I guess we called it a preview of the second coming of Christ, of him coming in his glory and power.

[1:17] And Peter said we were eyewitnesses of his glory in one of his epistles. And John says we beheld him, or he was, what did he say there? We beheld his glory in John chapter 1.

[1:30] So anyway, going forward here, this scene disappears as quickly as it comes, and in verse number 8, it says when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only.

[1:44] And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, tell the vision to no man until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead. Now, the vision's over.

[1:54] All that remained was the earthly man, Jesus, that they knew, and he's still God in the flesh, but all of this power and glory and these two others, Moses and Elijah, just disappear.

[2:06] And what a thought, and what a thing. Those guys remembered that and penned it later on in their lives, recalling that moment and that special occasion that they got to see. Now, he said something that's worth bringing out here in verse 9, when he says, tell the vision to no man until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead.

[2:25] That word from is the right word. It always is the right word in your King James Bible, but it's not a resurrection of the dead that they know of.

[2:35] Look at John. Come to John, I think it's 12. No, 11. John 11. And this is Lazarus when he died, and Christ showed up, and he's speaking with his sisters.

[2:57] And in verse 23, Jesus saith unto her, thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

[3:08] That's a resurrection of the dead. But Christ isn't talking about that resurrection where everybody comes up. He says, I'm resurrecting from the dead.

[3:19] Look at, I think it's Romans chapter 1. And this is what sets Jesus Christ apart. Romans chapter 1.

[3:33] When he went in the grave, he wasn't waiting for a general resurrection. He wasn't waiting for that last day because he wasn't a normal man. He resurrected from the dead.

[3:47] As in, the dead are still in the ground, and he left them there. Romans chapter 1 and verse number 3. Concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection.

[4:05] There it is. From the dead. From the dead. Let me check a quick reference here. John 20.

[4:16] Yeah. In John 20, verse 9, when he resurrected, it says in verse 9, that for as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.

[4:28] So coming back to Matthew 17, that little word from, that preposition is the right one. It's not a resurrection of the dead, but rather he's coming up out of, or from the dead.

[4:42] And that the scriptures bear witness to that throughout. Verse number 10, when his disciples, and his disciples asked him, saying, why then say the scribes, that Elias must first come?

[4:57] And that's a good question. And it's showing you that the scribes are teaching the scriptures. Look at Malachi 4, just a quick few pages to your left. This is the last prophecy of the Old Testament.

[5:12] Before that canon is closed, before there's hundreds of years until anything happens, the last prophecy is something about Elijah coming back. And the scribes obviously taught that.

[5:25] The disciples grew up with that knowledge. Malachi 4, verse number 5, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

[5:37] And notice the ministry. He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest they come smite the earth with a curse. Now keep that in mind, because that was partially fulfilled in somebody.

[5:51] Look at Luke chapter 1 now. So there's, after Malachi says that, or he prophesies this and pens it, there's 400 years of nothing, of just dead silence from God.

[6:03] They don't have any word from the Lord, no prophets coming up on the scene, preaching, declaring, thus saith the Lord. It's just, it's dead. It's quiet. The silent years, they're called. And the next thing that takes place is this man goes into the temple, going about his ordinary business, and an angel shows up.

[6:24] A vision of an angel, and the angel tells him, you're going to have a son. And he's like, I don't know about that, because my wife Elizabeth is barren. And so because of his lack of faith, he is given, he's going to be dumb and not be able to speak.

[6:41] But here's what the angel says to Zacharias. Verse number 15, he tells him about this son that's going to be born. Verse 13, now shall call his name John. And verse 15, he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink.

[6:55] He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb, and many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. Verse 17, he shall go before him, that is the Messiah, the Christ, he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias.

[7:11] To do what? To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. So there's Malachi's prophecy, there's Isaiah's prophecy in chapter 40.

[7:25] All being fulfilled with this forerunner. And the forerunner that Isaiah prophesied of, a voice crying in the wilderness, which in Matthew we know that that's John, he's also said that he's fulfilling this thing from Malachi being Elijah the prophet coming before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

[7:45] And so here the angels, he clarifies, if maybe we could call it that, the spirit and power of Elias. Now come back to Matthew 17 where we were, and the disciples asked this question.

[7:58] Why do they say that Elias, I mean they just witnessed Elijah and Moses, and the power and glory of the second coming of Christ and his kingdom.

[8:09] And so they might be thinking, is it time to happen right now? Because I mean, are you going to just turn into the king and become this powerful, glorious, dominant Messiah?

[8:19] Is that how it's going to, you just walked around and preached, you walked around and healed, and then all of a sudden, just boom, you just turn into, maybe they're expecting that to take place, they just witnessed it with their eyes.

[8:30] Well then why does Elijah have to come first? If the kingdom's ready to go, and if you're ready to take your throne, and maybe we're going to Jerusalem and just clearing house, maybe that's what's next.

[8:41] Why isn't Elijah showing up yet? That's a good question. And Christ answers that question. In verse 11, Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall come first and restore all things.

[8:53] But I say unto you that Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.

[9:08] Now his wording changes in verse 11 to say he shall first come. So it's understood that the ministry of John, fulfilling Elijah's role there, it was an option that was rejected.

[9:23] They killed him. They knew him not, and they've done unto him whatsoever they listed. Whatever was in their heart, whatever they liked, they just, they took him out. He was served up on a platter, literally. And so Elijah shall come.

[9:37] So he's telling them, oh, that's going to be fulfilled again then. We're going to go about it in the future. And you can read in Revelation 11, there's two witnesses that show up in the tribulation, and they spend three and a half years, and they're preaching, and doing miracles and signs.

[9:54] And the signs that you see them doing in Revelation 11 match the ministries of Moses and Elijah with smiting the earth with plagues, and calling fire down from heaven, and it's not raining, famine, so forth, or drought.

[10:06] Now, anyway, I don't want to go that far today, but this is something we already covered back in chapter 11 when he was talking about John the Baptist. And so we'll just say that John's ministry, everything was all set up in line with the Old Testament prophets, and it could have, if they received John and his baptism and his preaching, the thing could have gone a different direction for Israel.

[10:31] And so really what you're just kind of reading is little glimpses or mentions of what could have been, but they chose not to. So, Elijah shall first come and restore all things.

[10:44] That's still going to happen, and that prophecy is still intact. It has not been fulfilled, although it was partially fulfilled in John. It was a possibility of being fulfilled in John.

[10:55] But, again, it's what could have been. So moving on in the chapter, verse number 14, Matthew 17. Verse 14, When they were come to a multitude, to the multitude, there came to him a certain man kneeling down to him and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he's a lunatic and sore vexed, for oftentimes he falleth into the fire and off into the water.

[11:19] And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Now, he's called a lunatic. He's got something wrong with his mind. He's nuts. I mean, you could say other things about this, but that's the word the Bible uses.

[11:34] And it's not just that he's mentally messed up, but he's sore vexed because there's something inside of him that is destroying him from the inside. Now, one of the new versions, the RSV, for one, it's just one I noticed when I looked at it, changes that to say that he is epileptic.

[11:52] And that's a shame. That's a sore shame that a man would pick that version, supposed version of the Bible up and read it and think, if he would have a child, a woman has a child that's epileptic, and read this and think, this is what's going on.

[12:08] This is my kid. This is the problem according to the Bible. So you can't trust those new versions and the words they change. They don't know what they're doing. They don't know what they're messing with. And this is a generic word calling him a lunatic versus something that's used, a term used today that's diagnosed and studies been done on and that kind of thing.

[12:29] To think that you could isolate it to that, you're just inserting a problem in the Bible. It's not there. And so this man is a lunatic and he's sore vexed, his boy.

[12:39] I like that he comes and he's kneeling down in verse 14 to him. And so this is a way to get your requests known to God or get his attention is your worship of him and your humility and coming before him like that, asking him to have mercy on your son.

[12:57] And so this kid's falling in the fire and often into the water. Now look at Mark chapter 9 because he gives us more detail in this account. And some while back in Matthew, we cross-referenced this passage specifically to show that there are some things that are just organic diseases of the body and of maybe the curse or just deficiencies in the flesh where somebody's dumb or somebody's blind or somebody's maimed.

[13:30] But this is a spirit. This is not that case. This is a spiritual thing going on and this kid's possessed. So in Mark 9 verse 17, one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I brought unto thee my son which hath a dumb spirit.

[13:45] And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him. So you can say he is vexed for sure. He foameth and gnasheth with his teeth. And that's not the boy doing it. That's the devil inside of him destroying him.

[13:58] And he pineth away and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out and they could not. And Christ responds in verse 19, he answered him and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?

[14:09] How long shall I suffer you? He's talking about his disciples again. Now, I mean, it's been a little bit here since we hit some of this, but it was in Matthew 14 and 15 specifically where he's frustrated with these men and their lack of faith and all that they've seen and done and they're still not making the connections of how they can trust God and trust even in the presence of Jesus Christ.

[14:35] They're worried about taking bread. Those things where he's grieved at them. Here he is again, another opportunity for them to show themselves full of faith and to accomplish the work of God.

[14:46] He rebukes them as a faithless generation. He says it to his own disciples multiple times, O ye of little faith, how long shall I be with you? Oh, I just, you can hear his frustration.

[15:00] How long shall I suffer you or put up with this? Verse 20, And they brought him unto him and when he saw him straightway, the spirit tear him and he fell on the ground and wallowed foaming.

[15:13] I mean, what a scary sight this must have been to behold this because not everybody that's possessed with the devil is doing this kind of thing. Not that we see in the scriptures, but this spirit, this devil is tearing him up right in front of everybody and just reacting, no doubt, to the presence of Christ.

[15:32] And in verse 21, he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child. And oftentimes it hath cast him into the fire and into the waters to destroy him.

[15:42] But if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us. And so he puts it on Christ, if thou canst, if you could do it. But Christ puts it back on the man and says, Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible for him that believeth.

[15:58] It's not going to be on me if I can't do it. I can do it. But what about you? I don't know if Christ would have said that if the man would have said, If thou canst do anything. Others came up to him and said, Lord, you can do it all.

[16:13] He's like, You don't even have to come to my house. You just need to say the word. That was the man's testimony earlier in Matthew. Here, this guy says, If you can do anything, would you consider doing it? Christ said, Oh, it's up to you this time.

[16:26] Verse 24, Straight with him, Father, the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. And Jesus saw that the people came running together and he bruked the foul spirit saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I chargely come out of him and enter no more into him.

[16:41] The spirit cried and rent him sore and came out of him and he was his one dead in so much as many said he is dead. And I love this verse. Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose.

[16:53] When he was come to the house, the disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting.

[17:07] Now, I'll come back to Matthew. So, the problem here with this kid is a satanic thing. He's identified here as having a devil. It's devil possession. Christ is frustrated with the lack of belief in his disciples.

[17:22] But then they ask the question, Why couldn't we do it? So, we'll come back to Matthew and pick that part up. Mark gave us a whole lot more information and detail about the scene.

[17:36] It's in verse 19 where the disciples come and came to Jesus apart. Why could not we cast him out? Now, look at Christ's response here in Matthew. Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief, for verily I say unto you, if ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

[18:00] Howbeit this kind cometh not out but by prayer and fasting. So, the disciples are the guilty ones. In Mark, he put it back on the man.

[18:11] If you can believe, all things are possible. Why couldn't we do it? Well, because you didn't believe. Their lack of faith, their lack of, or their unbelief. That's the thing. That's the problem.

[18:21] And Christ tells him this thing about the faith as a grain of mustard seed. Now, that tiny little dot, round little dot in your hand, he's likening that small of a substance to being capable of moving mountains, literally.

[18:39] And he's not talking to you and I today telling you that we can do that. I've already said this from this pulpit. Go ahead. Go out there and show God how much faith you have and move the mountains. Make a way so that we don't have to drive all the way up around to get up through there.

[18:52] We can just go right through these hills. If you've got faith, I guess you don't have faith then, do you? I guess you don't have faith even that much faith, huh? Or, is it more practical to realize that Christ is speaking and preaching to men that he's empowered with gifts and abilities to cast out devils already?

[19:13] They've experienced this. They've already been commissioned in Matthew 10. They've already exercised that power. And he's expecting them to have a little bit more sense about him when it comes to dealing with this stuff.

[19:25] for sure, and we can just help you in this to eliminate this thought of I have to have faith to see God work in my life. I have to exercise faith in order for him to move mountains or move miracles or open doors or shut doors or just, this is a different thing and this is a literal thing, a physical thing that's going on that they're exercising their faith to accomplish.

[19:51] And this is not something Christ calls you to do and you're not that disciple like that. But he's rebuking them for their unbelief and then says, this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.

[20:06] It's worth mentioning again that the new Bibles don't have verse 21 in it. That phrase is gone. And so, you don't have that light or that insight about prayer and fasting in the new versions.

[20:18] What you have though is just, oh, you're unbelief and you have to have faith. And they don't realize there's more to the equation and more that Christ taught his disciples on this subject but it's missing in the new versions and they are inferior by far.

[20:36] Now, fasting is something that's an ironic thing because it's making yourself weak in order to be strong. And that's what Christ obviously was, in the habit of doing here.

[20:52] If fasting and prayer is what it takes to have the strength to do it and Christ just did it, then there was something going on in his life that was different than his disciples. And so, I don't know if these guys were just not in fellowship or if they were just kind of in the routine of we're doing this, we're walking with him, we're healing people when they come up to us as well and we've done this already and we've got it and then they faced this kind and found out they couldn't do it.

[21:20] I don't know if they're just in that kind of routine and they're not really connected through prayer and fasting to the source of the power that they've been given. It's a hard thing to fathom and to really teach and preach on because it's really nothing that I can relate to and you can't either.

[21:36] This prayer and fasting to cast out this kind of unclean spirit. And so, all we can do is draw from the text but there's just some things you can't go too far on in the Bible and if you do, well, you might find something or you might just get misled and try to come up with some crazy doctrine of devils and fasting and casting things out and having power yourself and you could get deceived by trying to find something new.

[22:02] But we'll move on from that. In verse 22, while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, the Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of men and they shall kill him and the third day he shall be raised again and they were exceeding sorry.

[22:17] Now, it seems as though Jesus is sensing the time is growing closer. He is now mentioning this more and more. It was in chapter 16 that he mentioned it to his disciples and Peter rebuked him for it.

[22:30] In chapter 17, at the beginning, Moses and Elijah are speaking to him of what's going to take place in the future in his death that's going to be accomplished at Jerusalem.

[22:40] And now, later in that chapter, just who knows, days later, he's speaking to his disciples again about it. It's starting to come out more and more. Remember that this kingdom thing with John and all that timing and setup was kind of put on pause.

[22:57] It was put on halt. It was stopped because of their rejection of John and rejection of Messiah. And when we get into chapter 13, the Lord's turning into this mystery thing with the kingdom of heaven is likened unto this in its parable form.

[23:10] And now, he's not speaking openly about that stuff. And so now, the transition is coming full to where now, he's speaking of his death and burial and resurrection.

[23:21] And so, definitely, the shift is on in his ministry here. And it's starting to show up more and more. Verse 24, when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute, money, that's tax collectors, came to Peter and said, does not your master pay tribute?

[23:40] He saith, yes. And when he was coming to the house, Jesus prevented him saying, what thinkest thou, Simon? So Christ, it's amazing, it's always, never ceases to amaze me how he exercises this power and ability that he knows the conversation Peter had outside of the house, wherever this took place.

[24:00] He's aware of it, he knows Peter's response, he knows his thinking on it. And so, he addresses it with him. What a thing. And if you walk with Jesus Christ yourself, he'll do the same thing to you.

[24:12] He'll address the things that you're thinking and the responses you give to people that come up to you and catch you off guard with a question. And he knows your thoughts, he knows your heart.

[24:25] And if you, if you spend any time with him, he'll deal with you about it. He'll talk to you about what you said to that. He'll bring it to your mind when you're praying. He'll bring to your mind the conversation you had realizing he knows it, he's showing you you didn't do it right, you didn't handle it right, you need to fix it.

[24:43] That's the Lord. And so he does it to Peter here and he shows him he knows what he's, what's going on. Peter, he says, what thinkest thou, Simon, in verse 25, of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute, of their own children or of strangers?

[24:56] Peter saith unto him of strangers. Peter saith unto him then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea and cast and hook and take up the fish that first cometh up.

[25:09] When thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money that take and give unto them for me and thee. So it's interesting that Christ exercises his deity here to pay the taxes and just let that show you that God's capable of, I don't want to say you go fishing on Sunday and he'll make sure you pay your tithe, but he's capable of handling money, needs, and deficiencies or whatever.

[25:41] So pay your taxes. Verse 24, it's these publicans that are despised by the Jews that come up and I want to run a few references here. Look at chapter 22 and show you the teaching that Christ has about this topic.

[26:02] It's countered, sadly, it's countered by some people in his day and even in our day teaching that this is unnecessary or unconstitutional or something.

[26:16] Matthew 22, verse 15, then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. They sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know thou art true and teach us the way of God in truth.

[26:29] Neither carest thou for any man, for thou regardest not the person of men. Tell us, therefore, what thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute? Notice lawful. The law, the law of Moses.

[26:41] Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness, there he is again, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?

[26:54] Show me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? They saith unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's.

[27:10] And what a slap in the face. When they heard these words, they marveled. Like, they're speechless. They left him and went their way. They couldn't, they couldn't cut that down in the least.

[27:23] That was just pure, beautiful wisdom. This is Caesar's money. So give it to him. And he's more concerned that God gets what's his. Now, so Christ had no trouble paying tribute or custom to the kings of the earth as is brought up in Matthew 17.

[27:45] He had no trouble doing it and even went so far as to say, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Now, come to Luke 23. Luke 23. And notice, here's an accusation against him.

[28:03] Here's some straight up lies. Luke 23, verse 1 and 2, when they bring Jesus before Pilate the night of his crucifixion. They're trying to find something they can accuse him of before a Gentile governor.

[28:17] In verse 1, the whole multitude of them arose and led him unto Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, we found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar. Lie. Lie.

[28:28] But that's something they thought they could throw up and catch him on. Did he forbid? No. He even told, maybe he himself didn't go do it, but he said to Peter, take that and give unto them for me and thee.

[28:40] We have to just assume that Peter did it and took care of it. Come to Romans 13. I'll show you two spots here in Paul's epistles and in Peter's epistles.

[28:51] We get Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 about this thing of paying tribute or custom or taxes as we call them.

[29:03] 1 Peter 2, Romans 13 will start in Romans. So there's the hypocrisy of Christ's enemies in lying and attacking him on something and he's innocent as always.

[29:23] Romans 13 now, Paul wants to weigh in on this for us today. He says, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God, not the devil, God.

[29:36] Verse 2, Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a tear to good works but to evil.

[29:48] Wilt thou then be afraid of the power? Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same. So if you just follow their rules and you're subject to the higher powers then they'll praise you for doing good, for following in line.

[30:02] And they'll 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. That's capital punishment for violating the laws of the land.

[30:14] And 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, that is, getting your head cut off or thrown in jail, but also for conscience sake.

[30:29] That's you, personally, and your walk with God for your own conscience doing right. For for this cause pay ye tribute. Notice that's what he's talking about, money. Because of all that, pay them.

[30:42] Pay tribute also, for they are God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

[30:56] All their dues pay up. Look at 1 Peter 2. Now, I don't like it either, the stuff about taxes or the, I mean, moving out here, I've probably never paid so much taxes in my life.

[31:11] It's higher than anywhere I've ever lived. But, so be it. I'm gonna have to do it just like you. I don't like it, but, but fighting against that, that's the wrong battle.

[31:25] 1 Peter chapter 2, and look what he says, let's come to verse 12. He says, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles. Oh, that's a big deal.

[31:37] That whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may buy your good works, in this case, giving your money, to them being blameless, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

[31:48] Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be unto the king as supreme or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well.

[31:59] For so is the will of God that with well doing he may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Now, Peter suggests and teaches we ought to do the same thing as Paul does and submit ourselves to every ordinance of man.

[32:17] And when it comes to custom, he got a question he had brought to him. Does your master pay tribute? He's like, yeah, he does. But I don't know if Peter really knew if he does or not. If he did up to that point or not or had to or whenever this custom thing the tribute fell, I don't know.

[32:33] But Christ then asks a question. So first of all, Christ submitted to paying taxes as we'd call it today. And he even had a supernatural way of raising the money to do so.

[32:46] But he said lest we should offend them which means violate their laws. So Christ walked blameless in the eyes of the Gentiles and the public and the government that was over him.

[33:02] He submitted to it. He was definitely not a revolutionist and was not leading some revolt and gaining ground like they accused him of doing as well. Now, when it comes down to paying your taxes, Christ said lest we should offend them.

[33:19] And he had a testimony that said I'm going to follow through and do what the law demands. And what I'm not going to do is get tossed into jail because I don't like your demands.

[33:30] Even in this passage he decides that Peter, the children are free, right? The Romans don't charge their children tax money.

[33:41] They charge the rest of them. You read back in the Old Testament when that, the Gibeonites deceived Joshua saying that we brought moldy bread and you know all that stuff and our clothes were new and now they're old.

[33:55] and he says they weren't allowed to kill him but they put him under tribute and they put him to work too. And so they were strangers. They weren't taxing the children, they taxed the strangers that were able to live with them.

[34:08] And that's just common practice. And in the kingdom as Christ is alluding to even here that we are, this, he's kind of inferring that we don't know anything.

[34:20] That this is our land and I'm the king and even though they're over us right now, we're the children of the kingdom and he kind of has this future look here he says but nevertheless we still submit.

[34:36] Like I said earlier, I don't like this stuff about paying taxes. Nobody truly likes it but that's not the battle that I can afford to plant my flag on and go after.

[34:49] And some ministers have decided that is their battle and they have a constitutional right and God gave us the constitution. I don't know where they got that from chapter and verse but they truly, they think that America is a godly nation and the constitution is derived from scriptural principles and therefore the government violates it.

[35:10] They're violating my scriptural principles and freedom and blah, blah, blah and so they decided that paying taxes is unconstitutional and some men took a stand and you know where that stand led them?

[35:22] It's exactly where it led them. Straight to jail. Preachers in a pulpit are now sitting behind bars because they didn't pay their taxes. Who's the winner there?

[35:33] And you know what they like to do then? Be the victim and God is on my side because I'm innocent but pray for me brethren. The persecution's real.

[35:45] Now they get to play the victim card for the believers to show that they have just taken a stand and that feels so good to them to be that guy. When I was in Pensacola Bible School in that town there was a guy that many of you probably know the man Kent Hoven who was the dino man and he's got some good material.

[36:04] He likes to debate atheists and evolutionists and he likes to you know really give them a biblical take on creation and just he's a smart guy. He's sharp and God's used him to really kind of just help answer some things to be on college campuses and do this but this guy got this hang up with I mean it's been years since this all started with him but he's had this hang up about constitutional rights and making me have a driver's license is unconstitutional.

[36:34] Making me have a marriage license that's unconstitutional. You can't tell me that I have to have that in order to do this. It's not in the Bible. They didn't have a marriage license in the Bible and so forth and so he he just started that door open for him he went through it and he took a stand and he took a stand and he went further and he went further and he's preaching and teaching all over the place that paying taxes is against the Bible and I mean did we just look at a few passages right there?

[37:01] Christ the Apostle Paul Peter but he wasn't preaching the Bible as much as he was the Constitution and so he's proclaiming his rights and his rights and his rights and he raised enough stink that Uncle Sam heard about it and he came in and locked him up.

[37:17] He took him to jail because he didn't pay his taxes. The IRS caught up with him and then the next thing I know about this guy he just was off the grid for a while the next thing I know is I get this DVD from this this nut that's preaching this this false teaching about the tribulation and the church going through the tribulation and a post-tribulation rapture and he's he's trying to lay out this argument and he gets Dr. Kent Hoven on the line and it's he in the video the guy's sitting outside of the jail that he's in filming and you can see the barbed wire fence and you can see the lights and the guard shacks and all that and he's filming this while he's on the phone with him on speakerphone in his car and they put all this in the video him getting Dr. Hoven's take on this tribulation business and going through the tribulation and they're studying Matthew 24 and we'll kick that when we get to it easily but anyway he's a prisoner for Jesus Christ like the apostle Paul I Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ well that's what this guy was at the time I Kent Hoven the prisoner of Jesus Christ because I'm preaching and teaching the word of God and the truth and they locked me up and now he got out but what a waste and what a poor testimony that he ends up with and a blemish on his ministry and he's trying to reach the lost and trying to turn them to God of the Bible and there he is locked up in jail they're not going to give him any credibility he didn't pay his taxes how is that going to help him to convince a college student that God is alive and he's real and he created this world and you're going to be accountable to him he just took his name out of the argument he's around today as soon as he got back out of prison

[38:57] I don't know how many years he was in there but when he got out he started making YouTube videos right away teaching through the Bible or something and he's right back at it I guess but what a waste because he decided that I don't have to pay taxes I want you to know that you can pay your taxes and you can submit yourself to every ordinance of man and even in this passage if you think you can't afford it God has ways could be a fish's mouth who knows now you can go catch some trout that they tagged somewhere and you can actually turn them in and get money for them so maybe you could actually make this thing a literal interpretation here for getting your tax money but at any rate you can just trust God and submit yourselves to man not just for wrath as far as for jail's sake but also for your own conscience you're not going to walk around telling people how to do right when you're not doing right or when you've got some way that you're getting around it just like a snake anyway we'll stop there we'll be able to pick it up next week

[40:00] Lord willing in chapter 18 and let's just close with a quick word of prayer and then we'll move on Father we thank you for this this Bible and for the light that it has even to shine upon our lives today help us to be innocent in all these matters help us God to have a clear conscience before you and a good testimony to the world and to the lost around us and Lord it's not always easy to submit ourselves to the ordinances of men but Lord help us to be able to do it with a good conscience and to obey God rather than men but Lord where we have to submit help us to do it with a cheerful heart and to be able to be a testimony a witness to those who need you most we pray in Jesus name Amen alright take a