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[0:00] Matthew chapter 20, 21, I don't think we finished 21, no, so yeah, Matthew 21 this morning.

[0:10] And I believe we got through verse 32.

[0:31] And what's happening here, just to refresh you, they've attacked the authority of Jesus Christ back in verse 23, saying this at the end of the verse, by what authority doest thou these things?

[0:44] And who gave thee this authority? And so they're going after him, and this is going to carry on into the next chapter and all the way to the end of the next chapter, this kind of like, I don't know what to call it, him dodging bullets from them.

[0:59] They're just firing away, trying to take him out, knock him down, and they're consulting together, here we'll see in the future, to do this. And they just, I mean, things have gotten to where the whole place has praised him and lauded him in this, earlier in chapter 21, they're throwing their robes down, they're taking, they're strawing the branches in the way and saying, behold, or the prophecy is, behold thy king cometh.

[1:27] They're saying, Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he that cometh the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest, I mean, this thing is reaching a crescendo so that the Pharisees like, we have got to do something now.

[1:40] We can't, this can't go on anymore, this is, he's overtaking it, now he's here in our city, and they're praising him, and the children in the temple are praising him, as we saw last week. So they're coming after him now, and he turns it around on them with this thing with John the Baptist so that they couldn't even, he just stopped them dead in their tracks right then and there, and they wouldn't answer him, and so he said, neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.

[2:05] And so then he gives them a parable, and this is parable number one of a few consecutive parables, and it was in verse 28 to 32 that we read last week about a certain man, two sons, the one saying that he would go, but he didn't, or the one said, I won't go, but he repented and went, the other said, I'm not going, and he likened that to those Jews who say they're right with God, but they're not, and they're not doing the works of God, versus the publicans and harlots that he says in verse 31 that are going to go into the kingdom of God before you.

[2:35] And they're understanding, look at verse 45, when the chief priests and Pharisees heard his parables, plural, they perceived that he spake of them. So he's cutting them right in front of everybody, and this is going to make them furious.

[2:50] So we'll pick up this second parable in verse 33 and make our way through it. Verse 33 says, here another parable. There was a certain householder which planted a vineyard and hedged it round about and digged a wine press in it and built a tower and led it out to husbandmen and went into a far country.

[3:09] Now before we go anywhere, the Jews, every single one of them, when he says these words, there's a certain householder, planted a vineyard, hedged it round about, digged a wine press, built a tower.

[3:22] They're all thinking the same thing, Isaiah chapter 5. Not chapter 5 for them, but early in the scroll of Isaiah. Now look at it quickly, Isaiah, because here's a parable, or this is a prophecy from the preacher Isaiah years ago, probably 800 years earlier.

[3:47] And every single one of them recognized, without a doubt, they recognized where Jesus Christ was going with his parable. Because they've heard this before, and this one is absolutely condemning the nation of Israel.

[4:02] So Isaiah chapter 5, now I will sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill.

[4:12] He fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and made also a wine press therein. And he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

[4:24] And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could I have done more to my vineyard, that I have not done unto it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes.

[4:37] And now I'll go to, I'll tell you what I'll do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up, and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down Jerusalem. And I will lay it waste, and it shall not be pruned nor digged, but there shall come up briars and thorns, and I will also command the clouds, they have no rain upon it.

[4:56] For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah is a pleasant plant. And he looked for judgment, behold, oppression. He looked for righteousness, behold, a cry. He wasn't getting what he wanted to get out of that people, so he's going to just let them be destroyed.

[5:10] So coming back to Matthew 21, I guarantee you, they thought that passage, that parable, it's so relatable, and they would have known it. And it is right on the money.

[5:24] And so he's introducing this parable, the second one. In verse 34, he said, When the time of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.

[5:38] And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first, and they did unto them likewise. But last of all, he sent unto them his sons, saying, They will reverence my son.

[5:53] But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.

[6:04] When the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? That's the question. What will he do to them? And their answer is right.

[6:15] They said unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. And that's just common sense.

[6:26] Got a bunch of untrustworthy, and deceiving, and lying, and murderous men working for you, employees that don't have your best interests and heart.

[6:39] Yeah, that's exactly what he will do. He'll destroy them, and he'll give it to somebody else. And they answered right. He just set them right up, and they answered his parable correctly. Now, the servants in the parable are the prophets.

[6:54] Look at chapter 23 of Matthew, 23 and verse 29. This is Christ going after the Pharisees in the near future from where we're at.

[7:06] In verse 29, he accuses them, saying, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

[7:25] But Christ says, Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. You're just as guilty as them. And verse 34, he says, This is present tense.

[7:38] Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them ye shall kill and crucify. So you're just the same as they were back then.

[7:48] You're just as guilty and going to be in the very near future. So in the parable, the husbandman is God letting out his vineyard, Israel, and his servants are the prophets that come, and they're killed.

[8:06] The servants show up, and the husbandmen kill them. And so he says, I'm going to send my son. Now that's an obvious reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. And what did they do?

[8:17] Well, he's prophetically saying, you're going to kill me. And in fact, they did. And so looking back, this thing's just ironclad. This is right on the money.

[8:28] In the moment, they didn't like it all the way he talked to them, and the implications that they had against them. We never killed anybody. And if we were around back when that was happening with those prophets, we would not have allowed it.

[8:42] And Jesus Christ just called them on the carpet and knew exactly what was in their hearts and said, you're so wrong about yourself. You're murderers in your hearts, and you're going to kill the ones that God does send to you.

[8:54] And they didn't like that, of course. And so verse 41, when they did acknowledge this, he will miserably destroy those wicked men.

[9:04] And they're talking about themselves, and will let out his vineyard unto other husband men, which shall render him the fruits, and they're seasoned. And look at Christ then, verse 42. Jesus saith unto them, did you never read in the scriptures?

[9:16] And there he said it again. We saw it last week in verse 16, and we saw it earlier in Matthew. One of his favorite things is just to point out, didn't you ever read that? Obviously, you're not thinking about it and applying it and making the connection.

[9:28] But did you never read in the scriptures? The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Didn't you ever read that?

[9:39] Do you not understand what that was even saying? That's a Bible prophecy. And Christ is going to give them some light as to what that's talking about. He's quoting Psalm 118, and he's quoting it after a parable of them rejecting the heir, the son, and killing him, and them being worthy of being destroyed.

[9:58] And he's going to say that I'm that stone that you builders rejected. Verse 43, So they're in another tight spot again.

[10:32] They can't do what they want. Now, this is a very commonly quoted psalm or prophecy, and it gets preached by several men here, Christ himself, and then Peter, Paul, and others throughout the scriptures, this thing about Christ being this stone, and the head of the corner, and the one the builders rejected.

[10:56] Peter puts this on them really strong in the book of Acts, on the nation of Israel, pointing out that it's you that rejected Jesus Christ. And he's saying it prophetically, but Peter at that moment is saying it in hindsight, saying you desired, you murdered the just one.

[11:12] Verse, what is it? 44 says, And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken. But, there's a different reaction to that same stone, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

[11:28] Now, there's a few things to say here, and it's not something we're going to look through the scriptures on and take the time, but if we wanted to, we could take a good while on this thought here, because it really is a popular theme in the Bible about this stone and this analogy to Christ.

[11:41] The stone which the builders rejected, that would be the Jews, rejected him, it's become the head of the corner. And it didn't happen overnight, but it's going to be the one that's on top.

[11:53] And there's interesting implications about that as well. First of all, though, Christ as a stone. As a matter of fact, Schofield has a great note on this, I'll just read what he has instead of what I have.

[12:08] Christ as a stone is revealed in a three-fold way. One, to Israel, Christ coming not as a splendid monarch, but in the form of a servant, is a stumbling stone and a rock of a fence.

[12:22] And Paul says that, Peter says that, Paul says it more than once in his epistles, that that is Jesus Christ coming to Israel. And in Romans, I think it's chapter 9, read through there, you'll see that they stumbled.

[12:35] Not that they should fall, God forbid, but they did. And the idea is that, that through their fall, that God opened salvation up to the Gentiles, and praise the Lord for that.

[12:47] But through their fall, so he's a stumbling block to that nation, and they did trip and fall over him. He's a rock of a fence to them. Secondly, then Christ as a stone, to the church, he's the foundation stone, and the head of the corner.

[13:00] And Peter and Paul both use the same things, to say the very same thing, how Christ is the head of the corner to the church. Then to the Gentile world powers, he is a smiting stone of destruction.

[13:14] And so when he said this, that on whomsoever it will fall, it will grind him to powder. Come back to Daniel quickly, just take one look at a verse here. Daniel chapter 2.

[13:30] The king back in Daniel's day had a dream. He didn't even know what the dream was. It escaped him. And he tried to get his main men to tell him what it was, and they couldn't tell him.

[13:41] The thing is gone from me, he said. And so God gives Daniel the dream, and the interpretation of it. And notice what Daniel says in Daniel 2, verse 19, when he gets the revelation from God, before he even goes to the king.

[13:58] Verse 19, Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his.

[14:10] And he changeth the times and the seasons. He removeth kings and setteth up kings. He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that no understand. Now when Daniel gets this vision and he sees it, he just turns and blesses God and says things about, Lord, you're changing things, and you set those kings up, and you take them right back down.

[14:33] It's all in your hand. And so then he goes and tells the king the dream. And it's a dream that he had about this image, this head of gold, this breast and arms of silver, and as the image goes down to the feet, it just gets inferior in its metals or in its substance, all the way to the toes.

[14:55] And then he describes that this thing gets broken with a stone. And a stone that smote the image became a mountain and filled the whole earth.

[15:06] And what in the world's going on? Well, I'll just go fast forward to the breakdown of it. Daniel chapter 2, come to the end, talks about the kingdoms that the toes represent.

[15:19] And each one of these stages, if you've read through this, represent a kingdom that would come after Nebuchadnezzar, and then after him and after him, all the way to the end. And so this is the world, the kingdoms of this world, in just a snapshot.

[15:34] Verse 44, he's talking about those feet and those toes and those kingdoms. It says, In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.

[15:45] That's the stone that becomes a mountain. And the kingdom shall not be left to other people, it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms. And it shall stand forever. For as much as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of a mountain without hands, that it break in pieces, the iron, brass, clay, silver, gold, the great God that hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter.

[16:06] The dream is certain. And by the way, it is certain. And the interpretation there of sure, and as Bible believers, we know this thing hasn't fully come to pass because that great stone, Christ hasn't come back yet to destroy all the kingdoms of the earth and to set up his kingdom, which shall stand forever.

[16:25] The dream is certain. And we can know in our hearts that it's certain. It still hasn't come out all the way. Now that's the stone that if it falls, it'll grind in powder.

[16:39] And in the future, Christ as the stone coming, according to Daniel's prophecy, it's going to destroy the kingdoms of this world. And it's a stone of destruction. And so it's a foundation stone, it's a stumbling stone, and it's a stone of destruction, and Christ is all of the above and pictured in every way.

[16:59] Now closing out the chapter in Matthew 21, they understood the interpretation of this parable that he's aiming at them.

[17:10] And the interpretation of this parable and thoughts is just as sure as what Daniel said because they did murder God's prophet and soon they're about to murder God's son and God is going to destroy them.

[17:22] And so he's going to give another parable right on top of it which even further details some things about this nation and how God's going to handle them because of their rejection of his son.

[17:35] So Matthew 22, And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables and said, The kingdom of heaven, as we better take notice of, the kingdom of heaven, we know what that is by now, we surely do, and we should know what it's not by now.

[17:52] The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage for his son and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding and they would not. Now I'll pause here and just mention so many people see the word marriage and get so excited and say, Oh, it's this, it's Revelation 19, it's the marriage supper of the Lamb, this is the bride of Christ, this is the church.

[18:18] And I don't know how much you read or how much you've been around teaching like that, but it's common to see the word marriage anywhere in the Bible and say, Ah, bride or body of Christ, so this is church age, this applies to the church.

[18:30] Watch out, we just understood verse 2 before we even got to the word marriage that this is the kingdom of heaven and it's likened unto a king and a marriage for his son. And because of that, Oh, church.

[18:41] Well, there's problems if it's church. Verse 3, And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding and they would not come. Again he sent forth other servants saying, Tell them which are bidden, behold I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready, come unto the marriage.

[19:03] And they made light of it and went their ways, one to his farm, another unto his merchandise. And the remnant took the servants and entreated them spitefully and slew them.

[19:17] But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth. He sent forth his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.

[19:30] Go ye therefore into the highways and as many as you shall find, bid them to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good, and the wedding was furnished with guests.

[19:44] Now that's not a rapture of the church there being pulled up into a wedding. That's how it's taught sometimes and it's wrong. But the Lord invited certain people and they didn't want to come, so he opened it up to others.

[20:00] That much is easy to comprehend. And something that he did here though is he went and destroyed their city and he destroyed those murderers and burned up their city.

[20:13] Now historically speaking, as far as a historical application that can be easily made, in about 30 or so years after Christ said this, 35 years or so, under the Roman authority, Titus came into Jerusalem and just destroyed Jerusalem.

[20:28] And you read that in history, that is what it is. He burned the city with fire. Just like Christ said what happened to their city. So historically that happened pretty quickly.

[20:40] Trying to find other applications to understanding this or making it a fit something for us today as far as spiritually speaking, it does sound like the gospel invitation being presented to some and they reject it.

[20:54] and then presented to others and they'll receive it. And the ones that are so good and so high and successful, they don't have any need for God. But the ones that have problems, the ones that are in the highways, they tend to want to listen a little bit more, the ones that need something in life.

[21:14] And you can see that in this parable and you can make that application and see the principle and just human nature of those that do receive and are interested in hearing the gospel and the various responses to it.

[21:27] But a doctrinal teaching here is what we're after in Sunday school and understanding the passage. It's kingdom of heaven. We can't dismiss that and start making things up.

[21:38] And this has, there's detailed meanings to each part of it. We're not really going to just dive into every verse and try to draw out and squeeze every ounce of truth out of it. But what we can understand is that it's teaching future truth and there's some problems to this when we try to make it become church age material and try to insert the body of Christ into the passage and into the kingdom of heaven and then just things that we've already seen problems.

[22:06] I've already pointed several out to you over the time in this book. And this one just has a slew of them itself. And here's some. We'll continue the passage, verse 11. It says, When the king came in to see the guests, he saw there was a man which had not on a wedding garment.

[22:25] Now, if we're going to try to apply this to the body of Christ going to the marriage supper of the Lamb, what in the world and how is it even possible that this certain man gets raptured up with this church and is there at the wedding?

[22:39] It doesn't make sense and it's not possible. When he said unto him, Friend, how camest thou in here that they're not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to his servants, Bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness.

[22:51] Sounds like this guy's getting tossed into hell and getting removed out of the church or out of that group that is taken up. So that's not an application or a teaching this passage has.

[23:04] Binding him hand and foot and he's weeping and gnashing of teeth. Many are called, few chosen. So did this guy lose his salvation? He didn't have on the righteousness of the saints.

[23:14] And so those things aren't adding up. They're not matching some other passages. So we can't make it or force it in there. Something else it has in here is that there's guests. Because of that, there's a gross teaching and it is gross that there's a bride of Jesus Christ and then there's the guests that are permitted to be there and present but they're not part of the bride.

[23:43] And the teaching is, sadly, that if you're part of the Baptist bride, I don't know why that's the one, then you're in on the wedding.

[23:54] But if you're saved but you're not a Baptist, then you're just a guest. That's heresy. That's heresy.

[24:07] That's absolute wrong. This Bible and this thing with the bride, I'm not going to get into that, but the strongest and easiest thing is the church is called His Body, which is His body.

[24:20] That's the plainest one. And to try to insert this bride talk and then try to make this wedding thing and the guests, it's just wrong. And there's no need for it.

[24:31] And anyway, that's another thing that's not worth taking time this morning with. But there's another heresy that's pulled out of this passage trying to apply it to the church age. There's more with this.

[24:45] It comes out that then the way, if we apply it to today and strictly so, this comes that Israel is permanently rejected and that the Gentiles are permanently accepted and that turns into this, oh, I lost the term, that the replacement theology of Israel, replaced with the church and I can't think of the term.

[25:10] Anyway, if you know it, you know what I'm talking about. Let's fast forward through this and move on because it's really not helping us. Verse 15, and we'll get a little bit into this.

[25:21] What you're going to see now to the end of the chapter is they're coming at him. And then verse 15 says, then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.

[25:34] Look at Luke chapter 20 and just see how Luke says something here. They did more than just counseled with one another. They went all out. I mean, they had a network set up all attempting to get this man.

[25:48] And when I said earlier that Christ is dodging bullets, you're going to start seeing it taking place here. Luke chapter 20 and look at verse number 20. I'll back up to 19.

[26:00] You can see that we're dealing in the same place. Luke 20 verse 19, the chief priests and the scribes the same hour sought to lay hands on him and they feared the people. They perceived that he had spoken this parable against them and they watched him and sent forth spies which should feign themselves just men.

[26:17] So they're pretending to be like his disciples, like hanging out with the disciples and sticking with them and pretending to be. What are they? They're trying to hear something, get some dirt, get something they can use.

[26:30] It says, feign themselves be just men that they might take hold of his words. That's so they might deliver him under the power and authority of the governor. So their whole goal is here to hear him say something that they could use and twist to get the Roman authorities involved.

[26:46] They have no power. They're helpless against what they're attempting to do. The people are following him so they're going to go to the higher authority of Rome and they need some ammunition.

[26:58] So here's what they do. Crafty men. Verse number 16 of Matthew 22. Then sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians.

[27:14] Now the Herodians are a separate group of people but they're not alone. This is interesting. Verse 16 describes the Herodians going after Christ and it's the disciples of the Pharisees in verse 15.

[27:28] It's the Pharisees trying to antagonize them. They sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians. So they're going after this group and say let's go get them. And look at verse 23. The same day came to him the Sadducees.

[27:41] So there's a second group of people their own little divisions and kind of cult-like beliefs. And then finally verse 34. But when the Pharisees has heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence they were gathered together.

[27:56] Then one of them which was a lawyer asked him a question. So like one of the smartest and most versed in the scriptures and the law spoke up. So we've got the Herodians the Sadducees the Pharisees all coming together all to get the Lord Jesus Christ and in this passage strike one strike two strike three he lays them out and then he turns on them to finish the chapter with his own question that they have nothing to say.

[28:24] So he's just he's amazing. The Lord Jesus Christ is amazing. You don't want to tangle with him in words and in the future you don't want to mess with him in war.

[28:36] He's king of kings. Verse so verse 16 then sent out unto him unto then they sent out unto him their disciples with Herodians saying Master oh isn't that nice Master we know that thou art true and teach us the way of God in truth.

[28:53] Now do you do they really believe that? Neither carest thou for any man so he's not a respecter of person for thou regardest not the person of men. So they've really buttered him up now.

[29:06] They've really you know exalted him so whatever you say is going to be right and we believe you and this is you're the greatest thing that we've ever heard and seen and already I'm sure Christ knows their hypocrisy knows what's in their heart but let that be a lesson to you too and if you haven't learned it yet when somebody's buttering you up they probably want to get you.

[29:29] I have a I wrote a note in my Bible from when I was in Bible school as a young man and it said don't believe every good thing they say about you and don't believe every bad thing they say about you and I don't know why I wrote that at the time it was just something that came out in the teaching and it just resonated with me and I just felt like I'm going to need that I'm going to need to remember that in the future somewhere sometime don't get sucked into thinking if somebody says something good that it's all good or that it's true and don't let the negative stuff get to you too much either stay balanced well these guys are pumping him up and he's going to see right through it and so their question is in verse 17 tell us therefore what thinkest thou what do you think is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or no now the word lawful is referring to the law of Moses the Jewish law is it right under the law of Moses for us to be giving money to this Gentile authority is that lawful it's not a question of the civil law that they were governed by under the Roman authority of course it was lawful that was the law so that's not the question at all the question is whether it's according to the word of God oh now doesn't that sound pious these guys want to follow the scripture all of a sudden is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not now this thought about tax money already came up in chapter 17 when they asked

[30:57] Peter if his master paid taxes and he sent him out to catch a fish and took care of it I think it's just a dumb question that they're trying to get him in trouble with the Roman government over paying taxes to others now the truth is I'd say it wasn't God's plan for his children actually look back at chapter 17 Christ even says this it's not God's plan for his children Israel to be paying taxes it's not part of his plan but it is part of his punishment that's a good way to look at it you messed up so I brought them in here to have authority over you so yeah you're going to pay taxes to them and that's just part of his punishment we go back through the law and show how God promised he pledged to his people if you don't obey my laws then you're going to be servants and bondmen to the other countries and there it is so if he wanted to turn them to the passages of the law he could say absolutely it's lawful for you to pay because you disobeyed God so look at

[31:59] Matthew 17 but it's not part of God's plan for his people and that's kind of what Christ says here in chapter 17 verse 24 when they were coming to Capernaum they that received tribute money came to Peter and said doth thy master pay tribute and he said yes of course he does and when he come to the house Jesus prevented him saying what thinkest thou Simon of whom do the kings of earth take custom or tribute of their own children or of strangers Peter said unto him of strangers Jesus saith unto him then are the children free notwithstanding implying the children us the nation of Israel we're free we don't pay to anybody because we're children of God and this thing's for us but notwithstanding unless we should offend them go thou to the sea and cast a hook and so forth and go give unto them for me and thee so pay your taxes Peter and pay for me too Peter he submitted to their rules and laws but understanding that God's plan for Israel is to be free and above all of that now anyway it's a good thought though if you have a question on those things this is strictly nation of

[33:04]  Israel here it's not American citizens and whether you have the ability not to pay taxes whether it's constitutional or not you can fight that fight with the government if you want to but don't take your Bible in there when you're doing it because God's not going to tell you you don't have to pay taxes to them go read Romans 13 and you'll see exactly what you're supposed to do and in Romans 13 the apostle Paul we gotta quit but he gives he gives the authority to the Gentiles to come and in that passage it's with a sword to administer whatever punishment is necessary for the one who won't obey the laws of the land so you obey and submit to the laws of the land and it is lawful for the Jews to pay tribute because it's part of God's punishment for them for their rejection of him and disobeying his laws so we'll stop there we'll pick it up somewhere in this and kind of bring all this together of how one after another they come at him and the Lord Jesus Christ knows their hypocrisy in verse 18 he perceived their wickedness and we'll stop there so we'll come back in a few minutes