Sermons

If you can open your Bibles please to Luke chapter 20, Luke chapter 20. We come to one of those passages today where naturally our own questions, the natural tendency, the rabbit trails that we want to get drawn into come right to the surface because the passage that we come to this morning immediately conjures up in the mind of just about everybody when they read it, questions about our relationship to government.

And certainly, the text does address some of those things. I know you're thinking, I wish I had heard this sermon before I turned in my tax return, but this particular passage, you need to be assured, is not primarily about your tax return. It's about something much, much more significant. And if we're gonna catch God's intention for this particular passage, because we are hard-hearted and hard-headed, I think it's important we start by prayer. Let's pray and ask God to give us insight.

(Prayer) Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for the Word that is truth. It doesn't just inform the mind about what is right but instructs us in the ways of the Lord. It has that ability to be a light onto our path, to show us how You call us to live. And so we pray to that end that our own natural tendency to want to answer the questions that we already have in our hearts, would be superseded by the divine intention of the text, and that You would cause us to see beautiful things that you have spoken of, instruction that you have provided, warnings that we need to heed that come from the God who is the good shepherd who cares for His sheep.

So, speak to us, we pray in this time. May the Holy Spirit be busy amongst us. May we learn more of what we ought to think and do in this world for the glory of Jesus Christ. And may this time of study prepare us even in this moment to remember Him in the way He is appointed at the close of our service. For it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. (End)

Well, the passage that we come to this morning does speak about government, about governing authorities, and very clearly that is part and parcel of what is being addressed by the text. It's not the primary thing, but it is certainly there. In the Bible itself, it speaks about all areas of life here and now in this fallen world. It gives us instruction. It is sufficient for the child of God to know how to live in this world. And so the Bible does have instruction about how you are to live with government, how you are to relate to the state, how you are to relate to the state when it does what God says it should do, and how you are to relate to the state when it does not do what God says they should do.

If you turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 13, you have the quintessential mandate in Scripture, primarily for submission to the order of the state, to recognize the state, the government has been appointed by God for good. Appointed by God to restrain evil. Appointed by God to protect people in this world. Romans chapter 13 verse 1.

"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God. And those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities, resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is a servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this, you also pay taxes for the authorities or ministers of God attending to this very thing, paid out all what is owed to them. Taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed."

You see the principles here in the text in front of you. Very simply, God has put the government in place. God has put the government in place, and the particular individual under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that wrote this text is Paul. And he's writing, a man who is familiar with persecution from the government, has spent many years in prison cells, has been the subject of governmental abuse. And yet still, this particular individual who had a lot of reason to complain, tells us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that government is a gift. It doesn't always feel like a gift, but it is a gift from God. If there is no government, that is terror. Anarchy is not a good thing. Nobody is saved in a society that every individual is a law unto themselves.

When you read the books of the Old Testament, the book that stands out as arguably the darkest time in Israel's history is the book of Judges. And it was particularly dark because the refrain that comes all the way through the book is, “everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” That's not a good thing. That's dangerous. That makes everybody in this society susceptible.

So, Paul is able to write even about a wicked, Roman, pagan authority and it's good. It's better than the alternative. It is a preserver, a protector. It sustains society. And that's really important because, again, that runs so much against our grain. It's appointed by God for our good. And so, when they need taxes, we're to pay our taxes. When they need respect, we're to show respect or to honor where honor is due.

That's important. The civil government is instituted by God to maintain order, that to punish wrongdoers, to reward good behavior. And Christians, when it comes to us and our relationship to government, we are to submit to the authorities, to pay our taxes, to show respect, to recognize human governance as something God has desired for an orderly society.

It is good. It's not perfect. There's much that is corrupt in government. There is much sin that marks sinful men who are appointed to lead, and yet at the same time, it is ultimately a gift from God and for the good of ordinary people living in society.

1 Peter 2, if you want to turn to 1 Peter 2, you see the other key text, I would say, about our relationship to government, it really echoes the same sentiment. 1 Peter 2 and verse 13, 1 Peter 2 and verse 13, it says, "Be subject for the Lord's sake, to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by Him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good, for this is the will of God, that by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor."

In other words, the instruction this time under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter writes, and he tells us once more to honor the emperor, to recognize authorities, governing authorities in this world as appointed by God.

And again, Peter is one who has reason to object to that. He ultimately, according to church tradition, will be crucified upside down on a cross because of decisions taken by the governing authorities. And yet, again, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he says that it is God's will that we, as far as we can, obey, that we see them as a good thing, that we recognize that God has put this in place.

It is part of His care for people. It is part of how we honor Him, that ultimately, as Christians living in this world, we live for God. But in the majority of our existence, to live for God is to obey the civil authorities. Very rarely do those things contradict. The normative pattern for life in this world is that you honor and please God by obeying, by honoring the civil authorities. Peter urges believers to submit to every human authority, notice the language, 'for the Lord's sake.'

Not because they're charming, not because they're good, not because they're eloquent when they appear on the news briefing, but because of the Lord's sake. That's why we do it. Our goal is to live honorable lives that silence the accusations of our critics. We're not looking for a fight.

We're looking for a quiet life, the Bible would say, and we submit to our authorities in an attempt to pursue that. In fact, 1 Timothy 2 verses 1 to 4, we pray for our authorities that we may get to live a quiet life. That's the pattern laid down in Scripture. We want peaceful lives, we should pray for the civil authorities over us, 1 Timothy 2, 1 to 4, in order that that would take place. Yet those calls for submission that are the normative pattern for Christians to live in, they were not written in a vacuum. In fact, they were written in a time unlike ours.

Well, everybody likes to think that our society has gone to the dogs. It's drifted so far away from the things of God. And to a certain extent, you can make a case for some of those things. But compared to the society that Jesus operated in, compared to the society that Paul spoke into, compared to the society that Peter spoke into, friends, we have it good. We need to recognize that. We are a privileged people, a privileged people.

This call for submission was written in a time of fierce hostility to Christian gatherings. It was not legal for Christians to gather. It was a world that was strongly opposed to gospel proclamation. You read the book of Acts, and every time it seems that the gospel is shared, stones are thrown under the authority and auspices of the local governing authorities. Christian theology, that there is one God, that Jesus is Lord. That theology was strongly opposed by the society that these words were written into. And yet in that same society, there is a strong call for submission. Now, that said, there are limits to Christian obedience.

You see it all the way through the Bible. In the book of Daniel, you have that great example where the king of Babylon at the time, he issues the edict that a statue of him is put in place, and at the appropriate time of the day, everybody must bow and worship only this image of him. And those three notable characters, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, are enshrined in Scripture as doing what was right by refusing to bow the knee to that graven image because they were loyal unto God. And though this state mandated that idolatry, these men are noted in Scripture as trusting God and embracing the consequences that came their way and indeed being honored by God in the face of those consequences.

You see the same in the New Testament, probably the most clear passage, Acts chapter 5. Acts chapter 5, verses 27 to 29, Peter and Paul are out sharing the good news about the resurrected Lord. And the Jewish authorities at the time pull them aside, and they seek to silence them. They promise to release them on one condition, that they do not proclaim anymore the good news about Jesus.

And Peter replies, Acts 5:29, “we must obey God rather than man.” “We must obey God rather than man.” There is a place where the state would call people to disobey the orders, the commands, the clear edicts of God, and in those particular cases, the state has no authority. They have no authority to command behavior that contradicts the clear exhortations of God. They have no ability to command in a positive way that which God forbids.

And so, far from make everything simple, as time unfolds, as Revelation speaks of the days that are yet to come, it talks about the civil society not getting better but getting worse. Revelation 13, Revelation 17, it talks about times when the state will overreach and go even further and ultimately demand worship and allegiance from the citizens. And these passages encourage believers to remain faithful to Christ even when earthly governments become hostile, corrupt, and tyrannical. So, there is a clear place for disobedience. There is a need for it.

And this morning we come in Acts [Luke] chapter 20 to Jesus' words where He speaks about these different spheres of authority that sit upon us. And He declares in light of a question that He's asked by spies to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to render to God the things that are God's. He spells out that there are obligations certainly that we have to the governing authorities, but there is even greater obligation that we have to God. And we must give to Him exactly what He is due.

So sometimes Christians over the centuries have talked about spheres of influence. That as individuals living in this world today, there is a, you can think of a circle, a sphere of authority, the government. And as Christians, or as not Christians, as citizens living in this country, we are under the authority of government. Government has been appointed by God. It is good and it is His will that we, on a normative basis, obey and honor the government.

So that's the sphere that we sit under. But there is this even greater sphere of authority that is God Himself, that as Christians, as image bearers of God, even more than just Christians, we are to live under God. God is the one ultimately on the throne. And so, as Christians, we have these two circles, these two authority structures that sit upon us.

And when God says to do something, we do it. And normally, whenever government says to do something, we do it. And both of those things are true at the same time. The problem is these two circles overlap. And there are certain things that government will tell you to do that the Bible itself says very clearly what you should do. And the question and the friction comes about what do we do in those circumstances? What do we do whenever the authority structures overlap? When government starts to speak about issues that the Bible says clearly God has an opinion on.

And God calls us to something. What do we do in those type of circumstances? Then there's Christians we should know and we should understand that God ultimately is the authority. Period, that's it. If God says it, we do it. The gray areas and those things where we're trying to work it out.

Really, we've got to understand government as a derived authority. Government only exists, according to Romans 13, according to 1st Peter, it only exists because God has put it in place. So, its authority only exists as it sits on top of, or under, I should say, God's authority.

You see that pattern all the way through Scripture. Husbands, have a headship role in the home. That's given by God. But that authority only extends as far as they obey God. If they are abusive towards their wives, if they're aggressive and violent, they've usurped that authority. A wife has every reason to go and seek help.

If you're in the workplace and you're paid to do, you know, a job, you know, the boss has authority over you. He's paid you for your time. You do what he tells you. But if he asks you to do something that is illegal, that breaks the law, that ruins your testimony, you don't do it. Because he's usurped, he stepped beyond his authority. He stepped beyond that which has been given by God.

And parents have authority over their children. But if a parent usurps that authority, if they behave in a way beyond what God has given them, if they abuse the child, their authority's gone, they've no right. They've ruined, they've usurped that God-appointed authority, and it's the same with government. Government has clear authority, but it is an authority given by God. And as soon as they usurp the jurisdictions that God has given them authority in, as soon as they would contradict the law of God Himself, the one who ultimately is in authority, it's gone.

In everything, ultimately, what we are called to do is to live for God His way. So normatively, we obey the state onto God. But there are some moments where we must disobey the state onto God, because ultimately, He is the one that even government, all of these spheres of rules, of authority, of responsibility that God has given in His design, their authority stands as it sits under ultimately that authority of God. What He wants and calls us to be, that is paramount.

It's why, although this church is full of, I hope, law-abiding citizens, and why we are so thankful for the freedoms that we enjoy in this country, praise God for preserving our freedom to come and to worship, you may have noticed there's no flags at the front of this church. Because when we gather as saints to worship, we gather to focus on the one who is possessing all authority. We're still submissive to the civil authorities, we still are thankful for the freedoms that we enjoy, but this time we gather is to be focused on one authority, the Lord God Himself. We come together to consider from His Word, His authoritative Word, what He expects for our lives, for our families, even our civil lives, how He wants us to live each and every day for Him here in Dallas.

Christians are biblically obligated to respect and to obey the civil authorities as long as those laws do not force us to violate God's commands. And when the state commands sin, or when it prohibits obedience to God, the Christian's ultimate allegiance is God. That should be clear. It's God. Now, can I ask you to stand while we read the passage? Luke chapter 20, let me read to you from verse 19. Luke chapter 20, reading from verse 19.

(Scripture reading) "The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on Him at that very hour. For they perceived that He had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. So, they watched Him and sent spies who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch Him in something He said, so as to deliver Him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. So, they asked him, teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly and show no partiality but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not? But He perceived the craftiness and said to them, show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have? They said, Caesar's. He said to them, then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch Him in what He said. But marveling at His answer, they became silent." (End)

Have a seat.

You've got to remember in Luke 20, especially when we talk about our relationship to authorities, Jesus has already clearly stood against the religious authorities of His day. Do you remember in chapter 19, He was turning over the tables at the temple?

He was driving out the money changers. He was terrorizing the broken, corrupt system of financial abuse that the religious leaders had placed over and above the people. They were operating in the court of the Gentiles, and in so doing, they created a marketplace in the temple, a place of commerce, when really that space was designed for the Gentile to be able to come and to have interactions with God, to pray to God. But they couldn't do it because the whole place was like a zoo. And so, Jesus comes, He drives them out, He breaks the system. Here is one who takes serious action against corrupt, broken authority. And then He warns lovingly the crowd about that broken religious leadership.

He told that blunt parable, do you remember at the beginning of chapter 20? That blunt parable about wicked tenants. Not just tenants, wicked tenants. And ultimately those wicked tenants would seek in the parable to kill the son of the master, the one that the vineyard ultimately belonged to.

And as Jesus told this story, what He was doing was condemning those religious leaders for their rejection of Him as Messiah. In fact, we read verse 19, "the scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that He had told this parable against them."

They got it. Jesus, He wasn't subtle here. And because of that, they wanted to snuff Him out. He was a threat to them and their derived authority. And so these wicked religious leaders, because verse 19 says as well, they feared the people. They sought to trap Jesus by trying to make Him guilty before the Romans. The Roman authorities, they occupied Judea, they occupied Jerusalem at this time. And so, if they could incriminate Jesus, if they could show Him to be a usurper of the civil authorities, if they could show Him to be a rebel, well, the Romans will take care of Him then. That's the idea. They want to catch Him out. If we can't lay hands on Him because the people like Him, what if we get the Romans to do it for us? That's what's motivating their interactions in this moment.

So, look at verse 20. “So, they watched Him and sent spies who pretended to be sincere that they might catch Him in something He said, so as to deliver Him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.” They send spies. And the spies, you know what a spy is, they pretend to be something else. You know, the old spy novels, the Russian spies that would come and infiltrate American society by looking like an American, talking like an American, wearing the clothes of an American, and all appearance appearing like an American. Well, these spies come looking like a sincere seeker. One who respects Jesus, who wants to learn from Jesus. They're pretenders.

And they come with the desire to catch Him out, to hand Him over to the godless secular authorities. And it says, in fact, in verse 20, they wanted to hand Him over to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. Governors, the Roman governor, Pilate. They wanted to hand Him over, not to the religious, not to the Jew, but to the Romans.

And the Romans had terrible social ethics. They were those who denied human dignity in a very serious way. In fact, in Rome itself, about 40% of the population of Rome were slaves that had no right of their own. They were owned; they had no real standing. The Romans imposed around the whole empire, emperor worship, a false religion.

You could worship any god you wanted to, but you had to additionally pay tribute to Caesar. In fact, not just to pay your taxes, but to worship Caesar as god, that's what they wanted. This was not a civil society. This was not a God-fearing government.

And yet so opposed to Jesus are these religious leaders that they want to hand Jesus over to these pagans. And yet the Romans themselves were, as we've read in Romans and we've read in 1 Peter, ultimately put in place by God. They were occupying Judah not by mistake, but by the sovereign hand of God. He had put them there in part as a punishment on the people for their rebellion. And in part to facilitate a climate, the Pax Romana, this peace around the empire, a common language, freedom to travel, the engineering of the Roman road system that would facilitate in Acts chapter 2 on the rapid movement and progression of the gospel all around the world. The Lord had a plan in this.

And the Romans were there as well to ensure that prophecy was fulfilled, that Jesus would be crucified outside the city walls. So, these so-called religious leaders, they want the corrupt civil authorities to do their dirty work and they're willing to use deceptive means to make that happen.

Look at verse 21, "So they asked Him, teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God."

This is just false flattery. Like, they don't mean a word that they're saying here. Teacher, rabbi, that was a note of respect. Well, they had no respect for Jesus. You speak and teach rightly. Well, if He spoke and taught rightly, you would do what He said. But none of them obey. You show no partiality. In other words, you're a straight talker. You're not given to flattery. You don't talk one way to one person and the other to another. You truly teach, they said, the way of God. It's not just that you teach truth, but you teach the ways of God.

How do we put this into practice? How do we live it out? How does this move and shape us? It's that Old Testament picture. His word is a light to our way, to our path. It shows us how we ought to live and move and have our being. Now they're saying that with their mouth, but they don't believe it in their heart. They ultimately are flattering Him in a human attempt to get Him to lower His guard and ultimately say something He shouldn't.

Look at verse 22, "Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not?" Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not? The question they ask is, do we pay taxes to the wicked, godless, occupying force to Caesar? Is it lawful? It's not saying, is it Roman law? Is it the civil authority's law that requires us to do it? He's saying, would God want us to do it? God's law. Would God's law expect us to give them money? Would God's law want us to do this?

And the tribute that's being spoken of is tax. To pay towards the Roman Empire and the Roman expansion and the Roman system. That money was invested in building temples for false gods. That money was invested in maintaining false priesthoods. That money was used to propagate Roman law, which encouraged gross sin and immorality at the same time. Is that really something we should give to and be involved with?

And you've got to understand, the people of that day, they paid between 30 and 40% of their income in tax. That's a big chunk of change. So, nobody likes paying tax and nobody likes paying a lot of tax, so you can feel the heat in what's being discussed. But there's more here. These are religious leaders and they're asking the question because this particular topic was religiously offensive.

The Jews in Jesus' day believed that God had given them the land. And so, any occupying force was wicked. In fact, in AD 67, there was a Galilean called Judas who had led a rebellion against the Romans. And the cause of his rebellion was this poll tax that had to be paid. How can we give money to the Romans when it's not God's will that they would occupy us?

That was the argument. God has given us this land. This land belongs to us because it's our inheritance from God, so the Romans have no jurisdiction here. So, we shouldn't pay taxes. So, it was a religious thing to them. They believed God had given them this land, so how dare somebody expect us to pay tax for living in the very place that God has told us to live and provide it for us to live.

They also considered it a form of idolatry. The Romans, they saw themselves as an authority. In fact, the Roman coins read on them, Emperor Tiberius, son of the divine Augustus. The divine Augustus. In other words, even on the coin there was a statement that proclaimed the false nature, the false God that was Caesar. It was a blatant claim to be in charge of the land, in charge of everything, because he himself believed himself to be god.

So, the question in verse 22 isn't just a question about taxes. It's a far bigger one. It's a question about idolatry. It was how do we respond to these self-proclaimed false gods who are imposing themselves over the true people of God? And so what it was ultimately was a clever question designed to trick Jesus and condemn Him either before the Roman authorities or before the Jewish people, who believed that the question was an easy one to answer, who believed the toleration of false gods among the people of God, that there was no place for that. So, this is a very theological question.

Look at verse 23, "But He perceived their craftiness." Jesus knows the heart of men and women, and He knows that this is a loaded question. They think they caught him out. But now we see how clever Jesus is.

Look at verse 24,"Show me a denarius." That's a coin, it was about the equivalent of a day's wage. "Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have? They said, Caesar's." So, He took out, He got a coin from the crowd, and He held it up and there of course on the coin was the image, the effigy of Caesar.

And what Jesus is doing here is He's showing them their double standard. Because if they're really concerned about idolatry here, why are they all walking around with the idol in their pocket? You see the idea? Like, nobody wanted to give up their money, but if you're gonna be sincere and consistent here, you should give up your money because it's got the image of that false god on it. Jesus is exposing, in the most clever way, the hypocrisy of the people. Again, remember the statement that would have been on that coin, Emperor Tiberius, son of the divine Augustus. They had an object in their pocket they didn't want to give to the Romans, laden with idolatry.

Why would you want to hold on to that, is the idea here. Now you see how clever Jesus is. You say you hate the Romans and yet you're walking around with a Roman face in your pocket. He uses deliberately the language of the second commandment; you shall not make for yourself an image. Whose image is on that thing that's in your pocket? He's highlighting the idolatry, the hypocrisy that's sitting here.

The idea is what are you wanting to fight for? It's not the honor of God. It's your finances. If it was the honor of God, you'd have got rid of that coin a long time ago. The point that Jesus is making here is ultimately the question is coming not from a desire to honor God, but a desire to keep your money.

And so, He delivers a line that not only highlights that issue, but points to a bigger authority that they need to relate to. The climax of the sentence is the most important part. The most important part is not you should pay taxes. The most important part is what Jesus says next.

Look what He says, verse 25, "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." In other words, give Caesar the thing with his image stamped on it, and give to God the thing that belongs to Him. The word render doesn't just mean give. It actually means give back in the Greek. Give back. In other words, it belongs to him anyway.

I was footering about this morning and found some money in the house. It doesn't always happen. But I found some money in the house. And I started studying it because with today in mind, you look at things differently. And there's a stamp on this note that says United States Federal Reserve System.

In other words, it belongs to ultimately them. Its value is based on the value they've ascribed to it. That's why currency works, isn't it? It's why so many countries in the world love the dollar because the dollar is backed by the Federal Reserve. They stand over it. Its value is real. And it's why in certain governments in the world, the currency collapses because the government no longer stands over the currency.

Well, Jesus says, Caesar's face is on that coin. So, give him, if he asks for it back, you better give it to him. But here's the point. Render to God the things that are God's. If the coin had Caesar's image on it, and you should be willing to give it back, where is God's image placed? Well, according to Scripture, every man and woman has been made in the image of God. Not just Christians, every man and woman has been made in the image of God. So, if the coin belongs to Caesar because his image is on it, who do you belong to?

Well, to God. Whose authority are you under? God's. Who dictates how you ought to live, what is right, what is wrong in your life? Well, God. His image is upon you. His authority is over you. That's the idea here. And the problem is that very logic. Because if ultimately, we belong to God, and we are under God's authority, then why are you not doing what He says? How dare you lie? How dare you lust? How dare you rebel against the authority of God?

You don't belong to yourself. You belong to the one whose image you bear. And that's why you are a sinner as a rebel against Him. His stamp is upon you. His mark is on you, and it demands your allegiance to Him, your obedience. And what Jesus is exposing here is not just you ought to generally obey God, He's exposing the fact that you're living in rebellion. When you see the nature of that call, that the one whose image, the one who bears the image of God ought to obey God, these tricksters, these rebels who want to ultimately kill God, their hypocrisy, their rebellion is all the more stark.

Look at verse 26, they become silent because how do you respond to this logic? If the image of God sits upon men and women, if He is the one we ultimately ought to obey, then why is it you don't? That's the point. Why are you a sinner? Why do you keep sinning? Why do you not do what God says you should do? You're the one that's broken, not the system.

That's what Jesus is highlighting. And what should take place in this moment is you recognize you've rebelled against God. You've recognized you have not lived according to the image that you bear as a reflection of Him and you fall on your face before him, and you confess your sin, and you cry out for forgiveness.

These people came wanting to kill the very Son of God because He highlighted their sin, and they had the cheek to ask Him about taxes. Their issue wasn't about submission to government. It was far bigger than that. It was about submission to God. And their rebellious hearts had never submitted to God and would not submit to God.

Friend, your heart is actively rebelling against the one whose image you bear, against the one who has innate authority over you. You have a gospel need this morning because you are a rebel. You bear His image, yet you're living in rebellion against Him.

And so, you need forgiveness. You need to repent. You need to come before Him as one who sees how broken, how far you fall short of His design, of His glory, and to cry out to Him for mercy, for you are guilty. And Jesus in His kindness highlights to the people in the temple that day their wicked rebellion against the one whose image they bear. And you this morning has demonstrated consistently through your life a similar rebellion, and you bear His image. And so today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart, but come confessing your sin and cry out to God for mercy.

I'm gonna ask the musicians to come forward and lead us in singing, Jesus paid it all, before we eat and drink in remembrance of God, because that is our hope. Friends, the glory of the gospel is not simply an awareness that you owe obedience to God. The glory of the gospel is the fact that Jesus came and died so that rebels who fell short of His glory could be forgiven because He paid the debt. He paid the price. Let's sing about that reality to center our hearts on the hope that guilty sinners, guilty rebels, fallen image bearers have in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Let's stand and sing the hymn now.

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