So let's turn to Proverbs 12, and we'll be looking at verses 17 through 28. And we need to pick up on the contrast here between the righteous and the unrighteous man. Proverbs 12, verses 17 through 28. He that speaketh truth showeth forth righteousness, but a false witness, deceit. There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise is health. The lips of truth shall be established forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment. Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil, but to the counselors of peace is joy. There shall no evil happen to the just, but the wicked shall be filled with mischief. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but they that deal truly are his delight. A prudent man concealeth knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness. The hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be under tribute. Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop, but a good word maketh it glad. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor, but the way of the wicked seduceth them. The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting, but the substance of a diligent man is precious. In the way of righteousness is life, and in the pathway thereof there is no death." Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this scripture, and we thank you for this contrast between the righteous and the wicked. And Lord, I pray that it would be said of everyone here that we have chosen the path of righteousness and the path of life. And Lord, I pray that as a result of our worship together today and our study of scripture, that you would make us more and more into the image of Christ. And Lord, we look forward to the day when we will stand before you. and we will be free from every vestige of sin, and it will have no impact upon us because we will be free from sinful flesh. But Lord, while we are here, we are thankful for the victory that we have through Jesus Christ, that we are able to say no to sin, and that we can walk victoriously and walk righteously. And Father, it's our desire that if there's someone here today who does not know the Lord as their Savior, that you would grant them understanding and enlightenment. Lord, grant them conviction for their sin and give them faith that they might believe that Jesus Christ is the only means of their salvation. And so, Lord, we ask for your blessing on this day and upon this service. And Lord, minister to us what is needed. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. For our time in the Word this morning, please open your Bible to Luke's Gospel, chapter 20. We've been working our way through Luke's Gospel and we are now in the final week of Jesus' earthly ministry, what's known as the Passion Week. And that seems a bit odd in a way to be preaching on that at Christmas time, but really it's not. because Christ was born to die. He was born and came to this world for the purpose of dying on the cross to pay for the sins of mankind. So really this all fits together marvelously even as we consider this at the Christmas season. Now Jesus has only been in Jerusalem in this account for just a few days with his disciples, but already he's had three confrontations with the Jewish religious leaders there in Jerusalem. But these confrontations are merely a foretaste of what is to come. In the verses we're going to consider today, we're going to be looking at Jesus' confrontation with these religious leaders regarding His authority. They're going to, again, find another tact to use to confront Him. In the verses leading up to the passage that we're going to consider today, Jesus told the parable of the wicked husbandman. You may have recalled this from last time. And in that parable, the husbandmen were left in charge by the owner of the vineyard. They were left in charge to take care of the vineyard and they were obligated to deliver to the owner of the vineyard his due. But those wicked husbandmen refused to give honor to the owner. They refused to give heed to the messengers that he sent, the servants that he sent. And ultimately, when the owner of the vineyard sent the son, his own son, they killed him. And it was Jesus' intention in telling that parable to liken those wicked husbandmen to the religious leaders that he's dealing with there in Jerusalem. These hypocritical religious leaders who had refused to give God the honor that was due unto him. in proper worship. They had rebuffed all the prophetic messengers whom God had sent time after time after time. And yes, they had rejected the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and would very soon put Him to death. So soon after telling this parable, Jesus launches into something else that's going to cause a confrontation with the religious leaders. These religious leaders really have a problem that we're going to see evidence itself in this passage. And I'd like you, as we're reading along through this passage, Luke chapter 20 beginning in verse 19, I'd like you to try to figure out what the chief problem is with the religious leaders that we see demonstrated in this passage. So follow along now as I read. And the chief priests and the scribes, the same hour, soon after that parable, sought to lay hands on him, and they feared the people, for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them. And they watched him, and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men. that they might take hold of his words, so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor. And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly. Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no? But he perceived their craftiness and said unto them, why tempt ye me? Show me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Caesar's. And he said unto them, render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's and unto God the things which be God's. and they could not take hold of his words before the people. And they marveled at his answer and held their peace." Our Father, I do pray that you will help us in this hour to focus our hearts and minds on this passage and to learn from it. Pray that you will give us insights and guide us by your spirit. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, we're told at the beginning of this passage that these religious leaders were watching Jesus. This is an interesting word. They were watching. They were actually guarding over Him like a guard would watch over a prisoner. They were just watching His every move, listening to His every word, looking for that opportunity for them to ensnare Jesus, to entrap Him. They were watching Him with malicious intent. They had evil motives. They really wanted to destroy Jesus and so they were lying in wait and looking for that golden opportunity to do so. It's interesting as we get to this passage that we see the religious leaders use a new tact. They've already tried direct confrontation. They've gone to Jesus directly and they've confronted him again and again and again. Now they're going to be a little more subtle. Now they're going to send someone else to do their dirty work. And what was their chief problem? I asked you to look for their chief problem as you were reading through this passage. What was the chief problem of these religious leaders? Well, their chief problem was they thought that they could fool Jesus. They thought that they could trick him. They thought that they could deceive him. But Jesus was not fooled by these pretenders. He was not fooled, one iota. And that brings us to our theme today. Pretenders can't fool Jesus. Pretenders only end up fooling themselves. This passage presents to us a real contrast between these pretenders, these spies that were sent, and the genuine Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. A contrast between the pretenders and the genuine, the authentic. And so what I'd like us to do this morning is to examine this passage and look at the characteristics of pretenders. And then by way of contrast, look at the characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ that are presented in this passage. So let's focus on these pretenders. We learn from the parallel passages in Matthew and Mark that these pretenders, these spies that were sent, were actually a delegation of the disciples of the Pharisees themselves mixed together with a group of people called the Herodians. Now already this is a quite interesting situation. This shows the remarkable lengths at which the religious leaders were willing to go to try to entrap Jesus. For you see, the Pharisees and the Herodians really didn't get along very well. And yet they were willing to cooperate. It's kind of like the enemy of my enemy is my friend, that kind of thing, where they're working together with people that they really don't like because they both hate Jesus. So already we see evidence of pretension in this passage. These people pretending to come together as a group only because they hated Jesus. But I'd like us to zoom in and focus on three characteristics that we see here of pretenders. First of all, pretenders show false piety. False piety. If you look at verse 20, it's interesting the way these people are described. They're described as spies. This word is used only here in all the New Testament. It's an interesting word. It means to be hired to lie in wait. Hired to lie in wait. They were paid tricksters. hired by the religious leaders to deceive Jesus, to entrap him. And they were spies. The verse goes on to describe them as spies who feigned themselves just men. Now, we wouldn't necessarily speak with that kind of English, would we today? It means that they were pretending. They pretended to be good. You see, their piety was a false piety. They were pretending to be good, to come to Jesus with a pretentious question. They were pretending for it to be an honest question, but it was a pretentious one. The Greek word that's translated here, feign themselves to be just men, is a word which we get our English word hypocrite from. They were hypocrites. This word refers to a pretender, someone who is play acting, someone who dons a mask and pretends to be somebody that they are not. And so they were pretenders in every sense of the word. These spies pretended themselves to be righteous, to be just men, honest and good. But they were far from righteous in their intentions. The desire of their heart was to do evil against the Lord himself. They pretended to be pious, but it was a false piety. They were as phony as a $3 bill. How many have ever seen a $3 bill? Raise your hand. Well, there are a couple hands, okay? Actually, I have seen one too. Back in my childhood, I think an uncle showed me a $3 bill and I was believing in them at that point, okay? I went out on the internet and did a little research and you know that you can get yourself a $3 bill. It'll cost you $50 to get it. And it will be worth nothing once you have it. So it's up to you if you want one. As phony as a $3 bill. These spies, these pretenders were worse than wolves in sheep's clothing. They were wolves in shepherds clothing, you understand. They were pretending to be from among the religious leaders of the Jewish people, but they were completely phony. They came across as good people, but their motives were evil. They wanted to do away with Jesus. They sought to entrap him. They were parsing his every word. They were trying to find some way of getting him into trouble, in trouble with the Roman authorities. It was really a devious plot that they were involved in. Well, unfortunately, There are many such pretenders today. There are many such pretenders who pose as religious leaders, as those who should be among the most trusted people of the world. There are pretenders who have television ministries. who get on those shows and they broadcast on so-called Christian television and they're building their empires and they're asking you for money. And I'm sad to report that there are also pretenders who stand in pulpits of megachurches and other churches across our country. They are also building their empires. They are also asking for money. There are many pretenders in churches today. There are also pretenders, though, among church attenders. Those who come to church who pretend to be pious, church-going Christians, but in reality, they're as phony as a $3 bill. Theirs is a false piety. a thin wrapper of pretension stuffed with lies." Pretenders. Pretenders who show false piety. That's the first characteristic we see of these pretenders. The second characteristic we see is that pretenders say the right things without meaning them. Pretenders will often say the right things without meaning them. Look at verse 21. Look at how these spies, these pretenders, approach Jesus even before they got to asking him the question. Look at what they say. Master. Now, was Jesus really respected by them as a master teacher? No. Master. We know that thou sayest and teachest rightly. Neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly." Is what they said about Jesus accurate? Is that true? Yes, it is on every count. So they're speaking truth, more truth than they're willing to admit, but they're speaking truth. And yet what they're saying can't be trusted because behind what they were saying are all kinds of evil motives and they're also going to twist the truth as they go. In John Bunyan's classic work, Pilgrim's Progress, and many are familiar with that particular work, you may recall that Christian and Hopeful encountered some shepherds along the way. And the shepherds gave them a lot of very valuable advice for their journey as they were journeying forward to the Celestial City. And one of the pieces of advice the shepherds gave them is to beware the flatterer. Beware the flatterer. That was the warning. It wasn't long after that that as they were journeying along, they came to a fork in the road and they stopped because they weren't sure which branch of that fork to take, which way would take them to the Celestial City. And as they were stopped there and pondering which way to go, suddenly a shadowy figure appeared. A shadowy figure that was cloaked in a white robe, very deceptive. And the shadowy figure asked them, why do you stand here? And they answered, we are on our way to the celestial city and we knew not which of these ways to take. And then the flatterer says to them, well, that's where I'm going. and he started to lead them the wrong way. And before long, they were turned around completely and now they were not walking toward the celestial city, they were walking away from it. And ultimately, they were ensnared and taken up in a net by the flatterer. Well, don't let the flatterer catch you in his net. Don't be taken in by pretenders who say all kinds of right things, but their motives aren't right. And perhaps they're also mixing into all of those right things a little bit of error as well. Beware the flatterer. Well, a third characteristic we see of the pretenders here in this passage is that they like to debate contentious questions. We finally see their question appear in verse 22 after this long preamble. They finally ask, is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar or no? Now it turns out this was a very contentious question. It was cleverly designed to entrap Jesus so that he would fall into their trap. And it begins with this phrase, is it lawful? The word here has the idea of being within bounds. Is it within bounds? Is it proper for a Jew who is of the people of God and swears allegiance to God alone? Is it proper for a Jew to be required to pay tribute to Caesar, who's not even a Jew? You see the trickery in their question. This tribute that they're referring to was a so-called poll tax. It was a tax on everyone who lived within the Roman Empire. They were obligated to pay this tax annually and the tax was owed directly to Caesar himself. And no matter which way Jesus answered this question, these spies realized that there could be adverse consequences for Jesus. If, for example, Jesus answered their question, yes, he would lose the support of all of those nationalistic Jews who did not like Rome and resented having to pay that tax. And it's no wonder then that these spies asked Jesus this question in front of all of these people. in front of all of these patriotic Jews who resented paying that tax. But on the other hand, if Jesus answered no, that would get him into trouble directly with the Roman authorities, with the Roman government. And the governor himself, Pilate, would not take kindly to this. And once news of this would reach his ears, he would have Jesus arrested and charged for insurrection. So this was a very tricky question. It was a contentious question designed to force Jesus to make a choice in His answer between Israel and Rome. And either choice could have bad consequences. But it turns out that this was also a question that was hotly debated among the Jewish people themselves. In fact, among these spies who could be divided into these two groups, the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians. You see, the Herodians were somewhat supportive of Rome. They were kind of the type of people that were, you know, just go along with the program and everything will be okay. And so from their perspective, they would have answered the question, yes, you know, go ahead and pay the tax to Caesar. But those disciples of the Pharisees would have at least in their hearts have been feeling the right answer is no. A Jew should not have to pay the tax to the Roman authorities. But those Pharisees probably would not have voiced those opinions publicly because it would have gotten them into trouble. So this was a very contentious question that these spies had brought to Jesus. And it reminds us of the principles that we have in the New Testament about these kinds of contentious questions that are often brought up by pretenders who are even in the church. The Apostle Paul exhorted the young Pastor Timothy to avoid contentious questions that just have no purpose except to stir up strife and division within the church. In 1 Timothy 1, 4, he writes, neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions rather than godly edifying, which is in faith so do. So there's advice there to stay away from these contentious questions. And again, Paul writes to the Romans in chapter 14, verse 1, him that is weak in the faith receive thee, but not to doubtful disputations. You know, we need to avoid these kind of contentious questions that serve no edifying purpose and only serve to cause division within the church. And so we're to be on our guard against such pretenders. Pretenders delight in asking questions that just start arguments. Maybe you've been around people that are like that. I've been around people that are like that. We need to be careful not to be drawn in to those arguments that are just endless arguments. Instead, we need to focus on the things that edify. So we've looked at three characteristics of these pretenders that we see in this passage. Pretenders show false piety. They say the right things without meaning them. And they just like to debate contentious questions. But these pretenders got nowhere with Christ. Christ saw right through them. Pretenders cannot fool Jesus. They just end up fooling themselves. What I'd like us to do now is to focus on some of the characteristics we see of the Lord Jesus Himself by way of contrast with these pretenders. He's the authentic thing. He's the authentic Savior, the true Son of God. The most obvious characteristic we see of Jesus here is that Jesus sees through all pretension. He has divine knowledge. He's able to see through all this pretension. Verse 23 says that he perceived their craftiness. He saw right through them. He knew that they had deliberately and carefully designed this question and come to him with all this pretense in order to entrap him. And he knew that their motives were evil because he knew their heart. And I think of in a family setting. I think of when our children were young and growing up, and sometimes they would do something wrong or have a wrong attitude. And mom would often catch them in this. Dad would catch them sometimes too, but mom very often would pick up on it first. And mom would come to this child and say, did you do this? Or were you, what was your attitude here? And confront the child on this. And finally there's a confession. And then after all of that, the child would say, mom, how did you know? How did you know? Well, moms know many things, right? Moms are able to perceive and the answer might be, well, maybe I just saw it in your eyes. Maybe I just heard it in the tone of your voice. Maybe I picked up on it in how you turned away and looked away when I was talking to you. Moms can pick up on these things. Well, if a mother can pick up on things like that in a child, the pretension of a child, Cannot the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, pick up on all of the pretense that is in the pretender? Yes, he can. Yes, he can. Jesus sees through all pretension. And the sad reality is that we as fallen people, as sinners, are so easily self-deceived We so easily embrace the lie that we can do something, that we can commit a sin and Jesus isn't going to pick up on it, that God isn't going to notice. So many pretenders come to church and pretend to be a good Christian on Sunday and then go out and live like the devil the rest of the week. But pretenders cannot fool Jesus. They're only fooling themselves. Really, it is a satanic lie to think that we can be pretenders and get away with it. It is what I would call spiritual insanity to think that God doesn't know. Of course, God knows what's in your heart. What does it say in Jeremiah 1710? I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the reins. even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doing." God knows. God knows the idols of our hearts. Psalm 44 verse 20, if we have forgotten the name of our God or stretched out our hand to a strange God, shall not God search this out? For he knoweth the secret of the heart. God knows. God knows. So that's the first characteristic we see of the Lord Jesus Christ here, is that He sees through all pretension. And the next three characteristics we see of Jesus that are demonstrated here actually come from the words of these spies themselves. And so let's revisit what they said. First we see that Jesus speaks straight truth. He speaks straight truth. They said, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly. That word rightly means straight. He cuts truth straight. It's really an irony here throughout this passage that the very words that these spies spoke were true, truer than they were willing to admit. Jesus speaks straight truth. Now we're less than two weeks away from Christmas and of course at Christmas we celebrate the incarnation of the eternal Son of God. He took on human flesh. And I would refer you to the account in John chapter 1 verse 14 where the Apostle John describes the incarnation this way. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Jesus is the embodiment of truth. In that same chapter, verse 17, John writes, For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He brought truth to a world that's full of lies. And again, we have record in John's Gospel of Jesus speaking to Thomas. He says in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. Jesus is the truth. Jesus' teachings were straight. Every one of his words were divine truth, pure truth from God above. And his reasoning was always flawless. There are no logical fallacies in Jesus' teaching. His reasoning was always flawless. And here's how he reasoned with the spies. He asked them to show him a Roman coin. Now, in our King James Bible, it says penny because we know what a penny is, but you may not know what a denarius is. In the Greek, it's a word that refers to the coinage of the Romans, the coinage that the Romans would use. A denarion in the Greek, but it's been used in the Latin language as denarius. And so very often in the English, more modern English translations, you'll have the word denarius there. That's the coin that we're talking about. It's a Roman coin. It's a coin whose value would be equivalent to about a working man's daily wage. And so every year, everyone who lived in the Roman Empire was to pay one day's wage back to Caesar. Actually, if you compare that to the taxes that we pay here in the United States, that wasn't too bad a deal. So they paid their denarius. And so Jesus, ever the master teacher, answers their question with a question of his own. And he asked them, whose likeness is on this coin and whose inscription is on this coin? Now, here's where I really wish we had video of what took place there, because I can imagine them, these spies, you know, they get this question from Jesus and they're kind of, you know, looking at each other and they go into a huddle mode and they're trying to figure out, you know, is this a trick question? And, you know, how should we answer it? Well, it's Caesar. So that's the answer. And so they come up with their answer, Caesar. Well, Jesus had just entrapped them. They came to entrap Jesus and he entrapped them in their own answer. He's going to use their own answer against them. And we'll see how in just a moment. So Jesus is going to school them in their own answer. If that video had captions at the bottom or somewhere, I think the word clueless would show up maybe in the video at about this point in time. So Jesus speaks straight truth. Secondly, and this is the second statement they make, Jesus shows no partiality. The spies had said, we know that you don't accept the person of any. Literally, in the Greek, it has the idea of looking upon someone's face, accepting someone's face. It's an idiom of the day which kind of referred to the idea of showing partiality. If you don't look upon someone's face, then you're impartial. You're not given in to prejudge or predispose your judgment toward them by their external appearance. You're not going to bias your thinking based on what they look like or their social status or the clothes that they're wearing. In our culture, we think of lady justice. who is often depicted as being blindfolded. And that blindfold refers to blind justice. That is to say, justice does not show favoritism toward anyone. Everyone gets the same fair hearing and trial. That's the idea here. So Jesus shows no partiality whatsoever. He would give the same answer to anyone. He doesn't care who these spies are. He doesn't care who they represent. He doesn't care if the governor himself is standing there asking this question. He's going to give the same straight answer. And so it is, he's going to answer in a way that is based on principles. Because Jesus, after all, is God the Son, and God is no respecter of persons. God shows no partiality. Neither God the Father, nor God the Son, nor the Holy Spirit. And so the same principles apply to all. Jesus is going to answer in a way that would apply to both Jews and Gentiles. It would apply to both Pharisees and Herodians. And that's where we get to the final characteristic of the Lord here. Jesus teaches in the way of God. Jesus teaches in the way of God. Do you want to know the way of God? Then follow the teachings of Jesus. In John 12, 49, Jesus says, For I have not spoken of myself, that is to say on his own initiative, but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment which I should say and what I should speak. He's speaking the very words of God. So here then is the wisdom of God in the matter. Since a denarius has the image and the inscription of Caesar, Jesus says, render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. That's the answer. That's the answer to the riddle, but that's only part of the answer. And render to God the things that are God's. What is God's will in the matter then? God's will in the matter and for those first century Jews was that they would pay their tax to Caesar. That was God's will for them. But this has application for us today because in a sense we are under a Caesar. We are under the authority of the government of the United States of America. Now we may not like a lot of the policies of our government. We may not like the Internal Revenue Service or was that Infernal Revenue Service? I sometimes get confused there. But the bottom line is that we as law-abiding citizens are to pay our taxes, folks. We cannot withhold our taxes under protest. We can protest. We can speak out. We have the freedom of speech to say these policies are wrong, but that does not give us license to withhold our taxes. Nor is it right for us to underpay our taxes by cheating on our tax return. If Jesus were making application to us today, he would tell us to pay our taxes, to pay all that is due. And if we're wise, we won't pay one penny more than is due. But I want you to notice that Jesus' answer goes much deeper than this. It goes beyond just paying taxes. He doesn't answer them and say, pay your annual poll tax. No, He speaks in general principle here. He says, render unto Caesar really all that is Caesar's, whatever belongs to Caesar, whatever is due unto him. I'd like you to hold your place here and turn to Romans chapter 13. We'll see this principle embodied now in the book of Romans. which would certainly apply to all of us as believers today. How are we to view those governmental authorities over us? What are our obligations? What is owed to Caesar, if you will? Romans chapter 13, look at verse 1. 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. Think about that for just a moment. What that says is that every authority in our life is placed there by God. That policeman who's enforcing the laws has the authority given to him really by God. The government, the teachers, your professors in college, your parents, your church leaders, all of these authorities are placed there by God. Verse 2, Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. Very serious consequences. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake." Now, this is why I came to this passage. Verse six, for for this cause pay ye tribute also. Now, remember that word tribute is referring to a tax. We pay tribute also. They are God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing. Here's the principle. Render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. That's the general principle. And so Jesus' statement is really not a proof text that we can come to to enforce the idea of separation of church and state. Many do that. But rather it's an affirmation of the fact that God has ordained the authorities that are in our lives. So understand it's not a separation of church and state. It's that the state is under God. God is over all. God has put them in their place of authority and power, and He's even allowed them to tax us. And so, yes, we're to pay our taxes, but beyond that, we're to render unto Caesar all that is due unto him. That's the general principle. But there's more. There's more to Jesus' answer. And if you go back to that, He says, Render therefore unto Caesar the things that be Caesar's, but unto God the things that be God's. This is the other side of it. We are to render to God everything that is due unto Him. Now, I think in the context, and I want to just say that I'm almost alone on this. I found one commentator that shares this view. It's a little bit maybe unfamiliar to us to think in these terms, but I think in the context Jesus is actually implying to these Jews that you should pay your tribute to Caesar and you should also pay your tax to the temple. You see, the Jews were obligated to pay a temple tax as well. And what we need to understand about the coinage of the day is that that Roman coin had the image of Caesar on it. But the Jewish people, according to their religion, would not put images on anything that was associated with their worship. And therefore, the temple coins had no image on them. And so I think Jesus may have been telling them to pay their temple tax, too, but it goes way beyond that. Again, to look at the parallelism here, he's saying, give to God all that is due unto him, everything. God's rights include contrition, faith, love, worship, obedience, service, gratitude, glory, and indeed we are to give Him ourselves also. It all belongs to God. So Jesus teaches in the way of God. What a contrast we've seen this morning. between the characteristics of these pretenders who showed false piety, who said true things but they didn't really mean them, who liked to debate contentious questions. But these pretenders could not fool Jesus any more than pretenders can fool Jesus today. Because Jesus sees through all pretension and he speaks straight truth and he shows no partiality In fact, his teaching points in the way of God. So, let's ask ourselves, in light of all this, how are we to live? What should be our heart response to this contrast we see between pretenders and the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, the obvious answer is we should stop all pretension. We should stomp out all pretension that's in our lives. We should stop play acting. We should stop the hypocrisy. We need to get our heart right before God so that what people see on the outside on Sunday morning matches up to the reality on the inside, the real person that you are all week long. Get rid of that pretension that's in your life. Don't just speak the truth. Live the truth. Don't just talk the talk. Walk the walk. That's the application for us today. And stop arguing with what the Bible says. We need to embrace the truth that comes from God. We need to embrace Jesus' teaching. He taught truth. We need to stop arguing with what the Bible says. Quit chasing after these endless disputations, as Paul said. If the Bible convicts you of sin, stop justifying it and rationalizing it. Stop ignoring it. Stop pretending. Confess that sin to God and He will forgive you and cleanse you. Embrace the truth. If the Bible confronts the way you live, change the way you live. We need to be responsive to biblical truth, not resistant to it. If the Bible exposes that your heart has grown cold toward the things of God, then get on your knees and pray to the God of heaven and confess your coldness to God, confess your hypocrisy, confess your apathy to God, and pray that He would reignite those flames of zeal for Him. We need to get rid of the pretension that's in our lives. And now would be a very good time to stop pretending and to get right with the Savior. Our Father, we thank you for this message this morning. It really does convict us of those areas of our lives which we know do not line up with biblical truth. Those areas of our lives which we, in our own self-deception, think that we can hide from you. those areas of hypocrisy, of pretension, things that we do when we're not here on Sunday, things that we do in our own rooms when no one's looking, things that we do during the week when we're not in church. Lord, I pray that You will help us to take to heart the lesson that You have for us today that we would get rid of any and all pretension in our lives, we would not be guilty of these things, but instead that our hearts would be right toward You. We might live for our Savior and live in harmony with His teachings. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.