Saved by Grace: God's Word Corrects and Frees

back in the day that the Nicene Creed comes out of was a guy trying to protect God because he was going, you know what? God can't die. God can't die. So that means Jesus couldn't have fully become man for us and then died for us because he's God. So maybe the body that he had was more just like a flesh thing, and he was inside it with like a remote control controlling it. And then whenever he went to the cross, he exited, and it was just the body that died. That kind of thing. The problem there is this. If Jesus isn't God who lives and suffers and dies and rises for us, then we aren't saved. [00:38:56] (41 seconds)  #JesusIsFullyGod

It's the same with, Joseph Smith back in the eighteen hundreds who told us that he had this other vision of God and he added things to God's word. And at first, when we look at it, this Mormon idea looks like Christianity, but it it's just a little different. But the more and more you dig into it, the more and more it takes you away from the truth of how who God is. And what it takes you away from eventually is that I am saved by grace. [00:39:46] (28 seconds)  #SavedByGraceOnly

And when it takes us away from I'm saved by grace, it's a serious problem. And so we need God's word to correct us from the false teachings that this world provides for us. We need to be in God's word so that it can lead us away from those false things that we fall into. It's so important, this life giving word, to do that for us. [00:40:14] (24 seconds)  #StayInTheWord

Right? Because it's this passage where there's Peter and these guys say, hey. Do you pay the temple tax? And Peter says, yes. And then he goes back, and Jesus comes and he's like, hey. Why did you tell him that? And then he does some teaching with them, and then he tells them to go catch a fish, and he's gonna find a coin in his mouth to pay it. Do you understand it? Or do you just wanna move on? Or do you wanna go back and see what God is doing in this text? [00:41:59] (30 seconds)  #DigIntoScripture

whenever they made the tabernacle, when God had them made this tent where he would dwell with his people, he gave them a lot of rules. And here in chapter 30, he tells us, hey, I I want you to take a census of the people, know how many people there are, and then for every person that you count, they need to yearly give this tax, which is a half a shekel. And they're gonna give this tax to take care of the tabernacle, to take care of the tent, and eventually to take care of the temple. Right? It's just like part of the reason you give an offering here at church is so that we can have this building. [00:43:06] (36 seconds)  #GiveForGodsHouse

and how we have to fix it and how much money it costs. So that was one of the things that you see in this text. The other is it tells you that you shall take the atonement money. So when you give the Lord's offering to make atonement for your lives, so it's to take care of the stuff, but it's also to say, I recognize that I am one who's in need of grace. I need to be atoned for. And so they would make that payment kind of as a an act of humility to say, I I need this. [00:43:56] (34 seconds)  #AcknowledgeNeedForGrace

And so Jesus is saying, hey. One of the things about this tax is it's to take care of the temple. Well, just before what we're seeing here in Matthew, we we can go to Matthew chapter 12 and see that Jesus has taught Peter something else. He says, I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And Jesus is talking about himself. [00:46:51] (33 seconds)  #JesusIsGreaterThanTemple

And he's pointing out, I am the son of God and I am the true temple. Not that place you go and make your sacrifices. Matter of fact, I'm changing everything. I'm the one who's overcoming that whole system. I'm the son of God, and I am the temple. So should the temple itself pay to take care of the temple? Should God the father tax God the son? No. I don't have to pay this. [00:47:23] (31 seconds)  #JesusIsTheTrueTemple