So we're reading in Mark chapter
12 and verse 41 through to verse 44. The Lord Jesus Christ is in the temple
where he has been speaking for most of the day. And we're told
in verse 41, and Jesus sat over against the treasury. And beheld
how the people cast money into the treasury, and many that were
rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor
widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he
called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I
say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast more in than
all they which have cast into the treasury. For all they did
cast in of their abundance, but she of her want did cast in all
that she had, even all her living. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this short reading from his word. The beauty and the simplicity
of this incident here towards the end of this day in the Lord's
final week, the end of a busy day, is delightful for us to
see. And I think there's much to be
gleaned and gained from these few verses. The Lord had had
an extremely busy day. He had been confronted by all
of these religious groups. He had contended with them and
their questions and their allegations and their challenges. And he
had been teaching his people and preaching in the temple.
And I think that we must be, we must admire the Lord and the
way in which despite the weariness of this day, despite all that
lies before him in the coming days, which of course he knew
about, He takes time, he takes the moment as he sits here, wearied
by his activities, to notice this single poor widow. Let us always take note when
the Gospel writers begin their narrative by introducing us to
certain people, a certain woman or a certain man, because that
use of that little word certain reminds us, or should do, that
the Lord deals with individuals individually. He is the saviour
and friend of particular individuals, of particular people. Jerusalem
at this time was full of people. The city was filled because of
the Passover by people from all over Israel and from all over
the many nations around about who made their way back to the
city at this time. It was full of people. The temple
was packed and it would be buzzing. Jesus followers were there. They
had been listening to him all day. There would be excited families
moving around in the crowd, shouting and trying to keep everybody
together. The religious groups were moving
through. There would be those who were
engaged in commerce. If they had returned after the
Lord had expelled them in the previous couple of days, no doubt
they were back trying to ply their trade. The rich people
were there with their money to be changed and their sacrifices
and their offerings. And there, amongst the crowds,
the Lord laid his attention on a certain poor widow. That's lovely to note and to
realise. because really that's all we
are, certain poor individuals, and yet the Lord sees us. Where
you are, where I am, right now, right here today, the Lord has
laid his eye upon us. What a privilege we are, we have,
to be amongst the Lord's certain people. Amongst the throng here, the
Lord noted this lady, because he knew her. He knew her as one
of his little ones, one of his sheep. She had no idea that the
Lord was watching her. Her act, her two mites being
cast into the treasury, her act of offering, was made without
any show, without any drama, but the Lord was watching. She
had no idea that her movements that day were being marked by
the Lord Jesus Christ, that he was drawing attention to them,
to his disciples, as he taught them what they should understand
from the significance of her actions. That act of this poor
widow, was noted and recorded in the pages of scripture to
be spoken of with approval to the end of time. This certain
poor widow was known and loved by Christ and her testimony that
day is an enduring witness to the church of all ages. The Lord
gives us a lovely example of this poor widow and her tiny
but rich and costly offering and what it meant to him. No gesture of his people, no
gesture of kindness, No offering of faith, no act of worship,
no sacrifice of love goes unnoticed or unmarked by the Lord. This dear lady did not have much. She didn't have much in life.
But what she had, she dedicated to the glory of God. And what
she gave that day was worth far more in the sight of God than
all the other gifts that were given in His name that day. She's mentioned, this lady, in
four short verses by two gospel writers. But I think she may
be amongst the most delightful characters in the whole of Scripture. She reminded me as I was contemplating
these verses over the past few days, she reminded me a little
of the widow of Zarephath who cared for Elijah in a time of
famine in the land of Israel. And Elijah was told by the Lord
to go to where this lady was and that the Lord would take
care of Elijah by this lady. And when Elijah arrived and met
the lady, he asked her for some water and for a little cake.
And this is what the lady said to him. It's in 1 Kings chapter
17. And she said, as the Lord thy
God liveth, I have not a cake but a handful of meal in a barrel
and a little oil in a cruise and behold I am gathering two
sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son that we
may eat it and die. All this lady had left in the
world was a little bit of meal and a little bit of oil which
she was going to cook in the fire and then she and her son
were going to lie down and die in their famine and in their
poverty. And Elijah says to this lady,
fear not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little
cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make thee and thy
son. And this widow of Zarephath and
her son were just a meal away from death and yet the Lord saved
and provided for them and for Elijah in their absolute poverty. That story and this picture of
the certain poor widow reminds us that we shall never be losers
for giving first to the Lord and to the Lord's work. I hope
you've had some time to read that little introduction that
I sent out yesterday. I'm not going to repeat this
story again and think about the various aspects of the story.
I'm basically really going to think today about the applications
that this story, this incident brings to us. There are some
helpful lessons, I think, that we can glean from this woman's
act. and I've just got three that
I want to mention to you. The first one is this, the importance
of faith. The importance of faith. The
word of God tells us that faith salts every offering dedicated
to the Lord. In Mark chapter 9, we read it
a few sermons ago. In Mark chapter 9, the Lord tells
his disciples, every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. It's a reference to the book
of Leviticus, to bringing our offerings to the Lord. And when
the Old Testament people brought their offerings to the Lord,
they had to bring salt with it. And that salt was a picture of
faith because all offerings had to be given in faith. In truth, There are no offerings
to the Lord except those offerings that are given in faith. There
is no service to God except the service that is offered in faith. All our gifts, all our labour,
all our activity and energy expended in the name of a church, in the
name of religion, in the name of Christianity is nothing is
nothing. It becomes worse than nothing
because it actually becomes a stumbling block to us if it is not offered
in faith. Nothing is acceptable to God
that is not given in faith. and the large gifts of these
wealthy men placed in the chests by the temple treasury. They
might ease the conscience of those individual givers. They
may boost their prestige and their standing amongst the people
who were there and observing and watching their peers in that
moment. It might even gain them the praise
of their pastors and the priests round about. but it meant nothing
to God because without faith it is impossible to please Him. So we approach God through faith
and through faith in the blood and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Every aspect of spiritual life Every activity of service must
be founded upon faith. It must be offered in faith because
there is no access into the presence of God. There is no service acceptable
to God but such as is made with an eye to Christ and upon the
ground of his sacrifice and through the merits of his blood. and
anyone who imagines that they are doing something for the church,
doing something for God, and yet are strangers to grace and
outside of Christ, are greatly mistaken. I have no pleasure in you, saith
the Lord, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. I have no pleasure in you, saith
the Lord, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. Why?
Because it's impure. Only a pure offering can be accepted,
and only the blood of Christ is a pure and acceptable sacrifice. Christ also hath loved us, and
hath given himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to
God for a sweet-smelling savour. So that only in Christ is anything
that we are, or have, or offer, or give, or sacrifice to God
acceptable to him. And only by faith in Christ will
we be able to bring our offerings to the Lord. This woman came
to God in faith. Faith in Christ with the light
that she had been given. I've got a question and I've
got an answer. Was this lady listening to the
Lord Jesus Christ preach during the day? Was she there amongst
that crowd of followers when the Lord preached and taught
and confounded the scribes and the Pharisees? Well, we're not
told. But I think she was. I think
she was. I think that she was there. And now that the Lord had finished
his preaching, and had dismissed the crowd and gone and taken
some ease and sat down across from the treasury. As the crowd
dispersed and she went away, she went via the treasury where
she might place her gift in the chest as if to say thank you
to God. for sending His Son, her Saviour,
into the world, to say thank you with her little gift for
the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, this faith that
she had, with the light that she had been given, this faith
too is God's gift to sinners. It is God's gift so that we can
thank Him for the Lord Jesus Christ. We give God nothing until He
first gives us faith in Christ. And then all that we can do is
give back to Him. All that we do do is give that
which He has first given to us. Because God loved us first, because
God has given his Son for us, because God has freely gifted
life and faith to us by his grace and goodness, we are able to give faith, to
salt our offerings as we bring them before the Lord. So that
our worship today, here together, in spirit and in truth is offered
and acceptable worship and sacrifice and our gifts are worthy gifts
and our thanksgiving is appropriate because of the precious blood
of Jesus Christ and the faith that God has given us in that
blood to cleanse us from all sin. So faith is necessary in
our offerings. Here's the second point. There
is an enabling of grace. Grace raises us above our troubles. This lady, this certain poor
widow, is a believer. She is a true worshipper of God. Otherwise, her offering would
have been worth nothing. It was worth, objectively, next
to nothing. But because of faith, it was
precious to the Lord. This lady was a believer, a follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet look at her. All that
we know of her is that she is a poor widow. Death had visited
this lady's house. Her husband had died and she
was bereft of his support and she was bereft of his companionship. And whatever their prior circumstances
had been before he died, now she is impoverished and now she
is alone. Let us never imagine that believers
are or will be without trouble in their lives. There are no
trials, no tribulations experienced by men and women in this world
that do not touch and do not cover the Lord's people as well. Many trials, in fact, only touch
the Lord's people. But God's grace, sovereign grace,
blesses us in the midst of our trials and troubles. It's no
insurance policy against our troubles, but it upholds us and
sustains us in our troubles. Grace lifts a believer above
their troubles. This dear lady now lived in the
valley of the shadow of death, but daily she proved that the
rod and staff of the Lord was her comfort. In Isaiah chapter
43, In verse 1 we read, But now thus saith the Lord that created
thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not, for
I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou
art mine. That is an objective fact. That is what God declares to
those to whom he gives faith. Fear not, I have redeemed thee. And he goes on and he says, when
thou passeth through the waters, I will be with thee. And through
the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. And when thou walkest through
the fire, thou shalt not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. Maybe that's talking to some
of you today. Maybe you feel as if you're passing
through the waters. Maybe you feel as if some of
these waters are like rivers that are about to bowl you over
and overflow. Maybe you feel as if you're walking
through the fire. the Lord says that he will be
with us. And we will experience the trials
and the traumas and the challenges of this life as this poor widow
woman did. And yet here she is proving the
faithfulness of God in this moment as she expressed her gratitude
towards God for the Lord Jesus Christ and her faith in him. by these two little mites that
she had to give. This blessed woman, poor, yes,
a widow, yes, and yet a believer in Christ. She trusted God in
Christ. She didn't become angry with
God for her circumstances. She did not forsake God for bringing
her to such a low condition. She saw beyond her immediate
situation and she worshipped her God. I said a little earlier
that I didn't have any real doubt that this woman had listened
to Christ earlier in the day as he preached in the temple.
I think she was in the temple. I think she spent her time in
the temple. And I think she was there because
that was where Christ was. I think she desired to be found
where Christ was and attended to him. And you can argue with
me on the point if you wish, but I'm kinda convinced that
like Simeon and Anna before her, she waited frequently in the
temple, looking for, waiting for, and speaking of Christ to
all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. And even when life
is hard, even when troubles beset the Lord's people, even when
loss occurs and poverty strikes, the Lord preserves his people
by grace and he lifts them up above their troubles. Oh, she
still got hungry and she still got cold and she still felt lonely. but she had the Lord to lean
on, she had Christ to comfort her, and she could say with the
psalmist, the Lord of hosts is with me, the God of Jacob is
my refuge. Selah. So not only was there
faith to salt the offering, and not only was there mercy and
grace, I'm sorry, to sustain her in her troubles, but the
Lord was merciful to her. Let us not overlook God's silent
provision and God's secret supply. His unrecorded goodnesses. What am I talking about? Well,
my third point here today with respect to this certain poor
widow is simply this. The Bible doesn't say a lot about
her. The Bible is relatively silent
in how she was looked after and preserved, and yet we should
have no doubt that she was nevertheless. The rich men, we're told, gave
out of their abundance. That is They gave from what they
had left over after they had served their own needs and satisfied
their own desires. They gave out of their abundance
what they had left after they had looked after their needs
and their families and their responsibilities. They had some
left over and they gave out of that some that was left over. not this poor lady, not this
certain poor widow. She gave the Lord first. She gave all that she had, even
all her living. Before she took care of her own
needs, she gave to the Lord. Nevertheless, The Lord supplied
her daily need, though she had nothing. The Lord supplied her
need that day, though she had given all that she had. And the Lord supplied her need
the next day as well, and the day after that. Oh, we fear so
much, don't we? We become so taken up by the
fears and the apprehensions about what the future is going to hold
for us. And we forget to trust the Lord. We forget what it means to have
faith in Him and to rely upon His grace and His mercy. We're
not told that Peter or James or John or any of the other disciples
ran after this lady and put their hands in their pocket and gave
her a gift. We're not told that they took
her name or that they provided for her in some way. Maybe they
did. Maybe they did. Maybe they did it secretly. That would be appropriate. Maybe
the Lord laid it upon one or several of their hearts to make
sure that lady was provided for today and tomorrow as well. But this was the Lord's servant. And we're reminded of Elijah
again and the widow of Zarephath. The ravens came and fed Elijah. The ravens of all the birds,
they brought him food. But what is not a secret is that
God has promised that he will provide for his people. He will
provide for his people's needs. David could say in Psalm 37,
I have been young and now I am old, yet have I not seen the
righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. And John, in John
chapter 6, in verse 35, tells us that Jesus himself says, I
am the bread of life. He that cometh unto me shall
never hunger, and he that believeth in me shall never thirst. Now
you can tell me if you want to spiritualise that, and I will
say, go right ahead. Go right ahead, brother. Go right
ahead, sister. But this is the same Jesus who
fed 5,000 and fed 4,000 because he looked on them with pity. And I do not for a moment believe
that the Lord's heart was not moved by the case of this dear
woman also, in her need and in her faithful simplicity. Luke
chapter 1 verse 53 says, he hath filled the hungry with good things
and the rich he hath sent away empty. He hath helped his servant
Israel in remembrance of his mercy. The disciples were learning
a lesson today as they looked on that woman. And interestingly,
we discover in Acts chapter six and verse one, which is really
not very long after this day here before the Lord's death,
about seven or eight weeks, maybe 10 weeks, that the young church,
after Pentecost, one of the very first things that it did was
engaged itself in feeding the poor and caring for the widows.
And I don't doubt that that lady was at the table being fed by
the apostles. And if not at the table being
fed, then she was behind the table helping to feed others. And yes, there is teaching here
about our giving and a believer's privilege to do so. There is
no New Testament teaching about tithing. There is no duty, there
is no obligation, there is no law imposed on a child of God
to give. What the Word of God teaches
us is that our giving is our thank you. Our expression of
love and gratitude to God for all that he has given us. This
woman gave to the Lord all she had because she understood that
she owed all to the Lord. And so too, we have nothing in
this world but what the Lord has given us. His great gifts
are our salvation, one for us at His cross, our faith, which
has brought to us, or is brought to us by the Holy Spirit, and
the gospel of truth, which is preached to us in the gospel. Physical life, the physical life
that we have, is God's gift to us. The spiritual life that we
have is God's gift. Robert Hawker says that our body
and our soul are the two mites that we have to give to the Lord. It isn't much and yet it is everything. If we have faith and we offer
our two mites in faith, Our God will accept our offering in Christ
and he will accept of our worship and our gratitude. May it be
so for his name's sake. Amen.