Good morning, if you would turn
with me in your Bible to Luke chapter 21 this morning, and
we'll read the first four verses of Luke 21. And he looked up,
that's our Lord, and he saw the rich men casting their gifts
into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor
widow casting in thither two mites. And he said of a truth
I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than
they all, for all these have of their abundance cast in unto
the offerings of God. But she of her penury hath cast
in all the living that she had." Now this It's just like our Lord
in his teaching. He always said exactly the opposite
of what everybody thought. When what men called righteousness
in Luke 13, 27, he called iniquity. In Luke 18, everybody would have
been impressed with the Pharisee. He was highly religious, he was
highly moral, and they would have looked down on the publican.
But our Lord justified the publican and condemned the Pharisee. When
a man came to the Lord Jesus and said, I'm going to follow
you, the Lord discouraged him. He said, the foxes have holes
and the birds of the air have nests, but I have not where to
lay my head. He said, you don't want to follow
me. You don't even know what you're talking about. Then the
Lord said to another man, you follow me. And that man said,
I've got other business to take care of. And the Lord said, no,
you don't. You'll follow me. So he never, here in our text,
the one who gives the least by far. Others cast in of their
riches and she of her poverty. That's that word, penury is poverty.
She cast in very little, two mites, two mites. And he said, she gave more than
everybody else. People, like to sound religious
and say, what would Jesus do? Nobody knew what he did even
after he did it. Nobody knew what he was going
to say, and when he said it, they didn't know what he said.
This is our Lord now. He teaches exactly the opposite
of what everybody says. Religion says you need to do
something for God. The scriptures teach, and our
Lord taught, you need God to do something for you. So what
we need to do is find out who Jesus is and what he did do. That's salvation. Salvation is
not doing what you think he would do. Salvation is what he already
accomplished, and you just need to know about it. You need to
know about it and believe on him. So a mite was the coin in
the Roman Empire that was the very least in value, like our
pennies. A lot of people have said, why
do we even have pennies? We need to just do away with them. They're
just a waste of time. And that's what this woman gave.
The Lord explained why it was more by saying this, in her penury
or poverty, she cast in all that she had or all of her living.
It's described this way in Mark 12, 41. And Jesus sat over against
the treasury and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury.
That's key right there, he didn't behold how much they put in,
he beheld how they did it. 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 cast, she threw in two mites
which make a farthing. He beheld how they gave, not
how much. And we don't even know how much
people give, I don't, and I don't wanna know, much less how they
give, but he does, he knows. And we need to understand that
this is not just a lesson on giving. The Bible says a lot
about giving. It teaches us how to give and
why to give and that type of thing, it really does. But this
really is as much a lesson on faith as it is on giving. This
is about how God's people give and why. And that word is key
there in Mark 12, 41. How? This speaks to the motive,
the heart, and salvation is a heart work. Salvation is a heart work. God looks on the heart. If the
Lord does a work on your heart, if he gives you a new heart,
Ezekiel 36, 26, then everything else will follow. But no matter
what you do, if your heart is not in it, it's worthless. Remember
1 Corinthians 13, 3. though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and
have not love, it profiteth me nothing. And love is the fruit
of his spirit. The fruit of the spirit of God
is love. In fact, we're gonna find out
that giving and love are inseparable. Now, one thing I wanna point
out is that the Lord did not condemn in either account of
this in the scriptures, the ones who gave much. This also is of
the Lord. The Lord prospers everyone who
he prospers and he does it for his glory, that's why he does
it. Now the context of this is the Lord teaching how that the
Pharisees, though impressive to people, were an abomination
to him. And so you could certainly imply that at least some of these
rich were in that case. that they were just being religious
and they weren't really giving to God. But it doesn't mean necessarily
that all of them were. God provides by all manner of
means, and that's between him and each person. And if this
lesson teaches anything, it teaches that how much is not the point.
It's not the point. It's not tithing. We don't tithe. If you're gonna obey Old Testament
law, then you're gonna have to start slaughtering a lot of lambs.
It's not about that. No, it's how. And this is true
with all of true gospel worship. And that's what giving is. It's
worship. It's attributing worthiness unto
God. It's trusting Him. The Pharisees did what they did
to be seen of men, to be enriched by men, and to impress them. God's people do what they do
because they love Him. Because faith worketh by love,
not law. And don't ever forget, his love
is the cause of our love. 1 John 4, 19, we love him because
he first loved us. He loved us enough to give us
a love for him. And that's what that is. Now,
this passage does away with every excuse not to give. Well, I can't
afford to give. Neither could she. She couldn't
afford it. She put all her living in there. Well, what I would
be able to give, it wouldn't make any difference anyway, so
I'm not gonna give it. How much do you think two mites,
what difference did that make really? It's not about that,
you're giving to God. And of course there's a practical
aspect to it. Two mites wasn't very much, and
this does teach us some things, doesn't it, clearly on the surface
about giving. I'll tell you this, one thing
it teaches us is that God doesn't need any of us. The Lord paid
his taxes and the taxes of his disciples from a fish's mouth
one time. And he don't need you to give
a lot of money. If you're able to do that, that's
between you and the Lord, you should do that. But he don't
need us, does he? It's clear from that, he don't
need us. He said, she, the one that didn't put anything in there,
put in the most. But this, like all of scripture,
is a gospel message of the salvation of a sinner by grace through
faith. This is about faith. What do
we know about this poor widow? There's several words used to
describe her in the text. First, it says she was a poor
widow in verse two. And that word poor there in verse
two means needy, needy. We know that word from scripture,
don't we? From all the scripture. David
said, Lord, I'm poor and needy. And he wasn't talking about,
he didn't have any money. He was king. And then when our
Lord uses the word poor to describe her in verse three, He uses a
different word. That word means reduced to beggary. Reduced to beggary. Destitute
of four things, and that's what I wanna talk about mostly this
morning, these four things. Destitute of wealth, destitute
of influence, destitute of position, and destitute of honor. She was
destitute. Now think about those four things.
This is our spiritual condition before God. All of this book
is the gospel. He teaches us about giving, but
that's secondary. Now that's part of it. That's
part of salvation, isn't it? But it's worship. If you save,
you're gonna worship him. With everything you have and
everything you are and everything you do, you're gonna worship
God. But the gospel, this teaches
the gospel. These are written, in John 20
it says, these are written that you might believe on the Son
of God. Is that talking about this passage? It's talking about
every passage, and that believing you might have life through his
name. So this is our condition. We owe an infinite debt, and
we don't have anything to pay. We can't pay it. Remember our
Lord's parable of the two debtors in Luke 741. It begins there if you want to
read it. He said that those two debtors, they both owed debts
and neither one of them had anything to pay. It says when they had
nothing to pay, he frankly forgave both of them. And that word means
that he did it graciously. He graciously forgave them. That's our God. He forgives sinners
freely. He justifies them freely through
the redemption that's in Christ. And remember what love had to
do with that in that story? Read that story when you have
time. The one that was forgiven much, loved much. Paul said in
2 Corinthians 8, 8, that your giving proves the sincerity of
your love for God and his people. And the Lord didn't forgive that
debtor because he loved much. Read that story now. No. It was
the other way around. That debtor loved much because
he was forgiven much. That's true giving. Now we're
destitute of influence on God. We can't influence God. We have
no redeeming characteristic that would recommend us to God or
cause him to do anything for us. There's nothing about us
to influence God to have mercy on us. That's why it's called
free grace. That's why Paul said we are justified
freely, without a cause, without a cause in us. That's unconditional. We meet no condition that causes
God to save us. We're justified freely through
the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. He acknowledged there
that it's because of the redemption of Christ, but he still called
it unconditional. Because on our part, it's unconditional. It's through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus, his precious sin-cleansing blood. We're justified
on the basis of who someone else is and what they did. In other
words, the influence of another and not our own. We're destitute of influence.
We're destitute of wealth, we're destitute of influence, we're
destitute of position. We have no position before God.
Our proper place before God is in the dust, begging for mercy. You may think your denomination
gives you some kind of a leg up with God. No, don't come to
God saying, I'm ready to let you save me now. Don't come that
way. I'm fixing to let go and let
God. You're not gonna let God do any, God's gonna do as he
pleases in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. and nobody's gonna stop him or question him just
like he always has. Forget about what the false preachers
are saying. God's not waiting on you to let
him do anything. You don't wanna know what your
proper position before God is? Listen to this passage of scripture,
Matthew 15, 22. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast where our Lord was and cried unto him,
saying, have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter
is grievously vexed with the devil. But he answered her not
a word. And his disciples came and besought
him, saying, send her away, for she crieth after us. But he answered
and said, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. You have no claim here. You have
no position from which to argue or to ask for anything. Then
she came and worshiped him anyway, saying this, Lord, help me. That's a good prayer right there.
Lord, help me. But he answered and said, it
is not meet. It would not be right. to take
the children's bread and cast it to dogs. There's your position
before God right there. And she said, truth, Lord. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from their master's table. You're right, I'm a dog,
but I want to be your dog. I want to be your dog. And then
Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. And we have no honor, we're destitute
of honor before God. The definition of honor is integrity,
honesty and integrity in one's beliefs and actions. Listen to
me now. Everything we believe is wrong. Everything we believe by nature,
everything you come up with is wrong. If you're gonna know anything
that's right, you're gonna have to get it from God. Every bit
of it. And everything we do is dishonest
and corrupt and ungodly. Paul said, in me that is in my
flesh dwelleth no good thing. And if there is in me no good
thing, then no good thing's coming out of me. You're gonna have
to confess it now before God. We don't know God and we don't
care what he says. We do all that we do from a motive
of selfishness and pride. We're like this woman in pictures
in our text. We're destitute and needy. But bless God, this is who he
saves. This is who he saves. Now the
whole, the whole have no need of a physician. And our Lord
expounded on that. He made that statement and he
said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Is that your, are you destitute
of everything that you need? Are you like this? If God put
you in hell this morning, would he be doing the right thing?
You think about that. If he called you a dog, And not
only did he say, you don't deserve anything from me, but he said,
it wouldn't be right for me to do anything for you. It would
not be right. Can you say truth, Lord, to that?
If he said that to you, like he did that woman of Canaan,
would you be able to say, Lord, that's the truth? That's the
truth. It would be wrong for God to
receive us as we are in ourselves. Don't come to God apart from
Christ. Bless God, of him are we in Christ
Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. We are accepted if we are in
the beloved, Ephesians 1.6. Listen to Psalm 40, verse 16.
Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in you. Let such as love your salvation,
say continually, the Lord be magnified. But I am poor and
needy. Let's magnify God in the saving
of sinners. But you know, religion loves
to say, well, you gotta do your part in salvation. You know what
my part in salvation is? You know what David's part? He
said, here's my part in salvation, I need it. That's my part, I
need it. And his part is he saves me,
he accomplishes it. You are my help and my savior. Make no tarrying, oh my God.
Now, as this picture salvation, you might say, well, at least
she had two mites. Does this mean that we do have
to have a part in it, that we contribute something to our salvation?
You know, it's not much, but at least we have to take the
first step. You know, is that what the two mites are? You taking
the first step? Let me ask you a question. Where
did she get those two mites from? This pictures us as we are before
God by nature, as we are born into this world. What did you
bring into this world? So if you have two mites today, where'd
you get them from? But perhaps the clearer picture
of God given faith in this is that she gave away what she had.
How much does she have now? How much does she have now before
God? This is what we do by faith when God saves us. We abandon
all of our security, all of our trust, all of what we've earned,
we thank before God by our works. We abandon everything, all confidence
in self. What we are or possess, we cast
ourselves completely upon the mercy of God. I've got nothing.
And everything I do have is just something to give away. That's
what he said to the rich young ruler, go sell everything and
come follow me. What you need is me, not what you have. Not
what you've earned. We can't earn anything spiritually
before God. And so that's the picture there.
Everything we need must come from him. He must be all that
we need. He must be, he is. Listen to
Ephesians 2, 4. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
you are saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. that into the ages
to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourselves. You didn't come up with faith.
It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should bow. Where's your two mites in that?
If you have some, you better get rid of them. There's, we
come empty handed before God. Listen, by grace are you saved
through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast. He's gonna get
all the glory and salvation. I guarantee you that. For we are his workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto
good works. If you do anything that God will
accept, it's accepted in Christ, and he ordained, listen, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Are you
gonna get any glory out of that? If you ever know him, you won't
want any. Not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy name give glory.
Now after hearing that passage of scripture, answer me this,
does God save us because we do something or do we do what we
do because God saves us? We love much because we've been
forgiven much. We believe, we worship, we love,
we serve because of what he did for us. What did he do for us? It's very simple. Titus 2.13,
Paul said, I'm looking for that blessed hope and the glorious
appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who
gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity. Now that's what he died for,
not to give you a chance. He died to redeem you, and he
either did that or he didn't do that. That he might redeem us from
all iniquity, he died to redeem his people. and purifying to
himself a peculiar people. That doesn't just mean we're
strange, although we probably are. That means we're his. That signifies ownership. A peculiar
people, zealous of good works. So what's my status now before
God? I come to him destitute of wealth
and position and honor and everything good. What's my status now? I
came to him destitute. Any influence or wealth or position
or honor. But listen, in Christ Jesus,
I am infinitely rich. Listen to Philippians 4.19, but
my God shall supply all your need according to his riches
in glory by Christ Jesus. I am nothing, I have nothing,
I can do nothing, and Christ is all. All my need, physical,
temporal, spiritual, eternal, Jesus Christ is made to me, all
I need, all I need. That's worth singing, isn't it?
Listen to Ephesians 1.3, blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places, All of them, all of them. Every good thing
that God can do for a sinner is mine in Christ. And that doesn't mean I have
Christ and so I have a bunch of other things. It means that
I have Christ and so I have everything. He is every spiritual blessing. He's my righteousness. He's my
hope. He's my sin offering. He's everything. Influence, do I have any influence
with God now in Christ? You know, love is the greatest
influencer. If somebody has some influence
with me, they either have power over me or I love them. And that
is their power over me. But that's the greatest, love
is the greatest influencer. It's why God does what he does
in salvation, isn't it? For God so loved that he gave
his only begotten son. It is why we do what we do for
God now. Faith worketh by love, not by
law. Position, what position do I
hold in the sight of God now? Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. Can you think of a higher position
than that? To be his son. Therefore the world knoweth us
not because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, right now. If you believe on Christ, if
you know him, if you bow to him, If he saved you right now, you're
God's son. And it does not yet appear what
we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear, we'll be
like him for we'll see him as he is. What's our position before
God? Well, we're that dead dog Mephibosheth. When David fetched Mephibosheth
and he said, I'm gonna have mercy on you. And Mephibosheth said,
who am I that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as
I am? But you know what he says to
us? You're gonna sit at my table from now on. You're gonna sit
at the king's table and I'm gonna do everything for you. That's
our position. Honor, do we have any honor?
Listen, integrity and beliefs and actions. Paul said in Philippians
3.3, for we're the circumcision which worship God in the spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.
What do you believe, Paul? Verses seven through nine of
that same chapter, he said this, everything I am and have done
is done and Christ is all. That's integrity and belief in
doing. I abandon everything I've ever
done. Christ is my righteousness. What do you do then, Paul? Verses
12 through 14 of that chapter. I'm running to Christ just as
fast as I can. Oh, may God make it so that we
might be found in Christ, not having our own righteousness,
which is of the law, but the righteousness which is through
the faithfulness of Christ Jesus, the righteousness which is of
God by faith in him.