Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. In Matthew, or excuse me, in
Mark chapter 12, beginning in verse 41, we read, 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 in more than they all. 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. The widow's two mites. Now when that poor widow woman
cast in those two mites, which was an insignificant amount,
but it was all she had, how much did she have left? Absolutely nothing. She had nothing left in her account. And the Lord's assessment was
that she gave the largest gift. Now some of those people may
have cast in $1,000, $10,000. She cast in a dollar. Well, which
gift is the largest, $10,000 or $1? Well, it depends on what
they had left over after they gave the gift. Now I have heard
preachers use this to actually scold people about giving. It's not what you give, it's
what you have left over that proves the reality of your gift.
How does that make you feel? guilty, guilty. Nobody feels
like they gave as much as they should, but that is wrong use
of the scripture in the first place, trying to use the scripture
to manipulate someone and to get them to do something. That
is not the purpose of scripture. That's not the purpose of this
narrative. This is not the Lord scolding
his disciples about giving or what they had left over. What this is more than anything
else is a portrait of faith. If you want to know what saving
faith is, that faith which is the gift of God, the faith that
saves, we have a beautiful portrait of that in this woman giving
her two mites. Now, we read where many that
were very rich cast in much. They gave large gifts. And I think it's interesting
that the scripture points out that the Lord beheld how the
people cast money into the treasury. He beheld how they did it, not
how much, but how they did it, what their motive was. Now, without question, there
is something taught about giving in this passage. And giving is
a very important issue. Giving says something about my
love for the Lord. Giving says something about my
trust in the Lord. Now, I always feel somewhat awkward
Talking about giving, by the way, preachers have abused it.
When you hear preachers begging people for money so they can
do God's work and trying to get people to give toward their,
quote, ministries and so on, that is unclean. And if a man
is begging you for money, he doesn't have any faith. I'm not
going to beg you for money. If the Lord doesn't provide the
money, I don't want to do it anyway. And I'm certainly not
going to beg a man for money. I think it's shameful the way
preachers do that. Even when preachers say, you
know, help us in this ministry, support this. No, you don't ask
man for anything. you look to the Lord to provide
the means. But that does not mean that this
issue of giving is not very important. Now let me give you what I believe
the scripture teaches with regard to this thing of giving. First, giving is a grace. II Corinthians 8.7 says, Therefore
as you abound in everything, in faith, in utterance, in all
knowledge, in all diligence, in your love to us, see that
you abound in this grace also. Now, giving is a grace given. If you can give, it's because
God gave you the grace to give. It's just like faith. Faith is
called the gift of His grace. Well, giving is called the gift
of His grace. It's a grace that comes from
God, this thing of giving. Now, the second scriptural word
with regard to giving is love. II Corinthians 8.8 says, I speak
not by commandment, but by the occasion of the forwardness of
others, and to prove the sincerity of your love. If you love somebody,
you love to give to them. That's the definition of love. Love is giving. God so loved
the world that he gave. And if you love your wife, you
love to give things to her. You love your children, you love
to give things to them. You love the Lord. It's your
great privilege, the gift of His grace, to give toward Him.
Now, the next word that's important to understand in this thing of
giving is willing. Willing. 2 Corinthians 8, 12
says that there be first a willing mind. Now, if you're not willing
to give, don't give. Let me say this real clearly. God doesn't want anything from
you that you don't give willingly. You see, it's not like he needs
anything you have anyway. God's got plenty of money. He
doesn't need your gifts. He doesn't need you to support
his work. He says the cattle on a thousand
hills are mine. If I was hungry, I wouldn't tell
you about it. God is rich and he doesn't need
what you have. So if you can't give willingly
because you want to, don't give. If there'd be first a willing
mind. Now the next word is proportion.
Listen to this scripture. 1 Corinthians 16.2 says, upon
the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in
store as God hath prospered him. And that's how you give as God
has prospered you. Now, a lot of people try to teach
tithing. Let me say this, tithing is paying
the bill. It's an Old Testament law, and Paul doesn't say give
10%. He says, give as God has prospered
you. I won't tell anybody what to
give, but I will say this, you give as God has prospered you. Now, the next word that is very
important is everyone. Let every one of you buy him
in store. Now, don't think, well, I'm going
to just wait for the people with more money to give. No, you give.
You give. Don't wait for somebody else
to give. You give. It's important for everyone to
give. You say, well, I don't have much
to give. Well, neither did the widow with too much. She didn't
have much. But look what the Lord said about her gift. He
said, she gave more than all, let everyone give. And the next
word would be bountifully or liberally and generously. 2 Corinthians
9, 6, he which soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly, but he
that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully. Give generously. Oh, it's so beautiful to see
a generous person as opposed to a stingy, grasping, covetous
person. Give generously. And then the
next scriptural word is give cheerfully. Second Corinthians
9, 7 says, Every man according as he purpose in his heart, so
let him give not grudgingly or of necessity. For God loveth
a cheerful giver. One who enjoys giving, not one
who's simply giving out of duty or because it's a law that's
placed upon him. He gives cheerfully. God loveth
a cheerful giver. And the eighth word with regard
to giving is remember this, as unto the Lord. Not to pay the
bills, as unto the Lord. Colossians 3.23 says, Whatsoever
you do, do heartily as to the Lord, and not to men. You give
as unto the Lord. And the ninth word is forget
not. This is found in the book of
Hebrews, but to do good and communicate or give, forget not. For with such sacrifices, God
is well pleased. Forget not. Now, the Lord said
it is more blessed to give than to receive and what a blessing
it is to give. And the Lord noticed how these
people gave. He noticed the motive. He noticed
the attitude. He noticed the generosity. He noticed how these people gave. He saw the cheerfulness. He saw
the willingness. He noticed how these people gave. Now, let me remind you, God doesn't
need your money. You got plenty of money. He doesn't
need your money, but what a blessing of grace it is to be privileged
to give. And the Lord was watching these
people throw their money into the treasury. And the scripture
says, many that were rich threw in much. I don't know how much
is, but it was a lot. Now, the Lord looks at what this
widow gave And it was just two mites. And he said, she gave
more than the ones who threw in such great riches. Now, giving out of abundance. I think
of the richest men in the world. I read where there are five men
in this world that are worth over $100 billion. Five men. Now, if these men gave a million
dollars, and that's a big gift. Can you imagine being able to
give a million dollars? But if you take it down to proportion,
that's like someone who has $100,000 giving you a dollar. That's what
that is. So these people that gave much
gave out of their abundance. But this poor widow woman cast
in all that she had. How much was left after her gift? Nothing. Nothing. She out of her want,
not out of her abundance, not out of her riches, but she out
of her want. cast in all her living. She out of her lack, out of her
poverty, after her falling short, she gave out of her want. Now,
this word want, remember the prodigal? When he began to be
in want. That's when he started working
for that citizen of the country, and he would fain have filled
his belly with the husks of the swine. He had nothing. When he began to be in want,
he had nothing. That word is translated coming
short. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That
means you haven't done anything. You've got nothing that measures
up to the glory of God. not a thing. She, out of her
want, out of her absolute nothingness, out of her lack, she cast in
all that she had. Now somebody may say, how can
you give when you have nothing to give? Well, there's only one
way you can believe and trust is when you have nothing to commit
yourself to God. Now, please listen very carefully. You only trust Him when He is
all you have to trust. You don't trust your works. You
don't trust your experience. You don't trust your intentions.
You don't trust your efforts to strive against sin. You don't
trust anything but Him. He is all you have. If you have
anything else, you have never trusted Him. Now, the Lord said,
straight is the gate. It's a very narrow gate. Narrow is the way that leads
to life. Now this gate is so narrow that
if you have anything more than Christ, you won't be able to
get through the gate. The only person who gets through
that gate is the person who all they have is Christ. They don't have any good works
to trust. They don't have any experience to trust. They don't
have any good intentions to trust. They don't have anything about
themselves but sin. That's how they see themselves.
They see themselves as nothing but sin. All they have to trust
is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. They have no personal righteousness.
The only righteousness they have is the righteousness and merits
of Jesus Christ. They have nothing else. The only person who sees Christ
as all, and that's what Scripture says He is. Colossians 3, 11
says Christ is all. And in all, the only person who
sees Christ as all is the person who has nothing of themselves. If you have something, you cannot
believe that Christ is all to you. It is impossible. It was out of her want. It was
out of her destitute. condition that she cast in her
living. Now, if you have anything to
recommend you to God, you exclude yourself. And the second thing
I would notice about this woman's faith, this casting in of the
two mites can be seen as the act of faith itself, casting
this money into the treasury. It's very much like putting money
in a bank. Now, when I put money in a bank,
my daughter takes pictures of checks and sends it to the bank.
I can't do that. I have to go into the bank. I'm
afraid it won't get there. It'll get lost in cyberspace
somewhere. I got to go into the bank. It's
only when I'm in the bank and place my money in the bank that
I feel like it's safe. And you know, when I put that
money in the bank, My hands are off at that point. I'm not worried
about whether or not they keep it. If the bank is safe, I'm
safe. If the bank fails, I fail. But
it's up to the bank, not me. I can't keep that money safe.
I can't keep that money secure. Now, this thing of faith in Christ,
listen to this scripture. 2 Timothy 1.12, Paul, the apostle,
says, I know whom I have believed. He didn't say, I know what I
believed. He said, I know whom. You see, what you believe is
determined by who you believe. I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that
day. Now that word committed is deposited,
entrusted, like you deposit money into the bank and you entrust
the bank to take care of that money. I know whom I have believed
and I'm persuaded. I really believe this. He's persuaded
me and I'm persuaded. I'm persuaded in his ability.
I'm persuaded that He is able to save me with no help from
me. I'm persuaded that He is able
to make me stand before God on judgment day without sin, perfectly
justified. I'm persuaded of that. I'm persuaded
that He is able to keep that which I've committed to Him.
Now, what have you committed to Him, Paul? The entire salvation
of my soul. My hands are off. I'm persuaded
that He is able to keep that which I've committed to Him against
that day. Now, here is my hope. It is finished. That's what the Lord said from
the cross. It is finished. It is completed. There's nothing left for me to
do. It's already been done. All that God requires of me,
He looks to His Son for, nothing else is needed. Now what I think
of when I think of that, I think of the thief. Remember what that
thief said? Lord, remember all the good things
I've done. Lord, remember all the good things
I intend to do. Lord, remember me. Not what I've done. Remember
me when you come into your kingdom so that all that will be needed
to be said on judgment day is he's one of mine. I remember
him. I put away his sin. I gave him
my righteousness. He is complete in me. Oh, the thief said, Lord, remember
me when you come into your kingdom. I have no confidence in anything
I have done or will do. My only hope, not in the fact
that I'm a preacher, my only hope is that when you come back
as a mighty reigning king, you'll remember me and say, he's one
of mine. I died for him. Oh, he's nothing
in himself, but I put away his sins and I gave him my righteousness. Will anything else be needed
other than that? The answer to that question is no. Now, the
next thing I would notice about this dear poor widow is she cast
in all she had. You know what that means? She
had no reserves. She had no plan B. She had no
Swiss bank account with hidden funds. She was left to be completely
dependent upon charity. She had nothing else. She was
made to be completely dependent on the charity of God. She cast in all her living and
she had nothing else. Completely dependent upon the
charity of God. She had no works to hope in.
No experience to hope in. She had nothing in her future
that she hoped she would do. She had nothing in her past that
she was leaning on. Now, the two biggest false refuges
that people have are the past and the future. Look at something
you've done in the past, that's salvation by works. Look at something
you're going to do in the future, that's salvation by works. Those
are false refuges that people have. But oh, this dear woman
had nothing but dependence upon the charity of God. She was like
that leper. Do you remember that leper in
Matthew chapter eight when he came up to the Lord and said,
Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Now it's totally up
to you. Notice he didn't say, I will
accept you making me clean, or I'm going to let you make me
clean. I'm going to accept your offer of being made clean. Nothing
like that that's so foolish in human religion. He said, if you
will, my cleansing, my salvation is utterly, completely, and entirely
in your hands. It's up to you as to whether
or not I will be clean. If you will, you can make me
clean. Now you can leave me to myself
if you will, and just and holy is your name, but if you will,
You can make me clean. Now, the person I thought of
also is Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth. You see, this woman
cast in all she had, all she had to live on, all of her living,
and she's now become dependent upon charity. Mephibosheth. He was the son of Jonathan, David's
friend, and they had made a covenant many years before. Jonathan said,
I know that the Lord's going to make you the king of all of
Israel. And what I want you to do is remember my descendants
in mercy. And they agreed to do that. Years
later, David says, is there any of the house of the Saul that
I can show kindness to for Jonathan's sake? Remember, Saul was his
father. Saul was David's enemy. And David says, is there any
of the house of Saul, my enemy, that I can show kindness to for
Jonathan's sake. He remembered that covenant.
And the servant, Ziba, said, yeah, there's one, but he's not
worth much. His name is Mephibosheth. As
a matter of fact, that name means shameful thing. He's lame in
both of his feet. He was lame through a fall. And
the reason I'm lame and you're lame, sinful, is because of the
fall of our first father. He was lame through a fall, lame
on both of his feet. He won't be any good to you.
He can't work for you. He can't fight for you. All he
can do is be carried. All he can do is be dependent
upon your charity. And David said, go fetch him.
And he told Bathibosheth, you're going to eat bread at my house
continually. Oh, what a blessing. Carried
by the charity of Christ. Now, the Lord said in John chapter
14, verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes
to the Father but by me. Now listen to me. I am totally
dependent, 100% dependent upon Him. I'm dependent upon Him standing
as my surety and taking full responsibility for my salvation.
I'm dependent upon Him to keep the law for me and give His righteousness
to me. I'm completely dependent upon
Him dying for my sins and putting them away and making them not
to be. I'm completely dependent upon
Him to be raised from the dead for my justification. I'm dependent
upon Him to raise me from the dead. dead in sins and give me
spiritual life. I'm dependent upon Him to preserve
me and keep me and bring me into heaven. I am 100% dependent upon
Him to do everything for me. Like that poor widow, I have
nothing. I'm totally dependent upon His
charity. Now, The Lord commended this
woman. He said, she cast in more than
all of the rest of them. You see, faith, and this is what
this is, faith pleases God. Because faith looks to Christ
for everything. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. The Lord was pleased with this
woman. Now, the reason he was pleased
with her is because this woman looked only to Christ. And God
knows that only what Christ does is what he can accept. And this
woman knew that only what Christ has done would God accept. She
was satisfied with the same thing God is satisfied with, Jesus
Christ alone. And this woman gives us a beautiful
illustration of saving faith. To receive a copy of the sermon
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