The Widow's Mite

<p><!--block--><b>Narrator 00:00:</b><br>You're listening to a podcast by Lance Lambert Ministries. For more information on this ministry, visit <a href="https://www.lancelambert.org/">lancelambert.org</a>.<br>In this episode, Lance shares from Mark 12 about the poor widow who put two coins in the temple treasury and how this was the fulfilment of vindication of all God’s dealings with Israel. This message is cut off at the end, but it is still a good one. Let’s listen.</p><p><!--block--><b>Lance Lambert 00:25:</b><br>Might we turn to Mark chapter 12. Gospel according to Mark, and chapter 12. A very small, simple thought in my heart today.<br><br>Mark 12:41, "And he [Jesus] sat down over against the treasury, and beheld how the multitude cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a poor widow, and she cast in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, This poor widow cast in more than all they that are casting into the treasury: for they all did cast in of their superfluity; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living."<br><br>I don't know whether any one of you ever feels sort of unnoticed, insignificant, unworthy, the kind of person who has no influence, you aren't able you feel to influence the course of events, you're not even able to influence, you may feel, the course of a company such as this. You just feel that you are quite insignificant. Oh, you recognise the fact that God has saved you, that you are a child of God, that you have been born of his Spirit, that you're in a covenant relationship to God. That you recognise. That's a settled matter, you don't doubt that, but it is the fact of your value, of your value. You ask yourself, "What is my life worth? Is there any real value in my life at all? I can't preach. I can't go as some great servant of the Lord to the end of the earth. I have no great organising abilities. I haven't got great wealth from which I could support and help the work of God and the people of God. What really is the value in my life?" You feel that somehow or other if you were removed altogether, there would hardly be a ripple. Maybe they'd have a funeral service for you. And they would sing one or two of your favourite hymns. And then when they'd buried you, (if you were done decently and not cremated) then when you had been buried, it's all over, and the company would go on precisely as it always had done. Not a ripple, not a murmur. You counted so little up, you feel.<br><br>Now this little widow was precisely like that. She counted for nothing in the eyes of the world. She had lived her life, and as far as we can see, was finished. We don't know what happened to her husband. She's called a widow, so evidently he had died. We don't know how he died. We don't know what had happened to her family, whether there were any children that were alive, or whether they'd all died it as well. All we know is that we have one poor widow, and what could a poor widow do in her day? She had no influence. She was not a member of the Sanhedrin. She couldn't sit with the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders. She had no vote to cast in all the affairs which finally settled the course of events amongst the people of God. She wasn't able to stand up in the temple and prophesy, or give some great discourse. She hadn't even got the money by which she could influence people, or help people, or even have the inward satisfaction that her money was keeping things going, that in some way or another she was giving something that was substantial, that was helping. In our day, we would think of sort of giving a printing press, or to some work overseas, or something which would really be a substantial, material, concrete help to the work of God there, or maybe build a hospital or build a leprosarium, or provide the necessary equipment, and so on. But she couldn't do any of that. In her own day, the things that were needed, she had no money at all. She was truly someone who was unnoticed, insignificant, unknown, without any influence or power. And I don't suppose that of all those people who swept up to the Treasury, and more than some gave, I don't suppose an all those who swept up to the Treasury and gave anyone would have ever noticed this little lady when she came up.<br><br>What she did not know was that she alone, that day, was the vindication of all God's dealings with his people. She had no idea that on her farthing depended so much. Because I suppose most people who read this story, they read it as a wonderful little story, perhaps they even read it as a sentimental story, rather sweet, the Lord's care for some poor little widow. Well, thank God. God does care for the widow, and for the orphan. He cares for all of us, but it's much more than that because this is set in that section of the gospel, where the final cleavage came between Jesus and the nation, between Jesus and the establishment, between Jesus and the temple, between Jesus and the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. And the whole of this chapter 12 is all to do with that last, great confrontation. The Gospels tell us that Jesus had said, just after this, he turned around and said, "Your house is left unto you desolate." He didn't even call it "My father's house." He said, "Your house is left unto you desolate, you shall no more see me, until you say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." In fact, if you look at verses 38, 39, and 40, Mark doesn't tell us much about it, but of course, Matthew gives us the whole of this message in Matthew 23. It is that most terrible denunciation that the Lord Jesus ever pronounced upon religion, upon all that is merely formal and traditional and institutional. "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" We have that in Matthew 23. We just have a little intimation of it in verses 38, 39, and 40, and we read in verse 40, "They that devour widow's houses." And Mark, with consummate skill, then takes us from, "Those that devour widow's houses ..." to one of those widows. God had come to his people, and had looked everywhere for fruit, everywhere for fruit. In this chapter 12 in the first 12 verses, that is the parable, which the chief priests and the scribes and elders saw that he spoke against them. He spoke of a vineyard and the owner coming and saying, "Why doesn't it yield fruit?" And then he said, and he sent another one, digged a pit and fertilised it and everything. You remember the story how he sent his servants and they beat them up, and finally he said, "I will send my son because they surely will take note of him," but the son they killed. And the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees, they realised that Jesus was speaking against them. What was it? God was looking for fruit. He's searching eyes of fire looked behind all the outward ritual, all the outward form, all the marvellous meetings, all the sacrifice of animals that was going on that very moment, his eyes of fire had looked behind it all. Looking what for? Not leaves, not profession, he looked for fruit. He looked, as it were, to see whether the real thing was there, and whenever he looked, all he found was empty phraseology, empty ceremonies, formalism, traditionalism, institutionalism. The heart of the matter was not there. There was no real love for God, no real devotion for God, nothing like that. Except for this one, little lady. And she became that day, the vindication of all God's dealings. It was it Satan could have come to God and said, "Ha! See! These people who are in covenant relationship to you, these people, you've laboured for so long over, these people whom you given your word, your promises, the covenants, these people look at them, see what I done to them. I've made them just an empty facade. I have more power amongst them, and in them, than God, than you!" That one little lady, without realising it, was that day the vindication of God. She represented the godly remnant amongst the people of God. She&nbsp; represented what was true and righteous and good and loving and compassionate in the people of God, there were just a few, there was a remnant of Israel. And that day, she represented that she was the vindication of all God's dealings, "Jacob I have loved". In that day, Jacob stood before him, before God, before Jesus, in the person of that little widow.<br><br>Now, you must understand, we all have the wisdom of hindsight. She was totally unaware of it. And if I know anything about the devil, my, what a battle she must have gone through. He must have said to her, "You're taking that long, dusty journey up to the temple just to throw in your farthing? My dear, hang on to it. Does God want to see you starve? I mean, you're so silly. All right, all right, you're bent on going. Very well then, why don't you give half? Keep back half for yourself." But she threw in her whole living. Not a single mite, not a fraction of the little that she had did she keep for herself. Oh, there are many other ways the devil could have got her. Having lost the battle on the fact that she was going to give it, perhaps then he said to her, "My dear, what do you think your farthing is going to do? It could only buy two sparrows!! Who wants to buy two sparrows? Haven't they got enough gold there? My dear woman, before you give, sit down and watch and see what they're putting in. Can't you see all that gold? that silver? all that money that's pouring into the coffers? Do you think that your little farthing means anything at all? Do you really believe that it's going to be noticed by anybody? that even God himself is going to take account of a farthing? Why! My dear! The cattle on 1000 hills belongs to God, all the silver and the gold belongs to him. Keep your farthing! You need it more than God." But she took no notice.<br><br>She had the determination of spiritual character. She wasn't going to be put off by anything. It wasn't obstinacy, some people's obstinacy sometimes appears to be the kind of determination God wants. He doesn't want it at all. The same people who can be obstinate that way can be a dreadful nuisance to God, and in the work of God. This was another kind of determination. It was something that had been put into her, born in her by the Spirit of God. She got there in the end. I suppose she often went there once a week, I don't know when she got paid or when she got her little living, but she got there. We don't know whether she even recognised Jesus, or even saw him. All we know is that she went up to that Treasury, and whether she hesitated for a moment or not, we don't know. But it says, "Of her want, she cast in all her living". The fact of the matter is this: God was there. And upon that little action, upon that one woman that day, at that point in time, the whole vindication of God was dependable. She didn't fail him. By the grace of God, she didn't fail him.<br><br>Now we shall all meet her one day. There's lots of people who want to see Isaiah, and John, and Peter, and all these other big names. But you know, some of these unnamed one, I think, will be as interesting characters as any of the big people. Just think of it, we'll be able to ask, "You, you," whatever her name was, Rebecca, or Hannah, or whatever it was, Sarah, "you, ah, yes, of course I've read about you many times in the Bible." And as far as heaven is concerned, she meant as much as one of the big apostles.<br><br>Now all that brings us down to one simple little lesson, and it is, really, perhaps threefold.<br><br>First of all, it is to be conscientious, to be true, at all times. How easy it is to be conscientious, to be true, seemingly with others watching us. Many of us get caught out that way. God doesn't look upon your sweet face here in the meeting and say, "What a dear sweet person that one is". He sees you exactly, he sees your same face at home. He sees it in the bedroom. He sees it in the kitchen. He sees it in the office. God isn't taken in. It is not as it God's sort of can be deceived by people. As soon as they come out, they put on a show. God sees what's inside. And sometimes when we least realise it, God is present, watching. She didn't know that God was there. It was secret, hidden, conscientious service.<br><br>We used to have an old brother in this company called Jack Rees around the patriarchs of [unintelligible]. And he again and again used to get up and used to speak about lily work, what he called lily work. Well, all of us who remember him all remember, we know exactly what lily work is. But he was speaking about the lilies that were carved on top of the pillars in the temple, on the top of the pillars, facing upwards to the ceiling. And he used to say, "Isn't it extraordinary, that all that beautiful lily work was carved there when no one saw it, only God?" And then he used to speak about lily work. The need for the lily work in our lives, which only God sees, no one else sees. Secret, hidden conscientiousness.<br><br>One day, a young lad with a lot of mischief in him, was out keeping the sheep and the goats. And suddenly a servant came to him and said, "Your dad wants you." And I have no doubt that he probably thought "Oughh". He was the youngest of a very large family, and probably the cheekiest if we read the record, but he went. He was keep[ing the sheep]. Supposing he'd been mucking about, supposing he had left the sheep, supposing on the day of his visitation, he hadn't been there when the servant came, but he was there. He was keeping his father's sheep. And that day he was anointed king of Israel by the old prophet Samuel. It was David.<br><br>Or I think of another young man in his teens, in occupied territory, threshing out the wheat in a cave, so that the Midianites who had occupied the land could not see it. He was doing a job. He could have left it to his mum. It was normally women's work to thresh wheat in the old days. He could have left it to his mum, or his aunts, or his sisters, but he was conscientious, and it was dangerous work, and so he did it. He had no idea that it was the day of his visitation. Suddenly, someone said, "Oh, thou mighty man of valour." And he looked around to see who they were talking about. "You," said the angel, "you shall deliver." "Oh, no," said the young man, "Give me a sign". And he asked for two signs, which were fulfilled. It was Gideon.<br><br>Or I think of Moses, who'd been brought up in there in Pharaoh's household, given an education and was no small personality, or man with no small position. 40 years he'd been out when he'd fled from Egypt, in the desert, right out in the mountains there of southern Sinai, and he was on the job. When the day, the greatest day of his visitation came, he saw a thorn bush burning, and the bush burnt with fire, and the bush was not consumed. You see these people were all doing their job conscientiously. Oh, people are always sort of expecting that if they can get to some big meeting or some big convention, suddenly, there'd be a flash of light, and an angel will say, "Rise up, thou great one. You shall deliver Europe. You shall deliver England." You know we've all got these great ideas about how it's gonna happen and we think, "I must be there, I must be there," especially if there's been blessing at that convention, or at that meeting, I must be there. But very, very rarely does it come at that point. Again and again and again, it's in the normal routine. When we're doing a job that we should be doing, and we're doing it conscientiously, that God breaks in. It's the day of our visitation. I'll never forget that. God is not taken in by either our emotionalism or our, sort of, when we're "up". We're "up" and [he's] going to catch us on one of the "up times". No, not God. He is not taken in by that kind of thing at all. God sees us, where we are, and what we are, and he waits.<br><br>That's one of the great things, I think, we can learn about this woman. I could go on and on through the Bible into the New Testament about others who were getting on with their job, just doing the job. I often think, as you remember, in our studies in Mark of the of the water carrier. Oh, dear little man, we don't know his name. Now, it was always the women's work to carry water in the ancient world. And so it was really an awful thing for this poor old boy to be carrying water. Can you hear them all say, "Oh, old So-and-So". But there came a day when Jesus said to His disciples, "You shall see a man carrying water," it was such a strange sight, you see.We're all so used to tap water, we don't realise there were hundreds of people that would be carrying water. But he said, "You shall see a man carrying water. Follow him! When you come to where he goes, say to the master of the house, 'the Master wants to eat Passover here.'" Well, he wasn't dilly dallying, the man. He wasn't having a cup of Turkish coffee somewhere. He was on duty right on time.<br><br>I've often thought about the man who left his donkey. When the Lord said, "You will find a donkey there just, if anyone asks, say, "The Lord hath need of thee. The Lord hath need of it." It's amazing, isn't it? These people we don't know, we know there were very big things dependent on it. Very big things were dependent on it. <br><br>She did not know that God was there that day. She may have been 1000 times and this is the thing about God, she may have been 1000 times to that Treasury in her life. And on that one single occasion, God met her. And in many ways, her place in the economy of God, her place in the Kingdom of God, her place in the throne of God was all dependent upon her faithfulness that one day.<br><br>Then again, I just like to point out that she gave all, not half, not two thirds, not 95%. There are some Christians who seem to think that they've given a dreadful amount, and they've given 95%. That they should sort of have a plaque put up on the wall to commemorate the fact that they've given so much. She didn't give 95%. She gave all. Furthermore, for her in many ways, it probably meant much, much more than to those who had much. Jesus said, "of their superfluity they gave." In other words, they had great income. They had lambs that were bringing in money all the time. And if they want to just, as it were, pour in a bit, well they might have to have a little difficulty that week, but by next week all would be well. But she, what did she live on for the week? What did she do? for it was her whole living. Now you remember the two sparrows were bought for the farthing. That's as far as it went. The poor used to have a sort of little bit of protein added to their diet by buying a sparrow or two and making it last through the week. She cast in all she had.<br><br>Now here's another point, I do believe God will never be vindicated by those who give a little, or those who give half, or those who give two-thirds. I'm sorry, not even 95%. God will only ever be vindicated by those who give all. And it doesn't matter where you look in the Bible. It is the all. The price that God will never come down on. Never. Jesus gave all. God gave all in giving Jesus. She gave all. Mary with her alabaster cruise, she gave all her savings. It's not just a question of money. It's a spirit, isn't it? Someone once said, "If you haven't got a man's purse, you haven't got a man." Think of that you wives. You haven't got a man's purse, you haven't got the man. It's perfectly true. Because in the end, money, though it is a just a small thing is a very big indication of our heart's attitude. Now, when we're really sold out to God, when we're lock, stock, and barrel bought out, then the question of money falls into its place. I don't think that we have to give up all the money we've got, just like that. It's a question of whether we are the owners, or whether we're the stewards. I know that C.T. Studd, the Lord bless him because through it I was saved, gave up his whole fortune in one week. But I've known others who faced the same issue and didn't give up their fortune, but invested it, and in the end, gave far, far more than ever C.T. Studd did. For the simple reason, it's a question of whether you are given, and in some cases, God says, "Everything," as he did with CT, and in other cases, "Now you be a steward." But the principle is the same. We can never be the vindication of God until we have given all.<br><br>Now maybe you feel like this poor widow. You don't have any influence. You don't have any power. You can't sort of dictate the course of events. But dear child of God, it's your spirit that God looks for. It's your spirit that God looks for whether you have given yourself first to God, and then to the people of God, to the work of God. First to the Lord, then to his people.<br><br>The third little thing, I just want to point out to you, which is surely the marvel of grace. "She hath cast in more than all they that are casting into the treasury this day." Now how on earth, by any means, can a farthing be more than a shekel? a talent of gold or silver? By this world's standards, a farthing remains a farthing. Oh, we can get sentimental about her giving, we can sort of almost weep over her sacrifice, but we have to be honest. A farthing is a farthing. And a talent of gold is a talent of gold, and a talent of silver is a talent of silver. That's this world's way of judging, not Heaven's. From Heaven, that woman cast in a fortune. If she'd been a kind of Mrs. Paul Getty, and had flung in millions that day, it could not have had more effect upon heaven. I can imagine that it kind of reverberated in Heaven round and round it went, "Have you heard?" Oh, the very day that Jesus severs the link between God and the temple, that very day, this one little woman, she has become the vindication of all God's ways and dealings with his people. More than them all, more than them all. Oh, I think we could think about that illustrated again and again and again and again, more than they all, one farthing.<br><br>I remember a little lady that had a great influence on me years ago, when I was in a Baptist church. She was a totally insignificant woman in every single way. She used to wear a little green hat, I well can see her in my mind's eye now, that looked just like a cozy, a tea cozy. She never changed her hat in all the years I can remember her. She had short hair cut gray. She was nothing much, neither to look at, nor in background, nor in any other way. But when I went to Egypt, of all the people I knew there, this funny little old lady, God bless her, she wrote every single fortnight in the whole two years we were overseas. And her letters were marvellous. Absolutely marvellous. They weren't particularly beautifully written, but they were all "newsy" things about the weather, or what was going on, and how this baby had come, and So-and-So was sort of looking dewy eyed at So-and-So, and so on, and what was happening. No one else ever wrote like that. She cheered me up no end. Oh, how she cheered me up. When I came back, and I was telling someone who happened to be the treasurer of this very big place. He said to me, "She is a most remarkable woman. She is 70 years of age, and when she should be taking it easy, she goes along to the hospital as an orderly. And she also takes another job on in the evenings charting in offices. And with all the money she earns, she gives every single penny to three particular missionaries." She did it right up to the day she died. It wasn't a lot. It was only a few pounds. For that few pounds she worked hard. But I always thought of her as the poor widow, who she was, who cast in all the living she had. I am perfectly sure that one day in the kingdom of God, such people will be known, and honored, and rewarded.<br><br>I can tell you story after story of other cases of people who gave their farthing. I think of C.T. Studd, as you well know, most of you, he was a mural. He was called by one doctor, "A museum of diseases." Come back from China and India, a museum of diseases. Finished. And no one liked C.T. Studd, he was far, far too outspoken. He belonged to that class of person who could just say things without fear. And he did! When he wrote that parody on "Onward Christian Soldiers," that parody, "Onward chocolate soldiers marching as<em> from</em> war." Evangelical circles never forgave him. When he stood up in Cambridge, [unintelligable]. When he stood up in Cambridge and said, "Don't bother about your heads. It's your body God wants, your heart. Any old cabbage will do for a head." They didn't like it. Not the fellows, the students they enjoyed it. Oh, evangelical circles, they didn't like it. "Don't say that kind of thing." C.T. Studd when he left all, when he heard that call, and said, "Well, if no one else will go, I'll go," and God said, "Right, you go," and C.T when. He had cast in all the living he had. There was nothing more that he could give. His body a museum of diseases, he himself old enough really to retire, his wife also ill with heart trouble, he went back to Africa. And on that boat, God said to him, "This is not just for the heart of Africa. This is for the whole unevangelized world. His farthing became a fortune.<br><br>Saint Francis Xavier heard the call of God to go to China. He went in something like 1500 and something, and as near as he could get to China was a little island off the mainland coast. He got typhoid fever and was dying. And he asked them to carry him out onto a rocky part of the island where he could see the mainland. And he said what is my life worth? I've come all this way because God has called me to China. What is my life worth? And he died. But you know God has taken note of that. It's not a death unto death, it's a death unto glory. Oh, we could tell you story after story of believers' farthings. Everything they had, given. And it has become the vindication of God. May God help us. It doesn't matter how unnoticed we are, or how unworthy we appear. God help us.<br><br>I'll end with one last story, that dear little soul, Mrs. Cowie. She'd been a missionary most of her life in India. Her passion was India. She lived India. India was in her blood. She prayed day and night for India. But she had got this into her head that two's prayer is better than one, and that you can't get things done unless you get two. She used to sit at the window of her place and watch for anyone going by, woe betide any saint. It got round after a while, and most of them avoided going in front of her house. For out she would come and say, "Give a few minutes for India, dear," and in they would go. Once she got so desperate because no one was around that she went to the conference centre on her own she was living just little way away. And Lady Ogle, was at that time in charge. I remember the story that Lady Ogle herself told me. Very, very busy. She [Mrs.Cowie] knocked on the door, and Lady Ogle came. She said to Lady Ogle, "Do you think you could give a few moments for India? I can't find anyone." So they went, but they couldn't find any room spare. And Lady Ogle said to me, "In the end, we went into the broom cupboard. And there," she said, "we had one of the most wonderful times of prayer I can ever remember." It was Miss Cowie's farthing. Just before she died, she came into contact with Bakht Singh. And she said to Lady Ogle, "That's the man. My whole life's prayer has been for that. That's the man." Her farthing became a fortune.<br><br>I said I've finished, well I must finish. I could tell you the story of Margaret Barber, who went out to China as a missionary, as you know, with the, well I won't tell you which mission, and then due to jealousy amongst missionaries, got accused of adultery and was sent back home here in disgrace. She of course had never done anything of the kind. She went to Handley Moule, that godly man, bishop Handle Moule, and told him the whole story. And he said, "You must return to China."<br><br>"But how can I return to China?" she said,<br><br>"Well," he said, "who called you?"<br><br>"God called me,"<br><br>"Then," he said, "God will provide for you won't he?" <br><br>"Yes," she said, and so she went back to China to what was called the Anchorage near Fuzhou, and there she spent the rest of her life in prayer for China. Just in the last few years before she died, she had a circle of students from the university in Fuzhou who used to come for her Bible circle. One of them was Watchman Nee. <br><br><b>Narrator 44:05:</b><br>May you be one who gives God all you have. May you know the deep, deep love of Jesus.<br><br></p>