The Eyes of Christ (Part C)

She wasn't bitter at God because she was a widow and because she was poor. Were she bitter, she wouldn't put nothing in there. Over the years, I've had people tell me, well, I don't have a job right now, Pastor, so I can't tithe.

Is there something I can do? It's not a barter system. You still have money. Put two pennies in. But they can't.

Their pride won't let them. God will let them. God would receive it. Even if it was just, Lord, I don't have any money.

I've got two cents as a token, as a deposit of when things get better, I'll follow up. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Mark.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Today, Pastor Rick will conclude his study, The Eyes of Christ. He'll begin in 1 Corinthians Chapter 7 and then continue in Mark Chapter 12.

1 Corinthians 7, verse 19. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. They wanted to kill him for saying that. They tried, too. They did persecute him. They did hurt him physically. They hurt his ministry. They went in back of him and tried to undo everything he did, so he writes to the Galatians. Are you so foolish, having begun in the flesh and now being made perfect in the Spirit? What is your problem?

Who has bewitched you? Well, it was those people that don't like hearing you say these things to them because they want to feel special. Paul continues, he says, circumcision is nothing, uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters, end quote. And that's what Christ was trying to say to all these other Pharisees, Sadducees. Keeping the commandments of God is what matters. Certain professions, of course, must have credentials and be regulated.

I do not want a Walmart shopper to operate on me. I want it to be someone who has the credentials, who's gone to school, who knows what they're talking about, but when it comes to preaching the truth, the rule book is the scripture. That is the authority.

That's what's meant by sola scriptura. Scripture alone is our authority for life. I am not comfortable with calling a man his eminence. I would yell at the person who called me the right honorable reverend.

He gets out of hand, but then there are those that do it and find they love it. Well, we have his eminence as the pastor of Alflach. Samuel was told something by God that was so important that he wrote it down, so important to God that it was preserved. You know this verse. For Yahweh does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart. God is looking at what's on the inside, not what's up on your wall.

These guys, since they couldn't bring the wall to the people at the marketplace, they brought their robes. You see, I've got the certificate hanging over my desk, which is fine in other professions. Not here.

You cannot arrive. Whatever you receive from God in preaching belongs to him, and you dare not say it's mine. I figured it out.

I didn't need the Holy Spirit. I just, you know, I'm really a smart guy. That would be blasphemous. He says they love greetings in the marketplace, yearning for attention. They had become celebrities. In their minds, they were the somebodies and deserved to be treated as superiors by the common people, and woe to you if you did not do it.

How do we know that? Well, they killed Christ for not doing it. They hated him for daring to dismiss them. This kind of thinking is alive and well in any prideful environment. Credentials are meaningless if the heart is wrong.

2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 12. For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves, but they, measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. In other words, they're fools. We're going around acting like, if I say I'm smarter than you, I got a 90 on the test, you got a 45.

I don't mean pistol. I mean score. And therefore, I'm smarter than you. You're comparing yourself with them. I mean, the people do this who aren't Christian. They say, well, I'm a good person. Well, not next to Christ, you're not. And if you compare yourself with other human beings, you're not wise.

Standard is God. And that in Christ Jesus and the apostles of Jesus Christ did not commend themselves or esteem themselves in their position. But if anybody had the right to say, I am an apostle, it would be the handpicked men of Christ. There were 13, only 13 chosen by Christ that we know of in our scripture. One was disqualified.

And that leaves 12. 12 men could stand and say, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, because God assigned that title to them. In fact, in Revelation, when Christ is talking to the churches, he says, I know you can't tolerate those who say they are apostles and they are not.

And then he went on to say, but I got some trouble with you too. Verse 39, the best seats in the synagogue and the best places at feasts. They wanted a public display.

It wasn't enough. It wasn't enough to nod at them and smile at them and say, oh, a rabbi. So-and-so in the marketplace to have a rabbi sighting. When you had an event, you had to make room for them. They had to have the best seats. This is self-importance, and it had to be paraded and celebrated. And again, these guys carried a big punch.

I don't mean punch bowl. I mean they carried a lot of power, and they could make your life miserable, and that's Christ. We're going to get to that in a minute in verse 40, but before we do, they wanted to be paraded around. Paul writes to the Corinthians, love does not parade itself.

Love is not puffed up. He probably didn't even have these guys in mind because he was so busy dealing with other guys who were doing the same thing. There are many Christians that read these verses and put them on their bumper stickers or whatever. They post them and then trample them. This should make us all shiver a little bit. In verse 40, now Christ is going to point out, this is why I'm saying the things I'm saying to you. And they knew it.

The audience knew it. He says, who devour widows, houses. Are you kidding me? Food, shelter, clothing?

They're going to steal that? And for pretense, make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation. So here's why he's singling them out. In the midst of whatever he was teaching, he singles them out.

It's like he caught a glance at one and it just got him going or something. Just very real, the way it is presented and how it happened. Before I became a Christian, I thought the Bible was just a bunch of like poems or something about what people thought God was. I didn't understand how genuine the experience inside the Bible, how genuine they are, how relative they are. For every generation, no matter what little changes here and there the people may go through, sin is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

It will damn you to a hell that you can't get out of forever. So it had to be said to these men, why is that? Again, they were entrusted with tending the people. They had bullied, they had beaten, and they had bruised the people. And they still wanted to be applauded and be treated as though they were innocent.

And the only one that could really get in their face did it. They corrupted their own court system. For personal gain, you could not get justice with these guys. Not if the other side had something better to offer.

They'd take a bribe very quickly. Luke writes in chapter 7, but the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves. They were above the law. They held people to the law and just not themselves.

C.S. Lewis writes this, he says, of all bad men, religious men are the worst. When religious people are bad, they are super bad.

They feel so justified, they're lying about, oh, it's just a bundle of tragedy. What a witness for hell. Long prayers. Long prayers are hard enough to listen to when they're pretending on top of it.

Oh, man. You know, those preachy prayers that are going to correct you. It's like, can't you just wait for the Holy Spirit to say something to you or don't say anything? It's okay. It's okay if you disagree because he's saying something to me.

He's telling you that you should start saying, no, I'm kidding. I'm having a little fun with that. Listen, I've been in a lot of prayers for decades, and I still get flashbacks of some bad ones from long ago. I was like, ew, that was really tough. I had to intercept that one. Anyway, it's not fun to grab somebody after a prayer and say, listen, I don't know where you got that from, but that's not biblical. And then watch them try to defend it.

It's not fun at all. Anyway, we come back to, we're still in verse 40. And we don't object to him singling them out as impersonators and silencing them. Jesus Christ, the man, the son of God, don't be offended by that description of his humanity. 1 Timothy 2, for there is one God and one mediator between God and Mary ain't her. No offense to Mary.

We've got to be careful. We love her. She is one of the dynamos of Scripture.

And we will not, because others abuse her, we will not abuse her too. But we do want to make it clear that you might as well pray to the goddess Tammuz as well, because you're not supposed to talk to the dead. You're not supposed to talk to anybody but God. If they're not in this life anymore, it is a sin. And if you say, well, I don't like hearing that, then you should go to the church that preaches. It's okay to pray to her, because you ain't going to get a church that upholds the word, because there is one mediator.

Here would have been a good opportunity to say there's two of them, but there's not. And why it's important is because people go to hell over this kind of stuff. You want a pastor to sweep that under the rug and pretend it's not going on because it might offend somebody? Hell's going to be a lot more offensive to you than what I could ever say to you. I'm not saying it as though I'm puffed up.

I have to sound loving when I say these things and not try to tone down the passion some. But I'm not going to say it any other way than reading the scripture. For there is one mediator. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And that is Paul saying he has been here, he was born of a virgin, he walked among us. John said, we saw him, we touched him, we were with him. And you're going to try to come here and tell us that he was a phantom? That's what all 1 John is about.

Telling the Gnostics that what they believe in is man-made? Well, it comes out of hell, but the men were on the assembly line. Christ continues in verse 40, these will receive greater condemnation.

Well, I just alluded to that. There are levels of judgment. Not everybody in hell is going to have the same intensity of hell. Let's take Mao Zedong for a minute.

Deliberately he murdered, he persecuted, he tortured, he starved, brainwashed, estimated 40 to 80 million people. Do you think he's going to have a lesser judgment than a lot of other people? Or stronger judgment? What about those who enrich themselves with the clinics that will murder the unborn?

Do you think they're going to just get off easy if they don't repent in this life and find grace and mercy? What about those who demand celebrating sexual perversity? How does who you have sex with even become a public issue? Homosexuality. They want you to bow down to the practice. It's not enough to say live and let live.

You have to have a whole month to celebrate it. They've created flags and banners and websites and all sorts of stuff trying to jam it down the face of the people. Do you think their judgment is going to go easy on them?

I have to add this. They don't like this. They don't care how much you love them. They want you to bow down. Lot living in Sodom and Gomorrah, Peter said it vexed his soul like it does yours. However, what did Abraham do over Sodom and Gomorrah? He interceded. He tried to save them. He said, what if? He started out with 50 and he gets it until God shuts them down. Okay, 10. That's it.

If I find 10 and he couldn't find 10. We have to remember that we are not to hate them. We are to hate what has happened to them.

We can even hate to some degree what they are doing. But you have to be careful because hell or hate is a fire that can get out of control very quickly. And may our spirit be dominated by love.

We can be passionate and we don't back down from this. Unfortunately for those who reject the gospel, by the time they realize it was not a myth, it was going to be too late. The hell fires will be around them already. Verse 41. Before we go to verse 41, let's read that again at the bottom of verse 40.

These will receive greater condemnation. There is Christ saying there is going to be pain for this. And we have to echo what he teaches. Verse 41. Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury and many who were rich put in much. So here are the eyes of Jesus again. He saw the Pharisees. He saw how they mistreated people. He saw their judgment. And now he sees the treasury. And looking at verse 41, it says now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. Not what they put in. How they did it. Their hearts.

What was happening? Only he could pull this off. He still sits opposite the money boxes in the church and he still sees how the people give. Incidentally, the treasury was located in the temple in the court of the women.

So historians tell us. Verse 42. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites which make a quadrant.

It sounds like she threw insects in the box if you ask me. But she's one of the common people incidentally. This is about an eighth of a cent. He says quadrant because it is for his Roman audience that Mark writes as we mentioned at the beginning of Mark. It is believed he wrote with the Roman people in mind. Those who spoke the Latin and were of that culture. And we get to this by these little clues that are throughout his gospel and that's one of them. If he was writing with knowledge to say a Chinese audience, he would have used a Chinese word for money at this point.

Or if it was German, etc. So the readers go, oh okay that's not really much money she put in there. So others probably gave a tenth. She gives one hundredth.

She gives it all. And you might say, and I've always looked at this and said, yeah well what can you buy with two mites anyway? Thinking that I'm just troubled by that. So she gave all she had but even if she kept it what could she do with it anyway? Well it's a big point that's going to come up from this. And okay I'll just tell you now.

When I do that I get lost and I get back in my head I should have waited. But it's too good of a point I think. She wasn't bitter at God because she was a widow and because she was poor.

Where she bitter she wouldn't put nothing in there. Over the years I've had people tell me, well I don't have a job right now pastor so I can't tithe. This is something I can do. And it's like it's not a barter system. You still have money.

Put two pennies in. But they can't. Your pride won't let them. God will let them. God would receive it. Even if it was just Lord I don't have any money.

I've got two cents as a token, as a deposit of when things get better I'll follow up. But pride gets in the way, I'm not giving God two cents. Why? He took two mites. He did not say to this woman, how dare you put in two mites. He writes her name, well without her name, he writes her down for us through all remaining of, remains of history. The temple would be no better off because of her donation.

They're not going to say, well now we can get that big sofa that we wanted for. There's nothing they could do with her offering. But she would be better off. And she knew it. She was giving because she loved God. That was why she gave and that is how she gave and that is what he picked up on as I saw that and he singles her out now, but not like the Pharisees, as a champion of the faith.

Giving to God benefits us. That's not a sales pitch. You don't believe it?

Fine, don't believe it. But that's not what the scripture teaches. Malachi gets all over that. Cheapskates look for a reason not to give every single time because they're cheap when it comes to others. Believers look for an opportunity to bless God in return, to please him, even if it hurts. That's what sacrifice is all about. David said, I'm not giving anything to God.

It doesn't cost me something. Even though you have the two cents, you don't want to put it in. Spend your pride.

Throw it in there. Go against yourself in honor to the Lord. Talk to him. Tell him about it.

But whatever you do, don't act like it doesn't matter. Of those who have tried to wiggle out like that over the years, I don't know after I tell them, go put anything in there, a nickel, a penny. I don't know if they've ever done it or not. I get the impression always that they haven't, that they were already justifying this behavior and they wanted me to sort of bless it like, oh, well, I understand, brother.

No, I don't understand. The poor were still required to bring turtle doves down to the temple. They were not excused. And it was nothing for them to do.

They could capture them. Anyway, she gave out of a sense of love, of course, real love and duty. Duty runs a little bit deeper than responsibility to me. There's a greater sense of honor belonging to doing your duty. No, I have to do this. And not only am I supposed to do this, I must do this. I am duty bound.

Love is even more intense. And you have love, as Paul spoke of, then duty is wrapped up within it. But anyway, there is no evidence that she was rewarded for this. Of course, someone like Joyce Myers would say she, after that, she got a Cadillac.

Hellish teaching. If she went to her grave the way she went to that treasury box, that would be fine because when she got to heaven, he settled it in her favor. Verse 43.

He called his disciples to himself and said to them, and surely I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury. I see my time is almost up, but I can knock this out. Lord willing, I don't want to sound proud and then get laid out in front of you. It would be like getting knocked out in front of mom.

That would be bad. As a basketball player, Larry Bird would always say stuff to players and he'd say things like, I hope your mom's not watching because I'm going to score a lot on you today. And he'd get in their head.

And it just was amazing. Anyway, she didn't know the Lord was looking, but he was looking. And he still is, as I mentioned before. And that is not to scare you to do what I want you to do. That is just a fact. And I'm not going to withhold that fact if it's uncomfortable or not.

It's just the way it is. And she did not, as I mentioned, know that it was so important to God that he called his disciples, you've got to see this. And he took the time to tell them and they took the time to write it down so we have it forever. How did she put in more as a widow and a pauper? Having nothing, she gave without bitterness. Verse 44. Well, they all put in out of their abundance.

Again, he's talking to his disciples. But she, out of her poverty, put in all she had, her whole livelihood. Why, Lord?

Why? Because she did not hold a grudge against God because life wasn't turning out the way she wanted it to turn out. To not have a husband in those days was really tough on you economically. She's not bitter.

We get bitter at little things like, I didn't get, you know, and I didn't, and I really wanted. And so he links her action to Mark 12-30. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

She carries it out. And this explanation of whose image is on you, Caesar's or God? And she acts on this. She's one of the heroes of the Bible.

You could do a whole topical on this. I do think that churches that beg for money portray God as broke. And I don't think that God should be portrayed that way. I'm not going to spend any more time on this except these two verses. I have really a lot to say about this. I've overbooked. But I feel like the Spirit's saying, you know what, end this, okay?

So that's what I'm going to do. But I have a green light on these two verses. Psalm 50, verse 10, the beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills God's never broke. Philippians 4-12, I know how to be abased.

I've been troubled by this verse a lot. Because I had ice cream last night before bed, four scoops. Because I didn't want to get freezer burn. So I figured, and just in case, I put some pineapples and cherries on top. Anyway.

That's a confession. The doctor said, don't eat and go to sleep. But I find sleep comes better when you eat.

But it didn't last night. Anyway, I know how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere. And in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. And when I'm suffering with something, usually it's mental, you know, not... Usually it's in my head.

And I'm just troubled by something. I just say to myself, suffer. And it helps. It's been helping.

Just suffer instead of trying to wiggle out. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the book of Mark, right here on Cross Reference Radio.