I did choose thee Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neidert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 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 Nyberg. I've entitled the message for
this morning, Me First. I'd like to read a passage of
scripture from 1 Kings chapter 17. I want to read eight or nine
verses, but if you can get a Bible, follow along with me. This is
the story of Elijah being sustained by the widow woman. We read beginning
in verse eight of 1 Kings chapter 17, And the word of the Lord
came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which
belongeth to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded
a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to
Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold,
the widow woman was there gathering of sticks. And he called her
and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water and a vessel that
I may drink. And as she was going to fetch
it, he called to her and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel
of bread in thy hand. 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 cruz. 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. You see, there was a mighty famine
in the land at that time. And Elijah said unto her, 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 it for thee and
for thy son, for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel
of meal shall not waste. Neither shall the cruise of oil
fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according
to the saying of Elijah. And she and her house did eat
many days, a full year. Every day she went to that cruise
of oil and that barrel of meal and food would be there. Not
a year's worth, but just enough for that day. And the barrel
of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil fail according
to the word of the Lord which he spake by Elijah." Now put yourself in this woman's
place. A mighty famine was in the land and she was going to
make a meal, her last meal for her and her son. She was a very
poor woman. She had no one to take care of
her before she was a widow. And she was going to make the
last meal for her and her son. And then as far as she knew,
they were going to die. She didn't see any way out of
this. And the prophet Elijah said to
her when he came to her, Get me some water and make me some
bread or a cake first. Don't worry about you and your
son. You make me a cake first. Me first and after that you will
be provided for. Now how would you respond If
someone said, when you were going to make your last meal for you
and your son before you died, said, you make me meal first. You see, I wouldn't react very
kindly to that, I do not believe. I would say, who are you to say
that to me? I've got to take care of my own.
But she obeyed the prophet. I think it's interesting that
this passage of Scripture has been used by TV preachers quite
a bit. And they have used it in saying, you send me money
first, and then God will give you all these blessings. Now,
those men are crooks that use this Scripture that way. That's
not what this is meant. This is meant to teach us something
of the Gospel. Now, this is a phrase we learn
very early. Me first. How quickly children
use this phrase. Me first. Me first. And this
is the way of life of the natural man. Me first. And from this attitude arises
selfishness, envy, jealousy, strife, ambition, false accusations,
The stirring up of trouble, manipulation and deceit, abuse, suspicion,
using people, dishonesty, lying and stealing, all of this arises
from this attitude, me first. And I suppose that every sin
comes from this attitude of, me first. And you know, this
attitude comes natural to every one of us. Me first. This was Satan's sin. He wanted to exalt himself above
the throne of God. His attitude was that of, Me
first. This was in the sin of our first
parents in the garden. Me first. We want to be equal
with God. We don't want to be under His
thumb. Me first. This is the cause of every conflict. Me first. And this woman was
like you and I by nature. Me first. So what did she feel? What did she think when the prophet
said, you make something for me first and then go make something
for yourself? I'm sure that I would have felt
indignation at that request. I want to say this as reverently
as I know how to say it. But God says, Me first. God says, Me first. With regard to everything, it's
Him first. Our Lord said in Matthew chapter
6 verse 33, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all these other things shall
be added to you. Don't get into that trap of always
being concerned about what shall we eat, what shall we drink,
whither withal shall we be closed. After these things do the Gentiles
seek. Your Father knoweth that you have need of these things,
but seek ye first the Kingdom of God, the King of the Kingdom,
His glory, His honor, obedience to him. This is the divine order. God knows what our needs are
and he will not suffer us, not allow us to suffer for seeking
first his kingdom. Now is only in this way the poor
widow giving to Elijah first that she was going to be supplied
miraculously for all of her needs. Now, when this woman was gathering
up sticks to dress the meal for her last meal, she had no idea
that God had commanded her to take care of Elijah. But God
did command her to take care of Elijah. We read in verse 9
where God said to Elijah, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which
belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded
a widow woman there to sustain thee. Now, she didn't know anything
about it, but God had already made this commandment. You see, the Lord was secretly
and powerfully working in her heart making her willing to comply
to the Prophet's command. Psalm 110.3 says, Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. Philippians 2.12 and
13 says, It's God that worketh in you, both to will and to do
His good pleasure. God is always at work, and He
was at work in this woman's heart, making her willing to obey the
Prophet even before she knew anything about it. I think it's
interesting that the Lord Jesus Christ in his earthly ministry
uses this woman that Elijah came to as a way of illustrating divine
sovereignty. I'd like to read you a passage
from Luke chapter 4 where our Lord was speaking and he had
been speaking and some people said, is not this Jesus? He's
no more than a carpenter. They were offended his sayings
and his claims and they were upset. And the Lord uses this
woman to illustrate divine sovereignty when he saw those people didn't
believe. He said this, barely, I say to you, no prophet is accepted
in his own country. But I tell you of a truth. Many
widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven
was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was
throughout all the land. But unto none of them was Elijah
sent. All of these widows in Israel,
God didn't send Elijah to one of them to preserve them. He
only sent Elijah to Sarepta, a city of Sidon, a Gentile woman,
a Gentile city, unto a woman that was a widow. Now, what is
meant by sovereign? What do I mean when I speak of
the sovereignty of grace? And the Lord uses this woman
as an illustration of the sovereignty of divine grace. Well, sovereign
means this. God is God. He's sovereign. He's uninfluenced. He's independent. He has a will. He has the power
to make his will come to pass. He has the right to make his
will come to pass. And He always does make His will
come to pass. Daniel 4.35 says, He doeth according
to His will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth, and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What
doest thou? His sovereignty is seen in creation
when He willed this world into existence. His sovereignty is
seen in providence. That's everything that happens
in time. He's in control of. There is absolutely nothing that
He's not in control of. He is the first cause behind
all things. He's God. He rules. He reigns. To say God is sovereign
is to say God is God, and He's most especially sovereign in
salvation. You know who's saved? Whoever
he wills to be saved. That's the truth. Salvation is
of the Lord. He said, As the Father raises
the dead and quickens them, even so the Son quickens whom He will. If I'm saved, it's because He
willed my salvation. And according to God's will,
all of these widows in Israel were passed by. And he sent his
prophet to this Gentile woman who was a widow, and he saved
her. It works like this. I want to
read a passage from Romans 9, verse 11. It says, for the children,
talking about Jacob and Esau, twins, born, same parents, came
out of the same womb. For the children, being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God, according to election, might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved,
and Esau have I hated. Those are God's words. And remember
this, God's hatred is not like our hatred. It's a perfect hatred.
It's a hatred with regard to holiness and righteousness. That's
what causes his hatred. He loves holiness. He loves righteousness. And he hates that which is contrary
to himself. But he says, Jacob have I loved
and Esau have I hated. What should we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Is God unfair in loving Jacob
and hating Esau? God forbid, for he saith to Moses,
I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I'll have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. God sovereignly showed mercy
to this woman. It had nothing to do with her
will or her actions, simply because He would. This is what is called
sovereign grace. Now, I realize that most people
believe in what they call free will, but you know, if you believe
in free will, you can't possibly believe that God is sovereign.
The two thoughts are incongruent. They exclude one another. If
you believe God is sovereign, you believe He's sovereign over
man's will and He controls all. This woman is used by our Lord
to illustrate divine sovereignty. He chose to save this woman,
but this election was not only unto salvation, it was also unto
service. He said, I've commanded a widow
woman to sustain thee, and she gave to the prophet first. Now, this poor woman, you know,
she's actually a type of the person God saves. poor, helpless,
and cannot save or provide for themselves, she was ready to
die, and she was going to make her last meal. And then the prophet
comes to her, and he says in verse 13, And Elijah said unto
her, Fear not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof
a little cake first. You make the food for me first. Now, she had just enough meal.
to make one cake. And I have no doubt that when
she made the prophet the meal first, there was nothing left.
Her barrel was empty. Her cruise was empty. She used
it all to make the prophet his cake first. But in doing that,
she was going to have an inexhaustible barrel of meal and cruise of
oil that would replenish itself every day, a miracle of God. Now, he says, fear not. And the
only reason we have to fear not is His Word. If He tells us to
fear not, we have no reason to fear. You make me the cake first. You put all your trust in me,
me first. Don't seek to provide for yourself,
me first. Look to me only. Now, this is
a very beautiful type of what faith is. This is a beautiful
type of the gospel. Me first. Now, Paul said in 2
Timothy chapter 1 verse 12, I know whom I believed. Salvation is
not a what, it's a who. Faith is not a what, it's a who.
I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed to him against that day. Now, Paul had no plan B. He didn't
have an ace in the hole. He didn't have a backup plan.
All of His eggs were in this basket, that who Christ is and
what He did is all I'm trusting to save me, and I've committed
the very salvation of my soul to Him. I'm looking nowhere else. Sink or swim, I go to Him." And
this is what this woman did. She used all of her meal. She didn't look to provide for
herself. She used all of her meal to make the cake for the
prophet. First, now you make sure that
you trust him only first and let nothing come between him
in your faith. He's first in all things. Now
you look at all the doctrines of the scripture. Let's begin.
I've mentioned it. Let's begin with election. God's
choice of his people before time began. Now, God didn't look through
time and see that you believe and therefore He chose you. Not
at all. That's putting yourself first. He did it simply because
you were in Christ. Not because of something in you
or what you would do. In justification, He comes first. You don't accept justification
and God hands it to you. He justifies you. He justifies
you by His righteousness. In His redemption. In redemption,
Him first. He redeemed us. He redeemed us
when we weren't even around in regeneration. God doesn't say,
let me exercise your free will to let me give you the new birth
and then I'll give you the new birth. No, He births you into
the Kingdom of Heaven. He is the source of faith and
repentance. Faith and repentance are both
the gifts of His grace. Him first. With regard to every
decision we make. Him first. Am I seeking His will? Am I seeking His approval? Am I seeking His favor? Am I
seeking His glory and His honor? Him first, obedience to Him. He is that pearl of great price
that when a man finds, he sells all he has to have that one pearl
of great price. Now, when this woman made this
cake for Elijah, she found an inexhaustible barrel of meal
and a cruise of oil. Now, the meal and the oil represent
something. The meal was that which was ground. This represents Jesus Christ
and Him crucified, ground under the wrath of God as the sinner's
substitute. When my sin was placed upon him,
and he bore it in his own body on the tree. As the sinner's
substitute, God's wrath came down upon him and ground him."
Now, the oil represents the oil of the Spirit, the Spirit of
God's grace, the work of Christ in you. Now here she had the
work of Christ for you in the meal, the work of Christ in you
in the oil, and she's given this promise, you will find this an
inexhaustible barrel. You will never run out. If you have the work of Christ
for you, this salvation is forever. If you have the work of Christ
in you, this salvation is forever. It will not waste or come to
an end. It will not fail. There's no
such thing as grace failing. It is irresistible and it is
invincible. Now, here we have the sufficiency
of God's grace. Now, listen to me. If you trust
Christ only, You have nothing else. You spend it all on Christ. You trust Him only. You leave
nothing left. You have no mutual funds. You
have no plan B. You look to Christ only as everything
in your salvation. You look nowhere else. You know
that all that God requires of you, He looks to Him for. And
that's what you're relying on. You're relying on Him. Him only. Now, in relying on Him only,
You have an inexhaustible barrel that will never waste. And you
have a cruise of oil, the oil of God's Spirit, His invincible,
irresistible grace that shall never fail. And she did what
He said to do. Verse 15, And she went and did
according to the saying of Elijah, and she and her house did eat
many days. She did what He said to do. And
there was only one reason why she did what he said to do. Because
she believed that what he said would take place. She believed
that if she made the prophet food first, not herself, not
her son, but she believed if she made the prophet food first,
that she would find that barrel inexhaustible and that cruise
inexhaustible. Her food and her oil would always
be there. Now, she didn't have any evidence
that this would take place with the Word of God. She couldn't
look. When she took that food out to
make it for the prophet, it was empty. She had no evidence that
it was going to take place. But every day when she went there,
she found new oil, and new meal, a miracle of God's grace. And she didn't would not have
done that with the prophet unless she believed that that would
take place. And like I said, all she had
was the naked word of God that that would take place. She couldn't
see the meal. She couldn't see the oil. She
had the word of God, the word of God's prophet, and she believed
what he said. Now, would this have taken place
without obedience to the command? The answer is no, it wouldn't. If she would have refused, if
she would have said to the prophet, who are you to ask me to use
my last meal on you? I'm going to go and make it for
myself and my son, my first responsibility is to him, and we're going to
eat it and die. What are you doing asking me
to do something like that? If she would have said that,
you know what? She would have died and she would have never
had this. But verse 16 says, and the barrel
of meal, she did obey the prophet's command, and the barrel of meal
wasted not, neither did the crews of oil fail, according to the
word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah. You see, only when
we empty the barrel When we put all of our faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, we trust Him only. We're not looking to ourself.
We're not looking to our evidences. We're not looking to our works.
We're not looking to our experience. We're not looking to our intentions.
We look to Him and Him only. We empty out the barrel and we
look to Him and Him only. Only when we do that do we have
everything provided. I think that it's interesting.
She was not given a full year's worth right then, although she
did have a full year's worth. I imagine that her house could
have been filled with oil and with meal, and she would have
had a full year's worth. But the Lord didn't do it that
way. She was given enough for that day. And that's the way
the Lord operates. Just enough today. She'd have
to trust Him daily. Faith is always in the present. And Him first puts everything
in its proper perspective. Now, what do I mean by that?
Well, the Lord said to one man, follow me. And he said, suffer
me first. to go and marry my father. And
the Lord said, you let the dead bury their dead. You come and
follow me. And then our Lord said in Matthew
chapter 5, 24, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remembers
that thy brother has aught against thee, leave thy gift before the
altar and go now first, be reconciled to thy brother and then come
and offer thy gift. Do what you're supposed to first.
And what about when our Lord was warning us about judging?
Judge not that you be not judged. And He said, how can you say,
let me pull the splinter out of your eye when you've got a
beam in your own eye? First, get the beam out of your
own eye. Then you'll be able to see clearly
to get the splinter out of thy brother's eye. Seek ye first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Note that His righteousness.
Seek to only have His righteousness. Understand that His righteousness
is the only righteousness that makes you accepted in His kingdom.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and
all these things shall be added to you. And the last thing I
thought about was where our Lord said, When you're called to a
feast, don't take the highest seat. That's the Me First attitude. Don't take the highest seat.
Take the lowest seat. And then you'll be called up
higher. But if you take the higher seat,
you're going to be brought back down. Oh, may the Lord deliver
us from the Me First and see Him first. We have this message
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