First Samuel 2. And Hannah prayed and said, my
heart rejoices in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord.
My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I rejoice in
thy salvation. There is none holy as the Lord,
for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like
our God. Talk no more, exceeding proudly.
Let not arrogancy come out of your mouth, for the Lord is a
God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows
of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbleth are girded
with strength. They that were full have hired
out themselves for bread, and they that were hungry ceased,
so that the barren hath borne seven, and she that hath many
children is waxed feeble. The Lord killeth and maketh alive,
he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up. The Lord maketh
poor and maketh rich. He bringeth low, and lifteth
up. He raiseth up the poor out of
the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to
set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne
of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and
he hath set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of his
saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by
strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall
be broken to pieces. Out of heaven shall he thunder
upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth and he
shall give strength unto his king and exalt the horn of his
anointed. Let's pray. Our gracious Father, thank you
for your word, Lord. I pray your grace upon this service
that your Gospel would be preached faithfully
and boldly, plainly, truthfully. I pray that you'd
bless our hearts tonight, Lord. We need a blessing from you.
We need to hear of our Savior, our
Redeemer, and be comforted. Thank you for Him and all your
blessings in Him. In His name we pray. Amen. and Hannah prayed that little word and says quite
a bit most people if they pray at all
they pray when they're in trouble and then as soon as they're out
of trouble They go back to ignoring the Lord, forgetting that He
even exists. Hannah prays in need, and she
prayed when that need was met. She prayed before and after. In verse 10 of chapter 1, it
says she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord. It says in verse 15 of chapter
one that she poured out her soul. Unto the Lord. In bitterness of soul, she prayed
to the Lord and then. In our text verse one. She prayed and said my heart
rejoices. In the Lord. So in pain. And in comfort. In misery. and in happiness, in bitterness and in joy. She went before the throne of
God. She prayed before, Lord, remember
me in my sorrow. And now in her joy, she remembers
him. Both are evidences of God's grace. It takes God's grace to cause
a sinner to cry to the Lord when they're in trouble, rather
than just be bitter against Him. Not everybody, I say people pray
when they're in trouble, not everybody does. Most people just
shake their fist even more in God's face and curse His name. Complain and moan and groan and
say why me and hate God even worse when they're in trouble
But some will at least throw up some kind of a Prayer when
they get in trouble But it takes grace for a believer to know
who is The answer to every problem It takes grace for a believer to see what we
think might be injustice as Hannah did. Why would a woman like that
have children? And here I try to worship the
Lord and I have none. But yet to see in that the sovereign
God doing as he pleases and being okay with that, being just fine
with that. Whatever he does is right. She
cried out to him though, prayed to him in her sorrow. But also it takes grace to cause
a sinner like Hannah here to be thankful when the Lord does
answer prayer to see it as that and not to just say many would
say you know they didn't have any children for so long and
then all of a sudden They have a baby and they say, well, maybe
I guess I wasn't barren after all. No, you were. You were. And she knew she was. She knew who did it all. Hannah's
name means favored. And she knew that she was. By
his grace, she was thankful. Scripture places great importance
upon being thankful. The reprobate described in Romans
1 and all of the horrible description there, one of them is, and neither
were they thankful. Hannah was favored, favored in
her barrenness and It's a blessing, it's a wonderful problem that
brings us to the feet of the Lord. She was favored before
she was favored. She was favored before she had
children. She was favored specifically to not have children. Because
let me say it again, blessed is the problem that brings us
to the feet of the Master. This is the Gospel story. What
a blessing that the man in John chapter 9 was born blind. Think
about that. What a blessing that he was born
blind. Peninnah in our story here in
1 Samuel chapter 1, she was not barren. And she doesn't seem
to have any use for the Lord. It says that Hannah worshipped
the Lord. We're never told that Peninnah did. It doesn't say.
It seems like she tagged along with him. But it never says she
went and worshipped the Lord. Hannah prayed to the Lord, it
never says Peninnah did. What we know about her is that
she bragged about being fertile as though she had accomplished
something herself. Instead of thanking the Lord,
instead of worshiping the Lord, instead of being grateful for
the gift of the Lord. Children are an heritage of the
Lord. Thank Him for them. And this is the Pharisees in
John 9. I saw a parallel between this passage and John chapter
9. She's like the Pharisees in John 9. The Lord said to those
Pharisees, He said, Your sin remaineth because you're not
blind. If you were blind, if you needed Me, in other words,
if you'd come to Me, you'd have Me. And if you have Him, you'd
have no sin. That's why He said, If you were
blind, you'd have no sin. But you say, We see. Therefore
you don't need the Savior. If Peninnah had been barren,
she might have called on God like Hannah did. She might have
had some use for God. If she had been spiritually barren,
I guarantee you she would have called on God. And that's the
lesson here. That's the lesson in John 9 and
that's the lesson in our text here. If you're spiritually blind, you're going to cry out to the
Savior. And those who cry out to the Savior have mercy and
forgiveness for their sin. That's why our Lord said, if
you were blind, you wouldn't have any sin. The blind man,
the one that was blind, didn't have any sin. Because he knew
Christ and the forgiveness of his sin. And that blindness, that barrenness,
that's a picture of our need of Him. If you don't need Him,
you're not going to have Him. And if you need him, you'll have
him. This is what our Lord was teaching
those Pharisees there in John 9. Not that if they were physically
blind, if they had been physically blind, then they would have had
no sin. Not everyone that's physically blind calls on God. Some, as
we've said already, would just be bitter about that and hate
God even worse than they would have otherwise. But if you are
ever spiritually blind, in your experience. Everybody is by nature,
but do you know it? Do you confess it? Have you experienced
it? Has the Lord brought that home
to your heart? If he has, you'll come to the
one who opens blind eyes. And if you're ever spiritually
barren, you'll come to the one who gives life. And you'll pour out your soul
unto him like Hannah did. And the Lord gave Hannah a boy.
And as we saw last time, Hannah brought him right back to the
Lord. She brought that boy that she had agonized over. She wanted
that boy so bad. And she specifically wanted a
boy, didn't she? She said, Lord, give me a man
child. Give me a son. That's a lesson right there,
isn't it? Come before the Lord and pray specific for what you
want, for what you need. for what you desire. Make your requests known unto
God. He gave her a boy and she gave him right back. You think
about that. She wanted that boy so bad and
then when he was 12 years old, she brought him to Eli and he
served the Lord with God's priest from then on. She went home without
him. Boy, I thought I thought about
that's what I want to do The Lord gave me two daughters. You
know what I want to do Lord receive my daughters Accept them I'm not worried about anybody
accepting the Lord. I'm worried about whether he's
gonna accept them or not. That's what I want to know God
gave me a son and my prayer is Lord receive him I want him I want him to take him back. To receive him into his grace
and love. To cause my son to serve him.
I'd be happy to lose him if he's serving the Lord. If he belongs
to the Lord. And have him given back. to the Lord that precious son
that she'd received from his hand and she knew it. She said,
my heart rejoices in the Lord. David said in Psalm 3011, thou
has turned for me my mourning into dancing. Thou has put off
my sackcloth and girded me with gladness. And that's Hannah's
prayer here. She's rejoicing in the Lord.
She doesn't say my heart rejoices in my son. Our heart doesn't
rejoice in the things that the Lord does for us. It rejoices
in the Lord when we know him. Now a lot of people rejoice in
what they perceive to be the things the Lord does for them. But if our heart rejoices in
the Lord, and you know that's easy to see. I've noticed that. We ain't supposed to always be
looking at others. But you just can't help it, can
you? And it's just obvious when somebody, what they love, what
somebody loves, it's just, it's obvious. It's obvious. If our heart rejoices in the
Lord now, we will take offense in stride and just let it go.
Because it's not always about us. If it's always about you,
your heart's not rejoicing in the Lord, your heart's rejoicing
in you. If our heart is rejoicing in the Lord, we'll be satisfied
and happy just to sit and hear and worship. We won't need anything
else. We preach that Christ is all
and we must also live it. And we will if our heart rejoices
in him. What was it Paul said? We are
the circumcision, number one. What does that mean? The covenant
people of God. Circumcision was the sign of
the covenant. We are God's covenant elect chosen people. Number two, who worship God in
the spirit. Number three, you know what it
is? Rejoice in Christ Jesus. This is who we are now. We're
God's chosen. We worship God in the spirit,
not with the flesh. Not with tambourines and jumping
around hollering and drawing attention to self. Not with religious
trinkets, in the spirit. And we rejoice in Christ Jesus. Remember what the fourth one
is? Have no confidence in the flesh. That pretty much covers it, doesn't
it? Do we rejoice in the Lord? We'll be satisfied and happy
just to hear of Him, to fellowship with His saints, to worship Him,
to serve Him. It won't always be about me,
I, me, mine. When He gives, He is all. And when He takes, He is all. When He withholds, He is all. Now notice something in the middle
part of the verse there, verse two. Of verse one, I'm sorry. My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over my
enemies. Now think about this. My horn is exalted in the Lord. Now when Peninnah
had children and Hannah didn't have any, Peninnah let Hannah
know every chance she got. Even it says in verse 7, when
they were on their way to worship the Lord, she was pestering her
all the way there about it, grieving her heart over it, flaunting
it, and belittling her. But Hannah, when she is blessed
of the Lord, says, my horn is exalted. I'm exalted. That's what Peninnah was saying.
Look at me. I'm high and lifted up. You know, everything's fine.
I'm happy. I got plenty of children. Sorry,
you don't have any. Well, when Hannah's blessed to
the Lord, she says, my horn is exalted. My power, my strength
is exalted. But she adds this, in the Lord. Big difference. Peninnah was
lifted up in the flesh. She exalted the flesh. Hannah
said, my strength is in the Lord. My power is not in some imagined
accomplishments of my own, but I am strong because of what the
Lord did for me. Now you think about that, why
is she saying that? My horn is exalted, why? Because
of what he did for me. That's our strength, that's our
power, that's our energy. That's what excites us and sustains
us, what he did for us. Not the flesh, not the accomplishments,
imagined accomplishments of the flesh. We see such spiritual
truth in this. The Lord is our strength. Our
sufficiency is of him. His strength is made perfect
in weakness. Paul said, when I'm weak, when
this flesh is abased, that's when I'm strong, because the
Lord is my strength. We are able to do and say things
that we never could in the flesh. Our boldness, our strength, our
power to do anything worth doing is in the Lord, isn't it? Our
horn is exalted in the Lord. If you told me when I was a young
man I was going to be a preacher one day, I'd have said, you're
crazy out of your mind. I'm glad I don't have to do it
in the strength of the flesh. It's got nothing to do with that. It's got nothing to do with that.
And look at this, now she says, my mouth is enlarged over my
enemies. In other words, now I've got
something to say. It was all Peninnah having something to
say to me. Now I've got something to say.
She says, my mouth is enlarged over my enemies. But you know
who she says it to? Not to Peninnah, to the Lord. She's praying it
to the Lord. She's not flaunting it before
Peninnah. She's not gloating over her enemy.
But she's rejoicing in the Lord's grace. What a difference. Which
includes the Lord's grace, which includes shutting up our enemies. She's rejoicing in that. Don't
make any mistake about it. She's rejoicing in that. But
she's doing it before the Lord and in the Lord. When David spoke
of his enemies, think about what an enemy is. She's calling Peninnah
her enemy. Well, somebody just saying bad
things about that doesn't seem like that big of a deal. You
know, David talked about his enemies. He's talking about a
huge army, you know, some heathen army or some king, some godless
king, you know, of some kind. And that seems like a little
bit more of a big deal. But you know what? An enemy is
an enemy. Peninnah was the bane of Hannah's
existence. She couldn't stand to be around
her. And for good reason. You know anybody like that? I'd
be surprised if everybody in here didn't know somebody like
that. You can't even stand to be around them. And Peninnah wasn't Hannah's
enemy by her choice, by Hannah's choice. The believer doesn't
go around making enemies. It's just that way, isn't it?
It's just that way. And there ain't nothing we can
do about it. We can cry out to God. But we're not even going
to do that without His grace. You know what I mean. We don't want enemies. We don't
make enemies. Some people thrive on that. They
thrive on drama, you know, and always having some kind of a
fuss with somebody. Not the believer. Not the believer. I'm sorry. The Lord will knock that out
of you. To a great extent, at least. But bless God, isn't it
wonderful when God shuts up one of our enemies? Just shut him
up. Whether he does so in justice or in mercy. Sometimes he'll
shut up an enemy by making him a friend. That's the best, isn't it? From
our point of view. Whatever the Lord does is what's
best. Now her mouth was enlarged. In other words, if her enemies
now, if they tried to shame her with regard to her barrenness
or anything like that, She'd have something to say, whereas
before, what are you going to say? They're making fun of you
for something that's true. And we talked about that spiritually.
You know, how that Satan and the disciples of Satan's servants
in this world, they say you're a worthless wretch. What are
you going to say about that? God ought to put you in hell?
No way would God love somebody like you. It's hard to argue
with that, but wait a minute. When the Lord does something
for us, when we see His grace in Christ, and our power, our
strength, our heart is in the Lord when He's our strength.
When I have the promise of God that I'm forgiven of my sin,
then don't you come at me with that. Don't you accuse me of
anything before God. You see how this is? Now our
mouth is enlarged over them. Before, you know, What are you
going to say? You do have children and I don't.
It ain't that way now. It ain't that way now. It was
their mouths enlarged over her before, but not now. And what
a spiritual truth. Because of the Lord's mercy upon
me, because of his love for me, my mouth is enlarged over my
enemies. I have an indisputable, glorious,
wonderful gospel. Indisputable? glorious, wonderful. And my enemies can't say anything
against it. They can't say anything against
it. They can't argue with me about
it. When the enemy ridicules and
mocks, we can put them in their place now. Our Lord did that many times,
didn't he? When they tried to trip him up and taunted him with
mocking questions and things like that. He put them in their
place. And we speak with his authority now. We speak as his
spokesmen, as his messengers now, with his message. And may
we be bold to do that. Nothing shuts up the enemy like
thus saith the Lord. They can spout off about it all
they want to. You know how my horn is exalted
though? In the Lord. They can talk about God loves
everybody all they want to, but wait a minute. Let's turn to
Psalm 5. Let's turn to Romans chapter 9 and then tell me who
God loves and who He don't love. You see our mouths are exalted
over our enemies. We got something to say now.
Because God gave us something to say. But always remember it's
in the Lord. If you're going to have a discussion
with somebody and they do want to argue with you, make sure
they're arguing with God and not you. And the reason that we're bold
to do that, enlarged, that means my mouth is bold against my enemies,
is because we rejoice in His salvation. The last phrase of
that verse. Because we rejoice in His salvation. Our joy, our
authority. Our everything is the gospel,
the promise of God in Christ. We rejoice in Him. We're proud
of Him. That's why I'm bold to speak
like I do, because I'm proud of Him. Is it okay to say that?
Paul said, God forbid that I should glory, I should boast, save in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Save in Christ crucified. I can't
boast in anything else, but I can boast in Him. It delights my soul to be able
to speak of a Savior that's mighty, invincible, successful, victorious,
all-powerful. It's wonderful to speak about
Him. Let's glory in Him. Let's brag on Him, raise Him
up. And that's when the enemy will have to shut up right there
when Christ is glorified, when He's exalted, when His Word is
boldly spoken. Boy, that's the way to do it
right there. Not in the flesh. Don't want to argue with anybody.
But if somebody wants to talk about what God said, can you
do that? Paul said be ready. Didn't he? Be ready to give an answer. To
give a reason for the hope that lies within you. Verse 2. We're not going to go over all
10 verses tonight. I saw some of you starting to
sweat a little bit. There is none holy as the Lord. Oh my. For there is none beside
thee. Neither is there any rock like
our God. Now we're bragging on him, aren't
we? Now we're bragging on him. We're not just talking about
bragging on him. We're not just saying our mouth is bold and
enlarged, but it really is. He's holy. We don't rejoice in
the Lord of this religious world. He is not holy. He's repulsive
and weak and ridiculous. Elijah made fun of the God of
his enemies. He's worthy of nothing but ridicule
and scorn. We rejoice in the holy God who
must and shall punish sin. We rejoice in the holy God who
can only be holy and justify sinners if Christ actually accomplished
something on Calvary. If he just taking a shot at it
and giving everybody a chance and not really saving anybody,
then nobody's saved because God's holy. He had to actually put
away sin for somebody. or God must punish you, God must
put you in hell. We rejoice in the one who was
successful, the actual victorious Savior, Redeemer, who finished
the work of salvation, whose substitutionary sacrifice, whose
sacrifice in the place of his people, by that sacrifice he
obtained eternal redemption for us, Paul said. He didn't try
to do anything, he didn't make anything available, He bought
it. He bought us with his precious
blood. If the Lord is holy, he can't
receive sinners based upon a decision that they make. This is all we'd
have to preach to destroy the false gospel of this religious
age. Just that God's holy. You're
not going to make a decision and be accepted of the holy God.
You're going to have to have the blood covering you. He can only receive them based
upon the redemption accomplished If the Lord is holy he can't
sacrifice his own soul for sinners who are already in hell when
he died No, if he's holy then all for whom the precious Son
of God shed his sin atoning blood must and shall be saved We rejoice
in the Holy God there's none holy is the Lord So we open our
mouths large, don't we? Bold and say that. There's none
holy as the Lord. There's no other God. I believe
it was Roth Barnard that said one time, I want to clear this
up. He said this, the Lord must be holy and he may show mercy. I thought, well, that's good.
And then I heard somebody sometime along through the years, I heard
somebody correct that and say, that's not right. God has to
be merciful too. Well, that's true that mercy
is an attribute of God and he shall be merciful to some. He
must be merciful. It's who he is. But Rolf Barner
didn't say he may be merciful. He said he may show mercy. There's
a difference. He's going to be merciful, but
he'll have to show mercy to you. That's his prerogative. Now,
if he obligates himself, then he will. He must. But he didn't
have to show mercy on you. Both are right. The Lord will
be merciful. But He may not show mercy to
you. He don't have to be merciful in every case. The Lord, I'll
tell you what He will do though. He'll deal with you in holiness.
He must be holy and He may show you mercy. He may already have. He may already have and you don't
even know it yet. God is holy when He shows mercy. And he's holy when he don't. When he withholds it. He is holy
when he damns and he's holy when he saves. He's holy when he damns because
sinners richly deserve his wrath. He's holy when he saves. When
he shows mercy because he shows mercy upon sinners in Christ. who of God is made unto them
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Christ is how
God can be holy, just, and justify a sinner. And then she said in
verse three, talk no more exceeding proudly. Talk no more exceeding proudly. Let not Arrogancy come out of
your mouth For the Lord is a God of knowledge And by him actions are weighed
And they're not just weighed by how they look on the outside
He weighs actions by what's on the inside He looks on the heart
Let's talk about the first part of this verse first now. This
is to You know who she's directing this at, although she's praying
it to the Lord. She's praying it in her heart
to the Lord. But she's saying this, you who
brag on yourselves like Peninnah did, just shut up. Shut up. I have children and you don't.
You may have fooled yourself into thinking that that happened
because you're better in some way, but God is a God of knowledge. He's not a fool. So just shut
up. Quit talking so exceeding proudly.
I made a decision for Jesus. Shut up. I have decided to follow Jesus.
Shut up. God don't care and neither do
I what you've decided. Or what I have. I got saved,
you know. Shut it. I've kept these from
my youth up. Shut it. I'll tear down my barns and build
bigger barns to put all my stuff. My barns, my stuff. Shut up.
Shut up. Quit talking so exceeding proudly.
You remember Nebuchadnezzar? He said, oh, he's not this great
Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the
might of my power and for the honor of my majesty. God shut
him up, didn't he? God shut him up, and I tell you
what, it's good to shut up. This is good now, if you're talking
about the enemies of the Lord, it's good to shut them up. And
we pray with her, I pray with Hannah, shut them up, Lord. This
is also good as a reminder to us. Don't talk proudly. Don't
start leaning on the flesh. Don't start thinking that you're
something. Don't be proud of anything. We got nothing to be,
to boast in but the Lord and Him crucified. James said, go to now you that
say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue
there a year and buy and sell and get gain. Go to now means
come on now. That's just like us saying come
on now, really? Are you going to say that? You're going to
say that before the Lord. I'm going to go into such a city.
You may or may not. You may or may not. And I'm going
to continue there a year. You may be there a year. You
may be there five minutes. You may be there 10 years. You
don't know how long you're going to be there. And I'm going to
buy and sell. I'm going to be a businessman.
We'll see about that. You're going to do whatever the
Lord gives you to do. And I'm going to get gain. I'm going
to be successful. Are you now? We're going to have
a revival. Are you? We're going to have
to learn to wait on Him. We're going to have to learn
to just acknowledge that we're nothing. We have nothing. We
can do nothing. And hold our hand up to God.
That's it now. That's it. It's that simple. James said, come on now, you
can say that. You don't know what shall be on the morrow,
but what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears
for a little time and then vanish away. Vanisheth away for that
you ought to say. He's saying quit talking so exceeding
proudly. He's saying the same thing Hannah
did, isn't he? Shut up with this business about what you're gonna
do and how long you're gonna do it and where you're gonna
go to do it. And whether you're going to be
successful, just shut up about it. Here's what you ought to be saying.
If the Lord will, I'll live. And if he will, I'll do this.
And if he will, I'll do that. Whatever he wants, that's what
I'll do. Boy, that kind of puts things
in perspective, doesn't it? There's not a thing in the world
wrong with having goals. Here's what I want to accomplish.
There's not a thing in the world wrong with that. Just remember
who determines everything. Remember who you are dependent
upon for your next breath, much less everything else. Hannah cried to the Lord for
life. She was dead on the inside and
she cried for life because she knew this. She knew what she
said in verse 6. We're not going to get there tonight, but look
what she said. The Lord killeth and maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave
and he bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh
rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up. And He makes all of that beautiful
in His time. There's a time to be low, there's
a time to be lifted up. It's all beautiful in His time.
For His people it is. Oh my, when God gave her life,
she praised Him for that instead of taking personal pride in that. She said it's by the grace of
God. And you know what? Her saying that is by the grace
of God. Turn to Galatians chapter 6 and
we'll close just by looking through this. We quoted this verse but
I want you to see the context of it in closing. Galatians chapter
6. Talk no more exceeding proudly,
this is the verse we're considering now. Don't let arrogance come
out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. Galatians 6.12 Paul's talking about false preachers. He says, as many as desire to
make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised.
They want you to make a decision. They want you to do something.
It's just like saying they want you to be baptized. It's just
like saying they want you to come up to the front. He did
exactly the same thing. That's what he's saying. Religion
hasn't changed. Sin hasn't changed. People haven't
changed. God hasn't changed. It's exactly
the same. He said they constrain you to
do something. You know why? So they can make a show in your
flesh. They want to put the numbers
up on the wall. Have you ever seen that before? I refer to
that a lot. Some of you may be going, what in the world is he
talking about? They'll put the numbers up there. How many baptisms
did we have? How many decisions for Jesus? How many rededications
did we have? That's why they do it. They constrain
you to do something for God. To make a fair show in the flesh. to brag on the flesh. And here's just a few sheep gathered
together praying that God will do something for us. What in
the world are we going to do for Him? What's a worm going
to do for God? Really? Oh God, have mercy on
us. They constrain you to be circumcised
only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of
Christ. They're not going to preach the truth. They're not
going to say What I just said, you don't need to do nothing
for God. You need God to do something for you. They're not going to
preach that because it's not popular. You know, we don't really think
of it as persecution. There just being a few of us
and us not being able to do some things that we might do if there
was 500 of us. We don't think of that as persecution.
We're blessed to the Lord. I don't think I'd change anything
if I could. It's the Lord. But you see how this compares.
This is a picture in our text of religion today. We got the
numbers. We're doing fine. We're doing great. What about
y'all? How many y'all have last Sunday? That's not the blessing
of God. That's not the blessing of God. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law. The ones that are telling you
to do something for God, they hadn't done nothing for God. But desire to have you circumcised
that they may glory in your flesh. We got somebody saved. The Lord said to him, you encompass
land and sea to make one proselyte, to make one convert, to get somebody
saved. And when you do, they're twofold
more the child of hell than they were before you fell. But God forbid, you see the context
of this, but God forbid, if not for his grace, we'd be right
there with him. We'd be doing exactly the same thing, but God,
don't let it happen. God forbid that I should glory. God forbid that I glory in the
flesh. God forbid that I glory in anybody
or anything else but Christ crucified. Oh, God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross. of our Lord Jesus Christ. You
see what he's saying? May glory in what you do and
what they do and what the flesh accomplishes in religion. Let's
glory in what he did. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He accomplished salvation. Your decision has nothing to
do with it. By whom the world is crucified
unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus If you're in Christ, it don't
matter what you've done and hadn't done. Is that clear enough? In Christ, what you do or don't
do is meaningless. Neither circumcision availeth
anything, nor uncircumcision. But you know what accomplishes
something? Him creating you new. Say what it said. A new creature. And as many as
walk according to this rule. You see that as many. Of you
tonight as rejoice in that and can agree, let's just glory in
him and what he did. Can you walk by that? Can you
live by that? Honestly before God and peace
be on you. Peace on them and mercy upon
the Israel of God. Only God's chosen people are
going to think like that. Everybody else is going to rejoice
in glory in this flesh and you and I will be doing it if God
doesn't keep us from it. And then he said, from henceforth
let no man trouble me for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord
Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Oh, that's the key to it all
right there. May He be with our spirit. May He forbid it that
we glory in anything or anybody else. Not just a negative, is it? Let's
indeed glory in Him. It's a positive, too, isn't it?
Oh, let's glory in Him. Let our mouth be bold over our
enemies. We've got something to say, don't
we? Got a message from the King. And our strength, our power is
in the Lord. Boy, that ought to be an encouragement.
I pray that'll be an encouragement to us. Let's pray.