Our text deals with a woman who
was barren, who the Lord gave a child. Hannah was the wife
of a man named Elkanah, and he had another wife named Panana. He loved Hannah, favored Hannah,
but the Lord had shut up her womb. She was barren. Panana
had many children. And Penina rubbed it in. She provoked Hannah that she
had all these children and Hannah couldn't have children. Penina
is a picture of God's elect church of the true Israel of God and
a picture of individual believers who often appear barren, not
as fruitful as the world. And Panana pictures natural religion,
natural Israel, those who appeared fruitful, And like Ishmael persecuted
Isaac, the Lord said that natural religion persecutes God's true
child. And this was the picture we have
of them. Hannah had asked God, she depended
on God the whole time, and she asked God and he gave her a son,
Samuel. Formed a son in her womb miraculously. And it's a picture of Christ
coming through Mary, the promised seed. It's a picture of Christ
being formed in the heart of his elect. And she had promised
that she would give God the child. We give God the glory when he
produces fruit. So she took the child to Eli,
the priest, for him to serve in the temple. So at this time
Samuel would have been about 12 years old probably. That's
when they winged him finally and they were able to help and
serve. So she had taken him to the temple.
Now Hannah's rejoicing in the Lord. She's thanking the Lord.
And 1 Samuel 2, 1, and Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoiceth
in the Lord. True worship, true prayer, praise,
thanksgiving, service is all from the new heart God's given
through faith in the Lord. And it's all in the Lord. She
said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord. Mine horn is exalted in
the Lord." Horn means strength. The believer's strength is Christ
in the heart. They carried oil in a horn, and
the oil of the Spirit is poured into God's elect, and there's
a new heart created that gives God all the glory. My mouth,
she said, is enlarged over mine enemies because I rejoice in
thy salvation. You notice here, everything that
she's thankful for is in the Lord and by the Lord. Everything. She had thanked the Lord for
the child, but here she's thanking the Lord. She's praising the
Lord for everything. She said there, my heart rejoiceth
in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over mine
enemies because I rejoice in thy salvation. It's all in the
Lord, all by the Lord. Now let's hear Hannah's rejoicing
in the Lord. First of all, she rejoiced in
the Lord's holiness. She said in verse two, there's
none holy as the Lord, for there's none beside thee, There's none
holy as the Lord, for there's none beside Thee. Many praised
God for His blessings, for His goodness. Hannah praised Him
for His holiness. God's children praise Him for
His holiness. There's none holy as the Lord. God's glory is His holiness. That's His glory. Omniscience
and omnipotence and omnipresence and so on, mercy, grace, long-suffering,
these are attributes of God. Holiness is God's essence. It's His being. It's the whole
perfection of His being. God is holiness, and holiness
is God. There's none holy as the Lord,
for there's none beside Thee. The angels of God are holy, and
God makes His saints holy, but our holiness is given of God. God's holy in and of himself.
He's holy in and of himself. At our best state, we're not
perfect due to our sin nature. God is holy. He's the holy one. He's the holy one. It's hard
to talk about holiness because Who can describe it? He's the
Holy One. All that God does is holy. He
elected his people by grace. And when he did so, he chose
us in Christ. He blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in Christ before the world was made. And that's how
the Father made his people separate and holy in his Son. And then
the Son of God came forth and He redeemed His people. He perfected
forever them that are sanctified by one offering. He perfected
forever them that are sanctified. That's how we were made holy
in Christ and by Christ. And the spirit of God comes and
in regeneration he forms Christ in the heart just as I pictured
here with Samuel being formed in Hannah. He forms Christ in
the heart and there is a new holy man created and that new
holy man is holy by Christ the holy one. The Lord, the Spirit, keeps us. He makes us partakers of the
divine nature. He keeps us separated in Christ.
He keeps us loving holiness and hating our sin. And He does this
in such a way that He makes us cry out like Hannah did here,
there's none holy as the Lord. There's none beside Thee because
He keeps you knowing. He's the one keeping you. He's
the one keeping you. And every sinner God saved is
made holy by God alone. There's no holiness but Christ,
the Holy One, who's perfected His people on the cross and who
abides in the heart of His people. He's the holiness of His people.
He sent redemption unto His people. He hath commanded His covenant
forever. Holy and reverend is His name. So that's what she praised him
for first. Lord, you're holy. None like you. None like you.
Secondly, Hannah rejoiced in God's power. She said there at
the end of verse two, neither is there any rock like our God. God is our rock. Christ is our
rock. The strength and the power of
God unto salvation is the Lord Jesus. He's the power of God
unto salvation. He's the rock. He's the rock. He is the rock, his work is perfect,
for all his ways are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is he. And by the Father sending forth
the Son and the Son perfecting his people, we read in Isaiah
28, 16, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation,
a stone. A tridestone, tried in that fiery
furnace heated seven times on the cross, found perfect, true,
never wavering in his faithfulness and holiness toward God, bearing
the sin of his people, putting away the sin of his people, a
tridestone, perfectly faithful, perfectly holy, a precious cornerstone,
precious to God the Father, precious in you who know him, a precious
cornerstone. A sure foundation. A sure foundation. On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinkin' sand. A sure foundation. If he's planted
you on a rock, you're on a sure foundation. A foundation that
can't be moved. All other ground's sinkin' sand.
This foundation's sure. It's sure. He gonna keep you
on Christ the rock. And because that's so, he that
believeth, He that believeth, that's how we're on this rock,
through faith in Him. And he that believeth shall not
make haste. You're not going to be, you're
not going to be wildly shaken and moved and you're willing
enough to see your own flesh is weak. But in Christ you're
going to be, you won't make haste. You won't ever be ashamed. You
won't ever be confounded for trusting Him. You're on Christ
the solid rock. This is what she praised Him
for. You're our rock, Lord. You're our rock. And then Hannah rejoiced that
God's the God of knowledge. Christ is wisdom. He's wisdom. He's omniscient. He's the all-knowing,
just judge. He said, verse three, talk no
more exceedingly proudly. Let not arrogance come out of
your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions
are weighed. Some think Hannah's referring
to Penina, who boasted that she bore fruit, and Hannah did not.
But Hannah's speaking of something here far greater than that. She's
talking about the glory of our Lord who makes his children triumph
over our flesh and the devil and every enemy we have in this
world. And she's rejoicing the Lord
for saving her and for saving his elect church. She pictures
Mary. That's who Christ came through.
And her song here is much like Mary's song. But she says there,
talk no more exceedingly proudly. Let not arrogance come out of
your mouth. The sin nature in every child of Adam is pride. Like holiness is the essence
of the Lord, the essence of our sin nature is pride. It's pride. We have nothing to boast of.
We really should never be proud of anything. We have nothing
to boast of. There's no merit in us. God didn't
choose us because of any merit in us. There's no strength in
us. She just declared Christ is the
power of God. He's our rock. He's our strength.
She couldn't bear children. There was no spiritual understanding
in us by nature. She's saying here, Christ is
wisdom. If we have wisdom, it's because he gave us the mind of
Christ and taught us the gospel. We come into this world, a guilty
sinner with a sin nature that's corrupt. And so everything God
gives to his child is entirely by God's grace. Everything. And it's all the gift of God,
freely given to us. We have no reason, whether it's
something spiritual or temporal, we have no reason to be proud
and talk arrogantly. Because everything is the gift
of God by his grace to the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
our own all-knowing God weighs all actions, all actions, by
the heart from which they come. And he's the only one that knows
the heart. God creates in his child a broken heart. A broken
heart, a contrite heart, a heart that sees no good in ourselves. God's children, you know, Peninnah
is a picture of religion. She saw all this fruit she had,
and that's religion sees their fruit. Natural men see their
fruit. God's child don't see his fruit. You don't see yourself. You see your sin keeps you humble
before God. Keeps your heart dependent upon
God our Father. That's a broken heart. Dependent
upon the Lord Jesus Christ for everything. That's a contrite
heart. A heart that desires above everything
to please God. And then you see, you see how
short you come. And so your heart's broken. But
here's the good news for God's children. God's weighing the
actions by the thoughts and intents of the new heart he's put in
his child. And he's weighing the actions
of every man by the heart. And he never makes a mistake.
We can. Eli made a mistake. Hannah, he
thought Hannah was drunk. Hannah was praying to God, and
he didn't have any idea what her heart was. The whole time
that Hannah was barren, her heart was set on God. While Penina
looked at her and thought, y'all, you just barren, you don't have
any fruit. All this fruit we see right here, this is the fruit
God produced. What she's saying here comes
from a heart God's made, and that's the fruit that was in
her. And Penina didn't see any of that fruit. She didn't see
any of that fruit. But that was the fruit in Hannah
the whole time. She was depending on God, calling on God, trusting
God, seeing her total inability in herself, not looking to herself,
looking to God the whole time. And God knew that heart. He knew
that heart. He put it in her. He put it in
her. And when He produced this fruit
in her, what did she do? She gave Him all the glory. She
gave Him all the glory. She knew where the fruit came
from. All the rejoicing of her heart was the Lord. She said,
my heart rejoices in the Lord. That's the heart. That's where
he's weighing the action, the heart. My heart rejoices in the
Lord. My horn, my heart's exalted in
the Lord. You've lifted me out of the dust,
Lord, and made me rejoice in the Lord. My mouth's enlarged
over my enemies, not because of something I did, because of
thy salvation. She rejoiced in His holiness.
She rejoiced in His power. She rejoiced in His wisdom and
His judgment. She knew I needed to be barren
for that season. She knew He gave me the fruit
right at the right time. He works everything just and
right. She's rejoicing just like David
did when he wrote Psalm 139. This is what David said in Psalm
139. He said, oh Lord, thou search
me and know me. Thou knowest my down-sitting
and my up-rising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. Thou compassest my path and my
lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. There's not
a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it all together. Thou hast beset me behind and
before and laid Thine hand upon me. Such knowledge, such wisdom,
is too wonderful for me. It's high. I can't attain unto
it. That's what Peter said when the
Lord came after his fall, and the Lord came and said, Peter,
do you love me? You love me more than these? That was your boast
before. At that time, Peter said, Lord,
you know. You know. You've got full knowledge. You
know my down sitting, my up rising. You know everything about me.
That's what Hannah's praising God for. Aren't you glad? Scripture says this natural heart
we have, and we still have it, is deceitful above all things,
desperately wicked, and you and me can't know it. God knows it,
and God knows the heart he's created, and thank God he's going
to keep you knowing him and knowing it. He's leading you and keeping
you. That's what you praise God for.
That's when Christ has made wisdom unto us. Christ has made wisdom
unto us. Wisdom, knowledge, it passes
understanding. And then thirdly, she rejoices
in God's grace toward his people. She rejoices in God's grace toward
his people. Now these are some examples of
God-weighing actions by the heart. First, she talks about the mighty
and them that are weak. She said, the bows of the mighty
men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. The bow represents the strength
of men. A man appears strong, mighty,
and all the while, in his heart, he's glorying in his might, he's
glorying in his strength, glorying in what he did. That's what Penina
was doing. Penina wasn't praising God for
making her so fruitful. In a natural man, everything
he has, God gave him. Though he doesn't have spiritual
blessings, all the natural blessings God gave him. He's glorying in
his might, in his religion. He's glorying in his might, in
his works. He's glorying in his might, in
his temporal things. And all the while, that's his
heart. He's glorying in what he did.
And the Lord breaks that string. In the end, the Lord will break
it. The God's child appears so very weak and stumbles. God's saving sinners. God's saving
by grace. Saved by grace. Hannah was weak.
She was stumbling. She was barren. And she just
appeared fruitless. And Penina mocked her, the people
of this world mocked God's people, churches in this world's churches
appear so fruitful. And folks in them appear, they
compare themselves with others, think they're so fruitful. And
just like Ishmael mocked Isaac, that's what Penina did to Hannah. And yet, her heart was a heart
made new by God. And she trusted the Lord. She
just looked to the Lord. She knew the Lord's gonna, he's
gonna do right for me. And she just trusted the Lord. She's like that publican in the
temple, Lord be merciful to me, the sinner. And God gave more
grace. He always gives more grace to
his children. When you're weak and you stumble,
you look to Him. He's going to give more grace.
That's what James said. He girds his child that stumbles
with strength, with Christ our righteousness, with Christ our
wisdom and our power. That's how He's going to gird
you. Christ in the heart. Then she gives the example of
the rich and the poor. Verse 5. They that are full have
hired out themselves for bread, and they that were hungry ceased.
so that the barren hath born seven, and she that hath many
children is waxed feeble." Men who are full of temporal things,
usually, if you talk to them, they consider themselves blessed,
blessed of God. And if you talk long enough,
you'll find out the reason they think they're blessed is because
they've been living, living right, living good, and God's blessing
them because of that. But worst of all of those are
those who are rich in their own righteousness, full in themselves,
full in their own goodness, and their merit, and their righteousness,
and their morality. But in their heart, they're trusting
their works, they're trusting their purity, they're trusting
how they've separated themselves, and they hire themselves out,
he said, for bread. They end up compromising, prostituting
the gospel to get more people involved and more people joining
with them. They hire themselves out for
bread. They like the mighty man trusting
in his might. God's looking on the heart and
God sends the fool away empty. He sends the fool away empty.
Don't trust in yourself. Don't trust in anything you've
done. You know, when you talk to people and what made the difference? What made the difference? Somebody
professes to believe God. What made the difference? Well,
I believe God. If that made the difference, you're in trouble. God came. and redeemed his child. It's the faith of Christ by which
we're saved. He gives you faith. You can't
even boast in that. And that faith he gives us is
trust in his faith, not our own. Don't trust in yourself. Isaiah
cried out, see she from man whose breath is in his nostril. That's
us personally. Don't trust yourself. Trust Christ. But then there's God's child
who's poor. Maybe they're poor in temporal things. Many of God's
children are. I travel a lot. I see a lot of
poor believers. Poor in spirit, though. Because
you see what you flesh is. It keeps you poor in spirit.
Hungering and thirsting after righteousness, after the Lord
Jesus. You want to walk before Him in righteousness. You're
hungry and thirsting after that. Hungry and thirsting after the
living bread. You know, look at Luke 16. God weighs the action by the
heart. In look on outward appearance, God's looking on the heart. And
here's your prime example of it. Here's your prime example.
None would have looked upon Lazarus as being a blessed man. He's
a poor beggar. Got wounds all over him. You
see the poor people on the street, you think, boy, there's a blessed
man. That's who Lazarus was. Dogs would come and lick his
sores. That's the only comfort he had in his life. And then
he sat at a gate of a rich man. Now that's who everybody looks
at and says, now there's a blessed man. There's Mr. Livingood right
there. Listen to this, Luke 16, 19.
There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and
fine linen and fed sumptuously every day. And there was a certain
beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate. He couldn't
even get to his gate. Somebody laid him there. Laid
at his gate full of sowers, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which
fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked
his sores. And it came to pass that the
beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was
buried, and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments,
and he saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he
cried and he said, Father, Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus
that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,
for I'm tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, son, Remember
that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things, and likewise
Lazarus evil things. But now he's comforted, and thou
art tormented." You see, while Hannah was barren and she was
weeping, and Banana's fruitful and she's mocking, Elkanah, the
husband, he loved Hannah, and he favored Hannah, and he gave
Hannah a double portion. Child of God, you're weak, and
you see your sin nature, you're hungering after the Lord, you're
hungering to walk after Him, you're poor in spirit, you're
like the beggar. You are the beggar. But our Lord
Jesus Christ has accomplished the warfare of his people. And
you know what he's done for us? He's done for his children. He's
called just what he did for Hannah, what Elkanah did for Hannah.
He's given us double for all our sin. Double. Double. He's put away all the sin of
his people and he's made us the righteousness of God in him.
He's blessed us eternally. We're blessed better than we
were in Adam before the fall. To whom God would make known
what is the riches, the riches of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles, among you and me who are not of natural
Israel. What are the riches? What is the rich? What is it
to have the riches? Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's the picture here with
Hannah, with Samuel being formed in her, Christ in you. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that
mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. He
hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath
sent away empty. And you're looking at Peninnah
as a type of natural Israel, and then you look at Hannah as
a type of God's elect church. She said there in verse 5, The
barren hath born seven, and she that hath many children is waxed
feeble. Seven is the number of perfection.
And our Lord has a perfect He has an elect children and he
will save each and every one of them so that that perfect
number will be brought into the fold and saved. They'll all be
brought forth. In Isaiah 53, Isaiah declared
that we're saved by the travail of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
didn't travail. He did. And he shall see of the
travail of his soul and be satisfied. He travailed to bring forth children. He travailed to make his children
the righteousness of God in him. And he's going to, through this
gospel, call us out, form Christ in our heart, and all the travail
is his. We're the children born. And
he tells his bride, his church, in Isaiah 54. Listen to this. Let's look at it. Isaiah 54.
This is what he tells us right here. After declaring that triumphant
victory of our Lord Jesus. This is what he says to us. This
is what Christ is working right now in this earth through this
gospel. Isaiah 54-1, sing, O barren. That's who Hannah was, the barren.
That's the true church of God who appeared barren. Sing, O
barren, thou that didst not bear. Break forth into singing and
cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child. For more
are the children of the desolate than the children of the married
wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent,
let them stretch forth the curtains of thy inhabitation. Spare not,
lengthen thy cords, strengthen thy stakes, for thou shalt break
forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall
inherit the Gentiles. And make the desolate cities
to be inhabited. Fear not, thou shalt not be ashamed,
neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to shame.
For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember
the reproach of thy widowhood any more, for thy maker is thy
husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, and thy Redeemer, the
Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall he be called.
That's what Hannah's praying. That's what she's praying. And
our Lord right now, Through this gospel, he's calling in his people.
He's calling in his people. He's calling in his... He's birthing
his children through the bride to church preaching the gospel.
And when He's done, it's going to be a perfect number that no
man can number that our Lord has made, that He did all Himself. He's the Maker. He's the Redeemer. He's the Holy One. He's the power
and wisdom of God. He's the righteousness and holiness,
the author and finisher of faith in all His children. He's the
salvation of His people. Now go back to 1 Samuel 2, 6,
and let's see. I'm just going to read this.
I read this the other night. This is what the Lord taught
Hannah through her barrenness and then making her fruitful.
And this is what the Lord is teaching His children. He teaches
you this when He finds you in your utter barrenness and forms
Christ in you. He keeps teaching you through
the seasons of your barrenness and while He produces fruit in
you and shows you it's all of Him. He's showing you more and
more it's all of Him. And here's what He makes you
to know. Verse six, 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 raises 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 has 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 anointing. Jesus Christ our Lord is the
King of kings. He's the Lord's anointing. He's
the Christ. He's the Holy One of the Lord. He's the strength and power of
His people. He's the all-knowing Savior,
and He's keeping the feet of His saints. He told His disciples,
all powers given to me in heaven and earth, go forth and preach
this gospel. That's our assurance. By strength
no man will prevail. We won't prevail by our strength
to justify ourselves. We won't prevail by our strength
to sanctify ourselves. And no enemy of God will prevail
to do His redeemed any harm. For by strength shall no man
prevail. Hannah was utterly weak and barren. And yet the Lord produced life
in Hannah, and that brought her to praise God alone. You know what Hannah means? It
means grace. That's what it means. The Lord
taught her what he taught the Apostle Paul. He said to me,
my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect
in weakness. Are you weak? Are you weak? Children
of God are weak. That's where he's going to keep
his children, weak. Because when we're weak, we're strong. We
trust in Christ only. I titled this Grace to Grace. God gave grace to Hannah. You
turn from all else and you believe the Lord Jesus. I don't care
what He brings in providence. You turn from all else and you
trust the Lord Jesus. You do what Hannah did. She cried
out for God to save. She cried out for God to fill
her, to strengthen her, to save her. You do the same. And He
gives grace. And He gives more grace. And
He keeps giving grace. He does it to all His Hannahs.
unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the
power of God and He's the wisdom of God. You trust Him. All right,
let's go to it. Our Heavenly Father, none holy
but You, how we thank You that You have set us on the rock,
Christ Jesus. How we thank You, Lord, You're
the wisdom of Your people. You know all things. You know
the heart in Your people. You know the heart of the wicked. Lord, we're thankful for Your
grace to us, for lifting us up, keeping us low in our flesh and
lifting us up in spirit, keeping us looking to Christ alone, trusting
Him alone. Lord, we ask You, form Christ
in us. We ask You to renew us in our
minds, make us behold Him like we've never beheld Him before, and keep us looking only always
to Him. Thank You, Lord, for this gift
You've given us, all the grace You've given us. Lord, don't
let us speak proudly. Don't let us speak arrogantly.
Let us glorify You. Let our heart rejoice in the
Lord. Let us rejoice in Your salvation.
In Christ's name we ask it. Amen.