Turn back with me to 1 Samuel
2, please. Those first three words in verse
1 of chapter 2, and Hannah prayed. You know, there are many great
prayers in the scriptures by Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David,
Solomon, Daniel. Yet Hannah's prayer is one of
the most conclusive declarations of God's sovereignty in all the
Bible. But it's much more than just
a declaration of God's sovereignty, power, and omnipotence. As I
read over it again several times in the past couple of weeks,
it's every believer's experience of grace. We're not saved by
experience, I know that, but salvation is of the Lord, and
our Lord is sovereign. And there's no grace but sovereign
grace. I had a man ask me one time,
he said, why do you always have to classify grace as sovereign
grace? I said, because what a lot of
folks today call grace is not grace at all. We distinguish
the grace that we believe in to be sovereign because we know
it's only God that can give it. And He sovereignly gives it.
It can't be resisted. It's irresistible. Every sinner
that He draws unto Him comes unto Him. That's sovereign grace. No grace but sovereign grace.
The Lord saves sinners by His almighty power. That's the only
way a dead sinner can be saved. And you know, I think the reason
folks have a problem with that, religion in particular, is that
they really don't believe that they're dead. They don't believe
that they're dead in trespasses and sin. And I suppose it's hard
for folks to get their minds around that because we do live
and we breathe. and we're alive physically, but
spiritually we're dead. We died in Adam. When Adam disobeyed
God, God said, in the day you eat there of that fruit, that's
my tree, the day you eat of that, you shall surely die. And he
ate and he died. Though he lived 920 years. We're dead in trespasses and
sin, and God must, in order for us to live, give us life by the
power of His might. You and I are without strength.
We don't have any strength. We're dead. A dead man doesn't
have any strength. Men represent God today to be
powerless. He's dependent on the help of
man. Salvation is preached as a cooperative effort between
God and man. And the message preached today
is not a message of man's need, but it's a message of God's need.
You know it's so, and so do I. The message preached today is
not a message of help for the sinner, but a message of help
for God. Preachers ask things like, won't
you give God your heart? Won't you let him have his way? You've heard me talk about this. The God loves you, won't you
love him back? You've heard all these ridiculous
questions, but in our text tonight, we not only see something of
God's sovereign, omnipotent power, but we see something of God's
sovereignty and salvation. We're not saved by an experience,
no, but there are many lost souls who are still waiting to have
an experience in salvation. They're waiting for the earth
to move or I don't know what, a flash of light, an appearance
of an angel, I don't know. Kind of like that impotent man
at the pool of Bethesda, waiting for an angel to come and stir
the water. Maybe that's what they're waiting
on. And when they do, it seems to
always wind up being an experience by which they convince themselves
that they had something to do with. That being their acceptance
of God, as we talked about Sunday. I accepted Jesus. No, you did
not. No, you did not. That being a
decision that they supposedly made. I have decided to follow
Jesus. No, I kind of doubt it. a work they claim to do, when
confronted with the consequence of sin and the judgment and the
condemnation that awaits due to that sin, the first question
a sinner asks, you can find it in the scripture many times,
is what must I do to be saved? You see, it's just, by nature,
we want to do something to save ourselves. And most people are
convinced that they must. Well, I've got to do something,
don't I? It can't just be that easy. I've got to do something.
Well, what are you going to do? You're dead. You're dead in trespasses
and sins. So we come right back to that. Do men and women really think
that they're dead, spiritually dead? And that's why in the end,
their confidence and assurance is always revealed by statements
like, haven't we done many wonderful works? They're shocked that they're
not front row on the train to heaven, so to speak. These wonderful
works that they're trusting in, what did the Lord call them?
We talk about it quite often. He said they're works of iniquity. Haven't we done many wonderful
works? He said, you're workers of iniquity. Anything that we
think we do in order to be saved is just that, it's iniquity.
God calls the ones who claim to do them workers of iniquity.
And the judgment of Christ against them is always, depart from me,
ye that work iniquity. To trust in a work of righteousness
that you do. when you have no righteousness,
is to forsake the perfect righteousness that only Christ can provide.
Those who go about to establish a righteousness of their own,
they're ignorant of God's righteousness. And I'm not the one that said
that, God said that. You're ignorant of God's righteousness,
unlearned. One who has not and does not
submit themselves unto the righteousness of God is ignorant. Why? Because Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. I
can't keep God's law. I can't justify, I can't satisfy
God's justice. Christ did it for me. It's His
perfect righteousness that I stand in. And it's His perfect righteousness
that God sees on His chosen people that causes God to accept the
sinner. Big difference in accepting and
being accepted. We're accepted where? In the
beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ. To establish your own righteousness
is to forsake Christ's righteousness as one or the other. And it's
just that simple. We make it a lot harder than
it is. Salvation is not a mixture of your righteousness and Christ's
righteousness. Such a one may have zeal, that's
what Paul said, they have a zeal, but it's not according to knowledge.
We're not saved by an experience. We're saved by the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're washed clean in His precious blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no what? Remission. No remission. Remission is the cancellation
of debt. Remission is the retraction of
penalty. Remission is the forgiveness
of sins. Without the shedding of blood,
there is none. Remission is even better than
forgiveness. It's absolution. It's release
from guilt. You know, if I commit a crime,
and let's say I commit a crime, and lack of evidence or some
technicality, I'm acquitted of that crime, even though I'm guilty,
I may not serve the penalty of that crime, but being guilty,
I'm still going to feel the guilt of that crime. Are you following
me? Because you're guilty and you
feel the guilt of it. But Christ's blood so thoroughly
washes away our sin, so much so that our sin never existed.
And that's why we can't get our little finite minds around. If we could, we'd be a whole
lot better off than we are. There's nothing for us to feel
guilty about. Now this prayer of Hannah is
not only a declaration, as I said, of the sovereignty of God, but
it's a declaration of every believer's experience of grace, which is
at his sovereign hand. And I think we'll see that tonight.
I pray that we do. So let's consider this prayer
of Hannah with both those thoughts of mine. And again, verse one,
and Hannah prayed. Now I want you to pay close attention
to that first little word, and. It's a conjunction, it's called.
It ties together what came before it. It means in addition to. It means also or besides or furthermore. Now what is Hannah's prayer tied
together with? Her deliverance. That's the first
thing we talked about in our first study, the story of the
birth of Samuel. and Hannah's barrenness and her
requesting the Lord is a story about Hannah's deliverance. It
was a sovereign, omnipotent, almighty deliverance. Barrenness,
she was barren. Elkanah had two wives, Peninnah
and Hannah. Peninnah had several children,
Hannah didn't have any. When Elkanah would go off to
the feast three times a year, Peninnah just ragged Hannah. She was jealous of Hannah because
Elkanah, their husband, loved Hannah. And she mocked her and
made fun of her. And boy, this was a real source
of grief for Hannah. And Hannah's deliverance is a
picture of our deliverance. What was Hannah delivered from?
I just said it, barrenness, lack of life within. That's the problem
with all of us by nature. God is powerfully gonna have
to give Hannah life within. And friends, if you and I are
gonna be delivered, that's what He's gonna have to do for us.
He's gonna have to powerfully, sovereignly, omnipotently give
us life, because we're dead. And Hannah prayed. What caused Hannah to pray this
prayer? There's a reason she prayed this particular prayer.
She was barren and couldn't produce life within herself. And this
is something that God had to do for her and it's something
God has to do for us. We can't produce life within
ourselves. The name Hannah means favored. It means favored of the Lord.
The name Hannah actually means grace, unmerited favor. All favor from God is. And none
of us ever merited His favor. That's what makes it grace. It's
unmerited, it's undeserved. Hannah didn't have any children.
She didn't have the ability to give life within. How could she
be favored? Why, it was every Jewish woman's
desire to have children, thinking that they would give birth to,
especially a son, thinking that it would be the Messiah. We talked
about that. Most would think that Padmina
was the favored one. She had several children, Hannah
had none. How could Hannah be favored of the Lord? She knew
what she was. She knew what she was. She was
barren, had no life within. As Brother Maurice used to say,
she knew she was a dead dog sinner. Do you know you're a dead dog
sinner? As we said before, this gives us a very clear picture
of what we have in religion today. Modern day religion declares
to have the fruit of life. God's people acknowledge to the
Lord that they're barren. They have no life within. The
religion of the world boasts as Peninnah did. They declare,
I'm rich, I'm increased with goods and I have no, I have need
of nothing. I have fruit galore. But there
was something that Peninnah didn't have. She didn't have the love of her
husband. Christ told those who bragged
on their works. He said, I never knew you. I
never knew you, I never loved you. Peninnah did not understand
that without the love of her husband, just as anyone who is
without Christ, they're nothing. They're wretched and miserable
and poor and blind and naked. They think that they're rich
and increased with goods and have need of nothing, but they're
not. They're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. And this
is what the religious world is without Christ. They're wretched,
miserable, poor, blind, and naked, and they don't even know it. But Hannah knew this. She knew
what she was. God, by her experience, showed
her it was so. She tried to have children. She
wanted to have children, but she couldn't. She was barren
within. And Hannah prayed. This revelation caused her to
pray. What is it that causes us to
pray? When we see there's no life within,
we cry out unto the Lord. Lord, help me. Lord, save me. It all comes back to one thing,
Amy, lack of need. It always comes back to that.
And this is what all of us are by nature. And this is the first
thing that God's gonna show His elect, that they're barren, dead. Our God is the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. You know, I was thinking about
this week, all three of their wives, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
all three of their wives were barren. Isn't that something?
That serves also as a picture to us. It's God who put life
into each one of them. All of us are barren, and it's
God alone who puts life into us, and it's by His sovereign
mercy and grace No life in us, we're dead in
trespasses and sin. And yet, we are the favored ones. Might not look that way. David
complained often, he saw the prosperity of the wicked and
he said, this just ain't right. But David, you're beloved of
the Lord. You're the favored one. That's what his name means, beloved. Might not seem to be the case,
but those who see that they are barren are the favored ones. They're the ones that'll cry
out unto the Lord. They're the ones that'll pray,
and Hannah prayed. That's what Hannah did, and that's
what all God's people gonna do. And it's the favor of God that
makes them to do so. Hannah was highly favored. She
had a husband that loved and favored her. God has a people that he loves
and favors. God's good to everyone. Don't
get me wrong. The sun and the rain fall on
the just and the unjust, but he doesn't love everyone. That's
not a popular message today. And people will think you're
in a cult if you tell them you don't believe he loves everybody.
But they better open their Bibles and read it. His people get a
double portion. Look back at chapter 1, verse
6 again. It says, And her adversary, that
being Peninnah, also provoked her sword, for to make her fret,
because the Lord had shut up her womb. You see, all the elect
of God have received double for their sins. When Elkanah left
to go to the feast, he gave Peninnah a portion in her turn, but he
gave Hannah double. All God's people receive double
for their sins. They're given both forgiveness
and the very righteousness of God in Christ. Peninnah had several
children, maybe as many as 10 some say, Hannah had none. Peninnah
was jealous and self-righteous. She was arrogant and prideful. What a picture she is of this
religious world in which we live. But Hannah was barren and she
was made humble. And she was the one who was favored
of God. This world is full of people
professed to be believers. And I tell you, I heard someone
say this many years ago, and at the time, I thought it was
a horrible statement. He said, religious people are
the meanest people on earth. And you know what? He's right. He was right. They're arrogant,
self-righteous, full of themselves, full of their own goodness, full
of self-worth. But Hannah cried unto the Lord
out of need. She saw what she was. She knew
what she was. She's dead. She was barren. Every
believer cries unto God out of their barrenness, their deadness,
and their iniquity. Now, something to think about,
Hannah asked for a son that she might dedicate him right back
to the Lord. I'm convinced that if we would ask the Lord for
things, spiritual blessings in heavenly places, so that we might
better serve him, that he'd grant them to us. What an example of
that we have here. She said, Lord, if you give me
a son, I'll just give him right back to you. He'll serve you
all the day. But we ask for stupid things
that we may consume them upon our own lust. We ask amiss. It's called asking amiss. We
don't ask for the right reasons. But you ask for faith, I believe
the Lord will give it to you. If you ask for grace, I believe
the Lord will give it. I have no doubt that He will.
If you ask for ways that you might serve Him, I don't doubt
that He won't give it to you. Christ said, I've come to give
you life and give it to you more abundantly. Abundance. May we learn to ask for joy and
peace and longsuffering and gentleness. Boy, I could use a good dose
of all those. Patience, goodness, faith. We have not because we ask not.
We ask amidst for things to consume them upon our lusts. Okay, again,
verse one, and Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoiceth
in the Lord. Mine horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over mine
enemies because I rejoice in thy salvation. Now Hannah declares
that her heart rejoiced in the Lord. Hannah is speaking from
the heart about her heart. Hannah declares that her heart
rejoiced in the Lord. Everything about a horn speaks
of the heart. Horn means strength. The believer's
strength is Christ in our hearts. Oil is carried in a horn. The oil of the Holy Spirit is
poured on the heart. Why does the heart rejoice in
the Lord? Why did her heart rejoice in
the Lord? Because it's in his salvation
that it rejoices. That's what she said. I rejoice
in thy salvation. Now there was no doubt that Hannah
rejoiced in her husband that loved her. And there's no doubt
that she rejoiced in Samuel, the son in whom the Lord gave
her. But it was the Lord's salvation and deliverance that gave her
both, her husband and her son, and caused her to truly rejoice
in her heart. Hannah says, my mouth is enlarged
over mine enemies. In verse 6, chapter 1, we read,
And Hannah's adversary, Peninnah, also provoked her sore to make
her fret because the Lord had shut up her womb. And isn't that
what sin does to us? It causes you sore discomfort
and grief. It causes you to fret. You worry
about your state and condition. You know, you come, you hear
the gospel, you're encouraged, and then you go right back home
and you find yourself, your sin is ever before you, and you think,
my, my, how could a believer act this way or think these things
or say these things? You ask yourself, what's wrong
with me? You ever ask yourself that? I ask myself that a lot. What is wrong with me? I know
the answer. I know it when I ask. It's my
sin. That's what's wrong with me. I got a heart problem full
of sin. How does God take away the power
of your enemies? How does God in perfect strength
give strength to those who have no strength? He reveals to us
that He is our salvation. Hannah says, I rejoice in thy
salvation. There's salvation in no other.
Verse two, there is none holy as the Lord. For there is none
beside thee, neither is there any rock like our God. Now we get to listen in here
on Hannah's heart. It's the heart of grace, the
heart that is favored by grace. There's none holy as the Lord. You ask people today what the
Lord's greatest attribute is, I'll tell you, in most cases,
is love. But this is not called the love
Bible. I'm sure there's probably one
called that. But this is called the holy Bible. His angels are
called holy angels. The men that served him are called
holy men of God. God is holy. He's glorious in
holiness. Glorious in holiness. There's
none holy as the Lord. That word holy means other. It means sacred. It means set
apart. It means all together different.
The Lord's holy. We're not. We're unholy. He has
to make us holy. There's none holy as the Lord. And this is the key to understanding
our need of salvation. We must be holy and as perfect
as God to be accepted. God demands, be ye holy as I
am holy. Now, how are we going to do that?
Well, we're not. It's got to be done for us. It's got to be
done for us. We don't have the power to be
as holy as the Lord. Only a holy and sovereign God
can make me such. And the second thing that grace
reveals is this, neither is any rock like our God. Rock is a symbol for strength
and power. There's no strength like Christ
our rock. Deuteronomy 32, 4. 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. He sent redemption unto His people.
He hath commanded His covenant forever. Holy and reverend is
His name. I'm sure Gene over the years,
just like me, has gotten pieces of mail in that said, Reverend
Harmon, Reverend Edmondson. Ain't nothing reverend about
me. Whenever I've done a funeral for someone that doesn't know
me that well, they'll say, We were writing up the obituary,
and they just wanted us to call you Reverend Edmondson. I said,
please don't. Please don't. You can call me pastor or just
David. David Edmondson's officiated.
But don't call me reverend, because reverend is God. No man reverend. No. Only those he makes of. To be accepted of God, we gotta
be perfect to be accepted. How holy do we have to be? Perfectly
holy. As holy as God Himself. And in
light of that, in verse three, we see that we should 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. You know, by nature, we're so
proud, aren't we? Why do we, what do we have that
we didn't receive? You know, Paul asked that in
1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 7. Who maketh thee to differ?
What do you have you didn't receive? And if you received it and all
that we have we receive, why do you act as if you didn't receive
it? Why do you act like it's something
that you came up with or that you accomplished yourself? Why do we glory as if we didn't
receive it? Who made us to differ? The sovereign
and holy God did. When we're rebuked of the Lord,
we get offended. Why? Nothing but pride. Nothing but pride. We make excuses
and we argue to justify ourselves in the matter of our chastisement.
We play the blame game. I wouldn't have done that if
you hadn't done this. We're talking exceedingly proudly
when we do that. Let not arrogance come out of
your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him, actions
are weighed. We don't have anything to be
proud and arrogant about. We have everything to be humble
about, but not prideful and arrogant. Our great God weighs the actions
of our heart. Man looks on the outward appearance,
but where does God look? He looks on the heart. Our arrogance
is revealed for what it is. It's self-righteousness and it's
hardness of heart. And the Lord being omniscient,
all-knowing, knows about me things that I don't even know about
myself. Am I gonna try to pull the wool over his eyes? What does a maggot have to brag
about? Boy, I'm a good maggot. You know,
I've said it before, you can put a maggot in a tuxedo and
he's still a maggot. The Lord knows our frame. He
remembers that we're dust. When we brag about who and what
we are, he already knows who and what we are. Do we think
we're fooling him? When we pour our hearts out to
Him because of our sin, He knows sin is what we are, and He's
ready to be merciful to us. Why? Because He delights to show
mercy. That's the kind of God that He
is. The Lord's actions, His purposes, His decrees, His counsels, the
counsels of His will, they're weighed and they're not examined
by anyone. You know, men try to judge God, they try to examine
God, they try to hold God accountable, but He does what He wills in
the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest thou? None can question Him. Whether
He condemns or whether He shows mercy, it's lawful for Him. It's right for Him to do what
He will with His own. And it's by the same power that
we're weighed in the balances and found wanting. We come up
short every time. We've all sinned and come short
of what? The glory of God. And it's here in verse four that
we see our experience of grace. Look at it. The bowls of the
mighty men, the things that we think protect us and save us,
are broken. What are they? They're broken.
And we are made to see that we can do nothing to save ourselves.
Now, the bowl represents the strength of men. God says they're
broken. God had chosen the weak things
of the world to confound them. the things which are mighty,
so that no flesh should glory in his presence." That's what
God's teaching us. The bowels of the mighty men
are broken. Why? Because ain't no man gonna glory
in his presence. And the remainder of verse four
says, and they that stumbled in their weakness are girded
with strength. And that again speaks of the
heart. You know, a girdle is an underpinning. It's underneath
the exterior. This speaks of the heart within,
that which God looks upon. We're strengthening in the heart.
Psalm 18, 32, it's God that girdeth me with strength and maketh my
way perfect. Look at verse five. They that
were full had hard out themselves for bread, and they that were
hungry ceased. Now there was a time that I was
satisfied. I was satisfied in my sin. I was satisfied in this world. And so were you. We didn't give
our sin a second thought, and we didn't give God a first thought.
You know it so, and so do I. Someone not long ago said unto
me, you know, I think this world just is longing to hear the truth. No, they're not. No, they're
not. They're happy with things just
as they are. Men and women are hungry and
thirst after God's righteousness only when God empties them of
self. There was a time when the Lord
delivered me from being full, and He made me hungry, and He
made me thirsty after righteousness. He made me hungry for what I
couldn't provide for myself, and I became hungry, and then
that's when He filled me. Our experience of grace is a
sovereign experience. God doing for me what I cannot
do for myself. Have I ever preached a message
that I hadn't said that, Shelley? I hope I never do, because that's
the beauty of the gospel. God doing for me what I can't
do. I can't do it for you. You can't
do it for me. Only God can do it for all of us. What did the
Lord Jesus say? He said, blessed are they which
do hunger and thirst after righteousness. He didn't stop there. He said,
for they shall be filled. They shall be filled. If you
hunger and thirst after righteousness and cry unto the Lord for it,
you'll be filled. Are they gonna fill themselves?
No, God's gonna fill them. And they'll be satisfied. I'm satisfied, aren't you? I'm
satisfied with the same thing God is satisfied with, and that's
His Son. You know, if someone murdered
one of my children or grandchildren, and they were convicted to spend
the rest of their life in prison, I wouldn't be satisfied. The only thing that would satisfy
me would be if my child or grandchild could be raised from the dead.
Now that would satisfy me. And the reason that hell is eternal
is because the Lord never gets any satisfaction whatsoever from
the one who spends eternity there. Their suffering for eternity
in pain and anguish and torment could never pay for the first
sin. Their torment would never satisfy
God's holy justice whom they offended. But if Christ being
perfect took my place, if Christ being perfect suffered in my
room instead, paid sin's wages in full, then God would be satisfied. And God was satisfied. God raised
Him from the dead. And here's the beautiful thing,
that if I am in Christ, that I too am raised with Him because
I'm in Him. You know, we talk about being
in Christ and we just almost talk about it flippantly. You
think about what it is to be in Christ. Read Ephesians 1 over
and over and see all the blessings. All spiritual blessings and heavenly
places are given to us where? In Him. That's something now. I'm buried with Christ. I'm raised with Christ. And in
Christ God is satisfied with me. The last part of verse five says,
so that the barren had born seven and she that hath many children
is waxed feeble. The barren who could not produce
life has born seven. That's the number of completion
and perfection. Oh, we're perfect and complete
in Him. The one who did not have the
ability to produce life is given the ability to do so. And the
one who had the ability to produce life, or at least thought they
did, by their own free will, are wax feeble. They're made
barren. How'd this come about? Who's
behind this? Blind fate? No, no. This who behind it? Look at verse
six. The Lord killeth and maketh alive. Did you notice which came
first? The Lord killeth. He kills you
so you don't have any hope in yourself. See, we're applying
this not only to God's sovereignty, but we're applying it to His
sovereignty in redemption, in salvation. We're made to see
that we can produce no life within us. Everyone the Lord kills,
now listen, He makes them alive. He kills them to give them life
from their death. We call it regeneration. Who
does God regenerate? And you hath He quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sin. Ephesians 2.1. That letter wasn't
written to the world. It was written to God's people,
God's saints. And is that not your experience
of Sovereign Grave? He bringeth down to the grave
and He bringeth up. That's our hope. When Christ
went to the grave, we went with Him. And when Christ rose from
the dead, His people rose with Him. That's what we demonstrate
in baptism. Do you see the blessedness of being
in Christ? Being in Him really means being
in Him. You can't take that too far,
Clayton. You just can't do it. He's seated in the heavenlies
and we're seated there with Him because we are in Him. Verse seven, the Lord maketh
poor. Now, if there's someone on the
street that's poor, The Lord made them that way, but again,
we're applying this spiritually in the matter of salvation. The
Lord maketh poor. He made Hannah poor, He made
us poor. He reveals to us our spiritual
poverty. And He maketh rich. We are made
to see the unsearchable riches of Christ that we have. God did
it. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became
poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. The greatest one-sided
transaction in all the world. The Lord bringeth low. And he lifted up. The Lord brought
us low. and showed us our need of Him.
He has the power to bring the mightiest men low, and He has
the power to lift up the lowest man up. That's why we call it
sovereign grace. Verse eight, He raiseth up the
poor out of the dust, and He lifteth up the beggar from the
dunghill to set them among princes. And notice the language here,
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. Now, there's two things here
that describe me and describe you. Poor and a beggar. This is how we come to the Lord.
Poor, penniless, we don't have anything to offer. We're nothing. We have nothing. We can certainly
do nothing. We come as beggar, mercy beggars. And all we have is importunity. These men and women on the streets
that hold up their signs saying we'll work for food, let me tell
you, you ask one of them to come mow your grass and you buy them
a steak dinner, you see what they do. But we're spiritually
the same. We carry our little spiritual
signs like we'll work for salvation. But we won't because we can't.
First, because we're dead and we can't do anything. And secondly,
because the Lord doesn't need anything from us. He's got everything
that we need. We're raised from the dunghill
to the throne. We're made to sit with the Prince
of Peace. We're on the throne of glory.
How does God do this? Well, the earth's the Lord's
in the fullness there. They and all that be in it, it
all belongs to Him. He has the whole world in His
hands. Remember that song we used to
sing? He's got the whole world in His hands. He really does.
Probably just in one hand. All state may need two hands,
but He does. He sets the world upon the pillars
in His hand. The Lord kills. He makes alive.
He brings down. He brings up. He makes poor.
He makes rich. He brings low and lifts up. He
raises the poor. He takes the beggars from the
dug hill to the throne. Is that not your experience of
grace? And that's not all he does. Look
at verse nine. He will keep the feet of his
saints. That's his holy ones. We may
not be afraid of which way our feet are gonna go because he's
gonna keep our feet. What a promise that is. He is
able to keep you from falling. Why? To present you faultless. You will not be any more holy
in heaven than you are right now. You'll not be any more of
a saint than you are right this second. St. David, St. Linda, St. Shelley. My, my. We feel so unworthy of it, but
it's not because of anything we've done. And it says, then the wicked
shall be silent in darkness. For by strength, that word strength
there means ability, shall no man prevail. You're not by any
ability going to be able to do anything to merit salvation.
No man can come. No man has the ability to come. Are you persuaded of your inability?
Boy, I am. I know you are, aren't you? Are
you persuaded of his ability? Verse 10, the adversaries, the
enemies of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Out of heaven
shall he thunder upon them, and the Lord shall judge, that word
means justify, the ends of the earth of his people from every
kindred, tongue, nation, tribe. And he shall give strength unto
his king. That's the king of kings, that's
talking about. and exalt the horn, the strength
of His anointing. Jesus Christ is the King of kings,
and He's my King. In this prayer we have a wonderful
declaration of the sovereignty of God, yes, and it's not only
in creation and providence, but it is also in salvation. I remember Brother Mahan preaching
right here, right in this spot, telling us one time about him
preaching at a free-will Baptist church. They invited him and
he said, I preached on the sovereignty of God. I preached on election.
I preached on providence. And he said it made pretty much
every man mad. Men in the church may, I think
they even cut the meeting short. He said, but there was one older
fella that after he preached, stood up and started walking
to the front. He said, I ain't ever heard anything
like that in all my life, but that is exactly how God saved
me. That's how God saved me. By His
sovereign mercy and grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't
that how the Lord saved you? He's too sovereign to fail. Sovereignly, powerfully, mightfully,
purposely, He saved us. And we wouldn't have it any other
way. We wouldn't have it any other way. Oh, I'm so thankful that my God
is upon His throne. He's ruling and reigning and
working all things. after the counsel of His own
will, and for my good and for your good. All for the good of
all them that love Him, who I'll be called according to His purpose."
Is there any better news than that?