Turn with me, if you would, to
the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel, chapter 2. 1 Samuel, chapter 2. Right after the book of Judges. While you're turning, let me
say that it's my desire this morning to tell you once again
from the Scriptures. from the word of God, how God
in the person of his beloved son saves sinners by his grace. Salvation has never been by man's
might nor by man's power, but by the spirit of the Lord of
hosts, Zechariah 4.6. And I suppose most everyone is
familiar with Hannah and her prayer unto the Lord. Hannah
was barren and she desired a child. And when the Lord gave her her
son, who was the prophet Samuel, she extolled the Lord in prayer. The prayer of Hannah is, I suppose,
one of the strongest declarations of God's sovereignty in all the
Bible. Verse six, she prayed, the Lord
killeth and maketh alive." Who kills and makes alive? God does. He, God, bringeth it down to
the grave and bringeth up, up from the grave. He's the one
that raises the dead. Who does this? God does this. It was the Lord that gave Lazarus
his sickness. And it was the Lord that, in
that sense, killed Lazarus, and it was the Lord that raised him
from the dead. Do we believe that? That's what
Hannah believed. She said, the Lord kills and
the Lord makes alive. And that's what this book teaches.
God is the first cause of everything. Now, do I understand that? No,
I don't, but I do believe it. In verse seven, Hannah added,
the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich. Again, who does this? The
Lord does. It's the Lord that brings poverty
to some, and it's the Lord that makes others rich. And if you
have nothing or if you have everything, it's the Lord that causes that
to be. It's the Lord that brings some
low to have great need, and it's the same Lord that also lifts
others up so that they have no need. This, no doubt, applies
to both the physical and spiritual realm of things. He makes some
poor and needy, and He makes some rich and self-sufficient. He makes some poor in spirit,
and theirs is the kingdom of God. and he makes some proud
with arrogance and they have theirs in this world, but God
does it and he does it all. Now my point is this, it's the
Lord that does all these things. That's exactly what the Lord
told the Persian king named Cyrus who founded the Persian empire.
In the book of Isaiah chapter 45, God said, I am the Lord. And there is none else. There
is no other Lord. There can only be one Lord, Lord
of all. He said, there is none else and
there is no God beside me. There can only be one God. And
he said, no God beside me. And then he told this Persian
king, he said, I girded thee. That word means strengthened.
I strengthened you. I gave you power. I made you
who and what you are. though thou hast not known me."
You know, it was the same God that the God of heaven and earth,
the God of the Bible who raised up Pharaoh. And he said, for
this purpose, what was the purpose, God, that you raised up Pharaoh?
That I might show my power in thee. and that God's name might be
declared throughout the earth. And when God got finished with
Pharaoh and Egypt, it was. When the people of Israel got
to the land of Canaan, the promised land, Rahab, and several of the
Gibeonites and all of them said, we've heard about your God. We
heard what your God did to Pharaoh. We heard what your God did to
Egypt. We heard what your God did to those two evil kings. and our hearts didn't melt within
us. That's what Paul was talking about there in Romans. God through
the prophet Isaiah continues and says that they, all the inhabitants
of the earth may know from the rising of the sun and from the
east to the west that there is none, no God beside me. No God but me. I am the Lord
and there is none else. He repeats it over and over again.
God does that to get through these thick things of ours. God
is saying, besides me, there is nothing. All creatures are
non-entities compared to me. In me, by me, and through me,
everyone lives and moves and has their being, whether they
know God or not. He's the creator. He's the sustainer
of all. God said, I form the light and
create darkness. I make peace and create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. He formed the natural light in
the first creation. He forms the spiritual light
in the second creation. If you and I are to ever have
light, revelation from above, enlightened by the Spirit of
God, it'll be God that gives it. He's the fountain and the
source of all light. He is the light and the life
of the world. Jesus Christ is. And it was God
who brought the night and called it darkness. Spiritually, God
brings the ignorance and the darkness that follows sin. And
God gives men up and He leaves them to the blackness and the
darkness of their own heart, and He reserves them to everlasting
darkness. It's God that does this. God
makes peace and creates evil. Peace between God and man is
made by Christ. Does God really create evil?
Well, it's what the scripture says, yes. But not the evil of
sin. That's accredited to man. Man
sinned against God. We don't blame our evil on God. But man's sin is overruled by
the Lord for the good of his people. God's sore judgments,
whether it's pestilence or famine or war, all these things are
opposed to the peace of God, are referred to as evil, yet
they're allowed of God to accomplish His purpose then. All afflictions,
all adversities, all calamities come under the title evil and
they are of God. You know, when Job's wife asked
him, you remember when he lost all he had, lost all 10 of his
children? He said, the Lord giveth and
the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And his wife didn't like that. And she said, why do you retain
your integrity? Why don't you just curse God
and die? And Job said to her, thy speaketh
as a foolish woman speaks. What, shall we receive good at
the hand of God, and shall we not also receive evil? Are not
all calamities, all adversities, all these tribulations, are they
not from God too? Yes, they are. Everything that
happened to Job was by God's holy judgment, but in the end,
it was all for Job's good. And whatever's happening to you,
dear believer, in this life, it may seem bad, it may seem
horrible, but trust me, God is working all things together for
your good. Somehow, someway. It's important to understand
that that word evil means adversity, affliction, and calamity, and
the Lord is the cause of all of it. The Lord confirms these
words at the end of His declaration concerning Himself here in Isaiah
when He said, I the Lord do all these things. Now here in 1 Samuel
chapter two, verse eight, Hannah continues, and this is my text,
She continues and she says, he, speaking of God, raiseth up the
poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill
to set them among princes. And you see, this is how God
can do this, it tells us, for the pillars of the earth are
the Lord's. And He has set the world upon them. Friends, God
is sovereign. He's sovereign in creation. He's
sovereign in providence. And He's sovereign, especially
in salvation. And I don't make any excuse for
that word. We're just distinguishing our
God from the God that is declared in most circles today. God today
wants to do something, but you've got to let Him. You've got to
lend Him your will. Not God. Not the God of the Bible. We distinguish Him. We distinguish
His grace by calling it sovereign grace. And these are the words
that I want us to consider in the time we have this morning.
What great insight they give us to what God has been pleased
to do for sinners. That He gave to Christ before
the world was ever made. Here we see mankind's sad plight. We see the bad news concerning
ourselves. Before we ever see the good news
of our redemption, we gotta see the bad news. And I like what
Brother Scott said one time, and when we see the good news,
there is no bad news. We see this bad news in man's
fallen character and position. What is man's character? He's
a beggar. What's his position? He's on
a dunghill. Whether men and women know it
or not, they're beggars on a dunghill. Every enlightened sinner is given
sight to see that they're spiritual beggars. What is a beggar? Well, in most cases, one who's
homeless, one who is reduced to poverty and begs. And what's a spiritual beggar?
One who's made to beg for mercy. That's what every believer sees
themselves to be, mercy beggars. I'm a mercy beggar. Now, a physical
beggar is one who has nothing, they're penniless. As my mom
used to say, you don't have anything. You empty your pockets, there
ain't nothing but lint. That's what a beggar is. Doesn't
have anything. You take their clothes off their
back, they're not worth the fuel or the effort to burn them. The
fallen sinner has nothing to pay. Salvation is Christ paying
it all. Jesus paid it all. That's our
only hope. We have no covering of righteousness
to offer God. Our covering of righteousness
is filthy rags, not worth burning, of no value, fit only for the
fire. There was never a beggar as short
of money as a sinner is short of merit. And never will a man become rich
in faith until he's first learned that he's penniless as far as
his own merit is concerned. We have nothing to offer God,
nothing that God will accept because it's got to be perfect
to be accepted. And that's something we don't
know anything about in and of ourselves. God's got to empty
us before He fills us. God's got to kill us before He
makes us alive. God's got to drain us before
He ever builds us up. And we must be made to confess
that in our flesh dwells no good thing. You've heard it, I've
heard it. There was a time I even said
it. Well, I'm not perfect, but I'm not all that bad. In your
flesh dwells no good thing. And the only thing we can do
is beg for mercy. We're not only worthless, we're
tradeless. And what I mean by that is we're
unemployable by nature. We have no way to make or earn
any worth. We have no merit without the
ability to earn it. We know nothing and are good
for nothing. And I have to ask you, does that
offend you? Well, it shouldn't, don't let
it. It ought to give you joy, but that's the kind that God
saves. That's the kind that God gives.
David said, I'm poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Now, if the Lord thinketh upon
me, that's a good thing. I'm poor and needy, David said.
Thou, God, art my help and my deliverer. He shall spare the
poor and needy and save the souls of the needy. David knew what
Hannah knew. He, the Lord, raiseth up the
poor out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill.
Psalm 113, seven. There's more hope for a physical
beggar getting rich than there is for a sinner attaining eternal
life by any deeds of their own. Now, did you hear me? There's
more opportunity for a beggar to become a millionaire than
it is for you and I to attain salvation and righteousness by
something that we do. You know, I looked this up yesterday.
I was curious. The odds of winning the lottery
are 292 million to one. That's one reason I don't play
it. I don't have any hope of winning
it. 292 million to one. You know,
the odds are greater that I die in a plane crash. The odds of
dying in a plane crash are 11 million to one. There's a greater
risk of me dying, getting struck by lightning than winning the
lottery. The odds of death by lightning
are 1.2 million to one. The odds of dying by a snake
bite, 50 million to one. As much as I hate snakes and
I'm not gonna try that out. The odds of dying by a shark
attack, 3.75 million to one. But hear me, the odds of saving
yourselves by a work of righteousness that you do is infinity to one. Infinity is a greater value,
a greater quantity, a number than any assignable number. Take
the highest number there is, and I don't know what it is,
but you take that and affinities be past that. Infinity to one,
that basically means impossible. Who then can be saved? The apostles
asked that question, and the Lord Jesus said, with men it
is impossible, but with God all things are possible. So the one
way against an unassignable number of being saved is that God must
intervene on your behalf. God's gotta reach his hand down
for you. and lift you out of the dust.
And he's got to reach down and take you from the dunghill and
he will set you among princes. That's the only hope that you
and I have of being saved. It's about the grace of God or
not at all. For by the deeds of the lost,
there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. God must raise
you up. The poor sinner you are out of
the dust. God must lift you, the beggar,
that you are from the dunghill. And God must set you among princes
and make you inherit the throne of glory. That's what he said
here. That's what Hannah prayed. And he can. Because the pillars
of the earth are his and he set the world upon them. Remember
that old song, he's got the whole world in his hand? He's got a
whole lot more than that in his hands. The less said about the character
of a beggar, the better. A beggar has a habit of helping
himself to what doesn't belong to him. That's the reason today
men and women take credit for their salvation. That credit
doesn't belong to them. That glory don't belong to them.
The Lord did the saving. We did the sinning. That's all
we've got to brag about is our sin and that's nothing to brag
about. You ask a convinced and convicted
sinner about his character and he'll tell you that before God
opened his eyes and showed him what he really was, while he
plumbed his feathers and spread his tail as proudly as a peacock. You ever seen a peacock strut
around? But when he sees himself as he really is in God's sight,
he's more like an ostrich and he buries his head in the sand. The same light that reveals to
us the light of God also shows us the darkness of self. God's
holiness reveals our unholiness. And the purity of God exposes
the impurity of man. The beggar is usually a man that
doesn't have any friends. Nobody cares to harbor beggars.
If a beggar has any friends at all, they are the companions
who share his poverty. They are those who are as vile
as he is. and can be no service to Him.
What a picture that is of the lost and unbelieving. In order for the poverty of sinners
to be helped, it's gonna take a divine intervention. You know
what that is? That's God reaching down His
hand and pulling you out of the dust and lifting you, the beggar
you are, off the dunghill and setting you among princes. That's
divine intervention. If we're ever to be reconciled
to God by the death of His Son, it'll be by an act of undeserved
charity. The beggar is one whose entire
dependence is upon charity. And if he receives any help,
it'll be by an act of grace and grace alone. Now, do you see
the character of a spiritual beggar? Do you see that by nature,
that's your character? That's the sad plight of all
of us by nature. Then secondly, let's consider
this beggar's position. It's said to be on a dung heap. Now you know what a dung heap
is, don't you? It's a heap of dung. You know what dung is,
don't you? It's a vile place to find your
abode. It's a horrible and loathsome
place to live. It's a detestable situation or
condition. The best that a beggar has, he
reckons to be his righteousness. But that's only filthy rags that's
worthy only of a dunghill. I think about Bartimaeus. They
always had what they called a beggar's Cloak. When they, you saw that
cloak or robe or whatever it was, coat around them, it identified
them as a beggar. But when the Lord Jesus called
for Bartimaeus, he threw that beggarly coat down. My, my, what a picture that is
of what we think is our best. We don't need when we come to
Christ because he gives us his perfect righteousness. The dunghill
is an emblem for man's end. It's a symbol of the corruption
of his nature and condition and what awaits his body for eternity
after death. In our best state, David said,
we're all together vanity and nothing but worthless refuse.
It's fit for it's appointed end and that's the dunghill. You
might say, well, preacher, you've pretty well shut me up to ruin.
I'm no such beggar, but I'm a respectable member of society. Well, I'm
sorry you feel that way. If you need no mercy, if you
need no mercy, then you've wasted your time. This place that you
find yourself in this morning is a house of mercy, not the
building itself, but the message that we preach. Oh, this is a
house of mercy. This is a God of mercy. This
is a message of mercy. Our message is a message of mercy
for pitiful beggars living on a dung hill. Christ came not to call the righteous.
He didn't come to save respectable members of society. He came in
the world to save sinners. If you're here like the Pharisee
in the temple and you thank God that you're not like other men,
there'll be no mercy given to you. God gives mercy to those who
need it. God gives mercy to those who want it. God gives mercy
to mercy beggars. God raises up the poor out of
the dust and he lifts up the beggar from the dunghill and
he sets them among princes. He makes them to inherit the
throne of glory. Romans 5.20 says, as deeply as
they have fallen, even higher are they raised. Where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. having lost all through Adam's
transgression. They get all that and much more
back in the Lord Jesus Christ through His obedience and death.
That's what that means. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. What we lost in Adam, we get
back in even more, Lou, in Christ. And this is by God's infinite
grace. It's undeserved. It's unmerited. It's God that raises up the poor.
It's God who lifts up the beggars. No one else can. Where does God
raise us? Where does He lift us? Out of
the dunghill and sets us among princes. Because princes is what
He makes us. We're made to inherit the throne. It's a throne of glory. The glorious
robe of the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect righteousness
is put on this naked beggar, and I'm clad and I'm clothed
as well as Solomon was in all his glory. And we're guarded as princes
are, kept by the power of God, more secure and securely guarded
than any earthly prince. We fare as well as real princes
do. Christ is our manna. He's our
bread of life. We drink the water of life from
Christ the Rock. We feed upon Christ who is our
life. We're housed as princes are.
We dwell in the secret place of the Most High. We abide under
the shadow of the Almighty. He's gone to prepare a place
for us that where He is, we shall be also. We have a seat at the
table of royalty. as the son of the highest of
the household of God. We're as rich as princes are.
We're heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. We're priests and kings unto
God. We call the king of kings Abba
Father. We have the right to call God
Daddy. That's not disrespectful, that's
an endearing term. We can say with Thomas, my Lord
and my God. We've been adopted, we've been
called, we've been elected, we've been chosen. And all that belongs
to Christ is also ours. All of it. And that's the wonderful
thing about the inheritance of God. You don't have a piece of
pie and you divide it up and everybody gets a little piece.
With the inheritance of God, everybody gets it all. Figure
that out. When the father welcomed the
prodigal son home, he didn't send him to the kitchen to serve.
He killed the fatted calf. And he put a ring on his finger
and a robe on his back. Can you imagine that robe that
he had on just stinking with that pig slop that he'd been
in the pig pen with, feeding the husk to the pigs? He dares
to take that thing off. Let's take it off. We're gonna
burn it. And he gave him a robe of perfect righteousness. Oh, he lifts up the beggar from
the dunghill. There's a new position now reserved
for the poor sinner. That's where the beggar had been
set. Where Christ is, I shall be also. He's prepared a place
for me. He does this for the poor beggar.
He does this. He, God, raises up the poor. He, God, lifteth up the beggar. The great Lord of heaven and
earth does this Himself. He not only heals the brokenhearted,
He Himself binds up our wounds, according to Psalm 147.3. God
does. He's our doctor. He's the great
physician. He doesn't say, okay, nurse,
patch him up. He does so himself. Oh, the matchless
condescension of the great Lord of love, mercy, and forgiveness,
that He should lift this beggar from the dunghill. No one else
can. I can't do it for you. You can't
do it for me. Why does the Lord do this great
act of grace? Why does He lift up beggars from
the dunghill? I know only One reason it pleased
Him to do so is because He willed to do so. Why would He save the chief of
sinners and allow others to go on in their way? I know no other
reason than it pleased Him to do so. No reason outside of Himself
and His own mercy, love, and grace. His name and His nature
is love. He pours His love out on behalf
of the misery and helplessness of His people. He sees the poor. He sees them ruined and helpless.
And the floodgates of His heart pours out a great stream of loving
kindness and mercy and grace. It pleases the Lord to make you
His people. It's not lawful for Him to do
what He will with His own. He's got the right to do it.
God, who is rich in mercy for His great love, wherewith He
loved us, even when we were what? Dead in sins, He quickened us
together with Christ. Why, if He had not loved us when
we were dead in sins, friends, we would have never, He'd never
loved us at all, and we'd never been saved. He died for the ungodly. Well,
I got to straighten myself up. I got to get some things right
in my life. You'll never do it. Christ died
for the ungodly. Just as I am without one plea,
that thy blood was shed for me. Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come. It's his great grace that lifts
a beggar from the dunghill and sets him among princes. You know,
forsaken of his brothers, left to die in a pit, Joseph became
a servant in Potiphar's house, falsely accused by Potiphar's
wife. He was thrown into prison. He
was forgotten by one that he helped, and he remained a prisoner
for two or three years longer. But all of his brothers and Potiphar's
wife and all of them together, they meant for evil what God
meant for good. And Joseph was raised out of
a horrible pit and then he was made the prince of Egypt. That's
a picture of you and me. Moses, he's born a slave in Egypt. Pharaoh said, throw all the children
into the Nile River and drown them. But his mother put him
in an ark and sent him downstream and he was found by the princess
of Egypt. Wasn't he lucky? No, luck don't
have anything to do with it. And he was raised in the house
of Pharaoh as a prince himself. God lifts up the beggar from
the dunghill and sets him among princes. This lifting and this raising
can only be done by God. Out of the dust, out of the dunghill,
out of the drawing, Waters, he sets them among princes. David
did not sing, I climbed out of the horrible pit, did he? No,
with tears he sang, he, the Lord, brought me up out of a horrible
pit, out of the martyr clay, and he set my feet upon a rock.
Friends, Christ is that rock, and he established my goings.
David's song, like Hannah's and Mary's, ascribes all the grace
and the glory to God and Him alone. He's worthy of it. It all belongs to Him. What song
are you singing this morning? Huh? We sung a couple good ones
in the beginning. He lifted me up. He lifted me
up from the deep mire and clay. He planted my feet on the King's
highway. And this is the reason I sing
and I shout, the Lord Jesus came down and He lifted me up. Concerning
this verse, that we've considered this morning. I want to just
read in closing what Arthur Pink said and how he summed it up.
He summed it up so well. What an amazing stoop of love
we have here. From his throne in the heaven
of heavens, the Lord reaches down to the dumb hills of earth
that he may deliver those who are in a lost and loathsome estate. But this verse tells us of something
yet more wonderful than the grace which seeks out filthy objects
who are a mass of corruption, making known how high it elevates
them to set them among princes and to make them inherit the
throne of glory. God does nothing by halves. He
exalts beggars to the status of beloved children. He takes
them into the place of nearness unto Himself. He brings them
into union with His dear Son, making them heirs of God and
joint heirs with Christ. He takes them out of the miry
clay of an unregenerate state and sets them upon a rock. Marvelous
transition and exaltation that is, translated from the most
abject condition to the highest possible dignity. Shame is replaced
by the highest honor. Filthy rags are replaced by the
spotless robe of righteousness. Poverty is replaced by the unsearchable
riches of Christ. We rightly marvel at the goodness
and the power of God in raising poor beggars from such depths
to such heights. But let us also be awed and solemn
by recalling afresh the dreadful price which had to be paid that
could be righteously done. The abasement of the Son of God
was necessary in order for the advancement of thou worms of
the earth. He who was rich had to seek out
the lowest level of poverty before we could be made rich. The beloved
of the father had to be made an object of shame before we
could be raised. The Lord of glory must die in
order for hell deserving sinners to be made alive. God demonstrates his own love
for us in this, dear friends, while we were yet and still sinners,
Christ died for us.