This evening I want to begin
in Romans, Romans 15. I just want to read a few scriptures
before we go to our text. In Romans 15, and I want to look
at verses four through six, something that our apostle Paul says to
us. He says, verse 4, for whatsoever
things were written aforetime were written for our learning,
that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might
have hope. Now, just stay with me in Romans
15, but we're going to be in the Old Testament this evening.
We're going to be in 1 Samuel chapter 2, actually. But I want
to put you in mind of these things, what Paul is saying here concerning
our sister Hannah. The affliction that she received
and the deliverance from our God was recorded. She went through that. The Lord
saw fit to bring our sister through that affliction and through that
difficulty. You think of how hard and painful
that was for her going through that trial with her adversary,
Penina, just heaping it on her and just abusing her and saying
horrible things to her to trouble her and to afflict her. But the
Lord did that for your comfort. He brought her through it. He
gave her this affliction. He sustained her and delivered
her. And it was recorded for us in the scriptures for your
comfort, for your learning, and for your understanding. was given to you to give you
hope, hope in the Lord. Now verse 5, Paul goes on to
say, now the God of patience and consolation grant you to
be like-minded one toward another and according to Christ Jesus. According to Christ Jesus, our
Lord has given us, he's given us the gift of the mind of Christ. We're born again, born anew of
the seed of Christ because we need that mind of Christ if we're
to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus. In other words, he's given us
an understanding of our afflictions and our comfort and deliverance,
all in Christ. And this is why these things
happened to our brethren in the Old Testament, under the Old
Testament. This is why these things happened to them, because
God gave it to them. And God blessed them and delivered
them in it and recorded these things for our comfort. and our
patient understanding of the Scriptures, that we may with
one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord,
Jesus Christ, so that our God, in giving us His Spirit, the
Spirit of Christ, shows us Christ and teaches us that all these
blessings, these afflictions, these troubles, are given for
our good, and we are comforted in Christ, and we're to see Christ
in these things. Okay, now let's be turning to
1 Samuel 2. We're gonna be looking tonight
at Hannah's prayer. And this is the prayer that she
made when she was gone up to Shiloh. That's where they worshiped
the Lord at this time. The temple was there and the
high priest was Eli and she was leaving her son Samuel. He was weaned now. He was probably
quite a few years old. three, four, five years old,
I don't know, somewhere around there. He was weaned now, and
she was leaving him there in the house of Eli to minister
to the Lord. She gave her word, she promised,
Lord, if you give me a son, I'll lend him to you. He'll serve
you all the days of his life. And so that time came, and she
was greatly afflicted by her adversary, Penina, but God had
exalted the humble Hannah over the afflictions, over her enemy. And you're gonna notice, I pray
that we notice from Hannah's prayer that all her glorying
here, there's 10 verses that we'll look at, all her glorying
is speaking of and it's in the Lord Jesus Christ who is her
salvation. And that's why Paul puts us in
that same like-mindedness in Christ. And it's to instruct
us that they saw Christ, they gloried in Christ, just as we
see Christ and we glory in Christ. And so these old scriptures are
given to us to teach us, to show us, to point us to Christ and
show us how that he was the salvation of his people then, and he's
the salvation of his people now, because he is the salvation of
God for you, brethren. Now, in verse one, we'll spend
a little extra time in the first verse, but this first verse here,
there's three things that Hannah mentions, and these three things
are features of the new man of grace formed in you. We are born again of the spirit
of God, and these three things are features, they're characteristics,
they're a part of that new man of grace in us. and therefore
we glorify God and Christ in these things. All right, let's
read 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. So she mentions
these three things, her heart, her horn, and her mouth, and
they're all engaged in service to the Lord. And she tells us,
she says it to the Lord, this is why Lord, it's because of
thy salvation. Thy salvation. That's why, that's
the one reason, it's because of the salvation of God that
my heart and my horn and my mouth are engaged, are rejoicing in
you. And they glorify what you have
done. They glorify you, Lord. And that's
something that only a living soul can do. Only living souls
glory in God. Those that are of the flesh,
those whose religion is a dead letter religion, whose faith
is of the flesh, who have not the Spirit of God, they glory
in man. What does that mean? They speak
of what they've done for the Lord, what they did to save themselves. They speak of the aisle they
walked and when they gave their heart to the Lord. They speak
of what they have done because that's their salvation, their
works, their will. their way, but the child of God
who's been delivered from death and given the Spirit of Christ
speaks of what the Lord has done for me. We speak of what the
Lord, we boast of our God's salvation for his people in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so man must be born again,
otherwise he cannot see the kingdom of God. We don't see the king
of this kingdom and we don't speak of him, we speak of ourselves.
But the fruits of God's Spirit are present in Hannah, just as
they're present in the people of God. And we're engaged to
glory in the salvation of our God. So I ask you, what is the
salvation of God? What is the salvation of God? I'll give you a hint, who is
the salvation of God? A week at night, Christ asked
his disciples, he said, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? Is Christ the
Son of God, so that your salvation is of God, or is he your son,
the product, the fruit of your flesh, so that it's your flesh
that's saving you? Whose son is he? Is he the salvation
of God, or is he of you? Do you make this effectual? Is he your son, or is he God's
son? Well, the scriptures teach that Christ is the Son of God,
and that this salvation is of God. And it's not of man. It's
not born of man. It's not created by man. It is
our God. It is the Word of God, which
is Christ. He is the very salvation of God, given of the Father,
gave his Son to save his people from their sins. He's the salvation. So Paul said it this way in Romans
9, 16. He said, so then it's not of him that willeth, nor
of man that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. In other
words, it's not of my free will decision that I chose to accept
this salvation which God has done, that I've made it effectual
by my will. No, my will's bound in darkness. My will is bound in sin and in
corruption. My will is ruined and defiled
and deformed. I need to be born again. I'm
not saved by my will. I'm not saved by my running.
My works is what it's speaking of. I'm not saved by the things
that I do. We're saved by the grace of God,
the grace of God. Now, she says, my heart rejoiceth
in the Lord. In other words, what she's saying
is, I believed God, and I trusted God. and therefore I came to
him. My heart was burdened and I went
to the Lord and I cast all my care upon him because he alone
is the one that can deliver me. He alone is the one that can
save me. He's the one alone who can fulfill that which my heart
is yearning for. She prayed in bitterness of soul
and wept sore when she went to the Lord. She was burdened in
her affliction and she believed God. How do you know she believed
God? Because she went to Him and she prayed to Him. She laid
all her concern before Him and left it there with Him. And then
she said, My horn is exalted in the Lord. And the horn in
scriptures is a picture of the strength. When someone has a
mighty horn, it's speaking of their strength, their might to
overcome their enemies and to defeat them. And she says, my
horn, my strength, is exalted in the Lord. And so her horn's
been exalted. And that word exalted means to
be raised up, to set on high. And we'll come back to that in
a bit. And so rather than being defeated and destroyed by her
enemies, because Panina, when she afflicted her, she wanted
to destroy Hannah. She wanted Hannah to fear and
to flee. She wanted Hannah to expect that
her husband, Elkanah, was going to give her a bill of divorcement
and send her away because she was unprofitable and giving him
no children. She wanted her destroyed. She
despised her. She despised her. But rather
than Hannah being destroyed, God exalted. her salvation. He lifted her up and he raised
her up and she overcame her enemies. And then finally, she says, my
mouth is enlarged over mine enemies. So in other words, when the enemy
comes and charges her with some folly for believing God, she
has something to say. She can now boast in, well, wait
a minute. God did give me a child. You
said I was cursed and cut off from God because I had no children.
You said God was punishing me and I was going to be sent away
by my husband. Yet the Lord gave me a son. The Lord brought forth fruit
from my womb. And so she boasted in what the
Lord had done. That's the enlargement with which
she boasted in God. She triumphed over enemies. And
she had something now to say. She could say, wait a minute.
Look what the Lord has done for me. And so these fruits are so
because God has made her His child and He's fixed her hope
in Him. She's fixed her hope in Him and
it's witnessed. We know that He's fixed her hope
in Him because she's rejoicing in Him. Her prayer is one that
glories in God and boasts of what He's done. In His salvation, and His salvation
is Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Just as He's our salvation today,
He's her salvation then. She looked to Christ. She believed
and trusted Christ, and we'll see that in her prayer. And so
these three, her heart, horn, and mouth, all are speaking to
the work of God in Christ. That's our boast, in Christ Jesus. First, I'll show you this. Your
horn is Christ. I say that because he is the
very strength of your salvation. Christ is your salvation, and
it's a strong, sure, confident salvation. Nothing can shake
this salvation because Christ is of God. He's of the Father,
and He sent of the Father, and He accomplished our redemption,
and nothing can shake that or change that or pluck you out
of His hand, nor pluck you out of the hand of the Father. You
are His. You are His child, and He's given
you faith in Him. Now, when Christ came in the
flesh, why did He come in the flesh? He was accomplishing the
redemption, the salvation of His people by the death of Himself. so that Christ, by His work,
by shedding His blood, purchased us out of the hands of justice. He satisfied the hands of justice
and He redeemed us, paid for us, so that the hands of justice
says, I'm satisfied. They're yours now. You purchased
them. They're your people. And so Christ
does with us what he will, and he's good and faithful and kind
and loving and gentle to his people. He's taken us out of
the hands of justice as our shorty having satisfied all our debts.
and now we're His, to live in liberty, in light, rejoicing
in the salvation of Christ, rejoicing in our strong salvation. He did this for us, to obtain
our forgiveness with God, to pay the price of our debt, and
to give us life and fellowship with God, in light with the saints. And God, having accepted His
sacrifice, justified Him, declared his righteousness by raising
him from the dead. And not only does that justify
Christ, but it justifies all who believe Christ. You that
have no confidence in this flesh, you that have no confidence in
your righteousnesses, your works, what you do or don't do, but
all your confidence looks to Christ, you are justified. You're right to believe Christ.
You're right. How do you know that? Because
God raised him from the dead. He's declared by raising Him
from the dead that He is the salvation of His people. That
everything you believed and hoped in that Christ did, He did it.
He did it. God's proving it. God verified
it by raising Him from the dead. And so you that believe Christ,
that He accomplished exactly what He said He accomplished,
that He was here exactly why He said He was here, because
the Father sent Him to obtain this redemption, your faith is
justified. Your faith is justified. You,
by believing Christ, you did the right thing. And it's justified. Christ is your righteousness.
He is your salvation. He is your all. You're right to believe him because
he did accomplish everything he said he came to do. And he
is your righteousness. Romans 4.25 concludes that Christ
was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our
justification. so that we are justified by him.
We're righteous in him. And our heart and our mouth are
right to put our faith and confidence in Christ, who is the strength
of our salvation. Our heart is right to believe.
Our mouth is right to confess that he is our salvation, because
God raised him from the dead and God exalted Christ. When
he raised him from the dead, he raised up our horn and set
our horn on high at the right hand of the throne of God. Your
horn is exalted. your strength is exalted the
Lord Jesus Christ and that's what Hannah is saying in regards
to her horn or strength and her heart believes it and her mouth
confesses it and that's what Paul I know we looked at go to
Romans 10 we looked at this on Sunday but look at it in this
context that's what Paul is gathering together is the heart and the
horn of our strength and the confession of our mouth in Romans
10 Verse 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord
Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him
from the dead, that God exalted your horn of salvation, thou
shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. And so it's just like
Hannah stated in her prayer of praise, rejoicing in Christ. Christ is all our salvation,
and the heart believes it, this new heart which he's given to
us, and this tongue which is loosed by his grace and mercy
to declare and to speak of what God has done. Rejoicing in our
exalted horn, our strength, our salvation. Now, Everything that
follows in her prayer, it's boasting of Christ as she continues to
speak of what Christ has accomplished for us, what he's done successfully
in redeeming his people. And so these are all the fruits,
all the blessings of our God for us in Christ. Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. Ephesians 1, 3. That's what we're
seeing here. Verse 2. 1 Samuel 2, verse 2.
There is none, she says, none holy as the Lord. For there is
none beside thee, neither is there any rock like our God."
What we see here is that, believer, God is our confidence. Just like
Hannah is saying God is our confidence. We don't speak of our righteousness. Our righteousness pales in comparison
to the Lord. There's no comparison to it.
There's nothing for me to boast in. When we have the glory of
God and His righteousness, why would we speak of our righteousnesses?
Why would we want to come to God having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, which is worthy of death under the curse? when he's given us Christ. We
come to God in Christ. We boast of his righteousness. So you see here, this child of
God, this Hannah here, she's boasting of the righteousness
of Christ. She's boasting of his righteousness. We don't talk about what we've
done, but what he's done for us. Now, that name Hannah means
grace. And what does grace boast of? Who does grace boast of? We boast
of the Lord Jesus Christ. She's boasting of Christ. She's
boasting of what God has done for her in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's why God saved his
people by grace. And so just like Hannah here
is glorifying God, it's a picture. It's a type that by grace, we
glorify God. We boast of him. We sing his
praises and believe in our hearts and rejoice in the exaltation
of our strength, our Savior Christ, and we confess it with our mouth,
boasting in God, boasting in Him, because that's what grace
does. We boast in Christ, not ourselves. Verse three. She says,
talk no more, so exceeding proud. Let not arrogance come out of
your mouth. For the Lord is a God of knowledge,
and by him actions are weighed. And the reality is that this
world hath both seen and heard Christ, and yet they hate him,
and despise him, and the Father who sent him. And they hate his
gospel, and they hate his people. And that's what she's saying.
But they've got nothing to stand on, because God will judge them. God will mete out a perfect judgment
to the unbeliever, to those that despise the true and living God. He'll mete out a just and equitable
punishment to them. Our Lord said it this way to
his disciples in John 15. He said, if I had come and not
spoken unto them, If I had not come and spoken unto them, they
had not had sin. And now they don't have a cloak
for their sin. We have the word of God. We have the revelation
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He said, if I had not done among
them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin. But now they have both seen and
hated both me and my father. And so God will mete out an equitable
and just punishment to the wicked. He will take care of that. He
will do that. Verse four, the bows of the mighty
men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. And so this here serves as a
reminder to us of what our God does. That one, you that would
exalt yourselves, the truth of God says you'll be humbled. you'll
be brought low, but you that humble yourselves under the mighty
hand of God, you shall be exalted, because he will raise you up. He will raise you up in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, let's go back to 1 Peter
5. In 1 Peter 5, we saw this. 1 Peter 5, verse 5. In opening
the service, we looked at this passage, and Peter says, Submit
yourselves one to another. Be subject one to another. And
he says, be clothed with humility. Why? Be thoughtful of what you
say and how you treat your brethren and judge your brethren or tell
your brethren what they should be doing. You know, be careful
of how you act toward your brethren. Be mindful of yourselves lest
you fall. He says, because God resisted
the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves,
therefore, under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you
in due time. We see our faults. We see what we are in this flesh. We know that truth that when
I would do good, evil is present with me. It's right there next
to me. We see our faults. We know our
faults better than our brethren know our faults. And we're looking
to the Lord. Lord be gracious. Lord help me. Lord keep me. Lord don't let
my wandering heart depart from you. Lord, have mercy upon me. Lord, that I may glorify you
before my brethren and speak of your wonders and your grace,
Lord. And so we're humbled. We're humbled by that because
the Spirit shows us that it's all of Christ. It's all of Christ. And he makes us thankful for
what he's done. And he keeps our hearts. And he turns us again
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says that God in due time
will exalt you. and he'll comfort your heart
in this gospel in Christ. He'll teach you and lead you
and keep you in the Lord Jesus Christ. Casting all your care
upon him, for he careth for you. Faith is casting all your care,
trusting, Lord, I need your grace every hour, every hour. Lord,
when I think I've arrived, I see how far I am from arriving anywhere. Lord, because it's by your grace
that you teach me that. It's by your grace that you show
us our need. You show us what we are in the
flesh, you show us our need, and you show us the sufficiency
of Christ, and you've given us love in our hearts for him, and
love for our brethren, and keeping us ever looking to him. So faith
cast, and that's humbling, because you're saying, next to him? What
do I have to boast in? What righteousness would I dare
bring into the presence of God? Except to be the righteousness
of Christ, I don't want to bring anything that I have. And that's
his grace that gives us that heart and shows us I need to
come in his righteousness, just like the Apostle Paul. Not having
my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is
of the faith of Jesus Christ. It's born of him. Be sober, be
vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, has a roaring line.
Walk with the bout, seeking whom he may devour. That's pictured
in Pinnina. who was the adversary of Hannah,
the adversary of grace, right? Trying to come and destroy that
work of God. Whom resists steadfast in the
faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. And that's what we
see here tonight. And that's what Paul was saying
in Romans 15, four, that these things were written. These things
were recorded. These things happen. These afflictions
happen, and these deliverances happen for our comfort. And for
us to know just as it happened, it's happening to me. I see it
in the scriptures and I know it's happening to my brethren.
So that we're mindful to not only think of ourselves, but
to think of our brethren and to pray for them because they're
going through the same afflictions and have the same adversary and
the same trouble. but we have the same God who
delivers his people wondrously in Christ. But the God, verse
10, but the God of all grace who hath called us unto his eternal
glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while,
make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you, to him
be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen. And so your heart,
and your horn and your mouth are engaged in praising God,
just like we see there by Peter, glorying in him, just like we
see here with our sister Hannah, glorying in Christ. And then
next, verse five, Hannah gives us an example of that eternal
truth of humbling ourselves, lest God humble us for our pride
and vain confidence. They that were full have hired
out themselves for bread, and they that were hungry ceased,
so that the baron hath borne seven. And she that hath many
children is waxed feeble." So here's a picture of the will
worshiper who labors and strives and spends and sacrifices everything
they can, working and laboring for righteousness and acceptance
with God. But it's bread that cannot and
does not satisfy. Because the wicked is constantly
always fearful and afraid to die because they're thinking,
I don't know if I did enough. Maybe I need another day. And
I got to keep working, and keep laboring, and keep spending,
and keep sacrificing because it's not enough. And that's what
our Lord is telling us. There is no peace for the wicked,
saith our God. There's no peace for them. That's
why they never did it because they really haven't. There's
no satisfaction in their works. But you that are barren, who
have no righteousness of your own, who cry out to the Lord
for mercy and grace and help in your time of need, he satisfies
you that are hungering and thirsting for righteousness with bread,
which is that heavenly bread that satisfies the soul of his
child that satisfies us and gives us rest and peace in him so that
she that was barren is made fruitful it says that she hath born seven
in other words she's complete she's been perfected by the grace
of God Christ has perfected her Christ has made her complete
she is whole she is perfect spotless acceptable unto God and may stand
before him faultless before the very throne of holy God. She's complete in Christ's righteousness.
And that other who bears fruit by the flesh, it's fruit unto
death. Fruit unto death, like Paul said,
Romans 7. Verse four, I believe, four or
five. And so it's fruit unto death when it's of the flesh.
And by all that laboring, she thinks she's getting stronger
and climbing in the eyes of God. And the reality is she's made
weak and feeble. And God despises such who despise
his son and come in their own works. So we come in Christ. He makes us to come in Christ.
And next we see that God is sovereign. She speaks of the sovereignty
of God, how that no man can resist him or deliver themselves out
of his hand. Verses six and seven. 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. And the world hates this truth. But the child of God, you child
of God, we rejoice that God is sovereign. Because if God put
even so much as a hair, a little nanometer, whatever, nanogram
of weight on us, we'd crumble. We cannot do it. If anything
depends on me, I shall come short of the glory of God. But if it's
all dependent on Christ and resting on his shoulders, he cannot fail. He cannot fail. He's obtained
our eternal redemption by His precious blood. Now, the next
verse shows us the effects of our Lord's salvation. This is
what He does for us in the new birth by grace. Verse 8, He raiseth
up the poor out of the dust. This flesh is the dust, and he
lifts us up by his spirit, 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." And this,
again, it speaks of that glorious truth that he humbles the proud,
and he exalts those that are humbled under his hand. And he's showing here that we're
raised from spiritual death by the gift of the Holy Spirit.
which Christ and the Father hath sent to give us life and inheritance,
to wash us in the blood of Christ, to make us to know what Christ
has done for us. And there's great meaning here
in this verse when we're described as mercy beggars that are placed
in the company of princes. And I thought about this for
a while. What does it mean? What is the
significance of us being put in the company of princes, of
Jacob being called Israel, Prince with God. Well, a prince gains
an audience with the king. The prince has fellowship with
the king. He has influence with the king.
The king receives him. The king speaks to the prince.
The king listens to the words. He hears the prince. He has fellowship
with the princes. He honors the prince with a place
in his court. He doesn't treat him and throw
him out. He's a prince. He has that influence, that fellowship
with God. And that's where our God has
put you in Christ and made you a prince with God so that you
have that fellowship and standing before God all because of the
righteousness of Jesus Christ, the salvation of God for his
people. so that we triumph in our Savior. This is confirmation that you
that are weak, poor, lowly, beggars, have nothing. No, you've been
taken from that dunghill and brought into fellowship with
God so that in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. And next, he speaks of sovereign
God's preservation of his saints. You're not going to come short.
You're not going to fail. You shall persevere, because
God preserves you. He preserves you. On to the end. Verse 9, he will keep the feet
of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness. How can you preach grace? You've
got to whip the people, tell the people, lay burdens on them
lest they think that they can do whatever they want. Christ
keeps you. Christ keeps his people. The
wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by strength shall no man
prevail. It's not going to be by the strength
of man's flesh, and will, and running, and works. It's by the
strength of Christ. He's the strength of our salvation.
And then here at the end, Some of you have been to college and
you know at the end of your degree there's a capstone course. The capstone, it's the final
course that you are to take as the chief cornerstone, the cap
to the whole thing that makes the building fit and strong and
stable and a wonder. Here's the capstone verse, and
she's rejoicing. This is the rejoicing of God's
child, and she returns back to the horn of her salvation, the
strength of the child of God, Christ, our prevailing strength,
who secured all these blessings for us. Verse 10, 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. That's Christ. He's the anointed
of the Father, sent of the Father, given the Spirit without measure.
He's the one who came to save his people from their sins and
fulfilled all the will of God, the gracious will of God, for
you, his people, given to him before the foundation of the
world. Christ has obtained this glorious salvation. He's given
us in our hearts that believe him. that look to the horn of
our strength of our salvation rejoicing in his exaltation and
our mouth confesses it and we boast of him and speak of him
and what he's done. And so what we see here with
Hannah's prayer is that's the prayer of the saints of God.
That's the prayer of God's people rejoicing in Christ. And so I pray he bless your hearts
and warm your hearts and comfort you in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.