Good morning, brethren. Let's
be turning to 1st Samuel, chapter 1. 1st Samuel, chapter 1. When you get there, there's a
prayer recorded for us here in the Scriptures. And I want to
read that prayer first. I want to begin in verses 10
and 11. That's the end of our text. Our
entire text is from verse one to verse 11. So let's read verses
10 and 11. And she was in bitterness of
soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. And she vowed
a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt, Indeed, look on
the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget
thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man-child. Then I will give him unto the
Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come
upon his head. Now I wanna look with you this
morning to see who is this woman and why is she in such sorrow? And what is the Lord teaching
us who are gathered here this morning in this word? What is he revealing to us and
showing us his people from this word? This chapter details for
us the birth of Samuel. birth of Samuel. And Samuel is
the last judge of Israel. He's the last judge of Israel. And what that means is it refers
to when the children of Israel came up out of Egypt by the ministration
of Moses and they received the law and the Lord brought his
people into the promised land. which was divided unto them by
Joshua, under Joshua's ministration. And they were now in the land
and there was no king. And every man did that which
was right in his own eyes. And so the Lord would raise up
from time to time judges. some people in various different
tribes that would bring judgment, that would bring deliverance
to the people of Israel when they called out to the Lord.
The Lord brought all this together and he raised up judges. And
then the judges were used at the Lord to speak to the people
and to bring them back from their idolatry because there was constant
idolatry. And he's the last judge. And
then right while he was the judge, the children of Israel asked
for a king. And so Saul became the first
king. And that's why Samuel is the last judge. And this man's
father is Elkanah. Elkanah. And Elkanah had two
wives. And of those two wives, one was
Samuel's mother. His mother was Hannah. And according
to the scriptures, they appear to be Ephraimites. That's where
they lived, in the tribe of Ephraim. And the prayer that we just read
is from Hannah. Samuel's mother, Hannah's prayer,
and it says that she's in bitterness of soul. And what that means,
that bitterness of soul, is that she's very sad. She's very sorrowful. And that's coming out in her
prayer. She's very sorrowful. And the
reason why she's so sad, and the reason why she's coming to
the Lord, is she has no child. She's a wife, but she's born
no children to her husband at this point. And therefore, because
of that, she was greatly afflicted. She was suffering. She was being
persecuted by her adversary. She was very sorrowful because
she had no child. But everything that led up to
this, to her not having a child and her being brought to this
point where she prays in great heaviness and in great sorrow,
has been done by the Lord. The Lord has brought this to
pass, and we've been seeing that a lot in the scriptures, because
the scriptures emphasize that point to us that our God is a
sovereign God. He is the true and living God,
and there's no other God beside Him. And He does whatsoever He
pleases. He does what He wills to do,
and what He wills to do, thankfully for us, is perfect and good. and righteous and holy, and he
is sovereign. He brings to pass his will and
his purpose. And so some of the scriptures
that we read show us this from the New Testament, where Paul
said in 2 Timothy 1.9, who had saved us and called us within
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his
own purpose and grace. according to God's own purpose
and grace. Another one, Ephesians 1.5, having predestinated us
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will, God's will. Again, Romans 8.28,
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are thee called according to his purpose. according to
God's purpose. He does all things according
to his purpose. And so our Lord has a gracious
purpose for his children, for his people. And we read these
verses in the New Testament, which are making known the mystery
that's declared here in the Old Testament. Throughout the Old
Testament, these scriptures are showing to us that God is sovereign. He's purposed this, he's brought
this to pass and it reveals that mystery and the darkness of the
mystery that we don't see, the spirit makes it known through
his scriptures. He reveals that God is sovereign. Now the prayer of Hannah is a
heaven born prayer. And what I mean by that is that
it's not of her flesh. The Lord has given this prayer
to her. He's worked and orchestrated and ordained all these things
to bring her and to give her this prayer and to cause her
to lift this prayer up to the Lord in great sorrow and in great
affliction. Why does the Lord do that? Because
we are His workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. Ephesians 2.10, God's ordained
this. Or he that doeth truth cometh
to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are
wrought in God. When we come into the light,
the Lord makes it known to us that God has done this. These
things are wrought in us by God and in God. That's where these
things come forth, in Christ. In Christ, in whom we receive
all the spiritual blessings. God blesses us. So, her vow was,
if thou wilt, if thou wilt, indeed, look upon the affliction of thine
handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but
wilt give unto thine handmaid a manchild. And what she's praying
is the prayer of God's children. He brings us to pray this. Lord,
look on me. Lord, remember me. Lord, give
unto me. And this is the body of our prayer.
We come to the Lord because he's sovereign. And he's able to bring
to pass that which is good and right. And he brings us to see
our need. He makes us to know our need,
our sinfulness, our weakness, our inability of our own will
to effect and bring to pass what we think we need. We can't do
it, but God can. And he's able to do exactly according
as he purposes to do for his people. And the response is,
then I will. I will give him unto the Lord
all the days of his life and there shall no razor come upon
his head. And what she's saying there is,
Lord, if you will be gracious, then I shall. Then I shall. If you'll be gracious to me,
then I'll bring forth that which is born of your grace and born
of your spirit and your people. I'll be a fruitful person if
you will. If you do this, and so you see
how the Lord is the one who gave that prayer to begin with, because
this flesh doesn't pray like that. This flesh thinks that
the flesh can do what it needs to do. But the Lord gives his
spirit, and by the spirit we know, Lord, if you will, then
I shall. Then I shall, and it'll be fruitful.
It'll be an everlasting fruitfulness. born of your grace and your power,
fruits that are dedicated to the Lord, fruits that serve his
purpose and work, that praise and glorify the true and living
God. The Lord does that. You know,
we're told that we are married to another, even to him who was
raised from the dead. that we should bring forth fruit
unto God. Romans 7.4, fruit unto God. You
know, many of us here are married, but the Lord shows we're married
to another, right? Now, he's speaking in context
there to the law. We're married to Christ now.
We're not married to Moses. We don't bring forth fruit by
Moses, we bring forth fruit by God. Christ, our husband. That's who we bring forth fruit.
And so, but what he's saying there is even in all aspects
of our lives. all aspects of our lives. We
focus on what we need to do in the flesh, and what the Lord
tells us is, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and in all the things you're trying to do and accomplish in
your flesh, by your flesh, he says, those things will be added
unto you. The Lord will provide for you.
You don't need to focus on that. You worry about seeking me, my
kingdom, and my righteousness. That's the first thing. That's
the priority. for God's people. We seek him
first and everything else will be added. Trust God in it. And he knows our afflictions.
He knows our struggles. He knows the things that are
antagonizing us, that are afflicting us, that are giving us sorrow
and making us sad. And he does that to bring us
to cry to him. Lord, if thou wilt, if thou wilt
help me, if thou wilt remember me, If thou wilt give unto me,
then I shall. I shall, Lord, I need your help.
And he gives that prayer. He brings forth that prayer.
If God will, then I shall. So I don't hear this as a barter.
She's not bartering with God. She's not trading off and saying,
hey, I'll do this if you do that. She's saying, Lord, if you do
this for me, then I will. It'll come forth freely of your
spirit. It'll be a freewill offer. if
you will, because it's of your spirit, of your grace, of your
power, it'll come from me because you've done this gracious work
in me. And someone might hear that prayer
of Hannah and say, you sound like beggars. That's exactly
what we are. We are mercy beggars, begging
for God's grace and mercy. He humbles us and brings us low
to see our need of him, and then we cry out to him. It's all orchestrated,
it's all ordained of the Lord. Next, I wanna show you this morning
that the one thing needful for every one of us, for all of you
gathered here, the one thing needful for us is Christ. That's
what we need, and we're gonna see Christ first, how the Lord
brings us first to Christ, and then he works these fruits of
righteousness in us. So 1 Samuel 1 1-2, let's see
that, 1-2. Now there was a certain man of
Ramathim, Zophim, of Mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the
son of Jerome, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuth,
and Ephrathite. And he had two wives. The name
of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Panina. And
Panina had children, but Hannah had no children. Penina had fruit,
but Hannah had no fruit. Now the name Elkanah, Elkanah
means God has possessed or God has created. And this man Elkanah
has two wives, Penina, that means jewel, that means jewel. And so from that, I take it to
mean that she was outwardly beautiful. She had the outward beauty just
as jewels have, and they look glimmering and glistening and
brilliant and beautiful in the light. She's a jewel, and she
bears fruits unto her husband, Elkanah. She's bringing forth
children to her husband, but she's an adversary. She's the
adversary of Hannah. Now, what does Hannah mean? Grace. The name Hannah means grace. And Hannah has yet to bear any
children to her husband. And we see just like we've seen
recently with Sarah, the Lord restrained her from bearing.
The Lord did this. The Lord purposed to do this
to show us, to bring us this beautiful gospel picture of our
husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. So verse six says, her adversary
also provoked her sword, for to make her fret, because the
Lord had shut up her womb. And so Hannah's adversary, Penina,
she's provoking Hannah. She's poking and prodding and
cutting and digging Hannah. And that causes her to be vexed.
It's like one of your brothers just teasing you and going after
you and just constantly pointing out your faults. and putting
it in your face and showing you how they can and you can. And that's an adversary. She's
being an adversary to Hannah because it's really hurting her. It's frustrating her. It's making
her even feel anger toward her. And she's getting mad because
there's nothing she can do to bring forth that fruit to her
husband. And so Penina would make her
fret. And that word fret means she
was, it was causing her to tremble with fear. She was being made
afraid. Here's Penina and she keeps just
spitting out kids and having no problem having kids. And that
means that there's time going on here. And Hannah, though she
wants to, she would love to bring forth children, yet she can bring
forth no kids. No children. And you can imagine
how Penina, her adversary, would twist that and manipulate that
very fact and use it to just hurt Hannah and to trouble her
and to give her affliction. I would imagine that, in one
sense, Hannah probably felt I'm cursed, I'm cursed, I'm cut off
from the Lord and I can bring forth nothing for my husband.
And she probably worried that her husband was gonna slip her
a bill of divorce and tell her, oh, you're not doing this for
me and you can just go your own way. And she was worried that
she was gonna be cut off. Now, Hannah is a picture of the
new man of grace in us. We see Hannah is a picture of
that work, that gracious work, which the Lord does for his people. And Penina, she pictures the
enemies of God's people. In one sense, she pictures all
the enemies on the outward, right? The adversary who comes and accuses
the brethren. and works against the brethren.
We see also our enemies of death and the grave that we can't deliver
ourselves from and all those that oppose the true and living
God and hate God and his people and his gospel in the earth.
And then we also see how it's a picture of the old man, the
old man of sin. that persecutes us and troubles
us and vexes us because of our weakness and the infirmity of
our flesh and the sinfulness in the flesh that we see in ourselves. Now, consider that Elkanah's
name means possessed or created of God, possessed of God, full
of God or created of God. And from that picture, where
he has two wives, one being of grace and the other being of
flesh, there's a sense in which we see ourselves in Elkanah with
the two natures, the two natures. We that believe have that nature. We have that old nature born
in us, that nature of flesh, which comes forth from Adam's
seed, of which we all are born of Adam's seed, which is spiritually
dead. It's corrupt, it's sinful. We
don't know how to worship God. We don't bring forth fruits of
righteousness in that flesh. We bring forth fruits of death. Wicked works, they're called.
Wicked works, even if they're religious. They're wicked works. All our righteousnesses, Isaiah
said, are as filthy rags. Not all your sins, all our righteousnesses,
our best works done in the flesh are filthy, bloody rags. They're filthy rags. And so we
see that, the old nature, and then we also see what the Lord
has done, that new nature, where he gives us his spirit, and he
gives us a new birth. We're born again by the seed
of Christ. That's the new man in you that
does not, cannot sin because it's born of incorruptible seed. By nature, we're corruptible,
and we are brought forth by corrupted seed, and in Christ, it's born
of incorruptible seed. And that man, John the Apostle
says in his letter, cannot sin. He can't sin. All he can do is
believe. and all the old nature can do
is sin until the redemption of our bodies and we're delivered
from this body of death. And so on one hand, the believer
manifests the grace of God through the new birth, born of His grace
by His Holy Spirit, but the flesh provokes and struggles and works
against that which we would do. We see that law present in our
members, that wherein I would do good, evil is present right
there with me. and just constantly provoking
and attacking me. Paul said it this way, let us
not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying
one another. That's the old nature in us.
That's the works of the flesh that's in us that provokes our
brethren and others and uses anger and harsh words and murder
in our hearts to work and get what we want among others. And
it's also that same old man of flesh that provokes the new man.
that is constantly weighing us down, constantly dragging down
the arms and the weak legs and keeps us from running the race
as we ought to run it. And liberty, and grace, and happiness,
and joy, and faith, that's what we want in the new man. We want
to serve the Lord and be without this old man of flesh. And so
the Lord uses that to cause us to keep hoping and looking forward
to that day when he comes again. But I think as we go through
this text, what you'll see most with Elkanah is that he's a picture
of our husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. Elkanah is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ, our mediator, our helper, our friend,
our savior, our God, our all. That's what he pictures. Penina,
she pictures those that appear to be God's people, she's with
the Lord's people, and she's very religious, and she partakes
in religious things, and she brings forth what appears to
be fruits of righteousness, and she partakes of it, but they're
purely of the outward creature. They're just of the flesh. They're
worked out under the law. They're worked out in religion,
but they're unprofitable. They don't do that which they're
supposed to. They're not lasting. They're
not lasting eternal works. Whereas Hannah, she pictures
that child of grace. born of the promise of God, born
of his spirit. And therefore she must wait upon
the Lord to bring forth his fruits of righteousness in her when
he pleases, when he will do it. And he brings forth that. And
we do bring forth fruits, brethren, but we usually don't see them.
We don't recognize them or understand how we're ministering and helping
our brethren. We see our faults and the brethren
are kind enough to see in others, our brethren, just how wonderful
they are and how appreciative we are for one another in the
body that he's put together here. But she groans and she waits
and she hopes in the Lord that he will bring forth fruit from
her womb, just as we wait upon the Lord to bring forth fruits
of righteousness to the praise and glory of his name. Romans
8, 23-25 says, not only they, but ourselves also, which have
the first fruits of the Spirit. He's saying we that have the
Holy Spirit, the earnest of our inheritance, the down payment
that the Lord says, you're mine, and I'm your God. and you're
gonna be with me forever, that first fruits of the spirit, even
we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to
wit, the redemption of our body. And so that's the children. That's
what we pray for. Those are the children we pray
for, that fruit of righteousness that the Lord bears in his people. Lord, if thou will, I shall help
me, Lord. Help me, and we pray that. Remember
me, remember me, Lord, and use me to profit in your kingdom,
to help my brethren, to be a blessing rather than a weight that just
weighs them down and troubles them. Four, Paul says, we are
saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what
a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? If you're ordering
a part that you need at your house, you're hoping it comes
when they say it's gonna come. And you're waiting for it until
it comes. But once you have it, the hope ceases. You don't need
it anymore. You got it, you got it. But if
we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait
for it. And while the Lord provides for
the basic needs of all the people there, as we see with Elkanah,
Right, the Lord makes the sun to rise upon the evil and the
good. He gives rain to the just and
the unjust alike. But he gives his spiritual blessing
to his chosen seed. He gives his spiritual blessing
to his chosen seed. And therefore, Elkanah, in that
sense, he's a type of the son of God. He that humbled himself
as a man, he who was possessed of the fullness of the Godhead
bodily in his body. His body was prepared of God,
and he had the fullness of the Spirit without measure given
to him. And he came and he redeemed his people. He provided for them
in grace and in mercy. Now, to this point, according
to the Gospel, There's a work of grace that we see in Hannah. Just as her name says, there's
a work of grace, and she's troubled, and she's provoked by her adversary,
just as the enmity in us provokes us and troubles us all, which
is that picture of Panina. But Elkanah brings his wife,
both his wives, to worship. Elkanah brings both his wives
to worship there, to worship God, where Hannah, The new man
of grace is fed, all right? So Elkanah is bringing his wife,
his wives, both his wives, Hannah and Peninnah, to worship the
Lord. He's bringing them both there.
And Hannah will be fed. Now, Peninnah's there too, but
she's not profited by it. in the way that Hannah is profited
by it. So let's read 1 Samuel 1, 1 Samuel
1, and let's read, picking up in verse three, and we'll work
down with some comments on these verses. 1 Samuel 1, verse three. And this
man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto
the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni
and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord were there. So Shiloh
is the place. They didn't have Jerusalem at
that time. There wasn't a temple built in Jerusalem. The children
of God worshiped in Shiloh. And Shiloh is rest, it's peace. It pictures what the Lord does.
He brings his children to Christ, who is our rest and our peace. And we worship God in Christ. That's how we worship God. We
come to Shiloh, Shiloah, that is to Christ. He's our peace
and our rest. And verse four, and when the
time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Panina his wife and
to all her sons and her daughters, portions, right? They received
some sort of an outward benefit, if you will. They received something,
they went there and they had some sort of an outward benefit,
right? The Lord protected them and provided
for them through Elkanah. And they were okay there. They
weren't in great danger or trouble. She had a husband that provided
for her and took care of her. And so they received a portion. But Hannah, unto Hannah, verse
five, he gave a, worthy portion. Hannah received a worthy portion,
for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb." Right? There's no mention of Elkanah's
love for Paninah, but he loved Hannah and he gave her a worthy
portion. And that brethren is a picture
of grace. That's grace. What the Lord does
for you, not only do you have the sun and the rain when you
need it, but the Lord gives his children a worthy portion, a
worthy portion of grace to his people for our spiritual life,
for our spiritual sustenance, for our grace and our help. It's a worthy portion. The outward benefits of religion
alone, right? There's a lot of people that
are religious. There's a lot of people that show up to various
churches on Sundays, but they don't save. They cannot save. Being religious, doing religious
things does not save us. That's not our salvation. That's
not the hope that we have. Christ, He is the worthy portion
of grace that the Father gives to those He loves. He's our salvation. He's our all. He's everything
that we need. And so we need that work of grace
worked in our hearts. And that's where the Lord reaches
to those children whom He loves He puts his hand in our heart,
and he circumcises the heart. That's circumcision made without
hands, right? Physical circumcision is the
outward religious act that we don't do. That's the religious
works. But they don't save, they don't
circumcise the heart. Only the Lord does that for his
people in Christ. And the Lord here gives Hannah
grace. Grace, and that's what the Lord
does, and he gives more grace to help in our hour of need.
He's supporting her. She feels troubled and afflicted,
but the Lord is working this for her good. He's being gracious
to her. He's giving her a worthy portion
that is not given to penile. Verse six, and her adversary
also provoked her sore for to make her fret because the Lord
had shut up her womb. Hannah doesn't see the fruit
that she thinks she should see. If I'm my husband's wife, Why
am I not bringing forth fruit? Why am I not fruitful to him? Why am I not bringing forth those
fruits of righteousness? And so she's made very tender,
right? And you've met very religious
people that are very high and confident in themselves and what
they do as opposed to what you don't do. And they're not troubled. And they're not afraid. And they
have no questions. They have no concerns. They have
no fear. They have no tears. But to you
that are troubled, To you that are brought low, yeah, it hurts
to be humbled. It hurts to be brought low. It's
hard and it's difficult, but if it's bringing you to the throne
of grace, if it's putting you on your face, then it's good. If it brings you to Christ, your
Savior, to your God, he means it for your good, not your destruction,
because the wicked go on without any troubles. They go on and
trust what they're doing and their works whereas the Lord
does humble his people and does make us to know without me ye
can do nothing, nothing. And so. We're made to feel like
what we're doing isn't profitable, but the Lord is doing that which
is most profitable in us, bringing us to the feet of Christ. Now,
verse seven, and as he did so year by year, that means it went
on for some time, year by year, when she went up to the house
of the Lord, So she, or Penina, provoked Hannah. Therefore, Hannah
wept and did not eat. She didn't eat. And so, this
picture of Hannah, a child of grace, she's being provoked just
the same way that the enemy of our souls provokes us and troubles
us. And when we see our sin, and
we see our weakness, and we see our infirmity, it's hard. Sometimes
it's hard to eat that gospel word which the Lord gives to
his people to feed and nourish them because we're so troubled
and we're so overwhelmed and taken by our sin that we don't
see how that the Lord uses it, is using us for a good and so
we don't eat. It's very troubling to us, it's
impossible for her to eat, therefore she's not being comforted and
she's not being nourished and she's not being strengthened.
And that's why the worst thing we can do when you're troubled
is to stay away. Don't stay away. This is the
very place you need to be. The worst thing you could do
is turn to the world, turn to the flesh, and turn to those
things that the flesh says, this is my comfort, this is my peace,
this is what I need. No, you need the Lord if you're
troubled. And the children of God are blessed
by the Lord. And so they do want to come.
Even when we don't want to come, Though the Lord bring us, we
always know, Lord, thank you. You did exactly and gave me exactly
what I needed. You fed me. You brought me here,
Lord, because if it was me, I would have just stayed, but by your
grace, that worthy portion, you brought me here, and I heard
what I needed to hear in Christ. So what's gonna make us eat?
What is it that makes us eat and partake of that worthy portion? The hearing of Christ, what is
it? Well, it's a visit from Christ in power and in glory. It's a
visit from Christ in his grace. Look at verse eight. Then said Elkanah her husband
to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? And why eatest thou not? And
why is thy heart grieved? Am not I better to thee than
ten sons? That's what I call the message,
better than sons, better than sons. Am I not better to thee
than ten sons? We get so fixated on what we
think we need. And Christ says to us, I'm better
than anything you could want in this world. I'm better than
it all. I'm the fairest of 10,000. and
beyond, and he's wonderful. He's everything that we need
to stand before holy God, accepted of him and received of him, faultless
before the throne of God. That's the blood of Christ. That's
the blood of Christ. That's the grace of Christ that
does that for us. And therefore he's saying, put
Christ first. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness and all these things, all these other
things shall be added Unto you and so the Lord is the worthy
portion of his people We're always looking for outward fruits And
we think that we should be doing this or that and and the Lord
does lay things on our hearts But the way we come by those
fruits is not by the doing of our flesh It's going to the Lord
in prayer It's being burdened and pressed to pray to the Lord
the way Hannah prayed and cried out to the Lord Saying Lord if
if that will I shall. I shall. I'll do that if you
do this. So those showy outward things
like Paninah had, they're not salvation. The Lord comes and
speaks comfortably to his people in the gospel word, through his
word, by his spirit, making known to us that Christ is most precious
above all things. Isaiah 56, five says, even unto
them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and
a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will give them
an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. And so that's
what the Lord promises to you, an everlasting name, an everlasting
righteousness in his son, Jesus Christ. Now let's read carefully
verse nine. So Hannah rose up after they
had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk. You see that
after they, that means Hannah, when her husband came and ministered
to her, she ate and she drank. and she partook of that meal
which was given to her by the Lord, that worthy portion. That's
what the Lord does. He brings his people to hear
that word. If you're troubled, but you're
coming to hear the word, that's a good thing. That's a gracious
work that the Lord does for his children. He brings you, he draws
you in the midst of the affliction, in the midst of the trouble.
You're not gonna put away the affliction and the trouble. The
Lord does, and he comforts his people through the preaching
of the gospel and the fellowship of the saints. That's where he
provides that worthy portion to his people. And so she ate
and she drank. She fed upon that spiritual food,
which is Christ. She fed upon the heavenly bread,
which the Lord gives to his people to feed and nourish them. That's
what we need, and that's what he does for us. So having eaten
and drinking, drunk there, she rose up after. She rose up after,
and that's when she made her supplication to the Lord. I'm not gonna read it again,
but the body of it was, look on me, remember me, Lord, don't
forget me. You know how low I am, how afflicted
I am. Remember me and give unto me. And then I will give unto you. I'll give you that fruit, right? And that's a beautiful picture
of what the Lord works in our heart by grace, because the worthy
portion is Christ. And we bring forth those fruits
of righteousness that the Lord has given to us by his son. It's
all his gracious work in us. If the Lord wills, We shall. And that's what she's saying
in her prayer. He gives life and we feel the infirmity of
our flesh. We feel the afflictions and the
trouble that he's purposed to give us in this life to bring
us to our knees, to bring us to fall on our faces before the
one, the only one who gives life abundantly and freely, graciously
to his people. and he makes us to eat that heavenly
bread, the Lord Jesus Christ whom he sent. He's the one that
comes and he gives his spirit and by his work, we rise up and
we pray. We ask the Lord and we seek the
Lord in grace. And so this prayer that Hannah
prayed was already answered. The Lord ordained this prayer
for her before the foundation of the world in the Lord Jesus
Christ. But in the day of his grace,
He made her to feel that affliction and brought her to cry out for
this gracious work of the Lord, to seek Him in grace, to beg
Him as mercy beggars for His help, for His remembrance, for
Him to give to us. And that's exactly what he did.
He gave a child. He gave fruit born of everlasting
grace, the seed of Christ in her heart. And that's what he
does to every one of you. He brings forth Christ in our
hearts. And that's eternal. That's eternal. She said, I will give him unto
the Lord all the days of his life. That's what we give to
the Lord. We just give back to Him what He's given to us in
Christ. All our days, all our days. The psalmist said, I will
dwell in the house of the Lord forever. We are eternally praising
our God. Christ by Christ we're coming
in the Lord Jesus Christ He's the grace of God given to us
and we give him right back to the Lord because that's that's
the grace That's the worthy portion. He's given us so rejoice brethren. This is what our God does for
us Graciously in Christ. He gives you his gospel to comfort
you come and hear the word. This is a for your comfort. This
is for your spiritual nourishment. This is for your good and your
blessing and your keeping. This is how you bring forth fruit
is in Christ, by Christ. He does that. He feeds you and
nourishes you and gives you everything you need in Him. Amen. Amen.