Chapter two. I thank you all for cards and
texts and stuff that you sent to me and your prayers. My mother's
funeral went real well. The Lord gave me a lot of liberty
in preaching on a precious death. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints. And I felt the Lord gave me a
lot of liberty to be able to do that. And I got to preach
to probably 50, 60 family members. I got to preach the gospel to
them. And that's a blessing, to be able to do that. That's
kind of a rarity, but the Lord's enabled me to do that. The title of this message, Hannah
prayed, Hannah prayed. Now in Hannah's prayer, we really
have a description of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is who she's
talking about. And it's also a prophecy of the
Lord Jesus Christ, his person and his work. I thought it was
interesting, over in verse 10, she says, and he shall give strength
unto his king. They had no king at that time.
The king hadn't been given for another 50 years, I think. But
when she said, he shall give strength to his king, there's
a prophecy there of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as we go
down through this and look at this, I believe we'll see our
Lord in it and how He saves sinners also. And it's evident here in
Hannah's prayer that she knew the Lord. She knew Him. She describes Him beautifully
throughout this prayer and the evidence THAT SHE KNEW THE LORD
AND THAT SHE BELIEVED THE LORD. I THINK IN CHAPTER 1, LOOK IN
VERSE 18. HERE'S A CLUE IN VERSE 18, AND
SHE SAID, LET THINE HANDMAID FIND GRACE IN THY SIGHT. ELI'S
TALKING TO HER, AND ELI THOUGHT SHE WAS DRUNK, AND SHE SAYS,
I'M NOT DRUNK, I'M IN BITTERNESS OF SOUL. AND SHE TOLD HIM WHAT
SHE HAD BEEN PRAYING FOR, PRAYING FOR THIS CHILD. AND ELI SAID,
GO IN PEACE, AND GOD OF ISRAEL GRANT THEE THY PETITION. And
she said, let thy handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman
went her way and did eat and her countenance was no more sad. You know why? She believed God. She believed when he said, the
Lord give you your petition, she believed him. She took God's
man and his word and she went home and she was sad no more.
Evidence. Evident she believed God and
she knew the Lord Now Chapter one sets this up. There was a
man named Elkanah who had two wives Hannah and Peninnah and
I think most of you are familiar with this story. I'm sure you
are Hannah was barren it says and it says the Lord made her
barren Life is of God You know, children, it says,
are a heritage of the Lord. They don't just happen. They're
not accidental. They are of God. Children are
of God. Life is of God. And the Lord
made her barren for this purpose, this prayer, this prophecy that
you and I could look at this morning. and learn from it, learn
something of the Lord Jesus Christ and His salvation, His power,
His providence, His grace and mercy. But Peninnah had several
children and she let Hannah know it. Sad, as if she had something
really to do with that. God has something to do with
who's coming into this world. She probably told her children,
she had several sons and daughters, she probably said, be sure to
wave at Hannah when you walk by, just to aggravate her. And Hannah was very hurt by this.
She was grieved by this. Especially in that day, a woman
who was barren, it was just grief to her, unbearable grief to her. And she was grieved by this.
And she took her complaint, her sorrow before the Lord. She did the right thing. She
cast her care upon the Lord. Cast all your cares upon him,
for he careth for you. And this is the way to handle
trouble. Take it to the Lord and leave
it there. Take your burdens to the Lord and leave it there.
Cast your care upon the Lord Jesus Christ no matter what it
is. He's able to bear it. He's able
to bring us through it. But let us not be like banana
and flaunt what we have as though we came up with it. Who maketh you to differ? What
you have What do I have that we did not receive? Everything
we have, God's given it to us. And I want us to learn to praise
God for everything we have, and especially when He answers prayer. You see, the first time she prayed,
it was in bitterness of soul. The second time, it's in praise
of God for giving her Samuel. But you know, We read this prayer and she's
so full of praise, but do you know what happened just before
she does this? This child that she prayed for,
for this child I praise, she said. And she kept him home until
she weaned him. It was probably around, I'm gonna
say 11, 12 years of age. There's three different stages
in their lives of what they would call weaning. And he's probably
around 12 years of age. And she brings him, she brings
him to Shiloh, to Eli, and she gives him up for the rest of
her life. He never goes back to her home
again. He stays there with Eli. This
child she prayed for, and God gave her this child, And she
told God, she said, she made a vow. You give me this child,
I'll give him back to you forever. And she stuck to it. When he
was 12, I'm gonna say around 12 years of age, she took him
back to Eli and gave him up. And she went home without him.
And he stayed there for the rest of his life. And once a year
she'd go back and she'd make him a coat or she'd make him
things and give it to him. But she saw him one time a year
for the rest of her life after that. And from that, this song of praise,
it's called a prayer here, but you know, true prayer ought to
be full of praise. We ought to learn to really praise
God more than we always asking for something. We are definitely
consumers, aren't we? We are consumers. In verse one,
and Hannah prayed. The first time she prayed, she
prayed from bitterness of soul. And now she prays from a heart
that's rejoicing in the Lord. But here is a picture of a believer. Here's a picture of all those
whom God saves. We cannot pray or praise God
like Hannah does here until we have prayed as she did in the
bitterness of her soul. We have to know something of
the bitterness, the barrenness of our soul. We are literally
spiritually barren. We can bear no fruit, no spiritual
fruit. We can bear no life. We are absolutely
barren before God. I think this is one of the things
that's missing in our day. They have replaced this conviction
of sin, this barrenness we had before God, they've replaced
it with a decision. They have, they have to replace
it with a decision. Just decide and accept Jesus
as your personal Savior and there's no bitterness of soul. There's
no experience of conviction of sin. She is in real bitterness
as every child of God is when He makes them to know how barren
they are. That's part of salvation. That's
part of being saved. is knowing something of how barren
you are. And not until we know this will
we praise God, as she does here, that He's given us life. We have been given life. Spiritual
life, the life of God, eternal life, we have been given that.
We ought to wake up every morning in praise of God for that eternal
life which he has given us. We ought to go throughout the
day with such joy in our hearts, and we ought to close the day
with thanking him. Lord, thank you for saving my
soul. Thank you for making me whole
as we sing. Thank you. Many people will die this day
and perish under the wrath of God. Oh my soul, has God made you
to know this? Has God made you to know the
bitterness of your soul? I don't want to be religious,
I want to be saved. And I don't want to go from Arminianism
to Calvinism and still miss Christ. I don't want to do that either.
I believe there are some who have gone from Arminianism to
Calvinism But they've not yet arrived at Christ. They've got
the doctrines right, but they don't have Christ right. I'll tell you how you can tell
if they really have Christ. It's that real love and joy they
have for the Lord and for His people. It comes out in love. It's expressed in love. And she says here in this verse,
my heart rejoices in the Lord. This prayer comes from the same
place her complaint came from, her bitterness came from. Her
bitterness came from her heart. She laid it out before God. And
now this praise coming from her heart. Salvation is a heart work. TRUE PRAYER COMES FROM THE HEART.
IT LITERALLY COMES FROM THE HEART. TRUE PRAYER DOES. HEART PRAYER
IS TRUE PRAYER. THIS HEART THAT WAS BROKEN NOW
REJOICES IN THE LORD. GOD'S HEARD MY CRY AND IN MERCY
HE'S ANSWERED ME. Be merciful to me, the sinner. That's the first cry. And if He has, you'll rejoice.
Your heart will rejoice. You'll be bubbling over. Your
heart will be bubbling over. You can't help but praise Him.
And you notice here, as I said, she just gave this child up forever. Never to go back to their home. But she says, my heart rejoices
in the Lord, not in Samuel. My heart rejoices in the giver,
not the gift. Oh, you know she found real joy
in that child. You know she did. That's her
boy. That's the one she asked for.
That's what his name means. Samuel means ask for. She named
him that because she asked for him and the Lord gave him to
her. And she had great joy in that
little fella. But when she gave him up, she
said, my heart rejoices in the Lord who gave him to me. We rejoice
in Christ, not just what we get out of him. He's the object of
our joy. The Lord Jesus Christ is. And my horn is exalted in the
Lord. The word horn there has to do
with strength. God is my strength. He's my strength
and in Him I'll rejoice. God, she's saying God was my
strength to bear Samuel. He's my strength to bear. Our strength is in the Lord.
You let all the bananas go ahead and laugh, go ahead and mock
me, go ahead, it's all right. My strength is in God. My strength
is in the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you'll see me exalted
at his right hand someday. I think of that person that made
a lot of fun of me. I told you about it before, but he'd make
fun of me. And when I talked to him about
the gospel, he'd make fun of me. He'd make fun of that, of
the gospel, make fun of being saved, the word saved. He just... He will see me and all of God's
children exalted at God's right hand someday. The ones that say
that you're nuts, you're crazy, you're foolish. Who was it said
to Paul? Was it Felix said, Paul, much
learning have made you mad. But he sees Paul exalted at God's
right hand there in the Lord Jesus Christ while he's in hell. And my mouth is enlarged. I have reason to rejoice. You
know what? A heart that's full of joy will
enlarge the mouth to sing and to give praise to God. Before,
you know, before Peninnah was just rubbing it in her face,
all of her children, and Hannah was just in bitterness of soul,
but now she's got something to sing about. Has God saved you? Has He saved me? We've got something
to sing about. HE HAS ENLARGED OUR MOUTH, HE
HAS GIVEN US REASON TO REJOICE AND TO PRAISE HIM. OUR LORD HAS SAVED US, MY SOUL.
I HAVE MORE TO REJOICE ABOUT THAN ALL THE PANINNAS OF THE
WORLD HAVE. I HAVE SOMETHING TO REJOICE IN.
I HAVE SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT. HE HATH REDEEMED MY SOUL, HE
HAS PURCHASED ME. THE LORD HAS PURCHASED MY SOUL.
from death, from destruction, from the curse of the law, the
Lord hath redeemed my soul. Oh, that the Lord would enable us
to sing with the heart. And now she starts to describe
Him in verse 2. And she gives a description of
our Lord. There is none holy as the Lord
Jehovah. Jehovah Jesus. There's none holy
as He. What did the demons call Him?
The Holy One of Israel. That's what they called Him.
They knew who He was. Thou art the Holy One of Israel.
There's none holy as the Lord. Someone says she hit the highest
chord of praise. If we are going to speak of God
And if we are going to speak of His attributes, we have to
start with this one, because all the attributes of God are
immersed into His holiness. His love is a holy love. His mercy is holy mercy. His
power is holy power. Everything about God and every
attribute that He has and that He is, is holy. They sing in heaven, what do
they sing? The angels, what do they proclaim? Love, love, love? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God Almighty. If he's not holy, we're in trouble. His holiness ensures us that
the judge of the earth will do right. It ensures us that he
will do right. There's none holy as the LORD,
none good but God." That's what the Lord said, wasn't it? He
said, Why are you calling me good for? There's none good but
God. And there is none beside thee,
there's none to be compared to thee. There's nothing and no one that's
compared to God. Who can be compared to God in
holiness, HE EXCELS ALL. IN POWER, IT'S ALL HIS. IN KNOWLEDGE, HE KNOWS ALL. HE'S NEVER LEARNED A THING. EVERYTHING
I KNOW, EVERYTHING I KNOW, I HAD TO LEARN. EVERYTHING. HE'S LEARNED
NOTHING. KNOWLEDGE DWELLS WITH HIM. ALL POWER DWELLS WITH HIM. Grace dwells with Him. Love dwells
with Him. There's none compared to Him.
He's beyond comparison. There's none like Him. Neither
is there any rock like our God. Neither is there any deity. Neither
is there any God like our God. Unmovable. Some can take their God and they
can hang Him on the wall, a picture of Him here on this wall, and
they'll say, well, I'm going to rearrange the room, I'm going to put Him
over here on this wall. The God of heaven and earth is unmovable. What He has purposed, He will
do. God will do everything He has
purposed. He's a rock to stand on. He's
a sure foundation. He's a sure foundation. He's
a rock to hide behind. He's our refuge. He's our high tower. He's our strength. And he's that
rock from which we drink. He's that rock from which we
drink. We have spiritual drink. Christ's
the water of life. We drink from Him who is the
rock. And He's a rock that will crush
our enemies. He'll crush our enemies. Now,
this being so, talk no more exceeding proudly. Exceeding proudly. We can't just talk proudly, we've
got to exceed one another, don't we? Somebody tells a story, somebody's
got to tell a bigger one. Don't say, look what I have. Don't boast about what you have,
whether it be in gifts or in material matters. God gave it
to you. God gave it to me. Don't talk no more exceeding
proudly. And this, no doubt, she's directing this at Panetta.
She had all these children and she just talked so proudly. Would you look at this one? Would
you look at that one? Isn't she pretty? Don't talk
so proudly. There's nothing outside of Christ
to boast about, is there? Do we have anything? apart from
the Lord Jesus Christ to boast about. Nothing. Nothing. He is all my worth. He's all
my worth. The rich man thought he had something
to boast about, so thou hast much good laid up for many years.
Where's he at now? The Word of God says he's in
hell. And he's still there. And he
will be throughout eternity. He ain't boasting about it. I
bet you he's not telling anyone there about his riches. I bet
he's not telling anyone there about how well off he was and
about his family. I guarantee you he's not telling
nobody about that. Talk no more exceeding proudly.
The scripture says, God resists the proud but gives grace unto
the humble. And let not arrogancy come out
of your mouth. John Gill, and I was reading
him on this, and he said that word arrogancy is arrogating. Let not arrogating come out of
your mouth. Here's what that means. That
means taking everything you have and attributing it to yourself. You're irrigating it to yourself.
Instead of praising God, instead of thanking the Lord, you're
thanking yourself. You're saying, I'm a self-made
man. I've pulled myself up by the
bootstraps. No, no. She's going to put it
in its right light here in a minute. Talk no more exceeding proudly
and let not arrogance come out of your mouth. You know the scripture
says, Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
So if it's coming out of your mouth, if arrogance is coming
out of your mouth, that's what your heart is. That's who you
are, arrogant somebody. Remember who God is and who you
are and where everything comes from. Remember that. Even a fool is thought to be
wise when his words are fools. Just shut up. You know this and I know this.
I can't stand being around arrogance. And yet, I know sometimes it
comes out of my mouth. But everything we have, God's
given it to us. She says, here now, let not arrogancy
come out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and
by Him actions are way. Just let your words be few. He
knows, He knows by, He's a God of knowledge, perfect knowledge.
All knowledge rests with God. There's nothing He doesn't know.
There's not a thought in my mind that He does not know altogether. He knows our thoughts. This is
the greatness of God. There's close to 8 billion people
on this earth right now. He knows every thought, even
before they think it. He knows it. And by Him, actions
are weighed. The motive of why we do what
we do is weighed out by Him. You see how she's describing
our Lord, the Lord Jesus, God of heaven and earth. She's describing
Him. God knows the heart. Nothing's
hid from Him. And the bow of mighty men are
broken. Warriors is what she's saying
here. Men that you think would be in power forever. Sooner or
later, He breaks it. He breaks their power. Sooner
or later, He breaks the power. of mighty warriors, some that
you would think that nobody could bring them down. He does. He
does. Men may think that their strength
will endure, but in time, God will break their
power. Pharaoh is a good example. God
said, I raised you up to demonstrate my power in you. Nebuchadnezzar. God put him out to pasture for
several years until he learned that the God of heaven and earth
ruled heaven and earth. Set up one, bring down another.
God's doing that. This is God's doing. This is
God's doing. Nobody, no one is in power that
God did not put in power. for whatever reason, whether
it be for judgment on a nation or to bless a nation. God put
them there. This is God's earth. This is
God's world, and He's running it according to His eternal purpose,
which He purposed in Jesus Christ before the world was. And He's
purposed everything in my life and your life. And that enables me to go to
bed at night and sleep. It enables me to sleep. This is our God she's speaking
of. This is the Lord Jesus Christ she's speaking of. Men are only
in power to serve the will and purpose of God. And when they
have served the will and purpose of God, He will set them down. He will set them down. Christ said to Pilate, you can
have no power at all, except it be given you from above. That's
all the power you got, is what's given to you. And they that stumble,
you see, he breaks the bows of the mighty warrior, but those
that are weak, those that are weak, he girds
them with strength. Those that can do nothing are
nothing. They stumble because they have
no strength. This is speaking spiritually.
There's a double application. There's the natural application,
which, as we'll see here in a minute, the Lord killeth every day, He
does. Every day. We'll get to that
in a minute. But those who stumble, He strengthens. And they that were full, now
you'll notice here how the Lord turns everything upside down.
See, providentially, He does these things. Providentially,
He raises up and He brings down. And those that were full have
hired themselves out for bread. Those who were rich, increased
with good, have need of nothing, they're out now begging. They're out now having to work
for their bread. The Lord turns all things upside
down. These things are in His hands. You know, we see the world, we
see things as things happen in the world. We see things going
up and we see them coming down. We see people have power, we
see them lose power. This is God working. This is
the Lord Jesus Christ working. ALL THINGS, ALL POWER, ALL PERSONS,
THE WHOLE WORLD, EVERYTHING HAS BEEN PUT INTO THE HANDS OF THE
LORD JESUS CHRIST AS THE MEDIATOR. AND EVERYTHING THAT'S HAPPENING
IS HAPPENING BY HIS AUTHORITY. THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE WATCHING.
LET US BE MORE KEEN TO THAT. WHEN WE SEE THESE THINGS HAPPEN
ACROSS THE WORLD, THAT'S OUR LORD WORKING. HE'S WORKING. God takes the man that's full
of himself and pours him out, and He takes the poor, the spiritually
poor, and He fills him up. He fills him with good things.
Things such as wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Those are the things I want to be filled with. And they that were hungry, they
cease to be hungry. Those who hunger and thirst after
righteousness, they shall be filled. If we hunger after these,
if you came here this morning hungry, spiritually hungry, if
you came hungry, the Lord's gonna feed you. I promise you on God's
word, He's gonna feed you. If you came hungry, He'll feed the hungry. He said
He would. And the barren, they that were
hungry have ceased, and the barren have borne seven." That's the
number of perfection. Complete. In Christ you are complete. But I think he also has reference
here to the Gentiles, who were barren, spiritually barren for
4,000 years. They were left in the dark. And after our Lord died on Calvary's
cross and rose, he sent the gospel throughout the world. And there
are local assemblies throughout this world, this whole world. And there's nothing going on
over there in Jerusalem. Do you know of a church over
there in Jerusalem? There was in the book of Acts, that's where
it started. There's 3,000 saved at Pentecost
and another time after that there's 5,000 saved. There was a thriving
gospel church there at one time. I don't know of any. But you go out and look out into
the world, the Gentile world, there are local assemblies like
this meeting together today all over the place. Baron hath born seven. And then she describes our Lord
here. She said, the Lord killeth and he makes alive. She demonstrates
here or shows forth here his sovereignty and power. This has
application to spiritual. He's got to kill us. He's got
to kill that pride in us. He's got to bring us down. He's
got to lay us in the dust before He can raise us up. He's got
to strip us before He closes us with His righteousness. He's
got to lay us in the grave before He raises us up in Christ. There's
a spiritual application to this, but I tell you this, there's
also a practical application. God kills every day. The Lord
Jesus Christ kills every day. People don't want to hear about
that one. They want to hear about this little one, Jesus, that
wants to save everybody, wants to do good, just wants you to
be rich, wants you to be healthy, wants you to be full. The Lord killeth and maketh alive. How many people will die this
day? And how many babies will be born
this day? Both are of the Lord. Both are
of the Lord. Life does not happen apart from
Him, even natural life. And nobody dies. He said, not
even a sparrow falls to the ground without your heavenly Father.
This is one of the reasons why there's no fear of God at all.
There's no fear of the Lord Jesus Christ at all, because they take
this part and put it out. They just set it aside. They're
not going to talk about that. Well, the same one that gives
life also kills. He takes life. That's the truth. You know, I want you to tell
me the truth about God. Tell me the truth about the Lord
Jesus Christ. The whole truth of nothing but
the truth. That's what I want. He bringeth down to the grave
and he brings up. He has the power to put you in
the grave and he has the power to bring you up. I've seen people
taken to the mouth of the grave in sickness and then be healed. I believe it was Todd and I were
going to prepare his funeral. They were getting ready to do
his funeral. And they were making arrangements. They said they
were going to make arrangements for his funeral. And the Lord raised him up. Raised
him up. But He also takes us to the grave.
And I thought about our Lord. I thought He takes us to the
grave of our Lord. And there in our substitute we
died. And in His resurrection we live, we are raised. We died
in Christ, we are raised in Christ. And I know that. Do you know
that? I know that. And I thank God
I know that. The Lord makes poor, He makes
rich, He brings low and He lifts up. Now, naturally He does this. He makes men rich to serve His
purpose and He makes poor. But this has a spiritual application
that He makes us poor. He brings us, He has to bring
us to our spiritual poverty. We are spiritually poor, but
we don't know it. We don't know it until God saves us. We don't
know we're bankrupt before God until He makes us to know it.
And then He makes us rich in Christ. All things are yours
in Christ, all things. And He raises up the poor out
of the dust. Brother, that's where He found
me. Where did He find you? Wallowing around in the dust. We are but dust. This body we
have is but dust. It's just dust. The Lord took
dust, He took the clay, the dirt, the dust of this ground, and
He made a body. He made a body. And this old
dust is going to go back to the ground too. He made it. But He raises up the poor out
of the dust. He gives us spiritual life. And
someday, listen, someday He's going to give us a spiritual
body. A spiritual body. And Christ
is the life of that spiritual body. The blood that flows through
my veins right now is the life of this flesh. The life of the
flesh is in the blood. The life of that new body is
in Christ. He's the life of it. He raises up the poor out of
the dust. And He lifteth the beggar from
the dunghill. She's talking about Himself,
but she's talking here also about what the Lord Jesus Christ does
when He saves sinners. And she's putting Herself right
there. He lifted the beggar from his
own stench and his own filth, and He sets him among princes.
He makes him to inherit the throne of glory. Isn't that something?
Isn't that amazing? Look, we're just frail creatures. Our bodies are but dust, we're
sinful. By nature now, we're sinful,
we're wretched by nature. Before God, that's the way we
are. And yet, He's made us to inherit the throne of glory,
kings and princes. I'm gonna close here. The pillars
of the earth are the Lord's, they're His, and He sets the
world upon them. He's got the power to do what
He said He'd do. He has the power to lift us from
the dust to glory. He has the power to save us from
our sins. He has the power to save us from
Satan. My soul, the whole world is upheld by the word of His
power. We should never, ever question the power of God. Whatever situation I might be
in, it's never a question of God's power, it's a question
of God's will. What is His will? All He has
to do is speak a word and my trouble's over. It's over. Hannah was like this for years
and she was in bitterness and weeping and this is God's child
and He's bringing her through this to where when He blesses
her and He gives her this child, takes away her barrenness, she's
gonna praise Him like she ought to praise Him. And that's how
He brings us too. He brings us through the bitterness
of soul that we may praise Him and give unto Him all the glory
due unto His name. She knew, she knew why she had
that child. She asked for it and God gave
it to her. And He says, He'll keep the feet
of His saints, preservation. He'll preserve us. He'll keep
us. We're not going to fall away. He won't let it. And the wicked, look here in
verse 19, I'll close. He keep the feet of his saints,
and the wicked shall be silent in darkness. You know, there's
just no way to explain the darkness of that world, whether damned
or sent. It's a darkness, I think, like
I think it was spoken of in Egypt, that it could be felt. I've never
been in such darkness that it's like you could feel it. That's
darkness. You know, it's called a bottomless
pit. And this has been a thought of mine. It's bottomless because
when they are cast into hell, the fall never stops. The fall just never stops. And it's just in outer darkness. Unbelievable darkness. And there's
silence. They never hear a kind word again. It says there's weeping, wailing,
gnashing of teeth. And the adversaries, verse 10,
the adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. You know, his adversaries are
our adversaries. And he said, they'll be broken
to pieces. All the peninas are going to be broken to pieces.
Out of heaven shall he thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge
the ends of the earth. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
All judgment's been turned over to the Son. And He shall give
strength unto His King. We know that's our Lord. And
exalt the horn of His anointing. What a prayer. What a prayer. What a way to praise God. This
is how we ought to pray. We ought to incorporate praise
more than we ask. All right.