The Word of God is living. It's
not a dead letter. It's living. When we read it,
it's the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Word of God. So it's important when we read
it that we ask Him, as He promised, the words that I speak unto you,
He said, are spirit and they are life. So wherever we read
in scripture, it's the word of God. It has that effect on us. It gives us life. And it does
so in a way by opening to us what we are, our great need,
our helplessness. And the only place that need
can be met is in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that by the grace
of God. He gives himself to us as we
hear from his word. And that is by His Spirit working
in us. And so when we read, whether
we're reading in Galatians or in 1 and 2 Samuel, we're reading
the very words of the Lord Jesus Christ for His people, for His
church. And we should never forget that. Because here, even in these
words, we see the grace of God. We see the Spirit of God by His
grace telling us things that are for sinners. for our salvation,
for our life, our eternal life, our eternal inheritance in Him.
He tells us God's eternal purpose that was in His heart, and that
Christ fulfilled and gave to us because of His work for us
as our Savior. So all these things are contained
in Scripture and more, and we see the glory of God in them.
There's no other book in all the world, and there never will
be, like the Bible. We should have it as almost our
only reading. I would say that. If you want
to read the newspaper a little bit here and there, always read
it carefully because it's full of propaganda, full of distortions
and half-truths. But when you read the Bible,
every word of God is pure. It's been tried in the fire seven
times. There's no error in it. And so
we can read it with confidence. There's nothing else like that
in the whole world. Even though we tend to trust men, the Word
of God tells us that we should not. We should not trust in men,
because the heart of man is deceitful above all things. Who can know
it? Not a man, only the Lord Jesus
Christ. So I say all that by introduction. The book of 1 Samuel
is a fantastic place in Scripture. You can read about it yourself.
But when we looked at this last week, we saw a man with two wives. A man named Elkanah, Hannah,
I think was his first wife. And the other wife's name, the
way I pronounce it, because it's pronounced this way in my version
of the Bible, is Peninnah. Whether that's the way it was
actually spoken or not doesn't really matter, as long as we
know who we're talking about, his second wife or the other
wife. And so we're going to look at
this in a minute, but let's first pray. Dear Lord, our God and Father,
the Father and God of our Lord Jesus Christ, by tremendous grace,
unspeakable, incomprehensible grace, through the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, we come to you now and we ask that from
your written word By Your Spirit, You would speak to our hearts
and make it a living word in us. Give us faith, direct our
eyes and all of our heart in our desires to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Cause us to worship You because
of Him. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
So I'll just catch you up a little bit here about Hannah. I've entitled
this message, I Rejoice in Thy Salvation, as we'll see in Chapter
2. But Hannah was the wife of Elkanah
that had no children. The wife that did have children,
Peninnah, they both were married to the same man. And Hannah was
loved by her husband. It says that she was beloved
in verse 5 of her husband. And yet, something was wrong
with Hannah. The Lord had shut up her womb.
She couldn't have children. God had made it so she couldn't
have children. And for Hannah, this was the
greatest of all possible afflictions because it caused her great grief
knowing that she couldn't bear children. And that's important
that we understand that the Lord afflicted Hannah. The Lord did
that. And I mentioned last week that
when we have any affliction, it's from God. And it may be
because of our own sin. Like it says in Psalms 107, verse
17, fools because of transgression. are afflicted. And so we know
that it's God's hand against us for our sins to teach us,
not to bring punishment on us, but to teach us, if we're His,
to direct our hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ, to show us and
expose us as sinners before Him so that we will understand our
humble place, and we will take that place and realize that salvation
is in Christ alone. But also we may be afflicted
in a way like the Apostle Paul was for the church of God. In
2 Corinthians chapter 1, the Apostle speaks about how God
brought trouble on him for the sake of those to whom he ministered
in Corinthians. He said, Blessed be God, even
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies,
and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation. That's the trouble I'm talking
about. This is why he comforts us in our tribulation. And if
you read on, you'll see that this was... The way that God brought comfort
to the Corinthians was through the trouble that came on Paul.
When he got into trouble, the gospel spread, he wrote letters,
and the ministry of that gospel was effective towards them, and
as a result, they prayed for him in all of his trouble, And
God blessed their prayers and so thanksgiving was given to
God for many because of the trouble that was brought on Paul for
their sake and their prayers for him, for his sake. And so
there was this mutual comfort that came from God for them.
So the second reason why affliction comes is often it comes on us
because of our foolishness to drive us back to Christ. And
a second reason is for the church, for the people of God's sake.
And this is a great blessing. The third reason I can think
of why trouble comes is because God wants to take glory to himself
in delivering us from what is for us the greatest possible
burden. Remember when Lazarus died, his
two sisters Martha and Mary wondered why Jesus hadn't come quickly
and the Lord Jesus said it was for the glory of God. It was
for the glory of the Son of God, that He might be glorified in
His resurrection. So there's a third reason for
the glory of God. All things are for the glory
of God, but even in our affliction we can trust that whatever comes
to us is from our Father's hand. And if it comes from our Father's
hand who is holy and only good, then we can receive it as from
Him, knowing He will do with it in us and for us and for Himself
and His kingdom all that He intends. And so we see this in our affliction.
And there's many other reasons in scripture. One of the reasons
is given in Romans 5 and 1 Peter 1 and James 1 is for the trial
of our faith. That our faith might be refined,
that it might be purified and increased and we might more intensely
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. many causes for affliction, and
all of them are beneficial to God's people because it says
in Romans 8.28, we know that all things work together for
the good of them that love God to those who are called according
to His purpose. So it's all working according
to God's purpose to conform us to the image of His Son. So those
many reasons, and I'm sure there are more, are why God brings
affliction. But it's always from God's hand.
It says in Isaiah 9, chapter 9, verse 13, the Israelites did
not seek Him who smited them. When God brought affliction upon
them, they didn't seek the Lord. Instead, they sought after idols.
Much like happens in our day today when trouble comes in the
form of, let's say, the coronavirus. What do people seek? Do they
seek the Lord? Do they trust only in Him? Or
do they look for a cause somewhere else? Maybe the war between this
country and that. Or do they look for a cure in
medicine rather than in the Lord? The Lord will bring those cures
if He pleases to in those ways, but we must always look to Him
who smites us and seek the Lord. Otherwise, we trust in men and
we know that that is the worst thing we can possibly do. So
Hannah's affliction teaches us a lot. But the other thing that
happened in this family is that Peninnah, the second wife, persecuted
Hannah. And we saw last week that this
is the worst possible thing that we can do. Basically, to try
to bring additional affliction on somebody when God Himself
is bringing affliction on them. Remember Job? He cried out in
Job chapter 19, Have pity upon me, my friends, for the hand
of God is against me. And so the problem is that they
were trying to jump on and add to what God in His wisdom thought
was appropriate. And that's always wrong. It's
always wrong for us to add affliction to anybody. Vengeance is not
ours, and we should never persecute the poor and the needy man. Job
is an example of that. King David sinned when he took
Uriah's wife and killed Uriah. And it was when Nathan the prophet
brought him to understand how God saw his sin that David cried
out, This man that did this shall surely die, because he did not
show mercy, he did not show pity to this man. And so he was saying
exactly what Peninnah was doing here. He condemned himself when
he saw his own sin through God's prophet. And he saw that his
sin was that he did not show mercy. He took no compassion
on this man who had only one sheep. And of course, the Lord
Jesus Christ is the greatest example of one who suffered persecution
when God himself afflicted him. Persecuted by men, afflicted
by God, always bad to jump on that. So let us never, ever be
tempted in our heart or to bring, as even school children are prone
to do, cruelty on those who are down and out. We should rather
have mercy on them and pity. Remember in Matthew 18, Jesus
gave a parable after Peter asked him, he said, Lord, how often
should I forgive my brother if he sins against me in a day?
Seven times? And Jesus said, no, not seven,
seventy times seven. In other words, you just keep
forgiving. And he gave this parable. He
said there was a king and he was doing an accounting. And
in the process of taking an account, there was one of his people that
he found that owed him 10,000 talents. And a talent is worth
about, weighs about 40 or 50 pounds. A talent of silver or
gold is a huge, huge amount of money. And this man owed 10,000
talents. An incomprehensible amount of
money he owed. And so he came before the king.
The king demanded that he pay his debt. He said, I cannot pay,
and he pleaded for mercy. And the king spared him. He forgave
him all that debt. And that same man, Jesus said,
he went out and he found someone who owed him money. He grabbed
him and he said, pay me what you owe. And the man said, I
cannot. And he pleaded for mercy from
that man. And the man had no mercy, but cast him into prison. And then the servants of the
king went to the king and said, look, this is what this guy did.
After you forgave him all that debt. And the king took him and
he threw him into prison. And he made him stay there and
he said he sent him to the tormentors to pay until he finished paying
his whole debt. And Jesus said, that's what's
going to happen to you if you do not from your heart forgive.
And so the Lord Jesus is teaching us we should have pity. We should
have pity as God has had mercy upon us. But Peninnah didn't
do that. So I mention that as a reminder
here of what we saw last time. But then we also saw how Hannah
gave up so much. She desired a son and she desired
a son above anything, everything. And so she took, she didn't take
her problem that Peninnah brought to her. She didn't go back to
her and get in a big argument with her. She was persecuted,
but she didn't take vengeance on her. She took it to the Lord.
And she took her to the Lord in prayer. She didn't go there
in order that she might be seen of men, to appear righteous before
men. She had one burden and there
was only one who could help her. It was the Lord. And that's what
faith does. It drives us to Christ. Faith
in the heart. takes God's word to the throne
of grace that God has given us, and based on what God has said,
we plead for mercy through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when God's grace works in our heart, He will give us from
His word, His promises, His truth, and we will go to Him in trust,
trusting Him that He will do that. Think of it. Here's an
example. Think of the Day of Judgment.
I want you to ask this question in your own heart. How will I
stand before God and give an answer to Him for myself? How
can I give an answer to God for my life, my thoughts, my words? Haven't I also done what is condemned
in Scripture? Haven't I also done what this
woman did? Condemned the poor and the afflicted in my heart? Or maybe outwardly? Haven't I
done that many times? Don't I find those kinds of things
rising up as part of my nature? And then how shall I stand before
God? And so the burden of that weight
bears down on our conscience. And by God's grace, He produces
in us this need that we can only meet. We're in desperate need
and we can only meet that need if He gives us a promise that
we as sinners can even come to Him. How can I escape the judgment
of God? I deserve it. And so then he
points us to the Lord Jesus Christ, and he says, Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Who can
condemn one for whom Christ died? He didn't just die, but he rose
again. He didn't just rise, he sits on heaven's throne, and
there he intercedes for his people. And so our heart, in the inner
workings of God's grace in our heart, drives us to the throne
of grace, pleading that God would receive us for Christ's sake,
and trusting that in Christ, He can receive us, for Christ's
sake, to His own glory, because this is the will of God. This
is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ to save sinners from their
sins. And so we see this in God's work
in Hannah. He drove her, through her affliction,
to the Lord in prayer. And it was a prayer of importunity. She came without stopping. She
wouldn't stop coming. And it was insistent prayer.
An annoying prayer, if you would. So she wouldn't let God rest
because she had this affliction. And she asked him, look upon
my affliction, remember me. And she asked him that he would
give her a son. In verse 11 of chapter 1, she
vowed a vow. She made a promise. And she 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 will give unto thine handmaid a child. Then I will give him
to the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor
come upon his head. Now this is very important. What
is said here is very important. Because Hannah prayed that God
would give her grace. in her affliction, that he would
look on her affliction, remember her, and give her a son in order
that she would have, because of God's gift to her, something
to give to him. And not just anything, but her
firstborn son. This is unparalleled. Incomparable
grace operating in the heart of a woman. That she would consider
giving to God her only and her firstborn son. when she had no
children and could have none. But she did this because it was
God who put it in her heart. He put this desire in her. Because it was His will to fulfill
that desire in answer to her prayer out of her affliction.
And in answer to that prayer, He would bring Samuel. And Samuel
then would be a prophet and a priest. And he would deliver Israel from
their enemies and teach them and pray for them, make intercession
for them. And so Samuel was a gift from God to Israel and he brought
that to them through this woman's affliction and her prayer. And
so we see when God brings affliction on us, take our trouble to the
Lord, come to the throne of grace at every time of need because
the Lord Jesus Christ knows our need. He feels our trouble. He
feels Everything that we feel because he himself suffered in
every way that we suffer. And so that's what we see here
in the summary of Hannah and the situation. Now I want to
pick it up in verse 22. Elkanah, her husband, went up
to offer, in verse 21, but in verse 22, But Hannah went not
up, for she said to her husband, I will not go up until the child
be weaned, and then I will bring him that he may appear before
the Lord and there abide forever. She was determined to give Samuel
to the Lord. God put it in her heart to do
so. Have you ever heard of anything like this? Is there any place
in scripture where a mother gives a son to the Lord and brings
him to the Lord? Well, actually, there is. There
is an exodus, God tells them, to bring their firstborn to the
Lord. But nothing like what Hannah did here, where she brought him
to the Lord forever. She gave him to the Lord and
would not take him back. So I'm going to explain a little
bit more about that, but let's keep reading. Verse 23, And Elkanah
her husband said to her, Do what seemeth thee good, Terri, until
thou have weaned him, only the Lord establish his word. So the
woman abode and gave her son Suk until she weaned him. And
when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three
bullocks and one ephah of flour. This was not a small present.
Three young bulls, an ephah, a flower, a large amount of meal,
and a bottle of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord
in Shiloh. Last week I think I said Shiloh
meant peace. I looked it up. Again, it actually
means rest, so I want to correct that. And it says, and the child
was young. And they slew a bullock, and
brought the child to Eli. So she brought a sacrifice, a
huge sacrifice. She gave this sacrifice, but
she also brought her son. And she brought it to Eli, who
was the high priest. And so she speaks now to Eli.
In verse 26, and she said, Now listen, this is a woman who had
no children, and had prayed a long time and suffered much because
she wasn't able to bear children. God had prevented her, and now
God had given her a son. And look what she does here.
She comes to the high priest with her son. She brings her
son to the high priest. And what does she do? She says,
O my Lord, speaking to Eli, because he was put over her spiritually,
O my Lord, as thy soul liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that
stood by thee here praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed,
and the Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked of him.
That in itself is huge. God gave her what she asked from
him. And it was a son. But now listen,
verse 28. Therefore also I have lent him
to the Lord as long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord.
And notice what happened when Eli heard what she did. And what
happened? He worshipped the Lord there.
Eli heard what God did in the heart of this woman. He heard,
he was there when she prayed. He was there when she was praying
and her lips were moving, but there was no sound coming out.
And when he told her to go in peace, that the Lord would give
her a son, And she went home, she had the son, and it was some
time until he was weaned, so it must have been maybe two or
three years old. He brought Samuel to the Lord in Shiloh, to the
tabernacle there where Eli the high priest was. And then she
tells him all that happened. I'm the woman who suffered. I'm
the woman who pleaded with God. I'm the woman God gave the son
and now I'm bringing him back according to that vow that God
put in my heart to make. I'm bringing him back and I'm
giving him to the Lord all the days of his life. He'll be lent
to the Lord as long as he lives. And Eli heard all this and he
had only one thing he could do. He worshiped God. Can you imagine
hearing this and being able to keep a straight face? Can you
imagine him not being moved with tingling at the awareness that
the Lord had worked grace in this woman's heart to this degree?
Have you ever seen this kind of action by God? It causes us to stand still and
take note, doesn't it? When God does something. Can
you find these kinds of of desires in your heart. When I read this,
it causes, it puts me in such awe that I think When has anything
like this ever come over me? That I have been so afflicted,
prayed, God gave me this answer, and then I bring back to the
Lord from what He's given me. When has that ever happened to
me? And when I hear what God has done for Hannah, it causes
me to be humbled. because I desire that God would
so work in my heart. Don't you? Don't you want the
Lord to work in your heart as He did in this woman's heart?
To overcome your stinginess, your unbelief, and cause you,
out of your affliction, to pray according to His will, from His
Word, and that He would answer you, and hear you, and give you,
and that you would be able to give back to Him from what He
gave you? That's grace, isn't it? That's the operation of God's
Word in our heart. It's a remarkable act of faith
and sacrifice. It's beyond comparison, really,
that a woman who was kept by God from having children would
willingly give her firstborn son to the Lord in this unparalleled
act of worship. And so God looks on the heart,
doesn't He? This woman didn't do this just
outwardly. She didn't do it superficially. She actually wanted to do this. All of this was coming out of
her inside. Her own soul and spirit were
involved in this and aligned with it. It wasn't like just
a show of worship. This was true worship that she
had. And only God can give us that in our soul and spirit.
So when I read this, It moves me to think that God would so
work in this woman's heart. And it makes me desire, oh Lord,
so work in my heart. Don't you? And Eli, when he heard
this, he was a man whose two sons were wicked. And yet they
were priests. And don't you know that he was
conflicted because he knew that his sons should not be priests
because they were wicked. And he knew he should do something.
And so there was an obedience he needed to take and had not
taken. And yet he hears this woman doing
this and he thinks of himself. He must think, what a sinner
I am. Look what God has done in the
heart of this woman. And then he worships God because
of this. And that's amazing, isn't it?
That God looks on the heart. In 1 Samuel 2, which we will
read shortly, it says that Hannah prayed and said, By the Lord,
actions are weighed. Therefore, we know that her actions
were according to truth, according to God's work in her heart. And
that's the way God does His work in us. He produces, by His grace,
He produces the good works that are fruit The fruit of His Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, and all those things. Because God has to produce that.
Jesus said, without me you can do nothing. And we know it's
true, don't we? So when I read this chapter,
I'm brought to tears, and I wonder why it affects me so much. And
I think it must be because in Hannah, I see a work of grace
that's unparalleled. And I think of Romans 12, where
we've been studying in our Bible study, where it says, I beseech
you therefore, brethren, listen, by the mercies of God, that you
present yourself, your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
to God, which is your only reasonable service. I added the word only,
but that's what it means. This is the only thing that makes
sense. That's a sermon to me, and this is a sermon to me too.
And so reading about Hannah and Samuel here makes me ask the
Lord to make me willing to give out of the grace He's given to
me, from the heart, and out of faith, worship to God because
of His goodness to me in this great salvation. Now, I want
you also to see in this, not only is this meant to teach us
God's operation in the heart of a sinner and out of the affliction,
because it is meant to teach us that, but it's also meant
to teach us something else, a gospel truth here. Let me ask the question
again. Have you ever read in scripture
of God requiring a woman to give her only and first begotten son?
Well, actually, there is a case of this, and it occurs in Exodus
13. I want you to go with me there
to Exodus chapter 13. In Exodus 13, the Lord gives
a commandment to the Israelites. He says this in verse 1, And
the Lord spake to Moses, saying, sanctify unto me all the firstborn. The firstborn, that's what Samuel
was. He was the firstborn son to Hannah. Never had children
before, so when he was born, God says that that's called opening
the matrix, because it was the first time she had had a child.
Sanctifying to me all the firstborn, whosoever openeth the womb among
the children of Israel, both of man and beast, it is mine,
the Lord says. Look at verse 14, because they
needed to know why. Verse 14, It shall be when thy
son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou
shalt say to him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us out
from Egypt, from the house of bondage. And it came to pass,
when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all
the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of
man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrifice to the
Lord all that openeth the matrix, being males, But all the firstborn
of my children I redeem. So if it was an animal, and it
was clean, God said, sacrifice that animal. If it's a firstborn,
sacrifice that male animal. But if it's your son, because
it had to do with a son, He says, the firstborn of my children,
I redeem them. In other words, I give a redemption
price for them, so that they don't have to be sacrificed,
because God wouldn't have the sacrifice of children. So we
see here that the firstborn was a special case, peculiarly special
to God. The firstborn to a man in his
family, the firstborn son is the one who's given the inheritance.
And so the firstborn was a special case. And so we ask, what is
the message here? What is the gospel message here
when Hannah brought her firstborn son to the Lord? She didn't redeem
him, but she gave him to the Lord to serve the Lord forever.
What does this mean? Well, we have to understand what
it means to sanctify. Because the Lord told the Israelites,
I want you to sanctify your firstborn to the Lord. What does it mean
to sanctify to the Lord? It means to give them to the
Lord. It means to dedicate them to the Lord. It means to set
them apart for God's use. And whatever is set apart for
God's use is holy. That's what it means to be holy.
It's God's. It's mine. It's for my use. Not for yours. For mine. That's God's. And so
when we read in Romans 12, 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service or worship, We're saying, I'm yours. I'm no longer my own. I've been bought with a price.
Therefore, I will glorify God in my body and my spirit, which
are God's. All because of the mercies of
God. But here, this dedication by Hannah also points to another
sanctification. Because we can't make ourselves
holy. We can't make ourselves holy.
There's only one who can do that. It's the Lord. God himself has
to make us holy. And so we see how God has made
us holy in three different ways. Look at Ephesians chapter 1.
God makes his people holy. And there's three ways in which
this occurs in scripture. In Ephesians chapter 1 it says
in verse 4, According as he, God the Father, has chosen us
in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy. and without blame before him
in love. The first way God makes us holy
is that he chose us in Christ to be holy. So in eternity God
the Father made us holy when he chose us in Christ. He said
they're mine. I'm choosing them for myself,
they'll be mine, and He chose us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because He chose us in Christ, we are holy by that act of election. Because we were chosen by God
the Father to be His, then we are holy. God set us apart, and
He put us in Christ that we might be holy. And so the second way
we're made holy is by the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Hebrews
chapter 10. God's will for his people was
that they should be holy. It was an eternal will. And in
order to accomplish that will, he designated the Lord Jesus
Christ as the one who would make us holy. In Hebrews chapter 10,
in verse 4, it says, It is not possible that the blood of bulls
and goats should take away sins. Wherefore, because of that, because
it's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats can take away
sins, when he cometh into the world, the Lord Jesus Christ,
he said, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not, but a body
hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, the Lord Jesus Christ,
in heaven, coming into the world, he said this, Lo, I come, In
the volume of the book it is written of me, throughout scripture,
from top to bottom, to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said,
Sacrifice and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering for sin
thou wouldest not, neither has pleasure therein which are offered
by the law, then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.
In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ alone could actually do
God's will. And he had to do it in the body
that God prepared for him. Because this is what he was going
to do in that body, to do the will of God. He said, I come
to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, the
first covenant, that he may establish the second, the everlasting covenant,
revealed second. By the which will, the will of
God, we are sanctified, made holy, through the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ once for all. In other words, we are
made holy by God in His eternal purpose for us in Christ. We
are made holy in the eternal will of God. And we are made
holy when God fulfilled that will when the Lord Jesus Christ
took a body and in that body offered Himself to God once to
make us holy to God by His blood. And look at chapter 13, Hebrews
13, verse 12. He says, Wherefore Jesus also
Like the animals whose bodies were burned without the camp.
He said, Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his
own blood suffered without the gate. Who sanctified his people? The Lord Jesus. And who is the
Lord Jesus? Well, he's the high priest. How
did the high priest sanctify the people? They offered sacrifices. But it was the blood of animal
sacrifices couldn't make them holy. It couldn't perfect anything.
So God only gave those sacrifices to point to the actual sacrifice
that could. which was the Lord Jesus Christ
offering himself to God for us. And in that one sacrifice of
himself to God, the Lord Jesus took our sins, and he took them
and made satisfaction to God for them. Having made satisfaction,
our sins were put away from us, they were washed from us, and
God forgave us our sins, and justified us because of the obedience
of Christ in doing all of this redemption. And He imputed that
righteousness of His to us so that we are made holy by the
blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ for us.
In other words, God gave His Son for us in eternity, and in
time He gave Him for us, even unto death, in order to make
us holy according to His will, in Ephesians 1.4, that they should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. It's an act of Christ,
according to God's will, spoken throughout all of Scripture,
the volume of the book, that when Christ fulfilled, we were
made holy. It didn't depend upon us, it
was an act of His. You see that? And so in 1 Corinthians
1 and verse 30, a well-known scripture to you, he says, "...of
Him," of God the Father, "...are you in Christ Jesus, who of God
is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, holiness," or sanctification,
"...and redemption." You see how God has done this? First,
He sanctified us in eternal election. Second, He sanctified us in the
satisfaction Christ made by His own blood, putting away our sins.
And in Christ, in Him, God looking upon Him for us, the Lord Jesus
fulfilled the everlasting covenant and made us holy before God.
We're gods, we've been bought with a price, purchased, the
church has been purchased by the blood of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ offered for us. And then, in 1 Peter 1, he shows
us another, the third way in which we're made holy. And that
is through the Spirit of God. 1 Peter 1, verse 2. Elect. Notice how Peter is unashamed,
and he puts this as the first word when he describes God's
people. What's the most important thing he put there? Elect. You
are elect of God. According to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, In other words, the love God had for you before
the foundation of the world, through this election of God,
through sanctification of the Spirit. You see that? Sanctification
of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. So he's writing to the elect, and he says they've
been sanctified, made holy by the Spirit of God. But how were
they made holy by the Spirit of God? According to this verse.
It was the Spirit of God taking the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
shed for them, which made them holy before God, and sprinkling
it on their conscience. So when they are given eyes to
see Christ, lifted up, bearing our curse, taking our sins, and
trusting in Him, they realize now that Christ has made us holy
in His sacrifice. And they therefore worship God
in spirit and come to God through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's the only way they come. That's the only way they
think of coming. That is the sanctification of the spirit.
Making us holy by applying to us the work of Christ for us. And so, if you look back at Hebrews
chapter 9 and verse 12, It was done at the cross. He came into the presence of
God with His own blood and there obtained it. Eternal redemption
for us. Verse 13. For if the blood of
bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean
sanctifyeth to the purifying of the flesh. Now this is a type,
it's a figure, it's just a picture. In the Old Testament they would
take the blood of bulls and goats and ashes of a heifer and sprinkle
them. And that was symbolic of purifying
them, but it only purified the outward man for the service of
the outward tabernacle. And so he says in verse 14, Notice
carefully, purge or cleanse your conscience. from dead works to serve the
living God. That's sanctification of the
Spirit. The Spirit of God, in the new birth, applies the blood
of Christ to our conscience, and He continues to apply it
throughout our whole life until we're received into glory. He
purifies us. Purifies us. And it's the washing
of water by the Word and the Spirit of God, taking the Word
of God, making it living in us, and applying what Christ did.
Now, when Hannah brought Samuel to the high priest, Really what
she was saying, she was bringing him to the Lord, according to
Exodus chapter 13, sanctifying him to the Lord. She didn't make
him holy. God had given Samuel, and put
it in her heart to do this. It was when he was brought to
the high priest, that the high priest offered these bullocks
that she brought, and it was a sacrifice that symbolically
made him holy. And he was the first born. And
what is the church called? Remember in Exodus when God delivered
the children of Israel out of Egypt, how did he deliver them?
They were about to die. Destruction is coming on all
the firstborn in Egypt, both of man and beast. And God said
to Israel, you take a lamb and you kill it and you sprinkle
its blood on the post of the door. And when you go inside
that house, when you're in the house, when I pass through Egypt
and bring judgment on the Egyptians, and destroy all the firstborn
in Egypt, I will spare you. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. And so we are redeemed by the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed
for us. God sanctified us with His blood.
So the high priest was to take the animals and sacrifice them
in order to sanctify the firstborn. So we're called the Church of
the Firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. Because God,
before the foundation of the world, designated us, distinguished
us from all the rest of humanity, in order to save us through the
work of His Son, and give us His Spirit to know it. But it
is God's work, and so we are sanctified according to the eternal
work of God. in eternity, and in time, and
in our own heart. And Eli, the high priest, signified
this. And Samuel signifies us as being the firstborn. But there's
another firstborn here, too. Look at Colossians. And this
will be the last place, because of time, that we'll be able to
go see. But Colossians chapter 1. Notice this, in Colossians
1, verse 12, the apostle writing to them, he says, In other words,
he's made us suitable, fitting. He sanctified us. To be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. And what did he do? Well, he has delivered us from
the power of darkness. Think of Egypt. Satan and sin. And has translated us into the
kingdom of his dear son. Remember what Jesus told Nicodemus?
Unless you've been born of the Spirit, you can't see or enter
the kingdom of God. And this is what God did. He
translated us. Verse 14, speaking of Christ,
His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood,
even the forgiveness of sins. That's the satisfaction I spoke
of earlier that Christ made, and God's forgiveness of us because
of that satisfaction. Verse 15, speaking of Christ,
who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. How is the Lord Jesus Christ
the firstborn of every creature? Was He born? No, not as God,
He wasn't born. But as the Creator, everything
came from Him. And so He says in the next verse,
"...for by Him, as the Creator, were all things created that
are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things without exception were created by him, by Christ,
and for him. And he is before all things,
and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence." So the Lord
Jesus Christ not only is the one who created all things, but
in that role as the creator is called the firstborn, but also
he's called the firstborn in that he rose from the dead. He,
according to John 17 verse 19, sanctified himself when he offered
himself to God. He sanctified himself in order
that we might be sanctified. So the high priest, in the fulfillment
of God's gospel, had to offer himself to sanctify not only
himself, but his people, in order that he might be perfected to
give us eternal salvation. being made perfect in this sanctification
of His. Offering Himself to God for us
according to God's will. And the firstborn in that means
He's the one God raised from the dead. In raising Him as the
head of the church, as the head in this covenant, He raised all
His people with Him. the firstborn. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the firstborn and we're the church of the firstborn because
he was the one offered for his people. And all of this is present
in the account where Hannah brought her son Samuel to the high priest
forever. Forever. The Lord Jesus Christ
was set up forever as the head of the covenant. From everlasting
to everlasting, thou art God, the eternal mediator set up by
God and will always be our mediator through all eternal days. Let's
pray. Dear Lord, we thank you for your word. We pray, Lord,
that you would so move us in our heart that we would plead
with you for the same grace you gave to your saints at all times.
Give us this life from your word, faith in Christ, and cause us
to see how he himself made himself by God. He was made the head
of his people, the head of the church, the head of the covenant,
and he himself offered himself to God, sanctified himself, and
in that offering sanctified his people with him. And we are made
holy to God by his sacrifice of himself in blood. And that
is applied to us by your spirit when we hear your word. And we
pray, Lord, that you would so speak to us. Lord, give us this
life. Cause us to rest in Christ. Cause
us to rejoice in Him, in this salvation. We pray, Lord, that
you would give us eternal life. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.