Let's open our Bibles to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel chapter 2. Hannah, as you know, was a barren
woman. And the Lord made me greatly
blessed to have a child, a special child, a Samuel, a prophet Samuel,
whom God greatly used. And this is her prayer, and it's
strikingly similar to Mary's calls, that
he married Holy Hannah. Now, let's read it. Hannah prayed
and said, My heart is exalted in the Lord. My form or strength
is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged before my
enemies, because I rejoice in the God of salvation. There is none holy except the
Lord. There is none beside thee. Neither
is there any rock like Thine. Talk no more so as to exceed
Him proudly. Let not arrogance see it come
out of your mouth. The Lord is the God of knowledge,
and Thy actions are ways of knowledge. The bones are the legs of the
mighty men of focus. They that stumble are sturdy
as a string. They that are woeful have ironed
out themselves with a braid. And they that were hungry will
receive. So that the barren have formed
seven. He that hath many children requires
few. The Lord kills and makes us alive. He brings us down to the grave
and brings us up. The Lord made it four and made
it three. He sprang it low and lifted it
up. He raised it up to four out of seven and lifted it up to
a factor from the downhill. That's been one of the things
that has raised an inherent promise of the Lord. So the pillars of
the earth are the Lord and He has set the world on fire. He
will keep the peace of his saints, but the wicked shall be silent
in darkness, or by strength shall no man prevail. The adversary of all that shall
be broken into pieces out of heaven shall be thundered upon
them." The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, and he shall
give strength unto his king, and exalt the horns of the strength
of his mouth." Stop there. Let's pray again. Our holy and righteous God, and our mercy will have been
conquered in the name of your king, our king, that one, that king whom you
have set on the holy hill of Zion, with all things beneath his feet,
and given him a head over all, to the church, In Christ's name we are gathered
here tonight to exalt Him, to magnify Him. You must do so from this book,
which is a grace, a seed and fruit, a grace. And when the
Son of Christ Kindness through this display
causes our hearts to learn. So magnify yourself, Lord, tonight. Let our hearts speak, and our
hearts be worthy. Let the word be quick, not sharper
than a two-edged sword. So from the mouth of the man, We ask that you would make it
sharp and quick, and accomplish that prayer with
me this afternoon. We ask and we pray and we hope
that it is in your will to make this place your life, all of
it. May all that hear it not have
old lives. And it's not tonight, it's the
last of the season. We talk about spring, fall, and
spring again two times, and here are three times. Thank you for
properly working it out for us to be here
tonight. That does not mean a thing to
me personally. And I still from this place say
to you, Our heart burns when we see the
opening of the tree. It's time to justify the way
that we live and adhere to the house of the Lord. You have these things in your
charter everywhere. I'm just going to say it. You hear people everywhere, right
in the city of Atlanta. You will see it to your block. There's no blocks. There's patterns
here and there. That's for their health and I
apologize. Let's pray for those in our midst,
those whom we love and respect. Let's bless them with your comfort
first and your healing power, if you will. Forgive us of our sins, and again,
we pray these things in Christ's name. All right, let's look through
section one now. We're just going to do a running
commentary on these verses. Take a look at the context. And, yes, Mike, here's a representation
of what we saw this morning. I hope you saw this morning,
but not clearly, I suppose. Now, I'm not alleging that it's
a test. That's a test. Thank you. It's
all very clear to me. He's saying, you know, we apply
every miracle. The Lord our Lord took care of
us. He applied everything to the work of salvation. Because
everything does. Steve, I'm proud of him. His work with Steve, everything.
Not only just a miracle of his birth, but also a miracle of
our own. All right, you with me? That's the Lord. If I had a car,
I'd never see the word. It's not loud, it's not safe
on the road. All right, verse 39. And Mary arose in those days,
and went into the hill country with Grace, into a city of Judah. And Mary was in a hurry to seek
out someone. A black faith to share will be
heard. And so are all of God's people
when He reveals Christ to them. They can't wait. And it's a blessing
time of their time from one who can relate to what the Lord has
told them. Into a new old country of faith,
the writer included Hebron. Hebron. where you remember Barnes
studied in Genesis, Abraham and Sarah were there, Isaac and Zechariah,
Jacob and Leah, and at some point Adam and Eve were there, and
we were. But more importantly, this was
a city in Judah. And so, Christ came up to me
to see Judah, because that's where he came from, Judah. He
was there for three months. I believe this is where she conceived,
three months. He was there in the house of
Zechariah, and it is from Joseph, don't worry about it. further
proof that she did all that. That's just a version. All right,
verse 40 and 41. And she entered into the house
of Zechariah and saluted Elizabeth. Just like we salute one another. Hello. Good to see you. How are
you? Okay. She saluted her. She spoke
to her. That's the salute. She made Elizabeth. She spoke to her. And it came
to pass that when in it occurs the salutation of Mary, the babe
leaps in her womb. The babe leaps in her womb. Now Elisabeth, still in the Holy
Ghost, is trying to speak, to say something. But when Mary,
the mother of the babe, the mother of our Lord, came to him, Michael,
when Elisabeth heard Mary speak, she said, the babe bleeds in
her womb. And she was filled with the Holy
Spirit. Well, John was a forerunner of Christ. A herald of it. That's what a forerunner meant.
A herald. One goes before and announces
the coming of Christ. Prepared in a way to announce
the coming. The cold one coming, John would say. And when he got
there, he said, there he is. The land of God. All right. John
began to point people to Christ. before he was born. He said he
was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother. He wasn't then.
Before he came out of his mother's womb, he was born. He was born
in his own place. He's jacked there. He's jacked
there. Filled with the Holy Spirit. Isn't that what the Holy Spirit
does? That's the things of Christ. and chose him unto it, and he
chose him, and Elizabeth got there, and said, Thessalonians,
which contains Jesus Christ. That's the first point. Therefore,
the Spirit within John and within Elizabeth identified Christ to
Elizabeth, the mother of Christ, God. And then later on, in John
chapter three, John said this, as a grown man, he said, the
friends of the bridegroom rejoined. Greatly, because of the bridegroom's
voice, or in this case, the mother of the bride. They believed. They believed.
All right, here's a list of confession. This was confession. The title
of this is Confession of Two Cousins. Let's take a look for
a minute. These two ladies were cousins. All right? Look at what Elizabeth
said. Now, she was killed by Holy Spirit. Verse 42, she spake out with
a loud voice. I'm not going to say this, but
she spoke to that, the hour itself. Greatness of that moment. And the message that I want to
give is a loud one. If you're instructing women not
to speak in church, not to teach, that doesn't say anything about
the Catholic Church. It really doesn't. It does not
forbid praising the Pope. It's just merely about the people.
But she shouted it back very joyously. Usually when you shout,
you're excited about something like that. I know a lot of people
shout when they have something really important in their life,
a feeling of joy. She said, in essence, it's not
that. Now, most of what she's saying here appears to be, or
would appear, to every person. to be a commendation of Mary
the Mother of God. We're about to see that she's
merely the perfect Mary of the Lord and our Savior. See, you remember Mary, doubtless
perfect, but at the mouth of two or three witnesses of the
same sin. But she went, and on occasion she came to this house,
and she said to Mary up in this house, this woman said to her
exactly what the Lord had just said. And it's about the two or three
witnesses. Mary said a little uncertainly, but she heard another
say exactly what she had just heard. Now, is that correct? How often I could have said that
to you. That you and somebody were talking
about something, and just in that very next message, later
in that day, he says to you exactly what you said. You said that
after he left you. That's how the Lord bears witness,
the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit to what the Word
says. She marries, having her faith
strengthened. Faith in the Word of God. All
right? And here's what Elizabeth said,
and I want you to turn to Ephesians 1 and see this, where this blessedness
is found. America, this was said to America,
he said, Blessed are thou among women, and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb. What Jesus wants us is blessed
in the God and Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places or things
worthy of blessing for our blessing time. In Christ, according as
we have chosen us. There he is married and chosen. And then, before the foundation
of the world, he gets married and chosen with this vessel to
give birth to the Christ child, before the foundation of the
world. And we should be holy without blame for boredom and
love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children. Children. Blessings are in the
Christ child, and the blessings are unto us, his children. This
can be said of everybody, but here's to Franklin, the poorest
person in the world. There you go, there you go, I
don't want you to kick me off. You don't mind me being kicked
off of this thing. That's an argument. You lose,
Joseph. I prefer to say, say it once,
say it again. Joseph. All right, verse 43.
Now, she said to Mary, to listen. She's still in the, speaking
in the Holy Spirit. When does this to me? Why does
this happen to me? That the mother of my Lord, she
comes, and I've married. He meditated in meekness. Why
meekness? Why meekness? Elisabeth said, why not meekness? Elisabeth was probably 50 years
older than that. At least 40 years older. It'd be like I'm going to be
careful. And somebody this big here, who's
going to pick on that weapon man? See? Okay? You're up there
tonight with the elder lady. You're tonight. He likes you,
uh, Sarah. come to see you, and you
say, what do I owe this honor for you to visit me? And I wonder, shouldn't we go
there? I mean, I'm here, I've been one
of the long-time members here. It isn't that it was the last
one to preach. People sometimes talk to me,
everybody's been talking to me. She was somebody. Her husband
was somebody. She was older. He had heard this
young Jewish maiden come to visit her, and he said, That's what the Holy Spirit does
to a person. He creates a spirit of meekness
and humility and lowliness. And this is the Mother of God,
listen to this. Now turn over there, I want you
to see this thing, I want you to ask. She said, whence is this
to me? The Mother of my Lord hath come
to me. Look at Matthew 3. Matthew 3. Quickly, so we don't
have to lose the meaning of it. Matthew 3. Now this is the Mother
of John. Who later said of Mary's child,
Jesus came back to her later. She preferred it before him. She preferred it before him.
And look at what John said when Christ came to him, verse 14.
John provided him, saying, I didn't think you'd be baptized as is. You're done. John was over it. John was a deep one. So the Holy Spirit is calling
us, and the Holy Spirit is calling the Son. All right? And shouldn't
we feel highly honored when any of God's chants come and do that,
no matter his behavior? Shouldn't we feel supremely honored?
No. Shouldn't we? You would not. What's your name? Janette? She's
old. And Janet is young. I understand all that you've
got to say here. We should all feel greatly, gladly,
highly honored and humbled when our brother and sister come to
see us. And then she crawls up, and Mary
says this, verse 44, she says, Lo, the voice of thy sanctification
shall be in my ears, or at least in my heart. And they'll close their hearts to
thee. All right, verse 45. And again,
this is still speaking in the Holy Spirit in a blessing. It
says, Blessed is she that believeth. Blessed is he that believeth. Oh, there we go. Kind of like
this. There the child is, a form of
those things. She's also great. We'll teach y'all that. Alright? You see how Elizabeth,
in the Holy Spirit, is strengthening and confirming the faith of this
doubtful, young woman? You see that? Just by her piety,
the energy, just the piety of growing up herself. You're buried. You're just spent
in their place. And faith, you know, we attribute
no part of salvation to our faith. We don't attribute our faith to
our faith. It's not really our faith, it's
given to us. But you know we can't just say
goodbye. You can't. You can't be saved
without it. Like Baptists, we attribute nothing
special to Baptism. Most people power in the act
itself, in the work itself, but you can't be saved if you're not. The Lord puts
a great shock in a person. The Lord, He stings with a man's
feminism, and the two go together. He says, He that believeth in
his faith, thou shalt be saved. So we don't communicate. We don't
take promise. We don't speak like the others. They're not speaking like the
others. Why? Because it's Jesus Christ. And
He's a miracle. That's what it is to say He's
a message. Jesus is. I quoted that this morning. Great
is the mystery of Godliness, God who is manifest in the flesh. I mean, it's a mystery that Mary,
this child, this child is conceived in her womb, and it's in the
Kingdom of Heaven. Just as much a mystery and a
miracle as he believed. And before it happened. Before
she saw it. Right? Great is the mystery of
Godliness, God who is manifest in the flesh, King of angels,
justified in His Spirit, And Christ said to Thomas, remember
he said to Thomas, you're blessed because you believe. You believe
today because you see it. Later on he said, blessed are
they who have not seen it. That's a gift. That's the power
of God's Holy Spirit to make somebody believe something they've
never seen. Believe someone, all the love
of someone you've never seen, live to God's will. And start with all their life,
heart and soul and everything. Stack all their guns. They're
all their age, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
nine, ten. So Jesus says, Blessing on you. You're blessed. Blessed is he
that believeth. Do you believe, Rebekah Gidmore? Blessed is she. You have brothers
and sisters, don't you? Because you're blessed among
men. Have a sister. Does she believe
in God? Is there a blessing among them? Blessed is she that liveth. For
there shall be a performance of these things in the Lord above.
Y'all believe it, Rebecca, because it's settled. It's settled. Didn't Luke start
this whole thing after I said, hey, I want to prepare you for
these things. Most of you already believe in my God. And then he
said, now I can tell you, theophilus, that you might know the certainty
of those things. And now Elizabeth is coming.
She's doing the same thing with me. All right. And you know what? I say, too, when our Lord says,
one day before you, your faith shall be empty. Your faith is
not a small thing. All right, here's Mary's confession.
Now, Mary heard all that. Mary heard all that. And Mary
said, verse 42, Mary said, My soul, my soul, does magnify
the Lord, and my spirit that rejoices in the Almighty." Doesn't
that sound like him? And just like that, it started
out. Verse 2, verse 1, that magnify the Lord, and my
spirit that rejoices in God my Savior. And Elizabeth was a student
of the Word, and Elizabeth was a wife of a priest, and Elizabeth
had an active subscription." Keep reading 1 Thessalonians
2. Mary, I didn't know this was a married woman, and now she's
here in the song of a married woman. as face and your face in the
water, so that the heart is made. Mary is repeating back to this
one what it is. We help each other the same way.
All right? And Mary said it again, every
part of my feet, rejoices in my knowledge of all that I have.
And with all that I have, I rejoice in God my Savior and magnify
the Lord. He magnified me, Jesus. Magnify. Blow up with me. Do you have
any at the ends of your children in the back? I'm going to come
with you first. Okay. Hey, baby, blow it up. You take a little and you blow
it up, you want people to scream all over your face. You're a
child. You're a family. That's what
magnifies me. My soul doesn't magnify the Lord.
I want people to do that. I want people to see what he's
done for them. For all of them. My spirit hath
rejoiced in God my Saviour. Now remember, this is coming
from the mouth of the 17th, 16th, 17th, and 18th. This is a wonderful song. You
will not find a better confession of faith in all of this literature. Come on, baby. Come on, child.
Would to God He put this in the heart of one of our communities.
My soul does magnify the Lord God, my Savior. Who is that? That's Christ. Listen to this testimony, verse
28. He hath regarded the lowest state This is the Mary's confession. This is the confession of love. Look at verse 48. He has regarded. Verse 49. He
has regarded. He that is mighty hath done to
me a great thing. Verse 51, he hath chosen me.
He hath chosen me. He hath chosen me. He hath chosen
me. He hath chosen me. He hath chosen
me. He hath chosen me. He hath chosen
me. He hath chosen me. He hath chosen
me. He hath chosen me. He hath chosen me. He hath chosen
me. He hath chosen me. Everything she can say about
him, all he has done, that's how you compare a woman. Her
mouth condemns her. And out of the abundance of her
heart, she said, my soul rejoices. Well, what do you have to say?
He can't. Everything she said, from the heart. And she's a mad
devil man. She's a woman that's condemned
in some part. You'll notice on that through
here, one of the brethren, he saw this on his afternoon. He's quoting David. This is David's friend now. All
right, he's from the house of David. So that makes her a woman
after David's vow, David's heart, and as it turns out, a woman
after God's own heart. He's quoting a psalm, and Psalm
138 says this. Psalm 138. And he said, My soul shall be
magnified by the Lord. Psalm 138. I put these little
things there so I'm conscious. How long did that take? Less
than a minute. Psalm 138. Psalm says this, God
remembered us in our lowly state for His mercy and healing. His mercy remembered may be at
the garden below the stake of His handmaid, the Solomon baroness
of Persia. For His mercy endureth for ever. Verse 48, Behold, from henceforth
all generations shall call me blessed. And she was, and she
is. Not more blessed than Caryathan. But you know, After she's gone,
the whole generation will follow her. And so with every believer,
every daughter of Abraham, every son or daughter of God is blessed. It's all blessed. And you know,
it's every Jewish maiden, every Jewish maiden has a dream to
have a Christ child. Maybe that's an old Jewish story
that truly every Jewish lady was supposed to have, to be the
vessel that God used to have the cross. Now they did, but
a child would be born of a Jewish woman, from Isaiah 7-14, the
third version. And now Mary is the chosen one.
And she is in this place. Yes, she is. Not because she's
higher. Not because she's somebody. Until
this time, we've never heard of her. Until Christ's been born
there, we've never heard of her. Probably never would have. She
doesn't do nothing for you. You just know her in an all-night
good way. You know, it wouldn't cause you
no mistake if it's a woman of you, you know. I don't think
he was better than anybody else. So, if that's how God chooses
his people, my time is no more to come. God chose me to do that. That's what they say. All the things that are called,
bring them all the things that are. Bring them all that is. All right, verse 29. Here it
says, He that is mighty hath done to me great things. Jesus is not a joke. You read
that all night last night. Our great God. Jesus is great. The Lord is a great God, a great
King, above all God. You read that tonight. And they
bore witness to what Mary saith. He that is great, he that is
mighty, hath done a great thing. That's in Psalm 71, Psalm 126.
Hath done great things to me. Hath done to me great things. Men and women in this day like
to talk about what great things you're doing to Jesus Christ.
So, all the professors, all the disciples, just leave with all
the pride about what a great thing they've done, and how mighty
and victorious we were as Indians. True disciples talk about how
mighty we were and what great things we've done. A great sinner
needs a great counselor. A great sinner needs a great
counselor. And that's what they talk about.
That's who they talk about. He's had it. He's had it. I know he knows it. Looks like
she knows his name. The whole thing. What's his name, Mary? Go with
God and do it. That's how they know it first. They don't know that Jesus is
the first known Son of God. That's Psalm 119. Holy and redly.
This is that holiness. Ah, boy, there's a lady's daughter
around. Verse 50. And his mercy is on them that
fear him. In Psalm 103, our favorite psalm,
as the father gives his children, so the Lord will give them to
him. And his mercy is upon them that
bear him from generation to generation. Not only is the mercy of the
Lord upon them, he endures them from generation to generation.
This is what Psalm 136 says. His mercy endureth forever. His mercy endureth forever. His
mercy endureth forever. From generation of believers,
from everybody that gives mercy unto earth for us, everyone needs
it. But the fears of all endure,
from generation to generation. In fact, I know this is the modern
generation we live in, and there's no fear of God before their eyes,
but the generation of believers there is. God's people still
fear Him, and those in the next generation that are God's people,
they're going to fear Him too. If they don't fear Him, they're
not going to. See that? Mercy can figure both.
It can do it. Generation to generation. There we go. Mary says that He
has shown strength with His offering. She knows He's there, and She
knows He has power. That brings out most of this
generation. They don't know a thing, and
they say he doesn't have any hands. If he does, big hands,
and they're all strong. His arm, His right hand, His
holy arm, that's got Him to victory. They have said, He has scattered
the clouds in the imagination of their hearts. They have said,
once off, He's brought to the top of the capital city. That's
what He's going to do. You learn from our granddaddy.
in the fire of the Holy Spirit. And he hath scattered them, and
he hath put thine in the scattered. You know, all of the skeptics
and agnostics and the mockers and the scoffers have come through
all generations. Think about it. Think about it,
David. Thousands of years, under the
yoke of the mockers and the scoffers and the skeptics and people,
unbelievers, And they all said, scattered their ideas, scattered
the community. And this book, Mark is all about
it. God's Word, like a rocket, follows
us in the wilderness. You can't work this way. You
can't do away with it. They tried. Over the years, they
tried to do away with this work, and it's not good. They're not
too satisfied with that. It's called the Last Accomplishment,
and you can't get rid of it. Well, when you first get to being
put down and mighty on their seats, think of all the kings
that have come from Calvary. Think of all the rulers that
have come from Calvary. All their pretenses are high,
all their motives are high. You know them still at one point.
They've all come and gone, their sons have replaced their sons,
sons of their sons, but this one's been sitting on the throne
for months again. No longer in this place. And exalted them
below the grave. Exalted them below the grave. Verse 53, He hath filled the
hungry with good things. David said in Psalm 34, he that,
uh, David seeketh the Lord, and shall not lack any good thing. And do you know what the word
thing translates to? Work. He that buildeth an unreal
good thing. There's one good thing, the work. The work. Open your mouth and shout, the
work. That's what man really is about.
And the rich, he said, what do you mean? Rich? Oh, the poor,
he finds rich. The empty, he fills. But the
rich, he finds poor. Poor, he said, what do you mean? Verse 54, I
like this. Fill in the Bible blank. He had hope of his life.
Hope of his service. John and I were thinking about
that word. You know, it sounds like a combination
of three words. Hold. Heel. Strength. Hold. Heel. Strength. Hold. And all those things. He is our hope, our helper, and
our friend. He has openly, openly, that's
a good word, we need to have that satisfaction. He has openly served Israel in
remembrance of His mercy, in remembrance of His mercy. As
in the case of our Father, she begins her confession here. He said all these things concerning
God, concerning His salvation, concerning what all He's done
for His people, concerning His attributes, concerning His person
and His work. And this is what He bases it
all on. Now, He has done these things.
He has. He has. And He is what He is. And how do I know? And how have
these things been confirmed to be? Verse 55. In other words,
all of the representation is based on one. Look down at verse
38 again. Look back here at verse 38. Mary said this, when the angel
came and told her all these things, Mary said in verse 38, behold
the handmaid of the Lord be unto me according to thine word. According
to thine word. Joke's all I'm going to tell
you, but it's going to be used according to this verse. Your faith, don't come back here
to care about the Word of God. And everything he said, There's
got to be a performance of those things. I mean, this was the
section. This was the section that ended up based on the word.
This was verse 45. This was the end of her section
by saying, there's got to be a performance of those things
which were told by the Lord. And Mary ends up in her section
here in verse 55 by saying, let's hear Dr. Smith talk about it. Let's hear Dr. Smith. Sure comes. Sure comes. And Bo Mary, Bo was, it was about
three months. That night she couldn't get enough
this time, believe it or not. Three months. What do you reckon
they talked about? Same thing. It wasn't pretty,
but the men talked about the same thing. They talked about
the joys of their hearts, they talked about the joys of their
souls, the joys of men. God their Savior, and it is in revealing
Himself and creating this new creature within us. And so it is that all shall be
His disciples and His partners saved. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
You for bearing witness with our spirit, through Your Holy
Spirit, through the Word, that this is indeed Your Word, and
You have indeed chosen us to reveal Christ to us, in us. We are the most blessed among
men. We thank you for gifts of faith. We ask the same thing for all
of your gifts. Every one hundred times there's
words of God coming over you. We ask that you would grant us
that same thing. Lord Jesus Christ, God is our
Savior. It is very, very difficult. It is very difficult. I'm going to show you how to
do it. I'm going to show you how to
do it.