Our blessed Savior, our great
God and Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who we look for your
appearing. You're the one that brought us
salvation by grace. And oh, we bless you for it and
praise you for it and thank you for it. And oh, Lord, it stirs
our hearts to thank how gracious, how loving, how tender, how merciful
And you remember just how frail we really are. And we're grateful
for that from the depths of our hearts. And Lord, we thank you
for those just gathered out this evening. Thank you for those
who would be here, but through some affliction are not able.
But Lord, we pray for Larry, Lola, continue to strengthen
them, strengthen their bodies. And Lord, we pray for Bill and
for Dorotha. Lord, I pray that you'd give
Dortha the strength and raise Bill up, raise him back up according
to the good pleasure of your own will. We thank you, Lord
Jesus, that you've met the needs of your saints that we've prayed
for so many times. And so, Lord, we're thankful
to hear news that others are doing well. And so, Lord, meet
with us tonight. Bring glory to Yourself through
our Lord Jesus Christ and His precious Word. In His name we
pray. Amen. Amen. Sweep my soul. Sweep over my soul. Sweet Spirit, sweep over my soul. My joy Amen. You all might remember when we
went through Samuel, I guess not But you remember how a man, a
godly man, named Elkanah had two wives. And one of them was
named Hannah. The other one was named Penina. And Penina had a bunch of children. And every year Elkanah would
go up to worship. They had three feasts a year
and he went up three times a year. And when he was gone, Beninah
who had all these children and Hannah didn't have any children,
she would mock her and make fun of her and ridicule and torment
her. And she tormented her so much
that she just wept and she got to where she wouldn't even eat.
And so Elkanah come home one time from a feast and going up
to Jerusalem to worship, up to Shiloh to worship. And he came
back and asked her what was the matter with her. She wouldn't
eat meat. So they went back up there the next time and he took
Hannah with him. And you all remember how Hannah prayed for
her son. She was there before Eli prayed. Asked God to give
her a son, give her a child. And Eli was watching her pray
and her lips were moving but she wasn't saying anything. He
said, boy you're drunk. You better put that wine away
from him. He says, no, I'm not drunk. My sorrow and my heart
is so great. My sorrow is so great, I want
a child. Eli said, God grant it to you.
So they went home and she conceived and she bore Samuel. She bore
Samuel. And she told the Lord, when you
give me this child, I'm going to bring him back up and I'm
going to give him to you after he's weaned. And so there's three
things I think that happened about that they said that women,
when they weaned their children, they was weaned from their mother's
milk when they was two to three years old. Then they had a nurse
that took care of them until they was about seven. And when
they was 12, they was weaned from childish manners, supposed
to start growing up. At 13, that's when Jews had a
It caused him to enter into manhood. So Samuel was probably, if you
remember right, he was probably about 12 years old when Hannah
took him back up to Shiloh and gave him to Eli. And you all
know the story of that. And she had prayed for her son.
God heard her. And so she begins to sing a song
and give thanks to God. She's still up there. And these
10 verses that I read to you is her song, it's her prayer.
And you know, Davis said, Oh, that man would praise the Lord
for his goodness from his wonderful works to the children of men.
Now let's go down through this Hannah's song here, just a verse
at a time. And Hannah prayed in verse 1
of chapter 2. Hannah prayed. And said, my heart
rejoices in the Lord. Did you know what she said? She
said, my heart doesn't rejoice in my husband. My heart doesn't
rejoice in my son. My heart doesn't rejoice in my
happiness. My heart just doesn't rejoice
in anything but the Lord. And that's why Paul told the
Philippians, Rejoice in the Lord, always I say, rejoice in the
Lord. And that's why we need, you know,
rejoice in the Lord because, you know, Christ is the one that
did everything for us. Christ gave us everything. He
is the fountain of all grace. All grace that's been given to
man from the beginning of time was given through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I tell you what, He's the
one that gives us everything that we have. And so, you know,
even when we're in trouble and have heartaches and troubles
and sorrow, we still can rejoice in the Lord. We can rejoice in
the Lord. I've seen people in bad shape,
but they rejoice in the Lord. And so I tell you, rejoice in
the Lord. And then look what else she said
here. She said, my horn is exalted in the Lord. You know what? The
horn means strength. You know bulls have horns and
rams have horns and that means their strength. She said my strength
is exalted in the Lord. And so her change, here she went
from being a barren woman being mocked and ridiculed by her his other wife and here she was
now she says my strength is exalted in the Lord and so her state
and her strength to conceive was from God himself God's the
only one that can produce life in the womb God's the only one
that can give life and that's why abortion is so bad because
you're taking away the thing that God himself put in a person's
womb and that's what makes it so bad And her change of state
was changed. She went from being barren to
being fruitful. She went from being dead and
barren until now she conceived and had a child. And everything
is by His power and His grace. And our spiritual life. Thank
God that this is so. Our spiritual life. Our strength. And everything that we have is
and by and through our Lord Jesus Christ. We talk about strength.
We don't have any strength. You know, we have physical strength.
That's not what I'm talking about. But when it comes to spiritual
strength, we don't have none. Only what Christ gives us is
all we have. You know how frail we are? We
are so frail. And I'll tell you what, spiritual
life, as God gave her this exalted in the Lord and her strength
in the Lord, our Christ is our strength. And then look what
she said else, she said, Last line in that verse, I rejoice
in thy salvation. How can anybody read that? I
rejoice in thy salvation. Now if it had been a free will
or an Armenian or something read that, I rejoice in my power to
accept Jesus. And if it would have been a Southern
Baptist, he would have said, I rejoice in the fact that I
had a soul winner and somebody warned me to Jesus. But that's
not what she said. I rejoice, I rejoice in thy salvation. She knew without a shadow of
a doubt that Christ gave her what she had. And I tell you
what, God's salvation, you saved me. You saved me from myself. You saved me from my weakness.
You saved me from my barrenness. You did it. But look down here
in verse 10. She means a heapsight more than
just the salvation, but she's also talking about Christ here.
How rejoicing that salvation. Look what verse 10 says here.
The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Out of heaven
shall he thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends
of the earth, and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt
the horn of his anointing. So when she says she's talking
about their salvation, she's talking about Christ being the
king, Christ being exalted, Christ being God's anointed. And that's
salvation that was in Christ and Christ alone. And it's the
only thing, you know, she said, I rejoice in my salvation. And
to our salvation, Christ, bless his holy name, he gave us Complete
salvation, not a part-time salvation. Not a salvation that depends
on us in any way. If it depended upon us, we wouldn't
have it. But He completely saved us from
sin. Completely saved us from law.
Completely saved us from the power of Satan. Saved us from
the power of death. Saved us from hell. And He saves
us from the grave. At His appointed time. Now ain't
that right? Now that's a full salvation.
Perfect salvation. Thank God, I read something today. And you know, I don't want to
be an offender for a word, but you know when anybody puts anything
before Christ and believing on Him, you put something in the
way of Christ. Now let me tell you what I mean.
A fellow said, when we repent of our sins and believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, then God saves us. Now this is the way I'd say
it. When God gave me faith and gave
me repentance, because that's what the scriptures teach. He
grants repentance. He's the giver of repentance.
And we know that He gives us faith. And so after He gave me
repentance and gave me faith, then I trusted Christ. I had to have faith and repentance
before I could believe Him. Is that not right? And I tell
you they both go at the same time. If you shoot a gun through
a piece of paper, which comes first, the hole or the bullet? So they come at the same time.
When you get both of them at the same time, and you trust
Christ, that means that God's already done something for you.
So I, you know, I don't want to put repentance before Christ. And repentance is not a repentance
from sin. It's a repentance, it's a change
of mind completely and entirely about everything you ever believed
and thought about yourself, about God, about the Bible, about Christ,
about salvation. It's a complete, absolute change
in your mind and in your heart and in your soul. Is that not
right? And only God can do that. Alright, let me look back down
here in verse 2. There is none holy as the Lord. Yeah, you're talking about a
well-taught believer who understands that God's chief attribute is
holiness. Everywhere you find God, talk
of holy, holy, holy is the Lord God. I'm God and I'm holy. Be as holy as God. And I tell
you, it's a well-taught believer that understands God's chief
attribute is holiness. I mean, God is holy. You can
put holy in front of every one of his attributes. Holy love,
holy wrath, holy vengeance, holy grace, holy Bible, holy word. You can put it, you know, you
go to get all these different versions and they'll say, well,
it's just this version or that version or another version. The
King James is the only one that's called the Holy Bible. Did you
know that? All the rest of them is just
a book. In my opinion. All the rest of them is just
a book. Whether it's Amplified or ASV, that's what they call them.
They got every kind of name that they got on them. But they don't
say holy. No? So we put holy there. God
is perfectly, originally and unchangeably holy. And then look
what he says here. And she said, not only is he
holy, oh that's why we're so, you know, God, we love God being
holy. Love being holy. And there's
none beside thee. Is there any God like you anywhere? Is there any as holy as you are? Righteous as you are? As just
as you are? As wise as you are? And everything
God does, listen, everything that God does, He does it according
to His holiness and His righteousness. Everything He does is according
to His holiness and righteousness. Whatever happens in this world
is right and God does it because, not because it is right, it's
right because He does it. I don't care what it is. I don't
care what it is. And I tell you, our Lord Jesus
came And our Lord Jesus lived on this
earth, and our Lord Jesus died, and He was buried, and He arose
again, and He did that that God may be holy. That's the first
thing. The Gospel, when you're dealing with the Gospel, the
thing you got to start with God. Don't start with man, start with
the One who started salvation. God. Something's got to be done
for Him. He's got to honor Himself and
be holy and just. So Christ comes to do that, that
God might be just, and then He justifies them that He causes
us to believe on His blessed Son. He said, I'll treat you
just like I did my son. Huh? Oh my. And then look what else He says
here. She says here, Neither is there any rock like our God. Starts out being holy, None beside
him, and then there's no rock like him. You know, our Lord's
often called a rock. Look back over here in Deuteronomy.
Look over here in Deuteronomy chapter 32. Deuteronomy 32 and
verse 31. I want you to see this. Oh my. My, my. You know a rock, He's
called our rock. He's called our salvation. But look what it says there now
in verse 31. Now watch what it says, for their
rock is not as, now watch this, capitalized, as our rock. Why
is that capitalized? Because that's the title of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Huh? That rock that followed
them was the Lord Jesus Christ. Our rock is not like their rock. Even our enemies themselves will
judge that. And I tell you, our Lord Jesus,
you know a rock, there are several reasons for a rock. Use a rock
for a foundation. Use a rock to sit down under
in the shade when the shade is on it. You can shelter under. And then not only that, but you
stand on a rock And that rock ain't going to give way. And
Christ's not going to give way. He's our shelter. He's our strength.
He's our shadow of a rock in the weary land. And David said,
He hath picked me up out of a horrible pit, and set my feet, not foot,
feet on a rock, and established my goings. Huh? No rock like
our God. Not one like Him at all. And
then look what she says here in verse 3. Verse 3. Talk no more exceeding proudly. Oh my. You hear people talking proudly
and what they've accomplished and what they're going to accomplish.
And I tell you we have no, she had no room to boast because
she was barren. And we have no room to boast
if we're barren, and no room to boast if we're blessed. Because
everything God, you know, if we boast, let our boast, let
our boast, let our, and that's what joy in the Lord means, to
boast only in the Lord. Boast in Him. And I'll tell you
what, then she went on to say this, let not arrogance come
out of your mouth. You know what arrogance is? It's
hard words. Being arrogant is being hard.
Being hard. You know ain't nobody knows like
you do. Nobody can do what you can do. Nobody understands what
you understand. I mean you got the world by the
tail on a downhill drag. And arrogant words and look what
she goes on to say. Don't let them come out of your
mouth. For the Lord is a God of knowledge. He knows what you
think. He knows what comes out of your mouth. And not only that
but He's a God of knowledge. He knows everything about us.
He knows our thoughts. He knows our intents. He knows
our motive. He knows every principle from
which everything we do proceeds from. And God takes actions and
He weighs them. What's the motive behind that?
Why did you do that? And don't you sometimes feel
like, why did I do that? If you do that sometimes, just
imagine God weighs our actions. And so listen, that's why we
want to do everything to honor His blessed name and honor His
precious ways. Now look what else it says here
now in verse 4 and 5. The bowels of the mighty are
broken, and they that stumble are girded with strength. They
that were full have hard themselves out for bread, and they that
were hungry ceased. So the barren hath born seven,
and she that hath many children is waxed feeble. Hannah hears praise in God for
giving grace to the humble and to the weak. And how he resists
the proud, always resists the proud and exalts the humble.
He said there in verse 4, the mighty men, the bones of the
mighty men are broken. Mighty men, mighty men, trusting
in their strength and trusting in their ability. God says they're
broken to pieces. And then he turns around and
those that are stumbling, Stumbling. Ain't hardly got no strength
to go. What does he do to them? He picks
them up. Girds them with strength, makes
them strong, makes them strong. Then she goes on to say this,
those that were full, those that had plenty, those that had everything
proudly lived in plenty. Now they got to go out here and
force, you know, they got to toil for their bread, got to
take a job. But look what she says, the hungry
ceased. God took the hungry and started
feeding them. Started feeding them. And oh
my, while the hungry had been filled by His grace. And Hannah
being barren, she says, now I've born several children. And she
can't bear anymore. God's grace is always to the
poor and the needy. Always to the poor and the needy.
Not a reward for the rich. Now look down at 6 and 7. The Lord killeth, and maketh
alive. He bringeth down to the grave,
and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor, and maketh
rich. He bringeth low, and lifteth
up. It's true that our Lord sovereignly,
according to His precious, glorious purpose, does everything. Controls all things that's in
this world. Men live and die by God Himself. Ain't nobody gonna die until
it's God's time. And ain't nobody gonna live until
it's God's time. When we're talking about spiritual
life. And I tell you not only that, but beloved, He brings
down to the grave. He brings you down to the grave.
And when He brings you down to the grave, look what it says
here that He does. He brings you up again. He may
put you in the grave, but He said He's going to bring you
up again. Huh? He's going to bring you up again.
And oh my! And the Lord makes poor. Oh my. You know, it's only according
to God where a person succeeds or fails. Whether they're rich
or whether they're poor. And I'll tell you what, we'll
either rule or serve by the will of God. And that's why it's not
a byword to us to say if the Lord's willing, if God's willing. We mean that from the depth of
our heart. If the Lord will, if the Lord will, we'll do this,
we'll do that, we'll do something else. And if He don't will it,
we won't do it. Do you know how many days have
you got up and had your day planned? I'm going to do this, I'm going
to do that. The sun comes up and your whole day gets changed
completely around. Do you know why that is? It's God's will. And I tell you why, He does that
just to let us know. And you know that does not upset
us. Don't upset us. I get up, you
know, surely I see you standing, what are you going to do tomorrow?
I said, what I do every day, as little as I can. No, I'm just
kidding. But that's true, ain't it? No, I just have a little fun. Have a little fun. But I tell
you this, listen. That's the way, you know, and
then it says here, the Lord maketh poor and he maketh rich. Now
listen to this now. He bringeth low. Now what that
tells us is that God brings us down. He strips us. He takes all of our hope away
from us, everything that we ever had any confidence in, everything
that we ever had any hope in, God destroys that, strips us
down. He brings us low before He picks
us back up. He strips us before He closes.
He empties us before He fills us. He'll bring you down. That's
the way He's always done. He never has changed His method
in that way. And then when He brings you down,
then He turns around and lifts you up. Now look what He says
here next now. And here's a description of how
low we were and where he lifted us up from. He raises up the
poor out of the dust. He remembers our frame that we
were but dust. And that we were poor beggars
in the dust. Dust, you can get it in your
hands and blow it. And on the dung hill, on the
dung hill, That's why Paul said everything that he believed before
he counted but dung. And he says you're on the dung
hill and all he comes and what does he do? He lifts up the beggar. from that dunghill. Lift him
up, beggars, poor, dust. Poor man, he got to beg, he can't
do anything else. Lift him up from the dunghill.
Set them among princes. And listen to this, and make
them inherit the throne of glory. You know, because of our Lord
Jesus Christ, His righteousness and His obedience and His shed
blood, He took us up and set us among princes and then He
said He made them inherit the throne of glory. We are seated
with Christ in heavenly places right now. Right now. And I tell you what, God does that. He lifts you up.
Lifts you up. And then look what He says. Oh
my, that we may sit among princes with Him on the throne of glory. He quickened us together with
Christ. Raised us up together with Christ. Made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ. And he says the pillars of the
earth are the Lord's. You know you go through the book
of Job and it talks about how God laid the foundation of the
earth. Here he talks about the earth sitting on pillars. Sitting
on pillars. If they build a building in New
York or some big place, they go down 50, 60, 70, 80 feet and
pour concrete down in there. For that building to set on. 100 stories or whatever, they
got to have them pillars for that thing set on. Well, this earth is sitting on
what God put. And you know we know there ain't
pillars, but this is the language he used. He set the earth on
pillars. Huh? And he set the world, and then
he turned around and set the world on them pillars. Oh my,
he describes himself in such a wonderful way. Now listen to
what else he says here now. 9 and 10, He will keep the feet
of His saints. He shall keep the feet of His
saints. His word, His covenant, not going to fail. He's not going
to fail. He'll keep His saints, He'll
keep His sheep, and He says not one of them, not one of them
is going to perish. Not one of them. He said He gives
them us to eternal life and they'll never perish. Then not only will
He keep the feet of His saints, keep the feet of them. That means
that He's going to keep us while we walk through this world. And
look what He says, the wicked shall be silent in darkness.
Oh my! He's going to judge the wicked,
going to judge the wicked, and He's going to leave them in darkness.
Leave them in darkness. And they'll be silent in darkness.
I don't want to hear what you got to say. You're in darkness
and you want darkness, you love darkness, I'll leave you in darkness.
And listen to this now. For by strength, by strength
shall no man prevail. What strength do we have that
we would prevail with God? And then look what he says now. And ain't nobody can stay in
God's hand, that's for sure. The adversaries of the Lord should
be broken in pieces. Christ came to set the captive
free. And this is what the adversaries
of the Lord should be broken in pieces. God's going to take
everybody that's against Him, all of His enemies, going to
break them in pieces. And out of heaven shall He thunder
upon them. We've had a lot of thunder lately.
We're sitting there, sure enough, sitting there in the in the sunroom
today and it thundered and then her boat jumped because it was
so close, I mean it shook the house. You jump. Imagine what it's going
to be like when God thunders. He thunders upon the wicked.
And the Lord's going to judge from this end of the earth to
the other end of the earth. And then he's going to give strength
unto Christ. All strength, all victory is
given to the King, to the Savior, to the Lord Jesus Christ. God
gave him all authority in heaven and in earth. And our Lord Jesus
Christ came and exalted the horn of His anointing. He came here
to save His people and to set them free. And I know this, He
ain't going to be discouraged. He's not going to fail until
every last one of them is saved and going to be with Him in glory.
Ain't that right? Father, thank You. Thank you
for your blessed mercy and grace given us in Christ. Help us to
honor you. Help us live to your glory. And
bless these dear saints as they go on their way. See them safely
home. Give them a good night's rest.
Oh, the sleep of a laboring man is so sweet. And I know these
dear saints of God. They labor. They labor on a job. Labor at home. But it's always
a labor of love. And Lord, we praise you and bless
you. And thank you for them. Keep them for Christ's sake.
Amen. I got a little chorus. Let me
see if I can remember. Yeah. Y'all know that one. Every
hour of every day, every moment, every way, I'm leaning on Christ
Jesus. He's the rock of my soul. Every hour of every day Every
moment and in every way I'm leaning on Jesus Jesus, he's the rock
of my soul. I'm singing his praises wherever
I go. I have this in there and I haven't
seen that in a long time. Well, see you Sunday. Good night
and God bless.