In 1 Samuel chapter 2, you know the last couple of services
we dealt with, Belkane and his two wives. Hannah was of course
barren and wanted a child very much. And Peninnah was fertile
and enjoyed the birth of lots of children. And she provoked
Hannah, mocked Hannah, ridiculed Hannah, provoked her because
of her childlessness. And this caused great sorrow
for Hannah. And she was in great distress
and she began to pray. And she asked God to give her
a child. And said, Lord, you give me a
child and I'll give him back to you. I'll give him back to
you. And consider and remember your
handmaid. Well, Hannah and Elkanah, they went back home after worshiping
the Lord. And she conceived. She stayed
home till the child was weaned. She named him Samuel. That means
asked of God. Well, she had Samuel. She went
right back up to Jerusalem. Went right back up there to worship. She took three bullets with her.
Peace offering, sin offering, thanks offering. She offered
every kind of offering that you could give. And then she gave
her son to the Lord. Turned him over to Eli. Turned
him over to Eli. And then when we look here at
chapter 2, we realize that Hannah had no hesitation, no regrets. She never fretted about it. She
never worried about it again. And I tell you what, there is
no sorrow anymore over giving that child back up to the Lord
and giving it to her. And let's look at this praise,
this song of praise. And I tell you what, I want to
break it down into three things if I can. Hannah's personal experience
in verses 1 through 3. Hannah moves on to how God, God's
sovereignty, God's reign, and how He reigns over the earth.
And then God's ultimate purpose is to raise up His King, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And she saw the finality of it.
But look what it says here in chapter 2 and verse 1. It's what
happens. And Hannah prayed. Now, she had
done prayer before, but this is a different kind of prayer.
My heart rejoices in the Lord. My heart rejoices in the Lord.
My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over mine
enemies, therefore, because I rejoice in thy salvation. Listen to what
she says about God. There's none as holy as the Lord,
for there's none beside thee, neither is there any rock like
our God. Now I want you to notice the
personal pronouns here in her. She says my, my, my. My Lord,
my rock, my God, my heart. So she's talking about what experience
of grace she had and how the Lord dealt with her. And I tell
you what, she says, my, my, and I. She's talking about her relationship
with God. And every believer has a relationship
with God. There's people here tonight that
know God. That know the Lord Jesus Christ
and know Him. Not some things about Him, but
know Him. As a person. As a God. As a living God. And I tell you, beloved, we're
all on a journey. We're all on a journey. We're
on a journey of grace. God's called us by grace, saved
us by grace, and grace will carry us home. And as we go through
this life, it's a journey of grace. God's grace upon grace
upon grace. We're not left to our own devices,
and thank God we're not. But I want you to notice something
here in verse 2. I want to kind of start off right
here. In the middle of that verse it says, There is none beside
Thee. She recognizes right off the
bat when God revealed grace to her, gave her this child, revealed
himself to her. She said, there's no one like
you. No other God. There's no one
like you. Oh my. There's nobody who is
like God. Who has the glory of God. Who's
got the power of God. Who's got the majesty of God.
Who's got the rights of God? Who's got the attributes of God?
And I tell you, every believer, I tell you what, in this world,
and he said, there's no one, she said, there's no one like
you, no one at all. And beloved, and you know, this
is what happened to us. When God made himself known to
us, years ago, that's the first thing we said. How can a God
like this be? who was like him. We thought
we knew something about him. We thought we understood something
about him. We thought we had him figured
out. We thought we knew what we had to do to please him. We
thought we knew what to do to get peace with him. But we come
to find out he's altogether different than anything we've ever known.
In fact, He's so different that the only way you can know Him
is for Him to make Himself known to you. And then, Job said, we
just see parts of His ways. Just parts of His ways. And then
look what else she says here now. Oh, she says in verse 2. Just look at this. Oh, this is
amazing. She's talking about the nature
of God. She says, there's none as holy
as the Lord. You know, I remember Brother
Henry preaching one time on the holiness of God. And here's the
thing about holiness is God's nature. Righteousness is God's
nature. He cannot be anything less than
holy. And holy is perfection. Holy
is flawless. There's no flaw, no imperfection
in God. He is holy. That's His essential
being. And this talks about God and
His perfections. None is holy like you. He's without
error. He's without sin. He never makes
a mistake. Never makes a misjudgment. He
is flawless. And nothing... He cannot possibly
ever do wrong. Can't do it. And you know when
the Scriptures tells us some of these say that there's attributes
that God can communicate to us. And holiness is one of them.
Be ye holy as I am holy, saith the Lord. Now holiness, let me
tell you something about holiness. Can God ever be any more holy
than He is at any one time? So if we're going to be as holy
as God, then God has to give us a holiness equal to Himself.
Now how can He give us a holiness equal to Himself? And holiness
is a state of being. One man can't be more holy at
one time than another. If one of you was more holy,
if I was half a dozen more holy than the rest of us, do you know
what you'd do? That's what you do. You'd be
like that man who says, stand afar off from me for I'm holy. But wholeness is a state of being.
So where in the world are we going to get this holiness equal
to God's? In the Lord Jesus Christ. God
made Christ to adopt wisdom, righteousness, sanctification. That's holiness. And I tell you this idea that
you can run around and be more holy and be more holy and be
more holy as is foreign to the scriptures as day is to night.
But I do know we can be more dedicated. We can be more committed. We can be more devoted. We can
be more consecrated. We can love Him more. We can
give more of ourselves up to Him. We can pray more. We can
do a lot of things more. But one thing we can be is more
holy than God has already made us in Christ. Take me? I'm glad I found that out. I'm
glad I found that out. I ain't out here trying to make
myself holy. And sometimes God's holiness
is described as beauty. He dwells in the beauties of
holiness. Oh my, that's the psalmist said,
this one thing have I asked of the Lord. This one thing have
I desired. that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the
days of my life. And behold the Lord, the King,
in what? His beauty. His beauty is His
holiness. And we love His holiness. That's why Isaiah said, Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord. We sing that song. Holy, holy,
holy. Lord God Almighty. He is infinitely
holy, clearly holy, flawlessly holy. If we go to one of these
days, we're going to spend eternity where there's nothing but holiness
and righteousness. And I tell you, what's beauty?
People say, what's beauty? Well, they say, well, beauty
is in the eye of the beholder. I'll tell you something that
is beautiful in every way. That's God. Everything about
Him is beautiful. Every attribute is beautiful.
His person is beautiful. His word is beautiful. His holiness
is beautiful. Everything about God and all
of His perfection is beautiful. Beautiful. And oh my, when it
says, when He's none as holy as the Lord, do you know what
that means also? That means He's other. Todd got
to preaching on this down in Mexico. He's other. What do you
mean other? There's an otherness to him that's
not like anything else. That's what I mean. He's apart. He's separate. He's distinct.
He is wholly other. He dwells in absolute majesty
and glory. and that nothing imperfect he
shall ever look upon. And that's what Hannah means
here. There's none holy like thee, Lord. Indeed, there's none
holy like you. And I tell you what, bless His
name. He is holy. Holy is the Lord. Ain't that what she said? There's
none as holy as the Lord. There's none beside thee. And
here's an amazing thing. That God, this God, this holy
God. It's immaculately holy and perfect,
flawless God. Perfect in every part. Perfect
in every attribute. That this God, none is beside
like Thee, beside Thee. That this God would come down
and enter into men's and women's lives. that he that he the scripture
says that he humbles himself to behold the things that are
in heaven if he humbles himself to see what's in heaven itself
imagine what an amazing thing is that he comes down here and
enters into our lives and if we ever have anything to do with
him it's because he first entered into our lives we didn't go looking for him
he come to where we were We never saw Him until He first saw us.
And to think that He broke into our lives and entered into our
lives. And that's why we understand if God ever does anything for
anybody, He's got to break in on them. Ah, to have a relationship with
Him. And how do we have a relationship
with Him? First and foremost in His Word.
We wouldn't know a thing about Him apart from this. He makes
Himself known in this. And then, beloved, He makes Himself
known from this book and expresses His love to us in the gospel
and by the Holy Ghost. And then He breaks in on us in
His acts of providence. There's not a step we take, there's
not a thing that happens in our lives that God did not order
for us. I believe that with all my heart. Even when I stumble and fall,
He said the righteous falleth seven times, but the Lord picks
him up. My foot had well nigh slipped,
but the Lord had mercy. In all His divine providence,
you look back over your life, And you look at how God in His
providence from the time you were just a young child to where
you're at right now, you can look back over your life. Every
one of us could go back and say, this, the Lord was here. The
Lord was here. The Lord was here. The Lord was
here. The Lord did this. The Lord did that. The Lord brought
me here. The Lord introduced me to that.
I crossed this person's path. How in the world does all these
things happen in our life? God, God, Huh? And she knew He was the Mighty
God. And she knew this by the revelation
of Himself. We have God's Word. Not only
did she have God's Word in what she called on Him and looked
to Him. Knew He was the Almighty God. Mighty God. And she knew
it by revelation and she knew it by God's Word. And I tell
you another way. But now everybody can do this.
But this The heavens, the heavens declare the glory of God. If
you got eyes to see, the heavens declare the glory of God. The one thing you can't see,
you can't see redemption in creation. But we can see God in creation.
And all we look at the heavens and they declare God's glory
everywhere you look. You'll be driving down the road
and you'll look at a hillside and there'll be so many different
colors of green. But it's all green. But how many
different shades? How can you have that many different
shades of green? God. That's what I'm telling you. You know,
and we look, we look at everything and say, oh, we see the glory
of God there. And I tell you, beloved, but
a child of God is like Santa. She knew God's mighty power through
experience in His blessed, blessed grace and God's power in her
life. Look what she says back up here
in verse one. She says, my horn is exalted
in the Lord. Now what does that mean? My horn
is exalted in the Lord. Horn is a figure of strength. When you see a horn, it's strength.
You see a horn and that means strength. Powerful. It said Hannah
was strength and my horn is exalted. My horn is strength and it's
been picked up and exalted by God himself. God gave me the
strength and lifted me up when I was so down. And all there's
none beside you. Look what she says down here
in verse two again. There's none beside thee. Now
watch this. Neither is there any rock like
our God. Oh my, you know how many times
God's called a rock in salvation in the scriptures? You know where
the first rock appears? When God took Moses, hit him
in the cliff of a rock. That's the first place. First
time you ever hear a rock mentioned. And then the next time you hear
a rock mentioned is when Moses smoked a rock and water came
out of the rock. And Christ is our rock. And I'll
tell you that when he says, there's no rock like our God. There's
no safety, no place, no hiding place, no powerful one as our
God. And all this is the experience
of all God's people. And I tell you what, here's Hannah's
response to God's gracious, gracious provision and giving her her
son, Samuel. She gave to the Lord and she
started blessing God before she ever left the temple. And oh my, she says, my heart
prays and my heart rejoices in the Lord. Oh, what a contrast
between this prayer and Hannah's earliest prayer. Remember her
earliest prayer when the scripture said she was in great, great
distress. She was grieved. She was so grieved. Oh my, she had a great affliction. She was hurting so deeply inside. One God that remembered her.
And God remembered her. Gave her Samuel. Now, she goes
from that great distress to rejoicing. We get way down here and the
Lord will pick us up. We go way up here. We go way
up there. Oh my. And I tell you what, that's
the wonderful thing about God. He remembers us. And He remembers
our afflictions. He remembers our distresses,
and we're going to have them. No offense or buts about it.
But He remembers, and then we turn around and we exalt Him,
and we bless Him, and we praise Him, and we thank Him. Her heartache
turned to joy, and it says her enemies has been made powerless. She says there in verse 1, my
mouth is enlarged over my enemies. And oh look what she said here
in verse 3, talking about her enemies now. Talks no more so exceeding proudly. Now is she talking about Pernina
who was her enemy and mocked her and scorned her and ridiculed
her and tormented her and caused her great grief because she had
no children? Is that who she's talking about?
I don't know. But she said, talk no more so
exceeding proudly. Don't do that. Let not arrogancy
come out of your mouth. Don't be so hard. Don't mind listening. And this test is in the plural.
That means that it speaks of all who go around in proud arrogance. And I tell you, there's a lot
of proud arrogance in this world. A lot of folks feel so good about
themselves. And they have this pride and
they have this arrogance. This air about themselves. That
I can't be told nothing. I know everything. And they disdain
other people when they're arrogant like that. And she said, don't
talk proudly anymore. Don't let arrogance come out
of you anymore. And this is why she says to do
it. For the Lord is a God of knowledge.
God knows you. God's a God of knowledge. Tell
me what He doesn't know. Tell me what He doesn't know.
God is a God of knowledge. And listen to this. And by Him,
by Him, His knowledge of us and by Him, our actions are weighed. And that's why she said, you
know, don't talk so proudly anymore. Don't be so arrogant. God knows. God knows me and he knows you.
He knows everything about us. And he says, whatever your actions
are, he weighs them. He weighs them. And I tell you,
that's what she's talking about. And I tell you, that's how she's
and she has this. trouble and she has this heartache
she has this sorrow and then God lifts her up God lifts her
up now I want you to see something else now she talks about how
God reigns over the earth and there's several things she says
about it and here let's look here in verse four let's go down
through here and then just deal with them a little at a time
this tells us that God himself looks at all men and he's the
one who works these things and make these things to happen.
He turns the world upside down compared to the way it's supposed
to be. He says, the bows of the mighty men are broken. These
mighty men in all their pride and all their... He said, I just
break their bows. They can't shoot no more arrows. And they
that stumble They that stumbled, those that stumbled around and
didn't have much and he said he girded them with strength.
Took the mighty and broke them down and takes people that stumble
around with no strength and girds them up and makes them strong.
And then look what else he says now. And God determines the actions
of men and the power of men and every earthly condition of man.
And he says, now listen to this. You think, here's what he's talking
about here. They that were full, them that
had plenty, they that know a lot, you know, they had everything
that they needed, all of a sudden, they come in need and they have
to hire themselves out for their brand. Here they were full. God, he says, I'm gonna make
you empty. I know for a fact, I'm gonna
tell you a story. I thought about that when I read
this. And they that were hungry ceased.
Those that were hungry, those that were poor, they ceased. And thank God Christ is our bread
and our hunger ceased with Him. But I know a fella, he's making
$300,000 a year, back when the economy several years ago just
booked. That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money. I can't
imagine making Man, I'd be tickled to death to make just a smidgen
of that. But he was making $300,000 a
year. Well, the economy went south. And when you make that
kind of money, you live according to that kind of money. You're
going to live in a big house. You're going to drive big fancy
cars. You're going to wear the best clothes money can buy. You're
going to eat in big, nicer restaurants and spend lots of money in restaurants.
And so when the economy went south, He lost his job. Now what am I going to do? He had to go hire himself out
for bread. He took a job, went begging for a job. And I know
the fellow that hired him, and he started out way, way, way,
way back down. That's what he's talking about.
They went out And then they had to turn around
and hide themselves. Wait, can you give me a job? I need a job. I'll take anything you got. That's what happened, you know.
And then look what he goes on to say now. And here it shows
you how the Lord, He takes them in a full and then the hunger,
those that were in poverty couldn't buy their bread and their hunger
ceased. He gave them work. He provided
for them. And the barren that hath borne
so that the barren hath had seven children. Seven is perfection. God gave me perfection in children.
And she that hath many children, she wears feeble. She got weight.
She got feeble. Oh my. And listen to this now.
Listen to this. God has a source of life. The
Lord kills. and makes alive. He brings down
to the grave and brings up. And I'll tell you this, and that's
literal, that's literal, but let's look at it spiritually.
God's got to slay you. Slay you with the gospel. Slay
you with the Holy Spirit. You've got to slay your self-righteousness. Slay your ability. Slay your
goodness. Slay your morality. Slay all
hope that you have in yourself. Before He'll ever make you lie.
That's just the way it is. He's got to strip you before
He'll ever clothe you. He's got to empty you before
He can ever fill you. And I tell you that's what he's
talking about. He's the source of all earthly
wealth. And look what else he said. Down
there in verse 7. He's the source of all wealth
and distributes wealth according to his good pleasure. The Lord
makes poor. The fellow's poor, who made him
poor? God did. God did. But ain't it a blessing
to be poor in spirit? Oh, to be poor in spirit. And
then look what else he says here. He not only makes poor, but he
also is the one that makes rich. If you got anything you got,
the Lord gave it to you. He'd take it back just as easy.
And he makes rich. He brings people low, and he
lifts people up. And I tell you what, in all we
were made wealthy. We were poor. Oh, how poor we
was without God, without Christ. And God gave us the riches of
His grace, the riches of His glory, made us wealthy in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We were the wealthiest people
on the face of the earth. I got more riches, more riches
in Christ. And I'd rather have the riches
of Christ and live in a tent and know Christ as have a 40
room mansion and half a dozen bathrooms and people waiting
on me hand and foot and not know Christ. Cause to know Him, poor and we're
still poor in ourselves. What's all our wealth in? He
is. his riches of grace, his riches
of wealth. And oh my, those who are barren,
blessed with a full house, while with many children they enter
into misery. And look what it says here now. He says in verse
eight, he raises up the poor out of the dust. Out of the dust
we come, to the dust we're gonna go back. And listen to this now,
and he lifts up the beggar, the beggar, from the dunghill. the beggar. You all ever seen people out
begging? You ever seen anybody out begging? You know, I was down in Nashville
the other day, Shirley and I was. On one corner there was this
fella, had him assigned. He was a black fella. We went around the corner and
got over on the other corner of the interstate and there was
a white fella. And they had him assigned. And they're begging. They'll use every excuse. I'm
a veteran. I'm poor. I've got children at
home. They'll do everything. But this kind of people he's
talking about here are begging. It's people that's on a dunghill.
You know what a dunghill is? Big old pile of manure. Big old
pile of manure. And we're sitting on that dunghill. Wonder how we smell. Wonder how
we look. We're sitting up there on that
donkey. We ain't got nothing. And the Lord, we beg Him for
mercy. We beg Him for grace. We beg Him. And you know what
He does? He comes. And the scripture said
He lifts us. He don't pick us up and say,
now climb off. Get out if you can. I'll give
you the power. I'll get up and you can walk
the rest of the way. No, no. He lifts us up. He lifts
us. Off the downhill. And then there's
a bunch of princes over here. There's a bunch of princes. People like you. And he takes
this fellow off the downhill and he sets him right down beside
you. And you know what? You don't
smell it. All you do is see Christ and
His grace and what He's done for you. And look what else He's
going to do for them that He brings them up. He'll make them
inherit the throne of glory. Not only set him among princes,
but listen, you're going to inherit his throne. You're going to inherit
the glory of Christ when he comes back. You'll appear with him
in glory when Christ appears in glory. And oh my, and look
what she goes on to say. She talks about all God's absolute
sovereignty over everything and everybody. Life and death, wealth
and power, children and not children, everything's in his hands. And
listen, that's the most wonderful place in the world to be is in
the hands of God. That's the most wonderful place
in the world to be. And look what he says, for the pillars
of the earth are the Lord's, and he has set the world on them.
I don't know what the pillars of the earth mean. You know,
that means that God's got this great mighty power. Pillars,
you know, strong, God's pillars. And he set this earth on it.
And you know what? This earth is exactly the same
it was when he made it. It has things that happen. I
mean, the earth goes around. Sun comes up, goes down, comes
up, goes down, comes up, goes down. Spring, winter, summer,
fall. Warm, cold. God established the earth. He
calls it the pillars of the earth. And look what else is said here
now. Oh my, this is how God does things for us here. Listen to
this now. He'll keep the feet of His saints.
He's going to keep them. Well, I believe I'll go over
here. Well, I'll keep your feet while you go over there. The
path of the justice has a shining light more and more under the
perfect day. I'll keep your feet. Oh, I'm
going to watch your feet. Make sure you don't stumble. Make sure that I keep you. I'm
going to keep you. He'll keep the feet of his saints. And the
wicked shall be silent in darkness. He's going to leave them sitting
in the darkness. And look what he says, by strength shall no
man prevail. He does not have any strength
of his own. He cannot produce any strength
of his own. And that's why he says that God
is sovereign over everything. And this is something right here. You listen to this now. You listen
to this. One reason why Hannah so wanted
a child is because she understood the promise that the seed of
the woman and the seed of God, the seed of the woman and the
seed of the serpent would have enmity between them. And she
knew that there was going to be a Messiah coming. She wanted
to part in God's redemption. She wanted to part. Every child, when Christ was
coming, every woman wanted to be the one to bury the Christ child. But watch what
happens now. The adversaries of the Lord shall
be broken to pieces. I sure don't want God to be,
I don't want to be God's adversary. I don't want to be God's adversary. Everybody that's been against
me, everybody that's fought me, everybody that re-accused me.
I heard a fellow making fun of another man that was talking
about the Lord today. Just sat there and made fun of
him. An old man. An old man was talking
about Christ and another old man was making fun of him. And look what he goes on
to say. Out of heaven shall he thunder upon them. Boy, I tell
you, in that day of judgment, what a voice it's going to be.
And look what he says. The Lord shall judge the ends
of the earth. He's going to go from one end of it to the other.
And he's going to judge it from pole to pole, from east to west,
to north to south. Everybody's going to be judged.
And listen to this now. And he shall give strength unto
his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed. Now what is
this? When it talks about exalt the
horn of his anointed and his king. This is the first mention
of the Christ, the first mention of the Messiah. When he calls
him his anointed one. That's the same word that God
uses to anoint for his Messiah and for Christ. And that's the
same word there. I read about it today. And unto
his king. So he's talking about the King
that's to come. That God's exalted Him and anointed
Him. The Lord Jesus Christ. And here
is Samuel, this child that she had. This Samuel, her child. He is the very last judge that
there ever was in Israel. He is the last judge. But he
is the first one to anoint a king over Israel. Saul, Saul is a miserable figure,
but he's also the one that nor did David, king over Israel.
The man after God's own heart. And David's throne, which propagated
our Lord Jesus Christ's throne, what it's talking about, it shall
last forever and ever and ever and ever. Because the Lord has
exalted the horn. of His anointing, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's why she wanted a child.
She wanted to have a boy. And she saw the finale of it.
She said God's exalted the horn of His anointing, the strength
of His anointing. She saw that the Lord Jesus Christ
is going to be the King. Going to be the anointed one,
be on the throne forever and ever and ever. I see that. I see Him on His throne. I see
Him sitting there forever and ever and ever. The only time
He's going to get off is when we enter into glory. And He sets
the table for us. He sets the table for us. Our Father, in the precious name
of Christ our Lord, thank You for allowing us to meet this
evening Blessed be your name for allowing us to open your
word and look at it, and see what it says, and see your glory,
and see your power, and see your majesty, see your sovereignty,
see you're the source of all things, life, death, wealth,
poverty, children, not children, oh God. And I thank you that
you're that way. Oh, I thank you that you're that
way. And that you've been pleased to make yourself known in this
world to such sinners as ourselves. And thank you for the grace that
saved us and keeps us and preserves us. In Christ's name, we bless
you. Amen and amen. There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing its word. Take in my ear the sweetest name
on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because He first loved me.