Turn back to where we read this
morning in 1 Samuel chapter 2. We read those first ten verses,
but I'd urge you to go back and read chapter 1 and chapter 2. My subject this morning is a
truly happy mother. And the fact that there would
ever be such a thing is most amazing when we look back and
see what happened in the garden to the first woman, to the first
mother. Because if you remember, the
Scripture says that it was Eve that was deceived in the transgression. And that has often been the case
over the course of history, all the way down to when Paul writes,
and all the way down to our day. That kind of deception has gone
on. So that when Paul speaks to Timothy
about the false teachers and false prophets, He says, "...for
of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive
silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts."
But the woman that we're reading about in this text this morning,
and others who are like her over the course of history, are happy
and truly happy for one reason. She is the object of God's sovereign
grace and mercy. Even if you remember the earthly
mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, She is said to be happy and rejoice. She said, My soul doth magnify
the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. God my Savior. And so God, not only of men,
but also of women, has blessed a people who he brings to believe
on Christ. They are truly happy because
he has brought them to know the true Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the case with this
woman Hannah. Because this second chapter begins
with the words, "...and Hannah prayed." And it is amazing what
we read here, and amazing that we find her rejoicing, because
the last time she had been at this same place, she had been
in bitter sorrow and weeping. As a matter of fact, Eli thought
that she was drunk, she was so distressed. But now she is praying
and praising God, and she rejoices by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
just like Peter says. He says of Christ, whom having
not seen, ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing,
ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, only by believing."
And so it says that Hannah prays, and she begins to rejoice and
confess all of these things before the Lord. Who is she? And why does she do this? Well,
this woman Hannah is the wife, actually she's one of two wives
of a man by the name of Elkanah. And the other wife, whose name
is Penina, she has born to him children, but this woman Hannah
has to this point been barren. And not only that, but the woman
Penina has mocked Hannah because of this. And Elkinah now has
taken his wife Hannah up to the place of worship with him. And you go back in chapter 1,
and you can find what happened the last time she went. But now she comes rejoicing. She comes confessing. And it
is because she has born a son, committed this child to the Lord's
service with Eli and others, and now she is thanking God and
praising God for what He's done for her, not only because of
this child. but because of what she calls,
thy salvation. I hear people talk a lot about
my salvation. But the truth of the matter is,
we have no true salvation unless it is this thy salvation. And she is thanking God and praising
God, not so much for this child. You see, some mothers make their
children their God. If you remember, whenever the
first child was born into this world, Eve exclaimed this, I've
gotten that man-child from the Lord. She thought she'd given
birth to that promised Messiah. But she had really given birth
to the first murderer. The first one who would cling
on to works salvation, and rather than offer the blood, the God-appointed
sacrifice in worship to God, he'd offer the works of his own
hands. She is rejoicing, this woman
Hannah, for that salvation that God in Scripture calls, so great
salvation. She knows that what has happened
to her physically is just simply a picture and a type of what
has happened to her spiritually. She's been barren. She had no
child. And so if she's to have one,
it has to be by the grace and power of God. And this salvation
that she's talking about is salvation that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, how do you know that?
Because she says here in this first verse, my heart rejoices
in the Lord. You see that? My heart rejoices. Actually, it's in that special
name, Yahweh, that name wherein God displays His redemptive character. My heart rejoices in the Lord. And if this be the case, it doesn't
matter what the circumstances are. Those who rejoice in the
Lord, they have reason to rejoice in Christ because He's the same
yesterday, and today, and forever. And Hannah's salvation here,
as I said, it pictures God's salvation of all His people. She is a picture and a type of
those whom God saved. Listen, she pictures the sinner
in that she is barren and unfruitful and lifeless and needy She pictures
this sinner because her salvation is in a promise that was given
her by God, a promise of what He would do by His grace and
by His power. And her salvation. pictures the
true salvation, because her salvation has to do with a Son who pictures
the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is so much
in what she prays here that is used of the Spirit of God to
teach us about that salvation. We don't come into this world
knowing about that salvation any more than she came into this
world able to bear a child of herself. But I can tell you something. And that by this prayer and by
every other thing that you read in this book, and that is that
the salvation of God reveals His perfections. That's right. You see, God saves
His people not simply because they need saving. If that were
the case, He'd save every person. But He saves His people for His
namesake, He says, for His glory, and to manifest and magnify all
His attributes. That's what He said to Israel.
Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord
God, I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for my
holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither
ye went." There was never anything done by them to cause God to
save them or bless them in any way. He does what He does for
His own glory, for His own namesake. And so in that second verse,
Hannah begins to pray, and with this prayer, she recognizes that
which is central to all that God is and all that He does. She says, there is none holy
as the Lord. It doesn't matter how much imagined
holiness you and I think that we can master and muster up. It always remains the same that
there is none holy but the Lord, and we ought to sit down and
recognize and own up to the fact of just how holy God is. You know how holy He is? He's
perfectly holy. As a matter of fact, that's what
holy means. It means separate from every
other, none like Him, perfect in every way, and He therefore
cannot accept anything that is not holy. who is holy, if he accepts anything
or most especially anyone who is not perfectly holy, what happens
to him? He is not holy anymore. You understand
that? He is not holy anymore. And that's
why salvation is not some kind of game, or a myth, or a legend,
or something like this. This is the way God is. There is none holy as the Lord. And when you read this book,
you won't simply come out with seeing that God is a God of love,
because many more times in Scripture, He declares Himself to be holy. Why did that author sit down
and write that hymn that we sang first? Holy, holy, holy. Well, he writes it because in
Scripture, he reads in Scripture that this is exactly how the
triune God is, and those creatures around His throne, this is what
they cry night and day, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. They're not just saying, love,
love, love. They're not just crying out,
mercy, mercy, mercy. They are crying out that attribute
which is central to all He is, because He is essentially and
perfectly and originally and unchangeably holy. Glorious in holiness, it says. And we'll never know anything
about His holiness simply by just trying to contemplate it,
because we've never known anything but sin. People around here talking
about holiness. Well, what do you know about
holiness? Where will you ever find anything
about how holy God is? You can look back at the flood
and see how holy He is. Or you can look back to see what
He did to Sodom and Gomorrah and all the cities of the plain.
All those people that He rained fire and brimstone on, you can
find out how holy He is there. But look at the cross. You say,
why there? Because when the Lord God Almighty
imputed the sins of His people to Christ, He had made Him before
the world began to be their surety and representative, and so when
that hour came, that He came into this world and went to the
cross as their surety to bear the burden. What happened when
God, in His immaculate holiness, And in His inflexible justice,
what happened when He looked at His Son? And in His Son, legally
and justly saw that He was there to bear all the sins of His people. Holiness turned His back. And the Savior cries out, My
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Why? Because of those sins. Because He's of purer eyes than
to behold iniquity. Because when sin is found in
us, that one who is the sinner, that one who bears the sin, that
soul must surely die. She said there's none holy but
the Lord. And then she says this also in
that second verse. She says, there's none beside
Thee. I know how we are in this day.
We've gotten so politically correct and so sophisticated, I guess
you might say, in our own minds, that you would not dare to have
anything to say about somebody's God. And so here is what we call
professing Christianity. They might occasionally say something
about somebody's God, the God of Islam or somebody like that. But the problem is, that within
that mass of professing Christianity, which God had already said, would
be a bunch of deceived idolaters. Nobody dares to say to that false
professor, or that false prophet, or that false professor of Christianity,
your God is not God. You see, there is just one God.
And we can kind of pat ourselves on the back and have a mutual
admiration society and say, well, we are all going the same way,
we are all preaching the same thing, we all believe the same
thing, but it absolutely is not true. He says, look unto Me,
and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and
there is none else. How are you? He says, a just
God and a Savior. Well, I believe Christ died for
everything. Well, you don't believe He's
a just God. Because if Christ died for them, and yet He sends
them into hell, He won't be a just God. You say, well, it's because
of their unbelief. Well, isn't unbelief a sin? Christ
died for all the sins of those He saves. And so the truth is,
he either died for everybody, and everybody's going to be saved,
justice will require it. Or he died for some of the sins
of some people, and they're going to have to figure out what to
do about the rest of those sins. Or either he died for his sheep,
he laid down his life for them, and purchased the church with
his blood, and every one of them is going to be saved. Ain't nobody
else. We can describe Him all we want
to, it won't matter one bit. He describes Himself. And that's
why people don't want to hear the Scriptures. They don't want
to hear about God. They want to be told what they
can do and decide and try and allow. But that's not the God
of the Bible. Jesus said, there is none beside
Thee. There's just one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Peter said, "...neither is there
salvation in any other, for there is none of the name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved." You say, well, I know
that Mohammed or Buddha, any of these fellows, they're not
Savior. Well, what about the Jesus that Paul warned against? The one that He called another
Jesus, who is not really the true Christ at all. What about
Him? He is as much to deceive us as anybody else. And then
she goes on in this second verse and she says this in her prayer,
in her confession. She says, neither is there any
rock like our God. Rock? What is the rock in Scripture? Well, a rock in Scripture is
set forth as a shelter, as a refuge, as a foundation. She said, neither
is there any rock like our God. There's no other shelter. There's
no other refuge from the wrath of God. There is no other shelter
in the matter of our sin. There is no other foundation
upon which we can rest and not be swept away by the wrath of
His justice. In 2 Samuel, for who is God,
save the Lord, and who is a rock, save our God. Everything else
is sinking sand. You can build on it, and you
may have a nice religious structure built of your life, and you can
say, I haven't smoked, or drank, or cussed, and I don't think
there's many in this group could say that. Or you can say, I gave,
or I didn't do this, I didn't kill anybody, or I didn't commit
adultery, I didn't do all these things. That's no foundation. You're going to stand before
the living God based on that? He called it, Seeking Sand. The hymn writer said, On Christ
the solid rock I stand, All other ground thinking sand. He says, The Lord liveth, and
blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God, the rock of my salvation. All my hope is in Him. All my righteousness is in Christ. That's all I have. I'll never
forget what Brother Richardson, how he responded to that lady
one time who asked him, she said, she said, Pastor Richardson,
she said, is Jesus Christ really enough? He wisely said, if He's
all you got, He is. If you got anything else, plus
Christ. No, He's the rock. And everything
else is sinking sand. As a matter of fact, this is
what it says in Deuteronomy 32. Here is what the Lord's people
confess. They say, for their rock is not
as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. They say, our God is not like
that. Somebody told me recently, their family member, Trying to
tell them something about how God really is. They said, my
God is not like that. They say, our rock is not like
that. But that rock is only sinking sand. The Lord is my rock and
my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom
I will trust, my buckler, the horn of my salvation and my high
tower. He is my only hope. Isaiah 32,
"...and a man," now listen to this, "...and a man shall be
as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest,
as rivers of water in a dry place, and the shadow of a great rock
in a weary land." A man. Who's that? The man Christ Jesus. I mean, 1 Corinthians, Paul speaking
of this very people, such as we find going there, delivered
out of Egypt, it said, "...and they did all drink the same spiritual
drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed
them, and that rock was Christ." There are no rocks like Him.
Do you remember that rock when they were dying of thirst? What
did God say to Him, to Moses? They couldn't find water anywhere. They were perishing. And here
is this rock that God has established out there that was known to them,
but they saw nothing in it. And so God says to Moses, you
go down and take that staff and smite the rock. And he did. And the water gushed out. Paul
says that rock was Christ. And then a little later on, they
began to be in need of water again, and God commanded Moses
to go back to that same rock. You know what He said to him
that time? He said, you speak to the rock. You speak to the
rock. Why? Because Christ was stricken
once. so complete, so satisfying to
God, so acceptable to the Divine Being in the matter of our sin,
He only had to be smitten once, once in the end of the age. But
Moses in his anger, he struck the rock again. What happened? Water came out. Why? Because
What comes from Christ, this salvation, is not dependent upon
our obedience. But because the Scripture says
God tells Moses that he failed to sanctify Him in the eyes of
those people, God would not let Moses take them into that promised
land, but took him up into a mountain and killed him and buried him.
Christ died once. And His sacrifice of blood, His
life laid down, is the full and only satisfying payment to divine
justice that there is. And for that reason, she continues
in verse 3, and she says, "...talk no more exceedingly proudly."
I'll tell you one way you can tell something about false religion. And that is because there is
always this constant bragging and boasting in what we did,
in who we are, in how many we have, in all these things, and
not Christ. There wasn't but eight souls
in the ark. And here's all religion talking
about all these numbers. And they'll be talking about
it when they come in that hour to stand before God at the judgment. So sincere and so convinced in
themselves, Lord, have we not preached in Your name? Have we
not cast out devils in Your name? Have we not done many wonderful
works? And the Lord Jesus said, I'll
say unto them in that hour, depart from me, you that work iniquity."
That's what all our works are, is iniquity. Paul described them
as dead works. Why did he call them that? Because
they're going to end in eternal death. He said, I never knew
you. I never knew you. Paul, when
he's writing to the Romans, He says, God has set forth His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins through faith in His blood,
to declare His righteousness in forgiving sin. To declare
at this time His righteousness that He might be just and justifier
of him which believeth in Jesus. He said, God's done it. God's
sacrifice. God's satisfied. God's just in
the doing of it. God's declared His people in
Christ righteous. He's done everything that's right
and upright and just. He's done it all. Then Paul says,
where's boasting then? Did He give us any room at all
to boast? He said, don't you glory in anything
except in the Lord Jesus Christ. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. By what law? Of works. No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. He said,
not of works. Why, lest any man should boast. I'll tell you one thing, that
God, if He saves you or me, He'll take, I won't say all of it out,
but He'll take the most of this boasting business out. If you ever see the Lord God,
if you ever are brought to worship God, enter into fellowship with
the living God, Nebuchadnezzar said this. He was a lot bigger
shot than any of us. He said, he that walks in pride,
he's able to abase. And my friend, that's what God
does. He saves us. He's going to strip us. You can't
wear the garment of His imputed righteousness and the garment
of your self-righteousness. He's going to strip you to clothe
you. He's going to empty you to fill
you. He's going to make you know you're
lost to bring you unto Himself and save you. She says, let not
arrogance come out of your mouth. All this bravado, you know, I'm
not afraid to die. I know who I'm trusting. I can tell you that when you
look true death in the eye, that will be the most deadly hogwash
ever spoken. when every joint in your body
feels like it's loose from the next joint, when the sight of
eternity, when a view of the Almighty God fills your eyes
and your heart melts within you. When that man was brought into
that wedding feast and he didn't have a garment on, and the master
of the feast asked him, why did you come into this wedding feast
without a garment? You see, it was the tradition
in those days, the father who gave the banquet also provided
the garments for the wedding guests. But you know what it
says? It says he was speechless. Speechless. Nothing you can say. There's
no information you can give God, there's no excuse you can give
Him, because He knows everything. He knows. Because, as it says,
verse 3, for the Lord is a God of knowledge. He knows all. He knows what's in the heart.
He knows every one of our thoughts from afar off. He knows His sheep. Christ said, I know my sheep.
And she says, by Him actions are weighed. You remember what
old king that looked there, Belshazzar
looked and he saw this marking of a finger, a hand on the wall?
He's the top person in all the earth. Thou art weighed in the
balances and found wanting. God's balances are not like yours
and mine. It's not you're going to stand
on one side with your good that you've done and on the other
side with the bad you've done, he's going to weigh it out. No. It's
not going to be that you stand over here and if your works are
not quite enough, you need a little bit added, Christ is going to
put a finger or something on that scale and tip it up. No. If you're not in Christ on those
balances, you'll be found wanting. All your good intentions, all
your self-deception, all your taking the words of a man as
to what is true concerning God and your soul. And you see, God's salvation
also, it not only reveals His perfection, but it reveals His
power. Power. You know, men see what
goes on on the earth, earthquakes and things like that, and they
say, Boy, that's the power of God. Actually, that's the restrained
power of God. The Bible says that God has to
greatly restrain His power just to demonstrate that power in
the creation. Verse 4, she says, "...and the
bows of the mighty men are broken." God's going to overcome. all
his enemies. And sinners act as enemies. They're alienated from God, described
in this book as haters of the true God, and at war with God. And everyone that he saves, he'll
have to bring them by his power to surrender. And all he doesn't
do that to, he'll destroy. If you go back and look at one
of the illustrations in the Old Testament that describes us by
nature, and that is, we are likened under that law as the wild asses
colt. Here is this colt born out in
the wilderness, wild as we say as a buck, Says he snuffs up
his nose at the wind, kicks up his heels, goes his own way. Somebody says, well, what are
we going to do with that colt? This is what the law says. You
either have to redeem him or break his neck. That's what we're
like as sinners. In other words, if they wanted
to keep that colt, Use it for themselves, whatever. They had
to take a lamb, a beautiful, spotless lamb, slay that blood,
the blood of redemption, and redeem it. Either that or break
his neck. That's why the Son of God had
to come from heaven, become a man. If we're going to be redeemed,
we're the wild asses cold. We're wild sinners. He had to
shed His blood and redeem us, or God would have to break our
neck. They that are stumbled are girded with strength. They're
all brought to confess their weakness and their helplessness
and their inability. And when we confess that and
are brought to acknowledge it, The Lord gives them strength.
What, so we can flex our muscles? No, because if He doesn't give
us strength, we'll never confess the truth. We'll never stand
in the face of husband, or wife, or sister, or brother, or mother,
or father, and to their great displeasure say, this is the
God of the Bible. You see, the fear of man brings
a snare. You know what that is? That's
a trap. We fear to displease others. We fear to tell them
the truth. But God gives His people, everyone
He saves, with this salvation, the strength to identify with
Him. To identify with this message
that gives Him all the glory. to confess ourselves for what
we are and to confess others for what they are. I have family
members I love. I have family members that I
love that are religious. But they're lost. I don't make
them that way. I don't determine that. But by
virtue of what God says, they're lost. You see, it says that when
we were without strength, Christ died for us. He died for His
people. He saved them from their sins.
Then in verse 5, she says, they that were full have hired themselves
out for bread. They walked around in this life
feeling good about their moral condition and all this kind of
stuff, but when God saved them, They found out that all their
righteousnesses were as filthy rags. And just like in that parable,
all those precious little coins that they've been putting in
that bag, saving them for eternity to stand before God, the moles
and the rats have eaten a hole in that bag, and they're lost. They have nothing. Nothing. They were full of self-righteousness,
full of self-worth, full of self-will, And God will either bring them
back hungry, or they'll perish for eternity. Why? Because there's
none good. There's none righteous. There's
none of themselves that seek after God. There's none that
understand it. Paul says, no, not one. And he's going to have to empty
us if he ever fills us. But not only that, when he does
empty those he does so empty, he then fills them. He says,
but the hungry, she says, the hungry are ceased. Why? Christ said, blessed are they
that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall
be filled. Christ is made to them manna
from on high. He's the true bread. He's the
living water. And then she says, she that hath
many children is wax feeble. Who is she? She's that harlot
of false religion. She's got many children. Just
like you read in the book of Galatians, in that allegory that
had to do with Sarah and Hagar and their children. Ishmael being
the child of the flesh, Isaac the child of the promise. And
Paul says, as it was then, it is now, that the child of the
flesh persecutes the child of the promise, the child of the
woman of bondage, persecutes the child of the woman, the children
of the free woman. Works, grace. But she says, but
the barren hath born seven. You see, Hannah gives birth to
a child, not by any strength of her own, or by any strength
of Elkanah's, but just by the grace and power of God. And that's
the way all the church comes forth. Seven is a perfect number. And all His people will be saved. Then she states this, and I know
I've got to hurry. She says, the Lord killeth. Now
this is the way it is in this whole created world. We can blame
whatever second cause we want to, but it always comes down
to this fact. The Lord kills and the Lord makes
alive. Are you alive? Do you have anything
to do with that? No, the Lord makes alive. The
Lord kills. Nobody is going to die a premature
death. Oh no. It is appointed unto man
once to die. And after this, the judgment. But if He saves us, He's first
going to have to kill us. We're going to have to die to
everything we are in Adam. And we're going to have to be
raised to everything God gives us in Christ. It's a spiritual
death. All His people died in Him when
He died, and they were raised in Him when He was raised. But
they have to be brought also in their own experience to this
death, to this end of self, as any contributor in salvation,
and then they are raised to life in Christ. He brings down to
the grave, and He lifts up. And His salvation, as she shows
us here, also reveals His absolute sovereignty and His wonderful
faithfulness. Verse 8, she says, "...for the
pillars of the earth." This is not pillows like you lay your
head on. This is pillars. supports. The pillars of the earth are
the Lord's, and He hath set the world upon them." He upholds
all things by the Word of His power. And His Word will not
fail, because all the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ. He runs this thing. And why would
anybody want to say, when they think everything is good, well,
it's the Lord. It's the Lord. And then when
things start to go ways that they think aren't so good in
their own eyes, they say, well, the devil's been after me. I'll
tell you, you and I blame a lot of what we ourselves bring about
on the devil. But one we ought to be saying
with old Eli, it is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. Then she says this in verse 9,
and he'll keep the feet of his saints. Well, what about if they
fall? He will keep the feet of his
saints. He said they may fall seven times. I'll never let them come. I give
unto them eternal life and they'll never perish. That's why I like
to come here. The true church of the Lord Jesus
Christ is nothing but a hospital for sinners. They get banged
up, bruised up, they stumble, they fall, they fail. The church
is not sitting there with some kind of imaginary whip, who are
we going to discipline today? No, Paul says, those that are
taken in a fall, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one. Is that not what it says? In
other words, our practice is not so much discipline as it
is Restoration. Pray for one another. Encourage
one another. Help one another. Recognize in
each other the very failures and faults we have in our own
flesh. And delight in the fact that
He'll keep the feet of His saints. Will they still go wandering
off sometime? Oh yes, they will. They're sheep. They have a natural tendency
to go astray. But He'll keep them. When we
say, the Lord is my Shepherd, that means that whatever it takes
to keep us, that's what the Shepherd is going to do. And sometimes
we get ourselves down in that thicket of sin, and He has to
take that crooked hookstaff, you remember, and reach down
there and grab us by the neck and bring us back. And it hurts
sometimes, but He's going to keep the feet of His saints. Oh, the wicked, she says, shall
be silent in darkness. For by strength shall no man
prevail, and the adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in
pieces. Out of heaven shall he thunder
upon them, and the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth. But he shall give strength unto
his king, and exalt the horn, or the strength, of His anointed. Who is God's King? Who is God's
anointed? Well, the very name Christ, Christos
in the Greek, means the anointed one. Why is He anointed? Because He is God's prophet.
Because He is God's priest. If God ever speaks to you, it
will be in Christ. If you ever approach God and
receive any blessing, He will have to be your priest. And He's
God's King. He's going to rule over you before
you perish. My horn is exalted in the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. She's rejoicing. This is a happy
woman and mother. Happy. You say, well, she may
have problems with that boy. She may. But He's not her hope. She may fall on hard times and
have to eat dry bread and drink water, but her God, her salvation,
her righteousness before God, her inheritance in heaven doesn't
change. One day old Jonah, you remember
famous Jonah. I remember when I was growing up,
They were still debating over whether or not he was a fish
or a whale, whatever the difference is. He was big enough that when
Jonah was cast overboard, he swallowed him. And in that picture
of death, the fish took him all the way to the bottom of the
sea. And when the time came that old Jonah is brought to confess,
Salvation is of the Lord. The fish spit him out on dry
ground. Salvation is of the Lord. It is all by His grace and it
is all in Christ. May the Lord be pleased to cause
us to see His salvation. Father, we give You thanks and
praise this day for that grace that is in the Lord Jesus Christ,
calls us to know the reality of your salvation, that we might,
in Christ, give to you all the glory. Save your people from
their sins. Help us to grow in the grace
and knowledge of Christ. For we ask it in His name. Amen.