This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “I Samuel 1-7” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, May 4, 1997.
We are reading this morning once more 1 Samuel 2, beginning with verse 1, reading through verse 11. 1 Samuel 2, beginning with verse 1. This is the Word of God. And Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord. My thorn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I rejoice in my salvation. There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like our God. Talk no more so exceeding proudly. Let not arrogancy come out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. They that were full have hired out themselves for bread, and they that were hungry cease so that the barren hath born seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.
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, he raiseth up the poor out of the dust. and lifted up the beggar from the dunghill to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and he has set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by strength shall no man prevail. 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 will give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.’
And Delcana went to Rema to his house, and the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest.” In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth. to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. and the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God.
And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.
Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren, for with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.”
Lord, help us in our prayers that we would be faithful in them, that we would be faithful in them Sabbath by Sabbath and day by day. And Lord, with our prayers, we turn to your word. asking that you may make us, yes, a people of prayer, but also that people of your word. May we give ourselves to your word, Sabbath by Sabbath and day by day. Father, as you then bless us in our days with prayer and with your word, May we be those who are faithful to you in what we say and in what we do. We ask our Lord that you will be mindful of the fellowship that we sustain one to another, that as we contemplate your word and as we offer up our prayers that we would have each other upon our hearts. Father, we ask that you will be merciful, therefore, to those for whom we have concern. Receive our praise, O God, for your blessing in the Gerges family, how you have ministered to them in these last few weeks. And our prayers are also offered, O Lord, for the Stater family and for their expectation that you would wonderfully bless them with a child that is healthy. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
A few years ago I preached a series that dealt with Paul’s letter to the Philippians, and during the course of that series it was as if I were working out the theme of that very important letter as I went along. As things developed I came to the conclusion that the theme to the epistle to the Philippians is this, the joy of giving yourself away. The joy of giving yourself away.
I think that you recognize that Philippians is that letter from Paul in which the word joy and other words connected to it are readily at hand, seem so prominent, seem to dominate what the apostle has to say. And how many Bible studies have we been through in the Epistle to the Philippians, how many sermons have we heard on that letter from Paul in which the leader to the Bible study, or the Bible study material, or the preacher has concentrated on that word, joy? But we must not allow that word to stand by itself. as if the Apostle were merely interested in effervescence, as if he were merely interested in getting us to be bubbly about our Christian confession and enthusiastic in our walk. So it is not joy standing alone, as if joy in itself were worthy of our attention. As the series developed on Philippians, it became apparent to me, and I hope to those who were a part of that series who heard it, that this joy had a particular context. What the Apostle was encouraging was the joy of giving yourself away. Now, once more, it’s not as if here we’ve merely filled out the word joy to make it a little more comprehensive a philosophy of life, to which we are all bound, to which we ought to be obliged.
For at the very center of what the apostle has to say, to the Philippians is what he says about Jesus Christ. Do I need remind you of the second chapter in Philippians, and that marvelous text from verse 5 through 11, where Paul takes up the matter of Christ’s joy? how he gives himself away, how he humbles himself being made in the form of a servant, even humbling himself to the point of death upon the cross. Jesus gives himself away. No, even more sublime, the Son of God gives himself away.
And therein is his joy. Now, it’s not as if the apostle here is asking for something from these Philippians that is not evident in himself, for in speaking about this joy that is found in giving oneself away, the Apostle is hard-pressed then to declare to these Philippians that he has been at work doing that very thing. He tells them in the seventeenth verse of that second chapter, even if I poured out of the drink offering upon the service of your love. I am willing to do that, and that is a joy to me.
The Apostle gives himself away. He has no life but this life which is extended. And you might even say extendable. in the interests of the gospel and for the sake of other people, why he will pass out of existence, that the existence of others may be confirmed and established.
Such then is the admonition and the encouragement that he gives to these Philippians. He tells them that he wants them to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who works in them, both to will and to accomplish His good pleasure. What do you think stands at the foundation of that particular imperative from the Apostle Work out your own salvation. How might it be that these Philippians will work out their salvation? Will it not be by them giving themselves away? Don’t allow yourselves to be miserable. If you are looking for the joy of this gospel faith, you cannot disassociate that joy from the expenditure of your very person.
There is then the constraint that comes upon the Philippians as they are then called upon by Paul to live out the citizenship that is theirs. they having been made to be citizens of heaven, the expression of that citizenship will be a life in which they give themselves away. The letter is written, however, because the Philippians need to be reminded of this. The letter is still in our Bibles because we need to be reminded of this. You need to read Philippians because you need to be reminded of this. in this reminder that we receive, there is the address to our wills, the call to our hearts, the appeal to our minds, that in all that we are, we might then give ourselves to this gospel identity and endeavor.
And recognizing that we are not perfect, there are the constraints of providence itself, where, in keeping with his appointments, we are driven to give ourselves away even though we don’t want to. He who has begun a good work in us will, in fact, perfect it unto the day of Christ’s coming. And he may have to drag you along the way. Well, what Paul has to say here is obviously not just pick out of the air.
He hasn’t made up this gospel which he proclaims to these Philippians. This gospel comes to him from and through Jesus Christ himself, and if we check out the gospel records, we find nothing different there than what we find from Paul in his writing to the Philippians.
This very message is faithful to what Jesus has to say. Do we miss it and still claim Christ? Do we hold on to Him and somehow our eyes are shut to this central truth, to the gospel that He proclaims? Jesus declares about Himself that the very heartbeat of the gospel which He declares is this giving of himself away. I didn’t come to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give my life a ransom for many. Now, what else is that but the giving up of oneself, or the giving away of oneself?
He calls upon those who believe in him, those who would claim to be disciples, those who would follow him, that they deny themselves, that they take up their cross, that they lose their life for his sake, that they might find it unto eternal life. And what is then laid out to constraint for the Philippians in Paul’s letter to them is also viewed as constraint within the gospel records concerning Christ himself. Is it not he who says in the garden, not my will, but thy will be done, as he faces the cross, the supreme act by which he would then pour out his life on behalf of others? And what about the disciples epitomized in Peter? Jesus makes it very plain to Peter after the resurrection, when you were young, you gird up yourself, you went where you wanted to go. When you’re old, someone else will gird you, and they will take you where you don’t want to go.
There will be, then, yes, that conformity for our wills where we agree with what God has declared in his gospel. Yes, we are concerned to be about the business of this gospel, even after the image and the likeness of Christ giving ourselves away as he gave himself away. that even here we will be constrained by providence and by circumstances that are beyond our control. We will be forced to it. Such is our identification with him in the gospel.
I don’t want to give myself away. If you have any questions about the mystery of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, here, my friends, is the unraveling. Do you think this church was Machen’s idea? Do you think it’s the product of thoughts in his brain and his cleverness in manipulating history to get it to turn out the way it did?
He did not want to go in this direction. He was pulled this way, and in the balance, he gave up his life. He was a rich man. His family owned an entire block in Baltimore. His family spoke French at the breakfast table. This man was money. He was privilege, and he lost it all. What about Hannah? What about this woman? Hannah, during the course of the story about her given to us by God, gives away her life, and this is her joy. She moves from bitterness, severe, extreme bitterness. She is in pain, and it is not just because of the attacks of Panaina upon her, Not just because of the attacks of her rival, it’s because she is bitter against God.
God’s the one that shut up her room! But in the world’s dealings with her, she will become a prime example of growing illustration of the workings of the gospel before the gospel is full-blown. You will see it all in her. It will take hold of her, and instead of having a heart that is agitated by extreme bitterness, she becomes the epitome of faith and trust and restful solace in God. Here is a woman who is free and at peace. First consumed by her bitterness, so much so that she wouldn’t eat, in fact, so much so that it seems as if she’s on a death track. so much concerned by the things and for the things of this life, her life, that she is actually forfeiting her life. But then, in the mercy of God, by His promptings, she entrusts herself to the Lord, and her countenance is no more sad. In losing her life, she finds it. You will note that at the point when her countenance is no more sad, she still has no child. But something remarkable has happened to her, and she is changed. It is important for you to consider the extent, the far-reaching character of that change, and that specifically in relationship to her self-sacrifice. I ask you to note once more her song. and the point that I have made about it previously.
She, in this song, loses herself to the interests of the kingdom. The kingdom is prominent. God’s workings are prominent. not just hope for a barren woman in Palestine, but hope for the world. Not just the reversal for her circumstance, but the reversal of the circumstances of the people of God, and that unto their glory and exaltation through that One whom God will exalt, namely His Anointed One. She loses herself to the interests of the kingdom of God and God’s glory, and the salvation which God will bring to His people. She is consumed by it. She is absorbed by it. It’s as if she no longer has any identity. She doesn’t express herself, except to express herself in these terms. Such is the obsession. the glorious and magnificent obsession.
And in this regard, we might then be taken back to the Apostle Paul. I’m often struck by the fact that, as we move through the Acts, we have these reported, these repeated accounts from Paul about his conversion experience, but then you move into the Epistles, and those accounts disappear. Instead, what you have set in front of you is the declaration from the Apostle that his very life has been absorbed into the life of his Savior. For me to live is Christ, he says. When Christ was crucified, I was crucified. When he was raised, I was raised. Here is my identity. I am lost in him.
But lest you don’t get the point, the Lord graciously supplies you verse 11. and I ask you to account for that 11th verse. The Hannah cycle is not completed in its first turn until you arrive at that 11th verse. But I ask you, where’s Hannah? She’s not there. She’s not there.
The first read. Then Elkanah went to his home at Raymond. But the boy ministered to the Lord. Before Eli the priest Hannah disappears She disappears in the interests of Elkanah and At that conclusion If we are not shocked we are outraged Has she not been the chief figure as we have moved through this narrative? And yet, when we come to the conclusion, she isn’t there.
Why? not in the interests of some sort of chauvinistic commitment on the part of Scripture and those who wrote it, but in the interests of a deeply religious and theological point. Just as Hannah loses her life, and yes, loses her life to her husband, So the church loses her life to her husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Hannah, then, we see more than the life of an individual woman. We see the life of the people of God. A life lost to the world but found in God and in his kingdom, devoted to the Lord’s anointed. Such a life finds its soul expressed in that woman Hannah foreshadowed.
Mary says to the angel of the Lord, Behold your handmaid. Be it unto me according to your word. Can you say that? I trust and hope that you can, and that because you can, you also know the joy of giving yourself away for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of your Lord. Our Father, we have been revived by your Spirit, made alive by your grace, that we might live in this life, O God, as those who know the joy of giving ourselves away, even as you have given yourself away in Christ your Son for us. We ask, Lord, that we might be moved by your word to take to heart this instruction, to embrace it more tightly. But also, Lord, as we see those circumstances due to your providence rising in our lives where we are faced with this, may we there also, O God, submit to your will Because, Lord, we are about the business of losing our lives in this world, that you might be glorified, that we might have life with you forever. We pray, Father, that you will grant us mercy in all of our endeavors, but also a spirit that is perceptive of your workings in us and with us, in keeping with your providential care. Through Jesus. Amen.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.