Purity in Worship

Well, Amen. Let's open our copies of God's Word again. First Samuel chapter 1, verses 24, and we'll go through chapter 2, verse 10. So quite a lengthy passage tonight, but I think you'll see that it's useful in helping us understand more about purity and worship. As we look this morning at what impurity and worship looks like, let's look tonight at an example of purity and worship. First Samuel chapter 1, verse 24. And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flower, and a skin of wine. She brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh, and the child was young.

Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli. And she said, "Oh, my Lord, as you live, my Lord, I am the woman who is standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord for this child I prayed. And the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him. Therefore, I have lent him to the Lord as long as he lives, he has lent to the Lord." And he worshiped the Lord there. And moving into chapter 2. And Hannah prayed and said, "My heart exalts in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies. Because I rejoice in your salvation. There is none holy like the Lord, for there is none besides you.

There is no rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly. Let no arrogance come from your mouth. For the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who are hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life, he brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and he exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust.

He lifts the needy from the ash heat to make them sit with princes and inherit the seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he has set the world. He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness. For not by might shall a man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Against them he will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. Then Elkanah went to Rama and the boy was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli the priest. Let's pray.

Father we come before you, I come humbly, Lord as your servant. God again asking you that you might exalt yourself in this word in spite of the messenger. Lord I pray Father that you might teach us as this people gathers at the Ollabevish Church that we would be individuals who are pure. Lord not just relying on imputed holiness as a license to sin, but God that we might have a holiness that is imparted that you bless us with. Lord that we strive towards purity as we come together to worship, as we come together to sing, as we come to sit under the word. We bless you. In your holy name we pray. Amen.

Well, as I've already introduced this text, we're going to look at three main truths tonight in looking at purity in worship. So purity in worship, we will see the first main truth, sacrificial worship. Sacrificial worship is first main truth. The second main truth that we'll look at is a magnificent. We'll see a sacrificial worship. We'll see a magnificent song and we'll look at a magnificent example. Three main truths tonight. Let's begin. The first thing that I want us to look at is a costly, a costly burnt offering.

So if we look at sacrificial worship, I believe that it would be important for us to pursue not just the negative side of an issue. It was some years back that we were at Gourdays and we were preparing and we were getting together and we had realized that, you know, it's sometimes easy to look at the negative side of an issue, what Christians don't do, what Christians don't believe, what we don't practice. And every time we do have negative sides of truth, we did look at impurity worship. I think it's also important to look at the positive side, that we might have an example that's why my heart was drawn towards Hannah.

And her worship along with Elkanah was sacrificial. There's a few reasons for this. I want us to look at a costly burnt offering. Let's look in verse four. And when she weaned him, she took him up with her along with a three year old bull, an ephah, a flower and a skin of wine. She brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. Now when the boy Samuel was weaned, tradition tells us in most customs that a baby would be completely weaned by the age of three. So Samuel is two or he's three years of age when Elkanah and Hannah bring him up to Shiloh.

Now if you know the background of the story, we made reference to that this morning that Hannah had a rival wife who made her life quite difficult. And we'll look at that a little bit more. But this was the first element of sacrificial worship was a costly burnt offering. Let's take a look at why it was so costly. Now in verse four it says that after he was weaned, they went up to Shiloh with a three year old bull and an ephah, a flower and a skin of wine. Let's talk about this for a short time. Now there's some controversy. The original language actually can be interpreted in one of two ways.

Either it was one three year old bull, which would be significant, or it was three separate one year old bulls. So the reason why that's important is because each of them would indicate something that I think is important. So if, let's take for instance, that this was a three separate one year old bulls, there's some evidence to suggest this. The ephah of meal and a skin of wine might support this. So Numbers 2812 for instance instructed Hebrews to have three tenths of an ephah of grain for every bull. So if you would look at this you would see it's possible at three separate bulls because there's enough grain offering to accompany me.

So this tells you number one that they're following the rules. They're following the guidelines set about in scripture. Finally, the other option, what if this is a three year old bull? This is significant because a three year old bull would be a lot wealthier. So one three year old bull would have cost quite a lot of money. In either case, D.A. Carson points out, Elkanah is wealthy by this offering. If somebody, excuse me, so if somebody was poor then you would have a goat. If somebody was poor you might have a ram or whatever you might afford. But Elkanah is very wealthy. So what that indicates is that this is a costly, costly offering.

Four families were expected to bring the oldest, the first born, and a worthy sacrifice. So what does this tell us? If we're going to have purity of worship we can't expect that it not cost us anything. Not just talking about monetary gifts, but even the song portion. I remember growing up and there was a debate about worship music and I remember we kids we preferred the easy songs, the simplistic songs, songs we understand and we sort of moved away from songs that were a little more lyrically complex, more theological.

One thing that might call us to this is a worship song or a sermon that's complicated doesn't necessarily mean it's not good. It might just mean that worship may cost us. We might actually have to, if we don't really get something, if it doesn't come easy to us, we might have to jot that note down. We might have to go back and revisit that song. We might actually have to work. One thing we see about Elkanah is he puts forth a lot of effort. He's obedient to be Shiloh. He's obedient to take the bull as prescribed by the law. Bull was costly for saints should not be cheap for us.

But this was not just costly in terms of a burnt offering and a monetary value. It was also a costly faith offering. This caused them their son. If you look at verse 24, when she had weaned him, she took him up with her. Then they slaughtered the bull. They brought the child to Eli and she said, "Oh my Lord, as you live, I am the woman who is standing here in your presence praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed and the Lord has granted." Hannah and Elkanah both had a tremendous sacrifice of their firstborn son. So this required a great deal of faith. They had faith to sacrifice greatly.

If we take a look at this, we think she gave her son away. The tremendous amount of difficulty. But we look at Abraham offering up Isaac on the altar, the father God offering his son. Again worship is costly. But they do this in faith. Born Wiersby said that Elkanah and Hannah had a divided home. Hannah's rival, Panina, chastised her, made fun of her, derided her simply because she was unable to conceive a child. Not only did she have a divided home, she had a devout prayer. So this barren womb of Hannah's moved her to intense prayer. So she's earnestly, she's intently praying.

And she gets to the point where she says, "God, if you grant me a child, specifically a son, I will give him to you as a Nazarite." A Nazarite was a special vow. People took as a Nazarite vow they would not cut portions of their hair. They would not drink any wine. They would oftentimes live in remote places. So she gives a tremendous sacrifice. But also not only a divided home and a devout prayer and this distinguished son, but she had a devoted husband. We don't hear a lot about Elkanah.

But if you look, in verse 23, we actually back into chapter one, "For she said to her husband, 'As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him so that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and dwell there forever.' Elkanah her husband said to her, 'Do what seems best to you. Wait until you have weaned him. Only may the Lord establish his word.'" And in this culture, a woman could never make this kind of vow without the blessing of her husband because it was Elkanah's son. Now he had other children, but this was his firstborn of the woman that he loved.

So if you will, the first sign of his strength and the first sign of his beloved relationship with Hannah. So it's clear that Elkanah was devoted to God and devoted to Hannah. Now we've been talking through First Samuel and these passages in scripture. And as I was teaching on Hannah's obedience, passing, giving her son to the Lord, one youth heard this and said, "That sounds sad.

It sounds sad that Hannah had spent so many years really being made fun of, being bullied, only to finally get the blessing of a child and to turn him over to the Lord." She wouldn't get to see those milestones of the child growing up in the fifth year and the sixth year and not as many photos for the Instagram and the Facebook pages. But there is no way that you would have convinced that of Hannah that she was actually getting the bad end of this deal. This was not the kind of costly vow that really made her heart sad.

If you think about this, when people love God and when we have pure worship, those costly sacrifices that we give are really not an effort. If we go out of our way to bless someone from the church, spend time to go see them when they are sick, or if we make an effort to make something kind for someone maybe going through a hard time, those are offerings to the Lord. And the closer we get to Jesus, since Jesus' heart is to sacrifice, the closer we get to Jesus the more our heart is to sacrifice. And the more our heart becomes attuned with Christ. I have to believe this was not a sad thing. This was a victorious, joyful thing.

It would have been easier for Hannah to maybe have a pity party. "Well, I guess I told you I would do it, so I guess." The Scripture tells us to give not begrudgingly. Hannah and Elkanah not only had faith to offer their son, but they had faith to entrust Samuel to God. Now think about what we learned this morning in verse 28, chapter 1. She says, "Therefore I have lent him to the Lord as long as he lives." As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord.

Would any of you want to give your children to a boarding school where the president and the vice president of this boarding school were sexual offenders and were religious hypocrites and were greedy and selfish? Obviously not. But that's exactly what Hannah and Elkanah did. You can't say maybe they didn't know about Haphni and Phineas. Scripture tells us everybody knew about Haphni and Phineas. If you read that in verse 15 or chapter 2, it says that Eli was getting this report from all of Israel. So the point that I'm making is Hannah and Elkanah weren't handing this child over to Eli and not to Haphni and to Phineas.

They were giving the child to God. And one of the signs of our worship to the Lord is that we can entrust our gifts to Him. Whether it's a gift of a song that's on your heart as you sing it or it's a monetary sacrificial gift, a pure sacrifice that's costly to us, we can entrust it to Him. So the second main truth we're going to look at tonight is a magnificent song. After we get into chapter 2, we see Hannah begin a song. Now it might say, it says there in the text, "And Hannah prayed." But many commentators compare this more to a song.

So for instance, the first main truth that I want to give you to illustrate this is that Hannah is in great company. As Hannah breaks into this great song, 10 verses, she's magnifying God, she's in great company. Scholars actually compare her to Mary. In fact, Mary in chapter 1 of Luke 46 through 45, she gives the famous Magnificat. And Hannah's prayer is actually referred to as the Magnificat as well. So the Magnificat of Hannah is one that intensely magnifies God. So along with Mary, she is magnifying God. But she's not only compared to Mary by biblical scholars. Hannah's prayer is also compared to that of David in Samuel chapter 22.

And you can't forget about Jesus. Jesus takes the disciples. He's about to go to the cross. He goes into the garden of Gethsemane. And they stop and they pray and they sing a song. You can't forget about Paul and Silas. They sing hymns to the Lord after they had been humiliated and beaten in Acts 16, verse 20. In Acts 41, Peter departed from the presence of the council. They were rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame. So one thing I think we can take from this, from Hannah, is that at her greatest moment of sacrifice, she has the greatest song and she's in great company.

And when we sing, maybe coming on the heels of a triumph or a tragedy, we can know that the greatest saints always sing. Hannah was not just in great company, she's also in great joy. She could have perhaps gotten sad or downcast. But let's look at her prayer as we look at verse one. She says, "My heart exalts in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation." Now what does this mean? My heart exalts. That word exalts. Other translations would say rejoices.

Before we are tempted to think that Hannah is actually in a bad state or a sad place, she is saying in prayer, "My heart rejoices." Now think about the sacrifice that takes to give it all, to give a very costly sacrifice to God and to be totally overjoyed, to rejoice. My heart rejoices in the Lord. She also said, "My horn is exalted." Now what does that mean? My horn is exalted. An animal's horn is its source of prominence or strength. And so when Hannah says, "My horn is exalted," D.A. Carson notes, that this means God has given her strength. You think about all the times when Hannah felt weak.

Think back when she was getting bullied, when she was getting ridiculed, when she was getting made fun of, when she went year after year to Shiloh weeping. And all of a sudden she has strength. I guess I just wanted to step aside from my message just for a second. We have a lot of people who come to us from time to time that are weak. Just as I was meditating on this passage before I preached it, this wasn't in my original quotes, but I came across verse 8, if you want to fast forward here to chapter 2 verse 8. It says, "He raises up the poor from the dust.

He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor." As my heart just meditated on this, it just became apparent that we have individuals who are very weak who come to us. In fact, we have people who are right in the middle of the ash heap. And sometimes these individuals may not really look like they have a problem or they may not look weak. I think it's safe to say that in any group of people there is somebody who feels a whole lot weaker than what people might see them to be. Other people may see them as leaders, other people may see them as successful.

But you know, we have a greater awareness of the places in our lives that are weak. If you think hard enough, you could probably remember a time when you were in the ash heap of despair or guilt or sadness or fear or any number of things. And Hannah is coming out of that season. She gives her son to the Lord at Shiloh to live there. And she begins this joyous song and says, "The Lord has lifted me up out of the ash heap." Now some of the people that we might come into contact with at church may still be in the ash heap. They may not be able to see themselves in any other place.

And you can say, you know, you can read this passage in 2 Samuel chapter 2 verse 8 that says, "The Lord lifts up the person who is in the ash heap." And they may say, "That sounds great and I believe that, but I'm having a hard time feeling that way." There is a discipline to praising God even when we are in the ash heap. When you are that individual, whether people see it or not, you may have a tremendous weakness. There is almost a discipline. Sometimes we have to worship God when we are overjoyed and other times we must have to praise the Lord when we are dependent on Him. So Hannah's heart exalted.

Her horn was exalted and her mouth derided her enemies. She had great joy. For years, Panina ridiculed her and I can think of what passages Hannah might have thought about. "Vengeance is my, saith the Lord." It would have been probably a temptation for her to just give Panina a piece of her mind. She just sat back and she prayed and she brought this to the Lord. The Lord lifted her up. And listen to her song. She says in verse 1, "My horn is exalted, my mouth derides, my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation." Hannah was not just in great company and in great joy, but she was in great praise. In verse 2, she speaks of God's holiness.

In verse 3, she speaks of man's humility. Look at this in verse 3. It says, "Talk no more so very proudly. Let no arrogance come from your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed." When we come to sing and when we come to worship the Lord, we ought to be more consumed with God's greatness. And as that happens, as Brother Chris expounds the word, as we sing songs that are rich, hymns that are rich, our eyes, it's our prayer, that our eyes would be open to God's holiness. This would be a great prayer for you to maybe write out, put on an index card.

There are so many things that Hannah really understood about prayer and pure worship. She sees God's holiness, she sees man's humility or his lack of power. She sees God as omniscient or all-knowing in verse 3. Look it says, "For the Lord is a God of knowledge." And she sees Him as a righteous judge at the end of verse 3. "For God, the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed." The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. So the more Hannah is overjoyed with the Lord, she starts to see God as He is. So Hannah's in great company, in great joy, in great praise, but she's also in great vindication.

She is extremely vindicated. She goes on to say in this prayer that the strong are now weak, the hungry are fed. This is not an accident. She says in verse 5, "The barren woman has seven children, and the one with many sons wastes away." There's probably an ounce of prophecy there, because Panina was not fueled by the Spirit. She was fueled by the flesh. And probably she had some jealousy. We see this in Scripture and other cases, but God never blessed polygamy. When you see men with more than one wife, He typically has one that He prefers. The others gets jealous and compensates with being blessed of the womb and uses that as leverage.

You see this time and time again. So I gotta think that as Hannah was blessed, Scripture says she went on to have more children. She was vindicated. Not that she became haughty, but God won the victory for her. So Hannah's in great company, in great joy, in great praise, in great vindication, but she's also in great awe. If we move on to verse 7, she sees that God is sovereign. Let's read this in verse 7, "The Lord makes poor, and He makes rich." So the Lord is sovereign over princes and paupers. In verse 8, we see God is sovereign over creation. Look, she says, "He raises up the poor from the dust.

He lifts the needy out of the ash heap to make them sit with princes. We continue, "For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them He has set the world." So she sees that the God who opened her womb is the God of creation. Look in verse 9, she sees God as sovereign over His saints. He will guard the feet of His faithful ones. But the Lord is also sovereign over unrepentant sinners. It says, "The wicked shall be cut off in darkness, for not by might shall a man prevail." Scholars call the last verse of her prayer prophetic. Matthew Henry notes that verse 10 speaks of the coming Messiah. Let's read verse 10.

"The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Against them He will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to His King and exalt the horn of His anointed." The Old Testament, this speaks to David. In the church age, this speaks to Christ. So we not only have a costly sacrificial worship, we see a magnificent song, and finally a magnificent example of the last main truth. Hannah gives us a great example of purity and worship because it's, first, it's God-centered. It's God-centered. faithful worship cannot center on man's needs.

John MacArthur says that, you know, God is zealous for His own glory, and we have been redeemed so that we might pursue His own glory. He has to be the center of our worship. So therefore we should be consumed with a desire to glorify and exalt Him. But Hannah's worship is not only God-centered, it's also Bible-saturated. One of the primary ways, again, John MacArthur, that a church exalts God is through worship and praise. When the church gathers, worship ought to be the ultimate priority. Now what of our emotion?

I just got done saying that Hannah was filled with joy, and I said this morning that as we meditate on the Lord and His excellencies every day of the week, we ought to be filled with joy when we sing on Sunday morning. We ought to be filled with the work that God has done in our lives. Let's listen to what MacArthur says. Worship may be passionate, but it also must be grounded in truth. Specifically, corporate worship in music must submit to the preaching of God's Word. Many in churches today confuse emotionalism for genuine worship, but emotional experiences that are not governed by theological truth are unbiblical.

So this example for us is God-centered and Bible-saturated, but it is also very grateful. One scholar compared Hannah's victorious prayer with nine of the ten leprous individuals who were healed in Luke 1717. You remember this story? Ten lepers came to Jesus to be healed. He healed them all, and nine went away. And one returned, being overjoyed with the reality that He had been healed. The others seemingly forget it, forgotten of all that God has done. And Hannah represents this picture of that one healed individual who came back. And Hannah also represents each and every one of us as leprous with our sin.

As we are forgiven, we return every Sunday morning. We return Sunday evening. We return Wednesdays. We return throughout the week simply to become overjoyed with God's greatness. Today in the church age, we should gather as one voice. When singing, we should be a collection of singers who have been healed. We're simply returning to the presence of Jesus. Personally, I am in awe of this passage of Scripture. The times that have been the hardest for me, seasons of difficulty, have oftentimes produced the strongest time of praise. Have you ever had a trial the Lord brought you through, and the trial produced the song?

And if we're not careful, after the trial and after the song, we can lose the majesty, we can lose the wonder. In time, our hearts can grow cold again. But we know that Hannah was reminded every year. Every year she offered Samuel up again in her heart. How do we know that? Because every year, Scripture tells us, she stitched together a linen ephod. That was the robe of a priest. She made this little ephod for her son. And every year, going back to Shiloh, she'd see him once a year. In time, she would have other children. She'd bring them along. Samuel, you got another brother. Samuel, the Lord blessed us with another brother.

Samuel, we're pregnant again. And every year, she would bring him an ephod as he grew. So she first brought him, when he was three, a four-year-old ephod. The next year, a five-year-old ephod. The next year, a six-year. And I have to believe, every single year, when she completed that priestly garment for her son to wear, she was not thinking about how hard it was to give her son. She was thinking about how good God was. Because the victory was not just that she had a son. The victory was that God had answered her prayer. The real victory is not that he brings us through trial. The real victory is that he gives us himself.

And the beauty of worship, if I have one challenge for you, I guess we could preach the whole message to say this. Let's strive to have that heart that is freshly overjoyed with the Lord. Just the way it was that day when we had that victory, that victory moment. We had been in crisis. We had been in trial. We had been in defeat and difficulty. And we broke through. God answered our prayer. He came to us. He spoke to us. We sang overjoyed. What would it be like if every Sunday each of us came and we sang as people who had just had that Hannah moment? If we just had, we just discovered some of the Lord's excellencies.

All week we've been meditating on his holiness, on his sovereignty, on his sovereignty over our circumstances, on his greatness, on our humility, on the cross, on the majesty of the gospel. That's the challenge tonight. It's been my pleasure to preach the word. I pray that God would continue to give us a heart of Hannah, the heart to worship, the heart to be overjoyed. And sometimes it's hard because sometimes we, if we're honest, we're not meditating on his excellencies enough. We're not in the word enough. And so Sunday morning we may be flat spiritually.

It may take the song service to sort of knock the dust off, but I guess my challenge to you is what if we knock the dust off before we sing? It really, and I say this a lot, it really takes more than just a minute of silent prayer to be prepared for worship. If we're going to be prepared to sing, it really takes an entire week. If you think of this song that Hannah penned, 10 verses, took her years of heartache and tragedy. That prayer, that song took her years. Let's pray that the Lord would do this work in us. Let's pray.

Father, we do pray that we might have a heart like Hannah's, a heart that is all too aware of our own weaknesses and failures and shortcomings.