This week’s sermon is from an outline by Evangelist Bob Elliott.
Text: Titus 2: 11-14
Ephesians 2: 8-10
INTRODUCTION:
You tell me. How could a little song written in 1779, a hymn, no less, become one of the best selling songs on the planet 230 years later? That is exactly what has happened.
230 years have passed now, since John Newton wrote Amazing Grace. We can be reasonably certain that Newton had no idea when he wrote it that "Amazing Grace" would become arguably the best loved of all Christian hymns.
There was surely no way he could have imagined that his song would one day become the number one selling record in the whole world, or that it would become the favorite hymn of all Christendom; that it would grace the pages of virtually every hymnal ever published, and be recorded by more recording artists than any other song ever written.
John Newton, the song’s composer, was the converted captain of a British slave ship, a man who had traded human cargo in West Africa. The words of the first verse depict Newton's religious pilgrimage away from the slave business and eventually into the Anglican ministry.
"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now am found; was blind but now I see."
In his journal, Mr. Newton wrote, "I once was active in a business at which my heart now shudders. A common drunkard or profligate is but a petty sinner when compared to what I was…Oh, to grace how great a debtor."
That diary became a prime source of information about the slave trade and was used in the abolitionist movement in both England and America.
This man who once dealt in the slave trade became an ally of William Wilberforce in the movement to abolish slavery. And, in fact, slavery was officially abolished in England in 1807, on the very day that John Newton died.
However, as regards its use outside the church, I associate it with a little singer by the name of Judy Collins, who popularized the song thirty years ago with her recording of it becoming the number one selling record in the world.
She said, "It was always the song that gave me an inner experience of another dimension."
And that is the essence of the grace about which the song was written. What seems sad to me is that many people who sit in a movie theatre and hear the song being sung in a little church or at a funeral service have no idea what the song is about. They don't understand that this is a song about a gift from God which has been given to people who could never deserve it.
What is so amazing about the grace this song reflects? How could a song about an attribute of God be so popular? And isn't it ironic that in spite of its popularity, many who love the song do not know anything about the grace about which the song is written.
God's grace is truly amazing. Do you know what is so amazing about it?
I. IT IS AMAZING GOD COULD HATE SIN WITHOUT HATING THE SINNER
Grace is that attribute of God that enables him to hate sin without hating the sinner. Or, to put it another way, God can love us and not love our sin. That is a kind of love about which most of us are not capable, but it is the very nature of God.
The Bible tells us, "Even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." That’s what grace is all about. God looked at us, saw how dirty sin had made us, but decided to love us anyhow. It would have been awful if God had determined He would not love us enough to send Jesus into the world until we got our lives all cleaned up.
It was grace, God's grace, that caused Him to send us a Savior. He sent a sinless man into a sinful world because of His compassionate grace. God saw our need and sent His Son to be our Savior. In fact, it was because we were lost that he sent us Jesus. He said, "I came to seek and to save those who are lost."
Only grace could cause God to do such a thing.
There are many people who think they have to get better before they can be saved. This is not so. As a matter of fact, there is no way we could ever get good enough to deserve to have Jesus die for us. He came because of our desperate condition, for God knew that only by the shedding of His Son's blood could we be justified for His kingdom.
Isn't that amazing?
It is amazing that God is the only One who loved us enough to send His Son to die for us. Another preacher made that statement once and a man came to him after the service to say he took issue with that. He said, "Pastor, I take exception to your statement that God was the only One Who loved us enough to send His Son to die for us. I sent a son to war in Europe and he died, giving his life to defeat Hitler's army. He gave his life for his country."
The preacher looked sympathetically into the man's eyes and asked, "Yes, but would he have died for Hitler? Jesus did." Jesus died for the sins of all people. Every person must acknowledge that for himself, accept that truth, Jesus died for me.
I am the extremity of God's love. Jesus died for me.
It is amazing that God could love sinners, and hate their sin. I'll tell you what else is amazing.
II. IT IS AMAZING HOW JESUS DIED ON THE CROSS TO EXPRESS GOD'S LOVE FOR ME
The cross is perhaps the most recognizable symbol in the world today. When you see a cross only one thing comes to mind. Death. But, not jus any death. Though the cross symbolizes death, it does so because of the death of Jesus. Many people died on a cross, but we remember only one, the man Christ Jesus. Anywhere you travel in the world, the cross is the symbol of the crucifixion of Jesus.
You may see crosses worn as jewelry, erected atop church steeples, hanging on hospital walls ….everywhere. And, maybe that has become a problem.
Is it possible for the cross to become so commonplace that we lose the significance of it? Is it possible for the proliferation of crosses to become like some political sign someone forgot to pick up…where we simply pass by without even seeing it?
What a tragedy it would be if we ever forgot the meaning of the cross. The idea that Jesus died on a cross for our sins is one of the great facts of human history, but many people seem to have either forgotten it or relegated it to insignificance.
The cross means everything to us. It is the greatest expression of love man has ever seen. It is the symbol of an act so spectacularly unselfish that it is almost incomprehensible. Jesus willingly gave up His life on that cross.
A preacher's little boy came home from Sunday School one day, crawled up in his daddy's lap and asked, "Daddy, did Jesus get all messed up for us?" That is exactly what happened. To express God's love for us, Jesus willingly got all messed up. The Bible says, "He who knew no sin became sin for us."
It was for me he died on the cross. For me. Isn't that amazing?
For ME it was in the garden He prayed 'Not my will, but thine. He had no tears for His own grief, but sweat drops of blood for mine."
Let me tell you something. That is absolutely amazing. I'll tell you what else is amazing.
III. IT'S AMAZING HOW LIVES ARE TRANSFORMED BY TRUSTING JESUS
Some time ago was watching a TV show where a doctor was being interviewed about his confession that he had become a drug addict. I was interested in his testimony because I heard him mention a name I recognized, the name of another doctor with whom I had been in college. He was testifying that this doctor had helped him get off drugs.
As he recounted his journey into drugs he admitted that he had tried everything to get off them. Then he said, a doctor friend (the one whose name I recognized) had introduced him to Jesus. He said, "The only thing that ever helped me was accepting Christ as my Savior."
Now, I know there are lots of people who come to Jesus who never used drugs. However, many of us can testify to the fact that our addiction to sin was overpowering, and the only release we ever found was in coming to Jesus.
When I was pastor in San Antonio I led a man to the Lord who was a drill instructor at Lackland Air Force Base. A few days after his decision he came to me and told me he had applied for a transfer from the drill line to a classroom. When I asked why he told me, "Since the Lord saved me I no longer have the vocabulary to deal with those recruits."
Something similar to that happened in the great Welsh Revival of the last century. Newspaper accounts relate how the mines around Lochorn were actually shut down during that revival. The article said the shut-down had nothing to do with strikes. It said so many miners had come to Christ during the revival they could no longer talk to the mules pulling the wagons they way they once had, and the mules didn't know what to do.
The power of Jesus Christ to transform lives is amazing. Finally, let me tell you what else is amazing.
IV. IT IS AMAZING HOW MUCH ABOUT GOD AND THE BIBLE I WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND
Salvation is so simple. All it takes is a childlike faith. I don't understand how anything so wonderful can be so easily obtained. It doesn't require great intellect. It doesn't require great wealth or fabulous beauty, great strength or anything else. All it requires is trusting in Jesus.
It is amazing that it is so simple. I do not have to know all about God, the Bible, Jesus, heaven, or the millennium. All I have to know is that Jesus died for me, and I trust Him to keep me for eternity.
I'll never understand how it can be forever. But, it is. I cannot explain eternity, but I know that is how long I will be saved.
I'll never understand how I can be happier by giving away my happiness. I'll never understand how the more I give away the more I have. The more I die to self and fleshly appetites, the more I abundantly I will live.
That is amazing.
I'll never understand how I will live forever with my Lord and all those friends and loved ones who have trusted Jesus. I don't understand it, but I know it is true.
When with the ransomed in Glory, His face I at last shall see. 'Twill be my joy through the ages to sing of his love for me.
It is amazing how much I will never understand. But, God's amazing grace does not require my understanding of all things spiritual; only that I believe, have faith. He does everything else.
CONCLUSION:
Yes, folks. That is what old John Newton was writing about when he penned the words of Amazing Grace. He was writing about me, about how God loves me, and about how God made it possible for me to be saved.
Text: Titus 2: 11-14
Ephesians 2: 8-10
INTRODUCTION:
You tell me. How could a little song written in 1779, a hymn, no less, become one of the best selling songs on the planet 230 years later? That is exactly what has happened.
230 years have passed now, since John Newton wrote Amazing Grace. We can be reasonably certain that Newton had no idea when he wrote it that "Amazing Grace" would become arguably the best loved of all Christian hymns.
There was surely no way he could have imagined that his song would one day become the number one selling record in the whole world, or that it would become the favorite hymn of all Christendom; that it would grace the pages of virtually every hymnal ever published, and be recorded by more recording artists than any other song ever written.
John Newton, the song’s composer, was the converted captain of a British slave ship, a man who had traded human cargo in West Africa. The words of the first verse depict Newton's religious pilgrimage away from the slave business and eventually into the Anglican ministry.
"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now am found; was blind but now I see."
In his journal, Mr. Newton wrote, "I once was active in a business at which my heart now shudders. A common drunkard or profligate is but a petty sinner when compared to what I was…Oh, to grace how great a debtor."
That diary became a prime source of information about the slave trade and was used in the abolitionist movement in both England and America.
This man who once dealt in the slave trade became an ally of William Wilberforce in the movement to abolish slavery. And, in fact, slavery was officially abolished in England in 1807, on the very day that John Newton died.
However, as regards its use outside the church, I associate it with a little singer by the name of Judy Collins, who popularized the song thirty years ago with her recording of it becoming the number one selling record in the world.
She said, "It was always the song that gave me an inner experience of another dimension."
And that is the essence of the grace about which the song was written. What seems sad to me is that many people who sit in a movie theatre and hear the song being sung in a little church or at a funeral service have no idea what the song is about. They don't understand that this is a song about a gift from God which has been given to people who could never deserve it.
What is so amazing about the grace this song reflects? How could a song about an attribute of God be so popular? And isn't it ironic that in spite of its popularity, many who love the song do not know anything about the grace about which the song is written.
God's grace is truly amazing. Do you know what is so amazing about it?
I. IT IS AMAZING GOD COULD HATE SIN WITHOUT HATING THE SINNER
Grace is that attribute of God that enables him to hate sin without hating the sinner. Or, to put it another way, God can love us and not love our sin. That is a kind of love about which most of us are not capable, but it is the very nature of God.
The Bible tells us, "Even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." That’s what grace is all about. God looked at us, saw how dirty sin had made us, but decided to love us anyhow. It would have been awful if God had determined He would not love us enough to send Jesus into the world until we got our lives all cleaned up.
It was grace, God's grace, that caused Him to send us a Savior. He sent a sinless man into a sinful world because of His compassionate grace. God saw our need and sent His Son to be our Savior. In fact, it was because we were lost that he sent us Jesus. He said, "I came to seek and to save those who are lost."
Only grace could cause God to do such a thing.
There are many people who think they have to get better before they can be saved. This is not so. As a matter of fact, there is no way we could ever get good enough to deserve to have Jesus die for us. He came because of our desperate condition, for God knew that only by the shedding of His Son's blood could we be justified for His kingdom.
Isn't that amazing?
It is amazing that God is the only One who loved us enough to send His Son to die for us. Another preacher made that statement once and a man came to him after the service to say he took issue with that. He said, "Pastor, I take exception to your statement that God was the only One Who loved us enough to send His Son to die for us. I sent a son to war in Europe and he died, giving his life to defeat Hitler's army. He gave his life for his country."
The preacher looked sympathetically into the man's eyes and asked, "Yes, but would he have died for Hitler? Jesus did." Jesus died for the sins of all people. Every person must acknowledge that for himself, accept that truth, Jesus died for me.
I am the extremity of God's love. Jesus died for me.
It is amazing that God could love sinners, and hate their sin. I'll tell you what else is amazing.
II. IT IS AMAZING HOW JESUS DIED ON THE CROSS TO EXPRESS GOD'S LOVE FOR ME
The cross is perhaps the most recognizable symbol in the world today. When you see a cross only one thing comes to mind. Death. But, not jus any death. Though the cross symbolizes death, it does so because of the death of Jesus. Many people died on a cross, but we remember only one, the man Christ Jesus. Anywhere you travel in the world, the cross is the symbol of the crucifixion of Jesus.
You may see crosses worn as jewelry, erected atop church steeples, hanging on hospital walls ….everywhere. And, maybe that has become a problem.
Is it possible for the cross to become so commonplace that we lose the significance of it? Is it possible for the proliferation of crosses to become like some political sign someone forgot to pick up…where we simply pass by without even seeing it?
What a tragedy it would be if we ever forgot the meaning of the cross. The idea that Jesus died on a cross for our sins is one of the great facts of human history, but many people seem to have either forgotten it or relegated it to insignificance.
The cross means everything to us. It is the greatest expression of love man has ever seen. It is the symbol of an act so spectacularly unselfish that it is almost incomprehensible. Jesus willingly gave up His life on that cross.
A preacher's little boy came home from Sunday School one day, crawled up in his daddy's lap and asked, "Daddy, did Jesus get all messed up for us?" That is exactly what happened. To express God's love for us, Jesus willingly got all messed up. The Bible says, "He who knew no sin became sin for us."
It was for me he died on the cross. For me. Isn't that amazing?
For ME it was in the garden He prayed 'Not my will, but thine. He had no tears for His own grief, but sweat drops of blood for mine."
Let me tell you something. That is absolutely amazing. I'll tell you what else is amazing.
III. IT'S AMAZING HOW LIVES ARE TRANSFORMED BY TRUSTING JESUS
Some time ago was watching a TV show where a doctor was being interviewed about his confession that he had become a drug addict. I was interested in his testimony because I heard him mention a name I recognized, the name of another doctor with whom I had been in college. He was testifying that this doctor had helped him get off drugs.
As he recounted his journey into drugs he admitted that he had tried everything to get off them. Then he said, a doctor friend (the one whose name I recognized) had introduced him to Jesus. He said, "The only thing that ever helped me was accepting Christ as my Savior."
Now, I know there are lots of people who come to Jesus who never used drugs. However, many of us can testify to the fact that our addiction to sin was overpowering, and the only release we ever found was in coming to Jesus.
When I was pastor in San Antonio I led a man to the Lord who was a drill instructor at Lackland Air Force Base. A few days after his decision he came to me and told me he had applied for a transfer from the drill line to a classroom. When I asked why he told me, "Since the Lord saved me I no longer have the vocabulary to deal with those recruits."
Something similar to that happened in the great Welsh Revival of the last century. Newspaper accounts relate how the mines around Lochorn were actually shut down during that revival. The article said the shut-down had nothing to do with strikes. It said so many miners had come to Christ during the revival they could no longer talk to the mules pulling the wagons they way they once had, and the mules didn't know what to do.
The power of Jesus Christ to transform lives is amazing. Finally, let me tell you what else is amazing.
IV. IT IS AMAZING HOW MUCH ABOUT GOD AND THE BIBLE I WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND
Salvation is so simple. All it takes is a childlike faith. I don't understand how anything so wonderful can be so easily obtained. It doesn't require great intellect. It doesn't require great wealth or fabulous beauty, great strength or anything else. All it requires is trusting in Jesus.
It is amazing that it is so simple. I do not have to know all about God, the Bible, Jesus, heaven, or the millennium. All I have to know is that Jesus died for me, and I trust Him to keep me for eternity.
I'll never understand how it can be forever. But, it is. I cannot explain eternity, but I know that is how long I will be saved.
I'll never understand how I can be happier by giving away my happiness. I'll never understand how the more I give away the more I have. The more I die to self and fleshly appetites, the more I abundantly I will live.
That is amazing.
I'll never understand how I will live forever with my Lord and all those friends and loved ones who have trusted Jesus. I don't understand it, but I know it is true.
When with the ransomed in Glory, His face I at last shall see. 'Twill be my joy through the ages to sing of his love for me.
It is amazing how much I will never understand. But, God's amazing grace does not require my understanding of all things spiritual; only that I believe, have faith. He does everything else.
CONCLUSION:
Yes, folks. That is what old John Newton was writing about when he penned the words of Amazing Grace. He was writing about me, about how God loves me, and about how God made it possible for me to be saved.
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