If you had a guess, would you
guess that I'm going to speak to you on grace today? I want to speak to you on the
theology of amazing grace. The theology of amazing grace. The Apostle Paul said, I am what
I am by the grace of God. You know why you're not in hell
as well as myself today? Because of the grace of God.
Unmerited favor. God's grace. In the Ephesian letter, the Apostle
Paul said that we have been predestinated unto the adoption of children
And the purpose for that predestination, that was according to the good
pleasure of his will, the purpose was to the praise of the glory
of his grace. You and I, as children of God,
have been predestinated to glorify his grace. That's your purpose. If God saved you, the chief end
of man is to glorify God. And this element, this God of
holiness is a God of grace. To the praise of the glory of
his grace. That's why we've been converted.
And the apostle said in the second chapter of Ephesians, that in
the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace. The truth is, when we've been
there 10,000 years, God is going to be revealing the riches of
his grace. We're a grace church here. We
talk about grace gospel. We talk about we are what we
are by the grace of God. We say that it's grace that puts
us in the way, takes us along the way, and takes us all the
way. We say it's all by grace. It's
all by God's unmerited favor. We've thought enough, done enough. Even this morning, were it not
for the grace of God, that we should die. So let's talk about
this song, Amazing Grace. Let's talk about God's grace
for just a few moments. Amazing Grace is a song the world
knows. Have you noted that? The world
knows Amazing Grace. And the world sings it sometimes
at a very awkward time and on very awkward occasions. I've
often wondered and been surprised in watching newscasts and demonstrations
and so many things where it just seemed odd that people would
break out in amazing grace, how sweet to sound. And I've often
turned to Ms. Pam and I said, God is so sneaky. He's going to get this message
of his grace out. This is the chief end of man
to glorify God and especially this characteristic of his amazing
grace. It's the most famous hymn of
all time. And it is one of the most famous
of songs of any type. This song, amazing grace. even if you've seldom gone to
church, and probably there are some of you here that have seldom
been in church, but you recognize the song and you know the song
that we've just finished singing, Amazing Grace. It's a global sensation, this
song. Amazing Grace has lasted over
200 years. I can tell you right now, Elvis
and Hound Dog will not. Michael Jackson beat it, nor
Lady Gaga's poker face will not. But Amazing Grace just keeps
on going. They tell me that Amazing Grace
has been recorded more than 6,600 times and may be the most recorded
song on the planet. It was written in 1779 and two
centuries later, it's a fixture across spiritual and secular
culture. It has been played at some of
the most somber gatherings. Memorial services following the
9-11 terrorist attack. Amazing Grace was played. the
Oklahoma City bombing, and the attack that killed 32 students
at Virginia Tech. Joan Baez sang it a lot in the
60s during the Vietnam protest. It really didn't make any sense.
Protesting against the Vietnam War and they're singing Amazing
Grace. Except God has determined that
His grace be first and foremost, and causes even the heathen to
sing. I wonder how many people, upon
hearing Amazing Grace, have been quickened and made alive by the
Spirit of God, even though it was not intended for that purpose. Yet in these events, in social
protest, civil protest, Amazing Grace is sung. Amazing Grace
has the gospel. It's there. It's all there. This
song contains the gospel of God's grace. Yet we hear it sung at
civil rights demonstrations just at such odd times. In fact, it
was performed in English and Chinese in Beijing during the
2008 Olympics by a children's choir. Don't you think these
things a bit odd? Unless there was some power behind
this song. Any of you see Alice's Restaurant,
the movie? Some of you did, some of you
are not old enough. What about Coal Miner's Daughter?
It was sung in both those films. Every instrument has been and
can be used to play Amazing Grace, from the bagpipes to the mandolin
pickers. I would say to you this morning
that there is not a tune that is more popular than this one. But let me say this, it is not
the tune It is not the music itself that has made it so because
it has been sung to multiple tunes. I don't know whether you
knew that. Borrowed from other songs, which
have been long forgotten. So what I'm saying is, it's not
just the tune that has made it popular. then what is it that
has preserved this what I call the national anthem of Christianity? What is it that has preserved
this song of the Christian faith? I would propose to you that it
has been the very providence of God that goes in front of
the gospel Causing it to triumph and giving it preeminence Even
in the dark places of religion where the gospel of his grace
is not heard Say well, what do you mean by that pastor? I mean
this I have heard in church services where the priest or the pastor
was emphasizing the importance of people being baptized to be
saved emphasizing You know another another gospel That's all right,
I can be louder than that. The devil doesn't want me to
talk about amazing grace today. But it'll take more than a child
to hold me down on this subject. Amazing grace. They've been teaching,
I mean they're teaching the most erroneous doctrine. A doctrine
that has nothing to do with the gospel. Baptismal regeneration
or how the memorial supper, how the wine and the bread actually
becomes the blood and body of Christ. Which is not true at
all. And then right in the middle
of that hideous ceremony, they will sing amazing grace. How
sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. And I think, oh, God
nailed it again. Right there in the darkest place
where error was being preached and taught. I know God does that. How often and how many times
have I reminded you of our success here? I want to tell you this. We don't have the greatest organizational
deal here, system at this church. But one thing I'm telling you,
we have been successful, and I want to tell you why. It's
because we refuse to remove ourselves from this doctrine of God's amazing
grace. We have room to do so much more,
and we need to do so much more. We need divorce recovery. We
need maybe drug recovery. We need to have youth meetings. And there's so many things we
need to do. But I'll tell you, if you had all of those and didn't
pound this message of God's amazing grace, the hand of God would
be withdrawn from this place. We have been so successful in
people giving us hundreds, let me put it even different, millions
of dollars. And sometimes it's people who
don't even know the Lord. But God in his marvelous providence
continues to bless the message of the gospel of God's grace. We preach, teach, and sound out
this message to the glory of God. Amazing grace. Now let's
dissect the song. Simple message today. Amazing
grace. You know why they call it that?
Because God's grace is amazing. And really, you don't have to
have, you know, you don't have to be a theologian to figure
this out. The title tells you it's amazing. Well, what makes it amazing?
Well, there's all kinds of things that make it amazing, like this,
that God, the great creator, became flesh and tabernacled
among us, not to spy out our sins, but to save us from our
sins, to show mercy to those, and show it in such a spectacular
way that God became flesh. That's amazing. Born in a stable
in Bethlehem. Growing up, walking the Judean
acres without sin. Went up on Mount Calvary and
died in our room, in our place, and in our stead. That in itself
is amazing. There's nothing more powerful
than this, undeserved love. Just think about it. Why would
God love you? I thought about it this morning.
Why would God love me? And I can't come up with anything
except this is amazing. This is undeserved favor. You know, there's some of you
here today, I mean, you have wallowed in the stables of sin. You think you are beyond the
grasp of this thing of salvation. You actually imagine that your
sins are bigger than God's grace. I want to tell you, he's a bigger
savior than you are a sinner. Some of you here have relapsed
and relapsed and relapsed and relapsed and relapsed, and you
are none the better. And so you've thrown in the towel. You know why I preach today?
Because I believe that you are not beyond the grasp of God's
grace. Somebody said to me once, I've
sinned away the day of grace. Baloney. Your sins are not bigger than
the grace of God. It's unmerited favor, undeserved
favor. Amazing in two ways. Amazing
because of how much we utterly fail to deserve it. Just for
a few minutes, just think about it. You know it's true. You don't deserve heaven. If we could invade your privacy,
your secret life, your other life, there's no one in here
that doesn't have another life. And let me tell you this, it's
not pretty. You would shudder if we could
put up on the screen the thoughts that you have had today. I'm not talking about crack addicts
and heroin addicts. I'm talking about us as the children
of God. If you'd put up there the thoughts
that you have had today with your flesh, you would shudder
that we would know it. Can I get an amen? Oh, good. Good. A bunch of honest people
here. Amazing because of how much we
have utterly failed to deserve God's love. And here's what Newton said.
It's a sweet sound. It's a sweet sound. To those
of us who know our sinnership and acknowledge our lostness
and our human depravity, to hear the old gospel of God's grace,
it's a sweet sound. That God so loved, he gave. That
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And so, it is no wonder
that those of us who get a peek into this grace of God, that
throughout eternity, while the ages pile themselves one on top
of another, God's going to be revealing to us how good He's
been to us, how gracious He's been to us. And I think one of
the things that's going to give us individual shout time is for
him to pull back the curtains that you should have been dead
sleeping in your grave. You should have never reached
that age. Amazing love, how can it be?
That's why the old songwriters wrote all these songs. Amazing
love, how can it be? that I should gain an interest
in the Savior's love. Died He for me? Died He for me? That's what you ought to be amazed
about. Not that He died for somebody else, but that He died for me.
Or like old John, behold what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon me, that I should be called
the Son of God. And it does not yet appear what
I shall be, but I know that when He shall appear, I shall be like
Him, for I shall see Him as He is. I'm gonna be just like Jesus.
That's amazing. Alas, and did my Savior bleed
and did my Sovereign die? He could have saved me or damned
me, but He saved me. That's right, he could save you
or damn you and still be holy and just and good, but he saved
me. Be carried away about that. Would
he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? This will help
you. Think about your worminess. a
whole lot, and you will stand amazed in the presence of Jesus
the Nazarene and wonder that he could love you, a sinner condemned
unclean. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch. He's already called himself a
worm and a wretch. That he saved, and notice it's
in the past tense. Do you know his name shall be
called Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins? Not
he might, not perhaps, he shall save his people from their sins. A wretch like me. This is the
declaration of Romans three, there's none good, no not one.
We've all gone astray. The poison of the asp is under
our tongues. There is no difference, all have
missed the mark. Every imagination of the heart
is only evil continually. Let me tell you about John Newton
who wrote Amazing Grace. Newton was a sailor and he deserted
being a sailor in the services and he was punished. And he was
punished by the captain and he contemplated murdering his ship's
captain and then killing himself. Pretty, pretty bad guy. He was
so fond of profanity, it is said that he made upwards that were
profane and made other sailors uncomfortable. He was such a
bad shipmate that one crew actually chained him, starved him, and
sold him into slavery in Africa. And he ate under the table of
an African-American woman, an African woman. After being freed
from slavery, he became captain of a slave ship himself. How
would you like to have been on that ship? Can you imagine what this man
did? Well, all you have to do is what you've thought about
doing. You may not have done it, but you can imagine what
he did. He had slaves on the ship. He was fully able as captain
of that ship to run the gamut in his lusts. You think he didn't? I say he did. When Newton said he was a wretch,
he wasn't exaggerating. He wasn't exaggerating, but God
gave him grace. No wonder it was music to his
ears. It'll be music to your ears too.
When you find out this, don't fight this thing called grace.
Don't battle it, receive it, accept it and cry out, if he
saved Newton, he can save me. There's grace for me. I once was lost. I wonder if
there's anybody here lost. You know, I see lost people all
the time. All the time. I mean, before
you haven't come to Christ, but you're so lost. You're out there
doing stupid stuff, right? Shooting stuff in your arms,
sniffing stuff up your nose, putting stuff down your throat,
trying to get high. When you know it's true, this
is crazy too, don't call it high, it's getting low. Your life has
been totally destroyed by your choices and what you do. But
there's grace for you. There's grace for you. God's
grace, amazing grace. You know, this is also true. John Newton, after being converted
and seeing how evil the slave trade was, became instrumental
in abolishing the slave trade. Did you know that? He really
did. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creation. Oh, oh, you need to be changed
by the changer. That's what God does when He
saves us. He changes us from the inside out. That's why we
don't receive any government over at Grace Centers. We declare
this. It's not a cold check from Washington
that you need. It's the heat of the Holy Spirit
in power, regenerating you and borning you again and making
you a new creature. Otherwise, you're never gonna
quit. You're never gonna quit if there's not a change. And
only God can do that. And we preach that and we proclaim
that. I love the second stanza because
this is something I did battle with most of my ministry. I was
in the Baptist church and we had a little trouble. We believed
that grace kind of got the thing rolling. But then after you got
saved, it was kind of, you know, up to you to really keep yourself. Now I'm gonna tell you this,
if you think that you are keeping yourself, you're a lying fool. You know,
you know you're not keeping, you know you're kept. I am so
happy to be kept by the power of God. And so Newton wrote this, "'Twas
grace that taught my heart to fear, You know, you wouldn't even know
your lostness were it not for the grace of God. You don't even
come to see yourself a sinner without the grace of God. It
was grace that taught my heart to fear. I'm wrong and I'm going
to stand before God. I'm going to die one of these
days and I'm guilty. Some of you come here to church
and you think I've been reading your mail because of the messages
and know what's going on in your life. I just know that we're
sinners. and grace, we must be quickened
by the Spirit of God to see our lostness. You know, you'll have
to think about this sometime, maybe I'll talk to you about
it, but by the time you find out you're lost, you've been
saved. I mean by that. Listen, I want to tell you this.
If you're here today and in your heart, there's a desire you're
saying, that preacher's talking to me. I've done the most horrible
things. I'm without God. I'm without
Christ. I'm without a conscience almost.
I want to know Christ. I want to be saved. I want you
to know something's happened to you. It's not that you first loved
God, it's that God first loved you. It is not that you first
come to God, He first comes to you and does for you what you
can't do for yourself. And so I want to say to you today,
do you want to know you're heaven bound? Do you want to know your
sins are forgiven? Do you want blessed assurance?
Then the spirit and the bride say, come, let him that is a
thirst come and whosoever will, let him come to Christ and come
just as you are. Don't try to clean yourself up.
Come just as you are. Here's some deep theology. How
precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed? Anybody
get happy when they trusted Christ? You know, I remember. I remember. I have a good recall. I have grown in grace, but I
can remember that night as an eight-year-old boy when the love
of God flooded my soul and a peace that passes all understanding,
and I knew that I was reconciled to Christ, that I had been born
of the Spirit of God, that there was no condemnation, that I had
passed from death unto life. I remember that. It was grace that taught my heart
to fear and grace that taught me I needed saving. We truly
do nothing to earn salvation. Even the awareness of the problems
is a gift. Ephesians 2, 8, 9. You hear so
much, but I don't know whether we really grasp it. For by grace
are you saved through faith. And that faith is not of yourself.
It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
You know what? Today, I'm trusting Christ. I
am a fanatic about this. And you know why I'm a fanatic?
Because God's grace keeps teaching me and hovers over me. You're saved by grace. You have
faith. It's not because I'm a pastor.
It's because of what God's grace has done on the inside of me
and keeps on doing on the inside of me. You don't know how much
pressure I get to take another course. Pastor, you need to preach on
just all kinds of things. Tell us about how to live. I'll tell you, the Spirit of
God's in you. He's a good teacher on how to live. I don't worry about you not knowing
you shouldn't commit adultery, and you shouldn't be getting
high on drugs. I don't worry. You already know that. So what
good is it going to do for me to keep pounding those things?
What I'm going to keep pounding is this. If any man be in Christ,
he's a new creation. He's passed from death into life.
Look to the Lamb of God. You want power to overcome crack
and your craziness? Love God. See Jesus Christ. Amen. And then Newton said this,
this grace has brought me safe thus far. You should have quit a long time
ago. Have you failed a few times? I mean, since you started the
Christian walk, have you dabbled back in the world? And yet you're
still saved and safe. His grace has brought me safe
thus far. It is not only unmerited favor
that saves you, but think about the unmerited favor you're receiving
this morning, and I am receiving this morning through many dangers, toils,
and snares. Have you been kicked around as
a Christian? You know, I just don't believe what many of the
churches are preaching about. You get saved and hallelujah,
everything is great. Healthy, wealthy, wise. No, sometimes
God's people get cancer. Sometimes God's people slip and
mess up. Sometimes there is relapse. Sometimes
the devil throws you a curve You think you're doing the right
thing But you're not and all of a sudden you wake up and what
a mess you have made of your life What a mess And I'm going
to tell you this as you get older and some of my brothers who are
here In their 70s will attest to this as you get older You
can look back, you know what happened five minutes ago,
short-term memory kind of goes a little bit. But you know what
happened? I don't know. I wish this were
not true, but what you did 50 years ago or 40 years ago, clear
as a bell, man, clear as a bell. And I think, oh my God, it wasn't
what happened yesterday, but I can remember what happened
40 years ago or in 1964, or, you know, I don't need to remember
that stuff. But thank God when I get to heaven,
it's all paid for. It's all good. All I'm saying
is what Newton meant was through many dangers, toils, God doesn't
save you and then leave you. Dangers, toils, and snares, traps. You know, slew foot will set
traps for you. Satan is not your friend. He'll
set traps. Say, well, I went into the bar
to preach the gospel. I went into the crack house to
witness to those folks. Give me a break. And give yourself
a break too. Tis grace hath brought me safe
thus far and grace will lead me home. It's grace that's got
you safe thus far. You ought to make a lot about
grace. You ought to be talking about grace all the time. I am
what I am by the grace. Grace is going to lead me home.
He'll complete it. He who hath begun a good work
in you will complete it. This is the grace of God. And
get this, Newton said, the Lord has promised good to me. And
we know that all things work together for good to them that
love the Lord, to them who are called according to his promise. God has promised good to you. His word, his word, my hope secures. My anchor holds within the veil. I have the word of God. He promised. Do you ever say this to God?
I think God likes this. I say this sometimes in my prayer.
You promised. It's like this. Daddy, you promised. Oh, that used to be a killer
when the girls would say that to me. You promised. It was a
reminder. Good to me. Do you know for every
child of God here, things is getting better. Things are getting
better. You're nearer home than you were
yesterday. Complete joy and peace absent
from the body, present with the Lord. And you look, I'm sure
some of you sense this. The earth shall soon dissolve
like snow. The sun forbear to shine, but
God who called me here below will be forever mine. Isis is crazy. The world is popping. The world's about to explode.
I don't know whether you know that or not, but I can see it
coming. It's about to blow up. Some of
us here, maybe not me, but some of you may be around when it
blows up. Let her blow. Absent from the
body, present with the Lord. You look at what a mess that
this world is in, not just this country, but this world is in. They just captured the ISIS guy
this weekend. One of the ringleaders over there
shot him in the leg. I thought it was, well, I don't
know whether it was amusing, but he's telling them now about
his rights. I like Second Amendment rights. Anyway, that has to do with a
gun. It's grace. When we sing amazing
grace here, we lift our hands, and maybe you don't completely
understand why there is a spirit that washes over this place.
It is because the Holy Spirit is anointing that song. It is
because it is the truth. It is the truth. When we've been
there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days
to sing God's praise than when we first begun. When we've been
there 22 trillion years. You say, well, why'd you pick
22 trillion? Because that's our deficit, our
budget deficit here. We've no less days to sing His
praise than when we first began. Isn't that something? My future's
so bright. Don't look down. Don't look blue. Don't be sad. God has you. Grace has you. God's going to
carry you through. And you know, some of you in
here have had diseases and God's healed them. Isn't that so? He
may. He's a healing God. He's able
to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.
Isn't that right? Now this, I want to say to you,
this was my, this is the main deal here. We're going to play a little
film here before the choir sings, but it was my favorite years and
years ago. Here's what I want to get to
you. Have you noticed? I'm after some of you that God
has showed you your lostness in your sinnership. I'm really
after you. You know, I've always wanted
to catch and be used of the Lord to catch big sinners. I want
to catch big sinners. All you nice people, there's
one over there. We have a few of them here. I've
got a good fishing hole here. The gospel The power of the blood
of Jesus Christ is able to wash you and make you white as snow.
I wanna give you hope. Often I hear this. I heard this
28, nine years ago when I came to the old Pontiac rescue mission. Here's what the therapist over
there said. You're never gonna change drug
addicts. You're never gonna have a church in the inner city where
black people and white people and Chinese people and Vietnamese
people and all kinds of people will come and worship God. They
didn't know what they were talking about. And this is what our therapist
recommended. This is kind of his words to
me. Let's just lock them up. At that time, it was all men.
Let's just lock them up over here in the post office. Keep
them in, don't let them go on the streets. And the city sent
me a letter saying, you're letting those people out, and they're
going to the library. Please just lock them up. The
lockup theory. Or the Greyhound bus theory. Give them a ticket to another
city on a Greyhound bus. Boy, that's really happy, great,
awesome, good news. No hope for drug addicts. I don't
believe that. Amen. God saved Newton. He can save you. There's hope
for you. I'm talking to somebody who has
absolutely no hope. You've thought about shooting
yourself, ODing, you've thought about all kinds of things. I
want to tell you, there's power in the blood. You have a future. God will work inside of you both
to will and to do of his good pleasure. And I want to say this
to you also, you can stop using. He'll give you the power to stop. The love of God, when it floods
the soul, it's an amazing thing. I mean, there is no high like
the most high. I guarantee you nothing can defeat
you as you're high on this grace of God and you're praising God. There's a power in that, isn't
there? As you go home, think about the
amazing grace of God. There in your car, don't let
go of the steering wheel, but raise one hand. Thank you, Lord,
for your amazing grace.