Let's open our Bibles to Exodus
chapter 22. Exodus chapter 22. I received an email Monday morning
from a dear friend in another country to give you some idea
of how God uses the various means of ministry he's given us, the
videos, tapes, and so forth. He and his wife attend a church
where they aren't happy it's best they can find around them
and they don't often get fed much. He wrote to me and said
they left services Sunday morning and he said to his wife, let's
go to Danville for some food. I hate that for them. I rejoice
that God makes it possible for them to feed on the gospel by
means of ministry here. And I say that to you because
I pray that God will be pleased to feed your souls tonight. Join me in that prayer. Exodus
22, verse 21. Thou shalt neither vex a stranger,
nor oppress him, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If thou
afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will
surely hear their cry, and my wrath shall wax hot, and I will
kill you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and
your children fatherless. If thou lend money to any of
my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an
usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury." That is, you're
not to be a banker or take interest from him. If thou at all take
thy neighbor's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him.
By that the sun goeth down, for that is his covering only. It
is his raiment for his skin. Wherein shall he sleep? And it
shall come to pass, when he crieth to me, that I will hear him,
for I am gracious." Now, here's the reason God gives. for giving
all these commandments of the law, both the commandments of
restitution in verses 1 through 20, and these commandments of
mercy to the stranger and widow and fatherless and our neighbors
that we've just read in verses 21 through 27. He says, for I
am gracious. He commands that you and I, His
people, we who bear His name, we who have experienced His grace,
He commands that we be gracious because He is gracious. Children ought to be like their
father. Now let me show you three or
four things here. First, this is God's character. I am gracious. The reason God
does All that he does is because he is gracious. I didn't say that wrong. I said
it just the way I intended. The reason God does all that
he does is because he is gracious. Even in his acts of judgment,
God Almighty is performing the works of His grace for His people,
separating the precious from the vile, the wheat from the
tares, and the sheep from the goats. Brother Lindsey read to
us in 1 Peter 2 about our Lord Jesus, that one who is precious
to you who believe, He made a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense
to those who believe not. and they perish by that just
condemnation according to the purpose of God, even by the same
purpose of God by which we believe. I am gracious. That's my subject this evening.
Nehemiah tells us, thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and
merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. Thou art a
gracious and a merciful God. That declaration of Nehemiah
and this declaration given to us throughout the scriptures
concerning the character of our God is so contrary to every man's
natural concept of God that it's next to impossible for us to
grasp what the Lord says of himself. I am gracious. If you read about
the gods that men have come up with in history and you see pictures
of the gods of Greek mythology and the gods of our other ancestors
among the Gentiles, and we've had some strange ancestors, and
you see the pictures of their gods, their gods resemble more
some kind of monster than anything divine. Because men look at God
as being anything but gracious. The Lord God declares, this is
what distinguishes me from all the imaginary deities that men
have made. I am gracious. Oh, God, teach us to know your
grace. This is set before us constantly
in the Psalms as a matter of praise distinctly for our God. Listen to this. Thou, O Lord,
art a God full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering,
and plenteous in mercy and in truth. The Lord is merciful and
gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is gracious
and full of compassion and righteous. Gracious is the Lord and righteous,
yea, our God is merciful. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy. This gracious
character of our God is that which inspires hope in needy
sinners, confident faith in believing sinners, and loving gratitude
in saved sinners. Turn to Isaiah chapter 30. Isaiah
30. I want you to look at some scripture
with me tonight. Verse 18. I am gracious. This is the character
of our God. Isaiah 30 verse 18. Therefore
will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you. Wait for
what? Whatever it is that he waits
for. Wait how long? However long it is that he waits.
Wait why? That he may be gracious unto
you. Therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you.
For the Lord is a God of judgment, of righteousness, of justice.
Blessed are all they that wait for him. For the people shall
dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. Thou shalt weep no more. He will
be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry. When he
shall hear it, he will answer thee. The Lord waits to be gracious. Turn unto the Lord your God,
for he is gracious, Joel says, and merciful, slow to anger,
and of great kindness. When the scripture speaks of
the Lord God being gracious, understand that he who is our
God, the triune Jehovah, in all his character is gracious. Not just just, but gracious and
just. Not just holy, but gracious and
holy. Not just righteous, but gracious
and righteous. Not just severe, but gracious
and severe. In all his character, in all
his ways, in all his doings, he says, I am gracious. The source and fountain of all
grace is set before us in the book as God the Father, He who
purposed our salvation, the everlasting salvation of an elect multitude,
and for and with those people made a covenant in the person
of His Son before the world began. God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is the only mediator, or the only medium, or the only channel
by which grace comes to sinners. Jesus Christ is the sole mediator
between God and man. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Salvation is in Christ. It always has been, it is now,
and always will. Even in the Old Testament, God's
grace was exactly as it is now. Some folks have the idea that
In the Old Testament, God saved men by law. God saved men by
works. And then in the New Testament,
God changed His way of saving men and He compromises His law
and saves them by His grace. God has always saved sinners
only in the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to
Romans chapter 3. We're told in Genesis, Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. Grace is found only in Christ
Jesus, our Redeemer. Romans 3 verse 24. We are justified,
Paul says, freely. Now we'll look at that again
in a moment. The word means without cause.
Justified without cause. Without cause in ourselves of
any kind. We're justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth In his word, in his purpose, in his decrees,
he has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness that he might be just and the
justifier of him that believeth. This grace is revealed in the
person and work of our Redeemer. Look at Romans 5. At the end
of verse 15, we're told that the grace of God and the gift
by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded to
many. Verse 17. For if by one man's
offense, by Adam's offense, death reign by one, much more they
which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Verse 21, as sin hath
reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Why does Paul stress
this? Grace is in Christ. It's by Christ. It's through Christ. It's with
Christ. Because men are so foolish. They try to mix grace with what
they do and declare that grace is in the church or grace is
by the ordinances or grace is in the waters of baptism and
all that nonsense. No. Grace is in Christ. Only in Christ. You don't get
grace anywhere else. And the only one who can bestow
grace is God the Holy Spirit. He's called the Spirit of Grace
by the prophet Zechariah. It is He who applies the gospel
to the hearts of chosen sinners, calls them irresistibly, calls
in the dead to live, giving eyes to the blind, hearts to believe
the gospel to those who could not and would not otherwise believe.
He's called the Spirit of Grace because by His gracious operations
we come to experience God's free grace. The gospel we preach is
the message of grace. It's called the gospel of the
grace of God. When Paul was about to leave
Ephesus, he said, concerning all the afflictions and things
that the prophet had told awaited him, he said, none of these things
move me. He said, I don't count my life dear unto myself, but
I am ready to give myself in the testimony of the gospel of
the grace of God. To the self-righteous religionist,
this gospel is a stumbling block. To the learned philosophical
worldling, it's foolishness. Why? Because there's nothing
in the grace of God, nothing about the gospel of the grace
of God, nothing set forth in the gospel that will in any way
gratify the pride of man. The gospel of God declares, rather,
that man can never be saved. but by grace. It declares that
apart from Christ, the unspeakable gift of God's grace, there is
no salvation, and the state of every human being is desperate,
hopeless, and irretrievable without Christ and God's grace in him. The scriptures plainly tell us
that men and women are depraved, guilty, condemned, perishing
sinners, and the gospel addresses them always just that way, always
as depraved guilty, perishing, condemned sinners, never anything
else. The gospel puts us all on one
level, and man, we don't like that. We just don't like that. All on one level, and the level
is as low as it gets. We are nothing else but sin.
nothing else but corruption. The gospel addresses all men
alike, both those who think they are religious zealots and those
who are vile, profligate rebels, those who imagine that they do
good and those who know they do nothing but evil. It puts
us all on one level, and that level is condemned, helpless
sinners who must be saved and can do nothing to save themselves.
The gospel. speaks of every descendant of
Adam as fallen, polluted, hell-bent, and hell-deserving, utterly incapable
of changing his ruined condition, and having no desire to do so.
That's the state of man, you and me by nature, your sons and
daughters and mine by nature, all together depraved. altogether
incapable of changing that, altogether insensitive to the need. The
grace of God is your only hope. All men by nature are justly
condemned felons awaiting execution. It is not that they await the
wrath of God. Oh, no. The wrath of God is already
upon you who believe not. The wrath of God abides on you
who believe not. You're condemned already. It's
not a matter of awaiting condemnation or awaiting judgment or awaiting
the time when wrath comes. You're just awaiting execution.
That's all. Nothing else. Judgment's already
upon you, condemned already because you believe not on the Son of
God. George Bishop wrote a book years
ago I remember reading it when I was just a teenager. It's such
a tremendous declaration of God's grace. And this is what he says
concerning grace. He said, grace is a provision
for men who are so fallen that they cannot lift the acts of
justice, so corrupt that they cannot change their own nature,
so averse to God that they cannot turn to him. so blind that they
cannot see him, so deaf that they cannot hear him, and so
dead that he must himself open their graves and lift them into
resurrection life. I gave up a long time ago begging
men to do something for God. I've heard, I say I gave it up,
I've never performed it. I listen to these preachers,
they get done preaching and they start begging sinners, won't
you please? Won't you pretty please let God?
I beg God to do something for you. Oh, I beg God to do something
for you. Because your only hope is God
doing for you what you cannot do for yourself. And bless his
holy name, he declares, I am gracious. A second, let's look
at the character of God's grace. The whole religious world talks
about salvation by grace, but few understand what grace is.
And as soon as the grace of God is defined in biblical terms,
man's opposition to it comes to the surface. When the Lord
God declares, I am gracious, he is telling us that grace is
an essential attribute of his being. Grace is an essential
attribute of His being. It is the character of God to
be gracious. Grace is an attribute of God
which, like His love, is exercised only toward His elect. I know
people talk about God's grace as being universal and common,
talk about grace being on all men in general, but I defy you
to find that in the Scriptures. Nowhere in this book Do we read
of universal grace, or common grace, or general grace? Perhaps
you could justify saying there's a sense in which mercy extends
to all men. The psalmist says God's mercy
is over all his works. But not grace. Grace is upon
the elect alone. The mercy of God is anything
short of hell, I suppose. Anything that continues life
upon this earth, the grace of God is eternal life. Mercy, anything
short of the execution of divine wrath. Grace is eternal salvation. Grace is the solitary source
from which the goodwill, love, and salvation of God flows to
His people. It is the eternal, absolute,
free favor of God manifest in the infallible promise of eternal
salvation and blessing upon His people, guilty, unworthy as they
are. Arthur Pink said, Divine grace
is the sovereign, saving favor of God exercised upon His elect. That's God's grace. And it is
completely unmerited and unsought. It's altogether unattracted by
us. It can't be bought. It can't
be won. It can't be influenced by anything
we do, be it good or bad. If it could, it would cease to
be grace. Turn to Romans chapter 11. Grace
is bestowed upon sinners without any attraction, without any condition,
without any qualification. When it comes, it comes as a
matter of pure charity. We're proud folks. Man, I would
hate to think I had to live on charity, wouldn't you? Bless God, I live on charity
all the time. He is charity. Grace is a matter
of absolute charity. Free, bounteous goodness. unsought, unasked, undesired,
God forgive us, horribly unappreciated. In Bible terms, it is placed
in direct opposition to works. Do you ever notice when Paul
speaks about salvation by grace, almost always, he says, almost
always, within a sentence or two, he will say, now just in
case you don't understand what grace is, your works don't have
anything to do with it. I said, look at Romans chapter
11, verse 6. If by grace, if salvation is by grace, then it
is no more of works. If it's by grace, works don't
have a frazzling thing to do with it. Any kind of works. Otherwise,
grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it's
no more grace. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. Grace is given
to him that worketh not, but believeth. on the Lord God who
justifies the ungodly. Look at Ephesians chapter 2,
verse 8. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. Now notice the little word that. It refers to the whole package
Somebody said, well that's just talking about the grace is not
of yourselves, or the salvation is not of yourselves, or the
faith is not of yourselves. No, it's talking about the grace
and the salvation that it brings, and the faith by which salvation
is received. The whole package is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. 2 Timothy chapter 1, Paul is
describing the gospel. He's writing to Timothy his very
last epistle. And he's writing to Timothy about
the gospel for which he suffered imprisonment and urges Timothy
not to be ashamed of him or of the gospel for which he is now
suffering imprisonment. And as he writes this last epistle
to his beloved son in the faith, he writes to him urging him to
be steadfast in the gospel. We can expect then that he is
giving Timothy a clear plain, unmistakable declaration of the
gospel which he preached. Listen to how he describes it.
It's called the gospel of God who hath saved us, verse 9, and
called us with an holy calling. God who at one time altogether
in the past saved every one of us. and at that same time called
us, named us the sons of God with a holy naming, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now if
it was done before the world began, it was done before you
did anything good or evil. If it was done before the world
began, It was done without any influence of anything you might
contribute in feeling or in deed. Grace is free, uncaused by you
and uncaused by me. The fact is grace and works simply
will not mix. Now let me see if I can be crystal
clear. It matters not where you put your finger in this thing
called salvation. If you put your finger in it,
it's not salvation. Did you hear me? It matters not
where you put it. If you say, well, I believe in
election, but election is based on what God foresaw I would do,
that means you saved yourself. Well, I believe that salvation
is by grace, but God saves us by grace when we choose to be
saved by his grace. That means you saved yourself.
I believe salvation by grace, but that doesn't mean we don't
have to do anything at all. We certainly are responsible
for this, that, and everything. That means you saved yourself.
I don't care where you look. It doesn't matter whether you're
talking about redemption or sanctification or justification or reward in
heaven. Anything you get, because what
you do is works and it's not grace. Is that plain enough?
There's no room for works in this thing. Now, here are four
things by which grace is identified in the Scriptures. And I want
you to get them. We've already seen this. Grace,
as it is set before us in the Scriptures, is eternal. It's
not something that commences in time. It's not something that
starts with you, or even starts in time. Grace is eternal. Romans chapter 8, verse 28. Whenever you read about God's
providence here in Romans 8, 28, Don't forget the following
two verses. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to His purpose. That is to say, this is how all
things work together for good. They work together for good according
to God's purpose. And here's His purpose. For whom
He did foreknow, whom He did love and approve of beforehand. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified,
and whom He justified, them He also glorified. Grace is eternal,
and I've said this several times already, grace is free. Grace
is free. God declares in His Word that
grace is free. We're justified freely by His
grace. When He says, I am gracious,
He is telling us that grace is without cause, without qualification,
without condition, and without change. What we do hasn't got
anything to do with God's grace. Before God saves us and after
God saves us. Oh, you can't tell that to folks.
Just open up floodgates of hell. Well, let me see if I can say
it again. Grace has got nothing to do with what we do before
God saves us or after God saves us. And if you don't like that,
please rewind the tape and play it again. Grace has got nothing
to do with what we do before God saves us or afterwards. Grace
is free. Well, Brother Don, what happens
when a believer sins? In here, there's a lot that happens. Coldness, indifference. The sin
is the coldness and indifference. The heavens seem silent. God
may hide his face. Indeed, there's every reason
to believe he will and often does. But before God, nothing
happens. Blessed is the man, Darwin. to whom God will not impute sin. You mean God won't charge his
people with sin no matter what? That's what I mean. Grace is
free. Can you get that? Grace is free. It's unconditional. It doesn't
depend on me and it doesn't depend on you. God says, I am gracious. And third, Turn to Romans chapter
5. God's grace is sovereign. Now, I could spend all night
here, but we'll be very brief. The law entered, Romans 5.20,
that the offense might abound. The law entered that the offense
might abound. That is, the law was given to
expose your sin. Not the law created sin. The
law was given to expose it. But where sin abounded, Grace
did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace, look at that word, reign, reign through righteousness,
through the shed blood and obedience of Jesus Christ our Lord unto
eternal life. By Jesus Christ, our Lord, grace
reigns everywhere, over all things, all the time. My brother, Doug,
surely you don't believe grace reigns in hell. Oh, yes, I do.
Oh, yes, I do. Surely you don't believe Satan
is controlled by grace. Oh, either he is or he's not. One of the two. Grace reigns. When the scripture speaks of
God and his grace reigning, It doesn't speak of what men call
sphere sovereignty. You know, the ruler of one country
or another is ruler just over there. He's the sovereign of
that country or at least that's the title he wears. That doesn't
mean he's really sovereign. He just wears the crown and he
has a little power that men give him. God doesn't exercise sphere
sovereignty. God's sovereign everywhere. And
do you know what that throne is called on which he sits, from
which he reigns everywhere? It's called the throne of grace. Grace reigns everywhere, over
everything, all the time, in absolute sovereignty. What does
that mean? That means God will be gracious
to whom he will be gracious, and he will have compassion on
whom he will have compassion and he will be merciful to whom
he will be merciful and whom he will he hardeneth. That's
what that means. That means God always has his
way everywhere with everybody and his way is according to his
gracious purpose toward his own. God says I am gracious. Salvation and eternal life is
the gift of God, a gift can't be claimed by right. A gift can't
be earned. A gift is that which the giver
is free to bestow on whom he will. Nothing so riles man's
hatred of God and stirs his heart's enmity against God like the declaration
that grace is free, sovereign, immutable, and eternal. Grace
abases man's pride because it will not recognize anything of
his righteousness. It makes fallen man utterly dependent
upon God's goodness. And this grace is God's sovereign
prerogative. It's his to exercise as he will. It's his to do with as he will. Here's the fourth thing. Grace
is distinguishing and discriminating. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? And if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory
as if thou hadst not received it? Grace separates. Grace makes differences. Grace
chooses some and passes by others. Brother Don, you're telling us
that God has his favorites? Of course he does. Of course
he does. They're called his children.
They're called his beloved. They're called his elect. The
very word gracious means favorable. The very word grace means favor. God favors some men. God is gracious to some women. God is favorable to some and
not to others. We read in the scripture about
two brothers born to Adam and Eve. One's name was Abel, and
God had respect to Abel. What's that mean? Had respect
to Abel in his offering. He accepted Abel. But Cain, God
didn't accept him. He had no respect to Cain. God
called a man by the name of Abraham. He was down in Ur, the Chaldees.
raised in an idolatrous land by an idolatrous father and God
called Abraham and his brother Lot out of Ur of the Chaldees
and left the rest in Ur. God separated Jacob from Esau
and he separated David from his brethren. The fact is the only
difference between God's children and the children of the devil
is grace. The only thing that makes any
difference between you and anybody in hell is grace. That's all. The only thing that makes any
difference between me and anybody in hell is grace. Nothing else. And every saved sinner knows
that. And he gladly acknowledges, by
the grace of God, I am what I am. The best way to speak of God's
grace is by the works of grace. It is known by those who experience
it and the works performed for them. In the first and second
chapter of Ephesians, the Holy Spirit gives us two chapters
in which almost every verse speaks of the works of God's grace.
In Ephesians chapter one, Paul tells us by divine inspiration
that grace is that which God purposed in eternity and bestowed
upon sinners in Christ. And then he tells us that this
grace is that which God performs in time by His Spirit. It is that which the Spirit of
God accomplishes in us, giving us life and faith in Christ.
And then he explains in the rest of that first chapter that this
grace is that which God performs powerfully,
that which God performs efficaciously. He says that the grace by which
you believe is the very same grace, the very same power that
raised up Jesus Christ from the dead. What does it take for a
sinner to believe on the Son of God? When I was in college,
I went to two took courses from others and we had evangelism
classes and we were taught how to conduct evangelistic services
and we were taught how in preaching to bring your message, working
to the end so that you come at last to a closing point where
you've got the sinner in your hands and you strike while the
iron's hot and you get the sinner to agree and come to Christ.
There's just one problem with that. You can't do it. You can't do it. What does it take for a lost
sinner to believe on the Son of God? Not a persuasive story. Not the right song at the end.
Not a good illustration. Not a polished preacher. But
a polished shaft shot from the throne of God to your heart.
of sovereign free grace, the very same power that raised up
Christ from the dead. That's what it takes. So I ask
you, children of God, join me and plead with God for me that
I may ever pray and you join me in the prayer. Oh God, will
you take your word as only you can, as it is cast upon the waters
from this place and calls your word to go forth with power,
with power to give life to the dead. Grace is seen in God's
election and in God's covenant, in our adoption into the family
of God, in our redemption by the blood of Christ. We are justified
by grace and forgiven by grace regenerated and called by grace,
sanctified and kept and preserved by grace, and at last we shall
be raised up by the grace of God into everlasting glory. From the gates of hell to the
gates of paradise, grace. Just pure, free grace. The glory of God's grace and
His gracious character shines forth splendorously when we see
the trophies of his grace set before us in scripture. I read
in the book of God about a king in Judah by the name of Manasseh,
the most vile, base, wicked king who ever lived on this earth.
Pharaoh didn't hold a candle to him. Herod didn't hold a candle
to him. Pontius Pilate didn't hold a
candle to him. Nero didn't hold a candle to
him. This man Manasseh was so base
in his idolatry that he took his own children and laid them
on the hot coals of his idol god on his altar and smelled
their flesh burn. That's Manasseh. Manasseh, the
promoter of idolatry and ungodliness in Judah, Yet this man Manasseh,
corrupt beyond imagination, before the world began, was chosen by
God Almighty. And the Lord God saved him by
his grace. And yonder he sits tonight, robed
in white, pure, and undefiled with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. worshiping God side by side with
David and Solomon. Saul of Tarsus was hell-bent,
hell-bent on the destruction of God's church, desiring to
annihilate the very memory of Jesus Christ from the earth.
And as he was riding down the Damascus road with papers to
imprison God's saints, the Lord God stepped in his way. and saved
him by his grace. Because Saul of Tarsus was chosen
by that Christ whom he hated and redeemed with his blood.
Saul of Tarsus, that one who stood by, held the clothes of
those who stoned Stephen. Being the good Pharisee he was,
he could say, I didn't throw any rocks. I just stood back
and smiled while they did. That man today sits side by side
with Stephen on the throne of God, a trophy of God's grace. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
6. God says, I am gracious. The Corinthians were the most
sensual, profligate people of ancient Rome. They were the vilest
human beings in the annals of human history. But among the
Corinthians, There were some chosen sinners, redeemed with
the blood of Christ. Verse 9, 1 Corinthians 6. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the
kingdom of God. And such were some of you. If
I understand this book right, and I do, this is what that says. And that's just exactly what
you were. That's just exactly what you were. But ye are washed. But ye are sanctified. But ye are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Because God
declares, am gracious. This man standing here in front
of you stands out above Manasseh and Saul and these Corinthians
as a trophy of God's free grace. 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, it was grace that taught my heart
to fear, and grace my fears relieved. Oh, how precious did that grace
appear the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils,
and snares I have already come. Tis grace hath brought me safe
thus far, and grace will lead me home. He's promised good to
me. His word my hope secures. He will my shield and portion
be as long as life endures. And when this flesh and heart
shall fail and mortal life shall cease, I shall possess within
the veil a life of joy and peace. This earth shall soon dissolve
like snow, the sun forbear to shine, But God who called me
here below will be forever mine. Because he says, I am gracious. And he will never cease to be.
Amen.