Sermon Tone Analysis

In a small cemetery of a parish churchyard in Olney, England, stands a granite tombstone with the following inscription: /“John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and Libertine, a servant of slavers in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the Faith he had long labored to destroy.”/

This fitting testimonial, was written by Newton himself prior to his death.

It aptly describes the unusual and colorful life of this man.

He was one of the great profligates of his era, who—by the grace of God—was born from above, and became one of the great evangelical preachers and hymn-writers of the eighteenth century.

His life is a story of amazing grace.

This morning I want to preach on God’s amazing grace and what it accomplishes in our lives.

!

I. AMAZING GRACE SAVES WRETCHES

* 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.

* /“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”/

(Romans 5:8, NIV84)

#. grace saved a wretch like John Newton

#. if you would look up the word wretch in the dictionary you’ll see that related words include libertine, debauched, degenerate, profligate, disgraceful, and scandalous

#. considering that Amazing Grace is Newton’s spiritual autobiography in verse, wretch is a word that pretty well defines his life before Christ

* ILLUS.

John Newton’s father was a sea captain.

His mother, a Godly woman, died of tuberculosis when he was not quite seven years of age.

After several brief years of formal education away from home; John left school and joined his father's ship, at the age of eleven, to begin life as a seaman.

His early years were one continuous round of rebellion and debauchery.

In his early twenties he actually denounced the Christian faith.

While aboard the ship Greyhound, Newton gained notoriety for being one of the most profane men the captain had ever met.

In a culture where sailors commonly used oaths and swore, Newton’s profane vocabulary exceeded them all.

After serving on several slave-trading ships as well as working for a period of time on the mainland of the West African coast collecting slaves to sell to traders, Newton eventually became a captain of his own slave ship.

Needless to say, capturing, selling and transporting black slaves to the plantations in the West Indies and America was a cruel and vicious way of life.

On March 10, 1748, while returning to England from Africa during a particularly stormy voyage Newton began to fear the ship would break apart and sink.

He began reading a book entitled, Imitation of Christ.

The message of the book and the frightening experience at sea were used by the Holy Spirit to sow the seeds of Newton's eventual conversion and personal acceptance of Christ as his Savior.

For the next several years he continued as a slave ship captain, trying to justify his work by seeking to improve conditions as much as possible, even holding public worship services for his hardened crew each Sunday.

Eventually, however, he felt convicted of the inhuman aspects of this work, and eventually became a strong and effective crusader against slavery.

He would eventually feel called to the ministry.

At the age of thirty-nine, John Newton was ordained by the Anglican Church and began his first pastorate at the little village of Olney, near Cambridge, England.

He became one of England’s most powerful preachers.

He also wrote hymns.

When Newton couldn't find enough available hymns for his congregation, he began writing his own.

One of those hymns was Faith's Review and Expectation, or, as we know it, Amazing Grace.

It’s Newton’s spiritual biography of his conversion experience in verse.

#. grace saved a wretch like John Newton

#. grace saved a wretch like the Apostle Paul—a persecutor of the early church

#. when it came to sin, Paul considered himself among the foremost of sinners

* /“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.

Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.

The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.”/

(1 Timothy 1:12–15, NIV84)

#. why does Paul call himself the chief of sinners?

#.

Paul tells us plainly—he was a persecutor of the church; he was a violent man; and he was a blasphemer

#. the word violent in this passage has as it’s root the word hubris which refers to an arrogant pride

#.

Paul took pride in persecuting, mistreating, and abusing Christians

#. he also openly confesses to the most heinous sin a Jew could commit—he was a blasphemer

#. it’s the same sin the Pharisees accused Jesus of when he claimed his oneness with God the Father

#.

Paul came to understand that in ridiculing the name of Christ and persecuting the followers of Christ, that he was actually belittling and besmirching the name of God—he was the true blasphemer!

#. he claims that he did these things in ignorance, but that ignorance did not make him any less guilty before God

#. but Paul was shown mercy when God poured out on him the grace of our Lord

#.

Paul’s confession is meant to encourage others

#. if Christ can save a wretch like Paul—the worst of sinners—surely He can save those who don’t measure up to Paul’s level of sinfulfulness!

#. grace saved a wretch like the Apostle Paul

#. grace saved a wretch like me

#. like Newton, and like Paul, I too am like that young man we’re told about in John’s gospel

#. born blind, he one day meets the Savior and his sight is supernaturally restored by Jesus

#. when he is questioned about the miracle by the Jewish religious leaders, his response was, “One thing I do know.

I was blind but now I see!” NIV

* ILLUS.

/“I know not why God’s wondrous grace to me he hath made known,Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love, redeemed me for his own.

But I know Whom I have believèd, And am persuaded that He is able To keep that which I’ve committed Unto Him against that day”/

#. grace saved a wretch like me

#. grace saved a wretch like you—if indeed you’ve been born again

#. the hymn’s first stanza teaches us one of the rudiment theological truths of the Scriptures ...

!! A. WITHOUT JESUS, ALL MEN ARE WRETCHES

* /“There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.”/

(Ecclesiastes 7:20, NIV84)

#. in his letter to the Galatians, Paul tells us that the whole world is a prisoner of sin

#. it is our sin that turns us into the wretched, contemptible, debauched, degenerate, profligate, disgraceful, and scandalous creatures that we are

#.

outside of a relationship with Christ, men are totally depraved

#. man's depravity is total in at least four senses

#.

FIRST: our rebellion against God was total

#.

apart from the grace of God no sinner delights in the holiness of God, and there is no glad submission to the sovereign authority of God

#. the Bible tells us that there is none that seeketh after God

#.

Jesus told his disciples that the only way men will come to him and follow him is if the Father draws him

#.

SECOND: in our total rebellion everything man does is sin

#. in Romans 7:18 Paul says, /"I know that no good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh."/

#. this is a radical confession of the truth that in our rebellion nothing we think or feel or do is “good” as far as God is concerned

* /“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins.

”/ (Isaiah 64:6–7, NIV84)

* /“But ... everything that does not come from faith is sin.”/

(Romans 14:23, NIV84)

#.

THIRD: man's inability to submit to God and do good is total

#. in our sinful condition the natural man has a mind-set that does not and cannot submit to God

#. we cannot reform ourselves

#. in Ephesians 2:1 Paul reminds us that we were all once dead in trespasses and sins

#. the point of deadness is that we were incapable of any life with God

#. our hearts were like a stone toward God

* /“They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.”/

(Ephesians 4:18–19, NIV84)

#. the lost man’s heart is blind and incapable of seeing the glory of God in Christ

#.

FORTH: our rebellion is totally deserving of eternal punishment

* /"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.