Tags: preaching, grace, law, fear, holiness

           December 23, 2007

“He Is… Full of Grace”

Text: John 1.16
Theme:
Introduction: he was born in 1725 to a very godly mother & very ungodly father
       • his mother sought to raise him according to God’s Word
       • however, she died when he was six, leaving him to his father and eventually, to a new step-mother, who knew nothing of God & His Word
       • he only went to school for two years, & at age 11 began sailing with his father, making many trips to the Mediterranean by the age of 18
       • his father was a harsh, stern man; of him he wrote: "I am persuaded he loved me, but he seemed not willing that I should know it. I was with him in a state of fear and bondage. His sternness . . . broke and overawed my spirit."
       • at 18, he was forced to join the navy
 
"The companions he met with here completed the ruin of his principles." Of himself he wrote, "I was capable of anything; I had not the  least fear of God before my eyes, nor (so far as I remember) the least sensibility of conscience. . . . On one of his visits home he deserted the ship and  was caught, "confined two days in the guard-house; . . . kept a while in irons . . . publicly stripped and  whipped, degraded from his office."
 
 When he was 20 years old he was put off his ship on some small islands just southeast of Sierra Leone,  West Africa, and for about a year and a half he lived as a virtual slave in almost destitute circumstances.  The wife of his master despised him and treated him cruelly. He wrote that even the African slaves would  try to smuggle him food from their own slim rations. Later in life he marveled at the seemingly  accidental way a ship put anchor on his island after seeing some smoke, and just happened to be a ship with a captain who knew Newton's father and managed to free him from his bondage. That was  February, 1747. He was not quite 21, and God was about to close in.
 
Just a bit over a year later, while this ship was finally headed for home, he had a powerful experience
 
       He awoke in the night to a violent storm as his room began to fill with water. As he ran for the deck, the  captain stopped him and had him fetch a knife. The man who went up in his place was immediately  washed overboard.[14] He was assigned to the pumps and heard himself say, "If this will not do, the Lord  have mercy upon us."[15] It was the first time he had expressed the need for mercy in many years. He worked the pumps from three in the morning until noon, slept for an hour, and then took the helm and  steered the ship till midnight. At the wheel he had time to think back over his life and his spiritual  condition. At about six o'clock the next evening it seemed as though there might be hope. "I thought I  saw the hand of God displayed in our favour. I began to pray: I could not utter the prayer of faith; I could  not draw near to a reconciled God, and call him Father . . . the comfortless principles of infidelity were  deeply riveted; . . . . The great question now was, how to obtain faith."[16] He found a Bible and got help from Luke 11:13, which promises the Holy Spirit to those who ask. He  reasoned, "If this book be true, the promise in this passage must be true likewise. I have need of that very  Spirit, by which the whole was written, in order to understand it aright. He has engaged here to give that  Spirit to those who ask: I must therefore pray for it; and, if it be of God, he will make good on his own  word."[17] He spent all the rest of the voyage in deep seriousness as he read and prayed over the Scriptures. On  April 8 they anchored in Ireland, and the next day the storm at sea was so violent they would have surely  been sunk. Newton described what God had done in those two weeks:
 
Thus far I was answered, that before we arrived in Ireland, I had a satisfactory evidence in my  own mind of the truth of the Gospel, as considered in itself, and of its exact suitableness to  answer all my needs. . . . I stood in need of an Almighty Savior; and such a one I found  described in the New Testament. Thus far the Lord had wrought a marvelous thing: I was no  longer an infidel: I heartily renounced my former profaneness, and had taken up some right  notions; was seriously disposed, and sincerely touched with a sense of the undeserved mercy  I had received, in being brought safe through so many dangers. I was sorry for my past  misspent life, and purposed an immediate reformation. I was quite freed from the habit of  swearing, which seemed to have been as deeply rooted in me as a second nature. Thus, to all  appearance, I was a new man.
 
This was the beginning of his conversion… it wasn’t yet complete
       • for six years after this experience he had no one to counsel him in the things of God or the ways of Christ
       • he became the captain of a slave-trading ship was at sea for another year
       • he married his sweetheart, Mary, in 1750
       • a few months later, he learned his father drowned while swimming in the Hudson Bay
       • during the course of a third, long voyage, in 1754, he had an epileptic seizure and never sailed again
       • upon returning home & to land permanently, he entered into ministry
       • he became the pastor of a church in Olney, England
       • he became great friends with the likes of George Whitefield, William Carey, Charles Simeon and John Wesley
       • he pastured William Cowper, one of England’s greatest poets and a hymnwriter, God Moves In a Mysterious Way, There Is a Fountain
 
This man died, December 21, 1802, at the age of 82
       • God had truly blessed him with grace upon grace
       • he never ceased to be amazed at this: that such a wretch should not only be spared and pardoned, but reserved to the honour of preaching [the] Gospel, which he had blasphemed and renounced…. This is wonderful indeed. The more God exalted him, the more abased he felt he should be
 
He wrote a hymn in the early 1760s
       • he said, I know not that I have ever since met so daring a blasphemer
       • his text for the hymn was 1 Chronicles 17.16: Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and said, “Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?
       • these are the words to a fairly well-known hymn, sung for the first time, New Year’s Day,
       • 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
 
John Newton wrote his own epitaph, just prior to his death
       • clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves 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 laboured to destroy

I. From His Fullness We Have Received
• John Newton knew the fullness of God in Christ Jesus
       • he had received it, experienced it, knew it intimately
       • John, the disciple & evangelist, as he wrote these words, knew it
       • he had seen it, heard it, even touched the very fullness of God in Christ
       • most of you here this morning have received of the fullness of God in Christ
       • what is this fullness?
 
       1.       literally: means not lacking anything, complete, perfect, filled up
              • there is no lack in Jesus Christ; no shortage of anything good
              • Jesus was perfect: He is God and man both, perfect
              • Colossians 2.9 tells us: for in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily
              • everything that God is, Christ is: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God
 
       2.       we have received
              • time simply does not permit to go long on this
              • however, we know that it means this:
              • Col 2.10
              • it is part of God’s great purpose for us as Christians & as His church: Eph. 4.12-13
              • again, we read of this: Colossians 1.19-22
              • the very fullness of God is ours in Christ Jesus
              • it is the Apostle’s great prayer for us as well: Ephesians 3.18-19
              • and we have received it: a gift, a grace gift, undeserved, unearned, all of God’s grace
 
       3.       Christ is everything for us
              • His salvation is complete; His forgiveness is total; His love is overwhelming; His presence is everlasting
              • when anxious about what tomorrow might bring: He is complete in His love & care & provision for all that you will need tomorrow
              • when you’ve been hurt deeply by someone: He brings the fullness of His compassion & healing to your heart
              • when you’re tempted to lust and covetousness: His fullness is there for you, bringing you a delight & satisfaction no person, picture, image or possession can ever bring
              • when anger with your spouse makes you think unspeakable thoughts, even only for a moment: He is there, with all the fullness of deity, waiting to be brought to bear for healing, forgiveness, love restored, and a peace that passes understanding

II. Grace Upon Grace
       • if you and I were to sit down and begin to recount the graces we’ve received thru Christ, we could sit here for a long time
       • John piles his words up here in this attempt to convey the fullness of Christ’s grace
       • it’s simply like saying: you cannot exhaust His grace
       • just when it appears that one might be running out or complete, another comes along
       • there is grace upon grace upon grace upon grace for us in Christ Jesus
       • and we’ve received it, right here, in Christmas, Christ’s advent
       • He is the Word who was with God and who was God: fullness of grace that is never-ending
       • He didn’t consider staying there in heaven with God as a thing to be grasped as His alone
       • He willingly, humbly let it go and took on flesh and dwelt among us, the very fullness of God, in order to bring us Himself and His amazing grace upon grace upon grace
       • this fullness of deity brought light into this dark world
       • but not only that, He brought light into our sin-darkened heart, wretched sinful creatures that we were – or still are, He brings His light to bear upon you, even now where you sit
       • oh, and this fullness is as of the only Son from the Father; He is with us & by us & in us
       • and to speak of grace in this is glorious; it is amazing
       • consider that He came unto His own – His own what? People, the Jews? Yes, but more
       • He came unto His own creation, His own creatures – He came to men & women
       • but we didn’t receive Him, we didn’t want Him; like John Newton, we were infidels and blasphemers and sinners so reprehensible that there should be nothing we deserved but everlasting judgment
       • but grace upon grace upon grace is ours in Christ Jesus: to those who did receive Him, who believed on His name, to them, grace upon grace, He gave the right to become children of God
       • oh how I pray that we’ll get this, this Christmas: to see His fullness which we have received
       • to know that this is grace & to know it’s power to deliver & forgive & heal & comfort
       • and that we’ll live it! Yes, live it before the world and before the church
 
Conclusion – one more story, if I may, about a man who knew this fullness of grace
       • it’s been nearly three months now, since Bill died
       • many things written & said about him & his life & his testimony to Christ
       • one of God’s graces He gave me this morning at 4.30 am was a blog entry from one who had only met him days before he died. He writes:

Back on that evening when I met Bill for the first, and last, time, when he offered to tell me his life story, he started it by saying it would only take a few minutes.  Lying on his back, he then raised his arm above his head to look at his watch to see the time.  Here was a man whose life’s story was about to end, timing the life story he was about to begin.  He’s dying, but he doesn’t want to waste my time.  In this seemingly inconsequential wordless act was packed a lifetime of wisdom.  It’s an image with the words “Don’t Waste Your Life” written all over it. It’s the image from that evening that is etched in my memory. It is pure gold.

And what does a doctor looking at his own death in the eye write in an internet farewell posting? How does he conclude his life? What is the last paragraph, the last words, chosen to say to his family and friends? How does he say goodbye?

As I look back on my life story, I am thankful for family, friends, and a career I enjoyed. But most of all I am thankful that God has given me hope in Christ for an eternal life that I do not deserve. Although I may appear to be a good person, my own goodness could never earn me a spot in heaven. My sin merits God’s wrath, but Jesus came and took that punishment for all who will believe. Instead of the wrath we deserve, God offers the free gift of eternal life to all who trust in Jesus. To God be the glory forever.  Love to all, Bill

On that day when Bill left here he found himself before a holy, majestic, and glorious God. And what did Bill do? From his farewell writing, it is clear he did not stupidly start gabbing about who he thought he was better than as for why he deserved heaven not hell. He did not stand there, sin-drenched, before a sinless God, his back to Christ, holding up his pathetic list of do-goodies and think the Father would nullify the death of his Son for someone who, by standards he made up, considers himself “good”. These are not the words of a man who would be so audacious as to tell God how to do God.
These are, rather, the words of one who knew God to be sinless and knew himself to be sinful. He recognized the fact that a sinner could never dwell with a sinless, holy God. Only an act of God, doing the impossible, making the sinful sinless, could bring God to dwell with man.

Thus when Bill came into that place where Christ, the one who became the act of God and who, in that act, made Bill sinless, was sitting, Bill could not stand. He could only fall on his face and worship. It’s the only response that comes close to what hell-deserving-sin forgiveness means.

And from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
 
 

Tags: grace, God, church, doctrine, theology