Amazing Grace, That Sweet, Sweet Sound
Romans 6:14
Trey Harris
Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. (Romans 6:14)
Illustration:
An old man lived with his hound-dog, Mace, in a run-down shack on the outskirts of town. He had no family and only a few meager possessions: a table and chair, a bed, a bag of hand tools, and his dog. He used the tools to do odd jobs in town, for which he usually would be paid enough to get food for the next day. Mace and his master lived from one day to the next on what little these jobs would bring in. The dog was just a normal hound, with one exception: while most dogs like to chew on grass occasionally, Mace loved it. When the old man was in town, Mace would spend the day in the yard in front of the house, chewing away on the lawn.
One bright, sunny day the old man said goodbye to his dog and headed into town to work. He had a plumbing repair job in one of the homes there that would take him most of the day and would probably pay enough for food for the remainder of the week, if he managed the money carefully. He headed for town with a spring in his step and a whistle on his lips. Inside the house and ready to start, the old man reached in the bag for his pipe wrench. To his surprise, he didn’t feel it. He dug around again, but there didn’t seem to be any wrench. He looked in the bag, then dumped its contents on the floor, but still no wrench. Reality set in. Without a wrench he couldn’t finish the job, and without the pay he couldn’t even buy food for that night’s supper, let alone for tomorrow. When he finally came to grips with reality, he told the lady who hired him what the situation was.
While she sympathized with his situation, the job needed to be done. If the old man couldn’t do it, she would have to hire someone else.
The old man packed up his tools and headed home, head bowed and shoulders stooped. The whistle was gone and no longer was there a spring in his step. A walk that normally took 15 minutes seemed to last forever. But finally the old shack came into view, and there was Mace in the distance, munching away as usual on the lawn. When the dog saw his master, he came running, tail wagging, telling the old man how glad he was to see him. Kneeling beside the hound, the man began to pet him, and through
tear-filled eyes told the dog that there would be no supper tonight and no food for tomorrow. What’s more, without money to buy a new wrench, he had no idea what the future held. It was the loneliest, most helpless feeling he ever had! Then he caught a glimpse of something shining in the grass. As the old man went over to see what this piece of shining material was, his despair turned in an instant to joy! It was the wrench! The old man had dropped it on his way out that morning, and it would have been lost
forever had Mace not been eating farther away from the house than he usually did! The old man grabbed the dog, gave him a hug that almost suffocated him, and ran into the house. Reaching for a stub of pencil and the only piece of paper he had, he wrote a moving tribute to his canine companion. Few people have ever heard these words...until now, that is.
One man who did happen to read them changed them a bit and has his name recorded in music history. The old man never did get the credit he deserved. But now you are privileged to read the beginning line of his original poem, which went:
"A grazing Mace, how sweet the hound that saved a wrench for me." (1)
No doubt, one of the most popular songs to ever grace the pages of any church’s hymnbook is Amazing Grace.
“It has been recorded countless times by a wide variety of artists, including Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, the Grateful Dead, and, of course, the Vienna Boys Choir. It was a top 40 hit for Judy Collins in the sixties, and it was even played at Spock’s funeral (on bagpipes) in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
More recently popular Christian artists like Todd Agnew and Chris Tomlin have released remakes of this popular hymn.
If you don’t like the original melody, the words to Amazing Grace can also be sung to the tune of "Greensleeves", "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and even the theme to "Gilligan’s Island" (a church camp favorite).
Most people are familiar with the words of the song, but they would hard pressed to tell you exactly what it is about grace that is so amazing.
There are a number of textbook definitions that I could read to you that include words such as "manifested favor" and "vouchsafement"—but for the purposes of this sermon, we’ll define it in plain English. Grace is God’s undeserved kindness. The doctrine of grace is that God treats us better than we deserve to be treated.” (2) Psalm 103 says:
He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. (Psalm 103:10)
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8)
I want to share with you a story of Amazing Grace; in fact, it’s the story of the hymn’s author and how he came to experience the grace of God in a very personal way.
The date was March 10, 1748. The scene was an English ship called the ‘Greyhound’ on her return voyage after a year’s trading off Africa’s Gold Coast. As we pick up our story, the winds and the rains had been terrific for days. Men, gear and the ship’s staples were being washed overboard. Waves had been crashing over the bow for hours and now it seemed the once able ship would be sucked to the bottom of the sea. The ship’s official log of the storm contained this entry:
“The sea had torn away the upper timbers on one side, and made the ship a mere wreck in a few minutes... Taking all the circumstances, it was astonishing, and almost miraculous that any of us survived to relate the story…" (3)
After manning the ship’s bilge pumps for nearly nine hours a seaworthy passenger named John gripped the ship’s wheel in white knuckled fear. In his own journal, he reflected on the event: “about six in the evening (I heard) that the ship was freed from water, there rose a gleam of hope. I thought I saw the hand of God displayed in our favour; I began to pray.” (4)
That is how on March 10, 1748 a young man named John gave his life to Christ. As is usually the case, John’s story began long before his conversion experience on the decks of the good ship ‘Greyhound’.
Reflecting on his conversion experience later John wrote:
“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.” (5)
The son of a ship’s captain involved in the Mediterranean trade for the East India Company, John was born in Wapping, London on 24th July 1725. His mother, Elizabeth, was a religious woman who prayed her son would one day enter the ministry. Unfortunately, John’s mother died when he was only six. His father remarried, left the sea and sent young John off to boarding school.
From this point on, John led a reckless life. In his own memoirs he refers to his young life as filled with “degrading debauchery”. During this time, John alternately worked as an apprentice in a shipping business, a merchant seaman, was “pressed” into naval service as England’s war with France escalated, and worked as first mate aboard a slave trading ship and finally John sailed as captain on the slave ship ’Duke of Argyll’ in August 1750. In 1753, John finally left the sea for good after serving as the Captain of the slave ship “The African”.
Eventually, John would follow his new found Christian faith into the Ordained Anglican Priesthood. He was pastor in Olny church in a small town in England where he became close friends with both John Whitefield and John Wesley, both of whom were tremendous influences on his life.
It was during his tenure at Olny that John also met and befriended a man named William Wilberforce, a young dynamic parliamentarian with much political ambition and clout. It was through John’s influence that Wilberforce became a devout Christian and subsequently an ardent voice in the opposition of slavery. It is due to William Wilberforce that we can today, February 18, 2007, celebrate the abolition of slavery in the British Empire and subsequently the end of slavery in America.
John was not only a powerful preacher and influential pastor, he was also a prolific poet. In reflection of his life before Christ, his subsequent conversion and in anticipation of his eternal reward John Newton wrote these words:
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.
200 years have past since John Newton and William Wilberforce saw slavery meet its official end in the British Empire. Our own country fought a bitter war over and has struggled since with the effects of slavery in America. The institutions of slavery in both America and England are over and yet today, as we celebrate the 200th anniversary of Britain’s renouncement of slavery, worldwide there are still millions of souls enslaved.
“The International Labor Organization (ILO) –the United Nations (UN) agency charged with addressing labor standards, employment and social protection issues—estimates that are 12.3 million people in forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor, and sexual servitude at any given time; other estimates range from 4 million to 27 million.” (6)
As horrific as those international statistics are, I want to share with you some staggering statistics from media headlines in our very own USA.
From the year 2000 to 2001, the number of persons with substance dependence or abuse increased from 14.5 million (6.5 percent of the population) to 16.6 million (7.3 percent).
Statistics claim that while divorce rates in the US have been in decline since 1981, a young couple marrying for the first time today has a lifetime divorce risk of 40%, unless current trends change significantly.
In the US, in 2002, there were an estimated 757,000 pregnancies among teenagers 15-19 years 215,000 of which ended in abortions. (7)
Think I’m on a moral soap box? Fine, then let’s simply look at societal trends in our country…
While current trends seem to indicate a decline, according to some researchers, the percentage of adults in the US who remain functionally illiterate hovers at an estimated 10%. (8)
In 2007, in the greatest, richest country on the planet, an alarming 22% of young children in America live in poverty.
Despite a booming economy, a stock market that reached historic heights in the last decade wages for many Americans have simply not risen fast enough to cover the increased cost of living. To these Americans, food has become an unaffordable luxury. In the past year, of those people seeking emergency food relief, 35% - that’s more than 1 in 3 - had to choose between paying their rent and buying food.
Based on the Census Bureau survey, USDA estimates that in 2000, 10.5 million U.S. households (that’s 33 million people, including 20 million adults and 13 million children) did not have access to enough food to meet their basic needs. Hunger in America has, and continues to be, a real problem for a significant segment of our population. (9)
I could go on and on. The issue is this: Despite the fact that great men like Wilberforce and Newton and Lincoln and King spent their lives working to bring about the basic human needs and God given rights of freedom and justice, we are still a people enslaved.
The problems in society persist because the problem with humanity persists. As Newton and Wilberforce and Lincoln and King discovered, the problem is a basic disconnect between humanity and God.
I believe and the Bible teaches that it is precisely that disconnect from God that lies at the root of all our ills, societal, global and personal.
John Newton wrote the lyrics to Amazing Grace as an illustration for a sermon he preached based on a Scripture passage in 1 Chronicles. 1 Chronicles Chapter 17 to be exact.
It’s a passage of Scripture in which a very powerful and popular king looks back over his extraordinary life and wishes to do something to commemorate God’s goodness to him through the years. So, King David calls his trusted prophet Nathan to his side and describes his vision of building God a temple. “After all,” days David, “I’ve built myself a big fine house, why should we keep God in a tent out back when I have the resources to build the finest temple the world has ever seen?” Thinking it to be a good idea, Nathan tells David to get after it, build that temple.
Unfortunately for David, God has other plans. God appears to Nathan in a dream and tells Nathan that He does have plans for David, but they don’t include the king building God a temple. Instead, God promises to bless David and his family for all generations, one bringing the Savior of Jerusalem into the world through a member of King David’s family.
Nathan arises the next day and, with fear and trepidation, tells the king all God had communicated with him.
Instead of being sore at God for not wanting him to build a temple, David begins to marvel at God’s generosity.
“Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? And now, O God, in addition to everything else, you speak of giving your servant a lasting dynasty! You speak as though I were someone very great, O LORD God!” (1 Chronicles 17:17-18)
David looks back over the course of his life and realizes that in the good times and the bad times he could see the hand of God at work.
David looks around at his current circumstances, his success, his wealth, his power and prestige and wonders how God could be so good to him.
Then David looks ahead to the promises God has made. Instead of David building God a house, God promises to build David a house, a dynasty to be exact.
“‘Furthermore, I declare that the LORD will build a house for you—a dynasty of kings! 11For when you die and join your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, one of your sons, and I will make his kingdom strong. 12He is the one who will build a house—a temple—for me. And I will secure his throne forever.” (v 12)
So it would be David’s son Solomon who would build God a house and David’s progeny Jesus of Nazareth who would come to save God’s people from their sins.
And so this morning, in an effort to strengthen our connectivity with God, I encourage us to look back, look around and of course look forward.
Look back a few months to a hurricane that tried to wipe us off the face of the earth, back a few years to times when we know we’d have never made it with out God, back a few days when we remember God being so very close.
We look around and realize how blessed a people we truly are. Blessed to live in a land where we are free to gather together to worship and praise and fellowship and laugh and love together. Blessed to have the opportunity to share God’s love with others who need it most. Blessed to be loved lavishly by our Heavenly Father.
And we too, look forward.
• We look forward to the time when people aren’t divided along racial or economic or cultural or educational lines.
• We look forward to the day when our kids can once again play in the streets of New Orleans without fear of being gunned down by hoodlums and gang bangers.
• We look forward to the day when our political leaders and elected officials spend their time lifting the yoke of generational poverty and entrenched ignorance and self-inflicted shame off the backs of their constituents rather than feathering their own already over-stuffed nests.
• We look forward to a time when the church of Jesus Christ no longer struggles with the same sins as the world around her, no longer competes with each other for Sunday worship attendance but is in a unified battle against the powers of darkness, determined to storm the gates of hell itself and take back that which belongs to the Kingdom of God.
• We look forward to the time when Jesus will come again and take his own to heaven with him and we look forward to spending eternity singing and praising God and reveling each day in God’s Amazing Grace.
It is in this looking back at God’s provision, Looking around at God’s providence and, finally, looking forward towards God’s promises that we, like King David and John Newton and President Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., stay strongly connected to God.
As John Newton grew old and feeble, his sermons grew longer, his ramblings less coherent. His friends and parishioners begged him to give up preaching and become the pastor in residence. The last time he was in the pulpit of St. Mary’s was in October, 1806 when he was 81 years old. His eyes and ears were failing and his good friend Richard Cecil had suggested he cease preaching when he turned 80, to which Newton responded, "What! Shall the old African blasphemer stop while he can speak?" (10)
Perhaps it was an attitude like this which caused an anonymous hand to pen this final verse to Newton’s hymn:
When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
bright shining as the sun,
we’ve no less days to sing God’s grace
than when we first begun.
John Newton died on December 21, 1807 at the age of 82, just months after seeing the end to the injustice of slavery in the British Empire.
That God could take a profane, belligerent, rebellious young slave trader, save him from his sins, turn his life around, use him in the service of the church and as an influence to people like William Wilberforce…well, perhaps that’s why It’s called Amazing Grace.
God’s grace...so wonderful, so powerful, so sweet, so… amazing.
(1) http://www.beeker.net/humor/jokearchive/msg00046.html
(2) http://www.preachingtoday.com/31956
(3)http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/cnm/htmlpages/newtonbiog3.html
(4)http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/cnm/htmlpages/newtonbiog3.html
(5)http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Biographies/1485_John_Newton_The_Tough_Roots_of_His_Habitual_Tenderness/
(6)http://www.theamazingchange.com/overviewbackup.html
(7)http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/teenpreg1990-2002/teenpreg1990-2002.htm
(8)http://warriorlibrarian.com/CURRICULUM/global_literacy.html
(9) http://www.fhfh.org/hunger.html
(10)http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Biographies/1485_John_Newton_The_Tough_Roots_of_His_Habitual_Tenderness/
