The Healing Word

Announcer: The Healing Word Ministry on One Place is brought to you by the generous donations of people like you. At any time during today's message, feel free to send a prayer request or make a donation using the link provided. Now, I pray you will be blessed as Pastor Jack Morris delivers a message from the word of God that will encourage and strengthen your faith in him.

Pastor Jack Morris: Spirit and truth worship is, Lord, I love you because you first loved me. I love you because you gave yourself for me. I will forget everything, forsake everything, lose everything, but give me Jesus.

Announcer: We welcome you to The Healing Word with Pastor Jack Morris. Today, Pastor Jack shares from the book of Romans on amazing grace. It's a reminder that salvation is not by our works, but by God's unmerited favor through Jesus Christ.

Pastor Jack Morris: Not very long ago, there was a movie entitled Amazing Grace, and you may have seen the movie or perhaps at least seen the advertisement of the movie. The movie had to do with the abolishing of the slave trade in Great Britain. An Englishman by the name of William Wilberforce was the moving energy behind that great event of the abolishing of slavery. It happened, the abolishing of slavery was decreed in 1833.

But for approximately 30 years, that one Englishman, parliamentarian, going before the English Parliament, presented the case over and over until his health broke before the Parliament. After 30 years of effort, he achieved his goal. So friends, never give up. Whatever your goal is, whatever God has placed on your heart, don't get discouraged and quit. Winners never quit and quitters never win.

So stay in there and keep believing because God has given us a dream, and he's given you a dream. He's given me a dream and let's pursue that dream in the name of Jesus with great fervency until the victory comes. There's going to be a victory like there's never been. Do you say amen? Amen.

Now, there's a small town or small city in Ohio named after William Wilberforce. It's called Wilberforce. And there's a university there, a private university, the Wilberforce University. It's a private liberal arts school owned and operated by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the AME church, in honor and in memory of this great man who went forward with his dream and with his conviction.

Now, that man had a dream and he pursued it. And we need to remember, I mean, there have been others who have dreamed great dreams and have achieved great victories. God gives men and women dreams, and let us be true to those dreams that are God-given and pursue them and follow after the Lord until those dreams become a reality.

There's a hymn that we sing very often. The hymn is entitled Amazing Grace. And friends, it was that hymn that kept that man William Wilberforce going for 30 years. One hymn. That's why I'm saying here at the Largo Community Church, we will never close our hymnals. We will sing praise choruses, but we will continue to sing those hymns.

And John Newton wrote that hymn inspired by the Holy Spirit. And William Wilberforce was so moved. He wasn't moved just for a Sunday morning service and then went home and forgot about it. No, he was moved for 30 years. No wonder, little wonder, that African Americans esteem that hymn so greatly and so highly.

And not only African Americans, but every believer that has been born of the Spirit of God has experienced that amazing grace, gives praise to God and celebrates God's amazing grace. Friend, I want to ask a question today. Have you experienced that wonderful grace of God that transforms lives, that takes away sins, that changes hearts, that gives you a new vision and a new dream?

God has blessed and God continues to bless, and I pray that men and women will continue to hear from heaven and receive God-given dreams and visions and pursue them in the name of Jesus to the accomplishment and fulfillment of those dreams. John Newton wrote that hymn. Now notice, remember the words: Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

A wretch. That's what he called himself. We call ourselves nice people, church-going people, Americans, Christians. We use nice things to talk about ourselves and words to describe ourselves, but here was a man who was a sinner and knew he was a sinner, and he called himself a wretch.

John Newton at the age of 11 years old dropped out of school and became a debauched seaman. He rode the ships from West Africa to England back and forth doing a slave trading for years. And then one day a storm broke out that he thought was going to take his life, and then he begins to think about eternity.

You know, sometimes these crises come in our lives to make us think about God. Come in our families, come to our parents, come to our young people to cause... Wouldn't it be wonderful we'd think about God before the crisis comes? But thank God for the crisis if that's what it's going to take. And he thought he was going to die.

Somehow he got a hold of the book written by Thomas a Kempis called The Imitation of Christ. John Newton began to read that book, and I have that book in my library and have had it for years and have read from it. John Newton read that book and he realized how lost he was, how wretched he was, how damned his soul was, such ungodly things that he was doing to his fellow man.

And he repented and he cried out to God, "Forgive me for my sins. Forgive me for my pride, my prejudice, my racism. Forgive me." He asked for forgiveness. You know, God forgives sins when we ask him. God is a forgiving God, and God forgave this man.

Then John Newton heard about John and Charles Wesley, and Charles Wesley wrote so many hymns. John Newton got a hold of those hymns. Thank God for those hymnbooks and those old hymns, stately hymns that bring salvation, bring Jesus, bring godly conviction, and bring souls into the presence of the Lord.

John Newton began to sing those hymns. He felt called to the ministry, and then he studied and prepared, and at age 39, he became an Anglican minister and a pastor. And then he began to write hymns. And one of the hymns that he wrote inspired of God was Amazing Grace.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. See, that's the testimony of every born-again believer. We once were lost, but God has found us. We once were blind, but now we see.

I can hear somebody saying, "Pastor, I don't know what in the world you're talking about this morning." Only a born-again believer knows what I'm talking about this morning. Hallelujah.

John Newton wrote that hymn, and he began to sing it to the blessing of so many, many people. And it continues on today. And it stopped the slave trade in England. It caused Wilberforce to go forward with a vision, that hymn, Amazing Grace, how sweet the... Hey, I've got to sing it. Right now I have to sing it. Amazing... Come on, let's stand up and sing that chorus.

That's our testimony. That's the story of our spiritual life. That's what God has done for you and me. God has done that because we've asked him.

(Congregation Singing: 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. T'was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved; how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed!)

Amen. You may be seated. God's grace came to us through the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ. This is the gateway to heaven. There is no other name but the name of Jesus. And that name has been given to you and me.

And today we can believe on him, trust in him, talk to him, and he will hear us, forgive us, come into our lives and wonderfully, amazingly change us and make us new persons in him. When John Newton was an old man, about 82 years old, he had just about lost his memory. Alzheimer's had set in.

He didn't even hardly remember that he ever wrote that hymn. But at that age, when he died at 82, this is what John Newton said. He said, "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior."

Friend, if you forget everything else, if you never remember anything, you forget everything else, remember this: you and I are sinners, but Jesus is a great and wonderful Savior. Jesus is the Savior. He forgives us, he comes into our hearts, he transforms our life. He does great and amazing things for those who will call upon him and ask him.

Do you know what grace means? Grace simply means this—I'm not giving you a theological definition, I'm giving you a basic, biblical, scriptural, fundamental, Jesus definition. Grace simply means there is nothing more that I can do, there is nothing that I can do to make God love me more.

There is nothing I can do to make God love me less. Let me say it again. That's what grace means. There is nothing I can do to make God love me more. There is nothing I can do to make God love me less. I can't get on God's good side. I'm already on God's good side. That's why Christ came, died.

I want you and me to remember that as we come to this holy communion table. Grace means that God already loves us as much as an infinite God can possibly love us. He will love you forever. He loved you before you came to Christ. That's why he convicts you. That's why he speaks to you. That's why he makes you feel guilty when you sin.

That's why he strives with you, causes you to think and to remember. Even that guilt feeling will draw you to him. He will do everything he can to bring you into his kingdom because he loves you. He will forever love you. You are loved by the Lord.

You see, grace is free. There is something in each of us that wants us to do something to earn salvation. We feel that we've got to buy it. We've got to pay for it. We've got to do some duty that we have to do something. You know, people want to do things. They do.

They want to do something, and when they do something good, it makes us feel better. And that's how it's supposed to be. But friends, there's nothing we can do to earn salvation. This is salvation. It's already been earned. The body and the blood of Jesus Christ.

By instinct, we want to do something. In life, we have to do something to get something. That's life. But in salvation, it's completely free to the receiver. Now, it's costly to the giver, but it's free to the receiver. You see, this is the only religion in all the world that teaches salvation is free. The only one.

The Buddhists say to get God's approval, there is an eightfold path of doctrine that you must follow. You must follow this eightfold path and then you will achieve approval. The Hindu says you must follow the doctrine of karma. The Jews say you must keep the covenant.

If you don't eat kosher and you don't keep the covenant, then you're out of God's favor. The Muslim says there's a code of law that you must follow in order to receive divine approval. But in order to receive God's divine approval, which you have already received, you must only believe in your heart on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

There's nothing you have to do. I can't believe it. And yet I do believe it. I want to do something. I want to sacrifice something. I want to give something. I want to earn it. It's instinctive within me and so it is in you. You think you're going to be loved more because you sing in the choir.

You're going to be loved more by God because you're going to get his approval because you teach a Sunday School class, or you take care of the Boy Scouts or the Girl Scouts. You're going to be loved more because you're a pastor or a preacher. No, God doesn't love anybody more than anybody else, and he doesn't love you more because of you doing something.

He loves you because you're a sinner and lost and he wants to bring you into the family of God. Hallelujah. This is the God we serve. He's an awesome God. He's not like any other God. He is infinite in his love and in his mercy to us.

Karl Barth, Dr. Karl Barth, a Swiss theologian, he died in 1968. Karl Barth was teaching theology in the seminaries in Germany when Hitler came into power, and Barth had to leave and go back to Switzerland and he taught in the seminaries there because he couldn't follow Hitler and the system of Nazism.

And then years later, he was invited to the University of Chicago. Now, that's where I went across the street at McCormick Seminary, which is affiliated with University of Chicago to receive my doctorate. He came to the seminary, to the Chicago University, and there was a great press conference, for he had written so many, many books.

One of the greatest of all times, and he is still thought of as one of the great theologians of all times, learned, very learned man. And one of the students asked him, said, "Dr. Barth, in all of your studies and in all of your writing, in all of your theological research, what is the most profound thing that you have learned?"

And without any hesitation, he answered, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Jesus loves me, this I know. My friends, there are so many people, even in church pews this morning, somehow only theoretically in their mind, they'll say, "Oh yeah, of course I know he loves me. Of course he does."

Friend, if your love for your wife or your love for your husband was like that, it wouldn't be called love. If it's love because you can rote say it. But if you know in your heart that Jesus loves me, this I know, I'm convinced, the Bible tells me so, and I'm a Bible-believing man, a Bible-believing woman.

This is the God that we serve and the God that we love. Yes, grace is costly. Not to us, but to the one who provided it. It cost him everything, and you get it absolutely free. Free. Amazed, I'm amazed. I'm amazed. I've been saved almost all my life, and I still can't get over what God has done.

That old man said, "I'm nearly blind. I've almost forgotten everything. Only two things can I remember." I can't even remember, John Newton says, writing Amazing Grace. He said, "Did I write that hymn?" But the thing that stayed in his memory, and I pray, oh, I pray that it will come to you, this wonderful Savior, this wonderful grace of God.

And it'll touch your heart, it'll transform your life. You won't be a passive Christian anymore. You will be a firebrand for Jesus. Nothing will take precedence over the grace of God in your life. Jesus will be first and foremost.

You talk about seeking the kingdom of God first, not second, not third, not when you've accomplished all your other assignments, now you can come back to church and serve the Lord. Friend, that kind of religion is worth nothing, nothing at all.

Jesus Christ demands first place. He's a jealous God and he's not going to take your leftovers. He loves you. I look at this table. You talk about putting me first. You talk about me giving him what I have left, what money I have left, what time I have left, what intelligence I have left, when I don't have anything else to do and no place else to go.

Friend, don't tell me your name is there. I think you're a person that is a good person, a nice person, a church-going person, a nominal Christian. There's no better citizen around. But I question whether or not you have an intimate relationship with the Lord. Methinks you do not.

But you can have. You can have. Jesus loves you. This I know. Do you know it? Amen. It's life-changing when that revelation comes, when that experience comes. You know, I think we have forgotten that we were wretched, debauched sinners and that God came, reached down in mercy and in love and brought us up.

I think we have forgotten. May God the Holy Spirit bring to our remembrance. Jesus said he'll bring to your remembrance everything that I have said. But somehow we need him to come back and to remind us and to bring to our remembrance what God has done.

This old man dying, even forgot that he wrote the hymn, but he didn't forget Jesus. Friends, please don't forget Jesus. That's a sad thing when a wretched sinner saved by the grace of God puts Jesus on the back burner until they accomplish their other purposes and now they come back and get involved again.

No, he must come first. There is no one like him. He is my God. I bow my knee to him. I have no idols before him. We have our accomplishments, our goals, our ambitions have become our idols. Not idols of wood and stone. No, no.

But we're giving our time, our energy, our resources first there, first there. Jesus, I'll be back soon. No, he don't—that's not worship. That's not spirit and truth worship. Spirit and truth worship is Lord, I love you.