John Newton

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John Newton
1725 - 1807
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Faiths Review And Expectations

• Inspired by 1 Chron. 1716
• Then King David went in and sat before the LORD
  and he said Who am I, O LORD God? And what is
  my house, that you have brought me this far?
• Verse in the song that reflects this is
• Thro many dangers, toils and snares, I have
  already come Tis grace has brought me safe thus
  far, And grace will lead me home.

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Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a
wretch like me! I once was lost, but know am
found, was blind, but now I see.

• Slaves were "packed" in ships for the voyage
  across the Atlantic. (The Granger Collection) in
  Peter Wood, The Seafarers The Spanish Main
  (Time-Life Books, 1979), p. 63)

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Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and
grace my fears relieved How precious did that
grace appear the hour I first believed.

• Proverbs 1 24-31
• Because I have called you and you refused, I
  have stretched out my hand and no one regarded,
  Because you disdained my counsel, And would have
  none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your
  calamity I will mock when your terror comes
  like a storm, And your destruction comes like a
  whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon
  you. Then they will call on me, but I will not
  answer.
• Day of conversion - March 21, 1748

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John Newton

• I was greatly deficient in many respects. I
  was in some degree affected with a sense of my
  enormous sin, but I was little aware of the
  innate evils of my heart. I had no appreciation
  of the hidden life of a Christian, as it
  consists in communion with God by Jesus Christ a
  continual dependence upon Him I acknowledge the
  Lords mercy in pardoning what was past, but
  depended chiefly upon my own resolution to do
  better for the time to come I cannot consider
  myself to have been a believer (in the full sense
  of the word) till a considerable time afterwards.

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Thro many dangers, toils, and snares, I have
already come Tis grace has brought me safe thus
far, and grace will lead me home.

• Newton becomes minister at Olney St. Mary
  Woolchurch in London.
• He preached to overflow crowds.
• Met influenced William Wilberforce, who would
  lead campaign to abolish slavery.
• At 82, shortly before his death, he said,
  My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two
  things, that I am a great sinner, and that Christ
  is a great Savior.

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The Lord has promised good to me, His Word my
hope secures He will my shield and portion be,
as long as life endures.

• Newton died on December 21, 1807.
• Never ceased to be amazed that
  such a wretch should not only be spared and
  pardoned, but reserved to the honor of preaching
  thy Gospel, which he had blasphemed and renounced
  this is wonderful indeed! The more thou hast
  exalted me, the more I ought to abase myself.

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1773 New Years Morning Sermon

• 1 Chronicles 17 16,17
• 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 be this far?
  And yet this was a small thing in Your sight, O
  God and You have also spoken of Your servants
  house for a great while to come, and have
  regarded me according to the rank of a man of
  high degree, O LORD God.

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Meditations on the New Year

• They lead us to a consideration of past mercies
  and future hopes and intimate the frame of mind
  which becomes us when we contemplate what the
  Lord has done for us.
• Who am I?
• Miserable
• Rebellious
• Undeserving

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• When He overcame us by the power of His grace.

• And the never to be forgotten hour when he
  enabled us to hope in His mercy.

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• O that crown, that kingdom, that eternal weight
  of glory. We are travelling home to God. We
  shall soon see Jesus, and never complain of sin,
  sorrow, temptation or desertion any more.
• He has dealt with us according to the estate of a
  man of high degree. He found us upon the
  dunghill and has made us companions of princes
  in a wilderness and has led us to the City of God.

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Therefore

• From hence we infer
• Love, gratitude, obedience
• Romans 121 I beseech you therefore, brethren,
  by the mercies of God, that you present you
  bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to
  God, which is your reasonable service.
• Trust and confidence
• Mark 737 He has done all things well.
• Patience
• Romans 1311 And do this, knowing the time, that
  now it is high time to awake out of sleep for
  now our salvation is nearer than when we first
  believed.

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• We are spared thus far. But some, I fear, are
  strangers to the promises. You are entered into
  a New Year. It may be your last. You are
  present barren trees in the vineyard. O fear
  lest the sentence should go forth Cut it down.

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When weve been there ten thousand years, bright
shining as the sun Weve no less days to sing
Gods praise than when weve first begun.

• Last Will and Testament
• I commit my soul to my gracious God and
  Savior, who mercifully spared and preserved me,
  when I was an apostate, a blasphemer, and an
  infidel, and delivered me from the state of
  misery on the coast of Africa into which my
  obstinate wickedness had plunged me and who has
  been pleased to admit me (though most unworthy)
  to preach his glorious gospel.
• His tombstone reads
• John Newton, 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
  labored to destroy.

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Small Group Discussions

• In your life, have you benefited from Gods
  grace? Have you responded as in Proverbs 1?
• Recall your life to now, are you amazed that,
  like John Newton, salvation would be offered to
  you?
• Does examination of your heart reveal the innate
  evils?