Sermon Tone Analysis

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I was first introduced to this hymn 10-12 years ago at a Bible Conference I attended in the St. Peters, MO.
I immediately fell in love with it—not because it’s such a catchy little tune, because it’s not—but because the words the words of this hymn come as near as any hymn I’ve ever sung of expressing my awe and wonder at the grace of God.
The words, as you can see, are by Charles Wesley.
Charles Wesley’s was experiencing a crisis of body and soul in the early months of 1738.
He had been sick in body as well as in spirit.
He has developed Pleurisy and for a time friends and family despaired for his life.
Peter Bohler, one of those friends, and a Moravian brother, would be instrumental in Charles’s conversion.
Bohler had visited Charles in his sickness at Oxford, but Wesley was somewhat offended when the honest German just shook his head at learning that Charles’s hope of salvation rested upon "his best endeavors."
After Charles had regained his health, Bohler visited him again, in London, and Wesley began seriously to consider the doctrine of justification by faith alone.
In late May, Charles came to faith in Christ, Jesus.
His brother, John Wesley, writes of his brothers conversion: /“My brother had a long and particular conversation with Peter Boehler.
And it now pleased God to open his eyes; so that he also saw clearly, what was the nature of that one true living faith, whereby alone 'through grace' we are saved.”/
Just a few days later, John Wesley, himself, would be converted.
Of his conversion, Charles would write in his Journal: /“At midnight I gave myself up to Christ: assured I was safe, sleeping or waking.
I had continued experience of his power to overcome all temptation; and confessed, with joy and surprise, that he was able to do exceedingly abundantly for me, above what I can ask or think.”/
A few days later, his journal reported that he had begun writing the hymn, /"And Can It Be."/
It was a vivid testimony of his new-found faith in Christ, and the third stanza in particular, expresses his awe and amazement at the saving grace of God.
This hymn would be just one of the 4000 plus hymns that Charles Wesley would write during his lifetime.
The tune we sing Wesley’s hymn to is called Sagina, and was written by Thomas Campbell of whom we know absolutely nothing.
/"And Can It Be"/ was first published in John Wesley's Psalms and Hymns in 1738.
The 1991 edition of our hymnal was the first Southern Baptist hymnal to contain the tune.
!
I. STANZA 1 Focuses on Christ's Blood
* /"And can it be that I should gain An interest in the Savior's blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain--for me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love!
How can it be, That Thou, my God, should die for me?”/
!! A. THE INDIFFERENCE OF THE SINNER
#.
Wesley begins with a self-incriminating confession
#. outside of the irresistible calling of God in the sinner’s life, the sinner is uninterested in the things of God and unable of coming to Christ
#.
Wesley opens his hymn with a rhetorical question: And can it be that I should gain An interest in the Savior’s blood?
#. the answer to the question is “No” Wesley and every other lost person has no interest in the Savior’s blood
#. the Scriptures repeatedly affirm the corruption and degeneracy of man’s nature
* /"as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God."/ (Romans 3:10-19, ESV)
#. because of that spiritual and moral corruption, no one seeks for God
#. if you’re a believer, it’s only because God was first seeking you, called you and redeemed you by His grace
#. the doctrine of sin has to do, not with man’s estimation of man, but rather with God’s estimation of man
#. we’ve been taught for generations that there is so much good in the worst of us that man is not so bad off after all
#. when we measure men by man, we can always find someone who is lower than we are on the moral or ethical scale, and the comparison gives us a feeling of self-satisfaction
#. but the Scriptures do not measure men by man; they measure men by God’s holy law which demands all our ways, and thoughts to be perfect holy as God is holy
#. the creature is measured by the Creator and is found to be wanting
#. /"And can it be that I should gain An interest in the Savior's blood?"/
#. outside of God’s drawing grace, “No”
* /"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
And I will raise him up on the last day."/
(John 6:44, ESV)
!! B. THE INCOMPARABLE SACRIFICE OF JESUS
#. the next phrase in the first stanza moves us to consider the work of Jesus on Calvary
* /"In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,"/ (Ephesians 1:7, ESV)
#.
Wesley understands that his sin caused our Lord’s pain—Died He for me, who caused His pain—for me, who Him to death pursued?
#.
Wesley’s sin, and my sin, and your sin put Jesus on the cross
#. in spite of our sin, Christ pursues us through His Spirit
* /"but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”/
(1 Corinthians 1:24-31, ESV)
#. in my own life, I can look back and recall how God was drawing me to faith even while I was fleeing from Him
#. theologians call it irresistible grace
* ILLUS.
Francis Thompson in his poem “The Hound of Heaven” compares himself to a fugitive and refers to God as “The Divine Pursuer.”
For many years Thompson was an opium addict who wandered the streets of London.
He tried to flee from God, but God was like a bloodhound on his trail relentlessly pursuing him unto death.
#. irresistible grace does not mean that God drags the sinner into the Kingdom kicking and screaming
#. irresistible grace does mean that God moves and works in such a way in the sinner’s life as to make the loving offering of His grace something the sinner cannot reject forever
#.
His voice speaks to us in the shadows of our minds, letting us know that apart from Him we will never be complete
#. once we commit ourselves to Him, He keeps after us to obey
!! C. THE INCREDULOUS LOVE OF GOD
#. you can hear how incredulous Wesley is about experiencing the grace of God
#. again he asks a rhetorical question: /“How can it be, That Thou, my God, should die for me?”/
#. there’s only one answer /“Amazing love!”/
* /"and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood"/ (Revelation 1:5, ESV)
!
II.
STANZA 2 Focuses on Christ's Grace
* /"He left His Father's throne above, So free, so infinite His grace; Emptied Himself of all but love, And bled for Adam's helpless race.
'Tis mercy all, immense and free; For, O my God, it found out me!"/
#. in this stanza we find the echo of the Apostle Paul’s doxology to Christ found in the Letter to the Philippians
* /"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."/
(Philippians 2:5-8, ESV)
!! A. CHRIST LEFT HIS THRONE
* /"He left His Father's throne above, So free, so infinite His grace;/
#. here is the mystery of the incarnation—that God would become flesh and dwell among us
#. the prologue to John’s gospel opens with a look into eternity past when Christ was on His throne, next to the Father, high and lifted up
* /“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”/
(John 1:1–5, NIV84)
* /“The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
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