Acts 4:32-5:11, Mega Grace

Alright Acts chapter 4 starting verse 32 You reading to chapter 5 verse 11

Hear the word of the Lord Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart in soul and no one said that any of the things that belonged

To him was his own but they had everything in common and with great power The Apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the

Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all There was not a needy person among them for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and Laid at the

Apostles feet and it was distributed to each as any had need Thus Joseph who was also called by the

Apostles Barnabas, which means son of encouragement a Levite a Native of Cyprus sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the

Apostles feet But a man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property and with his wife's knowledge

He kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the

Apostles feet But Peter said Ananias Why is Satan filled your heart to lie to the

Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold.

Did it not remain your own and after it was sold was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart you have not lied to men but to God When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last and great fear came upon all who heard of it

The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him after an interval of about three hours

His wife came in not knowing what had happened and Peter said to her and tell me whether you sold the land for so much

And she said yes for so much But Peter said to her how is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the

Lord? Behold the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out

Immediately, she fell down at his feet and breathed her last when the young men came in they found her dead and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband and Great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word What do you think the effect of grace is on your life

Or put it another way What would your life or what would your church look like if it received a lot of grace?

What impact does it have to receive grace? Do you think now I'm gonna say what impact should it have if you let it but what impact will it have?

In physics impacts are measurable. They're knowable How something will act when it is struck in a certain way for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction is

Isaac Newton's third law of motion if you hit a cue ball on that table and It hits another ball

The action has an impact the force is transferred from object to object Physics should be able to predict exactly not exactly how every ball that is hit will move exactly precisely

The force is transferred It makes and it makes an impact I probably said it the wrong way as a science someone studying science may know but whatever there's

Predictable actions and predictable reactions is grace the same way Is it a force that has an impact?

Well, some people say No, it's not You can react to it if you want

You can become grateful You can become like God you can come as generous to God and to his people as he was with you if you choose

But if you don't want to if you just want to receive grace and not be changed

Then you can do that some people think Grace in this view is just permissiveness.

It's it's tolerance It's slackness and you can take advantage of that permissiveness if you want be receiving grace and Be unchanged by it

It gets you into heaven, but it doesn't necessarily Have an impact on your life.

It's an action with no reaction Is that true you think?

What are the impacts of grace Some reform people sometimes imply that sovereign grace we like to call it

Impacted them by making them more interested in theology They want to finally tune their doctrine now so they can read thick books

They like to read thick books with lots of big words and listen to hour -long sermons on predestination.

I like last week That's the impact of grace on their life. And certainly if the

Word of God has brought you faith You're going to want you're going to have a love for the Word of God You'll want to hear more of it and get more faith to draw near to your father through it

But if it becomes just an idle chase after theological sophistication If like some people we knew in Pennsylvania you want to go to a reformed church so you can hear those hour -long sermons on predestination

But you don't want to pick up kids with a heroin addicted mother and bring them to church If that's the way it is something wrong

Sure, maybe understand. Yeah. Okay. I get it that the grace impacts different people differently in different ways

And not everyone is called to running a children's ministry. Okay, I get that but You know if you won't even give a ride

Where's the impact of grace? What's the effect of grace on your relationships?

To make you more gracious, maybe more loving and cheery to sweeten your relationships

Yeah, that's part of it but gracious to who To the few

Mostly your family your spouse that you want to be in relationship with Is that really great?

Or is it just self -interest? You know, you want to be be able to get along better with them

So you because you want them to get along better with you and your family basically an extension of yourself so You're just interested to what's in it for you.

You think grace sweetens your relationships the relationships you want That's all it is then it's all about you as If Jesus exists to make which is often how he's marketed today.

Jesus just exists to make our relationships better and Didn't the real

Jesus say something about if you want to follow him you have to quote hate

Did he really say that? Yeah, he did Even those relationships that our culture tells us that life is all about What's the impact of grace?

Have you ever thought that grace will create some relationships? That you never would have had otherwise

The one of the impacts of grace that it will put you in relationship with people you didn't choose

Maybe of a different race of a different culture the people you

Normally from your background you would want to have anything to do with It turns out that grace has a huge impact on our relationships.

It complicates some it might even destroy some If the other person's equal and opposite reaction is to oppose grace and it will create some relationships you never dreamed of if the impact of grace is to cause a

Reaction of relationships. What action does it put on our on our money? You know all the things we can buy with it

Some people of course teach prosperity gospel people, you know teach that the grace is for getting things.

It's for getting rich Well that idea can only really survive if you only meet a few select verses of the

Bible and string them it together like pearls on a string But more people

I think I don't think so many people fall for some people fall for that, but more people I think Fall for the idea that that the grace

Doesn't have any reaction On our on our money on our stuff on our net worth

Has no impact whatsoever on our bank account on our artists on our spending or our splurging on ourself.

No no sign of it left On our checkbook at all. At least it doesn't have to it can if we wanted to but it doesn't have to There are prominent

Christian teachers today and I'm not talking about the prosperity gospel false teachers who would just are not

You should not be listened to paid any attention to I mean otherwise mostly sound

Evangelical preachers who have net worth in the millions of dollars What I saw a couple of weeks ago had 14 million dollars and many

Christians today seem to have no problem with that that is As though one could preach the gospel of grace and do so in a way that's so attractive

It earns them millions of dollars and they keep that for themselves And we think that's fine.

No problem Is it really? Or something missing

Maybe grace I Think we need some case studies. That's what we need. No more.

Don't talk theoretical Let's see some real -life examples of what grace does and we have that right here first is the description of the church we see the see that first church generally described then the positive example of Barnabas and the negative example of Ananias and Sapphira Well first the condition of the church is described in verses 32 to 35

Here we see four things about the church four ways in which grace has made it a huge impact on The church first they are united Notice that first the full number all those who believed

Were of one heart and one soul But as they were just before it talked about them a united in mind but here one heart one soul there was they felt connected

Church wasn't a place. They went to once a week. It was a body to which they belonged It wasn't an inspiration station that they pulled up to when they felt empty and then they got that inspiring gas

They needed and then when they got it, they just drove off It was the family of God. They felt a part of One heart

And one soul it says so when one part suffered they all shared the suffering when one rejoiced

They're all happy for each other Second is that word or at least a form of that word corn in the up translated fellowship in chapter 2 verse 42

Sharing communion you notice how important this is to Luke Here is translated at least a form of it

Coina translated as common as in the phrase they had everything in common

No one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own Notice it doesn't say that they they pulled it into one common bank account.

So people just Some people jump to that conclusion, but if you'd be carefully, it's not what he's saying. They didn't disavow private property

No notice precisely what Luke says in verse 32. No one said That any of the things that belong to him

Otherwise the things still belong to him Right, you understand His things whoever this person any member of the church still belong to him.

It doesn't say that That no one owned anything anymore Some communist communal society know it it says that things it says that the things that belong to an individual were still

Legally rightfully his they were his house his car his clothes his tools his chainsaw, which

I can't get started his lawnmower whatever But if you need it

You can use it That's what they said. It's miss mine, but you can use it.

What they did was not say that's mine Hands off you you can't have it

They said if you need it you can you can have it or you can borrow it is your car in the shop You can borrow mine.

You need a place to stay We'll make room you need a chainsaw. Here's one, but I can't still can't get it started

You know, do you need money and I have enough for my needs then I'll give we'll take care of you

Although individuals continue to own their goods yet in their heart They cultivated that radical attitude that their possessions were always available to help of their needy brothers and sisters

Well third There was a second impact of grace the third impact of grace. They had a powerful testimony

The testimony was not like we use the term to testimony. We've got to use that term today You know, this is my story about what happened to me.

I have a testimony Well, the testimony was about in verse 33 the resurrection of Jesus That's what they were testifying to and we could sometimes use our story

I don't mean to make light of that about the impact of the resurrection of Jesus The grace of God what it had on me how it changed me, but it shouldn't stop there

Just not just didn't stop on my experience. It should it should get to what changed us the resurrection of Jesus Here the

Apostles remember but just before this they had prayed for boldness To speak about Jesus despite the threats

They had praised God for being the the sovereign Lord whose hand and his plan predestines everything

Even the crucifixion of Jesus, you know even all that that raging of his enemies against him even the threats against them and the

Lord answered that prayer by giving them boldness and power With great power the

Apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus We need that power

So we need to pray Forth they had great grace verse 33 and great grace

Was upon them all and I think this is what caused all the other things great grace. The word great there's is

Now what word we use in English mega mega grace literally Now that sounds it sounds good, doesn't it?

mega grace Not just a thimble full of grace but a Grand Canyon full of grace.

What does that make a grace look like? You know, that's what he does This is such a show important to Luke says mega grace and this is what it looks like What impact does it have does that mean they could do anything?

They felt like doing and God would just let it slide That's what I don't apply the people think of grace today. Is it mega permissiveness?

Is it mega easygoingness? What difference is a Grand Canyon full of grace have on you

Now we see that here again in verse 34. This is describing what mega grace looks like There was not a needy person among them.

You think you put big Luke's trying to make a point There was not a needy person among them For as many as were owners of land or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the

Apostles feet great grace creates great generosity

They saw that there were needs in the body So they sold what excesses they had and gave the money to the church laying it at the

Apostles feet Indicating an official apparently, you know a public transfer of it to the blogs of the church have distributed to the needy

Particularly the needy members of the body then in verse 35. It was distributed to each has any need so everyone was provided for Our generosity shows our relationship with God your checkbook shows whether you love

God or Your stuff your money Some people don't believe that And they go along merrily as if grace makes no impression on their cash

But it does Indeed we see here that the reaction to grace is that it makes you love people especially

God's people the church More grace makes you love people more and things less

Take it to the bank Grace makes you love people more and money less

Notice that was done in public There was no idea of my giving is just free me and God Of course the

Lord Jesus taught that our giving should be in private that we shouldn't let our right hand know What is our left hands doing remember that from the terminal amount?

That's not because giving is individualistic You're just between me and God, but but it's there that's to avoid the temptation to hypocrisy

So we don't give just to be seen by people to develop a reputation So everyone will know what a big giver we are.

Look how much I give Don't give me respect. No, so so were they wrong here

In how they gave apparently doing it in public, you know putting at the Apostles feet For all to see apparently this image

I think they apparently they were sitting in the front They're assembling puzzles up front and they whoever gave and put it right there in front of them.

Was that wrong? You know, I don't really know I'm hesitant to say yes, it is wrong.

I wouldn't want to do that today though But what is right about it is their generosity their right to be so generous

That's the impact of mega grace But we will see that hypocrisy will take advantage of the public giving to make a show

Of course hypocrisy can take advantage of our private giving To hide that we're not really giving generously at all hypocrisy will use private giving to keep secret

The fact that grace has it impacted our checkbook So This is the early church.

It's it's unified. It's sharing It's giving powerful testimony to Jesus because of the mega grace they had all that grace creates a lot of graciousness a lot of generous giving

And Barnabas is a good example. His original name was Joseph, but he was such an encourager

The Apostles gave him the nickname Barnabas son of encouragement and it stuck Barnabas was the one who believed

Paul's story about being converted and welcomed him to the church Well, many of the other

Christians were suspicious of Paul Maybe this is a gimmick as he's trying to go undercover to find us out and persecute us

Barnabas was the type to give people the benefit of the doubt Barnabas was the one the church in Jerusalem would later He had sent him to Antioch when many people were there had been converted

They could trust Barnabas to lead the church leave the converts there And so he practically founded the church in Antioch, which turned out to be a major mission center for the for the early church

And in chapter 11 verse 23 of Acts, it says he exhorted Barnabas exhorted or encouraged

Mr. Son of encouragement the new believers there in Antioch to remain faithful to the

Lord with steadfast purpose Then immediately Luke can't help himself, but to comment on Barnabas.

Here's Luke describing Barnabas He was a good man full of the

Holy Spirit and a faith Takes a lot of faith in it to sell your property give it to the church

I mean, what if you go poor? What have you run out of money? You're gonna you're gonna trust these people to support you he trusted after all he went after that He went to Tarsus to encourage

Paul to come help him With the church in Antioch and so begins

Paul's ministry Later when Barnabas and Paul were planning their second missionary expedition

Barnabas wants to give mark Another chance, even though he had bailed out on bailed out on them.

The first time you quit left Mark had Barnabas is like that. He's believing in people.

He's inspiring. He's giving second chances. Paul thinks it's a bad idea Much later near the end of his life

Paul would say in in 2nd Timothy, we would ask for He would ask for mark.

Send me mark. Mark is useful. He says Mark is the one Barnabas salvaged from failure and Mark gave us the second gospel

Think about that. Well all the Barnabas did He gave us the ministry of Paul Incorporated in the church.

He founded the church at Antioch mission center. He Salvaged mark who gave us the second gospel

Amazing of all this man did we owe a lot to this positive encouraging Barnabas?

We need people who believe in us and give us the benefit of the doubt who give us second chances Even after we've removed all doubt that we failed who encourage us.

Do you want to know what mega grace looks like? Look at Barnabas Well here

Barnabas from Cyprus. He sold a field that belonged to him. Maybe the field blonde was in Cyprus We all didn't really say he figured he didn't really need it anymore

The others in the body they have needs and so he sold it and he brought the money Like the others and laid it at the

Apostles feet But be like Barnabas was the cry

He probably inspired many people to do the same because you know people need examples.

They need to see See what it looks like Not just hear words about generosity or any other doctrine for that matter.

We need to see what it means to be lived out Everybody wanted to be like Barnabas Or at least look like they're like Barnabas like Ananias and Sapphira the bad examples

What's the impact of mega grace? on a church We'll see one impact shockingly in these two and Ananias wants to be seen to be like Barnabas generous

But without really being like Barnabas in his heart He's a hypocrite.

I Don't like the way modern Christians make light of hypocrisy You know from preachers saying things like, you know, we're all hypocrites

No, we're not You know just just failing as we all do to live up to our ideals to our hopes and standards

That's not the same as trying to make ourselves look like something.

We're not From that making a lot of hypocrisy, you know to that old joke.

You're supposed to tell somebody, you know when they say You know, they try to explain why they don't go to church

They'll say oh, there's too many hypocrites in church and you're supposed to reply jokingly one more won't hurt

Now if you're making fun of the arrogance of the person giving that lame excuse, that's fine Maybe I'm all for making fun of arrogance

But if there are really so many hypocrites in the church that they turn away sincere people

That's horrible That's just horrible You know that that's a tragedy

It should not be you should it should not be tolerated And if the person if the person really is a hypocrite one more really will hurt

One hypocrite is too many Being a hypocrite as we'll see is not a light

Minor sin, it's not a misdemeanor in God's criminal code It really is a big deal

It's a mega sin What happens when mega sin

Hits mega grace Keep in mind we live in a culture that is soaked in religious hypocrisy

There is no way that authentic Christianity could have grown up side by side

First with slavery and then segregation and racism. The second greatest commandment is remember like the first Love your neighbor as yourself now, it's obvious.

This is totally obvious then it doesn't take any kind of Seminary education any great theological reflection.

It's just obvious that I don't want to be treated as second or third class because of my race and so if I'm to love my neighbor

I Can't do that to him or her or sit idly by While others do it

Especially not in the church So the only way that racism and Christianity grew up side by side for centuries here in this culture was that their

Christianity Was warped by hypocrisy It was twisted to allow a sin that never should have been allowed and now it can allow any sin

We developed a church culture that's now about enabling sin Because we enabled the sin of racism.

So even if racism isn't your sin You'll excuse it in others

Or enable other sins. Oh So they lied So they slandered so they break their commitments

We'll ignore it because our warped spirituality Because which is now twisted by excusing racism now, excuse anything

Bent out of shape in order to get along with a culture that said yeah

It'll take that grace talk. Sure grace talk is fine But not doesn't want anything to do with the real impact of grace

Like being gracious to all kinds of people doing justice loving mercy walking humbly with your

God It'll take another. Yeah, I don't take an otherworldly kind of walking in the garden alone with the

Lord I'm gonna do is new on the roses or whatever, but it doesn't want to be bothered with loving our neighbor

Especially if that neighbor is of another race that that warped spirituality

And now maybe it's not racism is more maybe it's something totally different but it will excuse other sins It will take hypocrisy as normal We're all hypocrites.

They say another hypocrite won't hurt we say So I can lie I could break my promises and you have to excuse it because that's grace they say

No, it's not Here we see what happens when mega grace hits mega sin

Barnabas loved people more than things and Ananias wants to be seen to be like Barnabas.

He wants the credit and the prestige of sacrificial giving without the sacrifice of it

The way it is written here in chapter 5 implies that was all it was all a man is his idea

He took the initiative he planned this he suggested it. He took the leadership He's mentioned first and then it says that it's with his wife's knowledge as though she was kind of passive through the whole thing

She went along with what he did But that won't get her off the hook What does mega grace look like You think it tolerates any sin?

Especially something as small as lying As being hypocritical is breaking your commitments.

Look at this and Ananias sells a piece of property He you know, he got owned it and he

Brought only part of the proceeds laid it at the Apostles feet Like like the others had done the same way now, there was probably a wave of applause

I don't know if they applauded back then or not, but somebody whatever they made some kind of sound But he is he strutted forward can see him straight forward this big pot of money

However, he had it and laid it down at the Apostles feet and there in front of the church

That's what Ananias wanted the applause the appearance oh

He was probably relishing it Consider that he had had to give enough To make it appear that he was giving the full price, right?

He's got to give a image that this is the full price So he's giving up a high percentage of whatever he whatever he got from this.

He wasn't just giving a pittance He's probably giving something like, you know, whatever maybe 80 % or so of what he got

He had sold the property maybe intending at first Maybe at first he really intended to give it all as he sold it

Then he saw that pile of money in front of him and he thought well look at that Got all the things

I could do with that. I can get a new donkey. I Get a silk robe.

I can get a flask of pure lard I don't know what kind of luxuries they had back then. I got host big dinners

For us a new car I'm going to cruise. I can get the newest

I whatever sure brother, so -and -so is running out of food and Sister so -and -so can't afford firewood

But think of what I can do with this Barnabas loved people more than things

But Ananias loved things more than people So he decided to appropriate it some for himself

Now even that would have been okay, that would have been acceptable except for one thing He didn't want to be the guy that everyone knows

Kept back some for himself. Everybody else is giving Everything he didn't want to be the guy everyone knows is

Had to keep a little for himself, especially that that smiley Barnabas. He gave 100 %

He wants to be like him. He wants to get the same accolades He just couldn't bear the thought of laying down his gift in front of the

Apostles and saying here's Three quarters 80 % or whatever what

I got from that field. I sold And people looking at him with a you know, gonna shrug. Yeah thinking.

All right, whatever generous, I guess but Not up to Barnabas standards.

That's for sure So he'd not tell them He's let them think that he gave it all if he really got a hundred pieces of silver for the property

He'll say he got 80 and no one needs to know about that extra 20, right after all he thought

My giving is just between me and God That is if he really thought of God at all

So he lays his 80 % or whatever in front of the Apostles gets the applause and then suddenly

Peter speaks up and Ananias He's probably expecting some great word of praise and Encouragement like what he could tell as Barnabas in the back smiling.

Oh Barnabas is gonna praise him encourage him after this and Ananias Why has

Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land? Notice here two things first Satan is at work

The church has already been a church that we have three main enemies, right? The world the flesh the devil the church has already been opposed by the world threatening the

Apostles by threatening the Apostles to Stop preaching in the name of Jesus But they pray for boldness and God answered their prayer and gave them boldness filling them with the

Holy Spirit of a power Now Satan is is attacking counterattacking. He in his attack is from within he infiltrates

To cause problems from within the church. He's the father of lies and people his people

Do what he does? So he inspires Ananias to lie

Second notice that Peter doesn't just rebuke him for lying to the church You know Peter doesn't say why is

Satan filled your heart to lie to the church? But literally that's what he's done He's lied to the church by presenting his partial gift as if it were the whole thing

But Peter calls it lying to the Holy Spirit That's because lying to the church is lying to the

Holy Spirit Far from being just a one of several Inspiration stations that you can pull into to get your spiritual gas filled and then move right along The church is the temple of God It's where God lives how you treat the church is how you treat

God if you break commitments to the church Like I'm gonna give all the proceeds from the field you lie to the

Holy Spirit who lives in the church We are not just a collection of people. There's kind of doing our devotions together on Sunday morning

We're the body of Christ the house of God. We're the city of God come out of heaven

Where God lives on earth? So the Apostle Peter explained explained exactly what the problem was in verse 4

While it remained it's the field while I remain unsold did not did it not remain your own Again, remember having all things in common didn't mean that they pooled their possessions into one big pot

It meant that they shared when there was need and after it was sold. Was it not at your disposal? They still have private property rights

In other words when you got the money from the sale, you could have given whatever percentage you wanted Christian giving is free

It's not under compulsion That's why I never talk about and I don't believe in quote paying a tithe

Tithing was the Old Testament compulsion our giving is not paying like it's a bill

There's do you know we said you send you a bill in the mail read letters if you're overdue. No Now our law of giving we have a law know what it is be generous give generously of course

Are you really giving generously if you're giving less than what you would have been compelled to give under the law hmm

Here Peter says that he was free to give however much he wanted from the sale So Peter asked why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?

Why? So we can guess And an eyes don't get to answer but we can guess what the answer is

He wanted to look like jittery want to look generous like Barnabas He wanted to appear like he was a sacrificing unselfish member of the body without actually being one

People sometimes say of you know, some man who tried to be a Bible teacher a preacher. He's obviously he's not in it for the money

Because he's not asking for money There's no sex scandal about him. So he's not in it for the money or the sex.

So his motives must be pure, right? Or maybe he's in it for the appearances For the ego boost and having people look to him and listen to him pride

Appearances is a sin that drives many people here is the first case of church discipline in the history of the church and it was executed by God himself and It's for hypocrisy

It's just right trying to look like something you're not To the church, it's not over sex

Anything like that it's over hypocrisy because hypocrisy is disgusting to God Here Peter told him

You could have kept all the money if you wanted His sin isn't that he didn't give 100 % his sin is that he lied about it

He lied to the church and thus Peter says in verse 4 you have not lied to men But to God what's a church with mega grace look like Sometimes people fall down dead

Then there's another mega word in verse 5 Mega fear great grace brings great fear

Now all this time Sapphira was out shopping at the Jerusalem Galleria with the extra money that she had or something

But so she hadn't heard what happened to Ananias three hours later. She comes to the church and Peter asked her

Tell me whether you sold the land for Whatever that lower price was they agreed to lie about Being a meek submissive wife.

She followed her husband's leadership his headship and said yes for so much

Submission never excuses sin you never follow anyone into sin

Right, she had an opportunity to get out to tell the truth Maybe break down into tears and confess.

Yeah, and Ananias told me to say for so much, but I can't lie We actually made much more But she didn't take advantage of it

She went along And so she condemned herself So Peter says how is it that you've agreed together to test?

The spirit of the Lord they're testing him to see if great grace

Means tolerance of sin acceptance. No judgment. No discipline like a lot of people today believe

She's about to get the answer to her test Peter says behold the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out

They were testing the Lord and so he answered Peter Dropped dead

The result was again in verse 11 great fear mega grace produces mega fear

You have a sense of the presence of God and you you tremble for offending him

Here the church for the first time by the way in verse 11 Luke uses the word first of all of Luke and now in Acts This is the first time he uses the word church the church had great grace and great fear

What impact? Does mega grace have it? inspires great fear mega fear

Transforms you it makes you tremble at his word the thought of violating it so it just Makes you shudder so you pay very

Careful attention makes you fear. It's not a not a cowardly sniveling panic fear, but in awestruck overwhelmed sense of his greatness that makes you realize that you're in the presence of holiness and You're unholy like Isaiah the temple.

Whoa is me. I I am undone That and you know that the only thing between you and destruction is great grace

Grace that you are in no way responsible for that didn't come from your works or your your words

Your incantation mega grace that you had better not offend or abuse

Lest it be taken from you amazing grace that saved a wretch like you and Grace that has led you safe thus far and grace that will lead you home

Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved

How precious did that grace appear? the hour