Jesus Loves Me This I Know For The Bible Tells Me So

Good morning, church. Wow, I make a noise on the amplification there, huh? You won't have any trouble hearing me this morning, probably. You know, the Bible says, to give honor to whom honor is due. And, Pastor Kerry, I honor you. It's humbling to stand in the pulpit. I've known this guy's walk for 50 years, and to have a distinguished man of God, faithful to the word, that's leading this congregation, we are blessed.

And I honor you today, and I stand humbly in your pulpit, my dear brother. Most of you know that I spent 37 years wearing a badge, law enforcement, retired law enforcement, also retired from the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, and so, I'm two pensions. So you might be wondering, so what's the difference when there's a cop in the pulpit, as opposed to when your preacher's in the pulpit? Well, the main difference that you'll probably notice this morning is that sleepers will be tased. So you might want to stay awake. On the other hand, it's very entertaining, but it's a big interruption to the sermon. And then you might be wondering, okay, now we've got a cop with a seminary education, what in the world does that mean?

That means that I will pray with you, I will pray for you, or I will pray over you. The choice is yours. You know, Pastor Kerry gave us the direction, for those of us that are going to be filling the pulpit during December, that if you had one sermon to preach, what would that sermon to be? In addition to that, it's the first Sunday of Advent. Advent, if you don't know, here's the educational part of my sermon. Advent is actually a Latin word. When the Greek Bible in about the 300s A. D. was translated into Latin, and this was the Bible that Martin Luther worked with in the early Reformation years.

But when the Bible was translated into Latin, the Latin word for the coming of Christ is Adventus. And the English equivalent of that is Advent. And the Latin Bible, by the way, you can amaze your friends with this bit of knowledge, is called the Vulgate. And so you know that the term Advent came from the Vulgate. And that's where we have the four Sundays of Advent to prepare for the coming of the Christ child. And Pastor Kerry mentioned that this is Hope Sunday. The other three Sundays, the second Sunday of Advent is Peace Sunday.

Third, Joy Sunday. And of course, the coming of Christ, God's great love for us. So Hope Sunday today, peace, joy, and love. The Bible says when Paul wrote to the church at Colossae that Christ in you is the hope of glory. We used to say in college, you know, the acronym for hope of glory is HOG. So we called each other hogs. That's a pretty good one, isn't it?

You end up in Kuby's barbecue. But you know, then, if I had one sermon to preach, what would it be? Normally God speaks to me pretty well when I go running. I run three times a week, a distance runner, and I just seem to be able to hear God's voice pretty good. This came to me a few weeks ago when I was running after Pastor had asked me to fill in this Sunday. And it was this. Jesus loves me, this I know.

For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong. They are weak, but He is strong. If I had one sermon to preach, it would be Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so. Pray with me. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves us.

This I know. For the Bible tells me that He came in the flesh. And what better thing at Advent? The first Advent. We'll get into the second Advent a little bit later if you stick around for the end of the sermon.

You know where the door is. God came to us in the flesh in the first Advent. And we read in Isaiah, the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament, the prophecy of Isaiah, 700 years before the birth of Christ, we find in the 7th chapter and the 14th verse, Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call His name Emmanuel. This prophecy from Isaiah had a dual meaning. There was a contemporary meaning for those who were hearing the prophecy at that very moment. And there is the prophetic or the messianic meaning for us today as we prepared for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.

The original meaning for this, as those who heard it, was that King Ahaz was very, very troubled that the warring armies against the nation were going to overcome the nation. And Isaiah spoke this prophecy to the king to convince him and to show him a sign that the neighboring armies that were bearing down on the country would not overwhelm and overrun them. And indeed, a young woman bore a son. He was named Emmanuel, which means God with us. And that was a sign to King Ahaz that God was still on the throne and under control for all of this. But for us, the prophecy means 700 years later, the coming of Jesus of Nazareth. In Matthew 1, when the angel spoke to Joseph, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to marry your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. And then the very famous Christmas verses from the book of Luke in the second chapter, eighth verse. Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone round them, and they were greatly afraid. And the angel said to them, do not be afraid. 365 times. One for every single day.

365 times, the Bible says, do not be afraid. This is one of them. Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you, you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me that God came to us in the flesh. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me that Jesus brought our salvation.

He paid the price for our sins. Again, the prophet Isaiah, 700 years before the birth of Jesus, these words from, if you don't know this chapter, write this one down. Isaiah 53. The messianic chapter of Isaiah. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we assumed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him and by His stripes we were healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to His own way. And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. That's Old Testament. And then the one that the signs hold up at the football stadium.

John 3.16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. If you don't hear anything else today, God's love for you is beyond what you can imagine. We're going to recite John 3.16, but instead of the world, put your name in there. Okay? Together. For God so loved Bill that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. The English evangelist from the 1800s, Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, The love of Jesus is the source of salvation.

He loves, He looks, He touches us, and we live. The love of Jesus is absolutely the source of our salvation. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me that He brought our salvation. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me that He beat death. He beat death. The resurrection of Jesus from that tomb is a historical fact. It is not a fairy tale.

I spent a considerable amount of time in the Lubbock Police Department as a crime scene technician, as a crime scene investigator, and sometime, if I ever have the luxury of being invited back to this pulpit, I've got a CSI analysis of the empty tomb that will thrill your heart because it's a historical, provable fact that Jesus was raised bodily. You know, we said it, how many of you were raised in the church? Raised in the church.

The Apostles' Creed. I believe in the resurrection of the body. And not just Jesus. Our bodies are going to be raised according to the Scriptures. But how many times has that just like passed over our lips and we've never really stopped to consider that Jesus beat death and that the resurrection of His body is indeed a historical fact? The women who went to the tomb is recorded by Matthew in the 28th chapter. But the angel answered and said to the women, Do not be afraid.

There's one of those 365 times of do not be afraid. For I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He is risen, as He said. Come and see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead and indeed He is going before you into Galilee. There you will see Him.

Behold, I have told you. And so they went out quickly to the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to bring His disciples the word. Folks, without Jesus beating death, without that empty tomb, we have nothing. We have Jesus the martyr who died. We don't have Jesus the resurrected Savior who beat death and that our resurrection will be like His according to the Scriptures. If you're not familiar with the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul writes to the church at Corinth. And when you stop and you consider the fact that Paul is writing to believers, a church at Corinth, and here's what he says in the 15th chapter starting with the 12th verse.

Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say there is no resurrection from the dead? Now get a grip on this, folks. This is going on in the church. And Paul is writing this some 60 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. And so here's the church in Corinth and they're having this discussion in the church when eyewitnesses to the resurrected Christ were still walking around on the earth. And they're having this discussion and some of them are saying, how could some of you be saying there's no resurrection from the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.

If dead people don't rise, then Christ didn't rise. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. I mean, the resurrection of Jesus from that tomb is central to our faith. It is the foundation of our faith. And if Christ is not raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Newsflash. Then also, those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

Those who died before us, they're dead. That's it. They're done. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable. But now, Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me that He beat death once and for all.

Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me that it's personal. It's experiential. I can experience Jesus, the risen Savior. It's not just academic. It's not just head knowledge. It's not something to know.

The resurrected Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is something for us to experience. I was raised in the church. The United Methodist Church. Well, it was the Methodist Church and then they merged with the Evangelical United Brethren and we became the United. I was there for all of that. We got cleaned up, scrubbed up, stuffed in the station wagon and dragged off to Central United Methodist Church in downtown Albuquerque every single Sunday because my dad helped win World War II and came home and they had two sons and he smoked two packs of Terrytons every week and he had a nominal job that paid the bills and we went to church on Sunday. That's what you did post World War II back then.

I was raised in the church. I was baptized as an infant. I got wet. Babies were probably wet enough without us adding to the problem but nothing happened to me miraculously for the fact that I was splattered in the Methodist Church when I was a baby. I was raised in the church. I was there every single Sunday and the gospel of Jesus Christ that he wanted to forgive my sins, save me and dwell in me was not preached from the pulpit. We were a social gospel church.

We did good things to people and that was it. I remember being in the car with my mom. It was just me and my mom and we're going down past the corner of Broadway and Central in Albuquerque. First Baptist Church is on the corner and they had a sign stuck out from the Baptist Church that said Jesus saves and I said, Mom, what does that mean? Jesus saves. And my mom says, Oh honey, we're Methodists. We don't get saved.

I had to have been about 10 years old. I remember that like it happened yesterday.

Oh, we're Methodists. We don't get saved. That's something those Baptists do. Growing up, I was an athlete. Three sport athlete, but baseball was my passion. And where my baseball ability was concerned, I was difficult to be around. I was one arrogant idiot about my athletic ability and I lived and breathed baseball.

I had dreams of at least a college scholarship, if not a shot at professional baseball. I played pretty well, but I knew it and I was a jerk. And even from being a little bitty boy, I had this temper. And God blessed my older brother because he was the object of most of my temper tantrums. And I mean, he's a whole lot bigger and stronger than me and I'm coming at him with full force. Did you ever fight with your brothers? Yeah. Kerry says, I got beat up.

And my brother could have broken me in half. But when I got mad, things were going to get broken. People were going to get hurt. It was going to get ugly. It was going to get awful. And particularly, things that happened on the baseball field, it wasn't pleasant. And God's trying to get my attention.

And I had a knee that wouldn't work. When I wasn't pitching or playing shortstop, I was behind the plate catching and I couldn't get into my catcher stance because I couldn't bend my right knee. And long story short, I had a knee operation. And this was before arthroscopic. This was when they sliced your leg open and laid your knee over here and take a jackhammer and hammer and fixed it. And I've got the scars to prove it. And I didn't get it after the first knee operation.

I made it back and same old bill, same stuff, and second knee operation. Same old and third knee operation. All while I'm still in high school, right? And I'm in a cast for 12 weeks at a time and on crutches and stuff. And then the coup de gras was a torn rotator cuff. And a kid with potential in athletics now, the parents will go get him surgically fixed.

Yeah, you're just done. Three knee operations, and I was devastated. My brother had had a change in his life after he graduated from high school. And he was hanging out with a group of people called Campus Crusade for Christ at the University of New Mexico. And I got invited on the day after Thanksgiving in 1970, which was November the 27th of 1970, which this year was Thanksgiving Day. And for the first time, with an evangelist name. I mean, he was cool.

He had the hair and all of that kind of stuff. It was 1970. Gene Selander, he's retired in Colorado Springs today, brought the gospel of Christ to this Campus Crusade gathering. And I had gone to that. And I was invaded by the Holy Spirit that night. And I was a changed person. And the most immediate thing that happened was that this huge temper that I had was just gone.

You know, a lot of our bad habits from B. C. days, before Christ days, God has to kind of chip on and work on. And if any of you ever quit smoking, you know what I'm talking about. But the temper that I had was just gone. And that was one of the most noticeable things that my family and my friends noticed was there was a changed Bill because I didn't get angry anymore. Can you imagine if I'd gone into a law enforcement career and had taken that temper in there with me?

I'd have lasted about a week. My first trip to Internal Affairs and then back to the unemployment line, you know. And to this day, and there's people that have known me here for 50 years and Debbie that I've been married to for right on 41 years. You just can't get me mad. And I've been in every bar fight, every drug raid, every had the bad guys tell, and you just can't get me mad. That's not a gauntlet for you to give it a shot. But that was some of the first evidence that I knew on the inside I had really been changed.

Paul wrote in the book of Romans that God demonstrates His own love towards us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. What a remarkable thing. You know, Scripture says somebody might die for a good person. Jesus didn't die for a good person, He died for me. And I was desperately in need of a Savior. There's a song that was written in the 1873 by a man named Horatio Spafford, It Is Well With My Soul. And some of you may know the story behind that song that his whole family, his children had died in a sinking ship.

And he penned that hymn that we've known for many years. The first verse goes, When peace like a river attendeth my soul, When sorrows like sea billows roll, He's grieving the death of His children. Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, It is well with my soul. But here's another verse from that song. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought, My sin, not in part, but the whole, Has been nailed to the cross, And I bear it no more.

Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul. Jesus loves me, this I know, For the Bible tells me that I can experience the saving grace of Jesus and I can become a new creature in Christ. Jesus loves me, this I know, For the Bible tells me that He's still forgiving me. Now, He's still forgiving me. Were I Jesus, after the death on the cross, and you come to Christ, I'd be going, That's your get out of hell free card. From now on, you walk the straight and narrow. I'm not proud of this part of my testimony.

But it has touched other people. The most egregious sins that I have committed, I did after November the 27th of 1970. Now, I'll qualify that with the fact that most of it was done as a brand new Christian when I was just learning how to follow Jesus. But it is part of my testimony that the most egregious sins that I committed, I did after Jesus came in my heart. And boy, I'll tell you, when you're running around sinning before you're saved, it's kind of awful. But when you're running around sinning once you're saved and the conviction of the Holy Spirit is banging on you from the inside, it's not pleasant. But, John wrote in his first letter, not the Gospel of John, but in 1 John at the end of your Bible, he wrote this.

To believers, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He's still forgiving me.

I'm astounded by that. If you're here today and you're one who is still grieving over sins that you've committed since you gave your heart to Jesus, lay it down. Lay it down at the foot of the cross. That is forgiven too.

He is faithful and just. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me that He's still forgiving me. Amazing. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me that He didn't leave us stranded. That even after His death and after His bodily resurrection, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit. In the Gospel of John, in the 16th chapter, as Jesus was preparing to go to the cross, He said, nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send Him, the Person of the Holy Spirit, to you.

And when He has come, here's the work that the Holy Spirit does. He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, of sin because they do not believe in Me, of righteousness because I go to My Father and you see Me no more, and of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. Jesus says, I have said many things to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will tell you of the things to come. Not only that, but in Acts 8, the Bible says, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Thank goodness I went to McMurray. And those crazy Pentecostal Methodists, because I found that I had an extension cord dragging around behind me since I had been born again, and that I could plug in to the power of the Holy Spirit.

And I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit during my freshman year at McMurray, and I found the power to overcome the sin pattern in my life, those egregious post-born-again sins, and I found the power to live. And I found that the Holy Spirit's power would use me in the gifts of the Spirit as we read in 1 Corinthians 12, and it's like I stepped back and have witnessed the things that God has done that I was a spectator for when I was actually... I have seen with my own eyes instantaneous, miraculous healings because of anointing with oil, laying on of hands, and pronouncing healing in the name of Jesus. I have experienced the benefits of a prophetic word, of a word of knowledge, of a word of wisdom. You, you, shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Other than the day that I got saved. The day and the days moving forward after receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit as promised in Scripture absolutely changed my life.

Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me He didn't leave us stranded. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me He's coming back.

The second Advent. The second. First Advent, coming of Jesus. The second Advent, He's coming back. Jesus told His disciples in John 14, Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me.

In My Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself. That where I am, there you may be also. And Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians 4, 16.

Check this out. Now, you may have heard this, right? For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. Some of you may be sitting there going, you know, I've got a problem with that.

I haven't seen people get caught up in the air to go meet anybody, and the Bible, I mean, Paul wrote that. How do I know that's true? Well, the first advent was true, and it was prophesied clearly 700 years before it happened. Second of all, Jesus Himself said that He's going to prepare a place for us, and that He will come again and receive us to Himself. Hallelujah. Jesus isn't a liar. That's where I have a problem with, and churches are full of them.

You may have been in this place in your past beliefs that well, it doesn't matter what you believe, because all the roads lead to the same place, whether you believe in Buddha, or whether you believe that you're a Muslim, God is still God, and Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me. If you're one of those that believes that all roads lead to the same place, you also have to conclude that Jesus is a liar. It's very interesting when I have a conversation with one of these folks that believes that, you know, it doesn't matter whether his name is Confucius, or Buddha, or Allah, or whatever, and I go, so you believe that Jesus is a liar. And they're not ready to make Jesus into a liar, but Jesus Himself said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father. And likewise, He promised that He would come again and receive us to Himself. And ultimately, that's the rapture, and then ultimately set up His kingdom on the earth.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth in Revelation 21. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, no sorrow, no crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.

Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me He's coming back for us. And He will establish His kingdom forever and ever, and He is not a liar. There's a contemporary Christian song that's on the radio now. And it's by an artist named Terry Ann. And she says, I am a living, breathing, walking testimony. I am the living proof of what the Lord has done. Saints, I'm a living, breathing, walking testimony.

I am a living proof of what the Lord has done. I'm also living proof that He's probably not finished with me yet.

And I'm nobody special. If He'll do it for me, He'll do it for you. He'll do it for anybody. Because He loves you, and the Bible tells us so. In 1950, a man named Stuart Hamlin wrote a song, It Is No Secret What God Can Do. The story about this song, Stuart Hamlin gave his heart to Jesus at a Billy Graham crusade. And a few days after that, he was having a conversation with his friend telling him about his salvation experience.

His friend was John Wayne. And John Wayne said to Stuart, Well, you ought to write a song about that. And he did. And if you're hearing that song in your head now, you know who sang that song and made it famous. Elvis. It is no secret what God can do. I'll spare you the rest of it.

It's no secret what God can do. What He's done for others, He'll do for you. With arms wide open, He'll pardon you. He'll fill you with the Holy Spirit. He'll empower you. The gifts of the Spirit will exude from your life. And He's coming back for you.

That where He is, we may be also. Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so. And if I had one sermon to preach, Pastor Kerryy, that's it.