A Cure for Heart Trouble | Billy Graham Classic

in 1949 of bold and dynamic young preachers set out on a journey that would have an impact on every continent for generations to come for more than 50 years and to more than 210 million people Billy Graham is passionately spoken about the certainty of wholesome found in Jesus Christ there are many things about cuts that I don't understand or comprehend I accept his revelation of himself by faith he's brought races and denominations together toward a common purpose as he's preached in 185 countries around the world he belongs to the whole world he is stood alongside presidents met with dignitaries and world leaders and today Billy Graham is recognized among the most influential religious leaders in the history of the world [Music] from our archives the Billy Graham classics now tonight I want you to turn with me to the 22nd chapter of Matthew's Gospel and I want to speak on the subject a cure for heart trouble then one of them which was a lawyer asked him a question tempting him and saying master which is the Great Commandment in the law and jesus said unto him thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind this is the first in the great commandment and the second is like unto it thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself on these two Commandments hang all the law and the prophets think of it all the law and all the prophets hang on these two Commandments I want to give you the scripture text again so you can memorize it it's Matthew 22 and 37 38 39 and 40 and it's no mistake that Jesus made he did it deliberately he listed the heart first to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy strength you know here in Syracuse as yet of the city on i-69 T there's a huge billboard announcing that Syracuse is the heart of New York State and I believe it is it's the heart of New York State and President Roosevelt Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt were associated worldwide with central New York and Bernard Baruch who was one of the great philosophers and advisors to six presidents and one of the most brilliant Jewish leaders in the country and a friend to me once was asked by Eleanor Roosevelt said if my head says one thing in my heart another which should I follow and Bernard Baruch said to mrs. Roosevelt follow your heart you say your heart is Center of your life you know if you think about your heart your physical heart it beats a hundred thousand strokes every 24 hours it contracts four thousand times an hour our blood weighs about 25 pounds and all of it passes through the heart every four minutes in proverbs 23:7 the scripture says as a man thinketh in his heart so is he and the heart is used throughout the Bible considered far more than a bodily organ it's the seat of our emotions as boys I remember we used to write initials on trees off on the side of some barn our girlfriend's name and a picture of the heart Valentine's Day is a day for sweethearts as US and the symbol is a heart when we become frightened or excited we put our hands over our hearts at the center of our emotions when we salute the flag like we did the other day at the Rotary Club when they were saluting the flag of singing the star-spangled banner we put our hands over our hearts saying some of the great patriotic things we put our hands over our hearts the heart is also the seat of decisive action the Bible says The Fool has said not in his mind but in his heart there is no God and the scripture says in proverbs 4 keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life the heart is the seat of belief as well as the basis of doubt Christ said for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts and murders and adulterers and fornication and thefts and false witnesses and blasphemies but you have something wrong with your heart and I have something wrong with my heart our hearts are diseased by disease that the Bible calls sin you see the Bible the heart is also the seat of life the Bible says your heart will live forever think of it your body is going to die go to the grave but your heart your soul your spirit will live forever a thousand years from tonight it'll still be alive when God looks at man he doesn't look at the color of his skin the kind of clothes he wears or his social position the Bible says out of the heart of a black person or an oriental person or a white man a woman out of the heart of the issues of life and no physician on earth can tell one from the other we're all alike in the sight of God the Bible says man looks on the outward appearance but God looks upon the heart and in the scriptures the heart is considered the symbol of the entire person when Steven of Colonna fell into the hands of his assailants and they asked him in derision where and now is your fortress Stephen placed his hand over his heart and said here is my fortress Helen Keller who was blind and deaf and dumb wrote the best and most wonderful things in the world cannot be seen a touched but a just felt in the heart when Sir Walter Raleigh had laid his head upon the executioner's block the officer asked if his head lay right and Sir Walter Raleigh answered this way it matters little my friend how the heart lies provided the heart is right for how the head lies it's whether the heart is right or not you see the heart has come to stand for the center of the moral spiritual and intellectual life of a person it's the seat of a person's conscience in life an extremely important and the question I want to ask you tonight is this is your heart right is your heart right is it right with God because if it's not right with God your sins are not forgiven you're not going to heaven when you die our hearts have to be right I do not ask about your outward life I don't ask about your intellectual life or your financial status or your social life I'm asking about your heart what your heart dig deep into your heart tonight in your thinking how are you toward God are you right with God the Bible says prepare to meet thy God and before you can prepare to meet God your heart has to be right and your heart has to be touched by the Holy Spirit now what does the Bible teach about the heart the Bible teaches that our hearts are sinful their sinful mine is yours is we're born with it from Adam and Eve it's passed on from generation to generation and the Bible says first of all that our hearts are full of evil imaginations proverbs 6:18 a heart that devises wicked imaginations what do you imagine what are your fantasies what do you fantasize about and then secondly the Bible says the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful Jeremiah 17:9 the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can note that your heart that's what the Bible thinks of your heart that's what God thinks about your heart and my heart now by the Bible says the heart is far from God in Matthew 15 this people draweth 9 to me with their mouth and honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me how many of us go to church and sing how many of us go to church and listen to the clergyman how many of us outwardly live a fairly good life but our heart is far from God we don't have that experience with Christ in which he's in our hearts all day long and we think about him and pray to him and he's close to us but he should be and we're not bearing in our bodies and lives the fruit of the Spirit which is love and joy and peace and gentleness faithfulness and then the Bible says our hearts our treasury of evil mark 7 jesus said for within out of the heart proceed evil thoughts evil thoughts come from the heart adultress you might commit adultery with your body but it starts in the heart and in the mind and fornications and murders and thefts and covetousness and wickedness and deceit lasciviousness an evil eye blasphemy pride foolishness all these things the Bible's Jesus said come from the heart so the most important thing in the world for you tonight is to be sure that your heart is right with God and that you have been forgiven of all those things and how many today have darkened hearts I'm sometimes absolutely amazed at their ignorance of the world and the ignorance comes from the fact that they don't know God they don't know the Bible they don't know God's plan of the ages and so they make so many mistakes because their heart is dark and Satan has blinded their eyes and many times I've talked to people who have very little education but they know God and they know more about what's wrong and how to write it than those people with all the brilliant education you see there's something wrong with us that we don't recognize in the world in which we live our world is secular our world doesn't want to take into account that God exists all that man is made in the image of God his heart is made in God's image and made for fellowship with God and without God it's dark you see he darkens out and the devil darkens our understanding sin darkens our understanding sin paralyzes our will does the conscience and defiles the heart and then the Bible says that we have unbelieving hearts take heed brethren lest there be any among you with an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the Living God Hebrews the 3rd chapter and then our hearts are blind Ephesians for having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart our hearts are blind would you like to have your heart illuminated by the Spirit of God you that are watching by television can pick up the telephone and call that number on the screen right now and there's a counselor standing by ready to talk to you about how you can have a new heart because he promises a new heart to all of those that put faith in and trust in him and you can do it right now what a wonderful thing and then the Bible says our hearts are deceitful the heart is deceitful above all things think of it above all things your heart is deceitful it deceives you the deceives other people and then in Psalm 101 it says that our hearts are proud him that have a high look and a proud heart I'll not recognize says God then the Bible says our hearts are rebellious but this people have a revolting and rebellious heart they're revolted and gone the Bible says that our hearts are idolatrous we think of other things more than we think of God and anything that you think more of than you do of God becomes idolatry and maybe that box in the corner in your room that we call television and you spend more time and television than you do in the Bible more time thinking about what you've seen on the television than you do in the Bible and sometimes I have to get down on my knees and confess that I've done the same thing and I say Oh God cleanse me and forgive me I've spent too much time in front of that screen tonight I should have been reading and soaking up your word and spending time in prayer for people in Africa and people in other parts of the world where there's so much hunger and so much homelessness and so much suffering then the Bible says our hearts a stony and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh but the Bible says our hearts a stony hard cold and barren that's your heart that's what the Bible says that's how God diagnoses you are you go to a cardiologist to get diagnosed and he puts instruments on you it gives you a stress test or whatever or you take a cardiogram or take an angiogram I remember when the first time I had an angiogram at Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota I was a little bit nervous about it and I lay there and I said to the doctor there were several doctors I said when are you going to insert that tube and put that die in my heart because that a big screen up there he said it's already and look up that I didn't even know it when they did it and I'd been told by people to all mine and they had me nervous about the Bible also says that our hearts can be hardened you see Pharaoh I was watching a little bit of the Ten Commandments the other night when I was home they had it running on one of the stations and how Pharaoh hardened his heart in Exodus 7 it says and the Lord said unto Moses Pharaoh's heart is hardened he refuses to let the people go God sent ten plagues to soften Pharaoh up and he promised every time he'd let the people of Israel leave Egypt they were slaves in Egypt but he didn't do it he broke his promise every time and he hardened his heart and let me tell you something the Bible says he that hardened his heart being often reproved shall suddenly be cut off in that without remedy in other words they'll come the last time that you harden your heart and it'll all be over be no more chance for you because you see when you harden your heart it builds a little ring around it and the Holy Spirit may speak to you again but your heart will be hard up it'll be like Pharaoh's heart getting hard on harder every time until when God speaks to you you can no longer hear him what about you is your heart right God takes our heart out and Ponder's it think of the Almighty God studying your heart every way of a man is white in his own eyes but the Lord hundred the hearts proverbs 21:2 the scripture says if thou say us behold we know it not does not he that pondered the heart considerate and he that keepeth I soul that he not know it and shall not hear end it to every man according to his works he knows your heart he studies it you can't fool him you can't hide he knows all the secrets how do you stand before God is your heart right with God then the Bible says he weighs the heart and tries our what do you mean he weighs the heart well he weighs your heart by the ten commandments he wasted by the Sermon on the Mount he weighs it but the great law that we just read he weighs it by the life of Christ he wasted by the teachings of Scripture on the way we ought to live he weighs your heart how much do you weigh but there's something else all the way through the scriptures we read about the blood of Jesus Christ somebody said don't you think that the scriptures have too much about blood some have called it a slaughterhouse religion there is a lot about blood in the scriptures but the Bible says without the shedding of blood there's no forgiveness of sin if Jesus Christ had not died on that cross and shed his blood for you there's no way you could be forgiven of your sins it means that his heart bled and it is only through the cleansing of that blood that we can be forgiven and then the Bible says that God prepares heart by the Holy Spirit he prepares your heart your hearts already been prepared for this meeting tonight he prepares but the many experiences in your life the Bible says the preparations of the heart in man are from the Lord many of the experiences that you thought were terrible what was God preparing you the Bible says he opens the heart acts 1614 whose heart the Lord open it how wonderful for God to prepare the heart then open the heart then he enlightens the eyes of your understanding being enlightened without the Enlightenment the opening and preparation by the Holy Spirit no one could receive Christ you see salvation is of the Lord we receive but it's all of God he's the one that gave his son on the cross he's the one that sent the Holy Spirit to convict you he's the one that made it possible for you to come here tonight so that you can receive him into your heart and the Bible says that he gives a new heart God says an old heart will not do you have to have a new one and God doesn't just pack you up a new heart also I will give you in a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh God says a new heart is what you need what about you have you received this new heart from God you say now Billy I have been baptized I've been confirmed and I tried to live a good life I don't succeed that I try and I try to get to Sunday school once in a while and I go to church or I watch on television some church service and we think that's enough but it's not enough oh yes you may be born again at the moment of confirmation but many of you need to reconfirm your confirmation valves you need to come to the Lord and say Lord I haven't kept those vowels I want to reconfirm them I want to rededicate my life to what I promised at confirmation of what was promised for me at baptism many people like that thousands of people whether Europe what denomination it makes no difference a little Sunday school girl was asked which of the Beatitudes she would rather be like she said pure in heart they asked why she said because I could obtain a pure heart I would possess all the other good qualities spoken of in this chapter if your heart's right the rest of you is going to be right to Christ changed the pattern of living he said a good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man out of evil treasures brings forth evil things Christ said except a man is born from above he cannot see the kingdom of heaven how do you receive it first you must repent of sin you have to say to God Oh Lord I'm I've sinned I'm sorry I'm willing to change my way of living that's repentance I'm willing notice you can't do it yourself God has to help you even in the repenting and then you receive him by faith when I stepped up on this platform the other night for the first time I didn't stomp it and check it to see if it had been built to hold a man I had faith in the people that put it here when you sat in that seat you didn't look it over and feel it see if it had hold you you believed in the people that built it that's the same kind of faith we're talking about here faith in Christ not in anything else except Christ and what he did at the cross and the resurrection when God raised him from the dead and he's alive and I'm going to ask you to do it as we saw last night a thousand people do I'm going to ask you to get up out of your seat from up then the top gallery in the ground that'll take an extra minute or two and all of you down here that God has spoken to and in the choir you may be a leader in the church last night we even had a car German come but you may want to make that commitment I'm going to ask you to make that commitment tonight and say Lord I want a new heart I want to leave here a new person I want to walk a different road jesus said there two roads is a narrow road in the broad road you're on one of the other which one are you on young people older people whoever you are I'm going to ask you to come and stand here publicly why do I do it publicly when Jesus died on the cross he died publicly in your place and God laid on him all of our sins publicly he said if you're not willing to acknowledge me publicly before men I'll not acknowledge you before my father which is in heaven there's something about coming and making it public that he requires and it also psychologically does something for you and then you must follow him and serve Him it's not just a one-time experience this is the beginning of something new that's going to be daily with you in which you are trusting him you're willing to take up the cross and deny self and follow him you're willing to look on your neighbors and the needs of the world in a new way I'm going to ask you to get up and come right now and after you've all come I'm going to say a word to you and have a prayer with you and give you some literature to help you in your Christian life and if you're with friends or relatives or you've come in a group they'll wait but you get up and come we're only going to keep you a few moments here just get up and come right now hundreds of you that God has spoken to there's a little voice inside that says you ought to come you come tonight from here you up I and in the choir God has spoken to some of you get up and come [Music] [Music] [Music] you can make that decision to follow Jesus Christ just as these many hundreds are doing here in Syracuse New York the number on your screen is your number to call for spiritual help and counseling so make that call now it could be the most important call you've ever made [Music] we're in the Carrier Dome this beautiful magnificent structure here in Syracuse New York and the central part of the state and what a wonderful part of America this really is and tonight as you can see they've been hundreds of people respond to come and make their commitment to Christ or to renew their vows to Christ and you need to do the same thing that are watching you may be in a hotel room you may be in your own home whatever make your commitment to Christ tonight he'll come into your heart and if you will pick up the phone and call that number that you see and there's a counselor standing by to say a word to you to help you may God help you to make that commitment tonight god bless you [Music] there are still time to make your personal decision for Jesus Christ special friends are waiting to talk with you and to pray with you just call the number now on your screen and if the line is busy write the number down and call again in a few moments we'll be here as long as the calls keep coming in if you just prayed that prayer with my father or if you have any questions about a relationship with Jesus Christ I'll just call that number that is on the screen there'll be someone there to talk with you pray with you and answer those questions and remember God loves you if you would like to commit your life to Jesus Christ please call us right now toll free yet one eight seven seven seven seven two four five five nine that's one eight seven seven seven seven two forty five fifty nine or you can write to us at billy graham one Billy Graham Parkway Department C Charlotte North Carolina two eight two zero one or you can contact us on the web 24/7 at peace with god TV will get the same helps to you that we give to everyone who responds at the invitation on behalf of Franklin Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association thank you for watching and thank you for your prayers you

Channel: Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

Views: 907,940

Rating: 4.8857265 out of 5

Keywords: Billy Graham, Billy Graham Crusade, Syracuse, New York Crusade

Id: ZIU5KDr-oHA

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 06 2019