Billy Graham, who is our neighbor?

I'm going to icing we bow our heads in prayer every head bowed in prayer my message will be brief and I want you to listen carefully and prayerfully and reverently because for many of you you will never be the same again not because of me but because of the word of God that can transform and change your life you can leave here with your sins forgiven you can leave here knowing that you're going to heaven what a marvelous thing you can leave here with peace in your heart and a troubled in torn world our Father and our God we pray that many this night will say yes to the claims of Jesus Christ and find eternal life for we ask it in his name Amen now I want you to turn with me tonight to the tenth chapter of Luke and a very familiar passage that every young person here will relate to young and old the tenth chapter of Luke beginning at the twenty fifth verse and behold a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him saying master what shall I do to inherit eternal life now Jesus was asked that same question about nineteen times in his period of ministry that is recorded in the Gospels in various forms he was asked that question what must I do to inherit eternal life and he said unto him what is written in the law how read is that and the answering said thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy strength and with all thy mind and bye neighbor as thyself and he said unto him thou hast answered write this do and thou shalt live but no one has ever done no one in the history of the human race has ever loved God with all his heart mind and strength all of his life and his neighbors himself all his life that's the reason we've all come short we're all sinners and we all need to repent of our sins and find forgiveness at the cross but he willing still now to justify himself as many of you would like to justify yourself said but who is my neighbor he was a lawyer and it was his job to cross-examine he said but who is my neighbor Jesus answering him said a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among thieves which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed leaving him half dead and by chance there came down a certain priest that way and when he saw him he passed by on the other side and likewise a Levite when he was in the place came and looked on him and passed by on the other side but a certain Samaritan as he journeyed came where he was and when he saw him he had compassion on him I noticed he did ten things he had compassion on him and he went to him and he bound up his wounds pouring oil poured in wine set him on his own horse oh he's beast and took him to an inn and took care of him and on the morrow when he departed he took out two pence and gave them to the host and said unto him take care of him and whatsoever thou spendest more when I come again I will repay thee which now of these three thinkest thou said jesus to the lawyer was the neighbor under him that fell among the thieves and the law answered he that showed merci omen then said Jesus go thou and do likewise now this is not a parable this is not a story that Jesus had made up it's an actual event and Jesus gave this story as an answer to these two questions that this lawyer asked the first question master what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life everybody here would like to have eternal life everybody would like to know that when you die you're going to heaven you know you're going to die it is appointed unto man once to die you cannot escape death but you'd like to know that you have eternal life now eternal life does not begin at death the eternal life begins the moment you know Christ is your Lord and Savior there are many people that are here and now alive physically but you're dead spiritually you're dead toward God you have no relationship and no fellowship with God whatsoever you go to church and you go through all the rituals and you have religion but you don't really have Jesus Christ and so religion becomes rather dull to you it's a disappointment to you and so you try to find your kicks in drugs or sex or something else you turn to other things to escape because there's always this empty place in everybody's heart that only God can fill because you were made in the image of God and without God there's an emptiness there's a lacking then you're always all your life searching for something and you're searching for eternal life you want to eternal life you can have eternal life right tonight it could start tonight in your heart as Christ comes to dwell in your life and in your heart on the Dick Cavett show recently dick was asked is there life after death and he answered this way mr. Cavett does not have the answer as to whether there is life after death and he's right but I have the answer from the Word of God there is life after death and the moment you die that eternal life that began here tonight when you receive Christ will continue on forever and ever and ever throughout eternity with Christ eternal life receive tonight can determine where you will be a thousand years from the night that seems impossible to believe doesn't it it's staggering to the imagination well it's staggering to the imagination to me when they tell me there are eight billion galaxies out there and in every galaxy eight billion stars and planets that staggers my imagination but it staggers my imagination that I'm even alive when I see some of the pictures that they are now showing of the human body or just the human eye alone it staggers the imagination and I have to accept by faith that all of this exists and back of it is a Supreme Being and that Supreme Being tells me I've broken the moral law of the universe and I need to turn to his son Jesus Christ well describe these questions first of all it was a social question who is my neighbor how many times think of New York City you know New York City is a unique city many people swear at it every time they go through it I'll have to go through it I don't I like New York it's the largest one of the largest Italian cities in the world it is the largest Jewish city in the world it's the largest Irish city in the world it's one of the largest spanish-speaking cities in the world and it is the largest black city in the world and all the nations of the world live in New York and it's amazing to me that they get along as well as they do now who is your neighbor if you live in New York Jesus gave him thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy strength and my neighbor as thyself mr. McNamara told the World Bank recently that 30 million children under the age of five starved last year are they our neighbors those starving children eight hundred and fifty million people on this planet live on a starvation diet at this moment are they our neighborhoods Pope John Paul was right to say to the farm people gathered on that our field that we are our brother's keeper when is the last time you shared your social life with someone of another race or another ethnic background or your material goods with the poor your knowledge with those who need an education or your skills with the untrained and your compassion and prayers for the Peace of the world have you cared for the aging the the crippled the handicapped the blind the the alcoholic the dope addict the morally fallen with your love and concern who is your neighbor what is your responsibility to your neighbor in the modern world of Transportation and Technology the whole world has become a neighborhood without being a Brotherhood and the whole world suddenly becomes our neighbor those people that are suffering in Southeast Asia are enables those people suffering in Central Africa are our neighbors and we have a responsibility to them a few weeks ago we went a state prison and held a service and we talked to some of those prisoners individually as well as collectively and I thought to myself they are my neighbors and Jesus condemned those who did not go and visit those in prison and I thought about it we have a Cambodian family that's moved into our little community where I live and my wife went down and should they don't speak the language of anyone in our neighborhood as far as we knew only six or seven or 12 I believe it's 12 the United States had speak that particular dialect of that particular group from high up in the mountains of Cambodia and two of them happen to live in our neighborhood they were missionaries on ferla and they speak a little Mandarin my wife was born read in China she could communicate a little bit with them through Chinese because they spoke a little of it but she went down fixed them some Chinese food many people were helping they were sponsored with the churches of the area and then my wife took the little girl one of the little girls a doll a little Chinese doll that she had saved since she was a little girl and it was a Chinese doll from China and she took it to give it to the girl and the girl jumped back afraid and then when she saw what it was she smiled and reached out and grabbed it and just hugged it somebody a couple days earlier I had given her a stuffed frog and she'd never seen a stuffed frog and she was frightened by and she didn't know what these strange Americans might be giving her to show just a little bit of love and compassion and how sweet and gracious they are how appreciative they are the slightest little thing people in the community do for them the scripture says Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted a new book has just come out by psychiatrists entitled the broken heart and in Toronto delegates came from all around the world to a convention on mended hearts Jesus came to heal broken hearts how many broken hearts are here tonight your girlfriend walked out on your your boy friend has said no and it's broken your heart you say well that's puppy love but it's real to the puppy and parents are to have an understanding period during adolescence when we're going through all of these ups and downs and we're changing physiologically and we're changing psychologically we're changing philosophically everywhere we're changing and yet during that changing period we're asked to make some of the greatest decisions of our life our vocation who we're going to marry all the rest of it were asked to make and then there was a spiritual question not only a social question but a spiritual question throughout history the church has shifted back and forth as to its emphasis on personal Redemption and social involvement they both go hand in hand but this man said master what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life and the spiritual poverty of that man was deeper and worse than the material poverty and Jesus showed that over and over again that the spiritual disease is worth worse than the physical disease we can go out to Southeast Asia right now to Thailand to some of those camps and it will break your heart my son has been there several times and told me some of the most horrifying stories and we see it on our television screens and we say what can we do we feel so helpless in a moment when people are suffering so terribly in so many parts of the world it's overwhelming to us and we are to do what we can they are our neighbors but there's another disease right here in Halifax right here in Nova Scotia that is worse than the diseases in those camps it's the spiritual disease the disease of sin and you've got it it's a leprosy it's worse than cancer because it destroys the soul and destroys your relationship with God it comes between you and peace and joy and happiness and you need to turn your life over to Christ and have this eternal light you know HG Wells once said as he looked into the future he said an interesting thing he said in a few as he said the universal question of the union of the of the world will be what must I do to be saved and that's what the world is asking right now the arms race is on on a scale the world has never known we now read about the possibilities of biological warfare that we thought was sort of in the past it's not in the past and all of these horrible things we read about that are happening in the world what must I do to be saved how can we be saved that's the same question that was asked Paul and Silas in prison and Paul said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved but it's not only a social and spiritual but it's an individual problem jesus said a certain man now Jesus is interested in you as an individual he sees the spera when it falls he said and he has the hairs of your head numbered and he sees you as an individual he said a certain man he loves people behold how he loved him greater love hath no man than this that he lay down his life for his friends and the scripture says this certain man in this story went down he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho Jericho was 800 feet below Jerusalem about 18 miles away and a certain man went down the Jericho Road now Jerusalem was the place of the City of God it was the city of peace at that time it was a city of truth it was a city where the theologians were but now he was going down and that's the downward course of sin and we're all on that downward I rode every one of us and if you read the scriptures and read the first chapter Romans you'll find that sin starts in the very beginning and leads us downward downward downward down and like the shadow when it decline it said the psalmist I am tossed down and this certain man was on his way down like you are on your way down the President of the United Nations is right when he said we will never make more obsolete until we find a force that will bridle the passions of men and Nations we've never found that force we've never found that tranquilizer we've never found that pill that can change the human heart except the gospel Jesus Christ on that cross can transform the human life and change hate to love a certain man fell among thieves and they stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and we have all fallen in with the devil and his demons and they've stripped us they wounded us they've left us for dead jesus said the thief cometh not but to steal and to kill and to destroy I'm come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly notice the difference there's a thief that comes to kill to destroy to kill you but jesus said I've come to give them life and to give them life more abundantly and all over the world sin is rampaging raping ravaging Humanity violence terrorism we read it every day in our newspapers murder muggers and rapists in our major cities have become a major problem thieves have wounded and stripped this man and departed from him and left him half-dead alone and forsaken when he came to and got his consciousness back he found himself crushed and unable to move just like you there you'll wake up you'll find yourself sin has destroyed you and you cannot move the Bible says that we're dead in sins and trespasses the Bible says she that liveth in pleasures dead while she lives you can be physically alive but spiritually dead your soul is dead it cannot save itself it cannot move it cannot get up out of the ditch it cannot heal those wounds that's why Christ came and died on the cross the wages of sin is death the man is going to die you're going to die and then there came some salvation quacks alone the world is full of false messiahs and false prophets and false Christ's Jamestown a Jones town down in Ghana is still fresh in our memories where Jim Jones went and nine hundred people died and how many of those false cults there are all over the world today these false messiahs promising all kinds of things Jesus said take heed that no man deceive you he warned that many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many Paul said evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived as we approach the end of the age John said many antichrist would come he said beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God because of the false prophets that had gone out into the world and as we approach the end of the age they will intensify they will get worse and worse and more believable all the time and many people will follow them to their doom into their death a priest came along think of an our priest came along a preacher clergyman and it says that he looked over and he saw this man over there suffering and dying and wounded and stripped and he passed by on the other side now he was too busy on his way probably to a religious conference to stop and help this poor man Paul wrote to Timothy having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof you see religion will not save anybody people say oh I'm religious sure you have religion but that's not going to see you are saved by Jesus Christ by the blood that was shed on the cross by his resurrection by what is called in the Bible the charisma the story of Christ on the cross when God took your sins and laid them on Christ and he became sin for us who knew no sin that's the only way anybody's going to be saved I don't care who you are no one is going to go to the kingdom of heaven except the way God said you might not like it that way but that's the way it is there is a way that seemeth right unto man but the end thereof the ways of death says divided come to the cross find forgiveness and eternal life and then you have the ability and then you have the vision to go out and help your neighbor and then the Levite came now the Levite was a student of the law that is the Ten Commandments he believed in keeping the law he was a legalist but he did something that they priests didn't do he stopped and in the Greek it indicates that he stopped and looked for a long time at this fellow he looked at it and looked at him so I'm bleeding so I'm still breathing looked him all over then he figured well he was too busy to and he didn't want to defile himself but touching a fellow that's going to die he didn't want to get involved in that fellows problem so he walked by also on the other side now this is a story Jesus told an actual story actually happen and how many times it happens today people say they can be saved by doing the best they can I saw a poll in New Jersey some time ago that said 92% of the people said they hope to go to heaven but they were not sure but John said we know that we've passed from death unto life Peter said for as much as you know that she will redeem Paul said I know in whom I have believed and am persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day the Apostle John said these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that she may know that she have eternal life you don't have to doubt it do you doubt that you're going to heaven tonight do you doubt that you have eternal life do you doubt that your sins are forgiven is there a doubt in your heart if there is then I'd make sure tonight you say I've been baptized I've been confirmed of I've done everything I was told to do but you're not sure come and make sure recommit your life reconfirm your life reconfirm what your parents promised in Baptism reconfirm what you promised many people need to do that I needed to do that I was brought up in the church baptized confirmed and all the rest but I still didn't really know Christ as my savior and my law there came a time when I had to say yes Lord I will receive you I will turn from my sins I will allow you to change my way of living not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy he saved us so the wounded derelict man was left to die the priest and the Levite unwilling to save him and Jesus now shows us the simplicity and the saving power of the gospel a certain Samaritan came along now Samaritan was a half-caste he was half Gentile and half Jewish and the Jews and the Gentiles at that time had nothing to do with each other and certainly the Jews and the and the Samaritans had nothing to do with each other they didn't trust each other in that ancient debt they do today but they did they didn't at that time and so this Samaritan who normally would have nothing to do with somebody of another ethnic background came along and saw what happened now he could have said to himself I have no responsibility for this guy he got in his own trouble he should have come along armed and ready for the thieves and the robbers on this road he should have prepared himself I don't have any responsibility toward him he's not related to me he hates me God could have done the same with us he could have looked at this little planet whirling out into space like a speck of dust with little ants called people living on it lost separated from him dying being born live a few years and then died being born live a few years and died in sin and go on with their own pleasures defying God and he could have said sweep them all into hell he could have said let's destroy the planet he could have done it with the snap of his finger he could have done it with an order to what angel but he didn't do it the Bible says for God so loved the world so loved you don't understand that do you how can you you can't love like that only an infinite God can so love to do what he did to save this little planet to save you the grace of God we didn't deserve it dr. Menninger the great psychiatrist from Kansas said love is the medicine for the sickness of the world one of your former prime minister was quoted in the press some time ago as saying never he had never known a time in his whole lifetime when there was such a shortage of love I read of a woman in London England who died at 102 and for the last years of her life she had nightly made an entry in her diary and here's what her diary said day after day and day after day no one called today no one loves me she died alone but I'll tell you somebody does love you I don't care what your problems aren't what your attentions on what your precious what your sins aren't what your failures are God loved you God loves you so much that he sent his son to the cross to endure that terrible death for you just for you if you'd have been the only one he would have died for you and so this Samaritan went to him just as Christ will come to you tonight in your hurt in your distress in your failure and your sin he will come to you he didn't just love him leave him Jesus didn't just love us leave us he died he did something and this certain Samaritan did the same thing but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us you remember reading in the papers some time ago about this doctor from Windsor Ontario that went down to Chicago with his wife I think now I'm not sure they want their honeymoon but they went down to Chicago and they ate at a restaurant and you remember that they were held up by some robbers on the street outside in a rather nice neighborhood and the robber pulled the gun and held it at the head of of his wife or his bride and he rushed in between and the robber shot him and killed him he was saving his wife just as the Lord Jesus Christ rushed in for his bride those of us who are members of his body he died on the cross for us because he loved us Christ loved you and died for you but God who is rich from in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us notice the Samaritan bound up his wounds and poured in some oil now the oil stands for the Holy Spirit you see the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts and convicts us of sin and then after we've received Christ the Holy Spirit comes to fill our hearts and to produce the fruit of the Spirit and to give us gifts so that we can serve Him and then he poured in the wine and the wine with its alcoholic content was an antiseptic that would help heal the wound and that wine as you take it at communion or the juice that may be served in your church stands for the blood of Christ and the Bible says the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanse it from all sin God doesn't just change us and convert us and give us eternal life God keeps us and brought him up the scripture says to an inn and took care of him and Peter said who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation you don't have to hold on and stay in the kingdom of God by holding on he holds you he takes care of you he put him on his own beast yet his own ambulance right there and so Christ will put you in a place and give you a peace and a joy that was the first Samaritan Hospital in history right there the psalmist said concerning Christ he brought me up says he sent me up he set my feet on her on a rock he held me up he tunes me up he'll catch me up someday and on the day after when he left he paid the price and said if he has any more needs I'll pay when I come back Jesus Christ is coming back to receive a son to himself we win Milwaukee for our Last Crusade and there was a boy 17 years of age that had stolen an automobile and beaten up and tied the man that he stole it from and they put it all points bulletin out for him and they couldn't find him in ten days past the crusade was on he passed on the highway and heard the choir singing and a few blocks later the car broke down he decided to go to the crusade he came that night he came forward and found Christ he was counseled by a wonderful Christian couple they took him home treated him wonderfully then Mac the next day they took him to the to a pastor and the pastor took him to the police and he told his story and he said Christ has forgiven me I may have to go to prison but Christ is in my heart and it's worth it all and we could tell you story after story of how people have come forward in these Crusades like this and had that same experience in remarkable ways you have wounds tonight and hurts tonight and precious tonight in sinston Christ can touch your life and make you new and give you eternal life and then you will have the strength and the ability to go out and be a neighbor to those that you should be a neighbor to you say what do I have to do you have to say god I'm sorry I've sinned Lord I'm willing to change my way of life lord I receive you into my heart by faith and I do it openly every person Jesus called he called openly and publicly in the New Testament that's the reason I'm going to ask you to get up right now and come forward and stand in front of the platform I want you to get up and come and stand and say tonight I want eternal life I want my sins forgiven I want to know I'm going to heaven I want Christ in my heart I want a new relationship with him you get up and come right now we're going to wait men women people and after you've all come I'm going to say a word to you have a prayer with you give you some literature if you've come with friends they'll wait just come right now you may be a leader in your church I don't know who you are in almost every crusade we have a clergyman even that comes sometimes to renew his faith sometimes to receive Christ whatever the reason God has spoken to you tonight you get up and come if you come from that top area that takes about a minute and a half maybe two minutes down here it just takes a minute and after you've all come we'll have a prayer together and then you can go back and join your friends you get up and come right now and make this commitment to Christ we're going to wait quickly no one leaving you just get up and come right now you that have been watching by television can see that scores of people are coming from every part of this great stadium to make their commitment to Jesus Christ and where you are in a living room in a hotel room and a bar wherever you can make that same commitment to Christ and if you will write to me Billy Braille Minneapolis Minnesota that's all the address you need or Billy Graham Winnipeg Manitoba and we'll send you the same literature that we're going to give the people here to help them in that Christian life god help you to make that commitment and be sure and go to church like Sukkot you

Channel: Getsmart Productions

Views: 1,010,129

Keywords:

Id: u0pCHp9w_Yo

Length: 36min 0sec (2160 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 08 2014