How can your heart be right with God? Billy Graham explains in this 1989 message from Syracuse, New York.
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 and
the great commandment,
“and the second is like unto it,
“Thou shalt love
thy neighbor 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.
Love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart
and all thy soul
and all thy strength.
You know, here in Syracuse,
as you enter the city on I-690
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 advisor 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 who said,
“If my head says one thing
and my heart another,
which should I follow?”
And Bernard Baruch said
to Mrs. Roosevelt,
“Follow your heart.”
You see, your heart is
the center of your life.
You know, if you think
about your heart,
your physical heart,
it beats a hundred thousand
strokes every twenty-four hours.
It contracts four thousand times
an hour.
Our blood weighs about
twenty-five 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 our initials on trees
or on the side of some barn
our girlfriends name and
a picture of the heart.
Valentine’s Day is
a day for sweethearts
and the symbol is a heart.
When we become frightened
or excited,
we put our hands
over our hearts.
It’s 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
and singing the
Star-Spangled Banner,
we put our hands
over our hearts.
Or 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 hath
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 adulteries
and fornications
“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
a disease the Bible calls sin.
You see heart is also
the seat of life.
The Bible says your heart
will live forever.
Think of it, your body is going
to die and go to the grave
but your heart, your soul,
your spirit, will live forever.
A thousand years from tonight
it will 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 or woman,
out of the heart are
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 Colona fell into
the hands of his assailants
and they asked him
in derision,
“Wherein now is
your fortress?”
Steven 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 or touched
but are just felt in the heart.”
You see, the heart has come
to stand for
the moral, spiritual and
intellectual life of a person.
It’s the seat of a person’s
conscience and life
and 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 about 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.
They’re 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
deviseth 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 know it?”
That’s your heart.
That’s what the Bible thinks
of your heart.
That’s what God thinks about
your heart and my heart.
The Bible says the heart is far
from God in Matthew 15.
“This people draweth nigh
unto me with their mouth
“and honoreth 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 in our lives
the fruit of the Spirit which is
love and joy and peace,
and gentleness, faithfulness.
And then the Bible says that our
hearts are a treasury of evil.
Mark 7, Jesus said,
“For within, out of the heart
proceed evil thoughts.”
Evil thoughts come
from the heart.
Adultery.
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
and foolishness.
All these things the Bible said,
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 their ignorance comes
from the fact that
they don’t know God.
They don’t know the Bible.
They don’t know God’s plan
for 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 many people who
have very little education,
but they know God
and they know more about what’s
wrong and how to right 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
or 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, the devil darkens
our understanding.
Sin darkens
our understanding.
Sin paralyzes our will.
Dulls the conscience
and defiles the heart.
And then the Bible says
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 third chapter.
And then our hearts are blind.
Ephesians 4,
“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 that 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 who put
their faith 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.
It deceives other people.
And then in Psalm 101 it says
that our hearts are proud.
“Him that hath a high look
and a proud heart,
“I’ll not recognize,” says God.
Then the Bible says
our hearts are rebellious.
“But this people hath 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.
It may that box in
the corner in your room
that we call television.
And you spend
more time in 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, “O 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.”
And then the Bible says
our hearts are stony.
“And I will take the stony heart
out of their flesh.”
The Bible says our hearts are
stony, hard, cold and barren.
That’s your heart.
That’s what the Bible says.
That’s how God diagnoses
your heart.
You go to a cardiologist
to get diagnosed
and he puts instruments on you,
gives you a stress test
or whatever,
or you take a cardiogram
or take an angiogram.
I remember the first time
I had an angiogram
at the Mayo Clinic
in Rochester, Minnesota,
I was 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 they had
a big screen up there.
He said, it’s already in.
Look up there.
I didn’t even know it
when they did it.
And I’d been told by people,
“Oh my,”
and they had me
nervous about it.
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, uhm, how
Pharaoh hardened his heart.
In Exodus 7 it says,
“And the Lord said unto Moses,
“Pharaoh’s heart is hard.
“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 hardeneth his heart,
“being often reproved,
“shall suddenly be cut off
and that without remedy.”
In other words, there will come
the last time
that you harden your heart
and it will all be over.
There will 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 harder.
It will be like Pharaoh’s heart
getting harder and 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 ponders it.
Think of the Almighty God
studying your heart.
“Every way of a man is right
in his own eyes,
“but the Lord pondereth
the heart.”
Proverbs 21:2.
The scripture says,
“If thou sayest,
“Behold we know it not;
“doth not he that pondereth
the heart consider it
“and he that keepeth thy soul,
“doeth he not know it
“and shall not he render
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 the heart.
What do you mean
he weighs the heart?
Well, He weighs your heart
by the Ten Commandments.
He weighs it by
the Sermon on the Mount.
He weighs it by the great law
that we just read.
He weighs it by
the life of Christ.
He weighs it 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 slaughter-house religion.
There is a lot about
blood in the scriptures.
But the Bibles says
without the shedding of blood
there is no forgiveness of sins.
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
God prepares the heart
by the Holy Spirit.
He prepares your heart.
Your heart’s already been
prepared for
this meeting tonight.
He prepares for 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
was God preparing you.
The Bible says
He opens the heart.
Acts 16:14
Whose heart the Lord openeth.
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 its all of God.
He’s the one who gave
His Son on the cross.
He’s the one who sent
the Holy Spirit to convict you.
He’s the one that made it
possible for you
to come here tonight
so 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 patch you up.
“A new heart also
will I give you
“and a new spirit
will I put within you
” 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’ve been baptized,
I’ve been confirmed,
and I try to live
a good life.
I don’t succeed,
but 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 vows.
You need to come to the Lord
and say,
“Lord, I haven’t kept
those vows.
“I want to re-confirm them.
“I want to re-dedicate my life
to what I promised
“at confirmation or what was
promised for me at baptism.”
Many people like that.
Thousands of people.
Whether you’re
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
that are spoken of
in this chapter.
If your heart is right,
the rest of you is
going to be right too.
Christ changed
the pattern of living.
He said, “A good man out of
the good treasures of the heart
bringeth forth good things
and an evil man out
of the evil treasures
brings forth evil things.
Christ said, except a man is
born of above
he cannot see
the kingdom of heaven.
How do you receive him?
First, you must repent of sin.
You have to say to God,
“O Lord, 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, 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 to see
if it would 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 at the resurrection
when God raised him
from the dead and he’s alive.
I’m going to ask you to do it
as we saw last night more than
a thousand people do.
I’m going to ask you to get up
out of your seat.
From up there in the top gallery
and around,
it will 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 clergyman 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 are two roads.
There’s the narrow
road and the broad road.
You’re on one or the other.
Which one are you on?
Young people, older people,
whoever you are,
I’m going to ask you to come
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.
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 your 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 your 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, up there
and in the choir.
God has spoken
to some of you.
Get up and come.
♪ Just as I am,
without one plea ♪
♪ But that thy blood,
was shed for me ♪
♪ O Lamb of God,
I come, I come. ♪
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.
We’re in the Carrier Dome,
this beautiful magnificent
structure here
in Syracuse, New York
in the central part of the state
and what a wonderful part of
America this really is.
And tonight, as you can see,
there’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
and to help you.
May God help you to make
that commitment tonight.
God bless you.
There’s 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.
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,
why don’t you call
the number on the screen.
There will 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 at
1-877-772-4559.
That’s 1-877-772-4559.
Or you can write to us at:
Billy Graham
1 Billy Graham Parkway
Department C
Charlotte, NC 28201
Or you can contact us on the web
24/7 at PeaceWithGod.tv.
We’ll 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.
(Franklin Graham) We still have
a window of opportunity
to reach a lost and dying world
with the truth of God’s love.
It’s not too late.
We’ve got an opportunity
to tell others
about Jesus Christ.
What are you going
to do with it?