Billy Graham Sermons Authors: Billy Graham

Publisher: http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives Date of Publication: 9/27/1958

No. of Pages: Abridged and Reformatted by Infonomics (August 2007)

Preface to What’s Wrong with the World?

•• Below is a transcript (abridged and reformatted by Infonomics) of Rev. Graham’s sermon that was delivered on September 27, 1958.

•• Rev. Billy Graham had preached this sermon at the Charlotte Crusade, the seventh sermon of the crusade.

•• Attendance on September 27 was 16,775 and there were 413 inquirers. •• In the transcript that follows, any comments by the transcriber are in brackets []. Any

asides by Rev. Graham are in parentheses. •• The sermon title did not appear in the paper but is from material supplied by the BGEA

What’s Wrong with the World?

•• I have been emphasizing night after night that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" [Romans 3:23].

•• In the 7th chapter of Mark, our Lord Jesus Christ is speaking. The 20th verse: "And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, . . . foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man" [verses 20-23].

•• I think every one of us tonight agrees that something is terribly wrong with the world in which we live. ••

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In Little Rock, Arkansas, they had a vote which illustrates the racial tension that is sweeping the nation. Why do we have these explosive problems in every generation?

• We also recognize that we may be on the verge of war in the Far East, a war of nuclear weapons that could destroy even civilization itself!

•• We in America have the highest standard of living in the world. We have everything, and yet something is wrong. We are not a happy people. We have more boredom per square inch in this country than any country in the world. Our divorce rate is the highest, indicating our homes are basically unhappy. A psychiatrist recently said that ninety percent of the American homes are unhappy.

•• I believe that the United Nations is doing the best it can, but I believe the United Nations is only dealing with symptoms of something deeper that is wrong with the world. I think all over the world men want peace, but somehow peace doesn't come.

•• We're trying to solve the problems of the world, but we make the mistake of treating symptoms. The race problem is a symptom. War is a symptom. Crime is a symptom. The sociological problem is a symptom. Something deeper is wrong. The fact that you cannot control certain things in your life that are wrong is a symptom.

•• What is the cause? The Bible has an answer. Jesus had an answer. Jesus said all these evil things come from within. The Bible teaches that something is wrong with human nature, something is wrong with man himself. The Bible says that man has a disease, and that disease is called S-I-N--sin. That is what is wrong with the world tonight. Man's nature has a disease. And this disease from within, said Jesus in our passage, produces evil thoughts, adultery, murders, theft. All the covetousness--that's the greed, the materialism in America that is wrong--all of that, He said, comes from within.

•• Karl Marx said that the problem of the world is social. He said, "You solve the social problems of the world, and man will be a happy individual. And we can build a utopia on earth; we can build a heaven on earth." But Jesus said, "You're wrong." He said the problem of the world is not social. The social problems are only symptoms of a deeper problem. The problem of the world is not illiteracy. The problems of the world are not summed up in poverty. It's not because there are "have not" nations and "have" nations. It's not social injustices, bad as that may be. The heart of the problem is something deeper, said Jesus. He said our problems originate from within. And He called it sin.

•• What is sin? I've read many a book that has given definitions of sin. Some people say that it's "good in the making." I read another one that said it's "the shadow cast by man's immaturity." Another said it's "another infirmity." Another said it's "a constitutional weakness." But the Bible always describes sin as the free act of an intelligent, moral, responsible being asserting himself against the will of his Maker. God says sin is man deliberately, volitionally, rebelling against God. Therefore, God holds us responsible for sin. Individuals that are sinners make up our society, and that causes the tensions and the problems and the wars and the troubles in your life, in the world in which we live. The international problems are only reflections of the individual problems.

•• There are three words that describe sin in the sight of God. 1. "Sin," the Bible says in 1 John 3:4, "is [a] transgression of the law." What law? Well,

the law of conscience. When you go against your conscience, you're sinning against God. But many people have a seared conscience. Their consciences are dulled; they're dead. Your conscience is no longer a safe guide. So we had the Ten Commandments given to man [see Exodus 20:3-17]. God says if you break one of those commandments, you are transgressing moral law and you are a sinner [see James 2:10]. Every one of you has broken the Ten Commandments. Therefore, every one of us tonight is guilty of original sin and rebellion against God. God did not originate sin. God holds us responsible.

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• Jesus said it's a disease, and so this disease called sin darkens our understanding [see Ephesians 4:18]. That's the reason tonight the most brilliant men in the world can smash the atom; but they cannot solve the problem of crime, broken homes, and the desire to kill and to have war.

Then there's another word used in the Bible for sin: the sin of omission; failure to do what you ought to do. You are a sinner whether you commit adultery or not. You are a sinner whether you ever harmed anybody or not. You are a sinner whether you've ever stolen anything or not. The Bible says the sin of omission is equally great as the sins of commission. Many people have asked me, "Where does sin originate? Where does it come from? Why does God allow it?" Let me put you straight. God did not tempt or did He cause men to sin. God did not intend man to sin. God did not want man to sin. God is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" [2 Peter 3:9]. Then why did man sin, if God created him? The Bible indicates that this is a mystery. God has not fully revealed the origin of sin to us; and, therefore, I cannot go beyond that which God has revealed in His holy Word. It is called the mystery of lawlessness, "the mystery of iniquity" [2 Thessalonians 2:7]. But we do have some hints and have an indication. We are told that sin is of the devil [see 1 John 3:8]. He said, concerning Judas, "Have not I chosen the twelve of you, and one of you is a devil?" [see John 6:70]. Satan is the one who originated sin. The human race, being free moral agents, having the ability to choose for themselves, followed the devil instead of God. When the first Adam had a choice between obeying God or obeying the devil, he obeyed the devil, forsook the Lord God; and, as a result, the human race has suffered ever since. But don't you go and blame Adam. Because the Bible says when you reach the age of accountability-that is, the age of the knowledge of good or evil, whatever age that may be--the Bible says you also deliberately broke the laws of God. You cheated in school, you told a lie, you had an evil thought, there was lust in your heart. All of these were the beginnings; and it was sin in the sight of God. Thirdly, the universality of sin. There are differences in personalities, just as there are differences in every snowflake, differences in the leaves of the trees and the blades of grass, differences in human personalities. There are differences in physiques. There are differences in nationality and in dress and in language and in custom and in outlook. We are all different. But morally and spiritually, in the sight of God, we are all sinners [see Romans 3:23]. He sees us as saved or lost.

•• The results of sin are in the daily newspaper. Down in your own heart, you know the results of sin. You've got habits that you cannot control. There are habits that you cannot overcome. These are caused by sin. You want to be good, but evil is present with you. There is a principle within you that is pulling you down. You want to be good, but you don't have the strength to be good. There is an evil principle within us.

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•• The Bible says something about that in the first of Corinthians. It says this is true because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger

than men[see 1 Corinthians 1:25]. God had already said, "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" [verse 21].

•• Now, what I am doing tonight looks foolish to some of you-- standing up here talking about sin and God and the Bible. You say, "What a waste of time!" God says that He has chosen His foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. "The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God"--this appears to be a weak method of solving the problems of the world. Because, you see, at the United Nations they don't really look to God. They don't have any prayer meetings at the United Nations, insofar as I've heard about. They don't open the debates in prayer. Thus, we've been unable to solve the basic problems of the world. You see, "The weakness of God"--that which we have rejected--"is stronger than men. For [you] see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, . . . things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence" [1Corinthians 1:25-29].

•• No one man or group of men has brains enough or the wisdom enough, without God's help, to bring peace to the world. They never have in history, and they never will until they turn to God. We don't have the power to solve. We do not have the intellectual ability to solve our social problems, even in rich, prosperous, intellectual America. Why? Because we've rejected God's simple program.

•• Then you in your own life; your life's all confused and mixed up--frustration, inner tension, no joy, no peace, no real happiness. You've got money, you've got a fine home, you have a fine family, you have a good business, good job; but down deep in your heart you have an empty place. You haven't found this security and this peace that you've searched for. You don't have a daily walk with Christ. When you wake up in the morning, His presence doesn't fill your room. He doesn't go with you all day long. You are not conscious of the presence of God. Oh, to live for God! To live for Christ in the midst of a world such as we have! To have peace in the midst of fighting and war! The security, the assurance, the joy that He brings!

•• Nobody here really wants to rebel against God and sin against God. But you find no strength to do that which you really want to do because your will is paralyzed. Sin has paralyzed your will until you no longer have a will of your own, and you don't have the strength to fulfill that good which you really want to do. [See Romans 7:15-20.] That's what sin has done for you.

•• But what is the penalty of sin? The Bible says, "The wages of sin is death" [Romans 6:23]. "In the day that thou eatest thereof," He said to Adam and Eve, "thou shalt . . . die" [Genesis 2:17]. The Bible uses several words to describe the penalty of sin. I want to tell you something tonight. Every person who has ever committed a sin is going to pay for it.

•• And here are the words that are used to describe what happens to a person who rejects Christ. The word "lost" [Matthew 18:11]--think of spending eternity, a conscious rational being, separated from God, but lost!

•• Jesus said you're "condemned already" [John 3:18]. He said you're "punished" [see Matthew 25:46]. He used such words as "everlasting fire" [Matthew 25:41], "no rest" [Revelation 14:11]--whatever those things mean. It means that man in this life and in the life to come will have to pay for his sins. You're going to stand at the judgment of God someday to give an account of how you have lived this life and what you did with Jesus Christ.

•• The penalty of sin--you break a law of the city of Charlotte, and you pay for it if you get caught. In God's kingdom, you will be caught and you will pay for it. You're paying for it now by the emptiness of your soul, the lack of destiny and assurance in your life, the incompleteness of your soul. You're going to pay for it forever, unless you turn to God.

•• Then, lastly, what is the remedy for sin? You are a sinner. That is what is wrong with the world. How can we get rid of sin? How can we do away with sin? How can we deal with human nature that Jesus said is the cause of all the problems and troubles in the world? How can it be changed? The Bible is a book of redemption, and the Bible--from Genesis to Revelation--is filled with the message of how to get rid of sin. The Bible recognizes that the number one problem of the world is sin. The Bible tells us how to get rid of it, how to be cured of this disease, how to be cleansed and forgiven in God's sight, and how you can have victory every day in your life. The Bible tells us how. The Bible says, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" [John 3:16]. The Bible says that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself" [2 Corinthians 5:19]. Do you know what nailed Jesus Christ to the cross? Sin! Your sin, my sin!

•• Ladies and gentlemen, there is no remedy for the disease that we all have apart from the cross. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" [1 John 1:7]. There is no medicine in the world that can cure the human heart. You can go to the psychiatrists, and many of you can receive help. You can take all sorts of medical treatments. But I tell you this: The only real cure for the spiritual disease that we all have is the blood of Jesus. If you haven't been to the foot of that cross and been washed in the blood of the Lamb, you cannot say that your sin is forgiven you and that all is right between you and God or that all is right between you and your fellow man.

•• And when we come to the foot of the cross where Christ died and then partake of His resurrection—the Bible says, "When he had by himself purged our sins" [Hebrews 1:3]--our sins are purged. That means they are done away with. And then the Scripture says in Isaiah 33:45 [44:22] our sins are blotted out. The Bible also says in Psalm 103:12 our sins are put away. The Bible also says our sins are put behind His back [see Isaiah 38:17].

•• The Bible also says our sins are remembered no more [see Hebrews 8:12]. Think of it! Your sins that could damn your soul and ruin your life--God says, "I'll remember them against you no more."

•• My sins as a boy come back to my mind, but God cannot remember them! The Bible says God cannot remember [see Hebrews 10:17]. Think of it! The mighty God that fills all of space cannot remember my sins, because my sins were taken to the cross, and Jesus bore them right there. I don't understand all the mysteries of the atonement, and I don't understand all the mysteries of the cross. But by simple faith I came to Him.

•• And tonight just as simply, you can come to Christ. You don't have to understand it all intellectually; you never will. Just come by faith and receive Him as your Savior.

•• I'm going to ask you tonight to give your life to Christ. I'm going to ask you tonight to come and receive Jesus Christ who died on the cross. Because, you see, God requires not only that His Son pay the price on the cross, but the Bible says that God requires that you repent of your sins and receive Christ. That's what repentance means. It means that you acknowledge that you are a sinner, that you are willing to turn from your sins, and by faith you receive Christ. That is an act of your will. Your will may be paralyzed; but God will help you, and God will reactivate your will. God will resensitize your conscience.

•• If you come to Christ, you can leave here tonight with the knowledge that every sin is forgiven. I'm going to ask all of you to come.

Preface to The Unpardonable Sin

•• Below is a transcript (abridged and reformatted by Infonomics) of Rev. Graham’s sermon that was delivered on October 8, 1958.

•• Rev. Billy Graham had preached this sermon at the Charlotte Crusade, the sixteenth sermon of the crusade.

•• Attendance on September 27 was 12,000 and there were 375 inquirers. •• In the transcript that follows, any comments by the transcriber are in brackets []. Any

asides by Rev. Graham are in parentheses. •• The sermon title did not appear in the paper but is from material supplied by the BGEA

The Unpardonable Sin

•• The 1st chapter of the book of Acts, the 8th verse: "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."

•• There we have a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ talking to His disciples in those last moments before He is taken out of their sight in that glorious ascension back to God the

Father, to take His position as an intercessor and as a great high priest. In this passage, He refers to the Holy Ghost. Those of you who have the King James Version, it is Holy Ghost. If you have the Revised Standard Version, it is Holy Spirit. It should be translated Holy Spirit because "ghost" is the old English word for "spirit."

•• I want to speak tonight on the Holy Spirit. I want to dwell especially on that sin which we call the unpardonable sin. Is there a sin that you can commit which God will not forgive? Is there a sin that you can commit for which there is no repentance and no forgiveness and no hope? When you come to the Old Testament, from Genesis to Malachi, that is the age of God the Father. When you come to the gospels--Matthew, Mark, Luke and John--that is the age of God the Son. When you come to that period from the Acts of the apostles on to the present day, it is the age of God the Holy Spirit. Here we find the manifestation of the Trinity. God is one, and yet He is three--the great three in one.

•• None of us can understand the Trinity. Yet we do know that there is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. There are three persons in the Godhead.

•• I believe it is impossible to understand the Bible or Christian living, the structure of the church, without understanding something of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. The Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit is a person. He is not an agent; He is not an influence. He is God, and we are never to refer to the Holy Spirit as "it." He is a person. He is just as much a person as God the Father, and just as much a person as God the Son. And the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is omnipotent. You cannot get away from the Holy Spirit. He sees all the hidden things. . You might even go to hell; He is there. You might even ascend up in the skies, but He is there. He is everywhere. Then the Bible teaches He is omniscient. In the book of Revelation, He is spoken of as having seven eyes [see 5:6], which is symbolic, indicating that nothing is hidden from His searching glance and His perfect knowledge. The Bible also teaches that the Spirit is holy. He is referred to as holy over a hundred times. "Be ye holy, even as I am holy" is God's command [see Leviticus 19:2]. And it is the Holy Spirit who alone can impart divine holiness to us. There is no goodness, there is no holiness, there is no righteousness in us unless it be given us by the Holy Spirit. The Bible also teaches that where the Spirit is, there is liberty, there is freedom, there is power. [See Romans 8:1-15.] The Bible also teaches that the Holy Spirit has a work to do. He has been assigned by the Trinity a specialized work to do.

•• First, the Bible teaches that it is the Holy Spirit who convicts men of sin. Jesus said in John 16:8, "And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." You cannot come to Jesus Christ, you cannot be saved, you cannot be redeemed, you cannot get to heaven unless the Holy Spirit convinces you that you are a sinner. When the Gospel is preached, as I am preaching tonight, the Holy Spirit speaks to hearts. He speaks to you. He may make you feel uncomfortable.

•• It is the Holy Spirit who makes you doubt--not to doubt your salvation, if you're saved, but to make you doubt if you really don't know Christ. It is the Holy Spirit who brings

this doubt into our life, and we had better thank God for it. So if you are uncomfortable, if you do feel like a sinner, you had better thank God because that shows the Spirit of God is operating.

•• Why, let all the atomic bombs in all the stockpiles fall. Let the world tumble around you. Thank God, in the midst of it all there is quiet, inward peace.

•• The Bible says you can sin against the Holy Spirit. [See Matthew 12:31,32.] And the most grievous and tragic sins that men can commit are the sins that you commit against the Holy Spirit. There are hundreds here tonight who are guilty of sins against the Holy Spirit.

•• First, the Bible teaches you can anger the Holy Spirit. How do we arouse the wrath of the Spirit? By disobeying Him. By jealousy we grieve the Holy Spirit. We make Him angry by pride, egotism, selfishness, neglect of doing the things we know we ought to do, factions in the church, striving in the church, bickering in the church, slander--all of these things grieve the Holy Spirit. And tonight if you have jealousy in your heart against someone else, you are grieving the Holy Spirit. If you have pride instead of humility, you are grieving the Spirit. [See Ephesians 4:30-32.]

•• There are all types of pride. There is intellectual pride. A man may have intellectual capacity, and might have had years of training. He becomes an intellectual snob. I met a man not long ago--I will not call his name, but he is in this state. I consider him to be an intellectual snob. He is always talking about how much he knows. I have found that a true intellectual does not talk about how much he knows. He is courteous. He is gracious. He is sympathetic. He is understanding. He comes down to the level of some of us poor people who do not have much learning.

•• We can have pride of family that is wrong, looking down our noses at everybody else. Pride will keep more people out of the kingdom of heaven than any other sin.

•• We can have racial pride. We can think we are better than any other race, that we are God's pets. Well, I want to tell you that there is no such thing as a pet in God's sight. [See Acts 10:34.]

•• We can have national pride. We think we Americans are God's chosen people. I want to tell you we are not. We are not any more chosen of God than the Russians or the Chinese. The president of the United Nations, Mr. Malik, recently said--and was quoted in one of our magazines--"If I judged you entirely on the basis of your soldiers, and the things I see in America, and your movies, and your television, and all the rest, I would be impressed more by the Russians." "But," he said, "you Americans have something to give to the world, and you are not giving it to the world. You have a spiritual heritage. You have the moral strength. You have a belief in God, and that is the thing you ought to be emphasizing." That came to us from the president of the United Nations.

•• Probably the most dangerous sin a man can commit is to resist the wooing of the Holy Spirit. God says"You have become a taster of the Holy Spirit" [see Hebrews 6:4-6].

•• Then, lastly, you can blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto [them]" [Matthew 12:31]. What is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? I believe that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is when we reject the Spirit of God. We reject Christ over a period of time until our hearts become so hardened that we no longer know good from evil. The Bible says that "God gave them [up] to a reprobate mind" [Romans 1:28]. Three times in Romans, the 1st chapter, Paul says that God gave them up [see verses 24,26,28]. God said concerning Ephraim, "Ephraim is joined to [his] idols: let him alone" [Hosea 4:17]. Oh, you will live out your life. You will live, maybe a successful life, for a short time. But may God have mercy upon the men that God has left alone. Your heart becomes so hard and it becomes so callous--until you no longer know the difference between good and evil. You begin to ascribe to the devil even the works of God.

•• The unpardonable sin is an attitude of the heart. It is an attitude of resistance and rejection of Christ. It is a final rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.

►► Rev. Graham then cites an experience of a man rejecting Christ for 60 years. The man assumes it is too late to ask for salvation. Graham strongly suggest that it is never too late.

•• It is a dangerous thing to hear the Gospel--it is a dangerous thing to be called by God--and then refuse. I am going to ask you tonight to yield to Christ, and come and give your life to Him. And say tonight, "I don't care what the cost is, I am coming to Jesus." I want to tell you, this is the most crucial and the most important sermon that I have preached yet. I do not understand the serious workings of the Holy Spirit. I only know that it is a dangerous thing to resist Him. And He has spoken to many of you when you know that you need Christ.

Preface to Christ’s Answer to the World

•• Below is a transcript (abridged and reformatted by Infonomics) of Rev. Graham’s sermon that was delivered on September 21, 1958.

•• Rev. Billy Graham had preached this sermon at the Charlotte Crusade, the first sermon of the crusade.

•• Attendance on September 27 was 14,375 and there were 391 inquirers. •• In the transcript that follows, any comments by the transcriber are in brackets []. Any

asides by Rev. Graham are in parentheses. •• The sermon title did not appear in the paper but is from material supplied by the BGEA

Christ's Answer to the World

•• Turn to the 17th chapter of the book of Acts, beginning at verse 30.

•• But I believe that the Bible is God's inspired Word, and in this book we find God's message for us today.

•• Everybody has a Bible, but very few people know what the Bible says. •• "But now God commandeth all men every where to repent: because he hath appointed a

day, in . . .which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit certain men clave unto him and believed" [verses 30-34].

•• Here we have a picture of the apostle Paul. He is going throughout the Mediterranean world proclaiming the good news to people in frustration, fear, and sin. And the apostle Paul is preaching Christ to the people, and now he comes to Athens.

•• Jean Sartre, who is one of the leaders in modern existentialism, has said, "If you don't believe in God, that's all right. I don't believe in God. But," he said, "believe in something, because man is so philosophically constituted that he needs something to believe in." So the world of philosophy today for the first time in centuries is crying out to the church, "Help us, give us an answer, we are confused."

•• In India today there are nearly 400 million people, increasing at the rate of 5 million a year. Just the problem of population increase alone is bringing about economic pressures that could bring about revolution and trouble in the world to come. Japan has a population of 93 million living on a land area the size of the state of California, increasing at the rate of 1 million a year. China is increasing at the rate of 9 million a year. In twenty-five years, one out of every five babies born in the world will be a Chinese.

•• We are seeing a hardening American attitude. We are seeing verbal blasts back and forth between Russia and America. How long it will only be in the talking phase we do not know, but we do know that our scientists and military leaders are warning that we could be in a nuclear war at any time that could wipe out 60 million Americans in the first few hours. The political world is crying for help. Communism and democracy, the East and the West, are at each other's throats with two diametrically opposed political ideologies. And the whole political world is saying, "Help us."

•• Thank God that Martin Luther King, who was stabbed last night in New York, was not stabbed by a white person. If he had been, we might have seen a racial war in New York with blood flowing down the street.

•• A new word has entered our vocabulary called "escapism." We Americans are trying to escape from reality. We are taking dope, drink, tranquilizing pills, entertainment, and intent upon soul-forgetfulness. People flee from themselves to become lost in the clouds.

•• And the heroes of modern pictures and films are spiritually homeless. Look at the television programs. How many deal with psychological cases? Every time you look at

Gunsmoke [a televsion Western of the time] it sets a psychological problem dressed in western clothes. And I read the other day that the psychiatrists are now going to each other for help.

•• Winston Churchill threw up his hands some time ago and said, "Our problems are beyond us."

•• We are so taken up with our money-making, so taken up with the amusements and places and comforts of modern American life, that we don't realize that the forces of evil are closing in round about us. Unless we can turn to God and have His help, we are done for as a nation and as a people.

•• While Paul was disturbed by all this, some of the philosophers came and said, "Paul, we've been listening to you talk. We'd like to hear more of it. How about going up to Mars Hill and giving a lecture?" [See Acts 17:18,19.] And so Paul did. He went up to Mars Hill, and there he preached his famous sermon on Mars Hill. Some people have said that this sermon was a great failure in Paul's life. Some people said that Paul, in preaching this sermon, did not get any results, never founded a great church in Athens, and he never had any persecution and never had any opposition in Athens.

•• That day Paul had a great audience out before him in Athens as we have here today. The Athenians had hundreds of different gods and religions. And Charlotte is a very religious city. I'm told that there is one church in this city to every four hundred people, and I do not believe that is equaled anywhere in the world. Not even Edinburgh, Scotland, has as many churches per capita. And, yet, in this city you have one of the highest crime rates in America. What's wrong?

•• Thousands of people who have been named in the church, who go to church once in awhile—if it's not too inconvenient. And they sit for an hour, and they give God one hour. And they say, "O God, how lucky you are to get me for one hour a week." And the rest of the week they live for the devil and live for themselves, and they claim to be Christians. I tell you, in God's sight those people are not Christians. A Christian is a person in whom Christ dwells, and a Christian is a person who lives Christ twenty-four hours a day.

•• Paul was preaching to a very religious people. Now the Epicureans were there. The Epicureans were a very strange lot of people, and yet they were not so strange--because there are Epicureans here today. The Epicureans are the people who believe that happiness is the goal of life. Eat, drink, be merry, have a good time. Enjoy yourself, be religious, but don't go too far in religion. Have a good time. They spent more time in front of their television sets than they did reading the Bible, if they had television sets in that day. They spent more time reading the newspapers than they did the Bible. They spent more time in the theater than they did in the church. They go to a double feature at a drive-in theater and sit for four hours and think it's too short. They go to church and listen to a twenty-minute sermon and think it's too long. And to some people, because Sunday is a different day and because you do go to church, you can't wait until Monday when business starts again.

•• We've lost all concept of God's day. And I want to tell you people who are counting on getting to heaven: Heaven is going to be one long eternal Sabbath day. And in hell there will be no Sabbath days. There are a lot of you who, if you got to heaven, heaven would be hell for you, because you don't like the Sabbath. And you don't like to keep the Lord's day in the Lord's way. I believe that we need to get old-fashioned in keeping the Lord's day.

•• The Stoics were also there in Paul's audience that day. Now the Stoics were proud and self-righteous. They were the intellectual snobs. They didn't need God. They didn't need a personal experience with Christ. They were self-righteous. And I tell you that we are in danger of being like the Pharisees of old. The most scathing denunciation that Jesus had was against the Pharisees and their self-righteousness. The sins that God hates the most are the sins of pride and self-righteousness. The Bible concludes that we are all sinners.

•• Paul stood up to that crowd to preach his sermon. And the first thing that Paul said was this: "There is one God." He said, "I saw an inscription coming up this mountain that said, 'To the unknown God.' Oh, I perceive that you are religious people. You believe in some sort of God, but you don't know Him." [See Acts 17:22.]

•• We go to church because it's the traditional thing and social thing. We don't go because we really love Christ. We've never had a true experience with Him until He fills our lives.

•• We have an idea in this country that God is changed to accommodate Himself for Americans. We have an idea that we Americans are God's chosen people, that God loves us more than any other people, and that we are God's blessed. I tell you that God doesn't love us any more than He does the Russians. He doesn't love us any more than He does the Chinese. He doesn't love us any more than He does the Africans. God doesn't love us any more than any other people. There is no changing with God, and there is no partiality with God.

•• God is a God of judgment. He is the God of righteousness and holiness, and the Bible says here that He will not wink at sin [see Acts 17:30,31]. You think that you can get away with your lying. I'll tell you, you cannot. You think you can get away with your cheating. I tell you, you cannot. You think you can get away with your adultery, your jealousy, your sins, and the lust in your heart, and the evil thoughts that you have, and the evil moments that you have. I tell you, God says we shall be judged. The Bible says, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" [Romans 3:23]. I am a sinner and you are a sinner. Every one of us is a sinner in God's sight.

•• But the Bible also tells us that God is a God of love. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life" [John 3:16].

•• The Bible tells us that because God is love, He created man. Why did God create us in the first place? He put us here and He created us because He is love and He wanted to have an object to love; and so He created the human race. We were perfect, and we had

fellowship with God. Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of the day. They were friends. God and man were friends. They walked together, they talked together, they planned together. But then one day something happened, because when God created you, He gave you the ability to choose between right and wrong. He gave you the ability to choose whether you would follow God and serve God, or whether you would live your own life and build your own life apart from God. When man came to that great decisive moment in his life, he turned away from God and decided that he could build his own life without God. And he broke his covenant with God; he broke his relationship with God; he sinned against God. [See Genesis 2,3.] And that's the reason we have war today. That's the reason we have racial tension today. That's the reason we have all these problems in the world today. It is because the hearts of men are sinful.

•• A lot of people say, "Do you think communism is going to win the world?" They might win it temporarily, but it will only be temporarily. Because the Bible says that Jesus Christ is going to establish His kingdom, and the church shall some day triumph. Some day those of us who know Christ shall reign with Him [see Revelation 5:10]. God within Christ is reconciling the world unto Himself [see 2 Corinthians 5:19]. But God said, "I gave my Son to die."

•• If you're to go to heaven, you're going to have to do three things. I've studied this Bible for twenty years, and I do not believe any man or woman will get to heaven who hasn't done these three things. I don't care who you are. You may be a Sunday school teacher, you may be a deacon, an elder, or a steward. I don't care who you are. If you haven't done these three things, I do not believe you can get to heaven. 4.

5.

First, you must repent of your sins. "What do you mean by repentance?" I mean that you acknowledge to God that you have sinned, and that you are willing to turn from your sins. Notice I said willing. You may not have the strength to turn from your sins, but by faith you are willing to turn if God will give you the strength. You say, "Billy, there are things in my life that are wrong, but I cannot give them up. I've tried. I just can't do it." If you are willing, God will give you the strength to give them up and turn from them. Secondly, you must receive Christ by faith; an act of receiving Christ to die for you. Now that is a definite act. It may be unconscious, or it may be conscious. It may be a quiet moment; it may be a decisive, climactic moment as it was in the life of Paul. But if you're not sure by faith you've received Christ, you'd better do it today. There are three little men who live inside us all--our intellect, our emotions, and our will. Intellectually, thousands of you believe in Christ. I doubt if there is anyone here who doesn't believe in Christ. You believe in Him with your minds. In fact, the Bible says the devil believes. And the devil does more than you do, because he trembles when he believes the Bible [see James 2:19]. But that's not enough. You may have some emotion in your religion. You may have had an emotional experience at some time, but you never have really received Christ. You must by faith receive Him, because it is an act of your will. You say, "I will trust Him, I will follow." You know why I ask

people to come forward in our meeting to receive Christ? Because all the way through the Scriptures, I learned that God wanted people to do something as a testimonial of their faith.

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The third thing you must do: You must obey Christ. You must be willing to follow Him and serve Him from this moment on. Follow and serve Him. It means self-denial, it means cross-bearing, it means obedience. It means that you are going to burn all of your bridges behind you and follow Christ, no matter what it costs. It means you go back to your business and back to your home and live Christ, no matter what it costs. It means you are going to renew your vows to the church. It means you are going to be faithful and loyal to your church as never before. You are going to start tithing to the church. It means you are going to start praying in your home. It means you are going to start living for Christ, no matter what the costs, from this moment on. That's what it means. And if you are not willing to do that, don't come to Jesus Christ. He will not accept you just part of the way. You must be willing to go all the way.

•• When Paul had finished his sermon he stopped. And when the invitation was given that day, three things took place that are going to take place here this afternoon.

One, there was derision. Some of them laughed at him and mocked him [see Acts 17:32]. They didn't mock him out loud; just quietly and sighed, "Well, that's not for me." Secondly, there were some who said, "We will hear again of this matter" [see verse 32]. They put it off. I want to tell you, this is a dangerous action because you may never hear anyone present the Gospel again. But, last of all, there were some that made a decision [see Acts 17:34]. They received Christ and went their way rejoicing. I am going to ask you today to receive Him. I am not asking you this afternoon to join some special church. I'm asking you today to give your life to Christ.

•• You may be a rich man; you may be a poor man. You may be a man of great intellectual capacities, and you have to come by faith. Because you'll never understand it all intellectually. If you want to come to the cross and give your life to Christ, I'm going to ask you to come. If you are with friends and relatives, they'll wait on you. There's plenty of time and I'm going to ask not a person to leave the Coliseum.

Preface to Answered Prayer

•• Below is a transcript (abridged and reformatted by Infonomics) of Rev. Graham’s sermon that was delivered on October 23, 1958.

•• Rev. Billy Graham had preached this sermon at the Charlotte Crusade, the twenty-sixth sermon of the crusade.

•• Attendance on October 22 was 12,500 and there were 688 inquirers. •• In the transcript that follows, any comments by the transcriber are in brackets []. Any

asides by Rev. Graham are in parentheses. •• The sermon title did not appear in the paper but is from material supplied by the BGEA

Answered Prayer

•• Now let us turn in the 6th chapter of Matthew's gospel, beginning at the 5th verse: "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father, which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”

•• I want you to notice as you study the life of Christ that He spent much time in prayer. He was the Son of the living God; He was God incarnate; He was God in the flesh. Yet Jesus Christ, as man, thought that He needed to spend much time in prayer. Now if Christ had to spend a great deal of time in prayer, how much more then do we need to spend in prayer today? He prayed many times in private and in public. He not only taught us how to pray, but He commanded us to pray. We are told to pray, and yet I dare say that there is little praying on the part of the average Christian today. I believe the first thing that will amaze us when we get to heaven will be the thought of our prayerlessness and how much could have been accomplished had we spent time in prayer.

•• Prayer is as old as the human race. Our first parents talked to God, and the oldest and most universal of religious exercises is prayer. Man prays by instinct. If he has no god, he makes one. The most godless person will cry out to God in times of peril. When Mr. Khrushchev, who says he doesn't believe in God, came to London he exclaimed one day, "My God!" That was a form of prayer, no matter how crude it was. In a moment he forgot himself and called on God. Man prays by instinct.

•• Did you know that the Quakers, when they pray, sit together in silence? It is very irreverent in China to pray with your glasses on. In Germany if you pray, you must always fold your hands.

•• I remember when I was speaking in Berlin that one of the things the newspapers criticized me for was my irreverence, and I wondered why. I had always stood with bowed head and closed eyes. They did not mind if your eyes were closed, but your hands had to be folded. So there are different customs in prayer all over the world.

Prayer Defined •• There are many definitions that one can give, but I have never seen one that was really

accurate. Someone has said that prayer is asking, but it is more than that. The old rabbis used to say that prayer is the activity of the soul for God. Certainly, prayer is God's ordained method whereby we approach Him. And the Bible teaches us that prayer is a dialogue, not a monologue. It is a conversation with God. Prayer is heaven's telephone. We listen to God, and He listens to us. So many people do all the talking; they don't have time to listen to God. But prayer is a two-way conversation, and prayer is the highest expression of our allegiance to God. Someone has said that daily prayer is the gymnasium of the soul. That is where we exercise the soul, and the soul grows and gets strong in prayer.

Where Do You Pray? •• The Samaritan woman was concerned about the place of worship, for to the Jew the

temple meant the localization of God's presence. Christ, however, gave utterance to a new revelation concerning prayer when He said, "God is a Spirit: and they [who] worship him must worship him in spirit and . . . truth" [John 4:24].

•• You can pray in the middle of the traffic in Charlotte. You can pray down at your place of business. You can pray walking down a street. You can pray in your home. It is the attitude of the heart that counts. It is the attitude of the spirit that counts in successful praying, not the place. You look at the Bible, and you will find that people prayed in all kinds of conditions.

•• David was hiding in a cave when he offered one of his prayers. The thief on the cross prayed while he was dying on the cross [see Luke 23:42]. But Christ did suggest that if possible you ought to have a place in your home that is a closet, a prayer closet--a place where you can slip away and have a quiet meditation.

•• I have been in a lot of homes where one little room was set aside and called a prayer room. They had little seats in there. Some of them had a little altar put up, or they had a little cross put up, a place where members of the family could slip in and have a quiet time in prayer. It is the attitude of the heart that counts more than the place of prayer.

Posture of Prayer •• The Bible associates many postures or gestures with prayer. For example, Exodus 9:23,

Psalm 28:2, and 1 Timothy 2:8 says they lifted up their hands when they prayed. The old early Methodists used to pray with their hands in the air stretched towards God. Standing was the usual Jewish attitude in prayer. Kneeling is the reverent attitude adopted by Daniel [see Daniel 6:10], Stephen [see Acts 7:60], Peter [see Acts 9:40], and Paul [see Acts 20:36]. Prostration is another biblical posture. Ezekiel fell on his face when he beheld the glory of the Lord [see Ezekiel 1:28]. And this was the posture of Christ in Gethsemane; He fell on His face [see Matthew 26:39].

•• Now here is something that is going to shock a lot of you. Almost all the way through the Bible you will find that they prayed with their eyes open. The publican would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven [see Luke 18:13]. But Jesus, in John 17:1, expressly says He prayed with His eyes open. The Orientals usually pray with their eyes open. Yet I believe we have something when we close our eyes, and I always close my eyes in prayer. To me, it is an attitude of reverence, but more than that, it is an attitude of shutting out the world. We need to shut our eyes in a quiet place to get away with God. When your eyes are open you have the temptation to look around and see everything else, to study the person in front of you during church.

Period of Prayer •• The time that we are to give to prayer is to be governed by desire, need, circumstance,

and physical ability. •• Now, I want to say something here to pastors and Sunday school superintendents. When

Jesus prayed in public, He prayed a short prayer. He rebuked the Pharisees for their vain repetition and their long prayers. I personally am not in favor of long prayers in public. I do not believe that we are heard for our much loud praying. I have heard some people pray so loud to the Lord that they think the Lord is deaf. He is not deaf.

•• However, when Jesus prayed alone, He prayed all night [see Luke 6:12]. His prayers alone were long. His prayers in public were short. That is the reason, when you want to interest your children in family devotions, make them interesting and make them brief. My children always say, "We want Daddy to pray. He prays short." I have never heard one of my children say they did not want to have family devotions. We tell them the great Bible stories, and we try to make our devotions brief. Make them brief and make them interesting.

•• The busier you are, the more time you ought to take for prayer. •• A lot of people say, "Well, I don't feel like praying." Don't wait for feeling. If you wait

until you feel like it, you won't pray. If you go by your moods, you will never pray successfully. Pray when you least feel like it, because prayer is a matter of the will.

Rules of Prayer •• I read some time ago that the police arrested a man on charges of drunkenness after they

found him trying to make a phone call from a fire hydrant, complaining that he couldn't get the operator. Many of you are just like that drunk man at the fire hydrant trying to get the operator. You have not gone to the right place, under the right conditions, obeying the proper rules of prayer. You have to learn how to pray.

•• Now of course the Bible teaches that we are to pray all the time. Paul said, "Pray without ceasing" [1 Thessalonians 5:17].

Some Prayers Only Seem to be Unanswered •• Now you say, "Does God answer prayer?" Yes, God answers every prayer, every prayer

of an obedient, abiding Christian. God answers prayer. Some prayer is answered immediately. Some prayers are answered by God saying no. But when God says no, that is an answer. For example, T. W. Wilson prayed a prayer one day; and he said, "Lord, help me get on that airplane. I've got to keep an engagement in a certain town tonight, and if I don't make this plane I won't keep the engagement." The Lord said no, and T. W. stood at the airport and watched the plane take off. He felt that the Lord had let him down. Within two hours that plane had crashed and everybody on board was killed.

•• Then some prayer is delayed. A woman told me some time ago that she had prayed for thirty years for the conversion of her son. Her son came forward and was converted in this crusade. Now God delayed the answer for thirty years; but because she had held on to the Lord, He has answered her prayer. God is a faithful God who answers every single prayer of an abiding, faithful, obedient Christian.

•• First, you must be able to say in your praying, "Our Father." You say, "Well, isn't God the Father of us all?" No. There is the sense in which God is the Father of us all by creation. We are the sons of God by creation, but we lost that relationship because of sin. Sin has come between us and God. And Jesus said in John 8:44, "Ye are of your father the devil." And until you come to the cross of Christ and receive Him as your Savior, you cannot properly say, "Our Father."

•• There are thousands of people who pray when they get in trouble, and their prayers do not get any higher than the ceiling because they have really never come to a vital relationship with Jesus Christ. Their prayers are not answered. How could God answer your prayers when you are too proud to come and receive His Son as Savior and Lord? How can God answer your prayers when you are living a life apart from God? The only prayer that you can pray is "God, have mercy upon me, a sinner." And God has never refused to answer that prayer from anybody. "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" [Romans 10:13], the Scripture says.

•• Unless you have come to a point in your life of repentance of sin and receiving of Christ by faith, you cannot properly say, 'I have been converted.' Jesus once said, "Except ye become converted, and become as a little child, ye cannot enter the kingdom of God" [see Matthew 18:3]. If you want your prayers answered, come and give your life to Jesus Christ. Tell Him that you are going to turn from your sins and receive His Son.

Prayers Must be in the Name of Christ •• The second thing, our prayers must be in the name of Christ. John 14:13, "And

whatsoever [you] shall ask in my name, that will I do." Now, you see, when Christ died on the cross, He bowed His head and said, "It is finished" [[John 19:30]. He meant the plan of salvation, the plan of redemption, was finished. It was complete. That was the victorious shout of Christ when He said, "It is finished." He came to die for our sins on

the cross. And the moment Christ said, "It is finished," the veil in the temple was rent in twain [see Matthew 27:51].

•• And now the simplest child of God, if he is coming in the name of Jesus, can come directly into the presence of God. We are told in the Hebrews epistle that we can "come boldly" into His presence and make our requests known unto Him [see 4:16]. I don't have to go through any intermediary. I come directly into the presence of God, but I have to come through the name of Christ. He is the mediator. The Bible says, "There is . . . one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" [1 Timothy 2:5].

•• The name of the Lord Jesus Christ gets you the ear of God immediately because you are coming in the name of the only begotten Son.

•• Then prayer must be in accord with the will of God. That is what Christ taught us in the Lord's prayer: "Thy will be done [on] earth, as it is in heaven" [Matthew 6:10]. That is what He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, "Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done" [Luke 22:42].

•• Many people ask me if I will pray for the healing of sick. I always pray for anyone who is sick; and my prayer is, "Thy will be done." What is God's will in the matter, not what is my selfish desire.

•• Then we are to depend on the Holy Spirit in our prayers. He is the guide of prayer. Romans 8:26. "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit [himself] maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." In other words, many times I do not know how to pray, but the Holy Spirit will help me to pray. Sometimes my prayers are only groanings in my soul, but the Holy Spirit can take these groanings and these inarticulate thoughts and desires of my heart and interpret them to God the Father. And my prayers are answered even though I haven't really prayed them in so many words.

•• Then, fifth, there must be faith when we pray. We are to believe God. The greatest thing we can do is to believe Him.

•• God wants us to believe Him for great things. Thus, ask Him for big things. And if it is according to His will, He takes delight in granting it. Even little things. He has the hairs of your head numbered [see Matthew 10:30]; He knows about your love affair. He knows about your financial needs. He knows about that husband who is irritable. He knows about the sorrows and the burdens and the difficulties. He knows about this temptation you are faced with that you cannot seem to overcome.

•• Then we must be walking closely in daily fellowship with Him. Psalm 66:18, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." In other words, God will not hear a Christian pray if there is sin in his heart. If you are filled with pride, there is no use of you praying. If there is iniquity in your heart, you cannot be heard. Suppose you have been dishonest and you have not confessed your sin to God, or suppose you have failed to forgive someone else. Jesus said, "For if [you] forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will . . . forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses,

neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" [Matthew 6:14,15]. In other words, you have got to forgive the other man.

•• The Bible says your prayers can be hindered because of a disobedient life. You are living out of fellowship with Christ because of sin in your life. The psalmist said, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me" [Psalm 66:18].

•• The reason a lot of you don't pray is because your sin comes right up before you when you go to pray, so you just quit praying. Not only sins that we actually commit, but sins of neglect. We have neglected the poor. Our conscience bothers us about things that we have left undone. We recognize that we haven't done the things that we ought to have done, and we can't pray because there is sin in our lives.

•• Some of you don't tithe your money; you are robbing God [see Malachi 3:8]. How do you expect to get your prayers answered if you don't tithe? At least ten percent of your income belongs to the Lord. You can't expect your prayers to be answered.

•• And on a Sunday morning, if it is a beautiful morning, you are on the golf course instead of in church. How do you expect to have your prayers answered? You are forsaking the assembling of yourselves together [see Hebrews 10:25]. You are disobeying God. And when communion Sunday comes, you are not there to take your place in that most holy hour with our Lord. We glorify most by our worship.

•• There are many prayer promises that we can claim if we obey the rules of prayer. Psalm 91:15, "He [will] call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him." Isaiah 58:9, "And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." Luke 11:9, "And I say unto you, Ask and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

•• I have tested God. I have seen things come up that looked like it was going to ruin our ministry. I have seen Him work miracles, absolutely modern-day miracles. Every time somebody comes down here and has his life changed by Christ, that is a miracle in answer to prayer.

•• Now I want you to listen for one minute to the most solemn thing I will ever say while I am in Charlotte. There are some prayers that will be prayed in all sincerity and fervor and earnestness that God will not answer. The prayer that you will pray at the judgment. "They hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel: they despised all [of] my reproof." And God says at the judgment, "I will not hear their prayers."

•• In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Some will come in that day and say, 'But, Lord, we cast out demons in your name.'" He will say, "Depart from me, ye cursed; I never knew you." "But, Lord, remember those great works we did in your name." "Depart from me, ye cursed; I never knew you. You never came to the cross. You never came to my Son. You never came to Jesus." [See Matthew 7:22,23.]

•• There are going to be prayers prayed at the judgment, but the prayers will be too late. Then Jesus told us in Luke, the 16th chapter, about a man who went to hell. This man in hell, what was he doing? He was only doing one thing; he was praying. Praying in hell, "If it be possible, send Lazarus; let him dip his finger in water and touch my parched tongue. O God, help me. Help me." [See verses 24-26.] But his prayer was too late. There will be prayers at the judgment and there will be prayers in hell, but they will not be answered.

•• But I want to tell you tonight that there is one prayer which anyone in this building can pray, and I will guarantee you that God will answer it. God says, "Whosoever [calleth] upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" [Romans 10:13]. If you will come to God tonight in simple childlike faith and give yourself to Jesus Christ, I'll guarantee that He will forgive your sins, change your life, come into your heart, and save your soul. Your prayers can be answered, no matter how simple they may be.

Preface to Fifth Amendment Christians

•• What follows is a transcript of the sermon which Rev. Billy Graham preached at the

Charlotte Crusade on September 22, 1958, the second sermon of the crusade. •• Attendance on September 22 was 12,500 and there were 250 inquirers. •• In the transcript that follows, any comments by the transcriber are in brackets []. Any

asides by Rev. Graham are in parentheses (). The sermon title did not appear in the paper but is from material supplied by the BGEA. Only the actual sermon is transcribed below. Any introductory or concluding material included in the newspaper text is omitted.

Fifth Amendment Christians •• I want you to turn with me to the 22nd chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew.

"Then one of them, [who] was a lawyer, asked him a question, [testing] him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 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 great commandment. And the second is like . . . it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" [verses 35-40].

•• Now I want you to turn to Exodus, the second book in the Bible, the 20th chapter and the 7th verse. And we read, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." I have read to you a passage from the Ten Commandments--the third commandment, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

•• I have also read Christ's interpretation of the Ten Commandments. In fact, the entire Sermon on the Mount is an explanation of the Ten Commandments.

•• About two years ago Mr. Cecil B. DeMille was on top of Mount Sinai, and he asked to be left alone for an entire day. He sat there meditating as he was planning to shoot the picture, "The Ten Commandments." While he was there, he ordered his men to cut out of the granite on top of Mount Sinai two tablets of stone, and he had written in Hebrew the Ten Commandments. He sent me those Ten Commandments the other day, mounted on a beautiful thing; and I have them in my study. Every time I pass through my study, I see those Ten Commandments. It reminds me of what the law says.

•• I could, and I shall before I leave, preach a sermon entitled, "What Is Right About The Church?" There is a great deal right about the church. But tonight I want to tell you what's wrong with the church. I believe that, basically, the thing that's wrong with us today is that we are neglecting to live according to the third commandment. We in the church today have an excellent organization. We have the buildings. We have beautiful seminaries. We have Bibles. We have excellent training. We have plenty of money. We have everything. But I fear today that the church is not speaking with the power and the authority and the incisiveness to the relevant problems that we face as we should. Why?

•• I am convinced that one of the reasons communism is gaining such momentum throughout the world--and it is; I do not know one place in the world tonight in which communism is losing. I do not know one great victory we have won in recent years over communism. It's gaining slowly but surely, nibbling here and nibbling there, a little bit there and a little bit here, and coming ever closer to the shores of this country. The communist radio in Peiping [Beijing] said yesterday, "War could break out at any moment." Why? Because they're dedicated. They are out-dedicating the Christians.

•• A handful of communists are winning the world, while 600 million Christians are losing the world. Why? Because they believe in something, and they are ready to die for it. They have an ideology and a philosophy and a religion that they are ready to live for and die for. And we're taking it easy. We serve God with our lips and our heart is far from Him [see Isaiah 29:13].

•• Unless we wake up and unless we recommit ourselves to the Savior, and unless we are willing to go back into society and live completely dedicated lives for Christ, no matter how much it costs, we may lose. The church as we know it today may someday have to go underground as it did in the days of the great persecution, and as it has done in China, and as it has done in other parts of the world.

•• God knew when He gave the Ten Commandments that nobody could keep them. He didn't give the Ten Commandments to save anybody's soul. Nobody can be saved by the law. You can keep all the Ten Commandments and you wouldn't be saved because the law never justified anybody. God gave the law for one specific purpose. He gave the law to be a mirror. It shows me how far short I've come. But the law cannot forgive, the law cannot save, the law cannot cleanse me from my sins.

•• You say, "But, Billy, I've never killed anybody. Doesn't the Lord say, 'Thou shalt not murder'?" Yes, Jesus, interpreting that passage, said, "If you've ever hated anybody, you have broken my commandments" [see 1 John 3:15]. Under that comes prejudice, and bigotry, and malice, and contempt.

•• Jesus said, "Any man who hates his brother is going to hell" [see Matthew 5:22]. I didn't say it; Jesus said it. So we've broken that commandment.

•• You say, "But, Billy, I've never stolen anything." Haven't you? Did you ever cheat on your income tax, even a little bit? Did you ever cheat in school? You've broken every commandment.

•• You say, "But I've never committed adultery." Haven't you? Jesus said, "If you've ever had lust in your heart, you've committed adultery" [see Matthew 5:28].

•• The law serves an usher to drive me to the cross of Christ. •• "How can I be saved?" I find the answer in the grace, and mercy, and the love of God at

the cross of Calvary where Christ died and shed His blood for my sins. No one will ever be saved apart from the cross. That's one thing that every Protestant church that I know about and every Catholic church agrees. And that is that the cross is the center of Christianity. There is no salvation apart from the cross. We're saved by the grace of God in Christ at the cross.

•• You can't make people love their neighbors who have never been born again and regenerated and filled with the love of God. Love each other? They just don't have the capacity to love. They have to come to Christ first, and there they have love.

•• We'll never have world peace as long as there's hatred in the hearts of men. As long as men have hatred, they're going to fight. That's the reason men have to come to Christ and have their hearts changed before you can have world peace. That's the reason you can't find a solution for your own problems. That's the reason there's inner tension, strife, a sense of incompleteness. You haven't found yourself in life because you come short of God's requirements. You're a sinner, and you won't find the joy and the peace that you have searched for all your life until you come to the cross and give your life to the Savior. "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."

•• One of the most grievous sins that can be committed is to blaspheme the name of God. You will go to any lengths to protect your name. We have laws in the state of North Carolina to protect a man's reputation and a man's name against slander. God is jealous of His name, and there are several ways that we take His name in vain. First, we take the name of God in vain when we speak slightly or irreverently of His name, or when we use profanity. In Deuteronomy, the writer says, "That thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, The Lord Thy God" [28:58]. When they would come to it, the writers of the Old Testament would come to His name, they would leave it blank. They were even afraid to desecrate His name by writing it down. And how lightly we take the name of God in vain today. Jesus, when speaking of His Father, said, "Hallowed be thy name" [Luke 11:2].

•• I heard a woman today take His name in vain, in swearing. I heard about a woman who was dressed in slacks some time ago. She was drunk. She was smoking. She got on a crowded bus and, in profane words, she asked if there was a gentleman who would give a lady a seat. The man sitting there said, "You may be a woman, but you dress like a man, you smoke like a man, you drink like a man, and you swear like a man. It seems to me that you could stand up like a man."

•• Secondly, we take God's name in vain when we defile our bodies. Your body, the Bible says, is created in the image of God; your soul is created in the image of God [see Genesis 1:27]. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit [see 1 Corinthians 6:19]. And any man that defiles his body, the Bible says, is taking the name of God in vain. You claim to be a Christian? Yet you fill your body with narcotics; you fill your body with drink, or you are guilty of gluttony.

•• I preached a sermon not long ago on gluttony. About a third of my audience got mad. All I did was preach the Bible. And you look up the word "gluttony" in the Bible and see how much the Bible condemns overeating. Now, some people have glandular trouble and can't help being fat. A fellow like me can eat anything and it doesn't bother him. I can say all this. But Grady Wilson always leaves the platform when I preach on this subject. When you engage in sinful and immoral pleasure, you are taking the name of the Lord in vain.

•• Thirdly, we take the name of God in vain when we make vows and don't keep them. You took a marriage vow. Have you kept it? Maybe you've forgot how much you promised your wife that night you were married. You were so frightened you didn't know what you were saying in promise. But it was a vow before almighty God. And some of you men have broken it by your immorality. You've broken your vow by your neglect. You've broken your vow by your unfaithfulness. You've broken your vow. I tell you, you took a sacred vow before God. And you took His name in vain. You said, "In God's name, I promise," and you didn't keep your promise.

•• You took His name in vain when you took that church vow and have not kept it. You took a vow at confirmation, if you are an Episcopalian or a Lutheran. You took a vow at baptism, you took a vow in communion, you took a vow when you joined the church. You vowed that you were going to give a part of your income to the church, and you've never tithed once. You've been guilty of robbing God of tithes and offerings.

•• I believe that every church member owes a tithe to his own church. I didn't say that you owe a tithe to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. I don't believe that anybody has a right to give a tithe to anybody but his own church. But if you want to give above your tithe, give it where you want. But I believe your tithe belongs to your own church. But you haven't kept that vow.

•• You promised that you would be in the services unless providentially hindered, and many a golf game has come between you and the church. Many a fishing tour has come between you and the church. You have broken a vow that you took in the name of God. And you have taken His name in vain, and you've broken the third commandment.

•• You solemnly said, "I will pay thee my vows which my lips have uttered when I was in trouble." You took a vow when you were in trouble. Remember in the war? You said, "O God, if you bring me through the war, I'll live a decent life and a better life." He brought you through, and you haven't kept your vow.

•• Remember when the baby was sick, and you thought the baby was going to die; and you made a promise to God, but then you didn't keep it? The baby got well. God remembers, and God is some day going to hold you accountable for the promises you made and didn't keep. And then we break the third commandment.

•• We take the name of God in vain when we call ourselves Christians but do not live it. When you claim to be a Christian, and are filled with lying and jealousy and malice and pride and lust and hypocrisy, you're dragging the name of God down. You're taking His name in vain. And when you claim to be a Christian and don't live like it, you're taking His name in vain and you're breaking the third commandment.

•• It would be better for you to get out of the church and not even claim to be a Christian, than to claim to be a Christian and not live it. The whole 23rd chapter of Matthew is against the hypocrites. The most scathing denunciations that Jesus ever gave were against hypocrites, people who profess one thing and live another. How many people in this audience are ashamed of Christ? You've taken His name in vain.

•• I've never met a communist who was ashamed to talk about communism and the writings of Marx and Lenin and Stalin. And yet we Christians are ashamed to witness for Christ. You're ashamed to, you're afraid to, you're timid, you're too shy. Though you're a good salesman--you go out and sell your product. You are taking His name in vain.

•• Dr. Dahlberg, president of the National Council of Churches, said last week, "We have too many Fifth Amendment Christians, afraid to witness for Christ for fear that what they say will be used against them." How many Fifth Amendment Christians do we have in Charlotte tonight, taking the Fifth Amendment? "I am afraid that if I speak to Christ, it will hurt my business." "I am afraid if I speak to Christ, it will hurt my standing at the country club." "I am afraid if I speak to Christ, it will hurt my position at the school." We need Christians today that will say, "If it will mean my business is ruined, if it means my social standing is no longer there, if it means death, I am ready to take my stand for Jesus Christ, no matter what it costs."

Preface to America’s Greatest Sin

•• What follows is a transcript of the sermon which Rev. Billy Graham preached at the Charlotte Crusade on September 24, 1958, the fourth sermon of the crusade.

•• Attendance on September 24 was 12,500 and there were 348 inquirers. •• Any comments by the transcriber are in brackets []. Any asides by Rev. Graham are in

parentheses (). The sermon title did not appear in the paper but is from material supplied by the BGEA.

America’s Greatest Sin

•• Now, tonight I want you to turn with me to the 12th chapter of the gospel according to Luke. The 12th chapter of the gospel according to Luke, beginning at verse 15. He is teaching a great group of people. "In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees . . ." [verse 1]. Now what was the thing that He was warning them to beware of in the Pharisees? He says it in the next phrase, "which is hypocrisy." Jesus seems to hate hypocrisy almost as much as any other sin, people who profess to be Christians, but they do not live like it.

•• God says there is coming a day when everything that is covered shall be brought out, shall be made known. You have never committed a sin in your life that won't be brought out in the judgment of God. Everything that you ever covered, everything you ever tried to hide, is going to be brought out. So said Jesus. "Therefore, whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness"--therefore, whatsoever he hath spoken in darkness--"shall be heard in the light" [verse 3]. In other words, the thoughts and motives and inference of your heart that were covered up, and that you thought nobody heard, and nobody would hear about.

•• And then He skips over to the 15th verse, and He continues: "And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my goods? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God" [verses 15-21]. Jesus said, "Beware of covetousness." And the tenth commandment says, "Thou shalt not covet" [Exodus 20:17]. And I believe tonight that the greatest sin in America is the sin of covetousness.

•• Americans are considered all over the world as materialistic, worldly, secular, greedy, and covetous. We are guilty of that sin as a nation, as a people, and as individuals. Americans have the highest standard of living the world has ever known.

•• You say, "But, Billy, I'm not a rich person." You have shoes, don't you? You have a suit of clothes; you have a dress. Then you are rich by the world's standards. You had something to eat, didn't you? In India tonight, over a hundred million people will go to bed hungry tonight--if they have a bed to go to. And when they drive the trucks down the streets of Calcutta tomorrow morning, they will pick up people that died of starvation, as I have seen them in India. The poorest person in this audience tonight is rich by the world's standards.

•• And in spite of our riches, in spite of our high standard of living, our whole economy is geared to getting more. The capitalist wants more profit. The laboring man wants more wages for less hours. And all of us are engaged in a mad race--trampling over each other, cheating each other, lying, stealing, any way we can get it--to get another dollar. The Bible says it's the sin of covetousness. "Thou shall not covet." The word "covetousness" means to delight in something. It's the object of your attention--to wish for, to desire it, to love, to set your heart on. Something that fascinates, something that you long for, something that you are looking for; to get more of this world's goods, even if it means the starvation of your own soul.

•• You are a rich man, and you are a rich person now. I'm not talking about the millionaire now. I'm talking about the man that makes twenty-five dollars a week. I am talking about a rich American.

•• God said that any man that will give himself to the making of money over and against the development and nature of his own soul is a fool, and doesn't deserve to live. Jesus said, "Out of the heart proceeds covetousness. These evil things come from within, in defilement of man" [see Mark 7:21-23].

•• The Scripture again says in Ephesians 5:3 that "fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you." Also, in verse 5, "Nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of . . . God."

•• God says that covetousness is actually idolatry, and He says a covetous person has no place in the kingdom of God. No place in the kingdom of God--the Bible says that in Ephesians 5:3 and 5. If words mean anything, it means that a covetous person shall not go to heaven, shall not be saved. You say, "Well, Billy, isn't a man supposed to take care of his family?" Yes. The Bible says, "Give me not poverty lest I steal" [see Proverbs 30:8,9]. We are to have enough, but we're not to give our full attention to the things of the world. Our first attention is to be on Christ. We are to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then all of these things shall be added unto us [see Matthew 6:33].

•• God gave the law of the Ten Commandments. He knew that you couldn't keep the Ten Commandments when He gave them. It is impossible for any of us not to have covetousness. I look into the Ten Commandments, and I see how far short I have come. When you realize that you can't save yourself, that you're a sinner, that you're lost, that you're barred from the kingdom of God, then you have taken your first step.

•• You haven't always lived like Jesus. And if you haven't measured up to Jesus, then you're a sinner.

•• I hear the thunders of Mount Sinai, and I hear the Word of God saying, "The wages of sin is death" [Romans 6:23]. The wages of sin is hell. I deserve to be lost. I deserve hell. I deserve judgment.

•• Salvation is by the grace and mercy of God. We all deserve hell, and we are going to get hell, unless we are willing to repent and come to the cross; hell in this life, and in the life to come.

•• Covetousness is a sin that drives a man from the kingdom, and we are guilty. Eve was guilty of covetousness when she desired the forbidden fruit [see Genesis 3:1-6]. The moneychangers in the temple [see Matthew 21:12,13].

•• And God said that a covetous person is idolatrous [see Colossians 3:5]. And God hates idolatry more than any other sin.

•• What is worldliness? Well, the Bible warns continually against worldliness. In Romans 12:2, Paul said, "Be not conformed to this world."

•• "Abstain from all appearance of evil" [1 Thessalonians 5:22]. To Timothy he wrote, "No man that goeth to war entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him that hath chosen him to be a soldier.... Flee . . . youthful lusts" [2 Timothy 2:4,22]. But James said, "Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God" [James 4:4]. If you are a friend of this world system--its pleasures, its amusement, you have your heart and affections set on it--then God says you are an enemy.

•• You say, "But, Billy, I don't feel like I'm an enemy of God." Then take it by faith, because God's Word says you are if you are taken up with the things of the world. Peter said, "Not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts" [1 Peter 1:14]. John said, "Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world"

•• And the Bible says, "All that is of the world, the lust of the flesh, . . . the lust of the eyes, . . . the pride of life, is not of God" [1 John 2:16]. And God hates it. And God says a Christian is to be in the world, but not a part of it.

•• The Bible says a covetous man is an idolater, and an idolater is hated by God, and no idolater shall inherit the kingdom of God.

•• You may be able to pronounce all the shibboleths. You may be able to pronounce all the cliches. You may be an orthodox of the orthodox. You may be able to split all the theological hairs. You may be a theological bloodhound. But I tell you tonight, unless we are separated from the temper, and the lusts, and the evils of this world, we cannot call ourselves God's children. We must be separated.

•• I don't mean that pious, false separation that is a stumbling block to the world's finding the Savior. I mean a separation of hearts, a sanctification of heart, separated not so much from, but to God. God is first in our lives. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God"--and if you put God first, then all of these other things will be added [see Matthew 6:33]. And the enjoyment of these things will be far deeper and greater if God is first.

•• God doesn't want you to go around with a long face. God is not interested in any legalism. God is not interested in any rules.

What is a covetous man? •• First, a man covets when his thoughts are wholly taken up with the world. Now a

Christian--a spiritual man's thoughts are on spiritual things, but a covetous man's thoughts are in the world. He can think of nothing but his work, his business, making a better home. Even in church he is thinking about material things. Our thoughts are all worldly things, and that is the reason the church hour on Sunday morning is the longest hour of the week. Not so much because the minister is boring; it's because your mind is so on worldly things.

•• Secondly, a man may be said to be covetous when he spends more time for getting the things of this world than giving attention to his soul. I know people that will turn every stone, they'll break up their sleep, they'll take many a step for the things of this world. But they'll make no sacrifice for Christ, or heaven, or the kingdom of God, or the church. You are not willing to sacrifice in the slightest to consecrate your soul, and to get your soul ready for God. Oh, you'll be a Christian if it's not too inconvenient, if it doesn't break up the things you've got planned. If it doesn't inconvenience you, you'll be a Christian, and you'll try to live a decent life. And you'll go to church on Sunday if it's not too hot and not too cold. And you want to get to heaven. And you'd be content if salvation were to drop into your mouth as a ripe thing, but you'll not put yourself out to too much trouble to get Christ.

•• Thirdly, a man is covetous when all his talk is about the world. The Scripture says, "He that is of the earth . . . speaketh of the earth" [John 3:31]. The sign of a covetous man is that he always speaks of secular things: the latest television program, the latest movie, the baseball scores, athletics, clothes, cars. So very seldom is his speech about Christ, or about God. He can talk about anything but God. The maid said to Peter, "Thy speech betrayeth thee" [Matthew 26:73]. So a covetous man's speech betrays him. His words are the looking glass of his heart. They show what is within.

•• Fourthly, a man is given to covetousness when he so sets his heart upon the things of this world, that for the love of them, he will part with the heavenly things. The rich young ruler came to Christ; and he said, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" [Mark 10:17]. And Jesus said, "You really mean business?" And he said, "Yes, sir." "All right, go sell all that you have, pick up your cross and follow me." [See verse 21.] "Wait a minute, Jesus, you mean--I'm a rich man. You mean I've got to sell everything?" "Yep." And he turned away sorrowfully [see verse 22]. He wasn't willing to pay the price. He loved his money, he loved his business, he loved his home. He loved everything too much. He couldn't put Christ in first place. And you say, "Well, Billy, does Christ want me to give away everything I've got, and get rid of my bank account, and follow Him?" He wants you to be willing. Because He explained it a few verses later in Mark 10. He said, "It is hard for a rich man, for a man that trusteth in riches, to get into the kingdom of heaven" [see verse 24]. For a man to trust in riches, his trust is there for his security, rather than in God.

•• Fifthly, a man is given to covetousness when he overloads himself with worldly business. He has too many irons in the fire to serve God. How many ministers are here tonight whose hearts are broken because they have people in their churches that don't have time for a job in the church? Too busy. Got too many irons in the fire. "I'm a big businessman. I've got four different phones ringing at the same time. Got a couple of secretaries I'm dictating to. Boy, I'm a big boy. I don't have time for the church. Oh, I go on Sunday morning. I send a check over to the church. But to get out and beat on doors and help in a visitation evangelism program, I do not have time. Others can do that. I'm too big. I'm too big a man." I want to tell you, you are too big for the kingdom of God. You are too busy for God. And one of these days, God is going to be too busy for you when you call on Him. You had better put the church first, you had better put Christ first, you had better put the kingdom first.

•• Sixthly, a man is covetous whose heart is so set upon the world that to get it he will use every means possible. Employers mistreat their employees; employees mistreat their employers. Padding an expense account; cheating on income tax. The Bible says "The balances of deceit are in his hands: who loveth to oppress" [Hosea 12:7]. Jesus said, "Take heed, and beware of covetousness" [Luke 12:15]. The Bible says that this sin is the most subtle of all sins. And in 1 Thessalonians 2:5 it is called the "cloak of covetousness." That means that it cloaks itself under modern terminology--good business, modern business. If you get ahead, you've got to use these methods. It has been excuses, but God calls it covetousness. And He says a covetous man is an idolater, and an idolater cannot get to heaven. And the Scripture says God abhors this sin. The Scripture says, "Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." [See 1 Corinthians 6:9,10.]

•• Mr. Nehru has said the world may blow up. Mr. Truman says we hang on the brink of hell. Our leaders are warning us every day that we could blow up any moment. And what are we doing? Spending our time at ease, spending our time before our television sets, spending our time filling the night clubs and the theaters, spending our time getting a better automobile, a better job, more money, all the things of the world. We are like a man on a sinking ship that is trying to make his cabin more comfortable. We are covetous, and that is our greatest sin tonight. And it may be your sin.

•• The Scripture tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ had no covetousness in Him. He "thought it not robbery to be equal with God... He humbled himself . . . even to the death of the cross" [Philippians 2:5,8]. I see Jesus Christ emptying Himself at the cross, giving Himself for you and for me in dying on that cross.

•• And I must confess tonight that I have been guilty of breaking God's law, of falling short. And I want to tell you that if I was going to be saved by the way I have lived, I would be lost. I am saved simply and wholly by the blood that was shed at the cross, because the blood symbolized the life that was given.

•• And Jesus Christ died on that cross.

•• On the night before He died, He said, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me" [Matthew 26:39]. "If there is any way to save men and women of this world except I have to go to the cross, please, O God, find a way." But there was no way, and Jesus went to the cross and He emptied Himself of His reputation. He emptied Himself of everything. And He drank the dregs of the cup of the wrath of almighty God; and the wrath of God, in a mysterious way, was brought on Him.

•• And do you think you are going to get to heaven dragging everything with you? Do you think you're going to get to heaven with your worldly cares, and all your worldly things that you put in the place of God?

•• I tell you, the only thing you can do is say, "God, I am willing to renounce the things of this world. I am willing to put thee first from this moment on in my life. I want you to forgive my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I want to repent. I want to come to the cross. And I want you to forgive me of every sin I've committed. And I want to know that I'm going to heaven." Are you willing to do that? I tell you, before you get to the kingdom, you must be willing to do just that. That takes humility. And I tell you, nobody with pride in his heart will ever get to the kingdom. You can come by the way of the cross in great humility. If you are willing to come that way, He will receive you.

•• And the reason that I ask you to come is because Jesus said if we are not willing to confess Him before men, He'll not confess us before the Father which is in heaven [see Matthew 10:32,33]. And when Jesus healed the man with the withered arm, He could have healed him by saying, "Be healed." But He didn't do it. He said, "Stretch it forth." Now that man had tried to stretch it forth, and he had tried to be brave. He had tried to strengthen his arm many times, but he had failed. But by faith in the Word of Christ, he stretched it forth and he was healed. [See Matthew 12:10-13.]