Here is Billy Grahams message.
http://http//www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/docs/bg-charlotte/0922.html
Fifth Amendment Christians
"Now tonight, I want you to turn with me to the 22nd
chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew. How many of you have your
Bibles? Lift them up. My, that's a wonderful start tonight. We want to open the
pages of the Bible every night to see what the Bible has to say.
"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. You never understand the
full impact and the full meaning of the Ten Commandments until you understand
and read and study the Sermon on the Mount. And then Christ summed up all the
commandments, saying, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. . . . And . . . thy neighbor as
thyself" [Matthew 22:37,39].
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. And it
also reminds me of how far short every one of us--as professing Christians--come
as to what God meant for us to be as Christians.
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. And we should
be making a tremendous impact, not only on this nation, but the entire world.
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?
In the early church, the men had been filled with the Holy
Spirit, went out to turn the world upside down, and in one generation they had
turned the world upside down. They were men of fervor. They had a dedication,
and a strength, and a power that we seem to lack. They had no preliminaries.
They had no church music. They had very little education. They had no printing
presses, no radio, no television, no coliseum to meet in. Yet in one generation
they shook the entire Roman world. We have everything today, and we are not
making the impact on our society that the older church made on the society of
its day. 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].
When the communists came into China, I had a friend who was captured. And a communist
lieutenant that had graduated from an American university--this young communist
lieutenant who had graduated from an American university came to my friend and
said, "We are going to take the next two tonight." My friend said, "The
Nationalists have ten thousand troops over there, and you've got only five
thousand. They'll kill you." This young communist convert pulled himself to his
full height and said, "I will gladly die that communism will advance itself one
more mile." Ladies and gentlemen, we need this same kind of dedication.
We look into these Ten Commandments tonight, and in the commandment of
our Lord Jesus Christ we find a secret. We find something hidden in these
passages that speaks to us tonight about our failure as a church. We're failing
as deacons and elders. We're failing as Sunday School teachers, failing today as
a church, collectively and individually. 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.
I look into the law tonight of the Ten Commandments, and I find something there. The law was
never meant to save anybody. Now 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. And when
I look in the Ten Commandments and read them, and understand them, 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. I believe before this week is over I shall
prove to you night after night that every one of us in this audience has broken
every commandment.
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.
A Christian leader wrote another Christian leader the other
day, and I've got a copy of the letter. He said, "I hold you in utter contempt."
You look up the word "contempt" in the dictionary; and it means "I have hatred,
I have malice for you."
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].
We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God [see Romans 3:23].
You're a sinner, and I'm a sinner. We've all broken God's law, and the law was
to show us that we're sinners. I see that I'm wrong, that I'm a sinner. But the
law cannot correct; it cannot save. Because salvation came through Christ.
And then the law was given for something else. It becomes a schoolmaster
[see Galatians 3:24]. It becomes an usher to drive me to the cross of Christ.
I read those commandments and say, "My God, I haven't kept them. My God,
I'm a sinner." And then I hear the thunder from Sinai, and I see the lightning.
I hear the judgment of God's thunder and wrath. I hear that the wages of the
broken law is sin, and that sin bringeth forth death [see James 1:15]. And I
know that every man who breaks that law is lost. And immediately I say, "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 not saved by work. We're not saved by joining
organizations. We're saved by the grace of God in Christ at the cross. And you
can only come by the way of the cross.
Let's look at one commandment tonight and see where we failed as a church. This was the rule that God gave us
to live by. These were rules. This shows us what a man ought to be. This shows
us what we ought to be as Christians. We have a new nature. You see, the world
doesn't have the power to love its neighbor. That's the reason you'll never
solve the race problems until men's hearts have been changed. 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."
The Bible teaches us that God is jealous of His name [see Ezekiel
39:25]. The Bible has many names concerning God. The Bible tells us that God is
all-knowing. He knows everything. He knows the secrets of your heart. "The
[deeds] of [men] are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his
goings" [Proverbs 5:21]. The Bible tells us God is holy. The Bible tells us that
God is love. "He that loveth not, [knows] not God; for God is love" [1 John
4:8]. All the way through the Bible there are many names concerning God--who God
is, and what God is. And God is jealous of His name and reputation. 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]. The God that flung the stars into space. The God that scooped
the valleys and built the mountains. It's mighty God!
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].
If you would go to England and you would meet the queen--as it has been my privilege to meet her on several occasions--you wouldn't go up to her and say, "Hi, Lib." I remember the
first time my wife and I met royalty. We were invited by Queen Elizabeth, the
Queen Mother, and Princess Margaret to Clarence House. My wife and I practiced.
My wife was learning to do a curtsy and I was learning to bow properly and to
say, "Your Majesty" or "Your Highness," as the case may be. I remember when we
got there, my wife went to shake hands with Queen Elizabeth; and she stumbled
and nearly fell. I forgot to bow altogether, I was so excited.
When you meet the queen, you call her, "Your Majesty." When you meet the President, you
don't say, "Hi." You say, "Mr. President." You respect his title and his office.
When you come before God, "Hallowed be thy name." How many times we take His
name in vain!
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."
You say that you are in the habit of swearing. "I just
can't help it." Suppose you told that to a judge. You'd committed a murder; and
you say, "Well, Judge, I'm in the habit of murdering; and I just can't help it."
The same Ten Commandments that say, "Thou shalt not kill," say, "Thou shalt not
take His name in vain."
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. In other words, they profess Christ,
Titus says, but in works they deny Him [see Titus 1:16]. 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.
I'll never forget. We were staying in a certain southern city. I
won't call the name of the city, it's too close here. We were staying in a
hotel, and I'll never forget they were having a convention in that hotel. And we
had to get up and preach the next morning, Grady Wilson and I. My wife was
there, and his wife. My wife and I were in one room. And next door to us was a
big room, and about fifty people were in there. And they were drinking and
singing some of the lewdest songs I've heard on Sunday night. And that went on
until about 2 a.m. We couldn't get any sleep.
So, finally, I said, "I'm going to do something about this." I got on my bathrobe, and I went over and I knocked on the door. A woman came to the door; and she had a drink in her hand,
and she was half gone. She said, "Whatta you want?" I said, "We would appreciate
your being quiet. We're trying to get some sleep." She said, "Why don't you come
on in?" I said, "Well, I'm a minister of the Gospel, and I don't see how we can
come in. But we would appreciate your being quiet." And she turned around and
said, "Hey, everybody, there's a preacher here." And they all stopped and came
crowding around. And I introduced myself, and they looked a little surprised. I
said, "You know, you all ought to be ashamed of yourselves. I bet most of you
are church members. Here it is Sunday night, half of you are drunk." And I said,
"I bet some of you are even church officers." And one man spoke up and said,
"That's right, preacher, I'm a deacon." And a lady spoke up and said, "I'm a
Sunday school teacher."
They were taking the name of God in vain. They
claimed to be Christians, but they were not living like Christians. Suppose my
wife took the name of Graham, and yet she was not faithful to me and did not
live right, like my wife should live. She would be taking the name of Graham in
vain. You've taken the name of Christ. 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.
Alexander the Great had a man in his army by the name of
Alexander who was the wild man. He didn't live anything as he should live as a
soldier in Alexander's army, because Alexander was a great disciplinarian. One
day Alexander the Great had him brought in; and he said, "Your name is
Alexander?" The man said, "Yes." Alexander the Great said, "Change your name or
change your ways. You can't live as you live and be called Alexander."
I believe that God would say to us tonight as Christians, "Change your name or
change your ways." 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 was at a Rotary Club meeting recently. I had a Bible with me. I wasn't a speaker. I sat down at the table
with my Bible because all of these men sitting around me were church officers
except about two. They all looked so ashamed and so embarrassed when I put my
Bible on the table. They wanted to talk about everything but Christ. Think of
it! Supposed solid followers of Jesus Christ and ashamed to talk about it.
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. There are people in your neighborhood who need Jesus Christ;
and yet you haven't decided to go get them and bring them here that they might
find 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're a good
fellow at the factory. You talk about television. You can talk about the
baseball scores. You can talk about the Yanks. You can talk about Willie Mays
hitting a home run, but you can't talk about Jesus Christ dying on the cross.
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."
Will you be that kind of a Christian? Will you
go back to your church to be a more dedicated Christian, a more consecrated
Christian? And then there are thousands of people here tonight that have never
met Christ--not really. You got by the minister and you got by the board of the
church, but you really never had a personal encounter with Christ. You're not
sure that your sins are forgiven. You're not sure that, if you died that you
would go to heaven. You are not sure that you're ready to meet God. But you
ought to be.
And I ask all of you that would receive Christ and have
this encounter with Him, and let Him forgive your sins, and trust Him as your
Lord and Savior, to get up out of your seats and come and stand right here.
Arise reverently--men, women, young people--and say, "Tonight I want Christ as
my Lord and Savior."
You may be a member of a church. You may not be a
member of any church. I don't know who you are, what you are. But you're not
certain that your sins are forgiven. You're not certain that you are ready to
meet God. If you want to receive Him tonight, you want to go home with the peace
and the joy that only Christ can give, I want you to get up out of your seat
right now and come quickly. "
Here are pictures of the message that was printed in the Charlotte Observer"
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