This sermon emphasizes the importance of examining and surrendering our hearts to God. It delves into the sinful, wicked, rebellious, and hardened nature of the human heart, highlighting the need for repentance, humility, and a new heart through Christ. The message stresses the significance of acknowledging our sins, renouncing self, and accepting God's transformative power to experience forgiveness, new life, and a restored relationship with Him.

When Sir Walter Raleigh had laid his head upon the executioner's block and the officer asked if his head lay right, Sir Walter Raleigh said, It matters little, my friend, how the head lies, provided the heart is right. The heart has come to stand for the center of the moral, spiritual, and intellectual life of a man. It's the seat of a man's conscience in life. And the question that I want to ask you tonight is this, is your heart right? The Bible describes the heart in various ways. The Bible says that our hearts are sinful, that it's full of evil imaginations, Proverbs 6, 18, the heart that devises wicked imaginations. All of the wicked imaginations that Hitler had, all of the wicked imaginations that the great criminals of history had, all came from the heart. The Bible says that our hearts are desperately wicked. The heart is desperately wicked, who can know it? Now I'm looking at it the way God looks at it. You see, God looks down deep inside of you. God sees how you really are down inside. You may be outwardly genteel, refined, cultured, a church member, in good standing in the community, but as God looks upon the heart, He sees our hearts as desperately wicked. And in Matthew 15, 8, Jesus said that our hearts are far from God. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Think of the thousands of people in America tonight that serve God with their lips. They go to church and sing, oh how I love Jesus, but their heart is far from Him. Even while the sermon is being preached, you're thinking about what you're going to eat for lunch. You're thinking about a TV program you saw on Saturday night. If you're thinking about this one, it'll be all right. But we serve Him with our lips and our hearts, a part of the greatest stumbling block to the kingdom of God, pride. More people stay out of the kingdom of God because of pride than any other sin. It's a humbling thing to come to the foot of the cross and repent of your sins and receive Christ, but I tell you, no man shall enter the kingdom of heaven unless he comes. There must be a self-emptying. There must be a self-crucifixion. There must be a repenting of sin. There must be receiving Christ who died on the cross for our sins, but we don't like to do it because we're all egocentric. We don't like to humble ourselves. We don't like to say we're wrong. We don't like to confess that we're sinners, but God says you must do it before you can enter the kingdom of heaven, and so pride keeps more people from coming to Christ. Pride will keep you from coming tonight to receive Christ. You're too proud. You don't want to humble yourself, and so you rebel. Then the Bible says that our hearts are rebellious, Jeremiah 5 23, but this people have a revolting and a rebellious heart. They're revolted and gone. Your heart is rebellious. How does that show up? Well, sin is rebellion against God. It's selfishness. I'm going my own way. I don't want anybody telling me how to live. I don't want God dictating his terms to me. I'll live my own life, and then isn't it strange to see other people? They have troubles. They have burdens. They have difficulties, and you'll try everything but God. You'll go to the psychiatrist before you'll go to God. You'll go to anybody else for advice instead of going to God. Our hearts are rebellious against God, and many times only in desperation when God brings us to the point of desperation can we be one to him. We're rebellious. We rebel against him, and then the Bible says that our hearts can be hardened. Is your heart right? And then the Bible says he searches the heart. I the Lord search the heart, Jeremiah 17 10. God searches the heart. God weighs the heart. He weighs it by the ten commandments. He weighs it by the Sermon on the Mount. He weighs it by the great law. He weighs it by Christ, and the Bible says that all have come short of the glory of God. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. The Bible says there's not a person that doeth good, no not one. There is not a person here that weighs. And I will give you a heart of flesh. That's the reason Christ said except a man is born again. He cannot see the kingdom of heaven. I ask you tonight, wouldn't you like to have a new heart? Wouldn't you like to have new power and new strength and a new dynamic to your life? Wouldn't you like to have a new moral nature that would give you strength and power to face temptation and the tempter? Wouldn't you like to have Christ tonight who can forgive the past? He transforms you, and you become a new creation in Christ. Is your heart right? Is your heart right? Is your heart right? Would you like to have a new heart? I tell you tonight you can. You say, well Billy, how long does it take? That quick. The Holy Spirit is the one that performs the operation of regeneration. And in a flash, if you are willing to renounce and confess and acknowledge that you've sinned against God. You're willing to accept God's diagnosis of your heart. You're willing to accept the fact that your heart is sinful, that it's deceitful, that you've sinned against Him. You're willing to acknowledge it, and you're willing to renounce and turn from your sins. And you're willing to come to Christ who died on the cross and rose again. Then He will give you a new heart, and you will go back to your shop, back to your office, back to your home, back to your responsibilities to live a new life. The gospel is vertical. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, a right heart. But it's also horizontal. Thou shalt love thy neighbors thyself. And when your heart is right, you have the ability, the capacity to love your neighbor properly, but not kill them. Give your life to Christ tonight. Let Him give you a new heart, make you a new person, and give you the joy and the peace that you've always longed for. Now it'll cost you something. It doesn't come cheap. It costs Christ His blood. It costs God His Son, and it'll cost you your sins. He demands that you deny self, take up the cross, take His unpopularity, take your place with Him in suffering if need be. But in return, He'll give you a new heart. He'll accept you into His kingdom. He'll forgive the past. He'll make you a new creation. There are many of you here tonight that belong to a church. You live a decent moral life, but you've never really come to this experience of an encounter with God. You've never really surrendered your heart and life to Him. You've never really received Christ. To receive a new heart from Him, I ask you to come tonight. Here's the way we're going to do it. I'm going to ask you to get up out of your seat, all over this great auditory, and come and stand quietly and reverently here in front as an indication that you're receiving Christ, that you want a new heart and a new life from this moment on, that you're going to change the direction of your life. The Holy Spirit has been speaking. He's been preparing your heart. Now you come and receive Christ. If you're with friends or relatives, they'll wait on you. If you've come in a delegation tonight, they'll wait. We're not going to keep you long, but I'm going to ask you to come and stand right here quietly and reverently and say tonight by coming, I give my life to Christ. I want a new life. I want a new heart. I want forgiveness of the past. I want Christ in my life and in my heart. Thank you for joining us tonight for this special edition of the Billy Graham Classics. And I'd like to remind you again of what Mr. Graham has said. If you'd like to know more about how to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ, please call the telephone number on your screen. This is your number to call. Special friends are standing by waiting to talk with you, to pray with you, to help answer your questions. And the same material that we give to those who respond at the crusade services will be happy to send to you.