The Unchanging Love of God

God is unchanging and so is His love. In this 2001 sermon from Fresno, California, right after 9/11, Billy Graham talks about God’s love for you and the world.

So George Deli, then the other person that was with me standing here was my son Franklin and Franklin will be.
He just finished a mission in recife Brazil.
And the last night they had 81,000 people.
Mhm And then then he flew to New York and he was at ground zero this week praying with those people, the firemen, the police.
He set up an office there where people can phone in to councilors and pray and those switchboards are filled with people that are calling in wanting spiritual help.
And I’m thankful for that little bit of ministry that we can have in New York.
Thank you, Frankie. My heart is heavy just like yours because of what our nation is going through.
The September 11th attack has been called the bloodiest day in the United States since the civil war.
I had two grandfathers, both of them fought at Gettysburg, one of them had his leg shot off and the same man lying there to be helped, had his eye shot out.
Also, that was my mother’s fault.
My father’s father was named Crook Graham and he got a shrapnel or a bullet lodged next to his span.
He couldn’t move the rest of his life.
So I know a little bit about in historically, some of the bloody battles.
But what happened on September the 11th was the deadliest bloodiest we have ever known.
It was unbelievable and heartbreaking to see all those lives lost on the four planes and at the Pentagon in Twin Towers.
Proud of this attack. Most of this culture’s attention was on the newest song.
Well, the latest movie, a person was often considered a hero if he could sink a basketball or play a chord on a guitar.
Now we know that what true heroes are. They are ordinary people.
There are ordinary people just like you and me that have done extraordinary things who can forget the incredibly courageous action of the firefighters and the police rushing into the burning Trade Center while everyone else is rushing out.
Or that wonderful chaplain, Father Michael Judd, who just ministering to a man who had just been injured, was killed himself by a falling brick.
We’ve read about the man on the 27th floor of the north town who called his brother in Brooklyn after the plane hit and said, I’m still here in the office and I’m ok.
His brother couldn’t believe it. He said, get out of there and get out of there quick.
He said, I’m with Ed and he’s afraid to go down because the smoke is so strong.
Ed was a fellow worker with him and a close friend. He also lived in a wheelchair.
Abe’s brother pleaded with him to get out but he didn’t.
Abe who was Jewish stayed to help his friend who was a Christian.
They never made it out, but they left a message of heroism and working together no matter what our race or our religion may be and what a wonderful story.
There are so many stories that we could tell my wife and I cut a lot of them out of the papers that we had both from England and other places.
Heroes laid their lives down for total strangers.
This reminds us of what Jesus did for us on the cross.
When he picked up that wooden cross and carried it to Mount Calvary.
There was no cheering crowds and matter as a matter of fact, they jeered him.
They had already spit on him and pulled his beard that ripped his back open with a cat of nine tails.
Even after they nailed him to the cross, they still mocked him. Yet he went through it.
Why? Because he loved you and me and he loves us tonight.
I want to speak tonight briefly on the love of God.
God. So loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
That’s the first verse of scripture that my mother ever taught me. I never forgot it.
I guess I preached on it 1000 times.
Much of the world is feeling the effects of terrorism and war right now.
But there are other things that are bothering us.
Disease, poverty, racism, hate, loneliness, aids, unemployment, divorce, psychological problems, boredom, murder statistics, moral problems.
Our papers are filled with all of that.
So the world didn’t stop sinning after September 11th, didn’t stop getting bored, didn’t stop the divorces for some time.
Suicide has been on the increase.
But suicide is no solution because you only kill the body.
You don’t kill the soul and the soul is the most important for what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and lose his own soul.
That verse says for God, so love for God.
I was thinking the other night as I looked up at the stars for God, you can’t put God in a test tube, you can’t see them on a computer screen.
But that doesn’t mean that he’s not real. He is the creator.
He created everything that there is.
All the stars we see spread out on the entire sky are part of the immense milky way that we live in.
But that galaxy of the milky way is just one tiny part of a universe containing millions of Galaxies and they found now.
But their Galaxies beyond what they thought would be the last one, the Los Angeles Times on the fifth of this month had a story about the discovery of a baby galaxy which is over 13 billion light years from earth.
Do you know what a light year is?
One light year is more than five trillion miles?
That’s how vast our universe is.
And we’re just a little speck floating out in the middle of it and we develop all this technology to try to make us like God, that wasn’t outmoded, but that’s the way it sort of turned out.
Now. We’re afraid that technology is going to destroy us. Genesis.
11 tells us in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, Psalm eight talks about thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou has created by the word of the Lord where the heavens may and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
The Bible also teaches that God is a spirit.
He doesn’t have a body like you or me. God is a spirit.
And then the Bible says, he’s unchanging. I’m the Lord I change.
Not in Him is no variables, neither shadow of turning.
The Bible says, God is a holy God.
He’s righteous in all his ways and holy in all of his works.
Then the Bible says God is a God that is going to judge the world.
It is appointed under man wants to die.
And after that, the judgment, you are going to be at the judgment.
If you don’t know Christ, you’re going to be at the great white throne judgment.
God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.
Everything you’ve ever done is going to be wide open at the judgment.
All your sins will be there. You say, well, then I won’t be alone.
There will be many with me. No, at the judgment and inhale, you’ll be alone.
You won’t have your friends with you and you won’t have the parties and you won’t have the drinks.
You’ll be all alone naked before God.
But the Bible also says God is love in first John 48, it says God is love and I hold on to that.
Yeah, I have love thee with an everlasting love.
Jeremiah 31 3, there was a popular song a few years ago that said I can’t live in a world without love.
You don’t have to because God loves you no matter how bad you’ve been, no matter how many sins you’ve committed.
God loves you. I could talk all evening just on that.
And God is not only a God of judgment, but He’s and a God of love, but he’s also a God of mercy and forgiveness.
He wants to forgive you. He offers his hand of mercy to every one of you that are willing to open your heart and receive them into your heart in a few minutes.
I’m going to ask you to get up out of your seat and come and stand in front of the platform and say by coming, I need Jesus.
I want to receive him as my Lord and Savior.
It may never be again in Fresno like this.
When you have such a moment before God, you see God gave man a choice in the garden of Eden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eat is there, thou shalt surely die.
And Satan was there in the form of a servant and they attempted Eve with great promises that He had no power to offer.
And so Eve succumbed she gave the fruit to Adam and Adam was not deceived.
He just knew what he was doing and he took it.
And God had said, you can have every fruit in the garden except this one.
And God was testing man. And that’s where sin began.
And that’s where all the troubles of the world began. Right?
Then we know that something is wrong with human nature, terrorism, war, greed, immorality, racial prejudice, poverty, sin is what’s wrong with the world and only Jesus Christ can solve it.
No one else can forgive it. But Jesus sin is your problem.
The Bible says for the mystery of iniquity, they already work first, John 34.
It says sin is the breaking of the law. You know the 10 commandments.
Have you ever broken one of them?
If you’ve broken one of them one time you’ve broken them all.
Isaiah said all we like sheep have gone astray.
We’ve turned everyone his own way instead of going God’s way.
We go our own way and we get lost and we are lost.
There’s a film I saw I think advertised called Lost.
We are lost from God. We think we’re on the right track.
But the scripture says there’s a way that seeth right on man.
But the end there is death. There are two roads.
There’s a broad road well lighted, a lot of fun and most of us are on that road.
But then there’s a narrow road the narrow road leads to heaven and paralyze Jesus is on that narrow and you stand at the crossroads, which route are you going to take?
You have to make a choice. You said, well, I’m not going to make a choice.
You have to. God has arranged for the fact that you cannot ignore that great decision because the end of the broad road is death, natural death, but primarily spiritual death separated from God forever.
Our souls separated from God and that’s called hill.
I’m going to ask you tonight as you stand at that crossroads to make the right decision and come to Christ and open your heart to Him.
You might have thought you were a Christian, but you’re not sure there’s a little voice down inside that says, you’re not sure that you need to make this decision and be sure we’re living in a moment in history.
I wouldn’t want to live for the next five years if I didn’t know I knew Christ and many of us are members of the church.
We’ve been baptized, we’ve been confirmed or whatever, but deep in our hearts, we have that void, that uncertainty.
You need to make sure you may be a Kay are Protestant or Jewish or whoever you may be.
You can make your commitment to Christ tonight.
I’m going to ask you to come, hundreds of you get up out of your seat and come and when you get here, I’m gonna say a word to you, give you some literature to help you and we’ll have a prayer of commitment.
You get up and come right now and say, I need to be sure I need Jesus, get up out of your seat.
You would maybe even bring a friend with you as hundreds are responding to Mister Graham’s invitation to make a public commitment to Jesus Christ.
You can make that same commitment right where you are, just pick up the phone and call the number you see on your screen, special friends are waiting to talk with you and pray with you about this most important decision.
Yes, I spoke a few weeks ago after the tragedy on the 11th of September, I spoke from Washington and all the networks were there.
Thank you, Mr President for calling this day of prayer and remembrance. We needed it at this time.
No matter how hard we try, words simply cannot express the horror, the shock and the revulsion we all feel over what took place in this nation.
On Tuesday morning, we’ve always needed God from the very beginning of this nation.
But today we need him, especially, we’re facing a new kind of enemy.
We’re involved in a new kind of warfare and we need the help of the spirit of God.
And I’ve gotten letters from all over the world from people that listen and two or three of them couldn’t find a television station that was carrying it.
So they went to a bar and they said an interesting thing.
They said when I got up to give the gospel, everything got quiet in the bar and people receive the Lord in that.
So wherever you are, whether it’s in a hotel or a bar or where Christ will come into your heart.
If you open it to him, many of you have been watching my television and you’ve seen this great number of people here in the Valley of California, San Joaquin Valley making their way to assurance of their faith in Christ and where you are, you’re going to make that same commitment.
Oh God, I’m a sinner. I’m sorry for my sin.
I’m willing to change my way of life, but you will have to help me.
Now I open my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want him to be Lord of my life.
I want him to take me into the fellowship of his church in Jesus name.
Oh man. If you just prayed that prayer with my father or if you have any questions about a relationship with Jesus Christ, I would just call that number that is on the screen.
There’ll be someone there to talk with you, pray with you and answer those questions and remember, God loves you.
If you would like to commit your life to Jesus Christ, please call us right now.
Toll free at 18777724559. That’s 1877772 45 59.
Or you can write to us at Billy Graham one, Billy Graham Parkway Department C Charlotte, North Carolina 28201.
Or you can contact us on the web 24 7 at peace with God dot TV.
We’ll get the same helps to you that we give to everyone who responds at the invitation on behalf of Franklin Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Thank you for watching and thank you for your prayers.
Jesus Christ died for the world, whatever country, whatever the color of your skin, whatever language you speak.
Jesus Christ died for your sins. It’s Jesus.
I hope you don’t think this is like one of those cop shows you see on television.
It’s Ann She’s in trouble.
If you don’t take it to the edge, every chance you get. You did already. Baby.
I came, I saw I conquered. We’re in a bad place. God. Where are you? Is there any hope?
Yes, there’s hope. What should a man give in exchange for his soul?
I was in trouble and I didn’t know what to do.
Well, the juice I knew that I could take on the world.
It’s like you’re in a dream but not really a dream is a reality.
I was forever changed and just said, I can’t believe this is real.
I don’t really believe in all this, but I know something crazy is happening right now tonight, I am glad to tell you as we close that the Lord Jesus Christ can be received.
Your sins were given. The Billy Graham library is a place for all walks of life to recharge reflect, renew your faith and return.